1894 (April) 1895 (15th November)
Nikolai went to Coburg, Germany to attend the wedding of Ernest,
Grand Duke of Hesse, to Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. The
groom was Alix of Hesse’s brother. Nikolai proposed to Alix but she
rejected him because she did not want to convert to the Russian
Orthodox faith. The Kaiser of Germany told Alix that she had a duty to
accept the proposal and convert.
1894 (20th April)
Nikolai became engaged to Alix of Hesse.
1894 (6th August)
Nikolai’s sister, Xenia, married Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of
Russia.
1894 (1st November)
Nikolai became Tsar Nicholas II after his father, Alexander III, died of
kidney failure.
1894 (2nd November)
Alix of Hesse converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name
Alexandra Feodorovna.
1894 (19th November)
A funeral service was held for Nicholas’s father, Alexander.
1894 (26th November)
Nicholas II married Alexandra Feodorovna in the Grand Church of the
Winter Palace, St Petersburg..
1895 (26th May)
Nicholas was crowned Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in Uspensky Cathedral,
Moscow.
1895 (27th May)
A coronation celebration was held in Khodynka Field outside Moscow.
About 100,000 people attended the celebration, but when it was
rumoured that there would not be enough food for everyone, the people
stampeded and around 1,400 people were trampled to death.
1895 (Autumn)
Nicholas and Alexandra made a tour of Europe visiting, the Emperor and
Empress of Austria-Hungary, Nicholas’s cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm of
Germany, Nicholas’s Danish grandparents and Alexandra’s grandmother,
Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
A daughter, Olga, was born to Nicholas II and Alexandra.
1897 (10th June)
A daughter, Tatiana, was born to Nicholas II and Alexandra.
1898 (24th August)
Nicholas proposed an international conference to try to maintain peace
between nations by working towards disarmament and setting up an
international arbitration court to settle disputes.
1899 (18th May)
First Hague Conference
This conference set up a Convention for the Pacific Settlement of
International Disputes, a Convention with respect to the Laws and
Customs of War on Land and a Convention for the Adaptation to
Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of August
1864. These were ratified by 26 countries. The United Kingdom and the
United States did not ratify a clause concerning Prohibition of Discharge
of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons and the United States did not
ratify clauses relating to poisonous gases and certain types of bullets.
1899 (26th June)
A daughter, Maria, was born to Nicholas II and Alexandra.
1899 (9th August)
Nikolai’s brother, George, died of tuberculosis.
1901 (during)
Nicholas II and Friedrich Martens were jointly nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize for the Hague Conference initiative.
1901 (during)
A worldwide depression led to increased social and industrial unrest.
1901 (18th June)
A daughter, Anastasia, was born to Nicholas II and Alexandra. Nicholas
was bitterly disappointed that the child was not a boy.
1901 (9th August)
Nikolai’s sister, Olga, married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg.
1901 (Autumn)
The harvest was poor again. The hungry people became rebellious.
 1902 (during)
Nicholas II appointed Vyacheslav von Plehve as Minister of the Interior.
Plehve wanted to suppress reform and this set him at odds with the
Minister of Finance, Sergei Witte, who advocated reform to improve
economic growth.
1903 (during)
The Minister of the Interior, Plehve, blamed the Jews for stirring up
revolutionary feelings in Russia and secretly organised Jewish Pogroms.
1903 (during)
The ‘holy man’, Grigori Rasputin arrived in St Petersburg.
1903 (August)
Nicholas II removed the pro-reform Finance Minister, Sergei Witte, from
office after von Plehve, told the Tsar that he was part of a Jewish
conspiracy.
1904 (8th February)
Russo-Japanese War
This broke out when Japanese forces attacked and lay siege to Port
Arthur on the Liadong Peninsular which had been leased to Russia by
the Chinese. The Japanese had designs on the regions of Manchuria and
Korea as areas to expand their own territory.
1904 (during)
Prices of essential goods had risen so much that workers were
effectively 20% worse off than they had been the previous year.
1904 (28th July)
Plehve was assassinated by Evno Azef, the head of the Terrorist Branch
of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Sviatopolk-Mirsky was appointed
the new Minister of the Interior. He was a liberal and wanted to see a
democratic system of government in Russia.
