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In the 1820s, the Romanov dynasty
appeared invincible.

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They'd ruled Russia for more
than two centuries.

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They'd built an empire
and beaten Napoleon.

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But now there was a new threat,
more deadly than an invading army -

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the Russian people themselves.

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EXPLOSION

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In July 1826, five revolutionaries
were led out of this

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St Petersburg fortress
to their deaths.

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These were the leaders
of the Decembrists -

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rebels who'd staged
a failed uprising.

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The execution went
disastrously wrong.

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The ropes weren't tied properly on
the gallows and when the stools were

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removed from underneath three of the
men, they fell down to the ground.

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They were squirming about.
They were still alive!

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One of them had broken legs and,
as they strung him back up again,

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he shouted out, "Poor Russia!

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"They can't even hang men
properly here!"

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The Decembrist revolt was
something new.

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Not for nothing has it been called
the first Russian Revolution.

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These men wanted to change
the system.

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Some even wanted to do away with
the Romanovs altogether.

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EXPLOSION

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In Russia, small groups of rebels
were easily dealt with

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but in the Romanovs' final
century, their power unravelled...

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..as the Russians went from executing
revolutionaries

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to murdering the tsar.

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We're going to meet
the last of the Romanovs -

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Nicholas and Alexander,
and Alexander and Nicholas.

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And I'll show how these four
tsars would meet

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the challenge of revolution
in different ways - with denial,

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with liberal reform ended
by a terrorist bomb,

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with brutal reaction and refuge
in the mysticism

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of notorious holy man Rasputin.

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And we'll see how the Romanovs
collided with the people, reeling

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from famine and war, bringing the
dynasty to its tragic and bloody end.

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GUNFIRE

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In December 1825,

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Tsar Alexander I, the hammer
of Napoleon, was dead.

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Who was to succeed him?

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It was confusing and,
sensing a power vacuum,

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the Decembrists seized their moment.

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3,000 soldiers gathered here,

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refusing to swear the oath
of loyalty to the new tsar, Nicholas.

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Many of their leaders had been to
Western Europe.

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They'd been to Paris.

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They'd been radicalised
by the ideas that they'd

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come across there.

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So they gathered
by the Bronze Horseman, the statue

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of the moderniser Peter the Great,
in order to call for change.

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What they wanted was an end
to serfdom and a free press.

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In fact, they wanted
the foundations of democracy.

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The new tsar dithered. The situation
seemed to be getting away from him.

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As night fell, he ordered
his artillery to open fire.

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EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE

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Seven rounds emptied the square
of all but the dead and the wounded.

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That night, Nicholas wrote to
his brother. "I am Emperor," he said.

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"But, my God, at what a price! At the
price of the blood of my people."

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The traumatic events of his very
first day would harden Nicholas.

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The untested youth caught in this
portrait soon discovered that

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being tsar is much easier
if people are scared of you.

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It's said that he had a gaze
like a rattlesnake that could

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freeze the blood in your veins.

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And these are the words
of his own son.

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Nicholas' ambition was laid out
on the walls of the Winter Palace

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in this interior, created to
impress visiting diplomats.

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The Decembrists had idealised Peter
the Great as a moderniser

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but Nicholas modelled himself on
Peter, the great military conqueror.

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Beneath Peter's larger-than-life
portrait would sit Nicholas himself.

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But Peter had wanted Russia to
accelerate into the future.

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Nicholas would spend the next 30
years trying to put on the brakes.

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From his throne, Nicholas formulated
a new philosophy for Russia.

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The rest of Europe was struggling
with concepts like liberty,

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equality and fraternity, and Nicholas
made a very Russian response.

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For him, it was to be about
orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality.

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It was an ultra-conservative message.

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In Nicholas' new mantra for Russia,
there was

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to be God on one side,
Russia on the other,

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and Nicholas himself in the centre,
holding the whole thing together.

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Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality
was invented to create

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an obedient people who didn't
ask questions.

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Even Nicholas' inner circle were
chosen for their dependability.

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He liked to say that he needed loyal
advisers, not smart ones.

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Nevertheless, groups of writers
and thinkers emerged -

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the intelligentsia, who set out to
challenge this stupefying status quo.

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By the middle of the century,

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subjects like serfdom were openly
tackled by radical journals

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like The Contemporary,

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whose roll call of writers included
Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev.

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More than any other writer,

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it was Turgenev who changed people's
minds about serfdom.

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He grew up in a noble family
on an estate rather like this.

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He had a privileged childhood

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but he witnessed his mother being
tyrannical with the family's serfs.

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He saw serfs beaten, sent off to the
army, serf families split up.

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Turgenev wrote a series of stories,

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collected under the innocuous title
Sketches From A Hunter's Album.

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Here was a human portrait
of the serfs themselves alongside

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the cruelty of their masters,
the landowners.

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This book was published in 1852,

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exactly the same year as Uncle Tom's
Cabin in the United States.

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And just as Uncle Tom helped to
mobilise public opinion

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against slavery over there,

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this book had the same
effect against serfdom over here.

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Tsar Nicholas I was so angry about
the book that he placed Turgenev

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under house arrest for having
insulted the landowners of Russia.

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Privately, Nicholas acknowledged that
serfdom

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would eventually have to go,
but not yet.

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His beloved army
depended on it to fill its ranks

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and he needed the military to
enlarge his empire.

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Under Nicholas, Russia expanded
its territory in the Caucasus

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and Central Asia and became
the dominant power in the Near East.

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Russia had the largest
army in the world.

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All the other powers thought that she
was a terrifying threat.

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But these numbers were deceptive.

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Mostly, the army was made up of these
conscripted peasants whose

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equipment was poor
and whose motivation was poorer.

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And Nicholas, although he loved
military parades, hadn't helped.

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He'd promoted people who were
loyal as opposed to people who were

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talented. He just didn't have the
right generals to win a war.

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So it would only be a matter of time
before the might of the Russian

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war machine would prove to be
paper-thin.

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That moment came in 1853

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when Nicholas blundered
into the Crimean War.

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Russia was fighting France,
Britain and the Ottoman Empire.

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And to Nicholas' increasing horror,
he was on the losing side.

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The Russians lose the Crimean War,
essentially,

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because they're a pre-industrial
country trying to fight countries

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which are already being transformed
by the Industrial Revolution.

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The British and French get to the
Crimea by modern

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forms of transport -
the steamship and the railway.

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Meanwhile,

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the Russians are still essentially
in the pre-industrial era.

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They have to walk to the Crimea.

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They can't supply their troops
in the Crimea by anything

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but pre-industrial means,
and Russian artillery is

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outranged on the battlefield
by English and French rifle muskets.

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They also simply don't have the
financial muscle to keep going.

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To add to Nicholas' disgrace,
Russia was losing on her own soil.

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There was no escape
from the humiliation,

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not even at the Romanovs'
Summer Palace at Peterhof.

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Just over there on the horizon on a
clear day is the island of Kronstadt.

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It's the naval base that defends
St Petersburg 20 miles that way.

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And from the very palace grounds,
Nicholas, with his telescope,

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could see French and British warships
stationed near the island.

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To them, this was a terrific show of
strength, but to Nicholas, it was a

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personal humiliation to see the enemy
so close, so deep into his empire.

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He'd been brought face-to-face
with his own military weakness.

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His courtiers noticed a physical
change in Nicholas.

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He was perpetually downcast,
his face in wrinkles.

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In 1855, six months into the Siege
of Sevastopol, the emperor,

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an autocrat of all the Russias,
was taken ill.

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Nicholas had a chill but, even so,
he went outside into the horrible

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St Petersburg winter
to review his troops.

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While he was watching,
the snow was falling,

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but he took off his coat
and he unbuttoned his shirt.

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This made him even iller.

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And when he went
back inside his palace,

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he wouldn't let his doctors see him
until it was too late.

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He had full-blown pneumonia.

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Some historians have
speculated that maybe,

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this was a deliberate
action by Nicholas.

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Maybe he was trying to
commit suicide by snow.

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The broken Nicholas had kept Russia
static for 30 years,

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and now, his country was a backwater.

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But did his son, Alexander,
have what it took to change things?

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Well, this is how Alexander II
is remembered in Russia today...

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..as the last great tsar.
And with good reason.

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This inscription lists Alexander's CV
in glowing terms. And rightly so.

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He introduced reforms in education,
in the judiciary,

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in local government, in the army.

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But his biggest achievement is listed
right here at the top.

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It says, in 1861,
Alexander overturned serfdom,

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liberating millions of peasants
from centuries of slavery -

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an act that earned him his name,
the Tsar-Liberator.

