Nicholas,
the eldest son of Alexander III, the
Tsar of Russia, and Marie Feodorovna,
was
born at Krasnoye Selo in May 1868. When he was twenty-three he narrowly
escaped assassination in Japan.
Nicholas
succeeded to the throne following his father's death from liver disease
on 20th October, 1894. Later that month he married the German princess,
Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt. Alexandra,
the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria,
was a strong believer in the autocratic power of Tsardom and urged
him to resist demands for political reform.
A
cultural nationalist, Nicholas was opposed to the Westernization of
Russia. He made a speech in January, 1895, denouncing the "senseless
dreams" of those who favour democratic reforms.
Nicholas
II and Alexandra disliked St. Petersburg.
Considering it too modern, they moved the family residence in 1895
from Anichkov Palace to Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, where they
lived in seclusion.
In
1902 Nicholas II appointed the reactionary Vyacheslav
Plehve as his Minister of the Interior. Plehve's attempts at suppressing
those advocating reform was completely unsuccessful. He also secretly
organized Jewish Pogroms.
Although
he described himself as a man of peace, he favoured an expanded Russian
Empire. Encouraged by Vyacheslav Plehve
the Tsar made plans to seize Constantinople and expanded into Manchuria
and Korea. On 8th February, 1904, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise
attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.
Although the Russian Army was able to hold back Japanese armies along
the Yalu River and in Manchuria, the Russian
Navy fared badly.
The
war was unpopular with the Russian people and demonstrations took
place in border areas such as Finland, Poland and the Caucasus. Failure
to defeat the Japanese also reduced the prestige of the Tsar and his
government.
Nicholas
II also faced mounting domestic problems. The Russian industrial employee
worked on average an 11 hour day (10 hours on Saturday). Conditions
in the factories were extremely harsh and little concern was shown
for the workers' health and safety. Attempts by workers to form trade
unions were resisted by the factory owners and in 1903, a priest,
Father Georgi Gapon, formed the Assembly
of Russian Workers. Within a year it had over 9,000 members.
1904
was a particularly bad year for Russian workers. Prices of essential
goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 per cent. When
four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers were dismissed at
the Putilov Iron Works, Gapon called for industrial action. Over the
next few days over 110,000
workers in St. Petersburg went out on strike.
In
an attempt to settle the dispute, Georgi Gapon
decided to make a personal appeal to Nicholas
II. He drew up a petition outlining the workers' sufferings and
demands. This included calling for a reduction in the working day
to eight hours, an increase in wages, an improvement in working conditions
and an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
When
the procession of workers reached the Winter Palace it was attacked
by the police and the Cossacks. Over 100 workers were killed and some
300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody
Sunday, started what became known as the 1905
Revolution. Strikes took place all over the country and the universities
closed down when the whole student body complained about the lack
of civil liberties by staging a walkout. Lawyers, doctor, engineers,
and other middle-class workers established the Union of Unions and
demanded a constituent assembly.
In
June, 1905, sailors on the Potemkin battleship, protested against
the serving of rotten meat. The captain ordered that the ringleaders
to be shot. The firing-squad refused to carry out the order and joined
with the rest of the crew in throwing the officers overboard. The
Potemkin Mutiny spread to other units
in the army and navy.
Industrial
workers all over Russia went on strike and in October, 1905, the railwaymen
went on strike which paralyzed the whole Russian railway network.
Later that month, Leon Trotsky and other
Mensheviks established the St.
Petersburg Soviet. Over the next few weeks over 50 of these soviets
were formed all over Russia.
Sergi
Witte, the new Chief Minister, advised the Tsar to make concessions.
He eventually agreed and published the October
Manifesto. This granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting
and association. He also promised that in future people would not
be imprisoned without trial. Finally he announced that no law would
become operative without the approval of the State
Duma.
As
this was only a consultative body, many Russians felt that this reform
did not go far enough. Leon
Trotsky and other revolutionaries
denounced the plan. In December, 1905, Trotsky and the rest of the
executive committee of the St.
Petersburg Soviet were
arrested. Others followed and gradually Nicholas II and his government
regained control of the situation.
The
first meeting of the Duma
took
place in May 1906. Several changes in the composition of the Duma
had been changed since the publication of the October
Manifesto.
Nicholas
II
had
also created a State Council, an upper chamber, of which he would
nominate half its members. He also retained for himself the right
to declare war, to control the Orthodox Church
and to dissolve the Duma. The Tsar also had the power to appoint and
dismiss ministers.
At
their first meeting, members of the Duma
put
forward a series of demands including the release of political prisoners,
trade union rights and land reform. Nicholas
II
rejected
all these proposals and dissolved the Duma.
In
April, 1906, Nicholas II forced Sergi
Witte to resign and
replaced him with the more conservative Peter
Stolypin. Stolypin attempt
to provide a balance between the introduction of much needed land
reforms and the suppression of the radicals.
In
October, 1906, Stolypin introduced legislation that enabled peasants
to have more opportunity to acquire land. They also got more freedom
in the selection of their representatives to the zemstvo (local government
councils).
At
the same time Peter
Stolypin
instituted a new court system that made it easier for the arrest and
conviction of political revolutionaries. Over 3,000 suspects were
convicted and executed by these special courts between 1906-09. As
a result of this action the hangman's noose in Russia became known
as "Stolypin's necktie".
In
1907 Stolypin introduced a new electoral law, by-passing the 1906
constitution, which assured a right-wing majority in the Duma.
On 1st September, 1911, Peter
Stolypin
was assassinated by Dmitri Bogrov, a member
of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, at
the Kiev Opera House.
The
Russian government considered Germany
to be the main threat to its territory. This was reinforced by Germany's
decision to form the Triple Alliance.
Under the terms of this military alliance, Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy
agreed to support each other if attacked by either France
or Russia.
Although Germany was ruled by the Tsar's
cousin, Kaiser Wilhem II, he accepted
the views of his ministers and in 1907 agreed that Russia
should joined Britain and France
to form the Triple Entente.
Industrial unrest in Russia continued
throughout this period and in 1912 hundreds of striking miners were
massacred at the Lena goldfields. During the first six months of 1914,
almost half of the total industrial workforce in Russia took part
in strikes.
In the international crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand, Nicholas II accepted the advice of his foreign minister,
Sergi Sazonov, and committed Russia
to supporting the Triple Entente.
Sazonov was of the opinion that in the event of a war, Russia's membership
of the Triple Entente would enable it
to make territorial gains from neighbouring countries. Sazonov and
Nicholas II were especially interested in
taking Posen, Silesia, Galicia and North Bukovina.
