0:00:04 > 0:00:09In the 1820s, the Romanov dynasty appeared invincible.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14They'd ruled Russia for more than two centuries.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17They'd built an empire and beaten Napoleon.
0:00:19 > 0:00:25But now there was a new threat, more deadly than an invading army -
0:00:25 > 0:00:27the Russian people themselves.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28EXPLOSION
0:00:33 > 0:00:38In July 1826, five revolutionaries were led out of this
0:00:38 > 0:00:41St Petersburg fortress to their deaths.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50These were the leaders of the Decembrists -
0:00:50 > 0:00:53rebels who'd staged a failed uprising.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58The execution went disastrously wrong.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02The ropes weren't tied properly on the gallows and when the stools were
0:01:02 > 0:01:06removed from underneath three of the men, they fell down to the ground.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09They were squirming about. They were still alive!
0:01:09 > 0:01:13One of them had broken legs and, as they strung him back up again,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17he shouted out, "Poor Russia!
0:01:17 > 0:01:19"They can't even hang men properly here!"
0:01:22 > 0:01:25The Decembrist revolt was something new.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30Not for nothing has it been called the first Russian Revolution.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33These men wanted to change the system.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Some even wanted to do away with the Romanovs altogether.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39EXPLOSION
0:01:42 > 0:01:47In Russia, small groups of rebels were easily dealt with
0:01:47 > 0:01:51but in the Romanovs' final century, their power unravelled...
0:01:52 > 0:01:56..as the Russians went from executing revolutionaries
0:01:56 > 0:01:59to murdering the tsar.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02We're going to meet the last of the Romanovs -
0:02:02 > 0:02:09Nicholas and Alexander, and Alexander and Nicholas.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11And I'll show how these four tsars would meet
0:02:11 > 0:02:17the challenge of revolution in different ways - with denial,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21with liberal reform ended by a terrorist bomb,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25with brutal reaction and refuge in the mysticism
0:02:25 > 0:02:29of notorious holy man Rasputin.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33And we'll see how the Romanovs collided with the people, reeling
0:02:33 > 0:02:40from famine and war, bringing the dynasty to its tragic and bloody end.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41GUNFIRE
0:03:07 > 0:03:09In December 1825,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Tsar Alexander I, the hammer of Napoleon, was dead.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Who was to succeed him?
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It was confusing and, sensing a power vacuum,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25the Decembrists seized their moment.
0:03:27 > 0:03:293,000 soldiers gathered here,
0:03:29 > 0:03:34refusing to swear the oath of loyalty to the new tsar, Nicholas.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Many of their leaders had been to Western Europe.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38They'd been to Paris.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41They'd been radicalised by the ideas that they'd
0:03:41 > 0:03:42come across there.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45So they gathered by the Bronze Horseman, the statue
0:03:45 > 0:03:50of the moderniser Peter the Great, in order to call for change.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55What they wanted was an end to serfdom and a free press.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58In fact, they wanted the foundations of democracy.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02The new tsar dithered. The situation seemed to be getting away from him.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08As night fell, he ordered his artillery to open fire.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Seven rounds emptied the square of all but the dead and the wounded.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20That night, Nicholas wrote to his brother. "I am Emperor," he said.
0:04:20 > 0:04:26"But, my God, at what a price! At the price of the blood of my people."
0:04:29 > 0:04:33The traumatic events of his very first day would harden Nicholas.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The untested youth caught in this portrait soon discovered that
0:04:38 > 0:04:42being tsar is much easier if people are scared of you.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47It's said that he had a gaze like a rattlesnake that could
0:04:47 > 0:04:50freeze the blood in your veins.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52And these are the words of his own son.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Nicholas' ambition was laid out on the walls of the Winter Palace
0:05:01 > 0:05:05in this interior, created to impress visiting diplomats.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11The Decembrists had idealised Peter the Great as a moderniser
0:05:11 > 0:05:16but Nicholas modelled himself on Peter, the great military conqueror.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Beneath Peter's larger-than-life portrait would sit Nicholas himself.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28But Peter had wanted Russia to accelerate into the future.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Nicholas would spend the next 30 years trying to put on the brakes.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38From his throne, Nicholas formulated a new philosophy for Russia.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42The rest of Europe was struggling with concepts like liberty,
0:05:42 > 0:05:48equality and fraternity, and Nicholas made a very Russian response.
0:05:48 > 0:05:55For him, it was to be about orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58It was an ultra-conservative message.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01In Nicholas' new mantra for Russia, there was
0:06:01 > 0:06:04to be God on one side, Russia on the other,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09and Nicholas himself in the centre, holding the whole thing together.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality was invented to create
0:06:17 > 0:06:22an obedient people who didn't ask questions.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29Even Nicholas' inner circle were chosen for their dependability.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33He liked to say that he needed loyal advisers, not smart ones.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Nevertheless, groups of writers and thinkers emerged -
0:06:43 > 0:06:49the intelligentsia, who set out to challenge this stupefying status quo.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53By the middle of the century,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58subjects like serfdom were openly tackled by radical journals
0:06:58 > 0:07:00like The Contemporary,
0:07:00 > 0:07:06whose roll call of writers included Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev.
