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In-Depth Information
BLOODY SUNDAY
. Nicholas was able to slow down
revolutionary activities only with the issuance of
the October Manifesto, granting civil rights to
Russians and providing for a legislative assembly
(
DUMA
) with limited powers. The decade from
1905 to 1914 saw the development of a semi-
constitutional regime in Russia, much to the dis-
may of Nicholas and his wife, who remained
steadfast in their belief in autocratic rule. Also
during this time, the sinister monk Grigorii
RAS
-
PUTIN
gained influence with Alexandra because
of his supposed ability to control the hemophilia
of the heir to the throne, Alexis.
The outbreak of World War I in July 1914
tested Russia's military power and the limits of its
constitutional experiment. Early Russian defeats
by the German army compelled Nicholas to join
the command at the front, leaving Alexandra,
now dependent on Rasputin, to clash with rep-
resentatives of the Duma who wanted greater
participation in the conduct of the war effort.
Continued military defeats, food shortages, and a
widespread revulsion against corruption at the
imperial court led to spontaneous protests in Pet-
rograd in February 1917. Ten days later Nicholas
was forced to abdicate, and when his brother
Michael refused the throne, the fate of the
Romanov dynasty was sealed. With the Provi-
sional Government in power, Nicholas and his
family were first kept at the palace of Tsarskoe
Selo, but in August 1917 they were moved to
Tobolsk, in Siberia. After the
OCTOBER REVOLU
-
TION
, the
BOLSHEVIKS
moved the family to Ekater-
inburg in the Urals. With civil war raging across
Russia and the future of the Bolshevik govern-
ment in doubt,
LENIN
approved the execution of
Nicholas, his wife, and children, which was car-
ried out in July 1918.
rial Ballet School in 1900, displaying an excep-
tional virtuosity that gained him leading roles
early in his career at the Imperial Theater. In
1908, he met Sergei
DIAGHILEV
, who immediately
recruited him for his Ballets Russes, which
toured Europe to great acclaim in 1909 with
Nijinsky as the star dancer. Nijinsky astounded
western audiences with his technical accom-
plishment, his apparent ability to hover in the
air, and his interpretive abilities. In 1911, Nijin-
sky was dismissed from the Imperial Theaters,
ostensibly because his costumes were too reveal-
ing, but more likely because the imperial family
did not approve of his love affair with Diaghilev.
He left Russia, never to return, and now per-
formed exclusively for Diaghilev, developing his
skills as a choreographer in works like
L' Après-
midi d'un faune, Jeux,
and
Le Sacre du printemps,
the latter causing a furor among audiences for its
extreme barbarity and originality. His sudden
marriage to a Ballets Russes dancer and his
behavior during the 1913 tour of South America
marked the beginning of his final estrangement
from Diaghilev, and after refusing to dance on
one occasion, he was dismissed from the com-
pany. He danced for four more years, but in
1917, only 10 years after his debut, ravaged by
mental disease, he was confined to an asylum,
where he spent the last three decades of his life.
He died in London. His sister Bronislava Nijinska
(1891-1972), an extraordinary dancer and
teacher who appeared with her brother in the
first season of the Ballets Russes, has the distinc-
tion of being the first female choreographer.
Nikitenko, Aleksandr Vasilievich
(1804-1877)
censor and writer
A talented man of letters known to later genera-
tions for the invaluable diary he kept for half a
century, Nikitenko was born a serf into a family
owned by count Sheremetev. By virtue of his
talents he rose to become secretary of a district
branch of the Bible Society, which developed in
Russia in the 1820s with the goal of spreading
Nijinsky, Vaslav Fomich
(1890-1950)
dancer and choreographer
One of the greatest names in the history of bal-
let, lauded at his peak as the “God of Dance,”
Nijinsky was born in Kiev to a family of Polish
descent. He enrolled at the St. Petersburg Impe-
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