Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II of Russia
Biographical information
Born	18 May 1868 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	17 July 1918 (aged 50) Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR
Political information
Affiliations	Russian Empire

Nicholas II (1868 – 1918), born Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, was the last Tsar of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. He was also the son of Tsar Alexander III.

Biography

Early life

Nicholas II of Russia was born in Alexander Palace, located in the small village of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg. He was the son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna and the brother of Alexander, George, Michael and two sisters.

Rule as Tsarevich

In 1881, Nicholas witnessed the assassination of his grandfather Tsar Alexander II at the hands of the Assassin Order. As a result, Alexander III was made Tsar of Russia and Nicholas became Tsarevich (Son of the Tsar).

In 1888, Nicholas traveled with his family from Crimea to Saint Petersburg via train. While Alexander's family was in the dining car, the Assassin Nikolai Orelov entered, with his gun ready to shoot the Tsar. However, Alexander wasn't present within the car at the time, and attacked the Assassin from behind. A fight ensued, with the train car derailing as a result.

Due to this, the family were trapped inside, but Alexander's strong physique allowed him to lift up the train car's roof, enabling his family to escape. Afterwards, the Russian royal family returned to Saint Petersburg, where their safe return was celebrated.

Later life

Nicholas showing Orelov the Imperial Sceptre

At one point during the final months of his life, Nicholas' palace was infiltrated by the Assassin Nikolai Orelov. The Assassin murdered the Tsar's guards, before grabbing him and showing a picture of the Tsar with the Russian Imperial Sceptre, wanting Nicholas to lead the Assassin to the location of the Piece of Eden.

Nicholas led Orelov to the room where the Sceptre was placed, though Orelov quickly concluded that it was merely a replica, as the original Sceptre was made of a glowing, enchanting form of metal. Nicholas then begged the Assassin to spare the life of his family, should his objective be to kill the Tsar, just like the Assassin did with his father's family. Orelov replied that he didn't come to kill him and left through one of the palace's windows, but not before hearing the Tsar tell him that Grigori Rasputin wore a shard around his neck that consisted of the same material as the Sceptre, according to Orelov's description.

Abdication and death

One of the last photographs taken of Nicholas II

After Nicholas lost the Sceptre, his power in Russia began to ebb. The people became dissatisfied with the Tsar and his rule, and soon Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks came to prominence in 1916. Faced with an inevitable uprising, Nicholas stepped down and moved with his family to Tobolsk, and later to a house in Yekaterinburg, where they would live until their deaths in 1918. 

On the morning of 17 July 1918, the Tsar and his family were taken to the house's basement, lined up, and executed. Their bodies were removed and buried in unmarked graves. 

Trivia

• One of the Tsar's many summer retreats, Livadia Palace, was used in 1945 for the Yalta Conference, an international summit between Templar puppets Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.