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By the mid-1850s, the arguments
for abandoning serfdom were immense.

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It was part of the disgrace
at Crimea.

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It tied people to the land
so that industry couldn't develop.

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And increasingly,
it was just seen as wrong.

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But when it came to
reforming the system,

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huge self-interest was also at work.

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What really convinced Alexander
to end serfdom was

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the threat that he perceived to the
Romanovs themselves.

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Unless he introduced change through
reform from above,

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his hand might be
forced from below through revolution.

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After years of consultation
with landowners,

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Alexander signed the decree
of emancipation in 1861.

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In the Moscow State Archives,
it's possible to see how the serfs

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themselves would have
learned the news.

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This is the official document
announcing the end of serfdom

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that was printed and sent out across
Russia to be read aloud in churches.

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Now, in democratic America,

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they'd have a civil war before
everybody could agree to end slavery.

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But in autocratic Russia,
Alexander thought

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he could just send out a document
and it would happen.

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He also thought that there must be
a way of pleasing all

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the parties to this transaction.

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Well, he was wrong about that.

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Now the serfs could own property,
marry according to their choice,

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trade freely
and vote in local elections.

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But when it came to sharing out land,

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Russia's elite were less than
generous.

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When the land was split up,
the landlords got two-thirds of it

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and the best parts. The ex-serfs
were given the leftovers.

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They were going to find it hard
to scratch out a living from that.

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And the landlords got compensation

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but the ex-serfs now had to
pay for the right to work their land,

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placing them immediately in debt.

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The devil was in the detail.

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Many people had hoped that
Alexander's reforms were

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the first step towards Russia
becoming a liberal democracy

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but they were destined to be
disappointed.

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At the start of his reign, Alexander
embraced a word that'll be familiar

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to everybody who remembers
the end of the Cold War - glasnost.

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It means openness.
He eased up on censorship.

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He allowed people to have a
voice in reform.

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Sounds like a good idea but you can
argue that it was a terrible

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mistake because it raised
expectations.

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As it gradually became clear that the
reforms were compromised,

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a new disillusioned generation
emerged - the student radicals.

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They wanted a revolution to
overthrow tsarism altogether.

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And some of them
would use violence to achieve this.

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The story of modern political
terrorism starts here.

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GUNFIRE

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In 1866, there was
the first ever attempt

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on the tsar's
life by a member of the public.

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A student radical tried to shoot
Alexander as he was

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walking in St Petersburg.

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I've come to the European University
at St Petersburg to meet

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Alexey Miller, professor of history,
to find out who these radicals

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were and why it was the reforming
Alexander who became their target.

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Why did some of the radicals turn to
violence? Were they frustrated?

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Desperation, disenchantment
because, on the one hand, they were

233
00:17:18,060 --> 00:17:22,780
talking about political violence
but they were not doing much.

234
00:17:22,780 --> 00:17:27,740
Still, sentences, court sentences,
to these people,

235
00:17:27,740 --> 00:17:31,820
were extremely harsh.
So you might as well commit violence?

236
00:17:31,820 --> 00:17:33,820
If you're going to
Siberia for 25 years,

237
00:17:33,820 --> 00:17:37,740
you might as well throw a bomb?
That is one thing.

238
00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:44,740
The second thing, the liberal
part of the society feels...

239
00:17:44,740 --> 00:17:49,780
Well, not full solidarity
with the terrorists

240
00:17:49,780 --> 00:17:54,580
but it doesn't feel full solidarity
with the government

241
00:17:54,580 --> 00:17:56,900
and doesn't want to support
the government.

242
00:17:56,900 --> 00:18:01,540
Vera Zasulich, who shot the governor

243
00:18:01,540 --> 00:18:04,340
of St Petersburg in his office,

244
00:18:04,340 --> 00:18:10,180
was tried by the jury and acquitted

245
00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:13,900
because they believed that she had
a moral right to do so.

246
00:18:13,900 --> 00:18:18,420
That's quite surprising. That is
not surprising. That is very sad.

247
00:18:18,420 --> 00:18:22,300
And that is a powerful message on
the side of the society - go ahead!

248
00:18:22,300 --> 00:18:25,260
You can continue!
We are on your side!

249
00:18:25,260 --> 00:18:29,660
And then they want
destabilisation of the situation.

250
00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:32,140
And how do you destabilise
the situation?

251
00:18:32,140 --> 00:18:33,820
You start hunting the tsar.

252
00:18:37,700 --> 00:18:40,460
Hunting the tsar would become
the obsession

253
00:18:40,460 --> 00:18:44,100
of a revolutionary group
named People's Will,

254
00:18:44,100 --> 00:18:47,700
who've been called the first modern
terrorist organisation.

255
00:18:50,660 --> 00:18:56,540
In August 1879, at a fateful meeting,
they condemned Alexander to death.

256
00:18:58,340 --> 00:18:59,740
For maximum secrecy,

257
00:18:59,740 --> 00:19:03,660
they held a meeting in a forest
outside St Petersburg,

258
00:19:03,660 --> 00:19:06,380
and here they decided that they'd
be wasting their time

259
00:19:06,380 --> 00:19:10,180
if they went after middle-ranking
government officials.

260
00:19:10,180 --> 00:19:11,300
What they needed to do

261
00:19:11,300 --> 00:19:15,420
was strike a blow at the heart
of the tsarist regime.

262
00:19:15,420 --> 00:19:20,140
They decided to go for the tsar
himself - Alexander II.

263
00:19:20,140 --> 00:19:23,460
And this was to be no ordinary
murder, as they put it.

264
00:19:23,460 --> 00:19:27,740
It needed drama
and spectacle to wake up the peasants

265
00:19:27,740 --> 00:19:29,420
and start a revolution.

266
00:19:32,140 --> 00:19:35,620
People's Will relentlessly
pursued Alexander,

267
00:19:35,620 --> 00:19:39,020
launching a series
of attacks on his life.

268
00:19:39,020 --> 00:19:42,140
In 1880, one of their number
detonated a bomb that

269
00:19:42,140 --> 00:19:45,420
destroyed the dining room
of the Winter Palace.

270
00:19:45,420 --> 00:19:50,380
11 people died but Alexander,
who was late for supper, survived.

271
00:19:51,540 --> 00:19:53,780
Security was increased

272
00:19:53,780 --> 00:19:59,220
while Alexander belatedly tried
to restart his reformist programme.

273
00:19:59,220 --> 00:20:01,460
Plans were drawn up to introduce

274
00:20:01,460 --> 00:20:04,460
a new consultative assembly to
advise the tsar.

275
00:20:06,460 --> 00:20:10,140
These were just days away from being
enacted when People's Will

276
00:20:10,140 --> 00:20:14,860
finally caught up with Alexander
on the streets of St Petersburg.

277
00:20:17,620 --> 00:20:20,260
Trying to wrong-foot the terrorists,

278
00:20:20,260 --> 00:20:24,420
his carriage had taken a detour
alongside this canal.

279
00:20:27,100 --> 00:20:29,660
But People's Will were prepared.

280
00:20:29,660 --> 00:20:32,860
One of their members was
a brilliant young scientist

281
00:20:32,860 --> 00:20:37,020
and he created a special bomb,
a bit like a hand grenade.

282
00:20:37,020 --> 00:20:40,020
It contained vials of nitroglycerin.

283
00:20:40,020 --> 00:20:42,940
When these shattered,
it would explode.

284
00:20:42,940 --> 00:20:46,380
As Alexander's carriage came round
that corner, a member

285
00:20:46,380 --> 00:20:51,540
of People's Will was standing by
and lobbed a grenade right at him.

286
00:20:51,540 --> 00:20:53,260
EXPLOSION

287
00:20:54,580 --> 00:20:58,300
Several onlookers were wounded
but Alexander was fine.

288
00:20:58,300 --> 00:21:00,820
His carriage was bomb-proof.

289
00:21:00,820 --> 00:21:04,540
He should have stayed inside
and driven off but no! He got out.

290
00:21:04,540 --> 00:21:08,180
He wanted to talk
to his would-be assassin.

291
00:21:08,180 --> 00:21:11,300
And this gave the opportunity to
another member of

292
00:21:11,300 --> 00:21:13,460
People's Will with another grenade.

293
00:21:13,460 --> 00:21:15,180
EXPLOSION

294
00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:19,180
When the smoke cleared,
20 people had been hurt,

295
00:21:19,180 --> 00:21:22,460
and the lower half of Alexander's
body was shattered.

296
00:21:22,460 --> 00:21:25,660
They scooped him up, barely alive,

297
00:21:25,660 --> 00:21:27,980
and carried him
back to the Winter Palace.

