However, this great dislike of the Tsarina was not the only problem in the Winter Palace for Nicholas II. The family doctor, Grigory Rasputin, had apparently miraculously saved the Tsars Son, Alexis a haemophiliac, and in return had gained much respect and power from the Romanov family. Rasputin was a poor, dirty, drunken priest that regularly made a fool of himself by getting completely drunk, sleeping with countless women and behaving terribly in public. The Tsarina took an obvious liking towards Rasputin, perhaps she was too fond of him. Rumours spread and this undermined Nicholas’ authority greatly. This undermining of Nicholas’s power was complete when a letter from the Tsarina to Rasputin was found and published by national newspapers stating that she: wished to be in the embrace of Rasputin. This made the Tsar look foolish and made him the subject of every joke in Russia (Source A showing a Political Cartoon making a mockery of Nicholas proving that he was a figure of fun). The nation could not take Nicholas seriously, which is not helpful from the image of the Tsar considering he had to run the whole country whilst his subjects had little or no respect for him. Newspapers and opposition of Nicholas II had begun to spread that the Romano’s were under the control of Rasputin, and Alexandra in particular was under his thumb. The image created by opposition, when Nicholas left to command the armies, was that the country was being run by a “German spy” that was being controlled by an insane, drunk and dirty priest! When Nicholas was away at war his cousin decided to take matters into his own hands rather than see Nicholas made a fool of, and whilst serving poisoned wine and cakes to Rasputin he shot him and threw him over a bridge into a nearby river. Because of Rasputin’s holy status the peasants and proletariat that were devoutly religious were shocked and disgusted at what had happened and popularity for the Tsar had decreased rapidly and sufficiently, the once loyal peasants had lost their faith in their Tsar. Another reason that loyalty to the Tsar had been lost were the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’. This event had started as a peaceful protest at the Winter Palace and ended in a massacre with many left dead and hundreds more injured.
Secondly, another reason for the end of Tsardom was the general discontent among the proletariat, peasants and higher classes towards figures of authority. It seemed Russia was in a revolutionary state of mind. As the Okhrana extract in source B states, there was a marked increase in the hostile feelings among the proletariat and peasants not only against the government but also against social groups as a whole. Labour masses, under heavy oppression, became more extreme in their actions and views towards the Government and protested with all means at their disposal against the continuation of war, something Nicholas wasn’t going to discontinue whilst in power. This aggression towards the government was rapidly growing and was not confined to targeting the government alone. The Tsar was also targeted by the discontented masses because of his previous electoral ideas which left Russia in a political catastrophe. The Tsar had created a Duma to try and reform politics and quash the revolutionary ideas that extremists had by giving them a voice in politics. However, this Duma resulted in a great number of votes being given to those parties opposing Nicholas and few votes had been given to the parties that wished to complement the ideas that Nicholas had for the country. The Duma was dissolved. This lead to another Duma being created to try and sway the votes in Nicholas’s favour. The Tsar had created and disbanded two Dumas before he was finally happy with the results that they gave. In the process Nicholas had created fury among lower classes and voted and had achieved the complete opposite of what he had set out to achieve. This move had cost Nicholas dear. Russia became more politically aware after this and even more radical groups sprouted up all over the country. As a result there were more parties that would take power and to fall back on if the Tsar was to abdicate, before this time the Tsar had been the only option for Russia. Not only were the Dumas broken up but members of the parties with radial ideas or ideas of their own were sacked, mostly on authority of Alexandra. This was because of Nicholas’s infamous stubbornness, seen from source D, and his deep distrust in people. This was only adding to the worsening political scene as this left no room for important contrasting ideas from politically minded people which would have helped the country, much unlike the Tsars interest in politics. He would have rather played his sport of conkers.
In conclusion, I do not believe that the length of the war was the main cause of the destruction the Romanov dynasty, infact I believe that it was the start of the war that was to blame. In hindsight, its clear to see that Russia had far to many problems to busy itself in a war that could not be won. To fight a war successfully there must be loyal troops and many of them. Nicholas had the numbers but lacked the loyalty and respect needed to win the war. Additionally, it is almost impossible to even imagine winning a war when you are fighting wars on the home and war front. Nicholas was fighting too many failing battles on too many fronts and this led to his downfall. Equally important, I believe, was the loss of popularity and loyalty that Nicholas had from his country in its entirety. Many events contributed to this such as the murder of Rasputin, Bloody Sunday and the three failed Dumas. Overall, the destruction of Tsardom boiled down to loyalty, and more importantly the lack of it. If the Tsar has loyal troops and a loyal population it is, perhaps, a possibility that the Romanov line would have survived until the 21st century.
