During the 1900s, Tsar Nicholas II ruled the largest empire in the world of 125 million people. This meant tremendous responsibility and pressure to maintain a balanced and comfortable life for the people of Russia. However, due to his poor decisions and leadership skills, there were numerous events such as Bloody Sunday and World War I that played a key role in the fall of Nicholas II and the Romanov family.
Tsar Nicholas II was a firm believer in autocracy and orthodoxy due to the way his grandfather, Alexander II, ruled in the 1800s. This feeling of obligation to continue the inherited leadership caused colossal unrest within his empire. He approached the throne quite hesitantly, finding the position boring and too overwhelming. His educational background also encouraged him to think it was right to have unlimited power over the Russian people and expected unquestioned obedience. This personality and leadership led to the inadequate laws he implemented on his people, and it was his inability to provide change that pushed the population over the edge and attempt a revolution.
The Russo-Japanese war was a strategic move by Nicholas II to distract his people from the domestic problems that existed within the nation during 1904. He believed winning the war would regain trust between him and his people and recreate that forgotten sense of nationalism. However, this scheme failed miserably, highlighting the inadequacies Nicholas II embodied rather than the reassuring control he tried to display. This humiliating loss to an Asian country not only damaged Russia's reputation but also lost almost an entire fleet, eliminating 120 thousand men and costing them an enormous amount of money, which devastated the economy and caused famine. This later contributed to the fall of Nicholas II. This resentment towards Tsar Nicholas led to the horrific incident of 'Bloody Sunday' in January 1905.