298
00:21:32,940 --> 00:21:37,740
At the Winter Palace, the dying tsar
was surrounded by his stunned family.

299
00:21:39,700 --> 00:21:43,020
He knew he was dying,
they knew he was dying.

300
00:21:43,020 --> 00:21:47,140
It's all very bloody and very
horrible, and there, standing

301
00:21:47,140 --> 00:21:52,140
watching, is his son, Alexander,
who is going to be Alexander III.

302
00:21:52,140 --> 00:21:56,740
And he's standing there,
looking at what happens when you try

303
00:21:56,740 --> 00:22:00,100
and offer people reform.
That is how he viewed it.

304
00:22:00,100 --> 00:22:04,820
So the death of Alexander II
stops reform in its tracks.

305
00:22:04,820 --> 00:22:07,940
The constitutional decrees,
which would have come forward,

306
00:22:07,940 --> 00:22:12,900
which would have introduced another
level of government in Russia,

307
00:22:12,900 --> 00:22:16,540
are put aside. Alexander III
will have nothing of them.

308
00:22:16,540 --> 00:22:19,620
He takes the line that Russia
needs strong government.

309
00:22:26,820 --> 00:22:30,060
Alexander III
presented himself as a strong man

310
00:22:30,060 --> 00:22:32,900
and he certainly looked the part.

311
00:22:32,900 --> 00:22:37,380
A mixture of beard and muscle
poured into a uniform.

312
00:22:39,420 --> 00:22:45,180
He was an enormous man - 6'3",
and built like a great big bear.

313
00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:47,740
His party trick
was to get an iron bar

314
00:22:47,740 --> 00:22:51,020
and to bend it with his bare hands.

315
00:22:51,020 --> 00:22:53,620
Alexander has had himself painted

316
00:22:53,620 --> 00:22:56,700
greeting a collection
of peasant leaders.

317
00:22:56,700 --> 00:22:59,900
He's resolute, standing firm,

318
00:22:59,900 --> 00:23:03,780
the weight of Russia
on his broad shoulders.

319
00:23:03,780 --> 00:23:07,460
And they're completely
overwhelmed by the experience.

320
00:23:07,460 --> 00:23:10,060
Some of them are swooning away

321
00:23:10,060 --> 00:23:14,700
and others are shielding their eyes
from the magnificent sight of him.

322
00:23:15,860 --> 00:23:19,380
Alexander III wasn't exactly
an intellectual giant,

323
00:23:19,380 --> 00:23:22,460
but he held his
autocratic regime together

324
00:23:22,460 --> 00:23:24,620
almost through force of will.

325
00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:31,300
Alexander introduced
a new "era of reaction".

326
00:23:31,300 --> 00:23:34,700
He gave the authorities
extensive powers to jail people

327
00:23:34,700 --> 00:23:37,500
and to close down newspapers.

328
00:23:37,500 --> 00:23:40,260
There was a new secret police

329
00:23:40,260 --> 00:23:44,300
and he was determined to stamp out
all revolutionary movements -

330
00:23:44,300 --> 00:23:46,820
starting with People's Will.

331
00:23:50,580 --> 00:23:53,340
In the years following 1881,

332
00:23:53,340 --> 00:23:55,780
dozens of revolutionaries
made this boat trip

333
00:23:55,780 --> 00:23:59,580
to that rather
terrifying-looking castle.

334
00:23:59,580 --> 00:24:03,580
Known as the "Russian Bastille",
the Shlisselburg Fortress

335
00:24:03,580 --> 00:24:07,420
was where political prisoners
were sent to be forgotten.

336
00:24:10,220 --> 00:24:14,020
Shlisselburg was built
in the 14th century.

337
00:24:14,020 --> 00:24:18,700
But in the 1880s, Alexander III
oversaw the construction

338
00:24:18,700 --> 00:24:23,140
of a new prison - for those
associated with his father's murder.

339
00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:31,740
Thank you.

340
00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:35,900
In the first 20 years
after it was built,

341
00:24:35,900 --> 00:24:39,860
68 men and women were
interred at His Majesty's pleasure.

342
00:24:41,260 --> 00:24:43,580
15 were executed,

343
00:24:43,580 --> 00:24:45,900
15 died of disease,

344
00:24:45,900 --> 00:24:48,740
three committed suicide

345
00:24:48,740 --> 00:24:51,580
and eight went insane.

346
00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:58,380
On the surface, Alexander III's
"era of reaction" was working well.

347
00:24:58,380 --> 00:25:01,780
But every time he struck
down a revolutionary,

348
00:25:01,780 --> 00:25:04,980
another one popped up
as a replacement.

349
00:25:08,060 --> 00:25:10,980
In 1887, five prisoners were
brought out

350
00:25:10,980 --> 00:25:13,780
of the fortress's
execution block

351
00:25:13,780 --> 00:25:17,220
and hanged on a gallows
just where the white tree is.

352
00:25:17,220 --> 00:25:20,740
Their crime?
Plotting to murder the Tsar.

353
00:25:20,740 --> 00:25:24,540
One of them was a 21-year-old
called Aleksandr Ulyanov -

354
00:25:24,540 --> 00:25:27,220
that's his grey memorial up there.

355
00:25:27,220 --> 00:25:29,700
Now, you might not
have heard of Aleksandr,

356
00:25:29,700 --> 00:25:32,740
but you will have heard
of his younger brother.

357
00:25:32,740 --> 00:25:35,180
On the day of Aleksandr's execution,

358
00:25:35,180 --> 00:25:39,340
this brother was at school
doing his geometry exam.

359
00:25:39,340 --> 00:25:42,420
His brother's death radicalised him.

360
00:25:42,420 --> 00:25:45,300
He got involved in student protests

361
00:25:45,300 --> 00:25:48,300
and started producing
revolutionary literature

362
00:25:48,300 --> 00:25:50,980
under the pseudonym that would become

363
00:25:50,980 --> 00:25:53,580
one of the 20th century's
best-known names.

364
00:25:53,580 --> 00:25:54,860
Lenin.

365
00:25:57,220 --> 00:26:00,060
Contemporaries saw danger.

366
00:26:01,420 --> 00:26:04,220
The novelist Tolstoy
wrote to the Tsar

367
00:26:04,220 --> 00:26:06,980
urging him to show love
for his enemies.

368
00:26:08,620 --> 00:26:12,060
But Alexander wanted
to take the fight further

369
00:26:12,060 --> 00:26:15,540
and he used the very site
of his father's assassination

370
00:26:15,540 --> 00:26:20,060
in St Petersburg to make
a powerful statement.

371
00:26:20,060 --> 00:26:23,500
This city had killed his father,

372
00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:28,300
and here, Alexander would champion
the traditions of the Motherland

373
00:26:28,300 --> 00:26:32,260
over the bankrupt modernity
of the West.

374
00:26:32,260 --> 00:26:35,220
Peter the Great had conceived
of St Petersburg

375
00:26:35,220 --> 00:26:37,180
as a model for a new Russia.

376
00:26:38,860 --> 00:26:41,340
Here, Russia was going to embrace
Western ideals.

377
00:26:42,740 --> 00:26:46,340
The city was even going to look
like it belonged to Europe,

378
00:26:46,340 --> 00:26:48,820
being largely in the Classical style.

379
00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:51,260
And yet, bang in the middle
of this city

380
00:26:51,260 --> 00:26:53,300
full of Renaissance-style palazzi,

381
00:26:53,300 --> 00:26:56,820
Alexander III has plonked
down this building.

382
00:26:57,780 --> 00:27:01,420
It's like a declaration of war
on Peter's ideal.

383
00:27:01,420 --> 00:27:04,460
A bit like a ghost at a feast,

384
00:27:04,460 --> 00:27:06,980
this building revives
the old Russia

385
00:27:06,980 --> 00:27:09,700
that Peter the Great
tried to obliterate.

386
00:27:13,220 --> 00:27:16,460
For Alexander III,
Russia had gone wrong

387
00:27:16,460 --> 00:27:18,340
when it had tried to copy the West,

388
00:27:19,780 --> 00:27:22,260
when it had tried
to modernise itself.

389
00:27:24,020 --> 00:27:28,580
Western ideas clearly led
to tsars getting blown up.

390
00:27:28,580 --> 00:27:32,540
Russia could only thrive
by embracing Russian culture

391
00:27:32,540 --> 00:27:36,020
and that traditional Russian form
of government, autocracy.

392
00:27:37,820 --> 00:27:42,300
Alexander III wasn't at the opening
of the chillingly named

393
00:27:42,300 --> 00:27:45,540
Church Of The Saviour
On The Spilled Blood.

