“When Count Witte, his Minister of Finance, suggested that the time had come to instruct the heir to the throne in the affairs of the state, Alexander seemed surprised. ‘Tell me,’ he asked the Minister, ‘have you ever spoken to his Imperial Highness, the Grand Duke Tsarevich?’ Witte admitted he had. ‘Then don’t tell me you never noticed that the Grand Duke is a dunce!’“ (Figes, Orlando 17)
Nicholas saw himself as a weakling, and because the Romanov family looked down on Nicholas II as if a little boy and, his self esteem was very low. Nicholas did have some positive personalities. He was very hard working and dedicated to the autocracy. In his first decade in office, he spent days in his office working.
Nicholas had quite some qualities when it comes to intelligence, manners and potential to rule. He was well brought up well, with very good education. He spoke English as if a Oxford professor, as well as German and French. Nicholas had great manners and was very polite (partially caused by his own self image and how he looked up to other people). Politeness and manners are generally considered good for a ruler, however, in Nicholas’ case; it came to more extreme levels. Since he was so polite, he didn’t dare to speak against someone, even though he didn’t agree. During his reign, this caused ministers to think that Nicholas’ agreed with their points, meanwhile Nicholas would not agree and send a letter afterwards. Since there were no meetings of the ministers together (Nicholas prevented it), all agreements had to be made on personal meetings between Nicholas and the ministers. There were no debates or arguments, since Nicholas was too polite to oppose the minister’s view. Nicholas did however have a very good memory, but this was not of great importance for his position. Nicholas had little practical knowledge about how to lead a country, since he was not well prepared for it. Alexander III had been busier trying to make Nicholas a more harsh and strong person than to prepare him to rule a country. His little knowledge of the country and narrow mindedness caused him to have difficulties dealing with problems, since he didn’t really know his own country and what happened in it. (Chubarov, Alex)
The personality of Nicholas caused his way of ruling to be rather minimalistic, meaning that he tried dealing with minor problems and working things out in great detail rather than solving large issues and setting outlines. His shyness, narrow mindedness and insecurity caused Nicholas to be a poor ruler. Nicholas was afraid of dealing with larger problems, since he was afraid to do something wrong. Instead of changing the big picture and Russia’s main policies, Nicholas kept himself to minor problems while he had to run a country of approximately 100 000 000 population. Nicholas was anxious to keep power to himself, as his father, but didn’t use the power to do anything. (Simkin, John) He kept the power of the ministries limited by setting them up against each other, causing nothing to get done. One could almost say that Nicholas was a power vacuum. He didn’t trust others to do the job, but was scared to do the job himself. This behavior really caused nothing to get done in the Russian Empire.
Nicholas’ personality, the way in which he was brought up and his miniaturist way of ruling had major impact on Russia. The impotence of Nicholas caused little reforms to be put through and deepening of the revolutionary crisis. While Nicholas II was very willing and devoted to the autocracy, he was poorly prepared and not up for the scale of the problems in Russia at the time. Nicholas was not prepared for the job because he hasn’t had the education required for someone to rule a whole country by himself.
Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. London: Random House Group Limited, 1996. Print.
Gurko, V. I., Figures and Features of the Past: Government and Opinion in the reign of Nicholas II, Stanford, 1939. Print
Chubarov, Alex. "Nicholas, Czar II." Allrussias.com. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/biographies/mainbiographies/n/czarnicholas/2.html>.
Simkin, John. "Tsar Nicholas II : Biography." Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtsar.htm>.