Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, youngest child of Tsar Nicholas, is born in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. Nicholas is warned by his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856–1929) and the Prime Minister Sergei Witte that the war is futile and costing too many lives. They tell him the Russian people want representative government, health care, voting and workers' rights, but Nicholas wants to maintain the autocracy. Meanwhile, underground political parties led by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky have formed.