Nicholas II

About Nicholas II

The last Tsar of Russia, whose reign ended with the Russian Revolution. Nicholas II was a weak, indecisive ruler who believed God had placed him on the throne. He presided over the disastrous Russo Japanese War and Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905. Under the influence of the mystic Rasputin, the royal family discredited itself. Nicholas abdicated in March 1917. He and his family were held captive and then executed by the Bolsheviks in July 1918 in a cellar in Yekaterinburg. The remains were not found until 1979. Nicholas was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.