When Nicholas II was overthrown. Biography of Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich. Reaction to the overthrow of the king of the church and the leaders of the white movement

Prince Lvov also perceived the revolution in the spirit of enthusiastic populism. “The Great Russian Revolution is truly wonderful in its majestic, calm procession. What is wonderful about it is not the enchantment of the revolution, not the enormity of the shift, not the strength and speed of the onslaught, the assault on power, but the very essence of its guiding idea. The freedom of the Russian revolution is imbued with elements of a world, universal character. The soul of the Russian people turned out to be a world democratic soul by its very nature. It is ready not only to merge with the democracy of the whole world, but to stand ahead of it and lead along the path of human development on the great principles of freedom, equality and brotherhood,” he declared. Needless to say, these words were received “with the greatest pleasure” by some of the socialists, who saw in them a hint of world revolution.

However, there is also evidence about Georgy Lvov of a slightly different kind. Vasily Maklakov wrote that “Lvov also in this (Provisional – TASS) government resumed his provincial system, creating a government within the government, that is, a small group of like-minded people of 5 “democrats” with whom he intrigued against those who remained outside of this top five." “I saw clearly how he had to turn around all the time, sometimes lie, sometimes promise something that he did not intend to do or could not keep, and find himself in a stupid and false position,” Maklakov recalled.

Among the people, both the appointment of Lvov as head of the cabinet and the composition of the Provisional Government as a whole were perceived without enthusiasm. Vasily Shulgin recalled a worker’s speech at a rally on March 3 (16): “For example, they formed a government... who are they in this government? Do you think, comrades, is anyone from the people?.. So to speak, from that people, who got freedom for themselves? No matter how it is... Read... Prince Lvov... Prince... So this is why we, comrades, made the revolution..."

For example, they formed a government... who are they in this government? Do you think, comrades, someone from the people?.. No matter how it is... Read... Prince Lvov... Prince...

However, there remained unresolved issue about what to do with the ruling sovereign. Everyone understood that, as Pavel Milyukov said in one of his speeches at the Tauride Palace, “the old despot, who brought Russia to complete ruin, would voluntarily renounce the throne or be deposed.” Vasily Maklakov wrote later that on the eve of the revolution, “there was a saying throughout St. Petersburg: “To save the monarchy, you must kill the monarch.”

“That Nicholas II would no longer reign was so indisputable for the widest circle of the Russian public that no one thought about the technical means to carry out this general decision,” Miliukov later wrote. However, this is not the case.

The coup that would overthrow Nicholas II, if not prepared, then at least had been thought out for a relatively long time, and the person who came closest to the position of its organizer was the one who eventually became the initiator of the trip to Nicholas II for abdication and was ready to follow him even “on "at your own risk," - head of the Central Military-Industrial Committee, former chairman of the State Duma of the third convocation, Alexander Guchkov.

Alexander Guchkov
Chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee

Guchkov himself admitted that “in the fall of 1916, a plan was born for a palace coup, as a result of which the sovereign would be forced to sign an abdication of the throne and transfer it to the rightful heir.”

However, instead of the coup planned by Guchkov, a revolution began. In the conditions of mass popular uprisings, the commander of the Northern Front, General Nikolai Ruzsky, under whose protection Nicholas II arrived in Pskov, contacted Mikhail Rodzianko and received an answer that the only way out of the current situation was the abdication of the emperor. Negotiations between Ruzsky and Rodzianko were simultaneously telegraphed to Headquarters. General Mikhail Alekseev, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who was there, interviewed the commanders of the fronts and fleets about their attitude to the possible abdication of the sovereign. Every single commander advocated abdication, which was reported to Nicholas II. It was assumed that Nikolai would abdicate in favor of his son, Tsarevich Alexei.

Nicholas II is the last Russian emperor who went down in history as the weakest tsar. According to historians, governing the country was a “heavy burden” for the monarch, but this did not prevent him from making a feasible contribution to the industrial and economic development of Russia, despite the fact that the country was actively increasing revolutionary movement, and the foreign policy situation became more complicated. IN modern history The Russian emperor is mentioned with the epithets “Nicholas the Bloody” and “Nicholas the Martyr”, since assessments of the tsar’s activities and character are ambiguous and contradictory.

