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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 9:16:48 GMT
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the abdication of Nicholas II Romanov, Czar and Autocrat of All the Russias, in the face of what is called either the First or the February Russian Revolution. (It was in February on the old Julian calendar but in March on the new Gregorian calendar.) Far from being the "bloody Nicholas" of Bolshevik propaganda, Nicholas was a mild-mannered and ineffectual ruler, well-intentioned but easily dominated by his (German) wife and a camarilla of reactionary ministers. In the 20 years before 1914, Russia had made enormous economic and social progress, but blundering into war with Germany and Austria was a terrible mistake. His feeble and corrupt government was unable either to fight the war effectively or to get out of it, and after three years of defeats, huge casualties and privation, the Russian people had had enough. In the face of riots and mutinies, the regime collapsed without resistance, and Nicholas abdicated without complaint. But the liberal republic which then took office was also unable to escape from the war, and this gave the Bolsheviks their chance to stage the coup now called the Second or October Revolution, despite having virtually no support in the country outside Petrograd. Nicholas and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 14:34:54 GMT
And the horror story called the Soviet Union began. A butcher's bill that the people of Russia are still paying.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 16:30:49 GMT
The Duma wanted Olga Nikolaevna to be Regent for her brother Alexei. Putting Olga on the throne would have been the Czardom's best option (as opposed to best *possible* option... Regency was acceptable, but making Olga N. Empress was impossible in those sexist times. All the men in the line of succession would have screamed blue murder.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 22:43:43 GMT
Which is too bad, because Olga would have done great in the job.
Of course, there was the question on how long poor Alexei would live. Hemophilia was untreatable in those days.
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