Nicholas

Nicholas II (Russian: Николай II, Николай Александрович Романов,  Nikolay II, Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov  (18 May [Old Style 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer  by the Russian Orthodox Church .

Nicholas II 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 economic and military collapse. Critics nicknamed him Bloody Nicholas because of the Khodynka Tragedy Bloody Sunday , the anti-Semitic pogroms   his execution of political opponents, and his pursuit of military campaigns on a hitherto unprecedented scale.

Under his rule, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, including the almost total annihilation of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima . As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914, which marked the beginning of Russia's involvement in World War I, a war in which 3.3 million Russians were killed. The unpopularity of Russian involvement in this war is often cited as a leading cause of the fall of the Romanov  dynasty less than three years later.

Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution  of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo , then later in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House  in Yekaterinburg . Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's valet, the Empress' chambermaid  and the family's cook were killed  in the same room by the Bolsheviks  on the night of 16/17 July 1918. This led to the canonization  of Nicholas II, his wife the Empress Alexandra and their children as martyrs by various groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church   within Russia and, prominently, outside Russia.