0:07:06 > 0:07:07More than any other writer,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12it was Turgenev who changed people's minds about serfdom.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16He grew up in a noble family on an estate rather like this.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19He had a privileged childhood
0:07:19 > 0:07:23but he witnessed his mother being tyrannical with the family's serfs.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28He saw serfs beaten, sent off to the army, serf families split up.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Turgenev wrote a series of stories,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37collected under the innocuous title Sketches From A Hunter's Album.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43Here was a human portrait of the serfs themselves alongside
0:07:43 > 0:07:46the cruelty of their masters, the landowners.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50This book was published in 1852,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55exactly the same year as Uncle Tom's Cabin in the United States.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59And just as Uncle Tom helped to mobilise public opinion
0:07:59 > 0:08:01against slavery over there,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05this book had the same effect against serfdom over here.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Tsar Nicholas I was so angry about the book that he placed Turgenev
0:08:09 > 0:08:14under house arrest for having insulted the landowners of Russia.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19Privately, Nicholas acknowledged that serfdom
0:08:19 > 0:08:24would eventually have to go, but not yet.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29His beloved army depended on it to fill its ranks
0:08:29 > 0:08:32and he needed the military to enlarge his empire.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39Under Nicholas, Russia expanded its territory in the Caucasus
0:08:39 > 0:08:45and Central Asia and became the dominant power in the Near East.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Russia had the largest army in the world.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53All the other powers thought that she was a terrifying threat.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56But these numbers were deceptive.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Mostly, the army was made up of these conscripted peasants whose
0:09:00 > 0:09:04equipment was poor and whose motivation was poorer.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08And Nicholas, although he loved military parades, hadn't helped.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11He'd promoted people who were loyal as opposed to people who were
0:09:11 > 0:09:16talented. He just didn't have the right generals to win a war.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19So it would only be a matter of time before the might of the Russian
0:09:19 > 0:09:23war machine would prove to be paper-thin.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28That moment came in 1853
0:09:28 > 0:09:32when Nicholas blundered into the Crimean War.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Russia was fighting France, Britain and the Ottoman Empire.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42And to Nicholas' increasing horror, he was on the losing side.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46The Russians lose the Crimean War, essentially,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50because they're a pre-industrial country trying to fight countries
0:09:50 > 0:09:55which are already being transformed by the Industrial Revolution.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58The British and French get to the Crimea by modern
0:09:58 > 0:10:00forms of transport - the steamship and the railway.
0:10:00 > 0:10:01Meanwhile,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04the Russians are still essentially in the pre-industrial era.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06They have to walk to the Crimea.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10They can't supply their troops in the Crimea by anything
0:10:10 > 0:10:14but pre-industrial means, and Russian artillery is
0:10:14 > 0:10:18outranged on the battlefield by English and French rifle muskets.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23They also simply don't have the financial muscle to keep going.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30To add to Nicholas' disgrace, Russia was losing on her own soil.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33There was no escape from the humiliation,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37not even at the Romanovs' Summer Palace at Peterhof.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44Just over there on the horizon on a clear day is the island of Kronstadt.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49It's the naval base that defends St Petersburg 20 miles that way.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52And from the very palace grounds, Nicholas, with his telescope,
0:10:52 > 0:10:57could see French and British warships stationed near the island.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01To them, this was a terrific show of strength, but to Nicholas, it was a
0:11:01 > 0:11:08personal humiliation to see the enemy so close, so deep into his empire.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12He'd been brought face-to-face with his own military weakness.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20His courtiers noticed a physical change in Nicholas.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26He was perpetually downcast, his face in wrinkles.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36In 1855, six months into the Siege of Sevastopol, the emperor,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40an autocrat of all the Russias, was taken ill.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Nicholas had a chill but, even so, he went outside into the horrible
0:11:46 > 0:11:50St Petersburg winter to review his troops.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52While he was watching, the snow was falling,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55but he took off his coat and he unbuttoned his shirt.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58This made him even iller.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00And when he went back inside his palace,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03he wouldn't let his doctors see him until it was too late.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05He had full-blown pneumonia.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Some historians have speculated that maybe,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12this was a deliberate action by Nicholas.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Maybe he was trying to commit suicide by snow.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23The broken Nicholas had kept Russia static for 30 years,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25and now, his country was a backwater.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31But did his son, Alexander, have what it took to change things?
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Well, this is how Alexander II is remembered in Russia today...
0:12:41 > 0:12:45..as the last great tsar. And with good reason.
0:12:50 > 0:12:56This inscription lists Alexander's CV in glowing terms. And rightly so.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00He introduced reforms in education, in the judiciary,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02in local government, in the army.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06But his biggest achievement is listed right here at the top.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12It says, in 1861, Alexander overturned serfdom,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17liberating millions of peasants from centuries of slavery -
0:13:17 > 0:13:20an act that earned him his name, the Tsar-Liberator.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28By the mid-1850s, the arguments for abandoning serfdom were immense.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31It was part of the disgrace at Crimea.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36It tied people to the land so that industry couldn't develop.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39And increasingly, it was just seen as wrong.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43But when it came to reforming the system,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46huge self-interest was also at work.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50What really convinced Alexander to end serfdom was
0:13:50 > 0:13:54the threat that he perceived to the Romanovs themselves.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Unless he introduced change through reform from above,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01his hand might be forced from below through revolution.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06After years of consultation with landowners,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Alexander signed the decree of emancipation in 1861.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17In the Moscow State Archives, it's possible to see how the serfs
0:14:17 > 0:14:20themselves would have learned the news.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26This is the official document announcing the end of serfdom
0:14:26 > 0:14:31that was printed and sent out across Russia to be read aloud in churches.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Now, in democratic America,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38they'd have a civil war before everybody could agree to end slavery.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40But in autocratic Russia, Alexander thought
0:14:40 > 0:14:44he could just send out a document and it would happen.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47He also thought that there must be a way of pleasing all
0:14:47 > 0:14:49the parties to this transaction.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Well, he was wrong about that.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Now the serfs could own property, marry according to their choice,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02trade freely and vote in local elections.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04But when it came to sharing out land,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Russia's elite were less than generous.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12When the land was split up, the landlords got two-thirds of it
0:15:12 > 0:15:17and the best parts. The ex-serfs were given the leftovers.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21They were going to find it hard to scratch out a living from that.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23And the landlords got compensation
0:15:23 > 0:15:27but the ex-serfs now had to pay for the right to work their land,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30placing them immediately in debt.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32The devil was in the detail.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Many people had hoped that Alexander's reforms were
0:15:38 > 0:15:43the first step towards Russia becoming a liberal democracy
0:15:43 > 0:15:46but they were destined to be disappointed.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50At the start of his reign, Alexander embraced a word that'll be familiar
0:15:50 > 0:15:55to everybody who remembers the end of the Cold War - glasnost.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59It means openness. He eased up on censorship.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02He allowed people to have a voice in reform.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Sounds like a good idea but you can argue that it was a terrible
0:16:05 > 0:16:10mistake because it raised expectations.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13As it gradually became clear that the reforms were compromised,
0:16:13 > 0:16:19a new disillusioned generation emerged - the student radicals.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23They wanted a revolution to overthrow tsarism altogether.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27And some of them would use violence to achieve this.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30The story of modern political terrorism starts here.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32GUNFIRE
0:16:33 > 0:16:36In 1866, there was the first ever attempt
0:16:36 > 0:16:39on the tsar's life by a member of the public.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44A student radical tried to shoot Alexander as he was
0:16:44 > 0:16:45walking in St Petersburg.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54I've come to the European University at St Petersburg to meet
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Alexey Miller, professor of history, to find out who these radicals
0:16:59 > 0:17:04were and why it was the reforming Alexander who became their target.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12Why did some of the radicals turn to violence? Were they frustrated?
