The Children of Adam and Eve

Nicholas II (1868-1918), emperor of Russia (1894-1917); one of the major
European leaders of the pre-World War I era, he was deposed by the Russian
Revolution of 1917.

The eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, Nicholas was born at Tsarskoye
Selo (now Pushkin) on May 18, 1868. Educated privately, he was married in
1894 to Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt (1872-1918), a German princess who took
the name Alexandra when she converted to Russian Orthodoxy. In the same
year his father died, and he succeeded to the throne. Believing firmly in
his duty to preserve absolute power in the Russian monarchy, he opposed
any concessions to those favoring More democracy in government, but had
little talent for leadership himself. He tended to rely for advice on his
wife, to whom he was devoted, and was influenced by her mystical beliefs.
Nicholas's interest in Russian expansion in the Far East was one of the
contributory causes of the disastrous Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), which
in turn helped touch off the Russian Revolution of 1905. Forced by the
revolution to assent to constitutional monarchy, he nevertheless continued
to believe he was responsible only to God.

An advocate of international Cooperation, Nicholas sponsored the Hague
Conferences, which created the Permanent Court of Arbitration and
formulated rules for the humane conduct of war, but failed to check
Europe's growing arms race. Despite his personally friendly relations with
his cousin, William II of Germany, their two countries were on opposite
sides when World War I Broke out in 1914.

Russia's defeats and the suffering caused by the war among the people were
blamed on Nicholas, especially after he assumed personal command of the
army in 1915. Forced to abdicate in March 1917, Nicholas was held captive
by the Bolsheviks until executed, along with his family, at Ekaterinburg
on the night of July 16-17, 1918.