THE ROMANOV DYNASTY

Officially Nicholas was Tsar of all the Russians and Grand Duke of both Poland and Finland.
Nicholas II believed that God had appointed him to rule and that it was his duty to continue
the autocracy that he had inherited. His education had encouraged him to:
Personality:
o He was weak
o He did not have the right education to allow him to rule properly
o Had little public speaking skills
o Cons ervative
o Did not have a close relationship with his people
o He had no military educ ation and being the leader of the army, this was a large flaw
o He was very arrogant and believed that no one other than t he royal family knew
anything
Family
o Nicholas marries Alexandra
o They have five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexi.
o Alexi was born with haemophilia and therefore was not a suitable heir to the throne.

Why was Russi a so hard to rule?

External influences
o Different cultures influenced different parts of Russia as it was so large. With this
came different values, religions, ways of thinking and clothing.
Large country
o This caused lack of resources
o Changes implemented in the count ry are slow
o A constant fear of invasion
o A difficulty to communic ate with the people of the country
o And a large population to deal with.

War against Japan 1904

Due to the desire to have an ice-free port, Russia leased Port Arthur from China and
practically took it from Japan.
Japan was humiliated and so in 1904, launched a surprise attack on Russia and a war was
started.
The Russians assumed that they would easily defeat Japan and thought that it would be no
match for a great count ry like Russia
The Baltic navy was sent as reinforcements but this meant they had to travel half way across
the world to arrive there.
The Japanese launched their first naval attacks on the Russians whilst they were attending a
ball and so were easy targets.
Port Arthur was surrendered to t he Japanese in December 1904 after a humiliating defeat.
This is when the Baltic navy finally arrived.
Nicholas did not accept his mistakes and this outraged the citizens even more.

Bloody Sunday Massacre 1905

In desperation, due to recent protests, a young priest Father Gregory Gapon organised a
peaceful march to petition the Tsar for help.
He requested:
o A parliament elected by the people
o Properly organis ed trade unions

o A minimum wage
o An eight-hour day
o Education for the working class
The police were informed of the march beforehand and the route it would take to the Winter
Palace
Families went along carrying pictures of the Tsar and singing hymns
As they approached the palace, their way was blocked by mounted Cossack guards
The guards, upon orders by the Tsar, attacked the marchers without listening to their request.
Hundreds upon hundreds were estimated to be killed in this massacre.

The 1905 Revolution

Definition: a fundament al change in power that takes place in a short period of time.
The country erupted int o violence and unrest due to the actions of the Tsar:
o In towns all over the Empire, the workers went on strike
o In February 1905, the Tsars uncle, Grand Duk e Sergei was murdered
o Workers councils were formed to organise the workers action
o In the countryside, peasants (serfs) attacked their landlords
By now the Tsar had realised he needed to act as he was convinced of the seriousness of the
situation
In October 1905, he issued the October Manifesto. This stated that:
o People were now entitled to civil liberty (freedom of speech, right to hold meetings)
o A parliament elected by all Russian adults (Duma)
o All laws were now made and approved by the Duma

The Dumas

In March 1906, during the election for the first Duma, the Tsar published a set of fundamental
laws which made it obvious that the Duma would have less power than the manifesto
suggested.
Fundamental laws:
o The Tsar keeps his title of autoc rat
o The Tsar made the laws only
o The Tsar alone controlled foreign laws
o The Duma had no say in military laws
o The Tsar along could appoint and dismiss ministers
o The Tsar could dissolve the Duma and use emergency powers to rule the Empire
until a new Duma was elected.
The first Duma lasted only 72 days due to the Duma demanding more power from the Tsar
The second Duma was elected in 1907 and lasted five months before Nicholas banished
them for criticizing his handling of the military
Tsar now wanted to abolish the Duma but was talked out of it and instead made it so that only
those of higher classes could vote.
The third Duma was much more cooperative and lasted five years.

Peter Stolypin 1906-1911

Before the second Duma, Peter Stolypin was elected prime minister
He has a lot of expertise in the economy and as PM introduces some new laws:
o He introduces concessions, this is favouring some over others in taxes
o The first concession is to remove the taxes that serfs had to pay to their landowners
(to pleas e serfs and avoid rebellion)
o This encourages richer peasants to buy off all the farms
o He gives peasants free education

However he also gets around 10000 people hanged without a proper trial.4
He is killed in 1911 and after that everything turns to chaos . This is stopped in 1914 with t he
beginning of WWI when the people of Russia realised that they had to stop civil fighting in
order to win the war.

