THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS II, RUSSIA’S LAST EMPEROR
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By Lyubov Tsarevskaya
During the reign of Nicholas II in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Russia made considerable progress in all areas of life. Many predicted
that Russia would have an important future and a more essential role to
play in the world. It was in stark contrast to these predictions that the
Empire came tumbling down in 1917 in a collapse that had  dramatic
consequences for the Russian people.
The Emperor Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar of the Romanov dynasty,
ascended the throne on October 20th, 1894. In his will his father, Emperor
Alexander III, who died at the age of 49, wrote the following to instruct
his son in the ways to do the hard royal service to the nation.
“You will have to take from me and shoulder the heavy burden of government
and bear it until your good hour, the way I have done it, the way our ancestors
did it. Now You will assume the God-given Empire, which I received from
my father when he was bleeding to death 13 years ago… Your grandfather
used his unlimited monarchial powers to carry out numerous reforms for
the good of the Russian people. In reward he got a bomb and death from
Russian revolutionaries… On that tragic day I was confronted with the question
of what path I should follow. Was it to be the path that the so-called
advanced society, which caught the pest of Western liberal ideas, urged
me to take, or the path prompted by my own conviction, my supreme sacred
duty of tsar and my conscience? I have chosen my way. The Liberals called
it reactionary. But I was interested solely in the good of my people and
the grandeur of Russia. I sought to secure peace both inside and outside
Russia so that the state could develop freely and quietly, grow rich and
prosper. Autocracy has created Russia’s historic identity. If autocracy
tumbles down, God forbid, then the entire Russia will collapse. A collapse
of the originally Russian government will usher in an interminable era
of trouble and bloody internecine strife. I bequeath You love for everything
that will ensure the good, honour and dignity of Russia. Protect dignity
but bear in mind that You are responsible for the future of Your subjects
to the Most High. Your belief in the holiness of Your monarchial duty will
underlie Your life. You must be firm and courageous, and never show weakness.
You must show independence in Your foreign policy. You must never forget
that Russia has no friends. Foreigners fear our hugeness. Avoid fighting
wars. In the home policy patronize the Church for it often saved Russia
in the years of hardships. Strengthen the family, which is the basis of
every state.”
Nicholas II ascended the throne when he was 26, and one has got to admit
that, to his honour, he found strength to assume responsibility for the
enormous country without shifting it onto anybody else. In his first address
to the people Nicholas II said he would follow his deceased father’s behests
and that he would rule for the good and prosperity of his subjects. 
Emperor Nicholas II’s reign was no easy one because by the early 20th century
the ruling circles and intellectuals had adopted a negative position on
the fundamentals, traditions and ideas of Russian society. The educated
circles, which had caught the liberal and Marxist ideas of Western Europe,
denied Russia the right to its own way of development, sought to destroy
its originality and impose the alien model of West-European development
on this country. Hence the hatred for the Tsar as the embodiment of autocracy,
the traditional form of government in Russia. The liberals and democrats
tried to slander Nicholas II, draw an unseemly picture of his rule. The
former French president Emil Louber wrote this about the Russian Tsar in
his memoirs, made public in Paris in 1910:
“It is held that the Russian Emperor falls under outside influence. This
is absolutely wrong. The Russian Emperor implements his own ideas. He has
carefully thought-out plans that he continuously works to implement… Behind
a mask of timidity he has a strong soul and a courageous heart that’s unflinchingly
loyal. He knows where he is going to and what he wants.” 
It is under that Tsar that Russia lived through a powerful economic development
acceleration, one that it had never known before. Here are some facts and
figures to prove the point.
Economic growth rates were the world’s highest. The tsarist government’s
protectionist policy spurred the home market development. Russia was the
world’s only nation that could exist autonomously, irrespective of its
imports or exports, thanks to its mode of life. Russians manufactured all
the goods they needed for home consumption. The Russian economy was not
oriented to the foreign market. It is only flax and butter that Russia
produced commercially, to export them.
Production facilities sprang up, mineral resources were tapped.
The 7,416 kilometre long Great Siberian Railway became the symbol of economic
prosperity. It is only a power that boasted a highly developed industrial
potential that could build this kind of trunk-railway on its own.
Economic growth resulted in lavish fruit-bearing, namely the people’s incomes
grew twofold. Russian workers boasted the world’s highest wages, which
were second to those of US workers only. Russia had a deficit-free budget
during the reign of Nicholas II. The taxes were the world’s lowest. The
Russian rouble was truly gold, given that it was backed by the gold reserve
stock by more than 100%.
In 1912 Russia introduced a system of social insurance of workers and passed
a number of other laws to make things easier for them. The then US President
William Taft said this in a comment on those laws:
“The labour laws that Your Emperor has enacted are so perfect that no democratic
country can boast anything similar.”
Economic growth entailed the growth of the population, from 139 million
people in 1902 to 175 million people in 1913. Russia became the world’s
third-biggest nation population-wise, trailing China and India only. The
prominent French economist Edmond Teri said that if the tendency held out,
Russia would dominate Europe politically and financially by the middle
of the 20th century.
What Russia did dominate at the time was the field of culture, which the
French poet Paul Valerie described as one of the world wonders. Never before
had this country produced such a great number of scientists, artists, actors,
musicians. Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Vassily Surikov, Pyotr
Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Fyodor Chaliapin and many others
who became world-famous.
Russia had indeed achieved a lot, with even more impressive achievements
lying in store for this country, provided, of course, it had time and the
unity of the nation.
