Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich the younger
Encyclopedia
Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolayevich Romanov of Russia (Russian: Николай Николаевич Романов (младший - the younger)) (November 6, 1856 – January 5, 1929) was a Russian general
in World War I
. A grandson of Nicholas I of Russia
, he was commander in chief of the Russian armies on the main front in the first year of the war, and was later a successful commander in the Caucasus
.
(1831–1891) and Alexandra Petrovna of Oldenburg (1838–1900). His father was the sixth child and third son born to Nicholas I of Russia
and his Empress consort Alexandra Fedorovna of Prussia (1798–1860). Alexandra Fedorovna was a daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia
and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
.
Nicholas' mother, his father's first cousin's daughter, was a daughter of Duke Konstantin Peter of Oldenburg (1812–1881) and Princess Therese of Nassau (1815–1871). His maternal grandfather was a son of Duke George of Oldenburg
and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia
and Maria Fedorovna of Württemberg. (Catherine was later remarried to William I of Württemberg
.) His maternal grandmother was a daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1792–1839) and Princess Luise of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The Duke of Nassau was a son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1768–1816) and Burgravine Louise Isabelle of Kirchberg
. His paternal grandparents were Duke Karl Christian of Nassau-Weilburg (1735–1788) and Carolina of Orange-Nassau
. Carolina was a daughter of William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain. Anne was the eldest daughter of George II of Great Britain
and Caroline of Ansbach
.
Grand Duke Nicholas was the first cousin once removed of the Tsar Nicholas II
. To distinguish both of them, the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha. The Grand Duke also towered over the Tsar, so they were nicknamed "Nicholas the Tall" and "Nicholas the Short", respectively.
Grand Duke Nicholas was educated at the school of military engineers and received his commission in 1872. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, he was on the staff of his father who was commander in chief. He distinguished himself on two occasions in this war. He worked his way up through all the ranks until he was appointed commander of the Guard Hussar Regiment in 1884.
He had a reputation as a tough commander, yet one respected by his troops. His experience was more as a trainer of soldiers than a leader in battle. Nicholas was a very religious man, praying in the morning and at night as well as before and after meals. He was happiest in the country, hunting or caring for his estates.
Nicholas was a panslavist
nationalist, though not a radical one.
By 1895, he was inspector-general of the cavalry, a post he held for 10 years. His tenure has been judged a success with reforms in training, cavalry schools, cavalry reserves and the remount services. He was not given an active command during the Russo-Japanese War
, perhaps because the Czar did not wish to hazard the prestige of the Romanov
s and because he wanted a loyal general in command at home in case of domestic disturbances. Thus, Nicholas did not have the opportunity to gain experience in battlefield command.
Grand Duke Nicholas played a crucial role during the first Russian Rebellion of 1905. With anarchy spreading and the future of the dynasty at stake, the Czar had a choice of instituting the reforms suggested by Count Sergei Witte
or imposing a military dictatorship. The only man with the prestige to keep the allegiance of the army in such a coup was the Grand Duke. The Czar asked him to assume the role of a military dictator. In an emotional scene at the palace, Nicholas refused, drew his pistol and threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the Czar did not endorse Witte's plan. This act was decisive in forcing Nicholas II to agree to the reforms.
Empress Alexandra (born Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt), a convinced autocrat, never forgave the Grand Duke.
From 1905 to the outbreak of World War I
, he was commander-in-chief of the St. Petersburg
Military District. He had the reputation there of appointing men of humble origins to positions of authority. The lessons of the Russo-Japanese War were drilled into his men.
, the daughter of King Nicholas of Montenegro. She had previously been married to George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg
until their divorce in 1906. Their marriage was a happy one. Both were deeply religious Orthodox
Christians, with a tendency to mysticism
. Since the Montenegrins were a fiercely Slavic
, anti-Turk
ish people from the Balkans
, Anastasia reinforced the Pan-Slavic
tendencies of Nicholas. They had no children.
