Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II (1868–1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his abdication on March 15th, 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster. He led his country into World War I and thus into the demise of the Romanov dynasty.

He was forced to abdicate early in the Russian Revolution of 1917 in which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, then later in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his children, and prominent members of the family's attending staff were all murdered on the night of July 17, 1918, on the orders of Vladimir Lenin. Because he was killed on the orders of a man who imposed state-sponsored atheism on Russia, Nicholas II was canonized as a martyr of the Eastern Orthodox church.

Nicholas II in Worldwar
In 1942, Fleetlord Atvar of the Race's Conquest Fleet was horrified to hear of the assassination of Nicholas II from Soviet Foreign Commisar Vyacheslav Molotov, who had taken part in the Russian Revolution; Atvar had assumed that hereditary monarchy was the only political system a "civilized society" would adapt, as this was the only known government ever seen in the histories of Home, Halless 1, and Rabotev 2. The murder of an Emperor was such an unthinkable idea for the Race that its languague did not include a word for such a crime.

After briefly debating whether to refuse to recognize the regicidal Soviet regime as legitimate, Atvar decided to deal with Moscow as he would an imperial government because the events surrounding the death of Nicholas had already played out long before his fleet's arrival. However, by way of threatening Molotov, Atvar (naively) promised that "If need be, we will avenge your murdered emperor." However, Atvar was unable to keep his vow following the Peace of Cairo.

Nicholas was the first Tosevite for whom Atvar ever felt any sympathy.

Nicholas II in Southern Victory
In 1914, when Austria-Hungary issued a number of ultimata to Serbia following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by a Serb in Sarajevo, Nicholas II promised to support the Serbs should they refuse the ultimata. They did, and Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, which had declared war on Serbia. The Great War followed, despite Nicholas's attempts to mediate a peace arrangement with his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

In 1917, Nicholas was executed by socialists when the Russian Revolution began. He would eventually be avenged by his younger brother, who would restore the Romanov dynasty as Tsar Mikhail II over a decade later following the successful conclusion of the Russian Civil War.

Nicholas II in "Uncle Alf"
After Russia was defeated by Germany in 1914, Nicholas II faced a communist revolution. In 1916, Wilhelm II helped his cousin put down the revolution and keep his throne.