Nicholas

nik'o-las, the name of five popes and two rulers of Russia. Nicholas I was czar of Russia from 1825 until the time of his death in 1855. He was an unmitigated despot. He forced his nobles to better the condition of the serfs. He required conformity to the rules of the church. The Crimean War was begun during his reign. Nicholas II, the present czar, was crowned in 1894. His reign has been noted thus far for the part he took in the peace conference of the Hague, for a disastrous war with Japan, and for a general uprising of the peasantry in 1905.

See Russia