Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich

Supreme Commander of the Russian Army

Paul Robinson

• Verlag: Northern Illinois University Press
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781609091637
• Thema: Historia
• Thema: Biografías militares

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov (1856–1929) was a key figure in late Imperial Russia, and one of its foremost soldiers. At the outbreak of World War I, his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, appointed him Supreme Commander of the Russian Army. From 1914 to 1915, and then again briefly in 1917, he was commander of the largest army in the world in the greatest war the world had ever seen. His appointment reflected the fact that he was perhaps the man the last Emperor of Russia trusted the most. At six foot six, the Grand Duke towered over those around him. His fierce temper was a matter of legend. However, as Robinson's vivid account shows, he had a more complex personality than either his supporters or detractors believed. In a career spanning fifty years, the Grand Duke played a vital role in transforming Russia's political system. In 1905, the Tsar assigned him the duty of coordinating defense and security planning for the entire Russian empire. When the Tsar asked him to assume the mantle of military dictator, the Grand Duke, instead of accepting, persuaded the Tsar to sign a manifesto promising political reforms. Less opportunely, he also had a role in introducing the Tsar and Tsarina to the infamous Rasputin. A few years after the revolution in 1917, the Grand Duke became de facto leader of the Russian émigré community. Despite his importance, the only other biography of the Grand Duke was written by one of his former generals in 1930, a year after his death, and it is only available in Russian. The result of research in the archives of seven countries, this groundbreaking biography—the first to appear in English—covers the Grand Duke's entire life, examining both his private life and his professional career. Paul Robinson's engaging account will be of great value to those interested in World War I and military history, Russian history, and biographies of notable figures.

Chapter 1

Education of a Soldier, 1856–1873

The family into which Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov was born on 6 (18) November 1856, in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg was an unhappy one, although this would not become evident until some years later. The baby’s father, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Senior, and his mother, Grand Duchess Aleksandra Petrovna, greeted the arrival of their first child with joy.1 On the day of his birth, the Emperor Alexander II hung cavalry insignia over the baby’s crib2 and formally enrolled him in His Majesty’s Life Guards Hussar Regiment, as well as in the Life Guards Sapper Battalion and the Imperial Family’s Fourth Rifle Battalion.3 The young Grand Duke was thus a soldier from the very first day of his life, and in his heart he remained one until the day he died.

In this respect he was much like his father. A tall man with a “prominent, long thin nose,”4 the older Grand Duke was a younger brother of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Born on 21 July (2 August) 1831, he fought in the Crimean War,5 and later became Supreme Commander of the Russian army during the war against Turkey in 1877 and 1878. His passions, which he passed on to his son, were the army, especially the cavalry, and country pursuits, in particular farming and hunting. One admirer, General N. A. Epanchin, described him in this way: “good, kind, sincere, courteous to the highest degree, he never offended anyone in his life, never did anybody any harm, he was a gentleman, a knight, in Russian a ‘vitiaz’ [knight/hero].”6 Another witness gave this description of him: “A handsome man ... he was majestic, and attracted people to himself and was wholeheartedly loved by those close to him.”7 Others, though, were scathing in their criticism, especially of his professional military abilities. General M. D. Skobolev, a hero of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, told a British reporter that the Grand Duke “has about as much notion of conducting a campaign as I have of the differential calculus.”8 And when that war was over, persistent rumor had it that the Grand Duke had embezzled large sums of money while Supreme Commander, although a commission of inquiry subsequently found that he was merely guilty of exercising poor control over supplies.9

At the insistence of his parents, in February 1856 Nikolai Nikolaevich Senior, then aged 24, had married the 17-year-old Princess Aleksandra Pe­trovna Oldenburgskaia.10 The Oldenburgskiis descended from kings of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and in the early 18th century had married into the Russian royal family. Duke Carl-Friedrich Holstein Oldenburg married Peter the Great’s daughter Anna, who later became Empress of Russia. Their son subsequently became Emperor Peter III,11 and their grandson Emperor Paul I. Paul I’s daughter Ekaterina married back into the Oldenburgskii family in 1809 and her son was Aleksandra Petrovna’s father, Pyotr Georgevich. Both Peter III and Paul I were notoriously unbalanced mentally. Some considered this an inherited family trait and ascribed Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Junior’s excitable nature to his Oldenburg blood.12

The senior Grand Duke’s bride, usually described as plain, extremely religious, and uninterested in appearances or high society, was hardly a fitting match for him. Although their first child was born just over nine months after their marriage, they had to wait seven years for the next one (Grand Duke Pyotr Nikolaevich, born in December 1863), and after that there were no more. Within about four years of his wedding, the senior Grand Duke began an affair with a ballerina, Ekaterina Gavrilovna Chislova, who bore him five illegitimate children. The relationship lasted the rest of the Grand Duke’s life.

