Fatalism is indeed an means of coping, and I suppose you could say that through this Nicholas was expecting the worst, because if it happened, then even if it was bad, it was meant to be. You don't change things this way, in positive ways, nor try to change things at all. I don't think Nicholas expected the bad to happen, he just passively accepted it, when it, did, acting on Fatalism. Self fulfilling prophecy is certainly applicable though, if not as much as Fatalism to this mindset, and what role it played in the governing of Russia, from Nicholas II, to the peasantry. Fatalism could be called wholly negative, but perhaps if you look, it isn't totally that way.
I agree they were out of touch with peasantry, but then you can't expect that they woudn't be in a autocracy that hadn't changed overly much since the days of Catherine the Great. And no one around them knew much better, nor would they have said had they known anything more. They subscribed to every notion of the autocracy, and tradition, doing everything as it had been done before. The peasantry as it was traditionally thought of seemed to be part of this, espevially to Alexandra. But they were never taught it was not so, and perhaps to think of it as so, was a challenge to the very existence of their world in the eyes of Nicholas and Alexandra. But they believed they were doing their best, and never entertained the notion of a less than traditional peasantry, although pleasing these peasants, and reforming conditions of daily life for some of these people was needed. But there was no easy solution to these issues of reforms, and perhaps only time, and gradual change could have made reforms effective anyway. It's easy to say reform was needed, but it's hard to say exactly what reforms. Even if Nicholas and Alexandra had been more politically aware, this might not have helped, as there was so much to be done. Sorry to drag so much politics into this..Russia has suffered much, and I agree with what the last poster said.