Western countries were basically concerned about Russia’s growing might
and its increasing influence on the  developments
in the Far East. Russophobia became a factor in world politics. Japan was
used as a tool to weaken Russia in the Far East. Great Britain and the
United States incited Tokyo to attack Russia militarily, and that is what
it did when launching an assault on a Russian squadron off Port Arthur
in 1904. Russia was a loser throughout the first year of fighting, but
then Japan exhausted itself while Russia collected its strength to wage
a full-scale war. It was clear that Japan’s defeat was a question of time,
and it was at that very moment that Russia was stabbed in the back. The
stabbing was the political disturbances in Russia that were caused by the
liberals and revolutionaries and that made Emperor Nicholas II conclude
an unequal peace treaty.
The Great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky has aptly described Russian
revolutionaries as “demons”, since they were opposed to anything that was
sacred to the Russian people, namely Orthodoxy, autocracy, the Russian
mode of life, and suggested replacing them with foreign ways or plainly
utopian schemes. In their fight against autocracy they did not hesitate
to use criminals. It was these “demons” that stirred up revolutionary unrest
in 1905 and involved the working masses and university students in them.
By advancing the slogans: “Down with Autocracy!” and “Long live freedom!”
they struck at the very foundation of the state.
Nicholas II could certainly use force to suppress the revolt, but he chose
a different way of appeasing the country. On October 17th, 1905 he signed
a Manifesto that granted the citizens the liberty of conscience, the freedom
of speech, of assembly, of association, personal immunity, sanctity of
the home, as well as the right for all social strata to elect deputies
to the State Duma, which was vested with lawmaking powers. The October
17th Manifesto took the edge off the heat of the revolution in Russia.
The Tsar firmly held the reigns of government, the country calmed down
and resumed its course of development. The well-known English writer Maurice
Bering, who lived in Russia and knew it well, said back in 1914 that perhaps,
Russia had never before prospered financially so well as it did under Nicholas
II, when most of Russians had fewer reasons for discontent than at any
other moment in the past. A casual observer might be tempted to ask: what
on earth is there that the Russian people do not have? If there was discontent,
it was basically in the upper classes. As for the other strata, what discontent
those might have was not so intense as to bring temperature to the boiling-point. 
But it was precisely when Russia was poised for take-off that a disaster
struck, one that was largely prompted by the First World War, which broke
out in August 1914.
In 1907 Russia joined the Entente Cordiale, an alliance of Great Britain
and France. Russia was compelled to make the move in the face of the growing
expansion of the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy.
Europe had thus seen the formation of two military blocs that were doomed
to clash some time. When they finally did, the world was plunged into the
First World War. Unlike Great Britain and France, which pursued their own
interests in fighting, Russia only defended its territorial integrity.
So for Russia the First World War was essentially a Patriotic war. The
war prompted an unheard-of growth of patriotic spirit in Russian society
and united it. Nicholas II seized the opportunity to carry out the long-awaited
reform, namely banning the sale of alcoholic beverages. It was quite daring
of the Government to give up a most profitable element of the budget amid
a raging war.
Fully honouring its pledges of an ally Russia had repeatedly saved Great
Britain and France from a crushing  defeat
at the cost of enormous sacrifices. The French Marshal Foche admitted that
it was thanks to Russia that France had not been wiped off the map of Europe.
In 1915 things on the front took a bad turn for Russia. Russian troops
suffered heavy losses, and Germans wedged themselves deeply into Russian
territory. The Emperor decided this was the time when he ought to assume
Supreme Command.
The war exacerbated the existing problems, the nation was growing tired
of fighting. Those opposed to autocracy, specifically the social-democratic
parties, used antiwar sentiment to step up their activities. While the
Emperor was at the front, the State Duma energetically stirred up anti-monarchial
and antigovernment sentiment behind his back. The following is the chronology
of the basic developments.
On February 23rd, 1917 the revolutionary elements used the expressly organized
problems in supplying Petrograd (formerly St.Petersburg) residents with
bread to stage an antigovernment demonstration. People crowded the streets
and chanted: “Bread! Bread!” The city police was bewildered since they
knew that there the Russian capital did have foodstuffs. The next day saw
the continuation of the demonstration. In some places red flags were waved
and posters were carried with the slogans: “Down with the war!” and “Down
with Autocracy!”
On February 24th 240,000 workers went on strike. They were joined by the
military units, deployed in the capital city and swayed by social-democratic
propaganda.
On February 27th life in Petrograd came to a standstill. The revolted workers
and soldiers seized the greater part of the city and the Tauric Palace
with the State Duma deputies inside. On the same day the revolutionary
elements set up a Council of working deputies. But the State Duma decided
it should not let power out of their hands at this moment and formed a
Provisional Government.
When the Tsar learnt about the unrest in Petrograd, he ordered troops to
be sent to the capital, but his order was ignored. Then he decided to go
to Petrograd in person to look into the situation there. But his entourage,
which betrayed him, bent every effort to prevent Nicholas II from reaching
the capital. The Tsar realized that both the State Duma and Supreme Command
had conspired to stage a coup. 
On March 2nd aboard a train the Sovereign was compelled to sign his abdication
in favour of his brother Grand Duke Mikhail, and wrote this in his diary
on the same day: “There are betrayal, cowardice and lies all around me.”
By abdicating in favour of his brother the Tsar tried to save autocracy,
and he is not to blame for Mikhail’s refusal to ascend the throne and his
decision to hand power over to the Constituent Assembly.
That was the tragic end of the many-century long era of autocracy in Russia,
an end that had catastrophic consequences for this country.
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Illustrations:
N.Orlova, “History of Russia. Tsars and Emperors”, Bely Gorod, Moscow,
2001
A.Bokhanov, “Nicholas II”, Molodaya Gvardiya, Moscow, 1997
04/15/2005
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