1894 1917 Nicholas II. Nicholas II. The rise of revolutionary sentiment

Nicholas II Alexandrovich
Years of life: 1868 - 1918
Years of government: 1894 - 1917

Nicholas II Alexandrovich was born on May 6 (18 according to the old style) May 1868 in Tsarskoye Selo. Russian Emperor, who reigned from October 21 (November 1), 1894 to March 2 (March 15), 1917. belonged to Romanov dynasty, was the son and successor of Alexander III.

Nikolai Alexandrovich from birth had the title - His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke. In 1881, he received the title of Tsarevich's Heir after the death of his grandfather, Emperor Alexander II.

Full title Nicholas II as emperor from 1894 to 1917: “By God's hastening mercy, We, Nicholas II (Church Slavonic form in some manifestos - Nicholas II), Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonese, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuanian, Volyn, Podolsky and Finland; Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Belostoksky, Korelsky, Tversky, Yugorsky, Permsky, Vyatsky, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novgorod Nizovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav and all northern countries Sovereign; and Sovereign of Iversky, Kartalinsky and Kabardian lands and regions of Armenia; Cherkasy and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Sovereign of Turkestan; Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg and others, and others, and others.

The peak of the economic development of Russia and at the same time the growth of the revolutionary movement, which resulted in the revolutions of 1905-1907 and 1917, fell precisely on the reign of Nicholas II. Foreign policy at that time was aimed at Russia's participation in blocs of European powers, the contradictions that arose between which became one of the reasons for the start of the war with Japan and World War I.

After the events of the February Revolution of 1917 Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and a period of civil war soon began in Russia. The provisional government sent Nicholas to Siberia, then to the Urals. Together with his family, he was shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918.

Contemporaries and historians characterize the personality of Nicholas inconsistently; most of them believed that his strategic abilities in the conduct of public affairs were not successful enough to change for the better the political situation at that time.

After the revolution of 1917, it became known as Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov(prior to this, the surname "Romanov" was not indicated by members of the imperial family; titles indicated the family affiliation: emperor, empress, grand duke, crown prince).

With the nickname Nicholas the Bloody, which the opposition gave him, he appeared in Soviet historiography.

Nicholas II was the eldest son of Empress Maria Feodorovna and Emperor Alexander III.

In 1885-1890. Nicholas was educated at home as part of a gymnasium course according to a special program that combined the course of the Academy of the General Staff and the Faculty of Law of the University. Training and education took place under the personal supervision of Alexander III with a traditional religious basis.

Nicholas II most often he lived with his family in the Alexander Palace. And he preferred to relax in the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. For annual trips to the Baltic Sea and the Finnish Sea, he had at his disposal the Shtandart yacht.

From 9 years old Nicholas started keeping a diary. The archive has preserved 50 thick notebooks for the years 1882-1918. Some of them have been published.

The emperor was fond of photography, he liked to watch movies. He also read serious works, especially on historical topics, and entertaining literature. He smoked cigarettes with tobacco grown specially in Turkey (a gift from the Turkish Sultan).

On November 14, 1894, a significant event took place in the life of Nikolai - the marriage with the German princess Alice of Hesse, who, after the rite of baptism, took the name - Alexandra Feodorovna. They had 4 daughters - Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatyana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). And the long-awaited fifth child on July 30 (August 12), 1904 was the only son - Tsarevich Alexei.

May 14 (26), 1896 took place coronation of Nicholas II. In 1896 he made a trip to Europe, where he met with Queen Victoria (his wife's grandmother), Wilhelm II, Franz Joseph. The final stage of the trip was a visit by Nicholas II to the capital of the allied France.

His first personnel reshuffle was the fact of the dismissal of the Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland Gurko I.V. and the appointment of A.B. Lobanov-Rostovsky as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

And the first major international action Nicholas II was the so-called Triple Intervention.

Having made huge concessions to the opposition at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II made an attempt to unite Russian society against external enemies.

In the summer of 1916, after the situation at the front had stabilized, the Duma opposition teamed up with the generals' conspirators and decided to take advantage of the situation to overthrow Emperor Nicholas II.

They even called the date February 12-13, 1917, as the day the emperor abdicated from the throne. It was said that a “great act” would take place - the sovereign emperor would abdicate the throne, and the heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich would be appointed the future emperor, and it was Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich who would become regent.

On February 23, 1917, a strike began in Petrograd, which became general three days later. On February 27, 1917, in the morning, soldiers' uprisings took place in Petrograd and Moscow, as well as their association with the strikers.

The situation escalated after the proclamation of the manifesto Nicholas II February 25, 1917 on the termination of the meeting of the State Duma.

On February 26, 1917, the tsar gave an order to General Khabalov "to stop the riots, unacceptable in the difficult time of the war." General N.I. Ivanov was sent on February 27 to Petrograd with the aim of suppressing the uprising.

Nicholas II On February 28, in the evening, he went to Tsarskoe Selo, but could not pass, and, due to the loss of communication with Headquarters, he arrived in Pskov on March 1, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the leadership of General Ruzsky was located.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the emperor decided to abdicate in favor of the Tsarevich under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the evening of the same day, Nikolai announced to V. V. Shulgin and A. I. Guchkov about the decision to abdicate the throne for his son. March 2, 1917 at 23:40 Nicholas II handed over to Guchkov A.I. The renunciation manifesto, where he wrote: “We command our brother to rule the affairs of the state in complete and indestructible unity with the representatives of the people.”

Nikolay Romanov with his family from March 9 to August 14, 1917 he lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.

In connection with the strengthening of the revolutionary movement in Petrograd, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the royal prisoners to the depths of Russia, fearing for their lives. After long disputes, Tobolsk was chosen as the city of settlement of the former emperor and his family. They were allowed to take personal belongings, necessary furniture with them and offer the attendants a voluntary escort to the place of the new settlement.

On August 14, 1917, a train set off from Tsarskoye Selo under the sign "Japanese Mission of the Red Cross" with members of the former imperial family. He was accompanied by a second squad, in which there was a guard (7 officers, 337 soldiers).

The trains arrived in Tyumen on August 17, 1917, after which the arrested were taken on three ships to Tobolsk. The Romanov family settled in the governor's house, specially renovated for their arrival. They were allowed to go to worship at the local Church of the Annunciation. The regime of protection of the Romanov family in Tobolsk was much easier than in Tsarskoye Selo. The family led a measured, calm life.

On April 22, 1918, a convoy with machine guns of 150 people left Tobolsk for the city of Tyumen. On April 30, the train arrived in Yekaterinburg from Tyumen. To accommodate the Romanov family, a house was requisitioned, which belonged to the mining engineer Ipatiev. The family's attendants also lived in the same house: the cook Kharitonov, Dr. Botkin, the room girl Demidova, the lackey Trupp and the cook Sednev.