Nicholas II was born on May 18, 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo Russian Empire in the imperial family. For his parents, and, he became the eldest son and the only heir to the throne, who from a very early age was taught the future work of his whole life. The future tsar was raised from birth by the Englishman Karl Heath, who taught young Nikolai Alexandrovich to speak fluent English.

The childhood of the heir to the royal throne was spent within the walls of the Gatchina Palace under the strict guidance of his father Alexander III, who raised his children in the traditional religious spirit - he allowed them to play and fool around in moderation, but at the same time did not allow manifestations of laziness in their studies, suppressing all thoughts of his sons about future throne.

At the age of 8, Nicholas II began to receive general education at home. His education was carried out within the framework of the general gymnasium course, but the future tsar did not show much zeal or desire to study. His passion was military affairs - at the age of 5 he became the chief of the Life Guards of the Reserve Infantry Regiment and happily mastered military geography, law and strategy. Lectures for the future monarch were given by the best world-famous scientists, who were personally selected for the king’s son Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna.

The heir especially excelled in studying foreign languages, therefore, in addition to English, he was fluent in French, German and Danish. After eight years of the general gymnasium program, Nicholas II began to be taught the necessary higher sciences for the future statesman, included in the course of the economics department of the law university.

In 1884, upon reaching adulthood, Nicholas II took the oath in the Winter Palace, after which he entered active military service, and three years later began regular military service. military service, for which he was awarded the rank of colonel. Completely devoting himself to military affairs, the future tsar easily adapted to the inconveniences of army life and endured military service.

The heir to the throne had his first acquaintance with state affairs in 1889. Then he began to attend meetings of the State Council and the Cabinet of Ministers, at which his father brought him up to date and shared his experience on how to govern the country. During the same period, Alexander III made numerous trips with his son, starting from the Far East. Over the next 9 months, they traveled by sea to Greece, India, Egypt, Japan and China, and then returned to the Russian capital through the whole of Siberia by land.

Ascension to the throne

In 1894, after the death of Alexander III, Nicholas II ascended the throne and solemnly promised to protect the autocracy as firmly and steadfastly as his late parent. The coronation of the last Russian emperor took place in 1896 in Moscow. These solemn events were marked by tragic events on the Khodynskoe field, where, during the distribution of royal gifts, mass riots occurred that took the lives of thousands of citizens.

Due to the mass crush, the monarch who came to power even wanted to cancel the evening ball on the occasion of his ascension to the throne, but later decided that the Khodynka disaster was a real misfortune, but not worth overshadowing the coronation holiday. Educated society perceived these events as a challenge, which laid the foundation for the creation of a liberation movement in Russia from the dictator tsar.

Against this background, the emperor introduced strict domestic politics, according to which any dissent among the people was persecuted. In the first few years of the reign of Nicholas II, a population census was carried out in Russia, and a monetary reform was carried out, establishing the gold standard for the ruble. The gold ruble of Nicholas II was equal to 0.77 grams of pure gold and was half “heavier” than the mark, but twice “lighter” than the dollar at the exchange rate of international currencies.

During the same period, the “Stolypin” massacres were carried out in Russia. agrarian reforms, factory legislation was introduced, several laws were passed on compulsory insurance of workers and universal primary education, and also the tax levy on landowners of Polish origin was abolished and penalties such as exile to Siberia were abolished.

In the Russian Empire, during the time of Nicholas II, large-scale industrialization took place, the rate of agricultural production increased, and coal and oil production began. Moreover, thanks to the last Russian emperor, more than 70 thousand kilometers of railway were built in Russia.

Reign and abdication

The reign of Nicholas II at the second stage took place during the years of aggravation of the internal political life of Russia and a rather difficult foreign policy situation. At the same time, the Far Eastern direction was in his first place. The main obstacle for the Russian monarch to dominate the Far East There was Japan, which without warning in 1904 attacked a Russian squadron in the port city of Port Arthur and, due to the inaction of the Russian leadership, defeated the Russian army.

