Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov (May 18 [O.S. May 6] 1868 – July 17, 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, is the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from November 1, 1894 until his forced abdication on March 15, 1917.

His reign sees the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse.

He gives limited support to the economic and political reforms promoted by top aides Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin, but they face  too much aristocratic opposition to be fully effective.

He supports modernization based on foreign loans and close ties with France.

He resists giving the new parliament (the Duma) major roles.

He insists he rules by God's grace and is loath to negotiate or compromise.

He is ridiculed as Nicholas the Bloody by his enemies due to the Khodynka Tragedy, anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, the violent suppression of the 1905 Russian Revolution, the repression of political opponents, and his perceived responsibility for defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).

His memory will be reviled by Soviet historians as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects.

By contrast Anglo-Russian historian Nikolai Tolstoy, leader of the International Monarchist League, says, "There were many bad things about the tsar's regime, but he inherited an autocracy and his acts are now being seen in perspective and in comparison to the terrible crimes committed by the Soviets".

Russia is defeated in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, which sees the annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima, the loss of Russian influence over Manchuria and Korea, and the Japanese annexation to the north of South Sakhalin Island.

The Anglo-Russian Entente is designed to counter the German Empire's attempts to gain influence in the Middle East; it ends the Great Game of confrontation between Russia and Britain

In 1914 he supports Serbia and approves the mobilization of the Russian Army on July 30, 1914

In response, Germany declares war on Russia on August 1, 1914 and its ally France o August 3, 1914, starting the First World War.

The aristocracy is alarmed at the powerful influence of the despised peasant priest Grigori Rasputin over the tsar.

The severe military losses lead to a collapse of morale at the front and at home, leading to the fall of the House of Romanov in the February Revolution of 1917.

Nicholas abdicates on behalf of himself and his son.

With his family he is imprisoned by the Bolsheviks and executed in July 1918.

In 1981, Nicholas, his wife, and their children will be recognized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in New York City.

After the fall of Communism, the remains of the imperial family will be exhumed, identified and re-interred with an elaborate state and church ceremony in St. Petersburg on July 17, 1998.

They will be canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as passion bearers.

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