To resolve the issue of the future fate of the imperial family in early July 1918, the military commissar F. Goloshchekin urgently left for Moscow. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars authorized the execution of all members of the Romanov family. After that, on July 12, 1918, on the basis of the decision taken, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies at a meeting decided to execute the royal family.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, in the Ipatiev mansion, the so-called "House of Special Purpose", the former emperor of Russia was shot Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Dr. Botkin and three servants (except for the cook).

The personal property of the former royal family of the Romanovs was looted.

Nicholas II and members of his family were canonized by the Catacomb Church in 1928.

In 1981, Nicholas was canonized by the Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia the Orthodox Church canonized him as a martyr only 19 years later, in 2000.

Icon of St. royal martyrs.

In accordance with the decision of August 20, 2000 of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, princesses Maria, Anastasia, Olga, Tatyana, Tsarevich Alexei were canonized as holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia, revealed and unmanifested.

This decision was perceived by society ambiguously and was criticized. Some opponents of canonization believe that reckoning Nicholas II to the face of the saints is most likely a political character.

The result of all the events related to the fate of the former royal family was the appeal of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, head of the Russian Imperial House in Madrid, to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in December 2005, demanding the rehabilitation of the royal family, who was shot in 1918.

On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation) decided to recognize the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and members of the royal family victims of illegal political repression and rehabilitated them.

Library Sermons The mystery of St. John Poetry Photo Publicism Discussions Bible Story Photobooks Apostasy Evidence Icons Poems of Father Oleg Questions Lives of the Saints Guest Book Confession Archive Site Map Prayers Father's word New Martyrs Contacts

More than forty years have passed since the February Revolution of 1917 and the death of Imperial Russia, stubbornly, for decades, prepared by its enemies, internal and external. There was no lie, there was no slander, there was no libel that would be poured over the Tsarist government, and for one with it, the Russian people. Millions of dollars, pounds sterling, German marks, French francs, and even Russian rubles, were thrown by foreign bankers, political rogues, revolutionary businessmen and loafers, of all kinds and aimed at frenzied anti-Russian propaganda, at the overthrow of the Russian Monarchy and the ruin of the Russian statehood. (See the boastful statements on this subject by Rabbi Stephen Wise and George Kennan, who praised the banker Yakov Schif for his funding of revolutionary propaganda among Russian prisoners of war in Japan, 1904-6, The New York Times, March 24, 1917. See also most humble 1906 report by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Gr. Lamsdorf to Sovereign Nicholas II on the role of the Rothschilds and Jews in general in financing the revolutionary upsurge of 1905 Boris Brasol, The World at the Cross-Roads, Small, Maynard & Co. Boston , 1921.)

The persecution of Russia intensified especially during the reign of the Sovereign-Martyr, the most humane Nicholas II, whom the Western European and American press were not ashamed to call "bloody" and "tyrant." The Russian government was accused of mediocrity and obscurantism, of deliberately encouraging illiteracy, of wanting to keep the people in poverty and ignorance.

The so-called "public opinion" in the countries of the democratic West was artificially aroused by corrupt newspaper scribblers against the Imperial idea, which was so fully and reasonably embodied in Russia.

This systematic and malicious propaganda explains the fact that when Imperial Russia collapsed, bled dry by the World War, betrayed by traitorous generals and "allied" England, short-sighted Western politicians, led by Wilson and Lloyd George, greeted this tragic event with undisguised delight. . They, of course, were unable to comprehend that the collapse of historical Russia would inevitably lead to a violation of the world balance, to the triumph of the Red International and to the disintegration of their own democratic ideas.

They, these troubadours of an invertebrate ideology, had no idea that they, like the apprentice of Goethe's sorcerer, were unleashing such destructive elements, under the pressure of which they themselves would have to choke and die ingloriously.

And now, when all of humanity is writhing in convulsions of a hopeless crisis, when the bankruptcy of Wilson's political doctrine "ensuring the triumph of democracies to the world" has become terribly obvious, the leaders of the distraught West continue to kick with their democratic hoof the heraldic lion hunted by their own efforts - the once great, sovereign-wise Tsarist Russia .

Despite the vileness of the Yekaterinburg atrocity, the Western press continues to sling mud at the bright face of the tortured Emperor Nicholas II and everything connected with his glorious reign. It is hardly necessary to mention that this kind of slanderous campaign is included in the calculation of the Kremlin executioners and is largely subsidized by them.

The purpose of this handbook is to give open-minded foreigners, and even crazy Russians, a brief summary of the facts and figures that show that in the last 15-20 years before World War I, Imperial Russia took a giant step forward on the path of true progress and nowhere in a world of unsurpassed enlightened freedom.

The well-known economist Edmond Trey rightly asserted: “If the events between 1912 and 1950 in the great European nations proceed in the same way as they developed between 1900 and 1912, then by the middle of this century Russia will rise above all in Europe, both in terms of political, as well as in the field of financial and economic.

Here are some numbers.

In 1894, at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, there were 122 million inhabitants in Russia. 20 years later, on the eve of the 1st World War, its population increased by 60 million; thus in Tsarist Russia the population increased by 2,400,000 a year. If the revolution had not happened in 1917, by 1959 its population would have reached 275,000,000. Meanwhile, the current population of the Soviet Union barely exceeds 215,000,000, so the bloody Soviet experience cost Russia no less than 60,000,000 human lives.

Unlike modern democracies, Imperial Russia built its policy not only on deficit-free budgets, but also on the principle of a significant accumulation of gold reserves. Despite this, state revenues from 1.410.000.000 rubles in 1897, without the slightest increase in the tax burden, grew steadily, while state spending remained more or less at the same level, as can be seen from the table below (in millions of gold rubles) :


ordinary income

Excess of income over expenses.

Over the last 10 years before the First World War, the excess of state revenues over expenditures was expressed in the amount of 2,400,000,000 rubles. This figure seems all the more impressive because during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, railway tariffs were lowered and redemption payments for lands that had gone to the peasants from their former landowners in 1861 were canceled, and in 1914, with the outbreak of war, all types of drinking taxes.

In the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, by law of 1896, a gold currency was introduced in Russia, and the State Bank was allowed to issue 300,000,000 rubles in credit notes not backed by gold reserves. But the government not only never took advantage of this right, but, on the contrary, ensured paper circulation, more than 100% of gold cash, namely: by the end of July 1914, credit notes were in circulation in the amount of 1,633,000,000 rubles, while gold the stock in Russia was equal to 1.604.000.000 rubles, and in foreign banks 141.000.000 rubles.

The stability of monetary circulation was such that even during the Russo-Japanese War, which was accompanied by widespread revolutionary unrest within the country, the exchange of credit notes for gold was not suspended.