As a result of the failure of the Russo-Japanese War, a revolutionary situation began to rapidly develop in the country, and Russia had to cede to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin and the rights to the Liaodong Peninsula. It was after this that the Russian emperor lost authority in the intelligent and ruling circles of the country, who accused the tsar of defeat and connections with, who was an unofficial “adviser” to the monarch, but was considered in society a charlatan and a fraudster who had complete influence over Nicholas II.

The turning point in the biography of Nicholas II was the First World War of 1914. Then the emperor, on the advice of Rasputin, tried with all his might to avoid a bloodbath, but Germany went to war against Russia, which was forced to defend itself. In 1915, the monarch took over military command of the Russian army and personally traveled to the fronts, inspecting military units. At the same time, he made a number of fatal military mistakes, which led to the collapse of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire.

The war aggravated the country's internal problems; all military failures in the environment of Nicholas II were blamed on him. Then “treason began to nest in the government of the country,” but despite this, the emperor, together with England and France, developed a plan for a general offensive of Russia, which was supposed to triumphantly end the military confrontation for the country by the summer of 1917.

The plans of Nicholas II were not destined to come true - at the end of February 1917, mass uprisings began in Petrograd against the royal dynasty and the current government, which he initially intended to suppress by force. But the military did not obey the king’s orders, and members of the monarch’s retinue tried to persuade him to abdicate the throne, which supposedly would help quell the unrest. After several days of painful deliberation, Nicholas II decided to abdicate the throne in favor of his brother, Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, who refused to accept the crown, which meant the end of the Romanov dynasty.

Execution of Nicholas II and his family

After the tsar signed the abdication manifesto, the Russian Provisional Government issued an order to arrest the royal family and his entourage. Then many betrayed the emperor and fled, so only a few close people from his entourage agreed to share the tragic fate with the monarch, who, together with the tsar, were exiled to Tobolsk, from where, allegedly, the family of Nicholas II was supposed to be transported to the USA.

After the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks, led by the Bolsheviks, came to power, they transported the royal family to Yekaterinburg and imprisoned them in a “special purpose house.” Then the Bolsheviks began to hatch a plan for a trial of the monarch, but the Civil War did not allow their plan to be realized.

Because of this, in the upper echelons Soviet power it was decided to shoot the king and his family. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the family of the last Russian emperor was shot in the basement of the house in which Nicholas II was kept captive. The Tsar, his wife and children, as well as several of his associates, were taken into the basement under the pretext of evacuation and shot point-blank without explanation, after which the victims were taken outside the city, their bodies were burned with kerosene, and then buried in the ground.

Personal life and royal family

The personal life of Nicholas II, unlike many other Russian monarchs, was the standard of the highest family virtue. In 1889, during the visit of the German princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt to Russia, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich paid special attention to the girl and asked his father for his blessing to marry her. But the parents did not agree with the choice of the heir, so they refused their son. This did not stop Nicholas II, who did not lose hope of marrying Alice. They were helped by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the sister of the German princess, who arranged secret correspondence for the young lovers.

Five years later, Tsarevich Nicholas again persistently asked his father’s consent to marry the German princess. Alexander III, due to his rapidly deteriorating health, allowed his son to marry Alice, who, after anointing, became. In November 1894, the wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra took place in the Winter Palace, and in 1896 the couple accepted the coronation and officially became the rulers of the country.

The marriage of Alexandra Fedorovna and Nicholas II produced 4 daughters (Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia) and the only heir, Alexei, who had a serious hereditary disease - hemophilia, associated with the process of blood clotting. The illness of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich forced the royal family to meet the then widely known Grigory Rasputin, who helped the royal heir fight attacks of illness, which allowed him to gain enormous influence over Alexandra Feodorovna and Emperor Nicholas II.

Historians report that family was the most important meaning of life for the last Russian emperor. He always spent most of his time in the family circle, did not like secular pleasures, and especially valued his peace, habits, health and well-being of his relatives. At the same time, the emperor was no stranger to worldly hobbies - he enjoyed hunting, participated in horse riding competitions, enthusiastically skated and played hockey.