1904 (12th August)
A son, Alexei, was born to Nicholas II and Alexandra. It was soon
discovered that he had haemophilia, a disease that affects the ability of
blood to clot, for which there was no cure. The disease was kept a
secret from the outside world.
1904 (October)
Tsar Nicholas II ordered the Baltic Fleet to sail to the East. Due to the
British alliance with Japan the Russian fleet was not given permission to
use the Suez Canal and so had to the longer route around South Africa.
1904 (December)
Port Arthur fell to the Japanese.
1904 (December)
Workers at the Putilov Iron Works came out on strike after four
members of Father Georgy Gapon’s Assembly of Russian Workers were
dismissed.
1905 (16th January)
13,000 workers at Putilov were on strike.
1905 (19th January)
Father Gapon made the decision to organise a march to the Winter
Palace to present a petition, signed by 150,000 people asking for fairer
treatment, to the Tsar. He sent a copy of the petition and notice of the
march to the Minister of the Interior.
1905 (21st January)
110,000 workers in St Petersburg were on strike.
1905 (21st January)
Nicholas II left St Petersburg and went to Tsarskoye Selo. Troops were
deployed around the Winter Palace. It was hoped that with the Tsar
absent the workers would abandon the proposed march.
1905 (22nd January)
Bloody Sunday
Father Georgy Gapon led his peaceful march of workers and their
families carrying religious images and singing patriotic songs, to the
Winter Palace. However, when they reached their destination they were
met by a line of armed Cossacks who opened fire on the demonstrators.
More than 200 demonstrators were killed and more than 500 injured.
Father Gapon escaped and left Russia. The event, known as Bloody
Sunday sparked a series of revolts known as the 1905 Revolution.
1905 (23rd January)
Although Nicholas II had not been in St Petersburg and had not given
the order to fire on the people, he was blamed for the tragedy and
people lost faith in him. Workers all over Russia came out on strike. The
Minister of the Interior, Sviatopolk-Mirsky resigned.
1905 (17th February)
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Nicholas II’s uncle, was assassinated
by Ivan Kalyayev a member of the Combat wing of the Socialist
Revolutionary Party
 1905 (20th February – 10th March) 1905 (1st November)
Battle of Mukden Rasputin was introduced to the Royal family he told the Tsarina that he
More than 90,000 Russian soldiers lost their lives in this battle against had the power to heal the heir Alexis, who was haemophiliac.
the Japanese. 1905 (8th November)
1905 (27th – 28th May) Vladimir Lenin returned to St Petersburg from exile in Finland.
Battle of Tsushima 1905 (December)
The Russian Baltic fleet that had finally reached the east was defeated Soldiers returning from the Russo-Japanese war were used to put down
by Japanese. all traces of unrest and revolution. Trotsky and all members of the St
1905 (27th June) Petersburg Soviet were arrested. Nicholas once more assumed an
Potemkin Mutiny autocratic rule with little regard for the October Manifesto.
Sailors aboard the Potemkin mutinied after refusing to obey the 1905 (December)
Captain’s order to execute sailors protesting against being served rotten Father Gapon returned to Russia.
meat. They threw the Captain and officers overboard then sailed to
Odessa where they stirred up the people. When the police and Cossacks
violently broke up protests the sailors fled to Romania.
1905 (5th September)
Treaty of Portsmouth
This treaty brought the Russo-Japanese war to an end. Under the terms
of the peace negotiation Russia lost Port Arthur to the Japanese.
1905 (6th October)
There were strikes by workers across Russia and a strike by the railway
workers paralysed the rail network.
1905 (10th October)
General strikes in Moscow brought the city to a standstill.

1905 (22nd October)

Sergei Witte told Nicholas II that he should either give the people more
freedom or use the military to put down opposition to his rule.
1905 (30th October)
October Manifesto
Nicholas II reluctantly agreed to this programme of reforms including no
imprisonment without trial, freedom of speech and freedom to form
trade unions.
1905 (November)
The St Petersburg Soviet led by Trotsky rejected the October Manifesto
as the Tsar still remained the autocratic ruler of Russia.