Nicholas II, or Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov, (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs) was the Tsar of Russia of the Romanov dynasty in 1903. (AUDIO: The Wanderer) He was the last Tsar of Russia, having been killed with his whole family in 1918. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs)
He was a descendant of Tsar Nicholas I. (AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari)
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to one account, he established the institution later known as the KVI after the Tunguska Event in order to combat alien threats. (PROSE: Trace Memory) However, according to another account, it was set up in the late 19th century by his predecessor Alexander. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Nicholas and his wife Alexandra were under the influence of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, known as the "Mad Monk". (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)
In 1916, Nicholas had to make a decision whether to send more troops to fight in World War I or withdraw. The Spy Master, pretending to be Rasputin, arrived to the Winter Palace on the orders of Alexandra Fydorovna to treat the Tsarevich, and managed to hypnotise the Tsar into taking his family on a long holiday away from the Winter Palace. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"])
In 1917, the October Revolution took place in which Nicholas was overthrown, (PROSE: The Wages of Sin) and was forced to abdicate. Nicholas and his family were held as prisoners while Russia's politicians fought in a power struggle.
The First Doctor served as his personal doctor and examined him during his imprisonment. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs)
So that his supporters couldn't rally around him, (PROSE: The Death of Empire) he was executed on 16 July 1918, (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs) and his body was disposed of on 17 July. (PROSE: The Death of Empire)
Other references[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Third Doctor recalled meeting Nicholas at the Drei Kaiser Bund in 1871. The Doctor warned him to use his despotic powers in a benevolent way and to listen to Tolstoy and Stakhovich, but he did not listen. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune [+]Loading...["The Devil Goblins from Neptune (novel)"])
In 1902, when Professor Challoner offered to make King Edward VII the "Emperor of the World", the Tenth Doctor remarked that it would be a "bit of a shock" for the President of France, the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Judoon (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the real world, Nicholas II was born in 1868, which would have made him only three years old when the Third Doctor claimed to have met him in 1871 in The Devil Goblins from Neptune. His grandfather, Alexander II, was actually Tsar at the time.
He was played by Hugh Burden in Ten Days That Shook the World, Michael Jayston in Nicholas and Alexandra, Ian McKellen in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny and Ian Beattie in 37 Days.
He succeeded his father, Alexander III.