February Revolution The year of 1917 in Russia is still called Bourgeois-Democratic. It is the second revolution (the first occurred in 1905, the third in October 1917). The February Revolution began the great turmoil in Russia, during which not only the Romanov dynasty fell and the Empire ceased to be a monarchy, but also the entire bourgeois-capitalist system, as a result of which the elite in Russia completely changed

Causes of the February Revolution

Russia's unfortunate participation in the First World War, accompanied by defeats at the fronts and disorganization of life in the rear
The inability of Emperor Nicholas II to rule Russia, which resulted in unsuccessful appointments of ministers and military leaders
Corruption at all levels of government
Economic difficulties
Ideological disintegration of the masses, who stopped believing the tsar, the church, and local leaders
Dissatisfaction with the tsar's policies by representatives of the big bourgeoisie and even his closest relatives

“...We have been living on the volcano for several days... There was no bread in Petrograd - transport was very bad due to the extraordinary snow, frosts and, most importantly, of course, because of the stress of the war... There were street riots... But this was, of course, not the case in the bread... That was the last straw... The point was that in this entire huge city it was impossible to find several hundred people who would sympathize with the authorities... And not even that... The point is that the authorities did not sympathize with themselves... There was no , in essence, not a single minister who believed in himself and in what he was doing... The class of former rulers was fading away...”
(Vas. Shulgin “Days”)

Progress of the February Revolution

February 21 - bread riots in Petrograd. Crowds destroyed bread stores
February 23 - the beginning of a general strike of Petrograd workers. Mass demonstrations with slogans “Down with war!”, “Down with autocracy!”, “Bread!”
February 24 - More than 200 thousand workers of 214 enterprises, students went on strike
February 25 - 305 thousand people were already on strike, 421 factories stood idle. The workers were joined by office workers and artisans. The troops refused to disperse the protesting people
February 26 - Continued unrest. Disintegration in the troops. Inability of the police to restore calm. Nicholas II
postponed the start of State Duma meetings from February 26 to April 1, which was perceived as its dissolution
February 27 - armed uprising. The reserve battalions of Volyn, Litovsky, and Preobrazhensky refused to obey their commanders and joined the people. In the afternoon the Semenovsky regiment rebelled, Izmailovsky Regiment, reserve armored vehicle division. The Kronverk Arsenal, the Arsenal, the Main Post Office, the telegraph office, train stations, and bridges were occupied. The State Duma
appointed a Provisional Committee “to restore order in St. Petersburg and to communicate with institutions and individuals.”
On February 28, night, the Provisional Committee announced that it was taking power into its own hands.
On February 28, the 180th Infantry Regiment, the Finnish Regiment, the sailors of the 2nd Baltic Fleet Crew and the cruiser Aurora rebelled. The insurgent people occupied all the stations of Petrograd
March 1 - Kronstadt and Moscow rebelled, the tsar’s entourage offered him either the introduction of loyal army units into Petrograd, or the creation of the so-called “responsible ministries” - a government subordinate to the Duma, which meant turning the Emperor into the “English queen”.
March 2, night - Nicholas II signed a manifesto on the granting of a responsible ministry, but it was too late. The public demanded abdication.

“The Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” General Alekseev, requested by telegram all the commanders-in-chief of the fronts. These telegrams asked the commanders-in-chief for their opinion on the desirability, under the given circumstances, of the abdication of the sovereign emperor from the throne in favor of his son. By one o'clock in the afternoon on March 2, all the answers from the commanders-in-chief were received and concentrated in the hands of General Ruzsky. These answers were:
1) From Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich - Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Front.
2) From General Sakharov - the actual commander-in-chief of the Romanian Front (the commander in chief was the King of Romania, and Sakharov was his chief of staff).
3) From General Brusilov - Commander-in-Chief of the Southwestern Front.
4) From General Evert - Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front.
5) From Ruzsky himself - Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Front. All five commanders-in-chief of the fronts and General Alekseev (General Alekseev was the chief of staff under the Sovereign) spoke out in favor of the Sovereign Emperor’s abdication of the throne.” (Vas. Shulgin “Days”)

On March 2, at about 3 p.m., Tsar Nicholas II decided to abdicate the throne in favor of his heir, Tsarevich Alexei, under the regency of the younger brother of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. During the day, the king decided to renounce his heir as well.
March 4 - the Manifesto on the abdication of Nicholas II and the Manifesto on the abdication of Mikhail Alexandrovich were published in newspapers.

