Nicholas II of Russia Biography - Life and Death of the Royal Family

Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov was the last Emperor of All Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. During his reign, Russia embarked on a series of reforms including the introduction of civil liberties, literacy programs, state representation, and initiatives to modernize the empire's infrastructure. Ultimately, this progress was undermined by crushing defeats sustained by the Russian military in the Russo-Japanese war and World War I. By 1917, during the first russian revolution, a general strike joined by city's garrison mutinies in the capital forced Nicholas to abdicate the throne. In the years following his abdication, Nicholas was reviled by Soviet historians and state propaganda as a «callous tyrant» who persecuted his own people while sending countless soldiers to their deaths in pointless conflicts. More recent assessments have characterized him as a well-intentioned, hardworking ruler who ultimately failed because of aversing events. The severe military losses led to a collapse of morale at the front and at home; a general strike and a mutiny of the garrison in Petrograd sparked the February Revolution, which led to the downfall of the House of Romanov after three centuries of rule. After abdicating for himself and his son, Nicholas and his family were imprisoned by the Russian Provisional Government and exiled to Siberia. After the Bolsheviks took power in the October Revolution, the family was held in Yekaterinburg, where they were executed in July 1918.