He had maybe five illegitimate children with Thérèse Lobiewski:
.Xenia(b 1918)
.Bartholomew(b 1919)
.David(d 1966)
.Nicholas(b 1923)
.Anastasia(b 1924)
hounds was restricted to members of the highest nobility, and Nicholas's packs were famous. As the Russian dogs perished in the Revolution of 1917-18, the borzoi of today are descended from gifts he made to European friends before World War I
. In his lifetime, Nicholas and his dogs caught hundreds of wolves. A pair of borzoi were used which caught the wolf, one on each side, while Nicholas dismounted and cut the wolf's throat with a knife. A hard working man, hunting was his major recreation, and he travelled in his private train across Russia with his horses and dogs, hunting while on his rounds of inspection.
and the general staff. On the eve of the outbreak of World War I, his first cousin once removed
, the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia
, yielded to the entreaties of his ministers and appointed Grand Duke Nicholas to the supreme command. He was 57 years old and had never commanded armies in the field before. He was given responsibility for the largest army ever put into the field in all prior history.
Grand Duke Nicholas was responsible for all Russian forces fighting against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. Initially, the Russian high command was not up to the challenge of the Great War. Different armies failed to coordinate their actions which resulted in the disaster of Tannenberg
. The subsequent Battle of the Vistula River
and Battle of Łódź were more successful for Russian army. The Grand Duke's role was limited to picking and choosing from the various plans offered by the many Russian Army Generals. No coherent plan for victory emerged from the Grand Duke or his staff, though on a personal level he was well liked by both officers and the troops.
Nicholas seems to have been more a bureaucrat than a military leader, lacking the broad strategic sense and the ruthless drive to command all the Russian armies. His headquarters had a curiously calm atmosphere, despite the many defeats and the millions of casualties. It must be admitted that the Russian army did not perform any better with his cousin, the Tsar, in charge of the war. On March 22, 1915 he reсeived Order of St. George
2nd degree for the successful Siege of Przemyśl
.
After the strategic retreat of the Russian army (and at the suggestion of Grigori Rasputin
, the Imperial Family's spiritual advisor), the Tsar replaced the Grand Duke as commander of the Russian armed forces on August 21, 1915.
area (taking over for the old Governor General Illarion Vorontsov
). While the Grand Duke was officially in command, General Yudenich
was the driving figure in the Russian Caucusus army. Their opponent was the Ottoman Empire
. While the Grand Duke was in command, the Russian army sent an expeditionary force through to Persia (now Iran
) to link up with British troops. Also in 1916, the Russian army captured the Fortress of Erzerum
, the port of Trebizond (now Trabzon
) and the town of Erzincan
. The Turks responded with an offensive of their own. Fighting around Lake Van
swung back and forth, but ultimately proved inconclusive.
Nicholas tried to have a railway built from Russian Georgia to the conquered territories with a view to bringing up more supplies for a new offensive in 1917. But, in March 1917, the Tsar was overthrown and the Russian army began to slowly fall apart.
found Nicholas in the Caucasus
. He was appointed by the Emperor, in his last official act, as the supreme commander in chief, and was wildly received as he journeyed to headquarters in Mogilev
; however, within 24 hours of his arrival, the new premier, Prince Georgy Lvov, cancelled his appointment. Nicholas spent the next two years in the Crimea
, sometimes under house arrest, taking little part in politics. There appears to have been some sentiment to have him head the White Russian
forces active in southern Russia at the time, but the leaders in charge, especially General Anton Denikin, were afraid that a strong monarchist figurehead would alienate the more left leaning constituents of the movement. He and his wife escaped just ahead of the Red Army
in April 1919, aboard the British Battleship
HMS Marlborough
.
