Political authority and gov under Nicholas II 1884-1904

• Tsar Nicholas II was small naturally reserved and regarded by his father as a dunce and a weakling. He even referred to Nicholas as a 'girlie'.
• Nicholas had excellent manners a good memory and could speak several languages but he was not a practical man. Politics bored him and when his father died in 1894 Nicholas is said to have told his cousin that he is not prepared to be Tsar.
• However he accepted his inheritance as God-given and set out to rule in 'the Romanov way' asserting himself against the demand of the growing reform movement .
• Nicholas II had been brought up to take his duties as a ruler seriously and to believe that any concessions or signs of weakness would be indications of cowardice and failure on his part.
• No doubt such attitudes had been instilled in him by Konstantin Pobedonostsev his tutor. As he declared shortly before his coronation he was resolved to maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly as his father did.
• Nicholas' commitment to Orthodoxy ensured that the Church maintained its powerful influence.Continued Russification and support for the 'Black Hundreds' organisations with their right-wing and anti-semitic ideals ensured Nicholas was no more popular with the ethnic minorities than his father had been.