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Portraits of the Later Romanovs
From: The New York Public Library
| By:
Richard WortmanMarc RaeffEdward KasinecRobert Davis |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
The lifestyles, personalities and policies of the Russian leaders in the century prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917 have fascinated scholars, historians and curious learners. Here, curators from The New York Public Library's 1997 exhibit "The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books" provide snapshots of the reigns of the final few leaders of this 300-year-long dynasty. |
 he three emperors who ruled Russia from 1855 to 1917 were closely tied by kinship and culture to other European
 monarchs. But they wielded considerably more power than their Western counterparts. In the late nineteenth century, Russia remained the last stronghold of absolute monarchy. The titles of the rulers of Russia--emperor, autocrat, tsar of all the Russias--made clear their pretensions to unlimited authority. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian monarchs also assumed the role of reformers. They strove to improve the administrative and legal organization of the empire and to build its economy. After 1855, these two goals--maintenance of autocracy and progressive reform--increasingly came into conflict. The liberal policies of Alexander II's reign brought forth demands for constitutional government while the industrial policies of the late nineteenth century led to social strife. In the early twentieth century, political and social movements encountered the bitter opposition of Nicholas II, who was determined instead to increase his own personal authority. Russian autocracy proved unwilling to accommodate and unable to repress these forces, which finally erupted in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated, leaving Russia without executive leadership or a functioning parliamentary system in the midst of catastrophic war. |
Alexander II (1818-1881; reigned 1855-1881)
Emperor Alexander II was the son of Nicholas I, who was considered by many to represent
the "apogee of autocracy." Alexander inherited a strict, highly centralized regime, in which the emperor exerted almost complete personal control over decision-making. In a dramatic change of direction, however, Alexander II enacted some of the most sweeping social and administrative reforms since those of his illustrious predecessor, Peter I (the Great). "The Tsar Emancipator" freed the serfs (1861) and implemented fundamental reforms of the military, judiciary, universities, and the system of local government. Greater freedom was allowed to the press, and it became possible to discuss governmental measures openly, a policy referred to at the time as glasnost'. |
It was also a time in which Russia's borders were expanded, with territorial gains in the Caucasus, and most especially in south-central Asia ("Turkestan"), and through Russian participation in the Balkan Wars of 1875-78. In North America, however, Russia divested its holdings, with the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. |
In spite of these reforms, or perhaps because of them, an opposition--first among the elite circles but rapidly broadening its appeal and support--gave rise to revolutionary groups and movements seeking further reforms, at a faster pace. Liberalization and the easing of censorship notwithstanding, Alexander II became the target of revolutionary terrorism during the latter years of his reign. After a series of unsuccessful attempts (1866, 1879-80) to kill the emperor, on March 1, 1881, a member of the radical group "People's Will" threw a bomb under his carriage as it returned from a weekly military parade (the exact spot was later commemorated by the construction of the Church of the Savior on the Blood). |
Alexander III (1845-1894; reigned 1881-1894)
Alexander III, badly shaken by the  assassination of his father, reaffirmed the principles of autocracy characteristic of his grandfather's reign, putting a brake on many of the liberalizing reforms of the previous three decades. He reinstated strict censorship and initiated legislation strengthening the government's ability to root out and suppress dissent among university students and the general population. His reign sought to establish religion and nation as the basis of the ruler's autocratic power, placing emphasis on the ancient Russian roots of the dynasty. |
In order to enhance Russia's position as a great power, Alexander III also embarked on a policy of rapid, government-sponsored industrialization, ushering in a period of economic expansion in the 1890s--in part fueled by loans from France, cementing an alliance between the two nations that was finally signed in January, 1894. Perhaps the best-known project of this period was the construction of the famous Trans-Siberian Railroad. |
 Meanwhile, Alexander III successfully avoided war, which threatened in Afghanistan and the Balkans. His firm stand against war earned him the name "Tsar-Peacemaker." But while his industrial policies had a positive impact on Russia's economic development and international stature, they also created a large, disaffected urban workforce. Alexander III's death from nephritis at the age of 49 left his 26-year-old son Nicholas to cope with the tremendous strains placed upon Russian state and society on the eve of the new century. |
Nicholas II (1868-1918; reigned 1894-1917)
 The reign of Russia's last emperor began as tragically as it ended, when some 1,500 of his subjects were crushed to death at an open-air bestowal of souvenirs on the day of the coronation. As emperor, Nicholas attempted to continue the conservative governmental policies and the emphasis on religious orthodoxy of his father, Alexander III. From the first months of his reign, he rebuffed any attempts by even moderate reformers to move Russia toward a constitutional monarchy. The revolution of 1905, following the humiliating defeat of Russia by the Japanese, forced Nicholas to agree to concessions, and on October 17, 1905, he issued the "October Manifesto," granting freedoms and a representative institution, the State Duma, that was to include "as far as practicable" all classes of the population and that would pass on all legislation. |
Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna regarded the Duma as an illegitimate and ill-advised encroachment on the emperor's autocratic powers. A man of sincere piety, Nicholas II firmly believed in the divine source of his autocratic power, and sought to encourage popular support for autocracy in great historical celebrations, like the 300th anniversary of the election in 1613 of the first Romanov tsar, Michael Fedorovich. In general, however, Nicholas disliked the usual court ceremonies and, like his father, preferred the warmth and privacy of family life with his wife and their four daughters and young son. |
The revolutionary ferment of 1917, following two years of military defeats at a terrifying human cost, brought the reign of the Romanovs to an end. Following the collapse of the Provisional Government and the Bolshevik coup in November of 1917, Nicholas II and his family were sent into internal exile and were eventually killed, in July 1918, on Lenin's orders. |
Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich (1847-1909)<br>Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (1858-1915)
 The emperor's brothers, nephews and uncles--the grand dukes--occupied high military and governmental positions, as they had in previous reigns. For example, under Nicholas II, the Grand Duke Aleksei Aleksandrovich was placed in charge of the imperial navy, Sergei Aleksandrovich was governor-general of Moscow, and Nikolai Nikolaevich (the Younger) was the commander in chief of the Russian forces in 1914 and 1915. Two of the grand dukes--Vladimir Aleksandrovich and Konstantin Konstantinovich--played a considerable role in Russia's cultural life as well. |
Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich, the third son of Emperor Alexander II, in addition to serving as chief of the St. Petersburg Military District, was president of the Academy of Arts, an art collector and an amateur painter. In general, he took a keen interest in the political, military and cultural affairs of the empire and served as a state councillor, a member of the Council of Ministers, and as chief of the St. Petersburg Military District--interests reflected in the more than 2,700 volumes purchased by The New York Public Library in 1931 from his personal library of more than 60,000 volumes. |
Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, the son of Alexander II's younger brother, Konstantin Nikolaevich, was a noted poet and classical actor, who published under the pseudonym "KR." In addition to serving as Chief of Military Schools and Commander of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment, he took an active role as president of the Academy of Sciences and participated in numerous other scholarly and artistic societies. |
This feature was derived from "The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books. The Political, Religious, Cultural, and Social Life of Russia's Imperial House," a 1997 exhibition held at The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, of materials drawn from the Slavic, Baltic, East European and Eurasian collections. Copyright 2001 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. All rights reserved. |
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