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Desperation, disenchantment because, on the one hand, they were
0:17:17 > 0:17:22talking about political violence but they were not doing much.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27Still, sentences, court sentences, to these people,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31- were extremely harsh. - So you might as well commit violence?
0:17:31 > 0:17:33If you're going to Siberia for 25 years,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37- you might as well throw a bomb? - That is one thing.
0:17:37 > 0:17:44The second thing, the liberal part of the society feels...
0:17:44 > 0:17:49Well, not full solidarity with the terrorists
0:17:49 > 0:17:54but it doesn't feel full solidarity with the government
0:17:54 > 0:17:56and doesn't want to support the government.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01Vera Zasulich, who shot the governor
0:18:01 > 0:18:04of St Petersburg in his office,
0:18:04 > 0:18:10was tried by the jury and acquitted
0:18:10 > 0:18:13because they believed that she had a moral right to do so.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18- That's quite surprising.- That is not surprising. That is very sad.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22And that is a powerful message on the side of the society - go ahead!
0:18:22 > 0:18:25You can continue! We are on your side!
0:18:25 > 0:18:29And then they want destabilisation of the situation.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32And how do you destabilise the situation?
0:18:32 > 0:18:33You start hunting the tsar.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Hunting the tsar would become the obsession
0:18:40 > 0:18:44of a revolutionary group named People's Will,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47who've been called the first modern terrorist organisation.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56In August 1879, at a fateful meeting, they condemned Alexander to death.
0:18:58 > 0:18:59For maximum secrecy,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03they held a meeting in a forest outside St Petersburg,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and here they decided that they'd be wasting their time
0:19:06 > 0:19:10if they went after middle-ranking government officials.
0:19:10 > 0:19:11What they needed to do
0:19:11 > 0:19:15was strike a blow at the heart of the tsarist regime.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20They decided to go for the tsar himself - Alexander II.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23And this was to be no ordinary murder, as they put it.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27It needed drama and spectacle to wake up the peasants
0:19:27 > 0:19:29and start a revolution.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35People's Will relentlessly pursued Alexander,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39launching a series of attacks on his life.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42In 1880, one of their number detonated a bomb that
0:19:42 > 0:19:45destroyed the dining room of the Winter Palace.
0:19:45 > 0:19:5011 people died but Alexander, who was late for supper, survived.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Security was increased
0:19:53 > 0:19:59while Alexander belatedly tried to restart his reformist programme.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Plans were drawn up to introduce
0:20:01 > 0:20:04a new consultative assembly to advise the tsar.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10These were just days away from being enacted when People's Will
0:20:10 > 0:20:14finally caught up with Alexander on the streets of St Petersburg.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Trying to wrong-foot the terrorists,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24his carriage had taken a detour alongside this canal.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29But People's Will were prepared.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32One of their members was a brilliant young scientist
0:20:32 > 0:20:37and he created a special bomb, a bit like a hand grenade.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40It contained vials of nitroglycerin.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42When these shattered, it would explode.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46As Alexander's carriage came round that corner, a member
0:20:46 > 0:20:51of People's Will was standing by and lobbed a grenade right at him.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53EXPLOSION
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Several onlookers were wounded but Alexander was fine.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00His carriage was bomb-proof.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04He should have stayed inside and driven off but no! He got out.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08He wanted to talk to his would-be assassin.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11And this gave the opportunity to another member of
0:21:11 > 0:21:13People's Will with another grenade.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15EXPLOSION
0:21:15 > 0:21:19When the smoke cleared, 20 people had been hurt,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22and the lower half of Alexander's body was shattered.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25They scooped him up, barely alive,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28and carried him back to the Winter Palace.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37At the Winter Palace, the dying tsar was surrounded by his stunned family.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42He knew he was dying, they knew he was dying.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47It's all very bloody and very horrible, and there, standing
0:21:47 > 0:21:52watching, is his son, Alexander, who is going to be Alexander III.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56And he's standing there, looking at what happens when you try
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and offer people reform. That is how he viewed it.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04So the death of Alexander II stops reform in its tracks.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07The constitutional decrees, which would have come forward,
0:22:07 > 0:22:12which would have introduced another level of government in Russia,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16are put aside. Alexander III will have nothing of them.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19He takes the line that Russia needs strong government.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Alexander III presented himself as a strong man
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and he certainly looked the part.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37A mixture of beard and muscle poured into a uniform.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45He was an enormous man - 6'3", and built like a great big bear.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47His party trick was to get an iron bar
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and to bend it with his bare hands.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53Alexander has had himself painted
0:22:53 > 0:22:56greeting a collection of peasant leaders.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59He's resolute, standing firm,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03the weight of Russia on his broad shoulders.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07And they're completely overwhelmed by the experience.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Some of them are swooning away
0:23:10 > 0:23:14and others are shielding their eyes from the magnificent sight of him.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Alexander III wasn't exactly an intellectual giant,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22but he held his autocratic regime together
0:23:22 > 0:23:24almost through force of will.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31Alexander introduced a new "era of reaction".