394
00:27:45,540 --> 00:27:50,380
He died of kidney disease
in 1894, aged only 49.

395
00:27:51,940 --> 00:27:55,660
Responsibility for this,
and nearly everything else in Russia,

396
00:27:55,660 --> 00:28:02,260
landed suddenly in the lap
of his 26-year-old son, Nicholas.

397
00:28:03,460 --> 00:28:08,700
Outwardly, Nicholas II was
a polite, cosmopolitan gentleman,

398
00:28:08,700 --> 00:28:12,620
but under the surface was a ruler
who felt deeply Russian.

399
00:28:14,020 --> 00:28:19,220
His coronation revealed a vision
of Russia rooted in tradition.

400
00:28:19,220 --> 00:28:22,500
That most modern of technologies,
moving film,

401
00:28:22,500 --> 00:28:27,180
was used to capture a ceremony
replete with 17th-century costumes.

402
00:28:30,940 --> 00:28:34,260
After Nicholas and his wife,
Alexandra, were crowned,

403
00:28:34,260 --> 00:28:37,140
the new tsar took the coronation oath

404
00:28:37,140 --> 00:28:39,940
and vowed to uphold autocracy.

405
00:28:42,380 --> 00:28:47,380
The royal couple were bound together
by their intense religious devotion.

406
00:28:49,020 --> 00:28:52,140
Near their favoured royal retreat,
they built this.

407
00:28:53,820 --> 00:28:55,700
A cathedral that stands above

408
00:28:55,700 --> 00:28:59,100
Nicholas and Alexandra's
private crypt church.

409
00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:04,940
A visit is like a journey
into Nicholas's own soul.

410
00:29:08,020 --> 00:29:11,020
This is the family's private,
personal entrance

411
00:29:11,020 --> 00:29:13,300
to their private, personal chapel

412
00:29:13,300 --> 00:29:16,060
buried beneath the main body
of the church.

413
00:29:19,780 --> 00:29:23,980
It feels like you're going into
the inner sanctum of the Romanovs.

414
00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:36,820
Nicholas was a fatalist -

415
00:29:36,820 --> 00:29:40,900
he believed that whatever happened
was ultimately God's will.

416
00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:44,500
Misfortune would lead him to declare,

417
00:29:44,500 --> 00:29:47,420
"God knows what is good for us.

418
00:29:47,420 --> 00:29:51,700
"We must bow down our heads
and repeat the sacred words,

419
00:29:51,700 --> 00:29:54,100
"'Thy will be done.'"

420
00:29:54,100 --> 00:29:58,020
Nicholas was a man
of deep, deep piety.

421
00:29:58,020 --> 00:30:01,500
With some other rulers,
religion is for ceremony or show.

422
00:30:01,500 --> 00:30:03,740
Not so with Nicholas.

423
00:30:03,740 --> 00:30:06,860
During his reign,
more churches were built in Russia

424
00:30:06,860 --> 00:30:09,540
than during the preceding century.

425
00:30:09,540 --> 00:30:14,300
And his first response to disaster
wasn't what I would call practical.

426
00:30:14,300 --> 00:30:19,940
It wasn't "How can I help?" He would
spend several hours in prayer.

427
00:30:19,940 --> 00:30:23,340
He felt that he had a very personal
relationship with God.

428
00:30:32,620 --> 00:30:37,420
This communion with the divine
defined Nicholas's rule.

429
00:30:38,500 --> 00:30:41,980
He never forgot
that he was a vessel of God.

430
00:30:43,620 --> 00:30:48,300
Nicholas tried to be
a genuinely absolute monarch,

431
00:30:48,300 --> 00:30:53,460
but, perversely, this made him
a pretty ineffective one.

432
00:30:53,460 --> 00:30:56,660
The trouble was that he believed
that the will of the Almighty

433
00:30:56,660 --> 00:30:59,580
ought to flow directly through him

434
00:30:59,580 --> 00:31:02,460
to his 170 million subjects.

435
00:31:03,980 --> 00:31:05,860
He found it very hard to delegate.

436
00:31:05,860 --> 00:31:08,020
He didn't even have a secretary.

437
00:31:08,020 --> 00:31:11,500
So, his desk would be piled high
with papers.

438
00:31:11,500 --> 00:31:15,060
He was meticulous about dealing
with correspondence

439
00:31:15,060 --> 00:31:19,180
on topics like the appointment
of rural midwives

440
00:31:19,180 --> 00:31:23,940
and whether or not a particular
soldier ought to go on leave.

441
00:31:23,940 --> 00:31:27,140
But while he was bogged down
in these trivia,

442
00:31:27,140 --> 00:31:32,020
big decisions about the future of
his empire were getting away from him

443
00:31:33,940 --> 00:31:35,900
Inside Nicholas's head,

444
00:31:35,900 --> 00:31:39,220
the Russian Empire was still
a medieval one.

445
00:31:39,220 --> 00:31:41,500
Peasants toiling in their fields,

446
00:31:41,500 --> 00:31:44,460
loyal to their "Little Father",
the tsar.

447
00:31:45,740 --> 00:31:47,780
But Russia was undergoing

448
00:31:47,780 --> 00:31:51,540
a belated, and very rapid,
industrial revolution.

449
00:31:51,540 --> 00:31:53,740
Famine had drawn hundreds
of thousands

450
00:31:53,740 --> 00:31:57,180
of newly liberated peasants
to the cities and to factory work.

451
00:31:58,540 --> 00:32:02,620
St Petersburg
had doubled in size in 15 years.

452
00:32:05,460 --> 00:32:07,940
As peasants became factory workers,

453
00:32:07,940 --> 00:32:10,340
they began to demand better
conditions

454
00:32:10,340 --> 00:32:12,580
and respect from their employers.

455
00:32:14,020 --> 00:32:19,940
Everything came to a head on
9th January, 1905 - Bloody Sunday.

456
00:32:19,940 --> 00:32:25,620
150,000 striking protesters
planned to march on the Winter Palace

457
00:32:25,620 --> 00:32:29,660
in the hope that the Tsar
would listen to their grievances.

458
00:32:29,660 --> 00:32:30,980
Many of those who turned out

459
00:32:30,980 --> 00:32:33,420
believed that when they got
to the Winter Palace,

460
00:32:33,420 --> 00:32:36,420
the Tsar would be pleased to
see them, would welcome them in.

461
00:32:36,420 --> 00:32:39,740
Stories went round that he would
put on a parade for them

462
00:32:39,740 --> 00:32:41,580
and offer them refreshments.

463
00:32:47,780 --> 00:32:50,420
Nicholas wasn't at home
at the Winter Palace,

464
00:32:50,420 --> 00:32:53,700
but 12,000 troops had been
posted around the city

465
00:32:53,700 --> 00:32:57,140
with orders to prevent
the marchers from reaching it.

466
00:33:01,620 --> 00:33:05,620
It was at the Narva Gate that
the largest brigade of protesters

467
00:33:05,620 --> 00:33:08,900
found themselves face-to-face
with two companies

468
00:33:08,900 --> 00:33:12,940
of the 93rd Irkutsk Infantry
Regiment.

469
00:33:12,940 --> 00:33:16,020
One of the thousands
out on the streets that day

470
00:33:16,020 --> 00:33:19,220
was the writer and communist
Maxim Gorky.

471
00:33:20,460 --> 00:33:23,580
Within hours, Gorky wrote
this letter describing

472
00:33:23,580 --> 00:33:27,180
exactly what happened next
to the protesters.

473
00:33:27,180 --> 00:33:28,940
"At the Narva Gate,

474
00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:33,940
"they were met by the troops,
who fired nine rounds.

475
00:33:33,940 --> 00:33:37,260
"After the first shots,
some of the workers began to shout,

476
00:33:37,260 --> 00:33:41,420
"'Don't be frightened, they're
blanks!' But this wasn't true.

477
00:33:41,420 --> 00:33:44,220
"Already a dozen or so people
had fallen to the ground,

478
00:33:44,220 --> 00:33:46,060
"the front ranks were mown down

479
00:33:46,060 --> 00:33:47,900
"and the soldiers fired again

480
00:33:47,900 --> 00:33:50,860
"at anybody who tried
to stand up and get away."

481
00:33:52,100 --> 00:33:54,380
40 people died at this spot

482
00:33:54,380 --> 00:33:56,300
and across the city,

483
00:33:56,300 --> 00:34:00,660
more than 100 were killed
and hundreds more wounded.

484
00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:04,140
But, according to Gorky,
there was another casualty.

485
00:34:05,500 --> 00:34:08,740
"The Tsar's prestige has been
killed here -

486
00:34:08,740 --> 00:34:11,340
"that is the meaning of this day."

