THE DOWNFALL OF THE RICHEST EUROPEAN FAMILY
In the beginning I would like to address what this article is about and why I wrote it. I recently got bored in quarantine (what a shocker) and I decided to start reading a book about the last Russian imperial family. I became really interested in the book and the history of the family itself. I searched the internet, and I even watched a show on Netflix about it. Therefore, I decided to write about what seemed most interesting to me, the last Russian Czars.
Czars were the leading subject in Russia for as long as we know but the Romanov family was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. The family first came to power in the year 1613 and their ruling era ended in the year 1918. The downfall of the family started with the death of Czar Aleksander III.
His son Nikolai II was only 26 when he occupied the throne. Sources claim that the crown prince was even scared to lead since he spent most of his life in a little bubble. It was true that he was one of the most educated men at that time, but he did not know Russia nor the Russian people. He was also very suspicions of everyone, and he did not listen to anyone except his family, which was most of the time wrong. He was to lead a nation which was starving, revolutionary acts had already started forming and even peasants were starting to protest. All of that caused a major social and economic disruption in the land that the young czar was about to rule.
Shortly after the coronation he married a German princess Alexandra Feodorovna with whom he had 5 children, four daughters and one son (the next czar in line), Alexei.
sNikolai’s ruling was bad for many reasons. His bad decision making and poor track as a leader resulted in his unpopularity amongst people. He was known for being indecisive. He even got into war with Japan because he wanted to take their land. In 1905 after he lost the war, people started protesting and demanding reforms. However, the peaceful protests turned into bloodbaths because of the royal family’s poor judgment. The event became known as Bloody Sunday and was later one of the reasons for Duma (kind of like a parliament but the czar is still in charge of everything). During WWI he caused further great harm to his land by getting in conflict with other rulers. Soon he did not have enough ammunition and food to take care of the people and military. People faced big food shortages and millions died. Women started working and were even paid less than minimum wage. All of this earned the Czar the nickname Nicholai the Bloody.
The czar faced problems in his family as well. His only son Alexei suffered from haemophilia, at that time incurable and deadly blood disease. He still had four daughters Olga, Anastasia, Maria, and Tatiana but a woman could not succeed the throne. Because of Alexei’s disease the Czarina became paranoid. The only man that could calm her was the mystical man from Siberia, named Rasputin. He claimed to be a magic healer. He said he could cure Alexei, and everyone believed him. There were even speculations that Czarina was so obsessed with Rasputin she formed a love bond with him. Because she affected her husband’s decision making, Rasputin was the man that advised Nikolai. People were even saying that the royal family was Rasputin’s puppet.
In March 1917 Nikolai started losing all credibility. Women were protesting for better rights and instead of helping them he sent an army to scare them. At that time even the army did not respect him anymore, and they joined the protesting women. Nikolai’s family was also being attacked by bombers.
On March 21 the family was arrested in their own palace. Six months later they were sent to Siberia. In August Lenin (the new man in charge) put czar Nicholai on trial. In the year 1918 the family was separated and send in the Ural Mountains. The red army kept them under captivity.
At that time, the white and red army were fighting in Russia and the white army was winning. That is why Lenin (the commander of the red army) ordered the execution of the czar and his family. On July 17 in 1918 the last Russian imperial family was executed.
Red army won the war and communism ruled Russia.
In conclusion, the czar was a family man who constantly made wrong choices that resulted in the death of millions of his people. After his death the nation seemed to live better. However, the execution of the children was horrifying and unnecessary. That just shows how cruel people can get to oversee the biggest nation in the world.
