The Romanov dynasty began in 1613 when Mikhail Fedorovich and ended 300 years later with Nikolai II. Nikolai II came to the throne in 1894.But at the time of his rule, class distinction couldn?t have been bigger.
Nikolai's wife was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England known as Alexandra. Together they had five children: Olga (23), at the time of her death, Tatiana (21), Marie (19), Anastasia (17), and Alexei (14).
Alexandra had been under the influence for a long time of Grigory Novykh, better known as Rasputin or the mad-monk. Rasputin gained his hold over Alexandra because he could heal the Alexei, who suffered from what they believed was a form of hemophilia. Alexandra began to trust his opinion on pretty much all issues, to the point where he was advising her on hiring/ firing government ministers.
The czar's relatives feared the growing influence of Rasputin, and so they made a plan to kill him.
English: The Romanov Imperial family
English: The presidium of the 9th Congress of the ...
Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky General Skobelev on t...The murderer was Felix Yusupov, and he gave him cake and wine poisoned with potassium cyanide. But the cyanide did not affect Rasputin, so Felix shot him, and later shot him 2x more. But Rasputin would just not die, he kept running and fighting. So they threw him into the Neva River. When his body was found 2 days later, his hands were making the sign of benediction across his chest/lungs were full of water, showing that he was still alive when thrown in the river. The day before he died, Rasputin wrote a letter to Nikolai saying, ?If I am killed by common assassins and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia...if it was your relations who have wrought my...