Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Romanow (1856–1929)

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich the Younger

Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov , also called Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger, ( Russian Николай Николаевич Романов, Николай Николаевич Младший ; born November 6 ^jul. / 18th November  1856 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg , † 6. January 1929 in Antibes ) was a Russian general and Grand Duke of the royal family Romanov . He was commander of Russian forces in the First World War .

Life

Origin and education

Nikolai Nikolajewitsch was the eldest son of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolajewitsch , the third son of Tsar Nicholas I and his wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna, nee Princess Alexandra of Oldenburg . Within the family he was called Nikolasha .

After completing military training, he began his career in the Guard Hussar Regiment and served in his father's staff in the Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878. In 1878 he was awarded the St. George's Cross.

In 1884 he became chief of the Guard Hussar Regiment . In 1895 he was appointed inspector general of the cavalry. In the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 he was not given a front-line command, but from 1905 on was employed as Commander-in-Chief of the St. Petersburg Military District, where he was made responsible for the security of the capital. However, support for Sergei Witte's reform plans earned him the hostility of the Tsarina and the politicians of the far right.

In 1907 he married Anastasia of Montenegro (1868-1935) in Yalta in the Crimea , a daughter of Prince Nikolas of Montenegro . The marriage remained childless. Both were deeply religious Orthodox Christians with an inclination towards the occult and mysticism . It was also Nikolai Nikolaevich an enthusiastic friend of the hare coursing , which he acquired on his 1887, 3000 ha of Good Perchino at the Upa often practiced. There he also had an extensive borzoi breed , which was known far beyond Russia. With the dogs he hunted wolves. In Saint Petersburg he lived in a palace on the banks of the Neva opposite the Summer Garden . His sizeable art collection was located there, mainly porcelain items .

The First World War

Nikolai Nikolajewitsch and Tsar Nicholas II in 1915 in the First World War

Grand Duke Nikolai was one of the driving forces behind the war against Germany. To this end, he initiated close military cooperation with France . His goal was to smash the German Empire in order to take the protective power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and thus wrest control of the Balkans . This would create the conditions for the smashing of the Ottoman Empire , and the Dardanelles would forever be in Russia's power. "The way to the Dardanelles leads through the Brandenburg Gate !" was a household word in St. Petersburg salons.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, in his capacity as commander in chief of the guards and the St. Petersburg military district, he automatically became commander in chief of the 6th Army . Although he had never commanded an army in the field, after some hesitation, ^jul appointed him on July 20th ^. / August 2,  1914 ^greg. at 2 p.m. his cousin Tsar Nicholas II became Commander-in-Chief ( Generalissimo ) of the Russian armed forces .

Nikolai Nikolayevich accepted the appointment, but at the same time stated that he felt unprepared and very insecure. He should immediately carry out a deployment plan that he did not know. At the same time he asked the tsar himself to promise not to make peace, even if Saint Petersburg, Moscow, the Volga, the Urals and even Siberia were to be lost. The tsar solemnly promised it.

When the tsar's manifesto was read out the next day in the Winter Palace , he demonstratively threw a bundle of ribbons with German medals across the courtyard, which caused astonishment. He first set up his temporary headquarters in his brother's Snamenka Castle before moving to Baranowitschi .

Ultimately, he was a rather nominal commander-in-chief who failed to implement a coherent strategy in the high command . After the first initial successes of the Russian Southwest Front against the Austrians in Galicia , severe setbacks followed on the Northwest Front against the Germans in East Prussia . The victorious defense against a German attack on Warsaw , which was achieved in the Battle of the Vistula in October 1914 through a timely concentration of troops, however, showed that it was operationally capable. For this he was awarded the Russian Order of St. George III. Class excellent. Bad coordination and a lack of equipment in the army led to heavy defeats against the Central Powers in May and July 1915 , which forced the Stawka to initiate the Great Withdrawal to the East in the summer of 1915 . This failure and his hostility to Rasputin finally led to the tsar replacing him on August 21, 1915 and taking over the high command himself.

Grand Duke Nikolai was appointed governor in the Caucasus and transferred as commander to the Caucasus front , where he was more successful against the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire . In February 1916 his subordinate General Yudenich captured Erzurum and in April General Lyachow Trebizond .

The February Revolution ended his military career. On March 2, 1917, the tsar reappointed him as Commander-in-Chief at the same time as his own abdication, and on March 10, Nikolai Nikolayevich arrived at the headquarters in Mogilew . On March 11, however, he received a letter from Prime Minister Prince Lwow , which suggested that he resign from the post of supreme commanding officer.

The exile

After the armistice of 1917 in Brest-Litovsk, Grand Duke Nikolai retired to his estate in the Crimea. The Bolsheviks placed him under house arrest, from which he was freed by German troops in 1918. After the armistice of November 1918, the Germans handed it over to Great Britain.

In 1919, shortly before the Red Army invaded the British warship HMS Marlborough , the couple escaped together with Nikolai's brother Peter and his family. After a short stay with his brother-in-law, the Italian King Victor Emanuel III. Nikolai and his wife settled near Paris .

In 1922 he was in the absence of the Parliament of the Provisional Pri-Amur government to Tsar proclaimed.

He died in early 1929 while on vacation on the French Riviera.

In the movie

In the historical film Nikolaus und Alexandra (1971) he is played by Harry Andrews and in 1974 in the television series Fall of Eagles by John Phillips.

literature

• Dmitrij Val'cov, Elisabeth von Lichatscheff: The Perchino hunt of his emperors. Highness of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich in the village of Perchino, Tula governorate from 1887-1912 . Gundlach, Berlin 1921
• Prince Roman Romanow: At the court of the last tsar. The glamorous world of old Russia , Piper Munich Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-492-24389-4

Web links

Commons : Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Romanow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on hrono.ru (Russian)
• Newspaper article about Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Romanow in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berlin monthly books
2. ↑ AC Brendel (ed.), Dmitri Walzoff: Die Perchino-Jagd His Kaiserl. Highness of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaijewitsch in the village of Perchino Gouvernement Tula from 1887–1912 . U. Brendel, Hamburg 1978. (Reprint of the book from 1921 with an appendix and explanations by the editor)