In Russia, taxes, before the First World War, were the lowest in the whole world:

Direct taxes (per 1 inhabitant) in rubles		Indirect taxes (per 1 inhabitant) in rubles



Germany		Germany

In other words, the burden of direct taxes in Russia was almost four times less than in France, more than 4 times less than in Germany and 8.5 times less than in England. The burden of indirect taxes in Russia was on average half that in Austria, France, Germany and England.

From the table below, it appears that the total amount of taxes per inhabitant in Russia was more than half that in Austria, France and Germany and more than four times less than in England.

The total amount of taxes (per inhabitant in rubles; 1 gold ruble is equal to 2.67 gold francs or 51 US gold cents):

Russia 9.09

Austria 21.47

France 22.25

Germany 22.26

England 42.61

Between 1890 and 1913 Russian industry quadrupled its productivity. Its income not only almost equaled the income from agriculture, but the goods covered almost 4/5 of the domestic demand for manufactured goods.

During the last four years before the First World War, the number of newly founded joint-stock companies increased by 132%, and the capital invested in them almost quadrupled. This can be seen from the following table.

The progressive growth in the well-being of the population is clearly evidenced by the following table of contributions to state savings banks:

	Number of open accounts	Deposits in rubles

Notes:

The decline in 1905 is the result of the Russo-Japanese War and rebellion.

Table data from "The Russia Year Book," 1911. Compiled and edited by Howard P. Kennard, Eyre and Spottiswood Ltd, London, 1912.

In 1914, the State Savings Bank had deposits of 2,236,000,000 rubles.

The amount of deposits and own capital in small credit institutions (on a cooperative basis) in 1894 was about 70,000,000 rubles; in 1913 about 620,000,000 rubles (an increase of 800%), and by January 1, 1917 1,200,000,000 rubles.

The following table is also very indicative, indicating the development of the economic power of Russia during the reign of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II.


Contributions to Akts. Comm. Banks
Russian edition. machines
Page agricultural. machines
Average yield from tithe
Average yield loaves: A. European Russia b. all of Russia	1892 1893		1911 1913	3657 m.p. 4761 m.p.
Livestock, in mil. goals: A. horses b. cattle	1895 1895	26,6 31,6	1914 1914
Coal - million pounds.
Oil - production, m.p.
Salt - production, m.p.
Sugar: Beet sowing, thousand acres Sugar production, m.p.	1894 1894		1914 1914	729 etc. 104,5
Cotton: planting area, etc. collection, p>	1894 1894		1914 1914
Gold mining, in pounds
Copper mining, etc.
Pig iron production, m.p.
Smelting of iron, steel, m.p.
Manganese, m.p.
Golden Fund, m.p.
Merchant fleet, thousand tons
Note: 1 pood = 16 kg.

On the eve of the revolution, Russian agriculture was in full bloom. During the two decades leading up to the war of 1914-18, the grain harvest doubled. In 1913, the harvest of the main cereals in Russia was 1/3 higher than that of Argentina, Canada and the United States. States combined. In particular, the harvest of rye in 1894 yielded 2 billion poods, and in 1913 4 billion poods.

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, Russia was the main breadwinner of Western Europe. At the same time, the phenomenal growth in the export of agricultural products from Russia to England (grain and flour, in millions of pounds; Russian pound 0.4 kg) attracts special attention:

1908 858.279.000
1909 1.784.288.000
1910 2.820.049.000

Russia supplied 50% of world egg imports. In 1908, 2,589,000,000 pieces worth 54,850,000 rubles were exported from Russia, and in 1909 2,845,000,000 worth 62,212,000 rubles.

in 1894: 2 billion poods,
in 1913: 4 billion poods

Sugar During the same period, sugar consumption per inhabitant increased from 4 to 9 kg. in year.

Tea consumption in 1890 40 million kg; in 1913 75 million kg.

Linen on the eve of the 1st World War, Russia produced 80% of the world's flax production.

Cotton 388% increase. Thanks to extensive irrigation work in Turkestan, undertaken back in the reign of Emperor Alexander III, the cotton harvest in 1913 covered all the annual needs of the Russian textile industry. The latter doubled its production between 1894 and 1911.

The railway network in Russia covered 74,000 versts (one verst equals 1,067 km), of which the Great Siberian Way (8,000 versts) was the longest in the world.

In 1916, i.e. at the height of the war, more than 2,000 miles of railways were built, which connected the Arctic Ocean (port of Romanovsk) with the center of Russia.

By 1917, 81.116 km were in operation in Russia. railway and 15,000 km were under construction. In Tsarist Russia in the period from 1880 to 1917, i.e. in 37 years, 58.251 km were built, which gives an average annual increase of 1.575 km. For 38 years of Soviet power, i.e. by the end of 1956, only 36,250 km had been built, giving an annual increase of only 955 km.

The construction of one kilometer of the railway in Tsarist Russia cost 74,000 rubles, and under the Soviet regime 790,000 rubles, based on the calculation of the same purchasing power of the ruble.

On the eve of the war of 1914-18. the net income of the state railways covered 83% of the annual interest and amortization of the public debt. In other words, the payment of debts, both internal and external, was provided in proportion to more than 4/5 by the revenues that the Russian state received from the operation of its railways.

It should be added that the Russian railways, in comparison with others, were the cheapest and most comfortable in the world for passengers.

Industrial development in the Russian Empire was naturally accompanied by a significant increase in the number of factory workers, whose economic well-being, as well as the protection of their life and health, were the subject of special concern for the Imperial government.

It should be noted that it was in Imperial Russia, and moreover in the 18th century, during the reign of Empress Catherine II (1762-1796), for the first time in the world, laws were issued regarding working conditions: the work of women and children was prohibited, in factories a 10-hour working day was established, and so on.

It is characteristic that the code of Empress Catherine, which regulated children's and women's labor, printed in French and Latin, was banned for publication in France and England, as "seditious".

In the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, before the convening of the 1st State Duma, special laws were issued to ensure the safety of workers in the mining industry, on railways and in enterprises that are especially dangerous to the life and health of workers, such as: in gunpowder factories , in the Expedition for the procurement of government papers, etc.

Child labor under the age of 12 was prohibited, and minors and females could not be employed in factory work between 9 pm and 5 am.

The size of the penalty deductions could not exceed one third of the wages, and each fine had to be approved by the factory inspector. Penalty money went to a special fund designed to meet the needs of the workers themselves.

In 1882, a special law regulated the work of children from 12 to 15 years old. In 1903, worker elders were introduced, who were elected by the factory workers of the respective workshops. The existence of workers' unions was recognized by law in 1906. But the superiority over the current Marxist system lay mainly in the ability of the workers to defend their rights with weapons called the “classic weapons of the working class”: in Tsarist Russia strikes could be resorted to, while in Khrushchev’s Russia strikes were impossible, just as they were impossible under Stalin and Lenin.

