Description:

Nicholas II of Russia Czar 1868 - 1918 Nicholas II boldly signed six months before WWI outbreak -- the last Czar!

Printed in Cyrillic on cream folio paper measuring 8.5" x 14" and dramatically signed "Nicholas" with double looped underline at center right. Very to extra fine condition; signature is dark, strong, and confident. Brief handwritten clerical inscription and partial purple date stamp visible at lower left.

This document invested recipient Paul Gerakov with the Order of the White Eagle. The white eagle is a symbol historically associated with Poland. In 1831, Czar Nicholas I coopted the Order of the White Eagle along with other Polish awards of merit after suppressing insurrection there. The actual award was double-sided and featured the double-headed Russian Imperial eagle, the Russian crown, and a Maltese cross in gold and red, blue, and white enamel. After 1832, the award would have been suspended from a blue ribbon or sash. The Order of the White Eagle was the preferred award to grant to non-Christians in the Russian Empire, so it is interesting to speculate as to the religious leanings of Paul Gerakov. Only three imperial awards outranked the Order of the White Eagle, these being the Orders of Saint Andrew, of Saint Catherine (for female recipients only), and of Saint Alexander Nevsky.

This decree was issued in early March 1914, only three months before the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo. The murder, claimed by members of the Serbian terrorist organization the Black Hand, would lead to the chain reaction of declarations of war underpinning the European alliance system. Nicholas II led Russian forces against the Central Powers by opening an Eastern front, while Allied Powers dominated by the French and British slogged through muddy trenches on the Western Front. The Russians sustained heavy wartime military as well as civilian losses, further destabilizing Nicholas II's tenuous grip on his Empire. He was forced to abdicate following the February Revolution of 1917. In July 1918, the last Czar of all the Russias along with his immediate family and a few of his most devoted servants were executed by Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

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