On August 8, 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all Russia by the Zemsky Sobor
of the Preamursk region by general Mikhail Diterikhs. The former was already living abroad and consequently was not present. Two months later the Preamursk region fell to the Bolsheviks.
as a guest of his brother-in-law, Victor Emmanuel III
, King of Italy
, Nicholas and his wife took up residence in a small country house at Choigny, 20 miles outside of Paris
. He was under the protection of the French secret police
as well as by a small number of faithful Cossack
retainers. He became the center of an anti-Soviet monarchist resistance group, and headed the Russian All Military Union alongside general Pyotr Wrangel. Plans were made by them to send their agents into Russia. Conversely a top priority of the Soviet secret police was to penetrate this monarchist organization and to kidnap Nicholas. They were successful in the former, infiltrating the group with spies, and later luring the anti-Bolshevik British master spy Sidney Reilly
back to the Soviet Union where he was killed. They did not succeed however, with kidnapping Nicholas. As late as June 1927, the monarchists were able to set off a bomb at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.
Grand Duke Nicholas died on January 5, 1929 of natural causes on the French Riviera
, where he had gone to escape the rigors of winter.
by Harry Andrews
.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. A grandson of Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
, he was commander in chief of the Russian armies on the main front in the first year of the war, and was later a successful commander in the Caucasus
Viceroyalty of the Caucasus
The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus is a term used to denote the Imperial Russian administrative and political authority in the Caucasus region exercised through the offices of glavnoupravlyayushchiy and namestnik...
.
Family
Nicholas, named after his paternal grandfather the emperor, was born as the eldest son to Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich of RussiaGrand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievich of Russia
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia was the third son and sixth child of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna. He may also be referred to as Nicholas Nicolaievich the Elder to tell him apart from his son...
(1831–1891) and Alexandra Petrovna of Oldenburg (1838–1900). His father was the sixth child and third son born to Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
and his Empress consort Alexandra Fedorovna of Prussia (1798–1860). Alexandra Fedorovna was a daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III...
.
Nicholas' mother, his father's first cousin's daughter, was a daughter of Duke Konstantin Peter of Oldenburg (1812–1881) and Princess Therese of Nassau (1815–1871). His maternal grandfather was a son of Duke George of Oldenburg
Duke George of Oldenburg
Duke George of Oldenburg was a younger son of Peter I, Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his wife Duchess Frederica of Württemberg. He was a son-in-law of Paul I of Russia through marriage to his daughter Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia...
and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
and Maria Fedorovna of Württemberg. (Catherine was later remarried to William I of Württemberg
William I of Württemberg
William I was the second King of Württemberg from October 30, 1816 until his death.He was born in Lüben, the son of King Frederick I of Württemberg and his wife Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel .-First marriage:...
.) His maternal grandmother was a daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1792–1839) and Princess Luise of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The Duke of Nassau was a son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1768–1816) and Burgravine Louise Isabelle of Kirchberg
Burgravine Louise Isabelle of Kirchberg
Louise Isabelle Alexandrine Auguste, Countess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hachenburg, Burgravine of Kirchberg, full German name: Luise Isabelle Alexandrine Auguste, Gräfin zu Sayn-Hachenburg, Burggräfin von Kirchberg was the Princess consort of Nassau-Weilburg through her...
. His paternal grandparents were Duke Karl Christian of Nassau-Weilburg (1735–1788) and Carolina of Orange-Nassau
Carolina of Orange-Nassau
Princess Carolina of Orange and Nassau-Dietz, Princess of Nassau-Weilburg was the daughter of William IV, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands, and Anne, Princess Royal.Her maternal grandparents were King George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline.-Regent:Princess Carolina was born in...
. Carolina was a daughter of William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain. Anne was the eldest daughter of George II of Great Britain
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
and Caroline of Ansbach
Caroline of Ansbach
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was the queen consort of King George II of Great Britain.Her father, John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was the ruler of a small German state...
.
Grand Duke Nicholas was the first cousin once removed of the Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
. To distinguish both of them, the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha. The Grand Duke also towered over the Tsar, so they were nicknamed "Nicholas the Tall" and "Nicholas the Short", respectively.
Early military career
He had a reputation as a tough commander, yet one respected by his troops. His experience was more as a trainer of soldiers than a leader in battle. Nicholas was a very religious man, praying in the morning and at night as well as before and after meals. He was happiest in the country, hunting or caring for his estates.
