This episode explores the troubled reign of Nicholas II, a ruler committed to autocracy yet overwhelmed by the pressures of industrialisation, social unrest and rising revolutionary movements. We trace the impact of the 1905 Revolution, the creation and limitations of the Duma, the strains of World War I, and the tsar’s political misjudgements—from Rasputin’s influence to military failures—that culminated in the collapse of the Romanov dynasty in 1917.