In the factories controlled by the Labor Inspector there was one - there were 68 strikes in 1893, 118 in 1896, 145 in 1897, 189 1899 and 125 in 1900. As for the social insurance, such was established already in 1912.

At that time, the Imperial social legislation was undoubtedly the most progressive in the world. This prompted Taft, then President of the Union. States, two years before the First World War, to publicly declare, in the presence of several Russian dignitaries: "Your Emperor created such a perfect working legislation that no democratic state can boast of."

One of the stereotyped slanderous attacks against the government of Emperor Nicholas II, especially in the American press, is the assertion that it not only did not care about public education, but deliberately encouraged the illiteracy of the general population.

In fact, during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, public education reached an extraordinary development. In less than 20 years, loans allocated to the Ministry of Public Education, with 25.2 mil. rubles increased to 161.2 mil. This did not include the budgets of schools that drew their loans from other sources (military, technical schools), or were maintained by local self-government bodies (zemstvos, cities), whose loans for public education increased from 70,000,000 rubles. in 1894 to 300.000.000 rubles. in 1913

At the beginning of 1913, the total budget for public education in Russia reached a colossal figure for that time, namely 1/2 billion rubles in gold. Here are the numbers:


Budget Min. Nar. Enlightenment, m.
Number of students in secondary schools manager, excluding private and heterodox (about 1 million)
In higher education institutions
In lower educational institutions (except Middle Asia)

Initial education was free by law, but from 1908 it became compulsory. Since this year, about 10,000 schools have been opened annually. In 1913 their number exceeded 130,000. If the revolution had not broken out, then compulsory primary education would have been an accomplished fact throughout the entire territory of Tsarist Russia. However, Russia has almost achieved this result anyway. A questionnaire produced by the Soviets in 1920 found that 86% of young people from 12 to 16 years old could read and write. There is no doubt that they learned to read and write under the pre-revolutionary regime.

In terms of the number of women studying in higher educational institutions, Russia in the 20th century ranked first in Europe, if not in the whole world.

It should also be noted that while in democracies, especially in the USA and England, the fees for teaching law in higher educational institutions range from 750 to 1,250 dollars a year, in Tsarist Russia students paid from 50 to 150 rubles. per year, i.e. from 25 to 75 dollars per year. At the same time, poor students were very often exempted from any payment for legal education.

The history of the Russian peasantry, since the revolution, has been, and continues to be, Golgotha. We will confine ourselves to reproducing a few lines written by V. Francois de Romainville:

"The peasants fiercely resist collectivization. The first result of the latter was the mass destruction of livestock. Its number fell from 270,200,000 heads in 1929 to 118,000,000 in 1933. But what is even worse is the number of human victims. Peasants were deported with their entire families to the Arctic regions , or to the desert steppes of Asia. From 1928 to 1934. 5 million peasant families perished, in other words, up to 20 million souls. "

The agrarian question, which continues to be the main concern of many states, however, found a happy solution in the reign of Emperor Nicholas II.

In 1861, after the abolition of serfdom by Emperor Alexander II, the Russian peasants received, for a small fee, lands voluntarily ceded by the landowners, mostly nobles. However, the peasants did not become individual owners of these lands, since these latter actually belonged to communities (Communes des Villages), which gave land plots for use by members of the community. In implementing this kind of agrarian policy, the legislator adhered to the ancient Russian peasant custom of governing the world, seeking in this way to keep the farmers from the temptation to sell their allotment. Indeed, if the peasant were to exchange the part of the land due to him for money, he would very soon be left without any means of subsistence and would undoubtedly turn into a landless proletarian.

But, despite the positive aspects of this agrarian policy, it also had significant shortcomings. The peasant, not feeling like a complete owner of the land and not being sure that the same plot would fall into his hands in the next redistribution, treated his work carelessly and lost a sense of responsibility. Having no property to protect, he was just as careless about other people's property.

Finally, the increase in the peasant population in European Russia reduced the area of land plots with each redistribution. By the end of the 19th century, in the most populated provinces, the lack of land began to be seriously felt. The revolutionaries made extensive use of this provision, turning this question of a purely economic nature into a political question. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the peasants, socialists of various shades aroused the peasant masses and pushed them to demand the expropriation of privately owned lands. In view of the situation that had been created, which was progressively aggravated, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, P. A. Stolypin, immediately resorted to measures of extreme importance, which, if carried to the end, would undoubtedly stop the spread of Marxist propaganda.

1. Stolypin decided to widely use the resettlement movement of the peasant masses from European Russia to Siberia, which began after the end of the Great Siberian Road.

Having expressed a desire to leave European Russia, he got rid of all taxes for a long time. The state helped him with money and he received in full ownership a plot of land of 15 hectares, i.e. about 37 acres per capita and 45 hectares per family. At the same time, each family was given an allowance of 200 rubles, and it was transported with all the property to the state account to the place of settlement.

In Siberia, state-owned warehouses of agricultural machines were arranged, supplying the population with agricultural implements at extremely low prices.

This measure was a huge success. In a short time, Siberian agriculture reached its peak, which made it possible to import into European Russia and export abroad a large amount of rural products, especially butter and eggs.

2. Stolypin's government authorized the State Peasants' Bank (established in the reign of Emperor Alexander III) to buy up landowners' lands and resell them to peasants on exceptionally favorable terms. A long-term loan was provided, reaching up to 90% of the value of the land at a very low interest rate (4.5%, including repayment).

The result of this measure was that in 1914 more than 80% of the arable land in European Russia was in the hands of the peasants. To this should be added 40,000,000 acres (about 100,000,000 acres) personally owned by Emperor Nicholas II in Siberia, which he did not hesitate to transfer to the peasant land fund. At the personal expense of the Sovereign in the areas ceded to him, roads were built, schools, churches and hospitals were built.

The State Peasant Land Bank, which was considered, and quite rightly, the largest land credit institution in the world, issued loans to peasants, of which 222 million rubles were allowed in 1901, and in 1912 it issued up to 1,168,000,000 rubles, i.e. ., about 600% more.

The current opinion, long since put into circulation by socialists of all persuasions, that the peasants were "dispossessed by the land", is based on nothing. In fact, the Tsarist Government systematically sought to increase the area of peasant land ownership, and this agrarian policy was especially developed in the reign of Emperor Nicholas II. This fact is clearly confirmed by the table below.

By 1916, in the hands of peasants and Cossacks in 50 provinces of European Russia (except for the Caucasus and the Kingdom of Poland) there were about 172,000,000 acres of their own land. Citizens of all other classes owned only about 85,000,000 acres, of which 18,000,000 acres belonged to small proprietors. cultivating the land by personal labor, without the help of hired labor. Most of the remaining 67,000,000 acres were either under forest or leased from peasants.

Thus, on the eve of the February revolution, the peasants, on the basis of ownership and lease, owned: 100% of arable land in Asiatic Russia and about 90% of the entire area of European Russia.

