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.
Activities and affiliations
- 1894–1917 Monarchs and royalty · Russian Empire
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
Related historical events
Wartime intervention in domestic affairs and ministerial turnover
When Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the Russian army in September 1915 and stayed at headquarters, Alexandra exerted influence over domestic affairs from the capital. She trusted Rasputin and acted on his advice, pressing for successive changes among ministers and their deputies. In early 1916, Boris Stürmer replaced Ivan Goremykin as prime minister; Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov, who favored honoring the alliance with Britain and France and continuing the war, was dismissed in August, and Stürmer took over his portfolio. In September, Alexander Protopopov became acting interior minister. Stürmer was regarded as a reactionary hostile to popular representation and local self-government. These appointments were made under Nicholas's authority and through the imperial government's institutions, so Alexandra did not independently take control of the government. Nevertheless, military leaders were alarmed that a map of military operations had reached her, and the perception that the commander-in-chief's wife and Rasputin intervened in state affairs further weakened the regime's standing at the front and in the capital. Rumors that the German-born empress, Rasputin and Stürmer were seeking a separate peace with Germany circulated widely, but these remained unconfirmed political accusations at the time. Alexandra defended Nicholas's autocratic power and opposed her critics' demands; her policy preferences and pressure over appointments deepened the late imperial regime's isolation.