Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich

Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich was a leading historian and liberal. He was born in Tsarskoe Selo (1859). Chairman of the Russian History Society. Served in the Russian army (1894–1903). Corresponded with Leo Tolstoy. Banished from Petrograd by Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna in the aftermath of the murder of Grigory Rasputin. Shortly afterwards, at the very end of 1916, he wrote to Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna: “After we have removed the hypnotist, we must try to incapacitate the hypnotised. No matter how hard it is, she must be sent as far away as possible, either to a sanatorium or to a convent. We are talking about saving the throne – not the dynasty, which is still secure, but the current sovereign. Otherwise, it will be too late... The whole of Russia knows that the late Rasputin and A. F. are the one and the same. The first has been killed, now the other must also disappear…” Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich was shot by the Bolsheviks at the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd (1919).