WWI

Russias involvement in World War I played a crucial role in the downfall of Nicholas II and his
regime:
o World War I began in the early days of August 1914.
o Russia allies with Franc e & Britain
o Enemies are Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy

Poor Organisation:
o Russia entered the war on a wave of patriotism and enthusiasm, but the war placed
huge strains on the economy and infrastructure
o Suffered a series of expensive defeats
o Military commanders were poor and Nicholas was an incompetent army leader
o The armed forces suffered from poor organisation, arms and equipment
o Only 2/3rds of the army were equipped with rifles and there was a short age of
ammunition
o Supplies were erratic and clothing equipment often defective

Economic problems:
o They fac e economic problems due to the demands of the war being too heavy for the
existing economic structure
o Despite increased taxes and foreign borrowing Russia was forced off the gold
standard
o From 1914 to 1916 earnings doubled but food and fuel prices quadrupled
o Production and distribution problems added to the difficulties
o Army mobilisation had taken 15million men
o Farm horses and fertiliser for explosives were requestioned , leading to farm
shortages
o Grain production fell by 20% by 1916
o Peasants began to hoard food and the army had first claim to the limited food
supplies
o It was the failure of the transport system, however, that was the most significant
cause of wartime short ages
o Blocked lines and engine breakdowns created chaos and by 1916 the system had
virtually collapsed
o Russia had the material and labour but the transport had broken this cycle

Military
o
o
o

defeats
there were 4 million killed or wounded in the first year of the war
by the end of 1916 there were 6 million casualties and 2.3 POW
the Russians were using outdat ed weapons (bayonets) whilst the Germans were
using machine guns = slaughter of the Russians
o strong central leadership that the war effort needed was missing
When Nicholas went to war, the Ts arina was left in power.

Rasputin

In 1905, Nicholas meets Rasputin and he claims that he can cure Alexis haemophilia
Rasputin is hailed as the saviour of the Romanov Dynasty

He is promoted to Minister of P ersonnel in 1913 whic h gives him the right to employ and fire
ministers from the Duma
o He publicly acknowledges that he accepts bribes (giving wife/children up for his
sexual needs)
Tsarina is left in charge in 1914 and by extension, due to her love for Rasputin, Rasputin is
practically ruling Russia
He introduces new laws mainly based on sexual activity:
o Takes away legal age for sex
o Believes parents should show love for their children by involving them in sexual
activity
o He had a large influence on the whole royal family
He was murdered in 1916 by a group of nobles.

1917 Revolution

By early 1917, Nicholas II was probably the most hated man in Russia. The people were
enduring a particularly severe winter, and inflation saw food prices averaging 4 times their
cost in 1914. These factors aggravated the already growing unrest:
o

In Petrograd, late Feb in 1917, women queued for hours waiting for non-existent
bread, then attacked the bak eries
o Striking female textiles workers joined them the following day
o By 25 Feb, there were nearly 250 000 striking workers demonstrating in the city
centre
o Revolutionaries called for the government to step aside
o The local military commander could not control the situation
Cons equences:
o The president of the Duma begged the Tsar to from a ministry of public confidence
before it was too late.
o The Tsar ordered the troops to put down the disturbances and the troops refused to do
this.
o One by one, other regiments followed this example
o The Tsar now had no means to forcefully control the situation
o Soldiers and workers united to revive the Petrograd Soviet
o The Petrograd Soviet issued the famous Order No. 1, demanding that all regiments
submit to its authority rather than to the Tsars generals.
o E ven though the Duma had been dissolved, leaders of its major parties c ontinued to
meet- they fell into the role of forming a new Tsar-less government.
Abdication
o On Marc h 2 1917, Nicholas abdicated both himself and his son.
o Nicholas brother Michael decided he does not like the job and refuses the throne.
Why did the dynasty fall?

Important :)
Tsars bad decisions
Nicholas stupidity
WWI
Struggle
to
communicate with his
country
Rasputins relations with
the Romanov family

Kind of important :l
Failure of the Dumas
October Manifesto
External Influences
The 1905 Revolution

March Revolution 1917

Russia is currently in a state of no power

Not really important :(

Strikes
Michaels refusal to rile
The Tsars background
Cold weather

The Duma (now called the P rovisional Government) is planning to stay in power until
November when an election will be held to change the system and elect a new government
The Bolsheviks (a communist party), a council of workers led by Lenin, do not want to keep
the peace and therefore revolt using violence to take political power.
They stay in power until 1989.

Death of the Romanovs

th

The Romanov family were killed on the 17 July, 1918 by the Red Army (Bolshevik Party)
They were taken to the basement of the Ekantinburg house and then were shot multiple times
Their bodies were them burnt but the bones of Alexi and Anastasia are never found.