0:23:31 > 0:23:34He gave the authorities extensive powers to jail people
0:23:34 > 0:23:37and to close down newspapers.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40There was a new secret police
0:23:40 > 0:23:44and he was determined to stamp out all revolutionary movements -
0:23:44 > 0:23:46starting with People's Will.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53In the years following 1881,
0:23:53 > 0:23:55dozens of revolutionaries made this boat trip
0:23:55 > 0:23:59to that rather terrifying-looking castle.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Known as the "Russian Bastille", the Shlisselburg Fortress
0:24:03 > 0:24:07was where political prisoners were sent to be forgotten.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Shlisselburg was built in the 14th century.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18But in the 1880s, Alexander III oversaw the construction
0:24:18 > 0:24:23of a new prison - for those associated with his father's murder.
0:24:30 > 0:24:31Thank you.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35In the first 20 years after it was built,
0:24:35 > 0:24:3968 men and women were interned at His Majesty's pleasure.
0:24:41 > 0:24:4315 were executed,
0:24:43 > 0:24:4515 died of disease,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48three committed suicide
0:24:48 > 0:24:51and eight went insane.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58On the surface, Alexander III's "era of reaction" was working well.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01But every time he struck down a revolutionary,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05another one popped up as a replacement.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11In 1887, five prisoners were brought out
0:25:11 > 0:25:13of the fortress's execution block
0:25:13 > 0:25:17and hanged on a gallows just where the white tree is.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Their crime? Plotting to murder the Tsar.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24One of them was a 21-year-old called Aleksandr Ulyanov -
0:25:24 > 0:25:27that's his grey memorial up there.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Now, you might not have heard of Aleksandr,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32but you will have heard of his younger brother.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35On the day of Aleksandr's execution,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39this brother was at school doing his geometry exam.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42His brother's death radicalised him.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45He got involved in student protests
0:25:45 > 0:25:48and started producing revolutionary literature
0:25:48 > 0:25:50under the pseudonym that would become
0:25:50 > 0:25:53one of the 20th century's best-known names.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54Lenin.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Contemporaries saw danger.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04The novelist Tolstoy wrote to the Tsar
0:26:04 > 0:26:07urging him to show love for his enemies.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12But Alexander wanted to take the fight further
0:26:12 > 0:26:15and he used the very site of his father's assassination
0:26:15 > 0:26:20in St Petersburg to make a powerful statement.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23This city had killed his father,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28and here, Alexander would champion the traditions of the Motherland
0:26:28 > 0:26:32over the bankrupt modernity of the West.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Peter the Great had conceived of St Petersburg
0:26:35 > 0:26:37as a model for a new Russia.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Here, Russia was going to embrace Western ideals.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46The city was even going to look like it belonged to Europe,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48being largely in the Classical style.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51And yet, bang in the middle of this city
0:26:51 > 0:26:53full of Renaissance-style palazzi,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Alexander III has plonked down this building.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01It's like a declaration of war on Peter's ideal.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04A bit like a ghost at a feast,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06this building revives the old Russia
0:27:06 > 0:27:09that Peter the Great tried to obliterate.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16For Alexander III, Russia had gone wrong
0:27:16 > 0:27:18when it had tried to copy the West,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22when it had tried to modernise itself.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Western ideas clearly led to tsars getting blown up.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32Russia could only thrive by embracing Russian culture
0:27:32 > 0:27:36and that traditional Russian form of government, autocracy.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Alexander III wasn't at the opening of the chillingly named
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Church Of The Saviour On The Spilled Blood.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50He died of kidney disease in 1894, aged only 49.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55Responsibility for this, and nearly everything else in Russia,
0:27:55 > 0:28:02landed suddenly in the lap of his 26-year-old son, Nicholas.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08Outwardly, Nicholas II was a polite, cosmopolitan gentleman,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12but under the surface was a ruler who felt deeply Russian.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19His coronation revealed a vision of Russia rooted in tradition.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22That most modern of technologies, moving film,
0:28:22 > 0:28:27was used to capture a ceremony replete with 17th-century costumes.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34After Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra, were crowned,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37the new tsar took the coronation oath
0:28:37 > 0:28:39and vowed to uphold autocracy.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47The royal couple were bound together by their intense religious devotion.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Near their favoured royal retreat, they built this.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55A cathedral that stands above
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Nicholas and Alexandra's private crypt church.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04A visit is like a journey into Nicholas's own soul.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11This is the family's private, personal entrance
0:29:11 > 0:29:13to their private, personal chapel
0:29:13 > 0:29:16buried beneath the main body of the church.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24It feels like you're going into the inner sanctum of the Romanovs.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Nicholas was a fatalist -
0:29:36 > 0:29:40he believed that whatever happened was ultimately God's will.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44Misfortune would lead him to declare,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47"God knows what is good for us.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51"We must bow down our heads and repeat the sacred words,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54"'Thy will be done.'"
