The Russian Revolution is often viewed as a sudden, climactic event, culminating with the brutal assassination of Czar Nicholas II and his family. In reality, the revolution occurred in stages, with long periods of civil unrest, repression, and public protests. Ultimately acknowledged as a kind and religious man by those who knew him, Czar Nicholas was nonetheless an ineffectual leader and uninspired politician. His country in shambles, he retreated to his palaces and a life of unimagined luxury. To critics of the czar, the famous jeweled Easter eggs created for the Romanov family by Fabergé came to symbolize the monarchy in their opulence, privilege, and utter uselessness. Forced to abdicate his throne during the first part of the Revolution in February of 1917, Czar Nicholas and his family were gunned down later that year by Bolsheviks, thus definitively ending the imperial era in Russia and casting the country into civil war. Preferring style over substance, and completely out of step with the needs of their country, the Romanov story is ultimately a tragic one.