The Russian Revolution полностью

In consequence of his upbringing, the future Nicholas II was unprepared to ascend the throne. After his father had passed away, he told a minister he had no idea what was expected of him: “I know nothing. The late sovereign had not anticipated his death and had not initiated me into anything.”* ¹² His instinct told him faithfully to follow his father in all matters, especially in upholding the ideology and institutions of patrimonial absolutism, and he did so long as the circumstances permitted.

To make matters worse, Nicholas was dogged by bad fortune from the day of his birth, which happened to fall on the name day of Job. Everything he tried turned to dust and he soon acquired the reputation of an “unlucky” tsar. He came to share this popular belief. It greatly affected his self-confidence, fostering in him a mood of resignation interrupted by periodic bursts of stubbornness.

To assert his independence, Nicholas traveled in 1890–91 to the Middle East and Far East, the latter of which some diplomats viewed as Russia’s proper sphere of influence—a view he shared. The journey almost ended in tragedy when he was assaulted by a deranged Japanese terrorist.

On the day of his coronation in 1895, a terrible accident occurred when a crowd estimated at 500,000, assembled at Khodynka Field outside Moscow to receive souvenirs, panicked, trampling or choking to death nearly 1,400 people.¹³ Ignoring the tragedy, the Imperial couple attended the Coronation Ball that evening. Both events were considered an evil omen.

Perhaps because it was known how badly the high-handed Alexander III had treated his son, on coming to the throne in 1894 Nicholas II enjoyed the reputation of a liberal. He quickly disabused these expectations. In an address to a zemstvo delegation in January 1895, he dismissed talk of liberalization as “senseless dreams” and pledged to “safeguard the principle of autocracy as firmly and steadfastly” as his late father had done.¹⁴ This ended his brief political honeymoon. Although he rarely pronounced on political matters, he made it no secret that he regarded Russia as the dynasty’s “patrimony.” One example of this attitude was his decision to give three million rubles paid Russia by Turkey as part of a peace settlement as a present to the Prince of Montenegro, at the request of two Russian grand dukes married to the Prince’s daughters. It was with great difficulty that he was dissuaded from disposing of money belonging to the Russian Treasury in such a cavalier manner.¹⁵ It was not the only instance of anachronistic patrimonialism in his reign.

13. The future Nicholas II as tsarevich (in front, wearing white uniform) entertained by his uncle, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (on his right).

Given his diffident personality and lack of appetite for power, Nicholas might have proven willing to come to terms with the opposition were it not for his spouse, who was destined to play a major and very negative role in the final years of the old regime. A granddaughter, on her mother’s side, of Queen Victoria, Alexandra Fedorovna (Alix) was born in the German principality of Hesse and in Russia was always looked upon, by society and the masses, as “the German woman.”* Haughty and cold, she managed in no time to alienate St. Petersburg society: as her estrangement increased, her entourage became limited to a confidante, Anna Vyrubova, and, later, Rasputin. She was rarely seen to smile and in photographs usually looks away from the camera. Suffering from headaches and what she believed to be a weak heart, she developed an addiction to pills. She had a strong inclination to mysticism. The French Ambassador, Maurice Paléologue, left a thumbnail sketch of Alexandra: “Moral disquiet, constant sadness, vague longing, alternation between excitement and exhaustion, constant thought given to the invisible and supernatural, credulousness, superstition.”¹⁶ Isolated at the Imperial residence in Tsarskoe Selo from everyone except courtiers, she developed a faith in a mythical Russian “people,” who, it was her firm conviction, boundlessly loved the Imperial family. She mistrusted everyone else, including Nicholas’s relatives, whom she suspected of scheming to remove him from the throne.