When was tsar nicholas ii born

On March 15, he renounced the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy in Russia. In April , Nicholas and his family were transferred to Yekaterinburg in the Urals, which sealed their doom.

Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovs, and after a secret meeting by the Yekaterinburg Soviet, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family. Just after midnight on July 17, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children, and four family retainers were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held.

There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. The remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their children were excavated in a forest near Yekaterinburg in and positively identified two years later using mtDNA fingerprinting.

The Crown Prince Alexei and one Romanov daughter were not accounted for, fueling the persistent legend that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter, had survived the execution of her family.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! At the end of a historic two-month trial, the U. Senate narrowly fails to convict President Andrew Johnson of the impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives three months earlier.

The senators voted 35 guilty and 19 not guilty on the second article of As the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay spread further into Connecticut, they Nicholas required little persuasion: as a nationalist he decried those who favoured western style democracy.

Alexandra was unpopular with the Russian elite, more so as evidence emerged of her increasing influence over her husband. Her reliance upon Grigory Rasputin in determining Russian policy angered many, ultimately leading to Rasputin's assassination. Defeat in the war with Japan of seriously damaged Russian prestige - and with it the esteem of the monarchy.

Japan had launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet based at Port Arthur; throughout the war the Russian navy was found wanting, although the army fared better in repulsing Japanese troops in Manchuria. At the same time as Russia faced war with Japan, there was increasing industrial unrest at home.

Workers who faced long hours and poor conditions increasingly formed protests. In , workers in St Petersburg striked for four days in protest at the declining value of wages in real terms. Georgi Gapon, of the Assembly of Russian Workers, appealed to Nicholas for help in reducing working hours and improving pay and conditions.

A consequent march on the Winter Palace was greeted by armed Cossacks: over protestors were killed and many more wounded. Leon Trotsky founded the St Petersburg Soviet in October, with 50 more being established over the next month in the rest of the country. In response to such wide-scale protest, and under the advice of close advisers, the Tsar published the 'October Manifesto', which granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting and association, and the end of imprisonment without trial.

In addition, no new law would become effective without the approval of the Duma, a consultative body. Once in power, Nicholas immediately made known his position about the impossibility of constitutional reform and the inviolability of the autocracy. This pleased the country's monarchists, but disappointed the liberal intelligentsia and the educated elite. As a whole, the Russian economy expanded during Nicholas II's reign. This economic growth permitted the currency reform of which established the gold standard for the rouble.

On the eve of World War I, in , the country's highest level of economic development was reached, so that the later successes of the USSR were purposely compared with this year. The rate of industrial growth at this time was The construction of railroads continued, natural resources - such as oil in Baku and in Grozny - were actively exploited. The conditions of factory workers improved somewhat during Nicholas' reign, but this did not result in a decrease in the number of strikes, especially during the revolution.

In the sphere of foreign policy, Nicholas strengthened Russia's focus on an alliance with France, and later with England the Triple Alliance or Entente.

Despite once friendly relations with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany Nicholas and Wilhelm were cousins , the relationship between the two countries began to chill. Russia concluded a treaty with China, which allowed it to build railroads in Manchuria, and then to rent two ports on the coast of China, one of them Port Arthur, for twenty-five years.

Strengthening Russia's position in the Far East led to the disastrous war with Japan in As a result of underestimating the enemy, inadequate technical equipment in the army and the navy, extended lines of communication, and occasional lack of strong leadership in the army, the war ended in a catastrophe for Russia, the nadir of which was the destruction of the Russian fleet in the naval battle of Tsushima.

President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the peace treaty which was signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in This destabilizing war with its disgraceful defeat was one of the causes leading to the Revolution of Riots began after what became known as Bloody Sunday, when on 22 January , a peaceful crowd of factory workers and their families, carrying icons and singing hymns including "God Save the Tsar" marched towards Palace Square from several points in the city.

They were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard, and some forty people were killed. Nicholas was not in residence at the time, but the marching demonstrators were unaware of this fact, and he received the blame for the massacre.

Although several authors have claimed that there may well have been agents provocateurs mixed in with the marching workers, society at large viewed the brutal suppression of this event as the execution of peaceful citizens. The capital city and the country at large were beset by worker uprisings and clashes with the police, and overall unrest increased.

In October of , under great pressure from ever worsening circumstances and general strikes, Nicholas was forced to relinquish his iron grip on his autocratic principles and to grant civil liberties and the convening of an elective, legislative body, the State Duma.

Meanwhile, in December in Moscow, an armed worker's uprising flared up, but the unrest soon waned.