Soviet soldiers recruited into the Wehrmacht.
The Red Square after the largest flood in Moscow’s history, April 1908.
На лодке по Красной Площади. Самое большое наводнение за всю историю Москвы. Апрель 1908 г.
Romanov Birthdays → Nicholas II of Russia, May 18
The last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas was born in Saint Petersburg on 18 May 1868. His parents took particular trouble over his education. Nicholas was taught by outstanding Russian academics at home, he knew several languages and had a wide knowledge of history, and he also quickly grasped military science. His father personally guided his education, which was strictly based on religion. Nicholas also toured Egypt, Japan, and India in his youth. He narrowly escaped assassination while he was in Japan.
1894 was a significant year for young Nicholas. Nicholas ascended the throne at age twenty-six after the unexpected death of his father. Although a well educated man, he felt unprepared for the hard task as the ruler of the Russian empire, he was not properly prepared to officiate as a monarch and was not fully introduced to top affairs of the state. Nicholas’s reign was marked by tragedy from the very beginning. Despite this, Nicholas married the love of his life, Princess Alix of Hesse, less than a month later.
Their union was a rare one among royal families in that they married “for love” and Nicholas was a devoted husband throughout their life together. Almost exactly a year after his accession in November 1895, Nicholas was blessed with a new daughter, whom he named Olga after his youngest sister. Olga’s sisters, Tatiana and Maria, followed in the next fours years. Nicholas was severely ill from Typhus in 1901 after Alix was pregnant with their fourth child. Alix, who was desperate, hoped the baby would be a boy so that in case of the Tsar’s death, Alexandra would be the regent until the boy was eighteen. But luckily, Nicholas recovered and the baby turned out to be another girl. This baby girl would become the famous Anastasia many people knew today.
Nicholas and Alexandra was under a lot of pressure to produce an heir to the throne. Alexandra was allegedly pregnant in 1903 but was suspected by the doctors that it was a hysterical pregnancy. But in 1904, Alexandra was finally pregnant with their youngest child and first son, Tsarevich Alexei. The couple was enthusiastic at the birth of the healthy and robust child, but shortly after, Alexei began bleeding nonstop from his umbilicus. Their world was shattered as this was a sign of the incurable bleeding disease named Hemophilia, something Alix had inherited from her British grandmother, Queen Victoria. But all the same, Nicholas and Alexandra loved all of their children very deeply.
Russia entered war with Japan in 1905, which had angered the Russian population, and the war was thought to be unnecessary by many. Industrial workers all over Russia went on strike and in October, 1905, the railwaymen went on strike which paralyzed the whole Russian railway network. Under pressure from the attempted 1905 Russian Revolution, Nicholas was forced to turn the country into a constitutional monarchy and the Duma was founded. Russia was riddled with another war, much bigger this time. Russia, along with Britain and France, declared war against Germany in the summer of 1914.
This war proved to be fatal for the Romanovs. Food was scarce in the country and people lived in poor conditions. In February 1917, another revolution occurred. This time, they succeeded and Nicholas was forced to abdicate the throne. At first, Nicholas abdicated the throne to his son, Alexei, but soon realized Alexei would been taken away from him. Nicholas handed the throne to his youngest brother, Michael. His brother also renounced his right to the throne and the Romanov dynasty no longer existed. The Imperial Family were put under house arrest at their home residence of Alexander Palace. Nicholas, who always had been so busy with the war affairs and away from home, finally had time to be with his family. Over the next year, the family was deported to Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, where Nicholas, his wife, and children - the oldest at the time was 22 and the youngest 13 - were brutally murdered in July 1918.
