At the beginning of the IX and XX centuries the absolute power belonged to the Monarch without limits. In 1894 Nicolay II came to the power .
The eldest son of the imperator Alexander III Nikolay was born in 1868 and received his education at home. The future ministry of defense A.F. Rediger was teaching him the academy military courses; and the famous V.O. Kluchevsky was teaching him history. But his Master K.P. Pobedonostsev, the former professor of the Moscow University, more influenced his opinion and point of view on the world and politics. He convinced Nikolay that the monarchy was the only political system that could exist in Russia.
Most of the contemporaries thought that Nikolay was not very clever. He was not enthusiastic, and didn't have any great aims. He was not opened to other people. In spite of the fact that ruling the country was not interesting to him much, he couldn't abandon the idea of the unlimited power.
The only thing he really loved was his family. In 1894 Nikolay got married to Alexandra Fyodorovna (Alice the princess of Gessen and Rein). Being a good head of family, Nikolay II liked to spend a lot of time with children. He had four girls already when in 1904 his successor was born.
He was sincerely convinced that the power was a family matter and that he must give it completely to his son after his death. In January 1895 while addressing to the deputies of towns and courts, the young imperator said that idea of liberal power going on in the country was without sense, showing that the idea of absolute monarchy is the only political system.
He was so indifferent to everything, that was beyond the court's life and family life. It was so evident to notice his indifference during the Khodynskaya's tragedy. On the day of his coming to the power in Moscow on May 18, 1896 in Khodynskoye field almost 1500 people died. Nikolay II even didn't postponed the feast, but even took part in the court's ceremonies on same day and in the end of the feast he even thanked the people in charge of the organization for their good work, especially his uncle the great Sergey Alexandrovich.
Here we must notice that Nikolay II liked to put the members of his family to the greatest posts (it concerns the family of Romanov). He did it independently of their personal qualities. As results during the most critical period of the country (during the crisis and war), on the most important posts were people without experience, and therefore they couldn't solve those problems. At the head of marine army was the uncle of the tsar Aleksey Alexandrovich, who broke down the marine during the war with Japan. The post of General-inspector of the artillery was in the hands of Peter Nikolaevich.
All this nominations were following the traditions of the politics of Alexander III. For instance from
1881 to 1905 the head of State Council was great Mikhail Nikolaevich, a limited man. Among the members of his family were also clever people but Nikolay II didn't take care of their opinion; we can take the example of Alexander Mikhailovich. Already in 1895 he showed a letter to Nikolay II in which he designed Japan as the potential opponent of Russia in the sea and even announced the time of the beginning of the war (1903-1904). During the war he was against the fact that to the extreme east were sent the first and the second divisions of the Pacific ocean. Alexander Mikhailovich got the plan of construction of new boats and the reconstruction of the marine army. Finally, while taking decisions he was influenced by the opinion of
the elder members of his family.
The worst influence on the authority of the monarch was the multitude clever and opened-minded people from the provinces. But the most destructive was the influence of the 'Saint elder' Grigory Rasputin , who became the symbol of the destruction and the division of the absolute power at the last year of the ruling of Nikolay II. He came for the first time to the court in 1905; the former horse-thief became the most important person in the tsar's house. Due to the fact that he was doing hypnosis, he could help the son of the tsar Alexey who was almost about to die. The wife of the imperator, being sure that the "man of god" was having a wonderful power started to support and defend him when the last was accused of having an immoral life.
"The old", in spite of his bad past and his bad way of life became one of the centers of power, especially during the First World War, when he directly influenced the state decisions.
There were no important changes during the reign of Nikolay II; the first structure of the government and the administrative structure were saved.
From the end of the 90's the tsar's government started elaborating the autonomy of the great Finland's principality. In 1898 the nominated General-governor N.I. Bobrinsky showed to the imperator the letter containing program of the rights, the use of the Russian language in the country, the ruling of the customs by Finland. He started the execution of that program.
The acts of Bobrinsky allowed the beginning of the revolution movement in Finland.
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