3. Issued on November 9, 1906, the so-called "Stolypin Law" allowed the peasant to leave the community and become the individual and hereditary owner of the land he cultivated.

This law was a huge success. Immediately, 2.5 million petitions were filed for cuts from family peasants to 463 special commissions engaged in carrying out this reform.

In 1913, 2 million families received allotments. For this complex work, an entire army (more than 7,000 people) of surveyors and land surveyors was mobilized.

A few months before the 1st World War, 13% of the land belonging to the communities passed into the individual ownership of the peasants. On the eve of the revolution, Russia was ready to turn into a country of small proprietors who quickly enriched themselves.

The former Minister of Agriculture Krivoshein was right when he told the German professor Seering, who arrived in Moscow in 1912 at the head of a commission that was instructed to get acquainted with the results of the Stolypin reform: "Russia needs 30 years of calm to become the richest and most prosperous country in the whole world" .

These are the impartial figures and these are the undeniable facts. Having become acquainted with them, every unprejudiced reader cannot but come to the conclusion that despite the systematic slander of revolutionaries of all stripes and inveterate Russophobes "independence" and ignorant foreigners, Russia in the reign of Emperor Nicholas II achieved a high degree of prosperity, and this despite the unsuccessful for her the Russo-Japanese War and the revolutionary outrages of 1905. Moreover, even the First World War, which demanded a huge effort of the people's forces and was accompanied by colossal losses in the army, did not stop the progressive development of the economic power of the Russian State. A wise and thrifty financial policy made it possible to accumulate one and a half billion gold reserves in the State Treasury, which ensured the stability of the ruble, as a unit of account, not only within the Empire, but also on the international money market. And this, in turn, made it possible to place multimillion-dollar orders abroad for army supplies and at the same time was a gigantic stimulus for the development of domestic industry precisely in the difficult years of the war.

Now it is ridiculous to talk about any "achievements of the revolution" and "conquests of October." The abdication of Sovereign Nicholas II from the Ancestral Throne was the greatest tragedy in the thousand-year history of Russia. But it was not he, the Tsar-Martyr, who was guilty of this misfortune, but those who wrested power from His hands by deceit and treachery. Treacherously composed by them, these political crooks and perjurers, the act of renunciation, which marked the beginning of the "great and bloodless", with fatal inevitability ended in the bloody bacchanalia of October, the triumph of the Satanic International, the collapse of the hitherto valiant and formidable Russian Imperial Army, the shameful Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the unprecedented the atrocity of regicide, the enslavement of millions of people and the death of the world's greatest Russian Empire, the very existence of which was the key to global political balance.

Years of life: 1868-1818
Years of government: 1894-1917

Born on May 6 (19 according to the old style) May 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. The Russian emperor, who reigned from October 21 (November 2), 1894 to March 2 (March 15), 1917. Belonged to the Romanov dynasty, was the son and successor.

From birth he had the title of His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke. In 1881, he received the title of Tsarevich's Heir, after the death of his grandfather, the Emperor.

Title of Emperor Nicholas II

The full title of the emperor from 1894 to 1917: “By God's hastening mercy, We, Nicholas II (Church Slavonic form in some manifestos - Nicholas II), Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonese, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuanian, Volyn, Podolsky and Finland; Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Belostoksky, Korelsky, Tversky, Yugorsky, Permsky, Vyatsky, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novgorod Nizovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav and all northern countries Sovereign; and Sovereign of Iver, Kartalinsky and Kabardian lands and regions of Armenia; Cherkasy and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Sovereign of Turkestan; Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg and others, and others, and others.

The peak of Russia's economic development and at the same time growth
revolutionary movement, which resulted in the revolutions of 1905-1907 and 1917, fell precisely on years of reign of Nicholas 2. Foreign policy at that time was aimed at Russia's participation in blocs of European powers, the contradictions that arose between which became one of the reasons for the start of the war with Japan and World War I.

After the events of the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and a period of civil war soon began in Russia. The Provisional Government sent him to Siberia, then to the Urals. Together with his family, he was shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918.

Contemporaries and historians characterize the personality of the last king inconsistently; most of them believed that his strategic abilities in the conduct of public affairs were not successful enough to change for the better the political situation at that time.

After the revolution of 1917, he began to be called Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (before that, the surname "Romanov" was not indicated by members of the imperial family, the titles indicated the family affiliation: emperor, empress, grand duke, crown prince).
With the nickname Bloody, which the opposition gave him, he appeared in Soviet historiography.

Biography of Nicholas 2

He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Feodorovna and Emperor Alexander III.

In 1885-1890. was educated at home as part of a gymnasium course according to a special program that combined the course of the Academy of the General Staff and the Faculty of Law of the University. Training and education took place under the personal supervision of Alexander III with a traditional religious basis.

Most often he lived with his family in the Alexander Palace. And he preferred to relax in the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. For annual trips to the Baltic Sea and the Finnish Sea, he had at his disposal the Shtandart yacht.

From the age of 9 he began keeping a diary. The archive has preserved 50 thick notebooks for the years 1882-1918. Some of them have been published.

He was fond of photography, he liked to watch movies. He also read serious works, especially on historical topics, and entertaining literature. He smoked cigarettes with tobacco grown specially in Turkey (a gift from the Turkish Sultan).

On November 14, 1894, a significant event took place in the life of the heir to the throne - the marriage with the German princess Alice of Hesse, who, after the rite of baptism, took the name - Alexandra Feodorovna. They had 4 daughters - Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatyana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). And the long-awaited fifth child on July 30 (August 12), 1904 was the only son - Tsarevich Alexei.

Coronation of Nicholas 2

On May 14 (26), 1896, the coronation of the new emperor took place. In 1896 he
traveled around Europe, where he met with Queen Victoria (grandmother of his wife), Wilhelm II, Franz Joseph. The final stage of the trip was a visit to the capital of the allied France.

His first personnel reshuffle was the fact of the dismissal of the Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland Gurko I.V. and the appointment of A.B. Lobanov-Rostovsky as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
And the first major international action was the so-called Triple Intervention.
Having made huge concessions to the opposition at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II made an attempt to unite Russian society against external enemies. In the summer of 1916, after the situation at the front had stabilized, the Duma opposition united with the generals' conspirators and decided to take advantage of the situation to overthrow the tsar.

They even called the date February 12-13, 1917, as the day the emperor abdicated from the throne. It was said that a “great act” would take place - the sovereign would abdicate the throne, and the heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich would be appointed the future emperor, and it was Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich who would become regent.

The situation escalated after the proclamation of the emperor's manifesto on February 25, 1917, on the termination of the meeting of the State Duma.

On February 28, in the evening, he went to Tsarskoe Selo, but could not pass, and, due to the loss of communication with Headquarters, he arrived in Pskov on March 1, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the leadership of General Ruzsky was located.

