I'm going to go. He's a sures, yes,

a ras, it yes shawras.

We're hush a hush. Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast, episode 61, the ascension of the Last Romanov.

Last episode, the reactionary Tsar Alexander III died, leaving his unprepared son Nicholas

Alexandrovich Romanov, the Newt Sar, and ruler of a Russia that was struggling

to catch up to the other European powers.

Threats fill the air on both the Western and Eastern borders, but Nicholas II was unaware of the looming dangers.

Born in 1868, the son of Alexander III and Maria Fyodorovna.

Nicholas was a coddled boy, as were all the children of the tar.

They grew up with the belief that God had willed the control and ownership of all of Russia into the hands of the

Romanov family.

It was also their belief that the heart of the Russian people was also owned by the Romanovs as well.

To understand the Nutsar, one only has to read a telling quote about Nicholas II,

which comes from the French ambassador, Maurice Peliiolog in his memoirs.

Quote,

Nicholas has not a single vice, but he has the worst fault

an autocratic sovereign could possibly have, a want of personality. He is always following

the lead of others. Aside from the personality issue and lack of leadership skills, he was also quite short.

He was estimated to be a mere five feet six inches, obviously more like his diminutive mother than the imposing figure of his father.

When people, especially troops, first saw him, they were awestruck at how terribly small

he seemed. This was not apparent in the photos of the Tsar

as he was always made out to look taller as many in his entourage often bowed before him,

...