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What Is Nicholas II's Personal Expectation Of Command In Russia

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During World War I Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the Russian Army in September 1915. Nicholas II's personal expectation of command grew out of one of the calmumniatory weaknesses of his reign: his own inadequacy as a ruler and as a human being. In addition to his naive belief that he shared a personal affinity with the Russian people, he ruled over a political system that could not function without his immediate presence. When the Emperor announced his decision to his cabinet, ten of the twelve ministers of state objected and tried to convince him to reconsider. Tellingly, ministers in Imperial Russia served only at the pleasure of the tsar and had no responsibility to the Duma, which had existed since 1906, or to any

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