Abdication of Nicholas 2 from the throne

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the emperor decided to abdicate in favor of the Tsarevich under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the evening of the same day he announced to V. V. Shulgin and A. I. Guchkov about the decision to abdicate the throne for his son. March 2, 1917 at 23:40 he handed over to Guchkov A.I. The renunciation manifesto, where he wrote: “We command our brother to rule the affairs of the state in complete and indestructible unity with the representatives of the people.”

Nicholas 2 and his family from March 9 to August 14, 1917 lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.
In connection with the intensification of the revolutionary movement in Petrograd, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the royal prisoners to the depths of Russia, fearing for their lives. After long disputes, Tobolsk was chosen as the city of settlement of the former emperor and his relatives. They were allowed to take personal belongings, necessary furniture with them and offer the attendants a voluntary escort to the place of the new settlement.

On the eve of his departure, A.F. Kerensky (head of the Provisional Government) brought the brother of the former tsar, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail was soon exiled to Perm and on the night of June 13, 1918 was killed by the Bolshevik authorities.
On August 14, 1917, a train set off from Tsarskoye Selo under the sign "Japanese Mission of the Red Cross" with members of the former imperial family. He was accompanied by a second squad, in which there was a guard (7 officers, 337 soldiers).
The trains arrived in Tyumen on August 17, 1917, after which the arrested were taken on three ships to Tobolsk. The Romanovs were settled in the governor's house, specially renovated for their arrival. They were allowed to go to worship at the local Church of the Annunciation. The regime of protection of the Romanov family in Tobolsk was much easier than in Tsarskoye Selo. They led a measured, calm life.

The permission of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (All-Russian Central Executive Committee) of the fourth convocation to transfer Romanov and members of his family to Moscow for the purpose of holding a trial against them was received in April 1918.
On April 22, 1918, a convoy with machine guns of 150 people left Tobolsk for the city of Tyumen. On April 30, the train arrived in Yekaterinburg from Tyumen. To accommodate the Romanovs, a house was requisitioned, which belonged to the mining engineer Ipatiev. The staff also lived in the same house: the cook Kharitonov, Dr. Botkin, the room girl Demidova, the lackey Trupp and the cook Sednev.

The fate of Nicholas 2 and his family

To resolve the issue of the future fate of the imperial family in early July 1918, the military commissar F. Goloshchekin urgently left for Moscow. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars authorized the execution of all the Romanovs. After that, on July 12, 1918, on the basis of the decision taken, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies at a meeting decided to execute the royal family.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, in the Ipatiev mansion, the so-called "House of Special Purpose", the former emperor of Russia, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Dr. Botkin and three servants (except for the cook) were shot.

The personal property of the Romanovs was looted.
All members of his family were canonized by the Catacomb Church in 1928.
In 1981, the last tsar of Russia was canonized by the Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia the Orthodox Church canonized him as a martyr only 19 years later, in 2000.

In accordance with the decision of August 20, 2000 of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the last emperor of Russia, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, princesses Maria, Anastasia, Olga, Tatyana, Tsarevich Alexei were canonized as holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia, revealed and unmanifested.

This decision was perceived by society ambiguously and was criticized. Some opponents of canonization believe that reckoning Tsar Nicholas 2 to the face of the saints is most likely a political character.

On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation) decided to recognize the last Russian emperor and members of the royal family as victims of illegal political repressions and rehabilitated them.

Reign of Nicholas II (briefly)

Nicholas II, the son of Alexander III, was the last emperor of the Russian Empire and ruled from May 18, 1868 to July 17, 1918. He was able to get an excellent education, was fluent in several foreign languages, and was also able to rise to the rank of colonel in the Russian army, field marshal and admiral of the fleet of the British army. Nicholas had to take the throne after the sudden death of his father. At that time, the young man was twenty-six years old.

From childhood, Nicholas was prepared for the role of the future ruler. In 1894, a month after the death of his father, he marries the German princess Alice of Hesse, later known as Alexandra Feodorovna. Two years later, the official coronation took place, which took place in mourning, because due to the huge crush, many people died who wanted to see the new emperor with their own eyes.

The emperor had five children (four daughters and a son). Despite the fact that doctors discovered hemophilia in Alexei (son), he, like his father, was prepared to rule the Russian Empire.

During the reign of Nicholas II, Russia was in the stage of economic ascension, but the political situation inside the country worsened every day. It was the failure of the emperor as a ruler that led to internal unrest. As a result, after the dispersal of the workers' rally on January 9, 1905 (this event is also known as "Bloody Sunday"), the state was on fire with revolutionary sentiments. The revolution of 1905-1907 took place. The result of these events is the nickname among the people of the king, whom people dubbed Nicholas "Bloody".

In 1914, the First World War began, which had a negative impact on the state of Russia and aggravated the already unstable political situation. The unsuccessful military operations of Nicholas II lead to the fact that in 1917 an uprising begins in Petrograd, the result of which was the abdication of the king from the throne.

In the early spring of 1917, the entire royal family was taken under arrest, and later sent into exile. The execution of the whole family took place on the night of the sixteenth to the seventeenth of July.

Here are the main reforms during the reign of Nicholas II:

· Management: formed the State Duma, and the people received civil rights.

· Military reform, carried out after the defeat in the war with Japan.

· Agrarian reform: land was assigned to private peasants, not to communities.

Textbook of Russian history Platonov Sergey Fedorovich

§ 172. Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich (1894–1917)

In the very first months of his reign, the young sovereign with particular force expressed his intention to follow his father's system in the internal administration of the state and promised to "guard the beginning of autocracy as firmly and steadily" as Alexander III guarded it. In foreign policy, Nicholas II also wished to follow the peacefulness of his predecessor, and in the first years of his reign not only did not practically deviate from the precepts of Emperor Alexander III, but also raised the theoretical question before all the powers of how diplomacy, through international discussion of the matter, “put limit to continuous armaments and find means to avert the misfortunes that threaten the whole world. The result of this appeal of the Russian emperor to the powers was the convening in The Hague of two "Hague Peace Conferences" (1899 and 1907), the main purpose of which was to find means for a peaceful solution of international conflicts and for a general limitation of armaments. This goal, however, was not achieved, because no agreement on the cessation of disarmament was followed, and a permanent international court was not established to resolve strife. The conferences were limited to a number of private humane resolutions on the laws and customs of war. They did not prevent any armed clashes and did not stop the development of so-called "militarism" with its enormous expenditure on military affairs.