Nicholas was a panslavist
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
nationalist, though not a radical one.
By 1895, he was inspector-general of the cavalry, a post he held for 10 years. His tenure has been judged a success with reforms in training, cavalry schools, cavalry reserves and the remount services. He was not given an active command during the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, perhaps because the Czar did not wish to hazard the prestige of the Romanov
Romanov
The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917...
s and because he wanted a loyal general in command at home in case of domestic disturbances. Thus, Nicholas did not have the opportunity to gain experience in battlefield command.
Grand Duke Nicholas played a crucial role during the first Russian Rebellion of 1905. With anarchy spreading and the future of the dynasty at stake, the Czar had a choice of instituting the reforms suggested by Count Sergei Witte
Sergei Witte
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte , also known as Sergius Witte, was a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian Empire. He served under the last two emperors of Russia...
or imposing a military dictatorship. The only man with the prestige to keep the allegiance of the army in such a coup was the Grand Duke. The Czar asked him to assume the role of a military dictator. In an emotional scene at the palace, Nicholas refused, drew his pistol and threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the Czar did not endorse Witte's plan. This act was decisive in forcing Nicholas II to agree to the reforms.
Empress Alexandra (born Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt), a convinced autocrat, never forgave the Grand Duke.
From 1905 to the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he was commander-in-chief of the St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
Military District. He had the reputation there of appointing men of humble origins to positions of authority. The lessons of the Russo-Japanese War were drilled into his men.
Marriage
On April 29, 1907, Nicholas married Princess Anastasia of MontenegroAnastasia of Montenegro
Princess Anastasia Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro was the daughter of King Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro and his wife, Milena Vukotić . Through her second marriage, she became Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna Romanova of Russia...
, the daughter of King Nicholas of Montenegro. She had previously been married to George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg
George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg
George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg, also known as Prince Georgii Romanovsky or Georges de Beauharnais was the youngest son of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.-Family and early life:George's father Maximilian de...
until their divorce in 1906. Their marriage was a happy one. Both were deeply religious Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Christians, with a tendency to mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
. Since the Montenegrins were a fiercely Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
, anti-Turk
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
ish people from the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Anastasia reinforced the Pan-Slavic
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
tendencies of Nicholas. They had no children.
He had maybe five illegitimate children with Thérèse Lobiewski:
.Xenia(b 1918)
.Bartholomew(b 1919)
.David(d 1966)
.Nicholas(b 1923)
.Anastasia(b 1924)
The hunter
Nicholas was one of the great hunters of his day. Ownership of borzoiBorzoi
The borzoi is a breed of domestic dog also called the Russian wolfhound and descended from dogs brought to Russia from central Asian countries. It is similar in shape to a greyhound, and is also a member of the sighthound family.The system by which Russians over the ages named their sighthounds...
hounds was restricted to members of the highest nobility, and Nicholas's packs were famous. As the Russian dogs perished in the Revolution of 1917-18, the borzoi of today are descended from gifts he made to European friends before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In his lifetime, Nicholas and his dogs caught hundreds of wolves. A pair of borzoi were used which caught the wolf, one on each side, while Nicholas dismounted and cut the wolf's throat with a knife. A hard working man, hunting was his major recreation, and he travelled in his private train across Russia with his horses and dogs, hunting while on his rounds of inspection.
World War I: Command of the German/Austro-Hungarian Front
The Grand Duke had no part in the planning and preparations for World War I, that being the responsibility of General Vladimir SukhomlinovVladimir Sukhomlinov
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov was a cavalry general of the Imperial Russian Army who served as the Chief of the General Staff in 1908–09 and the Minister of War until 1915, when he was ousted from office amid allegations of failure to provide necessary armaments and munitions.Vladimir...
and the general staff. On the eve of the outbreak of World War I, his first cousin once removed
Cousin chart
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
, the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
, yielded to the entreaties of his ministers and appointed Grand Duke Nicholas to the supreme command. He was 57 years old and had never commanded armies in the field before. He was given responsibility for the largest army ever put into the field in all prior history.
