Nicholas and Alexandra (Alix of Hesse, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) were very much in love and well-suited, even if they did not have particularly strong or decisive personalities. Alexandra did come under the spell of Rasputin, but she should not be blamed for the Russian Revolution, nor for her family's eventual unconscionable and cruel slaughter.
The historical denigration of Alexandra reminds me of how Queen Marie Antoinette of France is always blamed for the French Revolution and for the way the revolutionary captors and guards sexually abused, starved and tortured her four-year-old son to death during his four years of despicable, isolated captivity.
Meanwhile, the aggressive, scheming, sexually promiscuous, powerful and victorious Catherine the Great of Russia (reputed to have had her husband killed prior to taking over the throne) is aggrandized and admired. She created The Hermitage and amassed great artworks by stealing from countries throughout Europe, Asia & Africa. Yeah sure she was great because she ruled with an iron fist and got away with it. Often those royal women who were less powerful or whose personalities were weaker are portrayed as villains when they were actually victims.
As far as the Russian Revolution, so many different historical factors were at play, and so many situations were out of the Tsar's control, even in spite of his and his wife's missteps and mistakes. It's an abiding shame that the British royals did not try to rescue their Romanov cousins in Russia. There was talk of trying to do so, but they dragged their feet because of not wanting the taint of 'overthrow by the people' to infect their rule in Britain. King George V of Britain and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were first cousins (their mothers were sisters: Alexandra of Denmark who married Edward VII of Britain, and Dagmar of Denmark who married Emperor Alexander III of Russia looked strikingly alike, as did their sons George and Nicholas respectively).
http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/king-george-tsar-nicholas-1913/
