Nicholas II of Russia | Origin of Street Names

Nicholas II Alexandrovich Romanov (1868 - 1918) was the last Russian emperor and a great friend of Serbia, a pan-Russian monarch whose brutal murder after the October Revolution marked the end of a dynasty that had been the symbol of imperial Russia for over three centuries.

As the eldest son of Tsar Alexander III, he ascended to the throne following his father's sudden death at the young age of 26, acquiring the titles of Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland.

With the royal title came the obligation of marriage. Tsar Nicholas married Alice of Hesse, a German noblewoman four years his junior and his childhood love. In such high circles, a marriage based on love rather than strict interest was an exceptional rarity at that time. After converting to the Orthodox faith and changing her name, Alice was baptized as Alexandra Feodorovna, and history remembers her as Empress Alexandra.

Tsar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra had an unusually harmonious marriage and sealed their love with five children - four daughters (Princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia) and a son (Tsarevich Alexei).

The political and social circumstances in which Tsar Nicholas II operated were highly unfavorable. It was a time of collapsing absolutist monarchies as a form of government, and the Russian Empire was one of the last remaining in Europe. Although Russia experienced significant economic progress during Nicholas's reign, a large part of the population lived in poverty. These conditions favored revolutionary movements driven by the idea of social equality, which grew stronger and increasingly revolted against unlimited imperial power and aristocratic privileges. However, the majority of the Russian people still loved their tsar at the beginning of the 20th century.

However, protests, strikes, and unrest shook Moscow and Petrograd. The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and a series of actions publicly perceived as the Tsar's autocracy eroded Nikolai's trust among workers and peasants. The introduction of a constitution and attempts to establish a parliamentary monarchy failed, and general dissatisfaction in Russian society grew to unprecedented levels with catastrophic consequences.

Radical socialist revolutionaries - the Bolsheviks, with the support of the German Empire, intensified their actions, culminating in the February Revolution of 1917, which led to the Tsar's abdication, and later the October Revolution, through which the Bolsheviks finally seized power in Russia, laying the foundation for the Soviet Union, which would become a beacon of the communist world for the next 70 years.

The persecution of the Romanov imperial family did not end with Nicholas's removal from the throne. On the contrary, one of the most brutal events in the history of the Russian state and the modern world unfolded.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, along with their children and a few loyal friends, were brutally executed in captivity and then mutilated with bayonets. Their remains were thrown into a pit, burned, and doused with sulfuric acid to erase all traces of their physical existence.

The Bolsheviks' intention was successful, as the reliable remains of the imperial family have not been discovered to this day.

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized the Holy Imperial Family and declared them martyrs in 2000.

In foreign policy, Tsar Nicholas II was a steadfast friend of the Serbian people and a man who, in addition to providing generous material assistance during World War I, directly influenced the Allies and facilitated the rescue and recovery of the Serbian army after the crossing through Albania.

As a token of gratitude, King Alexander Karadjordjević and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia welcomed tens of thousands of Russian emigrants, known as the "White" Russians, loyal to their Tsar and tradition, after the October Revolution, and provided them with a home until the end of their lives.

The magnificent monument to Tsar Nicholas II Romanov now adorns the square in front of Devojački Park in Belgrade, and several streets in the country bear the name of the Holy Tsar.