487
00:34:13,140 --> 00:34:17,180
For a year, revolution
raged across the Empire.

488
00:34:17,180 --> 00:34:19,140
And it was only brought to an end

489
00:34:19,140 --> 00:34:22,220
when Nicholas caved in
and made concessions.

490
00:34:23,380 --> 00:34:25,620
He promised a free press,

491
00:34:25,620 --> 00:34:28,460
right of assembly and, above all,

492
00:34:28,460 --> 00:34:29,820
a constitution.

493
00:34:33,580 --> 00:34:37,100
And Russia was to have
an elective assembly, the Duma,

494
00:34:37,100 --> 00:34:40,860
whose approval would be needed
to pass legislation.

495
00:34:44,540 --> 00:34:47,660
Nicholas insisted that
the state opening of the Duma

496
00:34:47,660 --> 00:34:50,860
be on home ground
at the Winter Palace.

497
00:34:50,860 --> 00:34:55,300
And so, in April 1906,
Russia's elite found themselves

498
00:34:55,300 --> 00:34:58,420
face-to-face with the people
for the first time.

499
00:34:58,420 --> 00:35:02,620
On this side of the room stood
Nicholas's existing government,

500
00:35:02,620 --> 00:35:06,940
his state councillors,
in their uniforms with gold lace.

501
00:35:06,940 --> 00:35:10,980
On the other side
stood members of the new Duma.

502
00:35:10,980 --> 00:35:13,940
They were wearing the clothing
of workers and peasants -

503
00:35:13,940 --> 00:35:16,900
that's red shirts
and big, rough boots.

504
00:35:16,900 --> 00:35:20,180
And the two sides looked
at each other with suspicion...

505
00:35:20,180 --> 00:35:21,940
and hostility.

506
00:35:23,740 --> 00:35:27,900
If there were ever a moment for
Nicholas to reach across the divide

507
00:35:27,900 --> 00:35:30,460
and bring people together,
this was it.

508
00:35:30,460 --> 00:35:33,340
But, no, he made a speech
recommitting himself

509
00:35:33,340 --> 00:35:36,300
to the principle of autocracy.

510
00:35:36,300 --> 00:35:41,380
He was going to hold on to it, he
said, "with unwavering firmness".

511
00:35:41,380 --> 00:35:44,740
At the end of the speech, the state
councillors let out a big cheer -

512
00:35:44,740 --> 00:35:46,500
they were delighted.

513
00:35:46,500 --> 00:35:52,420
But the members of the new Duma
stood and listened in stony silence.

514
00:35:54,620 --> 00:35:57,900
In the end, Nicholas's first Duma
didn't last ten weeks.

515
00:35:59,100 --> 00:36:00,580
He dissolved it.

516
00:36:00,580 --> 00:36:04,740
And, ultimately, fixed the elections
to get a more compliant one.

517
00:36:04,740 --> 00:36:07,300
For now, autocracy had won the day.

518
00:36:09,340 --> 00:36:12,380
After the 1905 Revolution,
Nicholas and Alexandra

519
00:36:12,380 --> 00:36:14,460
were spending more and more time

520
00:36:14,460 --> 00:36:17,980
in the safety of this
Neoclassical palace.

521
00:36:17,980 --> 00:36:21,060
Here, the Tsar
was able to be something

522
00:36:21,060 --> 00:36:24,820
that he was actually good at -
a husband and a father.

523
00:36:24,820 --> 00:36:29,180
We're only 15 miles away
from the centre of St Petersburg,

524
00:36:29,180 --> 00:36:32,060
but the secluded Alexander Palace,

525
00:36:32,060 --> 00:36:36,900
in its beautiful park, seems like
a completely different world.

526
00:36:36,900 --> 00:36:39,180
It was here that
Nicholas and his family

527
00:36:39,180 --> 00:36:42,340
found an escape
from sycophantic courtiers

528
00:36:42,340 --> 00:36:45,060
and the unkind gossip
of the court.

529
00:36:45,060 --> 00:36:49,260
But it was also here, at the
centre of their happy, domestic life,

530
00:36:49,260 --> 00:36:51,180
that a crisis was unfolding

531
00:36:51,180 --> 00:36:54,380
with grave consequences
for the dynasty.

532
00:36:56,540 --> 00:37:00,140
Nicholas II had four daughters,
as seen here,

533
00:37:00,140 --> 00:37:04,100
Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

534
00:37:06,100 --> 00:37:09,380
But with the birth
of his fifth child, Alexei,

535
00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:11,820
in 1904, he finally had an heir.

536
00:37:14,860 --> 00:37:18,820
The royal children played
in the palace's vast park.

537
00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:24,820
A favourite den was this playhouse
built for the children of Nicholas I.

538
00:37:26,660 --> 00:37:28,980
But a handful of people
knew that Alexei

539
00:37:28,980 --> 00:37:31,820
had inherited the condition
of haemophilia

540
00:37:31,820 --> 00:37:35,420
through his maternal
great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

541
00:37:36,980 --> 00:37:41,420
At the start of the 20th century,
this was a death sentence.

542
00:37:43,220 --> 00:37:47,220
In 1907, the three-year-old
Alexei had been playing

543
00:37:47,220 --> 00:37:49,460
when he fell over and hurt his leg.

544
00:37:52,100 --> 00:37:54,180
When he was carried into the palace,

545
00:37:54,180 --> 00:37:56,420
it was clear that something
was very wrong.

546
00:37:59,260 --> 00:38:02,020
Poor Alexei had a haemorrhage
in his leg.

547
00:38:02,020 --> 00:38:06,580
It had swollen up and it was
giving him excruciating pain.

548
00:38:06,580 --> 00:38:08,300
His body was twisted

549
00:38:08,300 --> 00:38:11,380
and he had dark shadows
under his eyes.

550
00:38:12,780 --> 00:38:16,020
For three days,
the boy's condition deteriorated

551
00:38:16,020 --> 00:38:18,860
and he came closer and closer
to death.

552
00:38:18,860 --> 00:38:21,380
The doctors couldn't even
ease his pain.

553
00:38:22,540 --> 00:38:29,020
With nothing to lose, Alexandra and
Nicholas turned to Grigori Rasputin,

554
00:38:29,020 --> 00:38:34,420
a mystic and holy man who,
it was said, had healing powers.

555
00:38:39,780 --> 00:38:43,220
Rasputin was brought into the palace
through a side entrance

556
00:38:43,220 --> 00:38:46,180
and he was taken up
to Alexei's bedroom.

557
00:38:46,180 --> 00:38:48,500
There, he made the sign of the cross,

558
00:38:48,500 --> 00:38:51,780
and he prayed over the little boy
for ten minutes.

559
00:38:51,780 --> 00:38:55,500
And then, he said,
"Your pain is leaving you,

560
00:38:55,500 --> 00:38:59,820
"you must thank God for healing you.
Now, go to sleep."

561
00:38:59,820 --> 00:39:01,100
And that was it.

562
00:39:02,620 --> 00:39:07,300
Rasputin's words appeared
to make Alexei instantly better.

563
00:39:08,460 --> 00:39:11,420
Those present felt that
they had witnessed a miracle.

564
00:39:13,100 --> 00:39:15,940
To Nicholas and Alexandra,
the message was clear -

565
00:39:15,940 --> 00:39:19,180
Rasputin was the only man in Russia
who could save their son.

566
00:39:22,540 --> 00:39:25,780
Rasputin could
stop Alexei's bleeding

567
00:39:25,780 --> 00:39:28,540
even when he wasn't there in person.

568
00:39:28,540 --> 00:39:31,460
When he was talking
on the telephone,

569
00:39:31,460 --> 00:39:34,020
he could make the bleeding stop.

570
00:39:34,020 --> 00:39:37,180
It's a very hard one
for us to understand.

571
00:39:37,180 --> 00:39:39,140
Russians can explain it.

572
00:39:40,540 --> 00:39:45,180
The nearest I could come to it
is to say that, perhaps,

573
00:39:45,180 --> 00:39:47,980
it's the calming effect he has.

574
00:39:55,100 --> 00:39:57,580
With Alexandra's anxiety,

575
00:39:57,580 --> 00:39:59,900
her son's fragile health,

576
00:39:59,900 --> 00:40:03,260
talk of revolution
and the threat of assassination,

577
00:40:03,260 --> 00:40:07,780
the Alexander Palace turned into
a place of even greater seclusion.

578
00:40:07,780 --> 00:40:11,540
The Empress and the children
simply locked themselves away.

