What was czarist russia

That very day, before the arrival of the Duma delegates, he summoned into his presence Professor Feodorov, one of his personal physicians. Realizing the import of the question, Feodorov answered, 'Science teaches us, sire, that it is an incurable disease.

Yet those who are afflicted with it sometimes reach an advanced old age. Still, Alexis Nikolaievich is at the mercy of an accident. The Tsar hung his head and sadly murmured, 'That is just what the Tsarina told me. Well, if that is the case and Alexis can never serve his country as I should like him to do, we have the right to keep him ourselves. But the Grand Duke Michael wisely refused this dangerous dignity. The next day, March 16, he issued his manifesto It was the last official act of the Romanovs.

The Grand Duke, imprisoned by the Bolsheviki, disappeared in June , and it is generally supposed that he was murdered, somewhere in the vicinity of Perm.

The Tsar attempted to recall his abdication in favor of Michael almost as soon as he had issued the document. Probably repenting of the juridical injury done his son in thus depriving him of the succession, and perhaps apprehensive of the Tsarina's reaction, he made an ineffectual attempt to set the Tsarevitch on the throne.

General Denikin, in his account of the incident, furnishes the following information: -. Lord and Sovereign of the lands of Iberia. Sovereign of the Circassian and Mountaineer Princes When Shulgin and Gutchkov stepped down from the royal car and entered their own to hurry back to expectant Petrograd, they left him plain 'Colonel Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov.

The Provisional Government was unusually meticulous in the matter of the Tsar's titles and saw to it that letters and newspapers reaching him in his prison should bear only the title 'Colonel. One of the Tsarina's ladies in waiting, Marfa Mouchanow, who shared her imprisonment at Tsarskoe Selo, tells us in her memoirs that this particular detail—the refusal of the Provisional Government to permit the Empress to retain her title—was of all her misfortunes the one that seemed most to have embittered her.

On March 16, the day following his abdication, Nicholas started, not to rejoin the Empress at Tsarskoe Selo, but for Mohilev, General Headquarters of the Russian army, to take leave of his troops.

He remained there until the twenty-first, the day on which four representatives of the Provisional Government reached the camp and informed General Alexeiev that the ex-Tsar was under arrest and should be transported to Tsarskoe Selo. Nicholas had previously expressed his desire to retire to the Crimea, there to end his days on his estate at Livadia.

The Provisional Government was unable to acquiesce. The Emperor obeyed, asking only one final privilege, to take leave of his army in a last 'Order of the Day,' which he composed as follows: -. The inexplicable mentality of the Provisional Government, its confused indecision which finally lost itself in the maze of oratory and hesitation that accelerated Bolshevism, forbade the publication of this touching farewell to the army.

It was suppressed, despite the fact that it was obviously a sincere appeal to support the new authorities and probably would have strengthened their hand to a notable degree. A passing flash of pathos comes slanting across the sombre scene at this juncture.

As the clouds gathered over the head of the doomed monarch, while friends and erstwhile supporters were dropping away like banqueters from a Timon of Athens, as regiment after regiment went over to the revolutionists,—one of them led by the Tsar's own kinsman, the Grand Duke Cyril,—there arrived from Kiev one whose loyalty never faltered and on whose bosom the weary, uncrowned head might rest as it had reposed there in complete confidence when an infant.

The first of his family to take her place by Nicholas's side after his fall was his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria. She remained with him until the twenty-first, when he was conducted under arrest to Tsarskoe Selo. They were never to meet again. The broken-hearted queen mother found refuge in Denmark, her native land, whence she had departed as the lovely Princess Dagmar to wed Alexander III in During that half century she saw the political face of Europe transformed; saw dynasties flourish and fall; saw a resurgent Poland outlive the three mighty empires that had sinned the sin of the ages in partitioning that land and people among themselves as the spoils of war; finally, she saw the country over which she had ruled as joint sovereign descend into the very Valley of the Shadow.

