subject: The Safety Program Of The Safety Board [print this page] In the summer of 1904, the great Russian Empire was still under the control of one man, the 36-year-old Tsar Nicholas II .
By many accounts a kind man with a genuine love for his country, Nicholas was nevertheless beginning to be pictured as a ruthless dictator by those who wished to see the empire democratized, and the complaints of his people were very much in the Tsar's thoughts that summer. Cheap Links of London would make excellent gifts for any fashion enthusiast. Links Of London Charms
Links of London Charms is the expression of being yourself. Links Of London Earrings.
One event, however, took Nicholas' mind away from his political difficulties. On August 12, his wife gave birth to a son. The child has been called Alexis.
But within a few months it became clear that the apparently healthy child was not healthy at allhe had hemophilia. Bolshevik Revolution is a blood disorder in which the blood does not clot properly. A small, external scratch or cut presents no real problem as the bleeding can be stopped relatively quickly, but bumps and bruises create internal bleeding.
This blood, in turn, gathers in knee and elbow joints, causing great pain and, sometimes, permanent injury. Once Alexis' diagnosis was confirmed, however, it was decided that, for the good of the dynasty and the country, the boy's illness would remain a family secret. That decision may have changed history.
In her pain over her son's illness, the Tsarina turned to a newcomer, Gregory Rasputin, to the Russian court to help. He was Agealthough to this day no one knows howto cairn the young Alexis when he had hurt himself and, apparently, to ease his pain considerably.
For nearly a decade after Alexis' birth, the political situation in Russia grew worse. Even the great patriotic fervor which greeted the empire's entry into the First World War took a downturn when the nation's early victories gave way to progressively greater defeats and the loss of hundreds of thousands of Russian lives.
In an effort to stem the tide, Nicholas decided it was his duty to lead the army himself, and in 1915 left St. Petersburg and took up residence at Army Headquarters, in effect leaving Alexandra to rule the country with Rasputin at her side.
The increasingly terrible situation at the front resulted in a repudiation of the war by many in Russia, which led to even more demonstrations at home by dissidents. The Tsar and Tsarina came increasingly under personal attack, as did Rasputin.
The Russian people, not knowing of the prince's hemophilia, could not understand why Rasputin seemed to have so much power over the imperial family, and both he and Tsarina were much criticized in the press. Rasputin had also made important enemies at court. On December 16, 1916, he was assassinated by three courtiers.
Three months later, on March 15, 1917, the Tsar gave up his throne, and on November 7th the Bolshevik Revolution brought the communists to power. Less than a year later, on July 29, 1918, Nicholas and his family including Alexis, who would have been the next Tsar, were executed, ending the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty.