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Nicholas was a man of deep, deep piety.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01With some other rulers, religion is for ceremony or show.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Not so with Nicholas.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06During his reign, more churches were built in Russia
0:30:06 > 0:30:09than during the preceding century.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14And his first response to disaster wasn't what I would call practical.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19It wasn't "How can I help?" He would spend several hours in prayer.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23He felt that he had a very personal relationship with God.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37This communion with the divine defined Nicholas's rule.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42He never forgot that he was a vessel of God.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48Nicholas tried to be a genuinely absolute monarch,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53but, perversely, this made him a pretty ineffective one.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56The trouble was that he believed that the will of the Almighty
0:30:56 > 0:30:59ought to flow directly through him
0:30:59 > 0:31:02to his 170 million subjects.
0:31:04 > 0:31:05He found it very hard to delegate.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07He didn't even have a secretary.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11So, his desk would be piled high with papers.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15He was meticulous about dealing with correspondence
0:31:15 > 0:31:19on topics like the appointment of rural midwives
0:31:19 > 0:31:23and whether or not a particular soldier ought to go on leave.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27But while he was bogged down in these trivia,
0:31:27 > 0:31:32big decisions about the future of his empire were getting away from him
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Inside Nicholas's head,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39the Russian Empire was still a medieval one.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41Peasants toiling in their fields,
0:31:41 > 0:31:44loyal to their "Little Father", the tsar.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47But Russia was undergoing
0:31:47 > 0:31:51a belated, and very rapid, industrial revolution.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Famine had drawn hundreds of thousands
0:31:53 > 0:31:57of newly liberated peasants to the cities and to factory work.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02St Petersburg had doubled in size in 15 years.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07As peasants became factory workers,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10they began to demand better conditions
0:32:10 > 0:32:12and respect from their employers.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19Everything came to a head on 9th January, 1905 - Bloody Sunday.
0:32:19 > 0:32:25150,000 striking protesters planned to march on the Winter Palace
0:32:25 > 0:32:29in the hope that the Tsar would listen to their grievances.
0:32:29 > 0:32:30Many of those who turned out
0:32:30 > 0:32:33believed that when they got to the Winter Palace,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36the Tsar would be pleased to see them, would welcome them in.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Stories went round that he would put on a parade for them
0:32:39 > 0:32:41and offer them refreshments.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Nicholas wasn't at home at the Winter Palace,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53but 12,000 troops had been posted around the city
0:32:53 > 0:32:57with orders to prevent the marchers from reaching it.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05It was at the Narva Gate that the largest brigade of protesters
0:33:05 > 0:33:08found themselves face-to-face with two companies
0:33:08 > 0:33:12of the 93rd Irkutsk Infantry Regiment.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16One of the thousands out on the streets that day
0:33:16 > 0:33:19was the writer and communist Maxim Gorky.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Within hours, Gorky wrote this letter describing
0:33:23 > 0:33:27exactly what happened next to the protesters.
0:33:27 > 0:33:28"At the Narva Gate,
0:33:28 > 0:33:33"they were met by the troops, who fired nine rounds.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37"After the first shots, some of the workers began to shout,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41"'Don't be frightened, they're blanks!' But this wasn't true.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44"Already a dozen or so people had fallen to the ground,
0:33:44 > 0:33:46"the front ranks were mown down
0:33:46 > 0:33:47"and the soldiers fired again
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"at anybody who tried to stand up and get away."
0:33:52 > 0:33:5440 people died at this spot
0:33:54 > 0:33:56and across the city,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00more than 100 were killed and hundreds more wounded.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04But, according to Gorky, there was another casualty.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08"The Tsar's prestige has been killed here -
0:34:08 > 0:34:11"that is the meaning of this day."
0:34:13 > 0:34:17For a year, revolution raged across the Empire.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19And it was only brought to an end
0:34:19 > 0:34:22when Nicholas caved in and made concessions.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25He promised a free press,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28right of assembly and, above all,
0:34:28 > 0:34:29a constitution.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37And Russia was to have an elective assembly, the Duma,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40whose approval would be needed to pass legislation.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47Nicholas insisted that the state opening of the Duma
0:34:47 > 0:34:50be on home ground at the Winter Palace.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55And so, in April 1906, Russia's elite found themselves
0:34:55 > 0:34:58face-to-face with the people for the first time.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02On this side of the room stood Nicholas's existing government,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06his state councillors, in their uniforms with gold lace.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10On the other side stood members of the new Duma.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13They were wearing the clothing of workers and peasants -
0:35:13 > 0:35:16that's red shirts and big, rough boots.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20And the two sides looked at each other with suspicion...
0:35:20 > 0:35:22and hostility.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27If there were ever a moment for Nicholas to reach across the divide
0:35:27 > 0:35:30and bring people together, this was it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33But, no, he made a speech recommitting himself
0:35:33 > 0:35:36to the principle of autocracy.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41He was going to hold on to it, he said, "with unwavering firmness".
0:35:41 > 0:35:44At the end of the speech, the state councillors let out a big cheer -
0:35:44 > 0:35:46they were delighted.
0:35:46 > 0:35:52But the members of the new Duma stood and listened in stony silence.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57In the end, Nicholas's first Duma didn't last ten weeks.
