In YekaterinburgRussiaCzar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviksbringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.
Crowned in 1896Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rulewhich did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve among a people desperate for change. The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of 1905which ended only after Nicholas approved a representative assembly–the Duma–and promised constitutional reforms. The czar soon retracted these concessions and repeatedly dissolved the Duma when it opposed himcontributing to the growing public support for the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups. In 1914Nicholas led his country into another costly war—World War I—that Russia was ill-prepared to win. Discontent grew as food became scarcesoldiers became war weary and devastating defeats at the hands of Germany demonstrated the ineffectiveness of Russia under Nicholas.
In March 1917revolution broke out on the streets of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne later that month. That Novemberthe radical socialist Bolsheviksled by Vladimir Leninseized power in Russia from the provisional governmentsued for peace with the Central Powers and set about establishing the world’s first communist state. Civil war broke out in Russia in June 1918and in July the anti-Bolshevik “White” Russian forces advanced on Yekaterinburgwhere Nicholas and his family were locatedduring a campaign against the Bolshevik forces. Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovsand after a secret meeting of the Yekaterinburg Sovieta death sentence was passed on the imperial family.
