March 15, 1917: Czar Nicholas II Abdicates

March 15, 1917: Czar Nicholas II of Russia bows to the inevitable, and abdicates his throne after 23 years. This is the end of the dynasty of the House of Romanov, after 304 years.

World War I proved to be his undoing. By backing up Serbia in its conflict with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he had caused the German Empire to step in on Austria's side. Soon, Austria and Serbia became an overlooked side of the war, as the Eastern Front between Germany and Russia proved every bit as brutal as the Western Front between Germany and the alliance of Britain and France.

Nicholas, thinking himself smarter than he really was, took personal control of the Army, and was away from the capital, Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), for much of 1915 and 1916. He proved a spectacularly bad commander, and his neglect of the home front left the people of the Russian Empire impoverished, in some cases starving.

The people hated him as a tyrant, and hated his wife the Czarina Alexandra as a German interloper. By February 23, 1917, a cold snap had made everything worse, and people began marching through the streets of the cities with red banners. Police shot at them, and riots resulted. And several military units were in mutiny. The "February Revolution" was underway.

The Czar's Cabinet told him that the only way to stop the rioting was to abdicate. He refused. On March 11, the 48-year-old Emperor suffered a coronary occlusion. By this point, the troops had stopped firing on the rioters, and let them run riot.

Finally, on March 15, his Generals told him that abdication was the only way to avoid either a civil war or complete conquest by the Germans. He got in touch with Alexandra, and said he would abdicate in favor of his only son, the 12-year-old Czarevitch Alexei. But Alexandra said the strain of reign would be too much for the hemophiliac Alexei. So Nicholas abdicated on his own behalf and Alexei's, and named his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.

But Michael was smarter than his brother: He refused to take the throne as Czar Michael II until the people were allowed to vote through a Constituent Assembly for either the continuance of the monarchy or a republic. A provisional government was installed, with Alexander Kerensky as President.

It wouldn't last long. And the House of Romanov wouldn't last much longer.

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March 15, 1917 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. The Stanley Cup Finals would begin 2 days later, with the Seattle Metropolitans beating the Montreal Canadiens to become the 1st American team to win the Cup. Football was out of season. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.