579
00:40:12,860 --> 00:40:16,860
And just as the public were unable
to see into this private world,

580
00:40:16,860 --> 00:40:19,820
so the Romanovs found it
increasingly hard

581
00:40:19,820 --> 00:40:23,860
to see out to the changing nation
beyond their gates.

582
00:40:25,180 --> 00:40:28,980
A rare public appearance
occurred in 1913,

583
00:40:28,980 --> 00:40:33,500
the 300-year anniversary
of the Romanovs gaining power.

584
00:40:33,500 --> 00:40:36,380
When the family emerged,
they were presented

585
00:40:36,380 --> 00:40:39,820
with the stage-managed Russia
of their imagination.

586
00:40:43,100 --> 00:40:44,780
Nicholas relived the moment

587
00:40:44,780 --> 00:40:49,740
when Michael Romanov was greeted at
the Kremlin on the way to be crowned.

588
00:40:51,060 --> 00:40:55,700
And the highlight was a journey
around the ancient Russian cities,

589
00:40:55,700 --> 00:40:57,180
including Kostroma,

590
00:40:57,180 --> 00:41:01,580
where the Romanov story
had begun three centuries before.

591
00:41:05,140 --> 00:41:07,340
During the trip along the Volga,

592
00:41:07,340 --> 00:41:11,980
not as many as expected turned
out to see the royal steamer.

593
00:41:17,540 --> 00:41:20,220
But, when they got here to Kostroma,

594
00:41:20,220 --> 00:41:23,580
the weather warmed up
and so did the crowds.

595
00:41:23,580 --> 00:41:26,820
People were throwing themselves
at the Tsar's feet.

596
00:41:26,820 --> 00:41:30,820
They were even kissing the ground
where his shadow had fallen.

597
00:41:30,820 --> 00:41:34,660
This was a true spiritual homecoming.

598
00:41:38,140 --> 00:41:41,260
This adulation made
Alexandra cock-a-hoop.

599
00:41:42,380 --> 00:41:45,180
"We need merely to show ourselves,"
she said,

600
00:41:45,180 --> 00:41:48,300
"and, at once,
their hearts are ours."

601
00:41:51,060 --> 00:41:53,460
What no-one knew was that this

602
00:41:53,460 --> 00:41:57,540
was to be imperial Russia's
final golden summer.

603
00:41:57,540 --> 00:42:00,660
EXPLOSIONS

604
00:42:05,020 --> 00:42:09,700
In 1914, Nicholas let his people
into the First World War.

605
00:42:10,860 --> 00:42:15,460
Workers rallied to the Tsar
as to our emblem.

606
00:42:15,460 --> 00:42:18,140
12 million men would be mobilised

607
00:42:18,140 --> 00:42:22,820
and Nicholas made a stirring speech
from the Winter Palace,

608
00:42:22,820 --> 00:42:27,140
likening the fight to Alexander I's
war against Napoleon.

609
00:42:32,060 --> 00:42:35,820
But the war would force Nicholas
to make a fateful decision.

610
00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:43,820
In 1915, Nicholas was praying

611
00:42:43,820 --> 00:42:47,540
to an icon of the
Protectress of the Romanovs,

612
00:42:47,540 --> 00:42:51,460
and then, as he described it,
an "inner voice" spoke,

613
00:42:51,460 --> 00:42:55,980
and told him that he should take
personal command of the army.

614
00:42:57,980 --> 00:43:02,020
Afterwards, he experienced
a feeling like after Holy Communion.

615
00:43:02,020 --> 00:43:04,820
God was flowing directly through him.

616
00:43:04,820 --> 00:43:07,940
But, by taking personal
control of the army,

617
00:43:07,940 --> 00:43:12,340
Nicholas shackled himself and his
dynasty to the success of the war.

618
00:43:13,900 --> 00:43:17,660
"The tsar directs the war not from
the distance of hundreds of miles,"

619
00:43:17,660 --> 00:43:20,700
said Nicholas,
"he appears in the midst of battle.

620
00:43:20,700 --> 00:43:24,380
"He feels the mood of his armies."

621
00:43:24,380 --> 00:43:28,340
With the Tsar away at the front,
a power vacuum was created,

622
00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:32,300
one eagerly filled by Rasputin.

623
00:43:33,540 --> 00:43:36,700
Because of Alexandra's
reliance upon him,

624
00:43:36,700 --> 00:43:40,740
many believed that a malign power
was working behind the throne.

625
00:43:41,980 --> 00:43:44,660
And Rasputin didn't help himself.

626
00:43:44,660 --> 00:43:49,540
He drank heavily, enjoyed
the flattery of society ladies,

627
00:43:49,540 --> 00:43:52,740
and, well, other sorts
of ladies, too.

628
00:43:52,740 --> 00:43:54,540
He was known to visit prostitutes.

629
00:43:54,540 --> 00:43:56,700
We don't quite know what
he did with them,

630
00:43:56,700 --> 00:43:59,620
but there's some suggestion
he may have been

631
00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:01,700
testing himself spiritually,

632
00:44:01,700 --> 00:44:04,020
or that he also had the belief
that the more you sin,

633
00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:05,380
the more you can be forgiven,

634
00:44:05,380 --> 00:44:08,100
so you should get on
and do plenty of sinning.

635
00:44:08,100 --> 00:44:10,420
MACHINERY SQUEAKS

636
00:44:11,700 --> 00:44:16,580
Rasputin's continuing reputation
as "Russia's greatest love machine"

637
00:44:16,580 --> 00:44:18,620
is a relic from this time.

638
00:44:18,620 --> 00:44:20,620
SQUEAKING

639
00:44:22,980 --> 00:44:27,940
The rumours damaged Alexandra,
who was tainted by association.

640
00:44:29,380 --> 00:44:33,020
The fact that they were close to him
and refused to speak about it

641
00:44:33,020 --> 00:44:36,860
just exacerbated relations
with the rest of the family

642
00:44:36,860 --> 00:44:39,380
and with the wider aristocracy.

643
00:44:39,380 --> 00:44:43,380
Certainly, calling
into question their judgment

644
00:44:43,380 --> 00:44:47,300
and increasing
this sense of "us and them".

645
00:44:49,420 --> 00:44:52,900
A plot was hatched to kill Rasputin.

646
00:44:52,900 --> 00:44:55,780
It centred around the man
who lived here,

647
00:44:55,780 --> 00:44:58,020
Prince Felix Yusupov,

648
00:44:58,020 --> 00:45:02,020
who was married to Tsar Nicholas's
beautiful niece, Irina.

649
00:45:04,700 --> 00:45:08,180
On the night of December 16th, 1916,

650
00:45:08,180 --> 00:45:10,820
Felix lured Rasputin
to his palace

651
00:45:10,820 --> 00:45:14,860
with the promise of a midnight
assignation with Irina.

652
00:45:14,860 --> 00:45:16,700
GRAMOPHONE PLAYS

653
00:45:16,700 --> 00:45:19,900
Upstairs, they could hear
the sound of a party.

654
00:45:19,900 --> 00:45:21,620
A gramophone was playing.

655
00:45:21,620 --> 00:45:24,140
Felix explained
that his wife had guests

656
00:45:24,140 --> 00:45:26,220
and that she would come down
when they'd left.

657
00:45:26,220 --> 00:45:28,460
GRAMOPHONE PLAYS SCRATCHY MUSIC

658
00:45:38,220 --> 00:45:41,020
Prince Felix said,
"While we're waiting,

659
00:45:41,020 --> 00:45:43,380
"let's have some cakes
and some wine."

660
00:45:43,380 --> 00:45:45,700
The cakes were rose-flavoured -

661
00:45:45,700 --> 00:45:49,340
Rasputin's favourite -
and both were laced with cyanide.

662
00:45:49,340 --> 00:45:52,860
He ate and he drank, but there
seemed to be nothing wrong with him.

663
00:45:52,860 --> 00:45:56,580
He asked Prince Felix
to play some songs on his guitar.

664
00:45:58,940 --> 00:46:04,140
An hour later, Felix was getting
impatient, so he got his pistol.

665
00:46:04,140 --> 00:46:08,580
He distracted Rasputin
by asking him to look at a crucifix,

666
00:46:08,580 --> 00:46:10,500
and he shot him in the side.

667
00:46:12,380 --> 00:46:15,420
Now, the conspirators started talking
about what to do

668
00:46:15,420 --> 00:46:18,660
with Rasputin's clothes,
his overcoat,

669
00:46:18,660 --> 00:46:22,700
but, unnoticed by them,
Rasputin was still alive!

670
00:46:22,700 --> 00:46:25,500
He managed to creep his way
right out of the building

671
00:46:25,500 --> 00:46:28,580
and into the courtyard
before they spotted this.

