Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II of Russia

Historical Figure
Nationality:	Russia (born in the Russian Empire, died in the Russian SFSR)
Year of Birth:	1868
Year of Death:	1918
Cause of Death:	Shot to death
Religion:	Russian Orthodox
Spouse:	Alexandra of Hesse
Children:	Five, including Anastasia
Relatives:	Mikhail (brother) George V of the United Kingdom (first cousin)
House:	Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Political Office(s):	Tsar of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland
Fictional Appearances:

Nicholas II (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Романовы, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, 18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster during World War I. The Russo-Japanese War, the Revolution of 1905, and some of the empire's worst pogroms also occurred on Nicholas' watch.

Nicholas was forced to abdicate early in the Russian Revolution of March 1917 on behalf of himself and his son. His brother Mikhail abdicated a day later, and no successor put forth a claim to the crown. After being treated well by the Provisional Government, the royal family's imprisonment worsened with the rise of the Soviet Union in November. Nicholas and his wife, their children, and much of their attending staff were all murdered in Yekaterinburg on the night of 17 July 1918, by Bolshevik guards.

Unsealed documents do not make clear whether Council Chairman Vladimir Lenin ordered the executions of the Romanovs. However, Lenin endorsed the murders after they occurred.

Historians have variously interpreted Nicholas as a hero, a tyrant, a fool, a competent leader who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time, or any number of other variants.

Nicholas II in Worldwar[]

Worldwar _{POD: May 30, 1942}
Appearance(s):	In the Balance
Type of Appearance:	Posthumous reference

In 1942, Fleetlord Atvar of the Race's Conquest Fleet was horrified to hear of the assassination of Nicholas II from Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov,^[1] who had taken part in the Russian Revolution.^[2] 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.^[3] The murder of an Emperor was such an unthinkable idea for the Race that its language 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."^[4] 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 "Uncle Alf"[]

"Uncle Alf" _{POD: c. 1913}
Type of Appearance:	Contemporary reference
Political Office(s):	Emperor of Russia

After Russia was defeated by Germany in the Great War of 1914, Nicholas II faced a communist revolution. In 1916, Kaiser Wilhelm II, both to show that no hard feelings remained from the 1914 war, and on general principles of monarchical self-interest, helped his cousin put down the revolution and keep his throne.^[5]

In May 1929, Feldwebel Adolf Hitler of the German Feldgendarmerie told his niece Geli Raubal that the Tsar "was and is a woolly headed fool of a Russian" for not hanging more revolutionaries in 1905 after a similar uprising occurred.^[6]

Nicholas II in Southern Victory[]

Southern Victory _{POD: September 10, 1862}
Appearance(s):	American Front; Breakthroughs; The Victorious Opposition
Type of Appearance:	Contemporary references (AF, B); posthumous references (TVO)
Date of Death:	c. 1932
Cause of Death:	Natural causes (presumably)
Political Office(s):	Emperor of Russia

In 1914, when Austria-Hungary issued a number of ultimata to Serbia following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist in Sarajevo, Nicholas II (1868- c. 1932) 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.^[7]

In 1917, after over two years of global war, Nicholas found himself facing a Red revolution, forcing Russia's withdrawal from the Great War.^[8] A protracted civil war followed. Ultimately, Nicholas and his supporters triumphed, and Nicholas remained emperor for the remainder of the 1920s.^[9]^[10] The destruction resulting from the wars left Russia in such a poor state that in February 1929, she was forced to suspend payment of a loan to banks in Austria-Hungary.^[11] This caused a chain reaction that led in turn to the worldwide stock market crash of that year.^[12]

Nicholas died and was succeeded as Tsar by his brother Mikhail II in the early 1930s.^[13]