Downfall of the Romanovs

For over two hundred years, the Romanov Family ruled over Russia until Czar Nicholas II abdicated the thrown in 1917. Russia’s hatred brought them to massacre a once great family. Even though it was a cruel and unnecessary punishment, the people of Russia did have their reasons for such fury. With the economic struggle and the mistakes made by Czar Nicholas, the people of Russia grew tired of him, which helped fuel their hatred towards him and his family. Their brutal destruction brought shock to the history books as the greatest downfall in monarch history.
The death of Alexander II, in 1894, marked the passing of the crown to honorable, but feeble Nicholas II. He was convinced that a Czar should hold supreme rule over government and planned on ruling Russia with that in mind (World Book Online Reference Center, 1). Nicholas was neither dictatorial nor libertarian, but he was a mixture of both (Nicholas II, 1). On October 30, 1950, the October Manifesto created a limited monarchy with a constitution (Dunn, 38). Russia would be ruled and governed by the Duma, which was a type of parliament (Czar Nicholas II, 1). The Manifesto also created more civil freedoms, however, supreme power would stay with the Czar. As Czar he tried his best to better Russia by expanding territory into Asia in order to gain more power in the markets and to give reputation to Russia (Nicholas II, 2).
Throughout his time as Czar, Nicholas quickly established industry that had advanced technology. He also improved areas of education such as literature and science. The working class, however, thought that the Czar was getting out of hand with the improved industrial society, basing their argument on the unbearable working and living conditions. Nicholas allowed more public education giving the working class a chance to own their land and gave them insurance to help fight disease and affliction. Unfortunately, these improvements ceased when world war one occurred and his acceptance of sending his soldiers to the nation’s borders with Austria-Hungry. Both assisted in the start of the war and began to get his people angry (World Book Online Reference Center, 1).
Nicholas had a sizable family: his wife, Alexandra, his four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and his son, Alexis. The Empress Alexandra was a harsh woman. Her fine beauty was dimmed by her thin lips and frigid eyes. She kept to herself and stayed on the defensive due to a timid personality and a feeling of superiority. She never presented herself to her people due to her anxiety with Alexis, who suffered from hemophilia, a blood clotting disorder (Nicholas II, 1). With Alexis constantly ill, Alexandra befriended a monk named Rasputin, so he could heal her son. Since the majority of Russia did not know of Alexis’s illness, they did not catch on to why the imperial family would be involved with Rasputin, who was found to be filthy and insane (Anastasia and Anna Anderson, 3). The family lived away from society. They remained in the imperial palace in St. Petersburg and people in the city came to mark the family with detachment and annoyance (Nicholas II, 1).
During World War I, Nicholas took command of the army, leaving Alexandra to rule Russia with Rasputin as her advisor. Ministers began to renounce their position and others were discharged and replace with people who followed Rasputin. The government started to fail, and in 1916, an assembly of conspirators invited Rasputin to dinner, including some of the imperial family. They supposedly poisoned him, but it never took effect. Then, they shot him and he still lived. Finally, they bound him and tossed him in a river, where he drowned. Even with Rasputin dead, he irreparably tarnished the image of the imperial family (Anastasia and Anna Anderson, 3).
During the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas‘s attempted to broaden Russia’s borders into Asia, however, it led to an eventual loss. It brought displeasure to Russia’s government. Both common and educated society revolted in 1905 forcing Nicholas to establish reforms (World Book Online, 1). It was called “Bloody Sunday”. Led by Father Georgi Gaspon, an orthodox priest, members of the working class marched calmly to Nicholas’s palace in St. Petersburg. Originally they wanted to ask their Czar for reform, but government soldiers began to shoot, killing and injuring hundreds of unarmed men (Bloody Sunday, 1).
In 1914 Russia went to war to support the idea of Pan-Slavism. Just recovering from the war against Japan, Nicolas hesitated when mobilizing the army by calling it off and the on again. Eventually the Office of War disconnected Nicholas’ phone line in order stop him from countermanding the order (Nicholas II, 2). The issues that followed, such as, scarcity of food, and fuel caused yet another revolt in March 1917(World Book Online, 2).