672
00:46:28,580 --> 00:46:32,420
There they shot him again,
probably in the head,

673
00:46:32,420 --> 00:46:35,300
and they weighed down his body
with heavy iron chains

674
00:46:35,300 --> 00:46:37,740
and threw it into the River Neva.

675
00:46:44,020 --> 00:46:47,500
The removal of Rasputin was too
little, too late,

676
00:46:47,500 --> 00:46:48,980
to save the Romanovs.

677
00:46:50,020 --> 00:46:51,620
The war was dragging on

678
00:46:51,620 --> 00:46:53,900
and conditions were getting worse.

679
00:46:53,900 --> 00:46:57,700
A decisive moment
was reached in February 1917

680
00:46:57,700 --> 00:47:00,900
on the streets
of the Russian capital.

681
00:47:00,900 --> 00:47:03,940
Workers, tired of long
hours in the factories -

682
00:47:03,940 --> 00:47:06,300
and even longer queues for bread -

683
00:47:06,300 --> 00:47:08,740
came pouring out on to the streets.

684
00:47:11,660 --> 00:47:15,260
The First World War
was a disaster for Russia.

685
00:47:15,260 --> 00:47:19,300
Three out of four Russian soldiers
became casualties.

686
00:47:20,980 --> 00:47:23,860
Workers and farmers
had been taken from their jobs

687
00:47:23,860 --> 00:47:26,460
and then slaughtered
by the German army.

688
00:47:27,700 --> 00:47:32,260
And this led to food shortages
and rampant inflation.

689
00:47:32,260 --> 00:47:36,100
Ultimately, the glittering Romanovs
would be brought down

690
00:47:36,100 --> 00:47:40,380
by a people who wanted
the basic commodity of bread.

691
00:47:43,940 --> 00:47:47,020
The breaking point
came on International Women's Day.

692
00:47:48,260 --> 00:47:51,660
Thousands of women
flooded the streets to protest,

693
00:47:51,660 --> 00:47:54,740
joining forces with striking workers.

694
00:47:57,620 --> 00:47:59,220
By the next day,

695
00:47:59,220 --> 00:48:03,660
a quarter of a million people
were marching down Nevsky Prospect.

696
00:48:03,660 --> 00:48:07,780
They were smashing up the shops
and carrying banners

697
00:48:07,780 --> 00:48:11,980
that said things like, "Stop the
war!" "Feed the children!"

698
00:48:11,980 --> 00:48:15,940
and, most worryingly to the Romanovs,
"End autocracy!"

699
00:48:19,700 --> 00:48:25,060
Alexandra wrote to Nicholas of a
hooligan movement in the streets.

700
00:48:25,060 --> 00:48:29,420
Nicholas commanded the local garrison
to put a stop to the protests,

701
00:48:29,420 --> 00:48:33,300
and orders were issued
to use all necessary force.

702
00:48:34,740 --> 00:48:36,780
BELLS TOLL

703
00:48:36,780 --> 00:48:40,580
The thousands of people
on the streets were met by soldiers

704
00:48:40,580 --> 00:48:43,500
who followed their orders
and fired at them.

705
00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:46,780
But, that night, when the troops
went back to their barracks,

706
00:48:46,780 --> 00:48:49,900
they began to ask themselves
whether they could face another day

707
00:48:49,900 --> 00:48:52,780
of shooting at their fellow citizens

708
00:48:52,780 --> 00:48:54,620
who were desperate for food.

709
00:48:54,620 --> 00:48:57,700
The answer to that question
became clear the next morning.

710
00:48:57,700 --> 00:49:00,300
The streets were full again
with the workers,

711
00:49:00,300 --> 00:49:03,900
but also with soldiers
with red ribbons on their bayonets.

712
00:49:04,980 --> 00:49:08,660
The mutinies amongst
the armed forces went on all day.

713
00:49:08,660 --> 00:49:13,180
They broke into weapons factories,
they set fire to police stations.

714
00:49:13,180 --> 00:49:16,380
By sunset, the revolution
was well underway.

715
00:49:20,900 --> 00:49:23,900
By now, Nicholas had been abandoned
by his generals,

716
00:49:23,900 --> 00:49:28,140
who believed he was completely
useless, an obstacle to victory.

717
00:49:29,580 --> 00:49:33,460
Travelling home from the front,
Nicholas's train was forced to divert

718
00:49:33,460 --> 00:49:37,820
and he started getting telegrams
from politicians and the military.

719
00:49:42,900 --> 00:49:46,420
They said that in order to avoid
a complete collapse of order,

720
00:49:46,420 --> 00:49:47,820
he would have to go.

721
00:49:49,100 --> 00:49:52,460
Now, for all of his failures,
Nicholas was a patriot.

722
00:49:52,460 --> 00:49:55,700
To avoid civil war,
he agreed to abdicate.

723
00:50:00,060 --> 00:50:04,300
And here's the document
when Nicholas renounces an empire.

724
00:50:04,300 --> 00:50:08,580
Effectively, bringing an end
to 300 years of Romanov rule.

725
00:50:09,860 --> 00:50:13,820
I can't help noticing that he
signed it very lightly in pencil,

726
00:50:13,820 --> 00:50:15,740
as if he didn't really mean it.

727
00:50:18,180 --> 00:50:20,660
People present were struck
by the calmness

728
00:50:20,660 --> 00:50:23,820
with which Nicholas
signed away his throne.

729
00:50:23,820 --> 00:50:26,700
One of the generals present
later said,

730
00:50:26,700 --> 00:50:30,220
"He was such a fatalist,
I couldn't believe it.

731
00:50:30,220 --> 00:50:32,980
"He signed as simply
as one hands over

732
00:50:32,980 --> 00:50:35,940
"a cavalry squadron
to its new commander."

733
00:50:38,820 --> 00:50:43,420
Nicholas handed the throne
to his brother, who refused it.

734
00:50:43,420 --> 00:50:46,140
Instead, the mighty power
of the tsar

735
00:50:46,140 --> 00:50:49,620
flowed to Russia's new
provisional government.

736
00:50:49,620 --> 00:50:53,300
300 years of Romanov rule
had come to an end.

737
00:50:54,700 --> 00:50:58,100
The new provisional government
immediately faced demands

738
00:50:58,100 --> 00:50:59,620
for the ex-Tsar's arrest.

739
00:51:00,820 --> 00:51:04,140
On 7th March, they ordered that
Nicholas and Alexandra

740
00:51:04,140 --> 00:51:06,460
be deprived of their freedom.

741
00:51:06,460 --> 00:51:11,420
The family found themselves captive
back at the Alexander Palace.

742
00:51:11,420 --> 00:51:14,980
But even here,
the world was turned upside down.

743
00:51:14,980 --> 00:51:17,860
The soldiers moved freely
through the palace,

744
00:51:17,860 --> 00:51:20,940
coming into the family's rooms
unannounced.

745
00:51:20,940 --> 00:51:24,340
And outside the park railing,
crowds gathered -

746
00:51:24,340 --> 00:51:27,180
the "gapers"
as Nicholas called them,

747
00:51:27,180 --> 00:51:30,780
come to see the once-great Romanovs
brought so low.

748
00:51:32,460 --> 00:51:35,940
The guards liked to humiliate
Nicholas for a joke.

749
00:51:35,940 --> 00:51:38,140
One day, he was riding along
on his bicycle,

750
00:51:38,140 --> 00:51:40,220
and one of the soldiers thrust
his bayonet

751
00:51:40,220 --> 00:51:42,540
through the spokes of the wheel,

752
00:51:42,540 --> 00:51:46,980
then laughed uproariously as the
ex-Tsar went over the handlebars.

753
00:51:51,140 --> 00:51:55,220
The new provisional government
was still at war with the Germans.

754
00:51:55,220 --> 00:51:58,260
And so, the Germans gave them
a special present -

755
00:51:58,260 --> 00:51:59,980
Lenin.

756
00:51:59,980 --> 00:52:03,980
The exiled revolutionary
was transported across Germany

757
00:52:03,980 --> 00:52:05,860
in a sealed train to Russia.

758
00:52:07,300 --> 00:52:09,660
Lenin stirred up a more
militant mood

759
00:52:09,660 --> 00:52:12,780
and pressure was put
on the provisional government

760
00:52:12,780 --> 00:52:14,740
to be harder on the royal family.

761
00:52:15,820 --> 00:52:18,140
By the late summer,
it was decided

762
00:52:18,140 --> 00:52:21,580
that the Romanovs belonged
in a cage less gilded.