“The man rushed towards us - Darlings!” he shouted and grabbed me by the hand. “Did you hear that?” There is no king! There is only Russia left.
He kissed everyone deeply and rushed to run further, sobbing and muttering something... It was already one in the morning, when Efremov usually slept soundly.
Suddenly, at this inopportune hour, a loud and short sound of the cathedral bell was heard. Then a second blow, a third.
The beats became more frequent, a tight ringing was already floating over the town, and soon the bells of all the surrounding churches joined it.
Lights were lit in all the houses. The streets were filled with people. The doors of many houses stood wide open. Strangers hugged each other, crying. A solemn and jubilant cry of steam locomotives flew from the direction of the station (K. Paustovsky “Restless Youth”)

Abdication of the throne of Nicholas II ( legally, in fact, there was no renunciation) was a landmark event for Russian history. The overthrow of the monarch could not happen in a vacuum; it was prepared. Many internal and external factors contributed to it.

Public opinion

The revolution occurs primarily in the heads; a change of the ruling regime is impossible without a lot of work on the minds of the ruling elite, as well as the population of the state. Today this technique of influence is called the “path of soft power.” In the pre-war years and during the First World War, foreign countries, especially England, began to show unusual sympathy towards Russia.

British Ambassador to Russia Buchanan, together with British Foreign Secretary Gray, organized two trips of delegations from Russia to Foggy Albion. First, Russian liberal writers and journalists (Nabokov, Egorov, Bashmakov, Tolstoy, etc.) went to warm up to Britain, followed by politicians (Miliukov, Radkevich, Oznobishin, etc.).

Meetings of Russian guests were arranged in England with all the chic: banquets, meetings with the king, visits to the House of Lords, universities. Upon their return, the returning writers began to write excitedly about how good it is in England, how strong its army is, how good parliamentarism is...

But the returning “Duma members” actually stood in the vanguard of the revolution in February 1917 and entered the Provisional Government. Well-established ties between the British establishment and the Russian opposition led to the fact that during the allied conference held in Petrograd in January 1917, the head of the British delegation, Milner, sent a memorandum to Nicholas II, in which he almost demanded that the people needed for Britain be included in the government. The tsar ignored this request, but the “necessary people” were already in the government.

Popular propaganda

How massive the propaganda and “people's mail” were in anticipation of the overthrow of Nicholas II can be judged by one interesting document - the diary of the peasant Zamaraev, which is kept today in the museum of the city of Totma, Vologda region. The peasant kept a diary for 15 years.

After the abdication of the tsar, he made the following entry: “Romanov Nikolai and his family have been deposed, are all under arrest and receive all products on a par with others on ration cards. Indeed, they did not care at all about the welfare of their people, and the patience of the people has run out. They have brought their state to a standstill to hunger and darkness. What was happening in their palace. This is horror and shame! The state was ruled not by Nicholas II, but by the drunkard Rasputin. All the princes were replaced and dismissed from their positions, including the commander-in-chief Nikolai Nikolaevich. Everywhere in all cities there is a new administration, the old there are no police."

Military factor

Nicholas II's father, Emperor Alexander III, liked to repeat: “In the whole world we have only two faithful allies, our army and navy. All the rest, at the first opportunity, will take up arms against us.” The peacemaker king knew what he was talking about. The way the “Russian card” was played in the First world war, clearly showed that he was right; the Entente allies turned out to be unreliable “Western partners.”

The very creation of this bloc was beneficial, first of all, to France and England. The role of Russia was assessed by the “allies” in a rather pragmatic manner. The French Ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paleologue, wrote: “In terms of cultural development, the French and Russians are not on the same level. Russia is one of the most backward countries in the world. Compare our army with this ignorant unconscious mass: all our soldiers are educated; they fight in the forefront young forces who have shown themselves in art, in science, talented and sophisticated people; these are the cream of humanity... From this point of view, our losses will be more sensitive than Russian losses."

The same Paleologus on August 4, 1914 tearfully asked Nicholas II: “I beg Your Majesty to order your troops to go on an immediate offensive, otherwise the French army risks being crushed...”.

