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Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was born in St Petersburg (1856). He graduated from the Nicholas School of Engineering and the Nicholas Academy of General Headquarters. Served under his father (1877–78), commanded the Hussars Life Guards Regiment. Cavalry general (1901), inspector general of cavalry (1895–1905), commander of the guards and St Petersburg Military District (1905). Chairman of the State Defence Council (1905–08). Married Princess Anastasia of Montenegro after she divorced Duke George of Leuchtenberg (1907). Commander-in-chief of the Russian army during the First World War (20 July 1914 to 23 August 1915). Replaced at the insistence of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army (1915–17). Escaped from the Crimea with Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna (March 1919). Lived in Italy and France. Regarded as the claimant to the Russian throne. Died in Antibes and buried at the Russian Orthodox church in Cannes (1929).