Simultaneously with the work of the first Hague Conference, Russia was forced to take an active part in the internal affairs of China. It began with the fact that she prevented Japan from retaining the Liaodong Peninsula conquered from China with the fortress of Port Arthur (1895). Then (1898) Russia itself leased Port Arthur with its region from China and built one of the branches of its Siberian railway there, and this made another Chinese region, Manchuria, through which the Russian railway passed, indirectly dependent on Russia. When an uprising began in China (the so-called "boxers", patriots, adherents of antiquity), the Russian troops, together with the troops of other European powers, took part in its pacification, took Beijing (1900), and then openly occupied Manchuria (1902). At the same time, the Russian government turned its attention to Korea and found it possible to occupy some points in Korea for its military and commercial purposes. But Korea has long been Japan's object of desire. Affected by the transfer of Port Arthur to Russian possession and worried about the assertion of Russia in the Chinese regions, Japan did not consider it possible to abandon its predominance in Korea. She resisted Russia and, after lengthy diplomatic negotiations, started a war with Russia (January 26, 1904).

This war was very unfortunate for Russia. The forces of Japan turned out to be much more significant than they were imagined by the Russian government. For Russia, it was extremely difficult to wage war on the distant outskirts, which was connected with the center of the state by only one railway line (moreover, of low carrying capacity). The Japanese landed a large army on the mainland, laid siege to Port Arthur from land and sea, weakened the Russian squadron in Port Arthur in battle, and pushed the Russian army back from southern Manchuria to the north. At the end of 1904, after a stubborn defense, Port Arthur surrendered to the Japanese, and at the beginning of 1905, the Russian troops lost the general battle near the city of Mukden. In May 1905, the Russian fleet, sent against the Japanese from the Baltic Sea and making a huge sea voyage around Africa, was defeated and destroyed in a naval battle near about. Tsushima. Russia lost hope of winning the war, but Japan was also exhausted by the difficult war; Through the mediation of the President of the North American United States (Roosevelt), peace negotiations began in Portsmouth, and in August 1905 peace was concluded. Russia lost Port Arthur to Japan; she renounced all claims to influence in Korea and southern Manchuria and ceded to Japan the southern half of Sakhalin Island (§ 168).

The war dealt a severe blow to Russia's political prestige and showed the weakness of its military organization. The government faced the difficult task of reviving the naval power of the state. It seemed that this would take a long time and that Russia would not be able to take an active part in international political life for a long time. Under this assumption, the central European powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, became less shy about Russia. They had many reasons to interfere in the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, where there were wars between the Balkan states with Turkey and among themselves. The main pressure was exerted by Austria-Hungary on Serbia, meaning to subordinate this state to its full influence. In 1914, the Austrian government delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, encroaching on the political independence of the Serbian kingdom. Russia stood up, against the expectations of Austria and Germany, for the friendly Serbian people and mobilized the army. To this, Germany, and behind it Austria, declared war on Russia, and with it at the same time on France, its longtime ally. Thus began (in July 1914) that horrendous war that engulfed, one might say, the whole world. The reign of Emperor Nicholas II, despite the peace-loving statements of the monarch, was overshadowed by unusual military thunderstorms and severe trials in the form of military defeats and the loss of state regions.

In the internal government of the state, Emperor Nicholas II considered it possible and desirable to adhere to the same principles on which his father's protective policy rested. But the policy of Alexander III had its explanation in the troubled circumstances of 1881 (§ 170); it set as its goal the fight against "sedition", the restoration of state order and the reassurance of society. When Emperor Nicholas came to power, order was strengthened, there was no talk of revolutionary terror. But life brought to the fore new tasks that required special efforts of the authorities. Crop failure and famine, in 1891–1892 which hit the agricultural regions of the state with extraordinary force, revealed an undeniable general decline in the people's well-being and the failure of those measures by which the government had thought to improve class life until then (§ 171). In the most grain-growing regions, the peasantry, due to the scarcity of land and the lack of livestock, could not support the land economy, had no reserves, and at the first crop failure suffered hunger and poverty. In plants and factories, workers were dependent on entrepreneurs who were not sufficiently limited by law in the exploitation of labor. The suffering of the masses, revealed with unusual clarity in the famine year of 1891-1892, caused a great movement in Russian society. Not limited to sympathy and material assistance to the starving, the zemstvos and the intelligentsia tried to put before the government the question of the need to change the general order of government and from the bureaucracy, powerless to prevent the ruin of the people, to move on to unity with the zemstvos. Some zemstvo assemblies, taking advantage of the change of reign, in the first days of the power of Emperor Nicholas II turned to him with the appropriate addresses. However, they received a negative answer, and the government remained on the same path of protecting the autocratic system with the help of bureaucracy and police repression.

The sharply expressed protective direction of power was in such a clear discrepancy with the glaring needs of the population and the mood of the intelligentsia that the emergence of opposition and revolutionary movements was inevitable. In the last years of the XIX century. protests began against the government of student youth in higher educational institutions and unrest and strikes of workers in the factory districts. The growth of public discontent caused intensification of repressions, aimed not only at the persons exposed in the movement, but also at the whole of society, at the zemstvos and at the press. However, repression did not prevent the formation of secret societies and the preparation of further speeches. The failures in the Japanese War gave the final impetus to public discontent, and it resulted in a series of revolutionary outbreaks. There were demonstrations in the cities, strikes in the factories; political assassinations began (Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Minister Plehve). A demonstration of unprecedented size took place in Petrograd on January 9, 1905: masses of workers gathered at the Winter Palace with a petition to the tsar and were dispersed with the use of firearms. With this demonstration, an open revolutionary crisis began. The government made some concessions and expressed its readiness to create a legislative people's representation. However, this no longer satisfied the people: in the summer there were agrarian riots and a number of uprisings in the fleet (Black Sea and Baltic), and in the autumn (in October) a general political strike began, stopping the correct life of the country (railways, post office, telegraph, water pipes, trams). Under the pressure of unusual events, Emperor Nicholas II issued a manifesto on October 17, 1905, which gave the population the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of real inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and associations; At the same time, a broad development of the principle of general suffrage was promised, and an unshakable rule was established that no law could take effect without the approval of the State Duma, and that the elected representatives of the people should be provided with the opportunity to really participate in supervising the regularity of government actions.

By the October 17 Manifesto, Russia was turned into a constitutional state. In the spring of 1906, the first representative assembly met - the State Duma, which was dominated by people's representatives of the opposition. The government did not like the activities of this "first thought", aimed at the immediate implementation of broad political and social reforms, and therefore in the summer of 1906 the first thought was dissolved and at the same time a new thought was convened for February 1907. However, the "second thought" turned out to be even more radical than the first and, like the first, was dissolved on June 3, 1907. On the same day, a new electoral law was published, narrowing the circle of persons with voting rights. Opened in the autumn of 1907, the “third Duma” was elected on the basis of a new law and began its work during a period of significant public calm. She worked in greater harmony with the government and created a certain order in the life of the Duma. Her relationship with the government was facilitated by the fact that at the head of the Council of Ministers (from 1906 to 1911) there was a talented orator and a very likeable person in terms of personal qualities, P. A. Stolypin. It seemed that with the establishment of benevolent relations between the Duma and the government and with the calm of society, Russia would embark on the path of a correct and peaceful political life and gradually move towards the actual implementation of the principles proclaimed on October 17, 1905.