But, with the indomitable faith which seems to seize upon and sway the imagination of all who fall under the spell of Russia's mysticism, she clings imperiously to the vanished sceptre, refuses to believe that her royal son is dead, and so forbids the customary prayers for his soul. Though the name of Nicholas Romanov has been deleted from the Almanach de Gotha , the social register of nobility, to his exiled mother he is still Tsar of all the Russias and will one day return to resume the great Russian crown which the Bolsheviki keep in the Gochrana, within the Kremlin, and exhibit on occasions to privileged visitors.

With the other crown jewels this dazzling accumulation of diamonds, pearls, and precious metals is preserved in a massive steel box. On its domelike top rests the blazing Peking ruby, big as a pigeon's egg, surmounted by a cross of rarest diamonds, aggregating in all twenty-eight hundred carats. The head that last wore it was desecrated by a fiendish executioner who poured sulphutric acid over it, then smashed it into an unrecognizable pulp and burned the bones to ashes.

Beside this may be seen the Tsarina's crown, described by one who saw it recently as 'an exquisite flowerlike creation, all a-shimmer with perfectly matched diamonds and pearls—a mass of iridescent fire.

The aged Dowager Empress, brooding now over the mysteries of life in her retreat outside Copenhagen, had also worn it in the days of pomp and glory. It has been replaced on her brow by that other diadem which mothers so often inherit: -.

March 22 was a dark and dreary day, as March days can be in Russia. At eleven in the morning the Emperor, accompanied by Prince Dolgoruki, Marshal of the Court, arrived at Tsarskoe Selo and went straight to the Tsarina, who was waiting in strained suspense. He was never to be separated from his family again, except for the brief moment at Tiumen during the transfer from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.

In the meantime, before the arrival of Nicholas, General Kornilov, Commander of the Military District of Petrograd, had waited on the distracted Tsarina to inform her that she was under arrest. Witnesses of that extraordinary scene record that the silence which followed the General's laconic announcement was that of the tomb.

It was revolution in its starkest reality. The Empress, having entered the audience chamber and seated herself with her accustomed formality and air of royalty, was stunned to hear Kornilov say, 'I must request you, madame, to stand up and listen with attention to the commands I am about to impose on you. It was the first time in three hundred years that mortal had addressed this word to a Romanov.

But commands came with military directness. She was to consider herself under arrest; she was forbidden to send or receive letters without the permission of the officer in charge of the Palace; she was not to walk alone in the park or about the grounds; she was to execute immediately any further orders signified to her.

Count Beckendorff, Master of the Palace, who was in attendance, showed by his countenance that he felt there was nothing left but for the earth to open and swallow them all. Little did he or the Empress seem to realize that in Petrograd, not more than fifteen miles away, an infuriated mob was parading through the streets of the capital bearing placards that called for the immediate trial and execution of the Empress as one guilty of high treason.

In April , the writer of these lines made a trip to Petrograd and was permitted by the Soviet authorities to visit the spots where these revolutionary episodes were enacted. The ill-fate queen of France, in all the classic beauty that Burke perpetuates in vivid word portrayal of her charms, sits in regal splendor with her children grouped around her, one on her knees.

The Empress of all the Russias, herself a foreign princess, as was the Austrian consort of Louis XVI, passed the latter years of her private life under the shadow of that mute warning. The fate of Marie Antoinette, though longer deferred and immeasurably more brutal when it came, was never far away from Alexandra Feodorovna.

The daughter of Maria Theresa came as a young girl to France from a Teutonic court. Vienna of the latte eighteenth century was more a stronghold of the Hapsburg dynasty than the capital city of a distinct nationality. The Empress of Russia came from German principality, too, though a far less brilliant one—that of Hesse. Marie Antoinette journeyed to Versailles to be bride to a Dauphin destined to rule a kingdom already in the throes of incipient revolution.