0:35:59 > 0:36:00He dissolved it.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04And, ultimately, fixed the elections to get a more compliant one.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07For now, autocracy had won the day.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12After the 1905 Revolution, Nicholas and Alexandra
0:36:12 > 0:36:14were spending more and more time
0:36:14 > 0:36:17in the safety of this Neoclassical palace.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Here, the Tsar was able to be something
0:36:21 > 0:36:24that he was actually good at - a husband and a father.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29We're only 15 miles away from the centre of St Petersburg,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32but the secluded Alexander Palace,
0:36:32 > 0:36:36in its beautiful park, seems like a completely different world.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39It was here that Nicholas and his family
0:36:39 > 0:36:42found an escape from sycophantic courtiers
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and the unkind gossip of the court.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49But it was also here, at the centre of their happy, domestic life,
0:36:49 > 0:36:51that a crisis was unfolding
0:36:51 > 0:36:54with grave consequences for the dynasty.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Nicholas II had four daughters, as seen here,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09But with the birth of his fifth child, Alexei,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11in 1904, he finally had an heir.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18The royal children played in the palace's vast park.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24A favourite den was this playhouse built for the children of Nicholas I.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28But a handful of people knew that Alexei
0:37:28 > 0:37:31had inherited the condition of haemophilia
0:37:31 > 0:37:35through his maternal great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41At the start of the 20th century, this was a death sentence.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47In 1907, the three-year-old Alexei had been playing
0:37:47 > 0:37:49when he fell over and hurt his leg.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54When he was carried into the palace,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56it was clear that something was very wrong.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Poor Alexei had a haemorrhage in his leg.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06It had swollen up and it was giving him excruciating pain.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08His body was twisted
0:38:08 > 0:38:11and he had dark shadows under his eyes.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15For three days, the boy's condition deteriorated
0:38:15 > 0:38:18and he came closer and closer to death.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21The doctors couldn't even ease his pain.
0:38:22 > 0:38:28With nothing to lose, Alexandra and Nicholas turned to Grigori Rasputin,
0:38:28 > 0:38:34a mystic and holy man who, it was said, had healing powers.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43Rasputin was brought into the palace through a side entrance
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and he was taken up to Alexei's bedroom.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48There, he made the sign of the cross,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and he prayed over the little boy for ten minutes.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55And then, he said, "Your pain is leaving you,
0:38:55 > 0:38:59"you must thank God for healing you. Now, go to sleep."
0:38:59 > 0:39:01And that was it.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07Rasputin's words appeared to make Alexei instantly better.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Those present felt that they had witnessed a miracle.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15To Nicholas and Alexandra, the message was clear -
0:39:15 > 0:39:19Rasputin was the only man in Russia who could save their son.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Rasputin could stop Alexei's bleeding
0:39:25 > 0:39:28even when he wasn't there in person.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31When he was talking on the telephone,
0:39:31 > 0:39:33he could make the bleeding stop.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37It's a very hard one for us to understand.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39Russians can explain it.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45The nearest I could come to it is to say that, perhaps,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48it's the calming effect he has.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57With Alexandra's anxiety,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59her son's fragile health,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03talk of revolution and the threat of assassination,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07the Alexander Palace turned into a place of even greater seclusion.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11The Empress and the children simply locked themselves away.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16And just as the public were unable to see into this private world,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19so the Romanovs found it increasingly hard
0:40:19 > 0:40:23to see out to the changing nation beyond their gates.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28A rare public appearance occurred in 1913,
0:40:28 > 0:40:33the 300-year anniversary of the Romanovs gaining power.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36When the family emerged, they were presented
0:40:36 > 0:40:39with the stage-managed Russia of their imagination.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44Nicholas relived the moment
0:40:44 > 0:40:49when Michael Romanov was greeted at the Kremlin on the way to be crowned.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55And the highlight was a journey around the ancient Russian cities,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57including Kostroma,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01where the Romanov story had begun three centuries before.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07During the trip along the Volga,
0:41:07 > 0:41:12not as many as expected turned out to see the royal steamer.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20But, when they got here to Kostroma,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23the weather warmed up and so did the crowds.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26People were throwing themselves at the Tsar's feet.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30They were even kissing the ground where his shadow had fallen.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34This was a true spiritual homecoming.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41This adulation made Alexandra cock-a-hoop.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45"We need merely to show ourselves," she said,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48"and, at once, their hearts are ours."
0:41:51 > 0:41:53What no-one knew was that this
0:41:53 > 0:41:57was to be imperial Russia's final golden summer.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00EXPLOSIONS
0:42:04 > 0:42:09In 1914, Nicholas let his people into the First World War.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15Workers rallied to the Tsar as to our emblem.
0:42:15 > 0:42:1812 million men would be mobilised
0:42:18 > 0:42:22and Nicholas made a stirring speech from the Winter Palace,
0:42:22 > 0:42:27likening the fight to Alexander I's war against Napoleon.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35But the war would force Nicholas to make a fateful decision.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43In 1915, Nicholas was praying
0:42:43 > 0:42:47to an icon of the Protectress of the Romanovs,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51and then, as he described it, an "inner voice" spoke,
0:42:51 > 0:42:56and told him that he should take personal command of the army.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02Afterwards, he experienced a feeling like after Holy Communion.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04God was flowing directly through him.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07But, by taking personal control of the army,
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Nicholas shackled himself and his dynasty to the success of the war.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17"The tsar directs the war not from the distance of hundreds of miles,"
0:43:17 > 0:43:20said Nicholas, "he appears in the midst of battle.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24"He feels the mood of his armies."
0:43:24 > 0:43:28With the Tsar away at the front, a power vacuum was created,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32one eagerly filled by Rasputin.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Because of Alexandra's reliance upon him,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40many believed that a malign power was working behind the throne.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44And Rasputin didn't help himself.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49He drank heavily, enjoyed the flattery of society ladies,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52and, well, other sorts of ladies, too.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54He was known to visit prostitutes.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56We don't quite know what he did with them,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59but there's some suggestion he may have been
0:43:59 > 0:44:01testing himself spiritually,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04or that he also had the belief that the more you sin,
0:44:04 > 0:44:05the more you can be forgiven,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08so you should get on and do plenty of sinning.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10MACHINERY SQUEAKS
0:44:11 > 0:44:16Rasputin's continuing reputation as "Russia's greatest love machine"
0:44:16 > 0:44:18is a relic from this time.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20SQUEAKING
0:44:22 > 0:44:27The rumours damaged Alexandra, who was tainted by association.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33The fact that they were close to him and refused to speak about it
0:44:33 > 0:44:36just exacerbated relations with the rest of the family
0:44:36 > 0:44:39and with the wider aristocracy.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Certainly, calling into question their judgment
0:44:43 > 0:44:47and increasing this sense of "us and them".
