Nicholas II of Russia facts for kids

Nicholas II
Nicholas II
	Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
Reign	1 November 1894 – 15 March 1917
Born	18 May 1868
Birthplace	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died	17 July 1918 age 50
Place of death	Yekaterinburg, Russia
Predecessor	Alexander III of Russia
Successor	Empire ended, next Russian Head of State and Government is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Consort	Alix of Hesse and by Rhine
Children	Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna; Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna; Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna; Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna; Grand Duke Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
Royal House	House of Romanov
Father	Alexander III of Russia
Mother	Dagmar Maria Fyodrovna of Denmark

Nicholas II redirects here, for other people named Nicholas II, see Nicholas.

Nicholas II of Russia, (May 18, 1868 – July 17, 1918) was the last Tsar or Emperor of the Russian Empire. He became Tsar in 1894 after his father, Tsar Alexander III died. He married Princess Alix of Hesse, who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and they had five children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexi. Alexi suffered from a disease called haemophilia, which caused his parents great sadness.

Soviet historians portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects.

Russia was defeated in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War which saw the annihilation of the reinforcing Russian Baltic Fleet after being sent on its round-the-world cruise at the naval Battle of Tsushima, off the coasts of Korea and Japan, the loss of Russian influence over Manchuria and Korea, and the Japanese annexation to the north of South Sakhalin Island. The Anglo-Russian Entente was designed to counter the German Empire's attempts to gain influence in the Middle East, but it also ended the Great Game of confrontation between Russia and the United Kingdom. When all Russian diplomatic efforts to prevent the First World War (1914–1918) failed, Nicholas approved the Imperial Russian Army mobilization on 30 July 1914 which gave Imperial Germany formal grounds to declare war on Russia on 1 August 1914. An estimated 3.3 million Russians were killed in the First World War. The Imperial Russian Army's severe losses, the High Command's incompetent management of the war efforts, and lack of food and supplies on the home front were all leading causes of the fall of the House of Romanov.

Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son and heir, the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

He and his family were held as prisoners under house arrest. On July 17, 1918, Nicholas, his wife, and their children were killed by a firing squad. In 1981, the Tsar and his family were made Saints by the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1990, the bones of the Tsar and his family were found in the woods and given a proper burial in 1998.

Images for kids

Nicholas II as a child with his mother, Maria Feodorovna, in 1870
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with his physically similar cousin, King George V of the United Kingdom (right), in German military uniforms in Berlin before the war; 1913
Tsarevich Nicholas in Japan (1891)
Official engagement photograph of Nicholas II and Alexandra, April 1894
Nicholas II and family.
Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra with their first child, 1896
Coronation by Valentin Serov
Silk Imperial Crown of Russia 1896 Coronation gift to Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia as Tsarevich in 1892
The Russian Baltic Fleet was annihilated by the Japanese at the Battle of Tsushima.
One ruble silver Coin of Emperor Nicholas II, dated 1898, with the Imperial coat-of-arms on the reverse. The Russian inscription reads:B[ozheyu] M[ilostyu] Nikolay Imperator i Samoderzhets Vse[ya] Ross[ii].[iyskiy].The English translation is, "By the grace of God, Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias."
Nicholas II, Stolypin and Jewish delegation during the Tsar's visit to Kiev in 1911
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, c. 1913
Grigori Rasputin
Nicholas II and his son Alexei aboard the Imperial yacht Standart during King Edward VII's state visit to Russia in Tallin, 1908
Nicholas II (right) with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany in 1905. Nicholas is wearing a German Army uniform, while Wilhelm wears that of a Russian hussar regiment.
Russian prisoners at the Battle of Tannenberg, where the Russian Second Army was annihilated by German forces
Nicholas II with his family in Yevpatoria, Crimea, May 1916
One of the last photographs of Nicholas II, showing him at Tsarskoye Selo after his abdication in March 1917
The Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, where the Romanov family was held in captivity between August 1917 and April 1918
Russian Imperial family (between circa 1913 and circa 1914)
Yekaterinburg's "Church on the Blood", built on the spot where the Ipatiev House once stood
Emperor Nicholas II Land in a 1915 map of the Russian Empire. Back then it was believed that what is now Severnaya Zemlya was a single landmass.
After his coronation, Nicholas II leaves Dormition Cathedral. The Chevalier Guard Lieutenant marching in front to the Tsar's right is Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, later President of Finland.
Nicholas II and Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in 1902
King Chulalongkorn of Siam with Nicholas II in Saint Petersburg, during the king's visit to Europe in 1897