During that same year revolutionaries called Bolsheviks came to power. They were led by a man named Vladimir L. Lenin. His ideas of government came from Nikolay Chernyshevsky (Vladimir L. Lenin, 1), a journalist that wrote articles about literature and politics (Nikolay Chernyshevsky, 1), and Karl Marx, a philosopher who came up with the idea of communism ( Karl Marx, 1). Because of labor union activities, he was exiled, but he spent his time wisely forming ideas from his studies of Karl Marx and began to apply them with the besieged people of Russia. He put great energy into overthrowing Czar Nicholas until it finally ended when Nicholas abdicated the thrown (Vladimir L. Lenin, 1)
As the problems grew worse in Russia, Nicholas was not able to even make his soldiers obey him. He attempted to end the Duma due to the turmoil of the February Revolution of 1917. The revolution started with ninety thousand textile workers going on strike (Dunn, 51). Later, others joined the strike and police were sent to bring back order. Nicholas had no other choice then to abdicate, passing the crown to his brother Mikhail as a regent for Alexis. Mikhail declined the crown and the Duma became the provisional government ending the reign of the Romanovs (Nicholas II, 3).
Before abdicating, he quickly boarded a train with the realization of the rumors of the serious that were being said about him. The train mad it past the capital before being stopped by the General Russky when he knew that it was his time to finally abdicates. A Manifesto of Abdication was already prepared in advanced (Downfall of the House of Romanov,1). The Duma requested that Nicholas make a supplement of his own to the manifesto. At which he wrote “we entrust our Brother to conduct state affairs in complete and unshakeable unity with representatives of the people in legislative institutions, according to the principles they will determine and on this take an inviolable oath.” He willing abdicated the thrown and wanted to let everyone know that there was no pressure in his decision from the Duma (The Fall of the Romanovs, 62)
Kept well guarded, Nicholas and his family wanted to stay with a cousin in England George V. but the English did not want them to live there. Ultimately the family was sent to Siberia. After the provisional government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks the royal family was taken to Ekaterinburg. They feared that revolutionaries would try to release them (Nicholas II, 3).
During their time in captivity the family would take walks in the park and where hassled and humiliated. The months they spent there were difficult with little peace. During one incident Anastasia was moving a lamp and soldiers rushed in thinking they were sending signals to anti-Bolsheviks. The soldiers were vulgar and hostile giving the family no privacy to the point of accompanying them to the restroom. For seventy eight days the royal family lived in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. The last day living in the house was July 16, 1918 (Anastasia and Anna Anderson, 4). A member of the soldiers guarding the royal family described what occurred during that night:
During my presence none of the Tsar’s family asked any questions. They did not weep or cry….. . The Empress sat by the wall by the window, near the black pillar of the arch. Behind her stood three of her daughters. The heir and the Emperor sat side by side almost in the middle of the room. Doctor Botkin stood behind the heir. The maid a very tall woman stood at the left of the door leading to the store room; by he side was the Tsar’s youngest daughters. Two servants stood against the wall on the left from the entrance of the room.
The maid carried a pillow. The Tsar’s daughters also brought small pillows with them. One pillow was put on the Empresses chair; another on the heir’s chair. It seemed as if all of them guessed their fate, but not one of hem uttered a single sound. At this moment eleven men entered the room: Yurovsky, his assistant, two members of the Extraordinary Commission, and seven Letts (operatives if the infamous Cheka or Secret Police)….
I went out to the court, which was enclosed by a fence, but before I got to the street I heard the firing. I returned to the house immediately (Only two or three minutes having elapsed) and upon entering the room where the execution had taken place, I saw tat all the members of the Tsar’s family were lying on the floor with man wounds in their bodies. The blood was running in streams. The doctor, the maid and two waiters had also been shot. When I entered the heir was still alive and moaned a little. Yurovsky went up and fired two or three times at him. Them the heir went still (The Execution or Tsar Nicholas II, 2-3)
The murderers of the imperial family did their best to annihilate their bodies and the bodies of their servants. First the bodies were tossed down a mine shaft and grenades were thrown in after. Then, they removed the carcasses from the mine shaft. Some bodies were incinerated and others were submerged in acid. The remains were thrown into a grave and buried (Anastasia and Anna Anderson, 5).