As the government failed to produce supplies, mounting hardship resulted in massive riots and rebellions. With Nicholas away at the front from 1915 through 1916, authority appeared to collapse and the capital was left in the hands of strikers and mutineering soldiers. Despite efforts by the British Ambassador Sir George Buchanan to warn the Tsar that he should grant constitutional reforms to fend off revolution, Nicholas continued to bury himself away at the Staff HQ ( Stavka) 600 kilometres (400mi) away at Mogilev, leaving his capital and court open to intrigues and insurrection. [108] The recording of Before...But Longer took place in 1998 and the album was finished in September. With no team in place, no agent, no European licensee, no live show, Raymonde then spent a year trying to drum up interest for the band in the musical community to enable him to launch the band. Upon the actual release of the album in 2000, the band had already considered the material to be old, and didn't seem that keen to promote it, but despite this, the album was received decently. [5] Drowned in Sound gave the album 8/10. [7]

The EP, X Would Rather Listen to Y Than Suffer Through a C of Z's was self-produced by the band and released during the 2002 tour. The name of the EP is a joke and came from a dictionary. John Grant has said the following about the meaning of the title: "It's just a joke about how people use calculated formulas with people when they go out into the world to deal with people and how that simply doesn't work." [6] Josef und Ulli. "Germany during World War One". Archived from the original on 18 October 2009 . Retrieved 7 September 2009. In view of the enemy's proximity to Yekaterinburg and the exposure by the Cheka of a serious White Guard plot with the goal of abducting the former tsar and his family… In light of the approach of counterrevolutionary bands toward the Red capital of the Urals and the possibility of the crowned executioner escaping trial by the people (a plot among the White Guards to try to abduct him and his family was exposed and the compromising documents will be published), the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet, fulfilling the will of the Revolution, resolved to shoot the former Tsar, Nikolai Romanov, who is guilty of countless, bloody, violent acts against the Russian people. [163] Russia's Last Tsar Declared Victim of Repression". Time. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009 . Retrieved 7 September 2009. Klein, Ira (1971). "The Anglo-Russian Convention and the Problem of Central Asia, 1907–1914". Journal of British Studies. 11 (1): 126–147. doi: 10.1086/385621. JSTOR 175041. S2CID 145507675.Clay, Catarine (2006) King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War, Walker & Company, ISBN 0802716237, pp. 300–301 The Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia rejected the family's classification as martyrs because they were not killed on account of their religious faith. Religious leaders in both churches also had objections to canonising the tsar's family because they perceived him as a weak emperor whose incompetence led to the revolution and the suffering of his people and made him partially responsible for his own assassination and those of his wife, children and servants. For these opponents, the fact that the tsar was, in private life, a kind man and a good husband and father or a leader who showed genuine concern for the peasantry did not override his poor governance of Russia. [188] During the July Crisis, Nicholas supported Serbia and approved the mobilisation of the Russian Army on 30 July 1914. In response, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and its ally France on 3 August, starting World War I. The severe military losses led to a collapse of morale at the front and at home; a general strike and a mutiny of the garrison in Petrograd sparked the February Revolution and the disintegration of the monarchy's authority. After abdicating himself and on behalf of his son, Nicholas and his family were imprisoned by the Russian Provisional Government and exiled to Siberia. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution, the family was held in Yekaterinburg, where they were executed on 17 July 1918.