0:44:49 > 0:44:52A plot was hatched to kill Rasputin.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55It centred around the man who lived here,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57Prince Felix Yusupov,
0:44:57 > 0:45:02who was married to Tsar Nicholas's beautiful niece, Irina.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08On the night of December 16th, 1916,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Felix lured Rasputin to his palace
0:45:10 > 0:45:14with the promise of a midnight assignation with Irina.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16GRAMOPHONE PLAYS
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Upstairs, they could hear the sound of a party.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21A gramophone was playing.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Felix explained that his wife had guests
0:45:24 > 0:45:26and that she would come down when they'd left.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28GRAMOPHONE PLAYS SCRATCHY MUSIC
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Prince Felix said, "While we're waiting,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43"let's have some cakes and some wine."
0:45:43 > 0:45:45The cakes were rose-flavoured -
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Rasputin's favourite - and both were laced with cyanide.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52He ate and he drank, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with him.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56He asked Prince Felix to play some songs on his guitar.
0:45:58 > 0:46:04An hour later, Felix was getting impatient, so he got his pistol.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08He distracted Rasputin by asking him to look at a crucifix,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10and he shot him in the side.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15Now, the conspirators started talking about what to do
0:46:15 > 0:46:18with Rasputin's clothes, his overcoat,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22but, unnoticed by them, Rasputin was still alive!
0:46:22 > 0:46:25He managed to creep his way right out of the building
0:46:25 > 0:46:28and into the courtyard before they spotted this.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32There they shot him again, probably in the head,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35and they weighed down his body with heavy iron chains
0:46:35 > 0:46:37and threw it into the River Neva.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47The removal of Rasputin was too little, too late,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49to save the Romanovs.
0:46:50 > 0:46:51The war was dragging on
0:46:51 > 0:46:53and conditions were getting worse.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57A decisive moment was reached in February 1917
0:46:57 > 0:47:00on the streets of the Russian capital.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Workers, tired of long hours in the factories -
0:47:03 > 0:47:06and even longer queues for bread -
0:47:06 > 0:47:08came pouring out on to the streets.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15The First World War was a disaster for Russia.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19Three out of four Russian soldiers became casualties.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Workers and farmers had been taken from their jobs
0:47:23 > 0:47:26and then slaughtered by the German army.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32And this led to food shortages and rampant inflation.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36Ultimately, the glittering Romanovs would be brought down
0:47:36 > 0:47:40by a people who wanted the basic commodity of bread.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47The breaking point came on International Women's Day.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Thousands of women flooded the streets to protest,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54joining forces with striking workers.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59By the next day,
0:47:59 > 0:48:03a quarter of a million people were marching down Nevsky Prospect.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07They were smashing up the shops and carrying banners
0:48:07 > 0:48:11that said things like, "Stop the war!" "Feed the children!"
0:48:11 > 0:48:16and, most worryingly to the Romanovs, "End autocracy!"
0:48:19 > 0:48:25Alexandra wrote to Nicholas of a hooligan movement in the streets.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Nicholas commanded the local garrison to put a stop to the protests,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33and orders were issued to use all necessary force.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36BELLS TOLL
0:48:36 > 0:48:40The thousands of people on the streets were met by soldiers
0:48:40 > 0:48:43who followed their orders and fired at them.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46But, that night, when the troops went back to their barracks,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49they began to ask themselves whether they could face another day
0:48:49 > 0:48:52of shooting at their fellow citizens
0:48:52 > 0:48:54who were desperate for food.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57The answer to that question became clear the next morning.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00The streets were full again with the workers,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03but also with soldiers with red ribbons on their bayonets.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08The mutinies amongst the armed forces went on all day.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13They broke into weapons factories, they set fire to police stations.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16By sunset, the revolution was well underway.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23By now, Nicholas had been abandoned by his generals,
0:49:23 > 0:49:28who believed he was completely useless, an obstacle to victory.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Travelling home from the front, Nicholas's train was forced to divert
0:49:33 > 0:49:37and he started getting telegrams from politicians and the military.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46They said that in order to avoid a complete collapse of order,
0:49:46 > 0:49:47he would have to go.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52Now, for all of his failures, Nicholas was a patriot.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55To avoid civil war, he agreed to abdicate.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04And here's the document when Nicholas renounces an empire.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Effectively, bringing an end to 300 years of Romanov rule.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13I can't help noticing that he signed it very lightly in pencil,
0:50:13 > 0:50:15as if he didn't really mean it.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20People present were struck by the calmness
0:50:20 > 0:50:23with which Nicholas signed away his throne.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26One of the generals present later said,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30"He was such a fatalist, I couldn't believe it.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32"He signed as simply as one hands over
0:50:32 > 0:50:36"a cavalry squadron to its new commander."
