Nicholas II reigned as the last czar of Russia from 1894; defeat in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905, the revolution of 1905, the influence of Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, involvement in the Great War, and governmental incompetence all helped to precipitate the revolution, which of 1917 marked his end and forced him to abdicate before the Bolsheviks executed him and his family.
He married Alexandra, his wife, czarina, and consort, in 1894.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, the last emperor of all Russia, ruled from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917.