02 — The Reign and the Revolution
The public life that the Church did not canonize. This section treats the reign of Nicholas II on its own terms and both-sides — the disasters (Khodynka, Bloody Sunday, the mismanagement of the war) and the defenses (reforms under pressure, industrial growth, a ruler of genuine personal virtue trapped by circumstance and by his own convictions) — and then the abdication of March 1917 that turned an emperor into a prisoner. Nothing here is written to sanctify his statecraft; the Church’s own canonization commission was explicit that his rule was open to criticism and was not the basis of his glorification.
Tradition: Russian Orthodox / ROCOR
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Nicholas II as Ruler | A both-sides (METHODOLOGY §4) assessment of his statecraft: the Khodynka tragedy, the 1905 revolution and Bloody Sunday, the October Manifesto and the Duma, the First World War and the 1915 assumption of command; the case of his critics and of his defenders, each in its strongest form. |
| Abdication 1917 | The February Revolution, the abdication of 2/15 March 1917 at Pskov, the abdication for Alexei as well as himself, Grand Duke Michael’s refusal, the Provisional Government, and the family’s arrest at Tsarskoe Selo. |
See Also
- What the Church Canonized — why the reign was expressly excluded from the grounds of glorification
- The Arguments For and Against — where the political critique becomes an argument against canonization
- From Tsarskoe Selo to Ekaterinburg — where the arrest leads
References
- Lieven, Dominic. Nicholas II: Emperor of All the Russias. London: John Murray, 1993.
- Figes, Orlando. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924. London: Jonathan Cape, 1996.
- Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra. New York: Atheneum, 1967.