At least Nicholas II didn’t suppress religious freedom
Under the guise of promoting atheism, Lenin and Stalin arrested Orthodox priests, suppressed religion, and made the adoption of atheism a goal of the state. Nicholas II had a... not very nice view of Jews, but he suppressed anti-Semitic riots and actively fought anti-Semitism, particularly after 1911. And, of course, he didn’t establish a new government that COULD grant total religious freedom only to suppress religion. Nicholas II’s October Manifesto was criticized by the Russian Orthodox Church for legalizing religious freedom, in fact.