"Nicholas And Alexandra," The Movie and History, Part One

This beautifully filmed 1971 movie, directed by Franklin Schaffner, who also directed "Patton," is "based" upon actual historical events as presented in the 1967 book of the same name by Robert K. Massie. Massie was motivated to write the book, as his son had hemophilia, just as Nicholas and Alexandra's son, Alexei, who had been afflicted with hemophilia in the early 1900s. Many years ago when I was in college, I had daytime classes, as well as some evening classes. One of the movie theaters a few blocks away had matinees on certain days with low price admission, and if there was a decent movie showing, I'd go there between classes. It's been so long ago I can't remember the price, but it could well have been like fifty or seventy-five cents, but remember, this was the early 1970s. Anyway, that's how I first saw "Nicholas and Alexandra," although they may have charged a little more for admission to see it. The movie is more than three hours long and is available on DVD.

History shows us that Nicholas was not prepared to become the Tsar of Russia, as his father, Tsar Alexander III, was a huge man, who some have said was symbolic of the "Russian bear." He was physically strong, but also strong and confident in his beliefs, and he acted decisively when so required. This all led people to believe he would continue as Tsar for many more years, but at the age of only 49, Alexander III took ill with kidney disease and died within a few months. This brought his eldest son Nicholas to the throne of Russia at the age of 26. While Alexander III was a big man, Nicholas took after his much smaller mother, Marie, who was a Danish princess. Throughout his life Nicholas found himself being unfavorably compared to his father, both in physical stature and ruling stature, a fact mentioned in the movie.

Alexandra, her Russian name, as her real name was "Alix," a German rendering of her mother's name, Alice, was born as a princess and a Lutheran in the German Grand Duchy of Hessen und bei Rhein, at Darmstadt. Her mother died when Alix was only six years old. This brought her maternal grandmother to assume the duties of providing for the young girl's education through tutors and, to a great extent, for her general upbringing. Who was her grandmother? None other than Queen Victoria of England, as Alice had been her daughter. So as some historians have pointed out, Alix was born a German, but raised more as an Englishwoman. She spent much time with her grandmother in England, where the queen taught her about "noblesse oblige;" that is, the idea that noble birth requires the person to act responsibly and with charity toward those less fortunate. It was a concept Alix continued to pursue to a "selective" extent when she became Tsarina of Russia, but with limited success. It is important to remember, Alix was born in Germany, a "limited" constitutional monarchy, where the Kaiser (emperor) was "somewhat limited" in his authority by the elected representatives of the Reichstag (the German parliament), and she spent long periods of time in England with her grandmother, where the British monarchy was much more of a constitutional monarchy, and where Parliament had much more say. So she had seen and experienced democracy to varying degrees. When she married Nicholas, she married into an "autocracy" (see Word History below); that is, a nation governed by someone with unlimited power. There was NO legislative body of representatives elected by the Russian people at the time of Alix's arrival in Russia, although that did come, but not until much later.

Alexander III's death not only brought an unprepared Nicholas to the Russian throne, it brought the hurried marriage of Nicholas and Alix. Alix had at first turned down Nicholas's marriage proposal, as in order to marry him, Russian law required that she would have to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. She eventually relented, and she was rushed through her religious instruction, but more especially her learning of the Russian language was not far enough along for her to feel confident in its use.* This began a division with her Russian subjects right from the start, as Alix suffered from what some have described as pathological shyness (depicted in the movie), and the insecurity of her limited knowledge of Russian left her appearing cold and haughty to many Russians. Further, Russian society was dominated by a very small number of nobles and aristocrats, and that society had little, if anything, in common with her upbringing in Germany and England. Her "Victorian" values were neither appreciated nor welcomed by Russian high society, where extramarital affairs were commonplace and pretty much expected. She later tried to form sewing and knitting circles to make clothing for the poor, but the whole thing was not a great success, as many Russian society women had disdain for such an idea. In the Russian high society, the nobility and the aristocrats flaunted their wealth and power.

The rest in "Part Two" ...

* Like English, Russian is an Indo European language, but from the Slavic branch, so further down the family tree of English, which is from the Germanic branch. Further, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. While her Russian improved over time, Alix and Nicholas conversed in English! As I recall, she spoke to her children in English and German, and indeed often instructed them in both languages. Nicholas spoke to his children in Russian. Nicholas was related to English royalty, as his mother's sister was married to Queen Victoria's son Edward, who would later become King Edward VII (of cigar fame), when his mother passed away. Hopefully not to confuse you, but in case you haven't noticed, Edward was Alix's uncle, as he was her mother's brother. Nicholas was also closely connected to the German nobility, as both of his grandmothers were Germans, and both, like his wife Alix, were from Hessen!  
 
Photo from the Columbia Pictures DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Autocrat-This compound word, meaning "a person with absolute/total power," was borrowed from French circa 1800. The word had come from Greek "autokrates," which meant "ruling singly, ruling by oneself." This came from Greek "autos," a word of uncertain derivation, meaning "self," and "kratia," which meant "rule," from Greek "kratos," which meant "power, strength." This came from Indo European "kretis" ("power/strength") from the root "ker/kre," which had the notion of "hard," giving the further notion of "strength," and thus, "power."