Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

Harry Andrews: Grand Duke Nicholas (Nikolasha)

Photos 

Quotes 

• Nikolasha : Here is some wonderful news. A telegram from the Kaiser. Just what we wanted. Offering to mediate between us and Austria.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I knew I could count on Willy. You see? He signed it, "Your very sincere and devoted friend and cousin, Willy."

  Count Witte : With due respect to your cousin, sire, the Kaiser is a deceitful megalomaniac. If he is offering to help, then it is time to pray.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Gentlemen, Germany has declared war on Russia. God save Russia!

  Nikolasha : God save the Tsar.

• Count Witte : Have I Your Majesty's permission to review the facts again? If Port Arthur falls...

  Tsar Nicholas II : No fact begins with "if."

  Count Witte : Port Arthur has been under siege for six months. It has cost us 30,000 dead. If it ... A student stopped me in the street the other day. "Excuse me, sir, but why are we at war?" "Because, my boy, we want Korea, but the Japanese would insist on fighting us for it." "Thank you, sir, but what does Russia need Korea for?" "Because, my boy, we have no ice-free port on the Pacific." "I see. In that case, sir, it isn't good enough." He's right, sir. It's not good enough at all. Imagine, sire. Imagine that you are a factory worker. You're really poor. Your belly is never full. You freeze eight months of the year. Your children have no school, no doctor. Your country taxes you and sends your sons a continent away to die on a piece of land on the Pacific. Now, sir, Japan is a third-rate power. If she defeats us, if Port Arthur falls, we shall be disgraced in the eyes of the world, and here at home, we shall have an insurrection on our hands.

  Tsar Nicholas II : My people love me, Sergei Yulyevich.

  Count Witte : They want a constitution and the right to vote for an elected Duma. They're angry, and they're serious.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Are you advising me to give my rights away?

  Count Witte : I'm advising you to stop a hopeless war.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Is it so hopeless, Nikolasha?

  Nikolasha : Well, Nicky, let me put it this way. Here's a bullet, a bullet made in St. Petersburg. I send it off to war. How does it get there? On a single spur of track four thousand miles long. In the middle, no track at all. Oh, God help it; it spends three days packed on sleds. And every boot, shell or pound of tea we send. Get out now, Nicky, while there's time.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The Russia my father gave me never lost a war. What shall I say to my son when the time comes? That I had no pride, that I was weak? I've always thought God meant me to rule. He put me here. He chose me. And whatever happens is His will. We shall fight on to victory.

  Count Witte : There will be no victory. Only strikes and riots. You must give your people a little of what they want, sir. Not all. Just a taste.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.