For the quarter century before crowds took to the streets in March 1917,
Russia's problems had begun at the top with an inept and imperceptive
monarch. In the words of historian Hugh Seton-Watson, "Nicholas was
brought up to believe that it was his sacred duty to uphold the principle of
autocracy."2 Thus, in January 1895, only two months after taking over the
throne, Nicholas rejected a call by liberal landowners serving in the zemstvo
(local governing body) in the province of Tver for some form of popular
representation in the making of national policy. He dismissed this notably
moderate proposal as "senseless dreams about participation ... in the
affairs of internal government.'' Such statements set the tone for the next
two decades.
In early 1 905 the country plunged into revolution. The war against Japan,
begun in February 1904, had brought a grim series of defeats for both the
Russian army and the Russian navy. The strains the war placed on the
civilian population brought unrest to a boiling point, first among the
country's factory workers, then among the peasants and the military rank
and file. The brutality of the government was on open display on January
22, 1905, the starting point for the revolution, when the workers of St.
Petersburg and their families, marching to petition the tsar, were shot down
on their way to the imperial palace. The toll of men, women, and children
probably reached 200, with another 800 wounded. This barbarous treatment
of Nicholas's subjects stripped away the traditional loyalty of the population
to the country's crowned head. The Revolution of 1905, which the government
managed to quell only in the last months of the year, forced the tsar
to relax his opposition—albeit merely for tactical purposes—and he granted
the Russian population a constitution and a Duma, a nationally elected
representative body with limited powers of legislation. As late as the
summer of 1914, however, he was openly in favor of turning the clock back
by abolishing the Duma.
The public image of the empress also speeded the decline of the monarchy's
popularity and prestige. A German princess by birth, Alix of Hesse-
Darmstadt, renamed Alexandra in 1 894 when she adopted Eastern Orthodox
Christianity and married Nicholas, was even more opposed to political
change than he. She detested public appearances and saw to it that the
imperial family was isolated in the summer palace at Tsarskoe Selo outside
St. Petersburg. Dominating her husband, whom she sometimes called
"darling boysy" in their private correspondence, she offered him reactionary
political advice in a frantic voice. During World War I, for example, she
used her typical tone in urging him to appoint certain officials despite
opposition by the Duma: "Be Peter the Great, John [Ivan] the Terrible,
Emperor Paul—crush them all under you."4 Officials of the imperial
government such as Prime Minister Ivan Goremykin saw themselves as the
tsar's servants rather than as independent political figures. In all, the people
surrounding Nicholas were a strong force encouraging him to keep all the
safety valves closed as political tensions grew.
World History