The Tsar ordered the troops who had not completed mobilization to advance. For the Russian army, the haste turned into a disaster, but France was saved. It is surprising to read about this now, given that by the time the war began, the standard of living in Russia (in major cities) was no lower than the standard of living in France. Involving Russia in the Entente is only a move in a game played against Russia. The Russian army seemed to the Anglo-French allies as an inexhaustible reservoir of human resources, and its onslaught was associated with a steam roller, hence one of Russia’s leading places in the Entente, in fact the most important link in the “triumvirate” of France, Russia and Great Britain.

For Nicholas II, the bet on the Entente was a losing one. The significant losses that Russia suffered in the war, desertion, and unpopular decisions that the emperor was forced to make - all this weakened his position and led to inevitable abdication.

Renunciation

The document on the abdication of Nicholas II is considered very controversial today, but the very fact of the abdication is reflected, among other things, in the emperor’s diary: “In the morning Ruzsky came and read his long conversation on the apparatus with Rodzianko. According to him, the situation in Petrograd is such that now the ministry "The Duma seems powerless to do anything, since the Social Democratic Party, represented by the workers' committee, is fighting him. My renunciation is needed. Ruzsky conveyed this conversation to headquarters, and Alekseev to all the commanders-in-chief. By 2½ o'clock answers came from everyone. The point is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front calm, you need to decide to take this step. I agreed. A draft manifesto was sent from Headquarters. In the evening, Guchkov and Shulgin arrived from Petrograd, with whom I talked and gave them the signed and revised manifesto. At one o'clock in the morning I left Pskov with a heavy feeling of what I had experienced. There was treason, cowardice, and deception all around! " Question: can a piece of paper not legally executed correctly be an official renunciation?

What about the church?

To our surprise, the official Church reacted calmly to the abdication of God’s Anointed One. The official synod issued an appeal to the children Orthodox Church, which recognized the new government.

Almost immediately, prayerful commemoration of the royal family ceased; words mentioning the Tsar and the Royal House were removed from the prayers. The Synod received letters from believers asking whether support by the Church was a crime of perjury. new government, since Nicholas II did not abdicate voluntarily, but was actually overthrown. But in the revolutionary turmoil, no one received an answer to this question.

To be fair, it should be said that the newly elected Patriarch Tikhon subsequently decided to hold memorial services everywhere commemorating Nicholas II as Emperor.

Shuffle of authorities

After the abdication of Nicholas II, the Provisional Government became the official body of power in Russia. However, in reality it turned out to be a puppet and non-viable structure. Its creation was initiated, its collapse also became natural. The Tsar had already been overthrown, the Entente needed to delegitimize power in Russia in any way so that our country could not participate in the post-war reconstruction of borders.

Do this with Civil War and the Bolsheviks coming to power was an elegant and win-win solution. The Provisional Government “surrendered” very consistently: it did not interfere with Leninist propaganda in the army, turned a blind eye to the creation of illegal armed groups represented by the Red Guard, and in every possible way persecuted those generals and officers of the Russian army who warned about the danger of Bolshevism.

Newspapers write

It is indicative how the world tabloids reacted to the February revolution and the news of the abdication of Nicholas II.

The French press presented a version that the tsarist regime fell in Russia as a result of three days of a hunger riot. French journalists resorted to an analogy: the February Revolution is a reflection of the revolution of 1789. Nicholas II, like Louis XVI, was presented as a “weak monarch” who was “harmfully influenced by his wife,” the “German” Alexandra, comparing this with the influence of the “Austrian” Marie Antoinette on the king of France. The image of the “German Helen” came in very handy in order to once again show the harmful influence of Germany.

The German press gave a different vision: “The end of the Romanov dynasty! Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne for himself and his minor son,” shouted the Tägliches Cincinnatier Volksblatt.

The news talked about the liberal course of the new cabinet of the Provisional Government and expressed hope for the Russian Empire to emerge from the war, which was main task German government. The February Revolution expanded Germany's prospects for achieving a separate peace, and they stepped up their offensive on a variety of fronts. “The Russian Revolution put us in a completely new position,” wrote Austria-Hungary Foreign Minister Chernin. “Peace with Russia,” wrote the Austrian Emperor Charles I to Kaiser Wilhelm II, “is the key to the situation. After its conclusion, the war will quickly come to an end favorable to us.”

