The last Empress, whose reliance on Rasputin helped doom the dynasty
When told of Nicholas's abdication, Alexandra said only: 'Dieu donne que cela sauve la Russie!' — 'God grant that this may save Russia!'
Granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra became Empress of Russia in 1894 and guided Nicholas II with an unshakeable conviction that autocratic power was a divine trust that could not be compromised. Desperate to save her hemophiliac son Alexei, she fell under the sway of Grigori Rasputin, and during World War I (with Nicholas at the front as supreme commander) she dismissed and replaced ministers on Rasputin's counsel, effectively directing domestic policy. Her German birth, her reliance on Rasputin, and her refusal of political reform earned her public hatred and accelerated the collapse of the Romanov dynasty. On 17 July 1918 she was shot by Bolsheviks in the cellar of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, alongside her husband and five children.
Career Timeline
- 1894Marries Nicholas II, Empress of Russia
- 1904Birth of Tsarevich Alexei
- 1905First meets Rasputin
- 1915–17Controls domestic affairs with Rasputin during Nicholas's absence at the front
- 1917.3Placed under house arrest
- 1918.7Executed with her family at Yekaterinburg