Russia in the early twentieth century was a land simmering with unrest. For centuries, the Tsar had been viewed as a near-divine figure, the "Little Father" of all Russians, but by 1905, that faith was crumbling under the weight of industrialization, poverty, and political stagnation. Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs, was a man ill-equipped to manage the demands of a rapidly changing empire. While Europe surged toward modernity with reforms and democracy, Russia remained mired in the autocratic traditions of its past. Industrial workers toiled in factories under unbearable conditions, peasants suffered in crushing poverty, and even the middle class began to question whether reform was possible under a system that seemed willfully blind to their suffering. The rift between ruler and ruled had never been wider.