The abdication of the throne of Nicholas II was a landmark event for Russian history. The overthrow of the monarch could not happen in a vacuum; it was prepared. Many internal and external factors contributed to it.

Revolutions, regime changes, and overthrows of rulers do not happen instantly. This is always a labor-intensive, expensive operation, in which both direct performers and passive, but no less important for the result, card de ballet are involved.
The overthrow of Nicholas II was planned long before the spring of 1917, when the historic abdication of the last Russian emperor from the throne took place. What paths led to the fact that the centuries-old monarchy was defeated, and Russia was drawn into revolution and a fratricidal Civil War?

Public opinion

Popular propaganda

Military factor

Nicholas II's father, Emperor Alexander III, liked to repeat: “In the whole world we have only two faithful allies, our army and navy. All the rest, at the first opportunity, will take up arms against us.” The peacemaker king knew what he was talking about. The way the “Russian card” was played in the First World War clearly showed that he was right; the Entente allies turned out to be unreliable “Western partners.”

The same Paleologus on August 4, 1914 tearfully asked Nicholas II: “I beg Your Majesty to order your troops to go on an immediate offensive, otherwise the French army risks being crushed...”.

The Tsar ordered the troops who had not completed mobilization to advance. For the Russian army, the haste turned into a disaster, but France was saved. Now it’s surprising to read about this, considering that by the time the war began, the standard of living in Russia (in large cities) was no lower than the standard of living in France. Involving Russia in the Entente is only a move in a game played against Russia. The Russian army seemed to the Anglo-French allies as an inexhaustible reservoir of human resources, and its onslaught was associated with a steam roller, hence one of Russia’s leading places in the Entente, in fact the most important link in the “triumvirate” of France, Russia and Great Britain.

Renunciation

What about the church?

To our surprise, the official Church reacted calmly to the abdication of God’s Anointed One. The official synod issued an appeal to the children of the Orthodox Church, recognizing the new government.

Almost immediately, prayerful commemoration of the royal family ceased; words mentioning the Tsar and the Royal House were removed from the prayers. Letters from believers were sent to the Synod asking whether the Church's support of the new government was not a crime of perjury, since Nicholas II did not abdicate voluntarily, but was actually overthrown. But in the revolutionary turmoil, no one received an answer to this question.

To be fair, it should be said that the newly elected Patriarch Tikhon subsequently decided to hold memorial services everywhere commemorating Nicholas II as Emperor.

Shuffle of authorities

Doing this through the Civil War and the Bolsheviks coming to power was an elegant and win-win solution. The Provisional Government “surrendered” very consistently: it did not interfere with Leninist propaganda in the army, turned a blind eye to the creation of illegal armed groups represented by the Red Guard, and in every possible way persecuted those generals and officers of the Russian army who warned about the danger of Bolshevism.

Newspapers write

It is indicative how the world tabloids reacted to the February revolution and the news of the abdication of Nicholas II.
The French press presented a version that the tsarist regime fell in Russia as a result of three days of a hunger riot. French journalists resorted to an analogy: the February Revolution is a reflection of the revolution of 1789. Nicholas II, like Louis XVI, was presented as a “weak monarch” who was “harmfully influenced by his wife,” the “German” Alexandra, comparing this with the influence of the “Austrian” Marie Antoinette on the king of France. The image of the “German Helen” came in very handy in order to once again show the harmful influence of Germany.

The news talked about the liberal course of the new cabinet of the Provisional Government and expressed hope for the Russian Empire to exit the war, which was the main goal of the German government. The February Revolution expanded Germany's prospects for achieving a separate peace, and they stepped up their offensive on a variety of fronts. “The Russian Revolution put us in a completely new position,” wrote Austria-Hungary Foreign Minister Chernin. “Peace with Russia,” wrote the Austrian Emperor Charles I to Kaiser Wilhelm II, “is the key to the situation. After its conclusion, the war will quickly come to an end favorable to us.”