March 15, 1917: Abdication of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

Tags

Abdication, Duma, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, House of Romanov, King George V of the United Kingdom, Provisional Government, Russian Empire, Russian Revolution, World War I

Nicholas II (May 18, 1868 – July 17, 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from November 1, 1894 until his forced abdication on March 15, 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse.

By early 1917, Russia was on the verge of total collapse of morale. An estimated 1.7 million Russian soldiers were killed in World War I. The sense of failure and imminent disaster was everywhere. The army had taken 15 million men from the farms and food prices had soared. An egg cost four times what it had in 1914, butter five times as much. The severe winter dealt the railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, a crippling blow.

Ideologically the Emperor’s greatest support came from the right-wing monarchists, who had recently gained strength. However they were increasingly alienated by the Emperor’s support of Stolypin’s Westernizing reforms, by tsar’s liberal reforms taken early in the Revolution of 1905, and especially by the political power the tsar had bestowed on Rasputin.

On February 23, 1917 in Petrograd, a combination of very severe cold weather and acute food shortages caused people to start to break shop windows to get bread and other necessities. In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds chanted “Down with the German woman! Down with Protopopov! Down with the war! Down with the Tsar!”

Police started to shoot at the populace from rooftops, which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime. They were angry and full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace. On Sunday, March 11, 1917, despite huge posters ordering people to keep off the streets, vast crowds gathered and were only dispersed after some 200 had been shot dead, though a company of the Volinsky Regiment fired into the air rather than into the mob, and a company of the Pavlovsky Life Guards shot the officer who gave the command to open fire. Nicholas, informed of the situation, ordered reinforcements to the capital and suspended the Duma. However, it was too late.

On March 12 order broke down and members of the Duma and the Soviet formed a Provisional Government to try to restore order. They issued a demand that Nicholas must abdicate. Faced with this demand, which was echoed by his generals, deprived of loyal troops, with Empress Alexandra and the rest of the imperial family firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government and fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Nicholas had little choice but to submit.

Nicholas had suffered a coronary occlusion only four days before his abdication. At the end of the “February Revolution”, Nicholas II chose to abdicate on March 15, 1917. He first abdicated in favor of Alexei, but a few hours later changed his mind after advice from doctors that Alexei would not live long enough while separated from his parents, who would be forced into exile. Nicholas thus abdicated on behalf of his son, and drew up a new manifesto naming his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Emperor of all the Russians.

He issued a statement but it was suppressed by the Provisional Government. Michael declined to accept the throne until the people were allowed to vote through a Constituent Assembly for the continuance of the monarchy or a republic. The abdication of Nicholas II and Michael’s deferment of accepting the throne brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty’s rule to an end. The fall of Tsarist autocracy brought joy to liberals and socialists in Britain and France. The United States was the first foreign government to recognize the Provisional government. In Russia, the announcement of the Emperor’s abdication was greeted with many emotions, including delight, relief, fear, anger and confusion.

Both the Provisional Government and Nicholas wanted the royal family to go into exile following his abdication, with the United Kingdom being the preferred option. The British government reluctantly offered the family asylum on March 19, 1917, although it was suggested that it would be better for the Romanovs to go to a neutral country. News of the offer provoked uproar from the Labour Party and many Liberals, and the British ambassador Sir George Buchanan advised the government that the extreme left would use the ex-Emperor’s presence “as an excuse for rousing public opinion against us.”

On March 20, the Provisional Government decreed that the royal family should be held under house arrest in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. Nicholas joined the rest of the family there two days later, having travelled from the wartime headquarters at Mogilev. The offer of asylum was withdrawn in April following objections by King George V, who, acting on the advice of his secretary Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, was worried that Nicholas’s presence might provoke an uprising like the previous year’s Easter Rising in Ireland.

The Life of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia. Part V: Revolution.

Tags

Abdication, Duma, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, Rasputin, Russian Revolution, The Duma

My Note: I had planned to conclude this series today but found more information to disseminate.

