Alexander III Alexandrovich ROMANOV, TSAR OF RUSSIA

                   Individual:
Tsar 1894-1917
NICHOLAS II (1868-1918), the last czar of Russia, ruled from 1894 to 1917. He succeeded his father, Alexander III. Nicholas believed a czar must have absolute power and opposed parliamentary government. He possessed great personal charm but lacked the vision of a strong leader.
Nicholas was born in St. Petersburg. During his reign, industry developed rapidly in Russia . Literature, science, and other branches of learning also made impressive gains. But the middle class increasingly felt the monarchy was out of touch with the needs of the new industrial society. Workers in the cities became dissatisfied with living and working conditions.
Meanwhile, Nicholas attempted to expand Russian territory in Asia. This effort led to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), which Russia lost. The war sharpened dissatisfaction with the government, and the people revolted in 1905. Workers joined with peasants and intellectuals to force Nicholas to grant reforms. He agreed to establish an elected legislature and granted the people civil liberties.
Beginning in 1906, Nicholas' government expanded public education, gave workers some insurance against illness and injury, and allowed peasant families to assume ownership of the village land they were farming. But these reforms were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Nicholas' approval of a buildup of Russian troops along the country's borders with Germany and Austria-Hungary helped trigger the war.
Russia suffered severe losses in World War I. In 1915, Nicholas assumed direct command of the army. As a result, the people blamed him for Russia's military failures. Many Russians also unjustly accused Alexandra, his German-born wife, of treason. These problems and shortages of food and fuel led the people to revolt in March 1917. Nicholas lost all political support, and he gave up his throne on March 15.
In November 1917, revolutionaries called Bolsheviks (later known as Communists) seized power and took custody of Nicholas and his wife and children. The entire royal family was almost certainly shot to death--by the Bolsheviks--near Yekaterinburg in Siberia on July 16, 1918.
Additional Information:
Tsar of all the Russias; Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, Tsar of Moscow, Kiev, Vladi mir, etc., etc. Forced to abdicate in March 1917 and held captive by the Bolsheviks. Nicky was 5'7 tall. Coronation held in the Uspensky Cathedral inside the walls of Moscow's ancient fortress, the Kremlin, on May 26, 1896. Birth date was May 6 (according to the old Russian Calander). The Romanovs were shot by Bolshevik soldiers in Ekaterinburg (now Sverdlovsk). Various versions of the event are told. Although Nicholas's English, French and German were excellent, he preferred to speak Russian. He spoke Russian to his children and wrote in Russian to his mother. Only to the Empress Alexander, whose Russian was awkward, did he speak and write in English. The Russian city of Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) was the place that the U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers was shot down in May, 1960. Nicholas, a slavophile, preferred the term, Tsar, over Emperor (which is a far higher title).
Title: University of Hull, Dept. of Computer Science, http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/
Media: Electronic
Title: The St.Petersburg Times, By John Varoli
Page: http://members.surfeu.fi/thaapanen/st06.html
Text: The Romanovs' Time In Exile
Beside the grisly execution of the last tsar and his family in 1918, another 17 Romanovs were caught and murdered by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution and the ensuing Civil War.
Nicholas II's brother, Mikhail, was executed in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, just five days before Nicholas and his family.
Another five Romanovs were thrown down a mine shaft at Alapayevsk in the Ural Mountains region in July 1918, including Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, cousin of the emperor, and the Grand Duchess Eliz abeth Feodorovna, the sister of the Empress.
Three other cousins and one uncle of Nicholas II were executed in the Peter and Paul Fortress in January 1919.
Today, the surviving Romanovs break down into four main branches - the Alexandrovichi; the Konstantinovichi; the Nikolaevichi; and the Mihailovichi. Each descends from and is named for the four sons of Emperor Nicholas I, the great-grandfather of Nicholas II who ruled Russia from 1825 to 1855. Nicholas II, for example, was of the Alexandrovichi.
Title: Ketil (Ken) Nygaard's Home Page, http://nygaard.50g.com/
Text: Judged as an inept and autocratic ruler. Neither by upbringing nor by temperament was Nicholas fitted for the complex tasks that awaited him as autocratic ruler of a vast empire.
Though he possessed great personal charm, he was by nature timid; he shunned close contact with his subjects, preferring the privacy of his family circle. His domestic life was serene. To his wife, Alexandra, whom he had married on Nov. 26, 1894, Nicholas was passionately devoted. She had the strength of character that he lacked, and he fell completely under her sway. Under her influence he sought the advice of spiritualists and faith healers, most notably Rasputin, who eventually acquired great power over the imperial couple.