Alexandra Fedorvna, The Last Empress Of The Romanov Dynasty

Shadow Tsarina : Anna Dalassena Athletes are born to play. Musicians are born to play. But, a leader? A leader is born to lead. Anna Dalassena, the mother of the Emperor Alexius, possesses traits that make her suitable for the position of a fit ruler.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was an infamous Siberian ‘holy man’, whose ability to cure the Tsar and Tsarina’s son of haemophilia led to him becoming an important friend and spiritual advisor to the Romanov royal family (Duffy, 2009). Rasputin was a paradox, by day he was a supreme mystic at court and at night he obtained a reputation as a notorious drunk and philanderer (Rae & Thompson, 2014). By 1916 Rasputin was viewed by many as a malevolent puppeteer who infiltrated his way into the royal family, pulling the strings of the Tsar’s wife and manipulating the regime (Rae & Thompson, 2014). While his influence and status may have been overstated — Rasputin became an obvious scapegoat for Russian aristocrats, liberals and nationalists, synonymous with debauchery, lust and power — his presence brought considerable shame and discredit to the tsarist government (Moss, 2003). The dominant viewpoint that Rasputin was the sole reason behind the decay of the Romanov reign is presented by Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the Duma, who stated that “The appearance in [the royal] court of Grigory Rasputin, and the influence he exercised there, mark the beginning of the decay of Russian society and the loss of prestige for the throne and for the person of the Tsar himself”. However, although Rasputin’s company played a significant role in the increasing unpopularity of the Imperial couple, he was purely a symbol of Russian despotism and not a central character in the downfall of the Romanov

The book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming is an eye opening biography about one of Russia's most famous families. Since 1613, the Romanov family had ruled Russia, and were the last imperial dynasty to ever take the throne. Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra had five children, consisting of only one eligible heir to Russia. The author's purpose of writing this book was to explain the downfall of one Russia’s most important families. Candace Fleming wrote the book to give insight and share her knowledge on how the Romanov family witnessed and committed horrible acts of violence and stupidity which ultimately lead to their murders.

The woman who was to become Catherine the Great was born Sophie Augusta Fredericka. During her teen years Sophie blossomed into a beautiful young woman and had excellent health. She later went on to marry Peter III the future emperor and grandson of Peter the Great. During her reign as empress Catherine encountered many conflicts, which she surpassed so successfully that even now so many years after her death she is still remembered. Even though she was known to have many lovers during her lifetime and had three illegitimate children two of who survived, her strong spirit, willingness to make Russia a better place, and her political victories made her one of the greatest empress ever.

The beginning of the 20th century brought radical changes to the social and political structure of autocratic Russia. It was a period of regression, reform, revolution and eradication. Eradication of a blood line that had remained in rule for over 300 years; the Romanov Dynasty. The central figure of this eradication was Tsar Nicholas II, often described as an incompetent leader, absent of the “commanding personality nor the strong character and prompt decision which are so essential to an autocratic ruler...” (Sir G. Buchman, British ambassador to Russia from 1910 in H. Seton-Watson, The

Yekaterina: Russia’s Golden Empress From a small German principality to the very forefront of European politics, and from Sophie Friederike of Anhalt-Zerbst to Empress Yekaterina Alekseyevna, Catherine the Great became one of Russia’s most influential rulers in history. She is regarded as one of the most powerful women the world has ever seen (Massie, 2011). Marked by political, societal, and cultural reforms, her reign, proclaimed the Catherinian Age and the golden age of the Russian Empire, changed the country irrevocably. Catherine’s development of Enlightenment values, along with her relationships with the French philosophes greatly impacted how she ruled (Lambirth, 2012).

The Romanov dynasty began in 1613, however 1917 saw an abrupt end to the Romanov’s with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Demonstrations and strikes gripped the Russian people and with anti-governmental soldiers taking control, the Tsar had no alternative but to abdicate. Historians such as Michael Lynch1 and John Daborn2 state that in Russia’s great need of strength and power came a Tsar of weakness and limited outlook. However historians such as Ray Pearson believe that in aggressive opposition groups and with the help of the working class aimed to bring down the Tsardom at all costs.

Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule. Nicolas II was to inherit the throne after his father died, but he was not prepared to. You will soon read that if he was properly prepared then he would’ve had a magic life. Tsar Nicholas II aroused the Russian Revolution.

Lots of people have took the time to read her diary that is so thoughtfully written. 'The Diary of a Young Girl' was published June 27th, 1947. The people who worked with her father found the diary and gave it to him. He soon had it published. It was originally written in the Dutch language but was translated into many others when published. Anne wrote in her diary all the time. She said it gave her something to do with all the time she had on her hands. She also addressed her diary as

Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst born as the daughter of a German Prince, on May 2, 1729 would become one of the most important women in Russian history. Throughout Catherine’s reign she reformed Russian society, politics and the role of the Clergy, while also managing to “westernise”, modernise and expand Russian territory. Catherine was said to be influenced by Enlightenment Philosophers, such as Diderot, d’Alembert and Voltaire. Catherine’s achievements would live on to help propel Russia to become a major world power after her death.

Tsarina Alexandra Romanov is accused of having a serious helping hand in the ultimate demise of Russia and eventual revolution that occurred. While many of the Tsarina’s actions did contribute to the eventual failures in Russia, Tsarina Alexandra was dealing with much more than just the political nature of Russia during the time of World War I. The Tsarina found herself struggling with finding a balance between the Russian distrust due to her lineage, her struggle to produce an heir, and finding her place with Tsar Nicholas II away at the front. In a time when the Romanov family was the center of distrust, the German princess found herself conflicted between her strong religious beliefs, Russian patriotism, and her desire to protect Russian aristocracy in order to provide her son a future as Tsar. With all these conflicting allegiances in her life, Tsarina Alexandra found herself trying to establish her role as a leader of the Russian people, a mother, and a wife while also trying to balance her duty as a Tsarina in the scope of family and war.

Her reign of power didn’t last long as in the early 1880s Kovalevsky and Vladimir, her husband, began to fall into big financial issues as neither one of them could obtain a job. Kovalevsky, in particular, had trouble finding a job in her preferences, as she wanted to lecture at her university – yet she was not allowed to do so as she was a

Alexandra the great was a Macedonian king. He was born July 356 BC. His parents are King Philipp the second and queen Olympia. When he inherited the Macedonian empire from his father he continued to prolong the empire to great proportions, with the help of his troops. Alexandra is greatly known due to the fact that he conquered more land than any other king, during his time. Alexandra’s built an extensive empire that had a cultural impact on the east and west. He also was a great leader as well as a great conqueror, at the young age of twenty years old he was an experienced and trained solider, with his father’s aspiration; who was also a great conqueror. He started to form the forces necessary to conquer Persia, and even after he conquered most of Persia he was still displeased and wanted more land.

Maria Theresa was the Empress of the Habsburg Dynasty from 1740 to 1780. One of her main concerns was for serfs not to be bound to their landlord, so she limited the authority landlords had over serfs. Maria Theresa made a lot of notable decisions during her rule, but one of the impactful was surrendering lower Silesia to Prussia in 1742. Just a year later she ended up surrendering the rest of Silesia in 1742. She fought Prussia for three years at war. The war allowed her to increase taxes by lessening the power of the provincial nobility and local estates. This allowed her to create a poll tax. Another notable Theresa did while in power was abolish cruel and unusual punishments, such as torture, and gave the judiciary autonomy. Maria

One resource used for this investigation was Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie, which describes the reign of Nicholas II. This source was published in 1967 in the United States, thus the book is a secondary source. Massie is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose work focuses on the Russian Romanovs. Massie’s alma mater includes Yale and Oxford University. The source is highly valuable in its extremely detailed and comprehensive research of nearly 600 pages, providing the thoughts of those in positions of power and interesting, insightful perspectives to the situation at the time. An analysis on connecting causes and effects are thorough and