However, the matter was upset by the fact that influences hostile to any renewal of the political life of Russia prevailed in the leading court and bureaucratic circles. They did not want to keep the promises given in the manifesto on October 17; revered autocracy not abolished and unchanged; did not believe in the necessity and strength of representative institutions; did not consider democratic reforms necessary and cared about strengthening the privileges and privileges of the nobility. In a word, contrary to the general course of things, sharply reactionary hopes were nurtured there. Stolypin himself, under the influence of the higher "spheres," seemed to lean towards reaction. When (September 1, 1911) Stolypin was assassinated in Kyiv (the circumstances of his assassination are not sufficiently explained), the government became definitely reactionary and its obvious discord with the Duma became apparent. The "fourth thought" (1912), which followed the third, was very moderate in composition, more than once showed a sharp condemnation of the government's course, but could not change it. The state was clearly returning to the old order, and the people's representation gradually turned into a mere decoration.

The war of 1914 found Russia in such internal conditions. The shortcomings of the Russian military organization and its inconsistency with the enormous scope of military operations affected primarily food and sanitary matters. The government allowed here, to help the military authorities, public organizations: all-Russian unions of zemstvos and cities were formed and extended their work to the whole country and to the entire front. When, in 1915, a shortage of military equipment and shells was discovered, public organizations also switched to military preparations. The participation of the Zemstvo forces in the defense of the country allowed society to closely and accurately know the shortcomings and weaknesses of government agencies working for defense, and the dishonesty and ineptitude of many government officials (Minister of War Sukhomlinov was even suspected of involvement in treason). The Duma pointed out to the government many times the need to change the regime, to call to power persons enjoying public confidence, to eliminate the harmful irresponsible influences on the part of intriguers who penetrated the palace by dark paths. At the meeting of the Duma on November 1, 1916, the rise of civic feeling reached an unusual height; in the speeches of the people's representatives sounded high patriotism and impeccable loyalty, but at the same time, a firm determination to achieve changes in the government and responsible ministry. The demands of the Duma were supported by the State Council, the united nobility and other public organizations. But the general voice of the country was not understood by Emperor Nicholas II, and his government remained confident that it could govern the country against the mood of the entire population. Then came the coup d'état.

The external reason for it was the disruption of the railroad deliveries of provisions and fuel to the capitals. On February 24, 1917, street demonstrations began in Petrograd demanding "bread." In the following days, they tried to move troops against the crowd, but on February 27 they went over to the side of the people, and on February 28 the government fell. With the outbreak of unrest, it decided to dissolve the Duma, but the Duma did not disperse and elected an "executive committee" from its midst, with the Duma chairman M. V. Rodzianko at the head. At the same time, the masses of workers and soldiers brought forward from among themselves a "council of workers' and soldiers' deputies." By agreement of these organs of the revolution, a "provisional government" was established with its chairman, Prince G. E. Lvov. Instantly it was recognized by Moscow and the whole country. Emperor Nicholas II, caught by the movement at the front, did not have time to return to Petrograd and in Pskov on March 2 abdicated the throne for himself and for his son Alexei in favor of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich. But Mikhail Alexandrovich the very next day refused to accept the "heavy burden" of power and left "the constituent assembly to express the will of the people with its decision on the form of government."

Russia is now waiting for this constituent assembly, having within its borders an external enemy that has not yet been defeated. May the Lord help her in the difficult time of national trials!

April 1917

From the book Textbook of Russian History author Platonov Sergey Fyodorovich

§ 171. Emperor Alexander III Alexandrovich (1881–1894) The main goal of his activity was the establishment of autocratic power and a shaken state order. This goal was to be achieved primarily by the firm suppression of all

From the book Dynasty of the Romanovs. Puzzles. Versions. Problems author Grimberg Faina Iontelevna

Nicholas II (reigned from 1894 to 1917). End? It is in recent years that many Russian and foreign authors of writings about the last Russian emperor have been published and republished in Russia. Diaries, memoirs, pseudo-memories swirled in a motley round dance ... Vyrubova, Gilliard,

From the book The Last Emperor author Balyazin Voldemar Nikolaevich

The Last Emperor Unofficial History of Russia Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich The first-born of the imperial couple and, thus, the heir to the throne was Nikolai, who was born on May 6, 1868. In 1881, Nikolai turned 13 years old. In addition to him, the king and queen had two more sons

From the book History of Rus' author author unknown

Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich The now prosperously reigning Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, the eldest son of the deceased Emperor Alexander III, with his peace-loving policy and cordial responsiveness, immediately attracted the hearts of both his loyal subjects and

author Istomin Sergey Vitalievich

author

Part 1 Emperor Nicholas II and the Februaryists of 1917

From the book Around treason, cowardice and deceit [The true story of the abdication of Nicholas II] author Multatuli Petr Valentinovich

From the book Alexander III and his time author Tolmachev Evgeny Petrovich

2. VEL. PRINCE EMPEROR NICHOLAS II ALEXANDROVICH ROMANOV (1868-1918) Emperor Nicholas II is one of the most pathetic figures in history. If he had lived in classical times, then the story of his life and death would have served the poets of ancient Greece as a plot for some

EMPEROR NICHOLAS II ALEKSANDROVICH (1868–1918) Son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Born May 6, 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. Newspapers October 21, 1894 published a manifesto on the accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas II. The young king was immediately surrounded by assertive

From the book Crowned Spouses. Between love and power. Secrets of great alliances author Solnon Jean-Francois

Nicholas II and Alexandra (1894-1917) Common passion for autocracy “The Emperor was completely subdued by her. It was enough to watch them together for a quarter of an hour to understand: the autocrat is she, not him. General Dubensky A terrible secret Finally, a son! After ten long years

From the book The Death of Imperial Russia. Memories author Kurlov Pavel Grigorievich

II. Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich The February military riot in Petrograd engulfed in the very first days part of the troops at the front, especially on the Northern one, which included the capital, which was therefore in close contact with him and completely dependent on

From the book I know the world. History of Russian tsars author Istomin Sergey Vitalievich

Nicholas II - The last emperor of Russia Years of life 1868–1918 Years of reign 1894–1917 Father of Nicholas II - Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia. Mother - wife of Alexander III, Empress Maria Fedorovna. The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II - Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov -

From the book Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. People and walls, 1796–1917 author Zimin Igor Viktorovich

Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna (1894–1917) Of all the countryside residences, Nicholas II gave absolute preference to the Alexander Palace. He was born in the Alexander Palace, during his childhood he spent the summer months in the palace, the first week of his life passed in this palace.

From the book Life and customs of tsarist Russia author Anishkin V. G.