0:50:38 > 0:50:43Nicholas handed the throne to his brother, who refused it.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Instead, the mighty power of the tsar
0:50:46 > 0:50:49flowed to Russia's new provisional government.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53300 years of Romanov rule had come to an end.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58The new provisional government immediately faced demands
0:50:58 > 0:50:59for the ex-Tsar's arrest.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04On 7th March, they ordered that Nicholas and Alexandra
0:51:04 > 0:51:06be deprived of their freedom.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11The family found themselves captive back at the Alexander Palace.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14But even here, the world was turned upside down.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17The soldiers moved freely through the palace,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20coming into the family's rooms unannounced.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24And outside the park railing, crowds gathered -
0:51:24 > 0:51:27the "gapers" as Nicholas called them,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30come to see the once-great Romanovs brought so low.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35The guards liked to humiliate Nicholas for a joke.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38One day, he was riding along on his bicycle,
0:51:38 > 0:51:40and one of the soldiers thrust his bayonet
0:51:40 > 0:51:42through the spokes of the wheel,
0:51:42 > 0:51:47then laughed uproariously as the ex-Tsar went over the handlebars.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55The new provisional government was still at war with the Germans.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58And so, the Germans gave them a special present -
0:51:58 > 0:51:59Lenin.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04The exiled revolutionary was transported across Germany
0:52:04 > 0:52:05in a sealed train to Russia.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Lenin stirred up a more militant mood
0:52:09 > 0:52:12and pressure was put on the provisional government
0:52:12 > 0:52:14to be harder on the royal family.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18By the late summer, it was decided
0:52:18 > 0:52:21that the Romanovs belonged in a cage less gilded.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27At dawn, on 1st August, 1917,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30Tsar Nicholas and his family
0:52:30 > 0:52:32left the palace through these doors.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34HINGES SQUEAK
0:52:34 > 0:52:36Along with 39 courtiers and retainers,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40they were to be taken under heavy guard to Siberia.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44They didn't realise it, but they were leaving for ever.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54In spite of this harder line,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57the provisional government were out of step
0:52:57 > 0:53:00with a people who wanted an end to the war
0:53:00 > 0:53:05and who were flocking to Lenin's promise of peace, land and bread.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10In October came the "ten days that shook the world",
0:53:10 > 0:53:14when Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16The Winter Palace was stormed,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19telegraph stations and government offices occupied.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21With control of the state,
0:53:21 > 0:53:25the Bolsheviks now founded their own militia, the Red Army.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30And they would, in time, have to decide what to do
0:53:30 > 0:53:33with Mr Nicholas Romanov and family.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39The Bolsheviks have a deep loathing of the Russian imperial family.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Lenin describes the last Tsar not as "Nicholas II"
0:53:42 > 0:53:44but as "Nicholas the Bloody".
0:53:44 > 0:53:47And they hold the imperial family
0:53:47 > 0:53:50and the Romanov regime responsible
0:53:50 > 0:53:53for the events of 1905,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57when peaceful, working people are shot down by tsarist troops.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And in the spring and summer of 1918,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Lenin and his comrades are fixed on one thing, and one thing only -
0:54:04 > 0:54:07it is the maintenance of their own power.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11They understand very clearly the fragility of their situation
0:54:11 > 0:54:14and they're prepared to do almost anything
0:54:14 > 0:54:19to hold on to the authority that they have gained in October 1917.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25By July 1918, the family were being held in a house
0:54:25 > 0:54:28in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30Civil war was raging.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34The guns of the White Army rumbled just a few miles away.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39A decision was made somewhere in the Soviet bureaucracy
0:54:39 > 0:54:42that Nicholas and his family should be killed
0:54:42 > 0:54:46to prevent them from becoming a rallying point for their enemies.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51It's hard to get a clear picture
0:54:51 > 0:54:54of what actually happened at Yekaterinburg,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57there are so many conflicting stories about it.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01And, in any case, the whole thing was hushed up afterwards.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05But most sources do agree that in the early hours of the morning,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Nicholas, Alexandra and the children were woken up.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12They were told to dress and to go down to the cellar.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16This was for their own safety. They had to be moved again.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19They were accompanied by some of their servants and their dog.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Meanwhile, outside the cellar,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25an execution squad was forming up.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29One of its members was called Mikhail Medvedev,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32and this...is the gun that he carried.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34When the squad entered,
0:55:34 > 0:55:38Nicholas was told that he and his family were to be killed.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41And he was actually in the act of going, "What?!"
0:55:41 > 0:55:44when the first shot was fired.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46Medvedev later claimed it as his own.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53What happened in the basement was a massacre.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55As well as being shot multiple times,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59members of the family were also bayoneted.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01One of the soldiers later remembered
0:56:01 > 0:56:04that it had been difficult to bayonet the girls,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07because, thinking that the family was on the move once again,
0:56:07 > 0:56:12they'd stored their diamonds and their jewels inside their corsets.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14This had acted like armour plating.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19After the whole business was over, there was only one survivor.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21It was the little dog.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38The question I keep coming back to is,
0:56:38 > 0:56:40could all of this horror have been avoided
0:56:40 > 0:56:43if Nicholas was a bit more politically astute
0:56:43 > 0:56:47and a bit less determined to cling on to his autocracy?
0:56:47 > 0:56:52If Nicholas had heeded the warning of the Revolution of 1905
0:56:52 > 0:56:55and become a constitutional monarch, like in Britain,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58then, maybe, his life, the lives of his family,
0:56:58 > 0:57:03and the lives of millions of ordinary Russians could have been saved.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07But, no, he was determined that his power should be undiluted.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10And if you look back at the history of his dynasty,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13you can sort of see why he made that decision.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18Nicholas's devotion to autocracy wasn't a fetish.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23For him, it was a rational response to how power worked in Russia.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25His direct ancestors,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Peter the Great and Catherine the Great,
0:57:28 > 0:57:33had used their absolute rule to turn Russia into a world power...
0:57:33 > 0:57:39while Western-style reforms led to instability and assassination.
0:57:39 > 0:57:40GUNSHOT ECHOES
0:57:40 > 0:57:42BELLS RING
0:57:42 > 0:57:44And even though Nicholas himself
0:57:44 > 0:57:47didn't make a good job of being an autocrat,
0:57:47 > 0:57:48the regime that followed him
0:57:48 > 0:57:51would, in some ways, resemble that of tsarist rule
0:57:51 > 0:57:56with its own "Red Tsars" around whom the State revolved.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02For better or worse,
0:58:02 > 0:58:07how the Romanovs governed paved the way for what was to come.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12BELLS RING