If not I have some questions regarding Tsar Nicholas II. I posted over in /r/homeworkhelp and am waiting for a response but I noticed some questions don't get answered over there so I was going to post it over here.
The questions are :
What attributes would Nicholas have to display to be an effective monarch?
Did he live up to expectations?
Thanks for any help!
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Perhaps Nicholas' biggest flaw was something that today we might consider a virtue. He was against alcohol -- at least in large quantities.
At the outbreak of World War I, he outlawed the general sale of alcohol. At first, the prohibition was only in the war zones, but it spread quickly across Russia. Now, there were plenty of loopholes in the law, and it didn't stop alcohol from being produced (as in the United States).
What it did do was turn alcohol distribution into a focus of riots (and there were many conscription riots in Russia) -- the rioters generally made immediately for the places where alcohol was stored.
More importantly, it blew a massive hole in Russia's budget. Something between 20 percent and one-third of all Russian government revenue came from taxes placed on alcohol. The government intended that economic growth -- drunk workers produce less than sober ones -- would soon make good the deficit in tax revenue.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out, and the social strain that the alcohol ban put on Russia was a contributing factor in the Russian Revolution.