Grand Duke Nicholas was responsible for all Russian forces fighting against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. Initially, the Russian high command was not up to the challenge of the Great War. Different armies failed to coordinate their actions which resulted in the disaster of Tannenberg
Battle of Tannenberg (1914)
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of World War I. It was fought by the Russian First and Second Armies against the German Eighth Army between 23 August and 30 August 1914. The battle resulted in the almost complete...
. The subsequent Battle of the Vistula River
Battle of the Vistula River
The Battle of the Vistula River, also known as the Battle of Warsaw, was a Russian victory against the German Empire on the Eastern Front during the First World War.-Background:...
and Battle of Łódź were more successful for Russian army. The Grand Duke's role was limited to picking and choosing from the various plans offered by the many Russian Army Generals. No coherent plan for victory emerged from the Grand Duke or his staff, though on a personal level he was well liked by both officers and the troops.
Nicholas seems to have been more a bureaucrat than a military leader, lacking the broad strategic sense and the ruthless drive to command all the Russian armies. His headquarters had a curiously calm atmosphere, despite the many defeats and the millions of casualties. It must be admitted that the Russian army did not perform any better with his cousin, the Tsar, in charge of the war. On March 22, 1915 he reсeived Order of St. George
Order of St. George
The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George (also known as Order of St. George the Triumphant, Russian: Военный орден Св...
2nd degree for the successful Siege of Przemyśl
Siege of Przemysl
The Siege of Przemyśl was one of the greatest sieges of the First World War, and a crushing defeat for Austria-Hungary. The investment of Przemyśl began on September 24, 1914 and was briefly suspended on October 11 due to an Austro-Hungarian offensive...
.
After the strategic retreat of the Russian army (and at the suggestion of Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son Alexei...
, the Imperial Family's spiritual advisor), the Tsar replaced the Grand Duke as commander of the Russian armed forces on August 21, 1915.
World War I: Command in the Caucasus
Upon his dismissal, the Grand Duke was immediately appointed commander-in-chief and viceroy in the CaucasusCaucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
area (taking over for the old Governor General Illarion Vorontsov
Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov
Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov was the last notable representative of the Vorontsov family. He served as Minister of Imperial Properties in 1881-97 and the General Governor of Caucasus in 1905-15....
). While the Grand Duke was officially in command, General Yudenich
Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich
Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich , was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. He was a leader of the anti-communist White movement in Northwestern Russia during the Civil War.-Early life:...
was the driving figure in the Russian Caucusus army. Their opponent was the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. While the Grand Duke was in command, the Russian army sent an expeditionary force through to Persia (now Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
) to link up with British troops. Also in 1916, the Russian army captured the Fortress of Erzerum
Battle of Erzurum (1916)
The Erzurum Offensive or Battle of Erzurum was a major winter offensive by the Imperial Russian Army on the Caucasus Campaign that led to the capture of the strategic city of Erzurum...
, the port of Trebizond (now Trabzon
Trabzon
Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...
) and the town of Erzincan
Battle of Erzincan
The Battle of Erzincan was a Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.In February 1916, Nikolai Yudenich had taken the cities of Erzurum and Trebizond. Trebizond had provided the Russians with a port to receive reinforcements in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha ordered the Third...
. The Turks responded with an offensive of their own. Fighting around Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
swung back and forth, but ultimately proved inconclusive.
Nicholas tried to have a railway built from Russian Georgia to the conquered territories with a view to bringing up more supplies for a new offensive in 1917. But, in March 1917, the Tsar was overthrown and the Russian army began to slowly fall apart.
The Revolution
The February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
found Nicholas in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. He was appointed by the Emperor, in his last official act, as the supreme commander in chief, and was wildly received as he journeyed to headquarters in Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
; however, within 24 hours of his arrival, the new premier, Prince Georgy Lvov, cancelled his appointment. Nicholas spent the next two years in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, sometimes under house arrest, taking little part in politics. There appears to have been some sentiment to have him head the White Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
forces active in southern Russia at the time, but the leaders in charge, especially General Anton Denikin, were afraid that a strong monarchist figurehead would alienate the more left leaning constituents of the movement. He and his wife escaped just ahead of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in April 1919, aboard the British Battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
HMS Marlborough
HMS Marlborough (1912)
HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and launched in 1912. In World War I she served in the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow...