763
00:52:23,340 --> 00:52:27,180
At dawn, on 1st August, 1917,

764
00:52:27,180 --> 00:52:30,180
Tsar Nicholas and his family

765
00:52:30,180 --> 00:52:32,100
left the palace
through these doors.

766
00:52:32,100 --> 00:52:34,020
HINGES SQUEAK

767
00:52:34,020 --> 00:52:36,980
Along with 39 courtiers
and retainers,

768
00:52:36,980 --> 00:52:40,700
they were to be taken
under heavy guard to Siberia.

769
00:52:40,700 --> 00:52:44,220
They didn't realise it,
but they were leaving for ever.

770
00:52:52,540 --> 00:52:54,220
In spite of this harder line,

771
00:52:54,220 --> 00:52:57,380
the provisional government
were out of step

772
00:52:57,380 --> 00:53:00,380
with a people who wanted
an end to the war

773
00:53:00,380 --> 00:53:05,220
and who were flocking to Lenin's
promise of peace, land and bread.

774
00:53:05,220 --> 00:53:10,020
In October came the "ten days
that shook the world",

775
00:53:10,020 --> 00:53:14,100
when Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew
the provisional government.

776
00:53:14,100 --> 00:53:16,100
The Winter Palace was stormed,

777
00:53:16,100 --> 00:53:19,540
telegraph stations
and government offices occupied.

778
00:53:19,540 --> 00:53:21,500
With control of the state,

779
00:53:21,500 --> 00:53:25,340
the Bolsheviks now founded
their own militia, the Red Army.

780
00:53:26,660 --> 00:53:30,300
And they would, in time,
have to decide what to do

781
00:53:30,300 --> 00:53:33,140
with Mr Nicholas Romanov
and family.

782
00:53:34,500 --> 00:53:39,420
The Bolsheviks have a deep loathing
of the Russian imperial family.

783
00:53:39,420 --> 00:53:42,780
Lenin describes the last Tsar
not as "Nicholas II"

784
00:53:42,780 --> 00:53:44,860
but as "Nicholas the Bloody".

785
00:53:44,860 --> 00:53:47,540
And they hold the imperial family

786
00:53:47,540 --> 00:53:50,220
and the Romanov regime responsible

787
00:53:50,220 --> 00:53:53,700
for the events of 1905,

788
00:53:53,700 --> 00:53:57,580
when peaceful, working people
are shot down by tsarist troops.

789
00:53:57,580 --> 00:54:00,580
And in the spring
and summer of 1918,

790
00:54:00,580 --> 00:54:04,820
Lenin and his comrades are fixed
on one thing, and one thing only -

791
00:54:04,820 --> 00:54:07,580
it is the maintenance
of their own power.

792
00:54:07,580 --> 00:54:11,780
They understand very clearly
the fragility of their situation

793
00:54:11,780 --> 00:54:14,220
and they're prepared
to do almost anything

794
00:54:14,220 --> 00:54:19,700
to hold on to the authority that
they have gained in October 1917.

795
00:54:21,380 --> 00:54:25,500
By July 1918,
the family were being held in a house

796
00:54:25,500 --> 00:54:28,780
in Yekaterinburg
in the Ural Mountains.

797
00:54:28,780 --> 00:54:30,460
Civil war was raging.

798
00:54:30,460 --> 00:54:34,620
The guns of the White Army
rumbled just a few miles away.

799
00:54:36,420 --> 00:54:39,780
A decision was made somewhere
in the Soviet bureaucracy

800
00:54:39,780 --> 00:54:42,620
that Nicholas and his family
should be killed

801
00:54:42,620 --> 00:54:46,380
to prevent them from becoming
a rallying point for their enemies.

802
00:54:49,900 --> 00:54:51,940
It's hard to get a clear picture

803
00:54:51,940 --> 00:54:54,860
of what actually happened
at Yekaterinburg,

804
00:54:54,860 --> 00:54:58,020
there are so many conflicting stories
about it.

805
00:54:58,020 --> 00:55:01,500
And, in any case, the whole thing
was hushed up afterwards.

806
00:55:01,500 --> 00:55:05,580
But most sources do agree that
in the early hours of the morning,

807
00:55:05,580 --> 00:55:08,940
Nicholas, Alexandra
and the children were woken up.

808
00:55:08,940 --> 00:55:12,500
They were told to dress
and to go down to the cellar.

809
00:55:12,500 --> 00:55:16,380
This was for their own safety.
They had to be moved again.

810
00:55:16,380 --> 00:55:19,780
They were accompanied by some
of their servants and their dog.

811
00:55:19,780 --> 00:55:22,620
Meanwhile, outside the cellar,

812
00:55:22,620 --> 00:55:25,660
an execution squad was forming up.

813
00:55:25,660 --> 00:55:29,180
One of its members
was called Mikhail Medvedev,

814
00:55:29,180 --> 00:55:32,740
and this...is the gun
that he carried.

815
00:55:32,740 --> 00:55:34,780
When the squad entered,

816
00:55:34,780 --> 00:55:38,900
Nicholas was told that he and
his family were to be killed.

817
00:55:38,900 --> 00:55:41,700
And he was actually
in the act of going, "What?!"

818
00:55:41,700 --> 00:55:44,140
when the first shot was fired.

819
00:55:44,140 --> 00:55:46,780
Medvedev later claimed it as his own.

820
00:55:50,020 --> 00:55:53,100
What happened in the basement
was a massacre.

821
00:55:53,100 --> 00:55:55,940
As well as being shot multiple times,

822
00:55:55,940 --> 00:55:59,100
members of the family
were also bayoneted.

823
00:55:59,100 --> 00:56:01,180
One of the soldiers later remembered

824
00:56:01,180 --> 00:56:04,500
that it had been difficult
to bayonet the girls,

825
00:56:04,500 --> 00:56:07,940
because, thinking that the family
was on the move once again,

826
00:56:07,940 --> 00:56:12,060
they'd stored their diamonds and
their jewels inside their corsets.

827
00:56:12,060 --> 00:56:14,380
This had acted like armour plating.

828
00:56:15,740 --> 00:56:19,100
After the whole business was over,
there was only one survivor.

829
00:56:19,100 --> 00:56:21,060
It was the little dog.

830
00:56:35,820 --> 00:56:38,220
The question
I keep coming back to is,

831
00:56:38,220 --> 00:56:41,020
could all of this horror
have been avoided

832
00:56:41,020 --> 00:56:43,860
if Nicholas was a bit
more politically astute

833
00:56:43,860 --> 00:56:47,940
and a bit less determined
to cling on to his autocracy?

834
00:56:47,940 --> 00:56:52,340
If Nicholas had heeded the warning
of the Revolution of 1905

835
00:56:52,340 --> 00:56:55,740
and become a constitutional monarch,
like in Britain,

836
00:56:55,740 --> 00:56:58,580
then, maybe, his life,
the lives of his family,

837
00:56:58,580 --> 00:57:02,980
and the lives of millions of ordinary
Russians could have been saved.

838
00:57:02,980 --> 00:57:07,620
But, no, he was determined
that his power should be undiluted.

839
00:57:07,620 --> 00:57:10,820
And if you look back at the history
of his dynasty,

840
00:57:10,820 --> 00:57:13,380
you can sort of see
why he made that decision.

841
00:57:15,060 --> 00:57:18,820
Nicholas's devotion to autocracy
wasn't a fetish.

842
00:57:18,820 --> 00:57:23,820
For him, it was a rational response
to how power worked in Russia.

843
00:57:23,820 --> 00:57:25,780
His direct ancestors,

844
00:57:25,780 --> 00:57:28,540
Peter the Great
and Catherine the Great,

845
00:57:28,540 --> 00:57:33,620
had used their absolute rule
to turn Russia into a world power...

846
00:57:33,620 --> 00:57:39,140
while Western-style reforms led
to instability and assassination.

847
00:57:39,140 --> 00:57:40,900
GUNSHOT ECHOES

848
00:57:40,900 --> 00:57:42,580
BELLS RING

849
00:57:42,580 --> 00:57:44,580
And even though Nicholas himself

850
00:57:44,580 --> 00:57:47,060
didn't make a good job of being
an autocrat,

851
00:57:47,060 --> 00:57:48,660
the regime that followed him

852
00:57:48,660 --> 00:57:51,940
would, in some ways, resemble
that of tsarist rule

853
00:57:51,940 --> 00:57:56,540
with its own "Red Tsars"
around whom the State revolved.

854
00:58:00,500 --> 00:58:02,940
For better or worse,

855
00:58:02,940 --> 00:58:07,540
how the Romanovs governed
paved the way for what was to come.

856
00:58:10,700 --> 00:58:12,860
BELLS RING