Michael and other members of the imperial family, including Grand Dukes Alexander, George, Nicholas and Dmitri and Grand Duchess Elizabeth, warned of the growing public unrest, and of the perception that Nicholas was governed by his German-born wife Alexandra and the self-styled holy man Rasputin. Nicholas and Alexandra refused to listen. In December 1916, Dmitri and four of his friends killed Rasputin. Michael learned of the murder at Brasovo, where he was spending Christmas with his family. On December 28, according to the French ambassador, there was a failed attempt to assassinate Alexandra; the lone assailant was caught and hanged the next day.

In January 1917, Michael returned to the front to hand over command of his corps; from 29 January he was Inspector-General of Cavalry stationed at Gatchina. General Aleksei Brusilov, Michael’s commander on the south-eastern front, begged him to tell the Tsar of “the need for immediate and drastic reforms”, but Michael warned him, “I have no influence … My brother has time and time again had warnings and entreaties of this kind from every quarter.”

Through February, Grand Duke Alexander, Duma President Rodzianko and Michael pressured Nicholas II and Alexandra to yield to popular demands. Public unrest grew and, on February 27, soldiers in Petrograd joined demonstrators, elements of the military mutinied and prisoners were freed. Nicholas II, who was at army headquarters in Mogilev, prorogued the Duma, but the deputies refused to leave and instead set up their own rival government.

After consulting Rodzianko at the Mariinsky Palace in Petrograd, Michael advised Nicholas II to dismiss his ministers and set up a new government led by the leader of the majority party in the Duma. His advice was supported by General Mikhail Alekseyev, Nicholas II’s chief of staff. Nicholas II rejected the suggestion and issued futile orders for troops to move on Petrograd.

On the night of February 27-28, 1917, Michael attempted to return to Gatchina from Petrograd, where he had been in conference with Rodzianko and from where he had telegraphed the Emperor, but revolutionary patrols and sporadic fire prevented his progress. Revolutionaries patrolled the streets, rounding up people connected with the old regime. Michael managed to reach the Winter Palace, where he ordered the guards to withdraw to the Admiralty, because it afforded greater safety and a better tactical position, and because it was a less politically charged location. Michael himself took refuge in the apartment of an acquaintance, Princess Putyatina, on Millionnaya street.

Abdication of Nicholas II

On the afternoon of March 15, 1917, Emperor Nicholas II, under pressure from generals and Duma representatives, abdicated in favour of his son, Alexei, with Michael as Regent. Later that evening, though, he reconsidered his decision. Alexei was gravely ill with haemophilia and Nicholas feared that if Alexei was Emperor, he would be separated from his parents. In a second abdication document, signed at 11.40 p.m. but marked as having been issued at 3.00 p.m., the time of the earlier one, Nicholas II declared:

We have judged it right to abdicate the Throne of the Russian State and to lay down the Supreme Power. Not wishing to be parted from Our Beloved Son, We hand over Our Succession to Our Brother the Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich and Bless Him on his accession to the Throne

.

By early morning, Michael was proclaimed as “Emperor Michael II” to Russian troops and in cities throughout Russia, but his accession was not universally welcomed. While some units cheered and swore allegiance to the new Emperor, others remained indifferent. The newly formed Provisional Government had not agreed to Michael’s succession. When Michael awoke that morning, he discovered not only that his brother had abdicated in his favour, as Nicholas had not informed him previously, but also that a delegation from the Duma would visit him at Putyatina’s apartment in a few hours’ time. The meeting with Duma President Rodzianko, the new Prime Minister Prince Lvov and other ministers, including Pavel Milyukov and Alexander Kerensky, lasted all morning. Putyatina laid on a lunch, and in the afternoon two lawyers (Baron Nolde and Vladimir Nabokov) were called to the apartment to draft a manifesto for Michael to sign.

The legal position was complicated as the legitimacy of the government, whether Nicholas had the right to remove his son from the succession and whether Michael actually was Emperor were all open to question. After further discussion, and several drafts, the meeting settled on a declaration of conditional acceptance as an appropriate form of words. In it, Michael deferred to the will of the people and acknowledged the Provisional Government as the de facto executive, but neither abdicated nor refused to accept the throne.

