Nicholas II is holding Tsarevich Alexei in his arms.

The last Russian emperor Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov), the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was born on May 6 (May 18, new style) in 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. Famous scientists, political and military leaders (Pobedonostsev, Beketov, Bunge, Cui, etc.), professors of St. Petersburg University and the Academy of the General Staff were involved in the training of the Tsarevich.
In 1884, the future emperor entered active military service; In July 1887, he began regular military service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. In April 1894, Nicholas was engaged to Princess Alice of Darmstadt-Hesse, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. After converting to Orthodoxy, she took the name of Alexandra Feodorovna. October 20 (November 2), 1894, his father, Emperor Alexander III, died. Two hours before his death, Alexander demanded his son and ordered him to sign a manifesto on his accession to the throne. On May 18 (May 30 in a new style), 1896 in Moscow, he was crowned under the name of Nicholas II. And (18) on May 30, at the folk festivities on Khodynskoye Pole, organized in honor of the coronation, there was a stampede, which was accompanied by the death of a large number of people from - for mass gatherings of people. For this, as well as for the shooting of a peaceful demonstration on January 9, 1905, Nikolai received the nickname "Bloody". Not being a reformer by nature, Nikolai was forced to make important decisions that did not correspond to his inner convictions. He believed that in Russia the time had not yet come for a constitution, freedom of speech, and universal suffrage. However, when a strong social movement in favor of political change arose, he signed the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, proclaiming democratic freedoms.
In 1906, the State Duma, established by the tsarist manifesto, began to work. For the first time in Russian history, the emperor began to rule in the presence of a representative body elected from the population. Russia gradually began to transform into a constitutional monarchy.
The fateful drama of the royal family was associated with the incurable disease of Alexei's son - hemophilia (incoagulability of blood). The illness caused the appearance in the royal house of Grigory Rasputin, who, even before meeting the crowned heads, was famous for his gift of foresight and healing; he repeatedly helped Alexei to overcome the attacks of the disease.
At the end of February 1917, unrest began in Petrograd, which, without encountering serious opposition from the authorities, a few days later escalated into mass protests against the government and the dynasty. Initially, the tsar intended to restore order in Petrograd by force, but when the scale of the unrest became clear, he abandoned this idea, fearing a lot of bloodshed. Some high-ranking military officials, members of the imperial retinue and politicians convinced the tsar that to pacify the country requires a change of government, renunciation is necessary. him from the throne. On March 2, 1917, in Pskov, in the carriage of the imperial train, after painful deliberation, Nikolai signed an act of abdication, transferring power to his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who did not accept the crown.
On March 9, Nikolai and the royal family were arrested. The first five months they were under guard in Tsarskoe Selo, in August 1917 they were transported to Tobolsk. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks transferred the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 17, 1918, in the center of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the Ipatiev house, where the prisoners were imprisoned, Nikolai, the tsarina, five of their children and several close associates (11 people in total) were shot without trial or investigation. Canonized together with his family by the Russian Orthodox Church.