.
On August 8, 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all Russia by the Zemsky Sobor
Zemsky Sobor
The zemsky sobor was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma...
of the Preamursk region by general Mikhail Diterikhs. The former was already living abroad and consequently was not present. Two months later the Preamursk region fell to the Bolsheviks.
In exile
After a stay in GenoaGenoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
as a guest of his brother-in-law, Victor Emmanuel III
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Victor Emmanuel III was a member of the House of Savoy and King of Italy . In addition, he claimed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania and claimed the titles Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania , which were unrecognised by the Great Powers...
, King of Italy
King of Italy
King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...
, Nicholas and his wife took up residence in a small country house at Choigny, 20 miles outside of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He was under the protection of the French secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
as well as by a small number of faithful Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
retainers. He became the center of an anti-Soviet monarchist resistance group, and headed the Russian All Military Union alongside general Pyotr Wrangel. Plans were made by them to send their agents into Russia. Conversely a top priority of the Soviet secret police was to penetrate this monarchist organization and to kidnap Nicholas. They were successful in the former, infiltrating the group with spies, and later luring the anti-Bolshevik British master spy Sidney Reilly
Sidney Reilly
Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC , famously known as the Ace of Spies, was a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service . He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations...
back to the Soviet Union where he was killed. They did not succeed however, with kidnapping Nicholas. As late as June 1927, the monarchists were able to set off a bomb at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.
Grand Duke Nicholas died on January 5, 1929 of natural causes on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, where he had gone to escape the rigors of winter.
Ancestry
| Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia | Father: Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia |
Paternal Grandfather: Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers... |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Paul I of Russia Paul I of Russia Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:... |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg |
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| Paternal Grandmother: Charlotte of Prussia |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:... |
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| Paternal Great-grandmother: Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III... |
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| Mother: Alexandra of Oldenburg |
Maternal Grandfather: Duke Peter of Oldenburg Duke Peter of Oldenburg Duke Konstantin Friedrich Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg was a Duke of the House of Oldenburg. He was the grandfather of Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg as well as grandfather of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, General of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I... |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Duke George of Oldenburg Duke George of Oldenburg Duke George of Oldenburg was a younger son of Peter I, Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his wife Duchess Frederica of Württemberg. He was a son-in-law of Paul I of Russia through marriage to his daughter Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia... |
|
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Catherine Pavlovna of Russia Catherine Pavlovna of Russia Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia was the fourth daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and Princess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. She became the Queen of Württemberg upon her marriage to her first cousin Crown Prince William who eventually became King William I of Württemberg in... |
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| Maternal Grandmother: Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg Princess Therese Wilhelmine Friederike Isabelle Charlotte of Nassau-Weilburg, full German name: Therese Wilhelmine Friederike Isabelle Charlotte, Prinzessin von Nassau-Weilburg was a member of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and a Princess of... |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Princess Louise of Saxe-Hildburghausen Princess Louise of Saxe-Hildburghausen Princess Charlotte Luise Friederike Amalie Alexandrine of Saxe-Hildburghausen, full German name: Charlotte Luise Friederike Amalie Alexandrine, Prinzessin von Sachsen-Hildburghausen was a member of the House of Saxe-Hildburghausen and a Princess of Saxe-Hildburghausen Princess Charlotte Luise... |
In popular culture
Grand Duke Nicholas was portrayed in the 1971 movie Nicholas and AlexandraNicholas and Alexandra
Nicholas and Alexandra is a 1971 biographical film which tells the story of the last Russian monarch, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra....
by Harry Andrews
Harry Andrews
Harry Fleetwood Andrews, CBE was an English film actor known for his frequent portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the 1965 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the...
.