Potrait of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with children, 1913.
Sent by Irina from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in Russia.
Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married Alix of Hesse (later Alexandra Feodorovna) and had five children: the OTMA sisters – Olga, born in 1895, Tatiana, born in 1897, Maria, born in 1899, and Anastasia, born in 1901 — and the tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who was born in 1904.
During his reign, Nicholas gave support to the economic and political reforms promoted by his prime ministers, Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin. He advocated modernisation based on foreign loans and had close ties with France, but resisted giving the new parliament (the Duma) major roles. Ultimately, progress was undermined by Nicholas's commitment to autocratic rule, strong aristocratic opposition and defeats sustained by the Russian military in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. By March 1917, while Nicholas II was at the front, an uprising in Petrograd succeeded in seizing control of the city itself, the telegraph lines and blocking loyal reinforcements attempts to reaching the capital. The revolutionaries also halted the Tsar’s train, leaving Nicholas stranded and powerless, even though the army at the front remained loyal. With no authority remaining, he was forced to abdicate, thereby ending the Romanov dynasty's 304-year rule of Russia (read more).
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