Survival of Monarchies Part IX: Russia and Austria

Tags

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Duma, Emperor Carl of Austria, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Hungary, Romanov, World War I

In order to wrap up this series on Survival of Monarchies I will look at both Russia and the Habsburg family together. Notice I did not refer to just Austria but instead noted the dynasty that rule Austria for centuries. The reason for this was that the Habsburg family not only ruled Austria but also held the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Right before the demise of the Holy Roman Empire the emperor, Franz II, elevated the Archduchy of Austria, to that of an Empire and consolidated all of Habsburg ruled lands (making him the only double emperor in history for 2 years). Therefore in the context of this series I believe it is more accurate to refer to the ruling family than just one nation.

There were a lot of similarities between Habsburgs and Russian style of Monarchy. Both monarchies held the imperial title and were autocratic and held considerable, if not absolute, power. One of the odd dichotomies of the Habsburg monarchy is that it was both weak and strong. The weakness of the Holy Roman Empire was that it had an ineffective and anemic central government. After the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia the multitude of smaller states within the empire gained almost complete sovereignty making the emperor an emperor in name only. However, since the Habsburg family ruled Austria and Bohemia they did also wiled some considerable power and influence.

In Russia the election of Czar Michael Romanov in 1613 was monumental not only in the hindsight that this dynasty would rule for over 300 years, it stabilized and united the country and gave Russia some powerful leaders. The two most notable were Peter I the Great (1682-1725) and Catherine II the Great (1762-1796). Russia had a tendency of being a generation or two out of sync with the rest of Europe and both Peter and Catherine brought badly needed reforms to Russia in the face of great resistance. During this time period the Russian monarchs held absolute power and Czar Peter I was even greatly feared by his people.

As mentioned the Habsburg monarchy was a consolidation of lands ruled by the this dynasty. Some of these lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire and some were outside the empire. When Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, consolidated his family lands into the Austrian Empire it created an empire that was already fragmented culturally and by language and other customs and these issues would be the ultimate reason this empire would collapse. Other than loyalty to the emperor and a shared history of belonging to the Habsburg family, there was not much left to hold this empire together.

One of the common denominators in the fall of both of these Empires is that the ruling aristocracy was out of touch with the suffering of its populace. Also, as we have seen, the Enlightenment brought democratic principles to Europe and Russia and Austria lacked these in their government and the people grew restless for a say in the process of government. In 1905 Russia attempted such reforms with the establishment of the Duma (Parliament) and a limited constitutional monarchy. Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917) had a difficult time dealing with the Duma. One reason was because he was not accustomed to having to answer to another governing authority. Another reason Nicholas had difficulty dealing with the Duma was because he had relationship problems. Nicholas II came to the throne relatively young, he was 26 years old, and he still had uncles and cousins that were very intimidating and they tried to steer the young Czar in certain directions politically. This revealed Nicholas’ indecisive character and that helped bring down the monarchy. I also want to say the Duma itself was pretty chaotic and many of its members so hungry for power and reform that they were also unwilling to work with the Czar.

Emperor Fran-Josef of Austria (1848-1916) did not have to deal with parliaments but he had to try and keep the ethnic diversity of his empire under control. In the 1860s he was ousted from the creation of a Greater German Empire, continuing the rivalry between Austria and Prussia for power in Central Europe that began in the 18^th century. The Hungarians were given equal power within the empire creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. Many Czech people were waiting for political changes in monarchy similar to what happened with Hungary, a move Archduke Franz-Ferdinand supported and was one of the motives for assassinating him, but the question was never addressed and World War I broke out over the assassination of the Archduke further destabilizing the nation.

Two very unstable thrones entered World War I in 1914 and neither would survive. Russia was on the verge of social and economic collapse by 1917 and even with the abdication of the Czar in 1917 it could not stop the bleeding. Franz-Josef died in 1916 and his peace loving successor, Emperor Carl I-IV of Austria-Hungary, could not win an armistice swiftly enough to avoid losing his throne at the end of 1918.

Next week: Final analysis and conclusions.