Nicholas II was Unprepared to Rule. Why?

[kmerov]

Please someone help me with this.
I never cant seem to remember which Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses liked Nicholas as emperor, and  head of the family, so im hoping you can tell me on this thread.
Its a shame that Nicky, as head of the family couldnt unite such as his father, Alexander III.

[Erichek]

Since Nicholas, right after his father's death, sort of acknowledged the fact that he had not been properly prepared for his new job, and while he may have understood about himself that he was not ' tsar material', why did he not abdicate in favour of somebody else?
Or was tradition too strong for him to decline the honour? It had been done before...

Erichek

[bluetoria]

Hello Erichek  
I think this is discussed quite a lot in the Negative Attributes of Nicholas as Tsar, but I would think it was because he saw it as his duty; it was all he had been brought to believe  :-/ And to whom could he have handed over that role?

[kmerov]

Maybe it was to much to ask of, but maybe you can tell me this. Am i correct in assuming that all the branches in generel didnt like him, exept the Konstantinovich branch?

[bluetoria]

It seems that it wasn't so much that they didn't LIKE him, as didn't RESPECT him as a Tsar. He wasn't able to inspire the same respect as his father had done. Perhaps this was because his was a gentler & more diffident nature. Sandro Mikhailovich was one of his closest friends, wasn't he? And even after Khodinka, it wasn't Nicholas that he & his brothers blamed, but Serge??
Perhaps by the time of the revolution, the entire family was despairing of him. (But again, I think it is necessary to separate the man from his role as Tsar, because as a man it seems they all liked him.)

[kmerov]

Yes, you are right, and maybe thats why i get confused all the time . On one hand they like him and on the other they dont. They wanted to like him as an  emperor also, but when you dont/cant respect a man there is not much to do about it!

[bluetoria]

Which is why I feel so sorry for Nicholas. His whole personality was not suited to the role; those who knew him loved him...yet history judges him as a failure & then glorifies him because of the awfulness of his death.
As a man he was not a failure; his fault was his inability to rule. To my mind he was neither saint nor a failure...just a man trying to do his best & failing. (Maybe that DOES make him a saint  :-/ ) I would imagine that that is how all the members of the family saw him too; had they disliked him they would not have made such an effort, immediately prior to the revolution, to persuade him to adopt a different approach. By then, though, I think too many of them were concerned with their own future & clinging on to their positions to offer any REAL help.  :-/

[koloagirl]

 

I too feel that Nicholas was liked by members of his family as a "person" but despaired of as a "Tsar".

From reading books, especially "A Lifelong Passion" you get the feeling that they just thought "poor Nicky" and that was it.  I don't feel that most of them liked or understood Alix also - which didn't help matters.  :-/

Just my 2 kopeks worth!  

Janet R.

[Ortino]

I think, like bluetoria, Nicholas saw it as a matter of honor. He was, after all, the first in line for the throne at that time and therefore entitled to it. He could have perhaps abdicated in favor his brother Michael, which he eventually did later, but I don't know how willing he would be to do that at such a young, inexperienced age.

[Elisabeth]

According to Orthodox tradition, the Russian tsar was God's representative on earth. In other words he had what the Chinese called "Heaven's Mandate." To be tsar was to be the chosen one - God's gift to the Russian people -  and that's not a role you can lightly refuse. We know from his diary, and from his public and private statements, that Nicholas saw his life as predetermined. To be tsar was his destiny and his fate. He could not escape it: to try to do so would be like thwarting God's will.  

[Belochka]

Since Nicholas, right after his father's death, sort of acknowledged the fact that he had not been properly prepared for his new job
Erichek

According to Wortman in Scenarios of Power 2:309:

... "the popular and historical mandate that elevated the God-chosen monarch dispensed with the pedagogical imperative ...

... As a result formal education did little to shape the views of Nicholas II as monarch ... Alexander III did not believe that the heir had to receive special education and training to prepare him for the high office of emperor."

[Belochka]

Or was tradition too strong for him to decline the honour? Erichek

In Russian this is defined as his sud'ba(fate)

[ajv123ajv]

poor man what a life

[ajv123ajv]

poor family

[etonexile]

Was his father that much better prepared for the throne...or did he just have a more confident personality....?