What was tsar nicholas ii role in the russian revolution

Moreover, his absence left a weakened government in Petrograd formerly St Petersburg. As the war continued, the quality and effectiveness of the Russian Empire's government was called into question. Alexandra was not hugely popular in Russia. She was reserved and awkward in public.

More importantly, she was a German princess and some were suspicious as to where here loyalties lay in the war. Alexandra gained increasing influence over the appointment of ministers to the government. She was determined that no member of the imperial government should ever be in a sufficiently strong position to challenge the authority of her beloved husband.

She appointed less threatening, sometimes incompetent, ministers to replace those who knew how to govern. As a result, members of the government tended to be increasingly weak and ineffective men. They owed their positions to winning favour with the Tsarina, rather than their ability and effectiveness.

This would have been bad enough with Russia at peace, but in wartime, it led inevitably to disaster for the monarchy and for Russia. The resulting Russian defeat led to strikes and riots. In January , on 'Bloody Sunday', the army in St Petersburg shot at a crowd demanding radical reforms.

Opposition to the tsar grew and Nicholas was forced to grant a constitution and establish a parliament, the Duma. Nicholas's concessions were only limited. Changes were made in the voting laws to prevent the election of radicals and the secret police continued to crush opposition.

However, the Duma did give many more people, especially the middle classes, a voice in government. In mid Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with him.

With Nicholas often away, Alexandra took a more active role in government. Discontent at home, plus losses of territory and massive casualties in two wars, precipitated the February Revolution on March 12, Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, In April , the Bolshevik government moved him and the Imperial family to Vekaterinburg in the Urals, where they were executed on July 17, , as anti-Bolshevik forces approached the city.

Read more about it! The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America. The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection. In January a strike broke out in the Putilov engineering works in St.

Petersburg and spread rapidly to other factories. Father Gapon, who led the union, was forced with the choice of relinquishing his job or taking positive action. He decided to lead a peaceful demonstration of the workers to the Winter Palace to petition the Tsar.

The petition called for an 8-hour day, freedom of speech and religion, and an amnesty for political prisoners. He had prepared it with the S. Nicholas had been informed of the demonstration the night before but chose not to be present to receive the document, instead he left the responsibility of receiving the document to the St. Petersburg police. When the mob started to approach the palace the police opened fire, two to four thousand people were killed and wounded.

This day was known as Bloody Sunday. As a result of Bloody Sunday an unprecedented number of strikes paralyzed Russian government. Street demonstrations struck at the heart of the autocracy. The people were beginning to realize that they all had something in common: they wanted rights in their society. With this common goal they worked together to slowly grasp the unlimited power of the Tsar.

The perfect time was approaching for the people of Russia to make their revolt. The military had lost a series of battles: in August of at Turenchen, in April in Maio-Yang, in December at Port Aurther, and in May of the emperor dispatched the Baltic fleet in to the far east and it was annihilated in the Battle of Tsushmia. The whole empire was disaffected and losing great faith in the decisions of their Tsar.

The people clearly did take advantage of these conditions. By mid-October the country was in strike: factories closed down, trains came to a halt, in St. Petersburg electric lights went out and food deliveries ceased. Peasants raided estates, burning the houses, stealing cattle. These events were not enough for the Tsar to grant the workers better conditions; therefore, the Russians took greater measures to change the empire.

Leon Trotzky, a Marxist formatted a council representing the workers. This council threatened to shut down every factory that did not shut. Nicholas was still not moved when practically forced to grant rights to his citizens. It was as if he was blind to their needs. Witte was the only Prime Minister that Nicholas had who worked to help the people and to prolong his reign as Tsar.

The Duma that Witte had instated only lasted two months. When the Duma proposed ideas such as universal suffrage, land reforms, release of political prisoners, and a pledge to appoint ministers Nicholas was appalled by the lack of respect the Duma had for the Tsar.

He would still not grant any of their requests. Goremykin then stepped down and a new Prime Minister, Stolypin was put into command. He restored the October Manifesto, but also closely watched over the Duma. In the third Duma Stolypin abolished universal suffrage and put most of the power in the gentry. Nicholas should have done everything he could to keep Stolypin as Prime Minister, but he began to let others interfere with the state of Russia. The wife of the Grand Duke, cousin to the Tsar, brought an illiterate holy man to the family.

He was renown for his healing powers and was brought to the Imperial family in order to soothe the child, relieve his pain, and put him to sleep. He carried out his job well and the family became dependent on him for the health of their son.