In 1896, Nicholas II was crowned Tsar of Russia. Sergei Firsov, author of “Emperor Nicholas II as an Orthodox Tsar,” describes him in the following way:
“[Nicholas II] viewed his time on the throne of Russia as religious service. Nicholas was profoundly convinced that the crown had come to him not simply by right of inheritance but in accordance with Divine Providence. Nicholas was convinced that a gulf had opened between him and his subjects, and that the bureaucracy was to blame. He believed that his people loved their sovereign, however, and that the distance between them could easily be bridged. This misapprehension would later have grievous and irrevocable consequences, which played a tragic role in the fortunes of the Russian empire as a whole and of the royal family in particular.” 6.
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Nicholas II’s reign was fraught with war and discontent. In early 1917, “simmering public anger was fueled by the suffering caused by the war, increasingly desperate economic conditions, especially food shortages and rising prices, and state policies that seemed either unconcerned or inept.” 7. Nicholas did not understand the severity of the situation and “with a fatal mixture of overconfidence and impatience, [helped] to turn disorders into revolution.” 8. Eventually, Nicholas had to concede that his leadership was not helping his country’s cause and agreed to abdicate, leaving the throne to his brother Mikhail. Mikhail refused which ultimately “ended the Romanov dynasty and made the Russian empire a de facto republic. But the revolution was only beginning.”