His ancestors had made themselves absolute personal monarchs—and passed the final reckoning on to him. Alexandra came to Russia to assume a role particularly congenial to her character in the most autocratic court of Europe.

Marie Antoinette never fully lost her foreign bearing and accent. Neither did Alexandra—French and English were her preferred tongues. It is said she never spoke Russian except when obliged to—and quaintly at that. Marie Antoinette was destined to follow her husband to the death of a common criminal. So was Alexandra. Enmity and jealousy pursued the Autrichienne. Alexandra, from the first day of her arrival, moved through a deepening atmosphere of suspicion and distrust.

The day of her coronation was marred by the tragic accident at the Chodinka field where thousands of innocent citizens were trodden to death in a sudden panic that ensued when the crowds of waiting spectators broke through the police lines.

The customary state ball went on as usual that night, though there were death and mourning throughout Moscow. It was regarded as an evil omen. Marie Antoinette cherished a passionate yearning for a son, but was long denied the bliss of motherhood and was bitterly disappointed when the first child was a girl.

Alexandra lived in morbid anxiety until, after four daughters, a son and heir was born who proved to be at once her joy and her undoing.

Marie Antoinette was publicly accused of treasonable traffic with the enemies of France. Alexandra's name was placarded in the streets of Petrograd as a traitor and accursed Germanophile.

Despite the presence of similar characteristics in both empires, especially seen during their evolution, the USSR was not a clear continuation of the Tsarist Russia Empire and was a distinct Empire in world history.

Fry, Michael G. Guide to International Relations and Diplomacy. London; New York: Continuum. Hough, J. Washington DC: Brooking Institution. Kenez, P. Cambridge University Press. Neumann, I. London: Routledge. Resis, A. Simon, G. Boulder: Westview. Slezkine, Y. Suny, R.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mann, M. Chronology, p. Rzhevsky, N. Martin, T. Kenez, Peter. Resis, Albert. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. Noga, M. Noga, Magdalena. Comparing the Tsarist Russian and Soviet Empires.

NOGA, M. The newsletter highlights recent selections from the journal and useful tips from our blog. Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. Representing the work of students from hundreds of institutions around the globe, Inquiries Journal 's large database of academic articles is completely free. Learn more Blog Submit. Disclaimer: content on this website is for informational purposes only.

It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice. Moreover, the views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of Inquiries Journal or Student Pulse, its owners, staff, contributors, or affiliates. Forgot password? Reset your password ». By Magdalena Noga , Vol. Cite References Print. References Fry, Michael G. Lieven, D. Peter I the Great Russia's first emperor; creates modern European power; promotes Western culture, builds new capital, St. Napoleon invades Russia; ferocious winter and Russian resistance nearly annihilate French.

Alexander II emancipates serfs, launches reforms. Russia enters World War I , suffers devastating defeats from Germany and Austria , morale collapses; revolution erupts.

Updated February 28, Infoplease Staff. Next: USSR, They were faced with harsh discipline, poor pay and poor conditions. They were also poorly trained. Tsarist methods of control - state infrastructure The Tsarist state system had developed over a long period. These referred to: army civil service Orthodox Church The Empire did not have an elected parliament until and there were no elections for positions in the government.

Autocratic government This vast, diverse Empire was ruled by a series of Tsars. This meant that the Tsar, and only the Tsar, governed Russia: Tsars believed that they had a divine right to rule Russia, their position and power had been given to them by God. The Tsar's ministers The Tsar chose his ministers.

The civil service The civil service helped the Tsar run the Russian Empire, performing his will and maintaining his authority. At the turn of the century, the Russian civil service can be seen to be backward and selfish: Many civil servants were poorly paid, resulting in widespread bribery.

Persuasive civil servants could easily influence Tsar Nicholas II, who was unsure of himself and indecisive. Promotion relied more on years of service rather than competence. The Okhrana The Tsar's will was enforced by a large police system that would report suspicious behaviour and destroy subversive groups: The secret police had a vital role in identifying and spying on enemies.