A few days prior to Bloody Sunday (9 (22) January 1905), priest and labor leader Georgy Gapon informed the government of the forthcoming procession to the Winter Palace to hand a workers' petition to the tsar. On Saturday, 8 (21) January, the ministers convened to consider the situation. There was never any thought that the tsar, who had left the capital for Tsarskoye Selo on the advice of the ministers, would actually meet Gapon; the suggestion that some other member of the imperial family receive the petition was rejected. [64] An announcement from the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet of the Workers' and Peasants' Government emphasized that conspiracies had been exposed to free the ex-tsar, that counter-revolutionary forces were pressing in on Soviet Russian territory, and that the ex-tsar was guilty of unforgivable crimes against the nation. [162] Pchelov, Evgeny (2009). "Династия Романовых: генеалогия и антропонимика"[The Romanov dynasty: genealogy and anthroponymy]. Вопросы истории (in Russian). 6: 76–83. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019.Under pressure from the attempted 1905 Russian Revolution, on 5 August of that year Nicholas II issued a manifesto about the convocation of the State Duma, known as the Bulygin Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the October Manifesto, the Tsar pledged to introduce basic civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. He was determined, however, to preserve his autocracy even in the context of reform. This was signalled in the text of the 1906 constitution. He was described as the supreme autocrat, and retained sweeping executive powers, also in church affairs. His cabinet ministers were not allowed to interfere with nor assist one another; they were responsible only to him. [ citation needed] In July 1915, King Christian X of Denmark, first cousin of the tsar, sent Hans Niels Andersen to Tsarskoye Selo with an offer to act as a mediator. He made several trips between London, Berlin and Petrograd and in July saw the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Andersen told her they should conclude peace. Nicholas chose to turn down King Christian's offer of mediation, as he felt it would be a betrayal for Russia to form a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers when its allies Britain and France were still fighting. [106] A clash between Russia and the Empire of Japan was almost inevitable by the turn of the 20th century. Russia had expanded in the Far East, and the growth of its settlement and territorial ambitions, as its southward path to the Balkans was frustrated, conflicted with Japan's own territorial ambitions on the Asian mainland. Nicholas pursued an aggressive foreign policy with regards to Manchuria and Korea, and strongly supported the scheme for timber concessions in these areas as developed by the Bezobrazov group. [44] [45] The contemporary assessments of Nicholas are remarkably uniform. He was described as shy, charming, gentle in disposition, fearful of controversy, indecisive, indulgent to his relatives, and deeply devoted to his family. Aleksandr Mosolov, who headed his Court Chancellery for sixteen years, wrote that Nicholas, though intelligent and well-educated, never adopted a definite, energetic attitude and loathed making a decision in the presence of others. Sergei Witte, who served Nicholas and his father for eleven years as Minister of Finance, commented that the tsar was a well-intentioned child, but his actions were entirely dependent upon the character of his counselors, most of whom were bad. [191] Police shot at the populace which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime, with the bulk of the tsar's loyalists away fighting World War I. In contrast, the soldiers in Petrograd were angry, full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace. [112]

In 1981, Nicholas and his immediate family were recognised as martyred saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. [186] On 14 August 2000, they were recognised by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. This time they were not named as martyrs, since their deaths did not result immediately from their Christian faith; instead, they were canonized as passion bearers. [187] According to a statement by the Moscow synod, they were glorified as saints for the following reasons: In February 1918, the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviated to "Sovnarkom") in Moscow, the new capital, announced that the state subsidy for the family would be drastically reduced, starting on 1 March. This meant parting with twelve devoted servants and giving up butter and coffee as luxuries, even though Nicholas added to the funds from his own resources. [140] Nicholas and Alexandra were appalled by news of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereby Russia agreed to give up Poland, Finland, the Baltic States, most of Belarus, Ukraine, the Crimea, most of the Caucasus, and small parts of Russia proper including areas around Pskov and Rostov-on-Don. [141] What kept the family's spirits up was the belief that help was at hand. [142] The Romanovs believed that various plots were underway to break them out of captivity and smuggle them to safety. The Western Allies lost interest in the fate of the Romanovs after Russia left the war. The German government wanted the monarchy restored in Russia to crush the Bolsheviks and maintain good relations with the Central Powers. [143] Dan L. Morrill, "Nicholas II and the Call for the First Hague Conference' Journal of Modern History (1974) 46#2 pp. 296–313, quoting p. 297 online In 1996, the band's demos were released on the album Mood Swing through their own record label, Velveteen Records. [6] The following year, the album The La Brea Tar Pits of Routine was also released by Velveteen Records. It has been noted by John Grant that the band and himself were dissatisfied with this album. Grant personally felt that the songs on the album weren't strong on a lyrical level and some of his vocals were out of tune. [5] Both releases were self-produced and self-released by the band. During this period of time, John Grant's lyrics were mostly improvised and he often added new words to his lyrics during live performances, making it difficult for Grant to ever do the same song twice. [5] Following the band's breakup, Grant took some time off from the music business, and returned to recording and performing in 2010 with his debut solo album Queen of Denmark. [4] History [ edit ]

Releases

a b Rotem Kowner, "Nicholas II and the Japanese body: Images and decision-making on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War." Psychohistory Review (1998) 26#3 pp. 211–252. online. Thomas K. Ford, "The Genesis of the First Hague Peace Conference" Political Science Quarterly (1936) 51#3 pp. 354–382 online The French government declined to accept the Romanovs in view of increasing unrest on the Western Front and on the home front as a result of the ongoing war with Germany. [121] [122] The British ambassador in Paris, Lord Bertie, advised the Foreign Secretary that the Romanovs would be unwelcome in France as the ex-empress was regarded as pro-German. [117] Even if an offer of asylum had been forthcoming, there would have been other obstacles to be overcome. The Provisional Government only remained in power through an uneasy alliance with the Petrograd Soviet, an arrangement known as "The Dual power". An initial plan to send the imperial family to the northern port of Murmansk had to be abandoned when it was realised that the railway workers and the soldiers guarding them were loyal to the Petrograd Soviet, which opposed the escape of the tsar; a later proposal to send the Romanovs to a neutral port in the Baltic Sea via the Grand Duchy of Finland faced similar difficulties. [123] Imprisonment Nicholas II under guard in the grounds at Tsarskoye Selo in the summer of 1917 Tsarskoye Selo