Nicholas II essays

Nicholas II essays Nicholas II held, evidently, the greatest responsibility for the collapse of the Romanov Empire in 1917, but not entirely. His main offence was himself, the fact that he was not suited for the position of tsar. However, many occurrences, such as Bloody Sunday, the damaging influence of Rasputin, his absence during the war and his ignorance of the contemporary peasant situation at the time, could have been avoided, hence preventing the inevitable decline of the Romanov Empire. However, although the fate of the Romanov Dynasty did slip through the hands of Nicholas II, the modernizing reforms set by Alexander II, which were later removed by Alexander III set up difficulties for Nicholas II, which also contributed to the fall of the Romanov Empire. Nicholas II did not possess the essential qualities needed to rule one-sixth of the earths land surface; this was his first step towards leading the Romanov Dynasty to disaster. This is evident through his own words What is going to happen to me, to all Russia? I am not ready to be the Tsar. I never wanted to become one... which he expressed the day after his father died in October of 1894. If the ruler, i.e. Nicholas II, of approximately 165 million people could not find the reason for or find the confidence in his forced upon position of Tsar, issues of his peoples trust in him are inevitably arisen. Foreseeable through bad decision-making, little adherence from the population and general leadership inadequacies, is the proven dark future and collapse of Russia. Nicholas II was a man of passive nature, ill confidence, a persona of easily influenced actions and family orientated. These characteristics led to his wife, the Tsarina, sharing much of his autocratic power. A letter she sent to Nicholas in February of 1917 holds strong significance in regards to the advantage she took over the power in the passive Tsars hands. The strikers and riote...