Despairing of happiness in her marriage, Aleksandra Petrovna eventually moved to Kiev and lived a separate life. She set up a hospital for the poor, founded the Pokrovskii Monastery in Kiev, and became a nun.13 Prior to taking the veil, the Grand Duchess had suffered for many years from a leg ailment that left her unable to walk,14 but, according to one story, the following occurred when she arrived at the monastery: “At four in the morning the nuns carried the immobile sick woman in their hands, but when they approached the gates, she stood up from her chair, went in and telegraphed the Emperor that God had performed a miracle and she ‘had received her legs.’”15

Nikolai Nikolaevich Junior reportedly took his mother’s side in the marital feud.16 It would appear that in adulthood, the younger Grand Duke did not get on very well with his father.17 Nevertheless, the surviving correspondence between father and son suggests a rather closer and warmer relationship in earlier years. Furthermore, Nikolai Nikolaevich Junior copied his father in most of his interests, above all his passions for the military, farming, and hunting. What he did take from his mother was a devout religiosity. As he admitted near the end of his life, “From the years of my childhood I acquired from my mother, the holy nun ANASTASIA [the name she took in the convent], the true Orthodox belief of the Russian people.”18

All this lay in the future. Being a member of the Russian royal family meant frequent participation in ceremonies designed to display the wealth and power of the Romanov dynasty,19 and shortly after his birth the young Grand Duke had his first public outing in the form of his baptism in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. This was a full state occasion, attended by the Emperor and Empress, all of the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, members of the State Council, ministers, ambassadors and their wives, generals and admirals, and members of the Imperial Court, carefully arranged in strict hierarchy. The Metropolitan of Novgorod and Saint Petersburg blessed the child with holy water, following which the guns of the Peter and Paul fortress on the other side of the Neva River fired 301 shots in salute, and the Emperor bestowed the order of Saint Andrew upon the infant Grand Duke.20

Within weeks, Nikolai Nikolaevich Junior fell seriously ill and came close to death. His doctors did not record the exact nature of the illness, which lasted from early February to early March 1857, but their notes leave no doubt as to its seriousness. On 6 (18) February, the doctor recorded that “the accumulation of gases in the stomach continues ... lots of phlegm in the chest.” Thereafter, a dry cough “tortured the Grand Duke,” until on 13 (25) February, the doctor recorded, “Today ... the condition of the Grand Duke is very serious.... Breathing 140. Pulse 140 to 160.” This continued for another week, until by 23 February (12 March), the baby had begun to recover.21 Given the rate of infant mortality in this era, this was a lucky escape.

We have little knowledge about the first five or six years of the Grand Duke’s life. The next surviving record is a very formal little report he wrote, aged seven, to his father, on 22 April (4 May) 1864, in which he said, “I have the honor to report that the Emperor has seen fit to invite me to be with the Cossack brigade at the Imperial review taking place on 25 April, about which I most respectfully report to your Imperial Highness.”22

Already by this age, the Grand Duke had acquired the nickname by which the rest of the royal family would know him all his life—Nikolasha (little Nicky). The name perhaps stuck because of its incongruousness—Nikolasha grew to be six and a half feet tall. In later years it also helped to distinguish him from Tsar Nicholas II, known as “Nicky.” The Grand Duke happily adopted the nickname, often signing his personal letters simply “Nikolasha.”

Like all members of the royal family, Nikolasha was educated at home.23 Home was either the Nikolaevskii Palace in Saint Petersburg or another of his father’s properties—the Znamenka Palace near Peterhof, or on occasion one of the senior Grand Duke’s estates in the country, such as the one at Borisov in moder-day Belarus. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Senior was often away, and some of his son’s letters to him during his absences have survived. They suggest an affectionate relationship between father and son and reveal an early interest in outdoor pursuits.

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Junior aged four, 1861 (Private collection, France)

“Dear Papa,” wrote the eight-year-old Nikolasha to his father on 17 (29) August 1865, “how are you? We miss you. Dear Papa, Mama and Petiusha [his brother Pyotr Nikolaevich] kiss you; it’s boring at Znamenka since you left. We are all well, thanks to God. Goodbye dear Papa.”24 Four days later, he wrote again: “Dear Papa, what terrible weather we are having. Mama and Petiusha kiss you. How we miss taking those rides with you on horseback.... Goodbye, dear Papa. Your obedient son, Nikolai.”25 “Dear Papa,” he wrote again on 24 August (5 September), “It is raining all the time here.... Two times we went for long walks. Vladimir Aleksandrovich went hunting with our hounds.... Uncle Misha kisses you.... Mama kisses you. Your obedient son, Nikolai.”26 And on 31 August (12 September), he wrote, “Dear Papa, all is well here. How are you? The weather here is now cold now hot. I will soon start studying three hours a day. We are going to Moscow and to my great pleasure will visit the zoo and especially the white bear. We are all, thanks to God, healthy.... Mama and Petiusha kiss you.”27

On Christmas Day 1865, the nine-year-old Nikolasha presented a little poem to his father:

Almighty God

Full of grace

Hear my voice!

May God

Prolong the years

Of my much loved relative!

I have come to honor

My Papa with this greeting.

And may the Creator of men

And of happy days

Forgive his son.28

The religious tone reflected the attitudes of the era, but also perhaps maternal influence. Grand Duchess Aleksandra was said to have been a tender and loving parent, much concerned with the physical and moral development of her two sons. She insisted that they eat half a kilogram of fruit and vegetables a day and engage in regular physical exercise.29 In an attempt to instill a degree of humility in her sons, she surrounded them with the children of ordinary servants.30 This kind of exposure was not unheard of: the sons and daughters of the Russian nobility were often brought up on estates where, isolated from other young people of the same age and social class, they mixed primarily with the servants. In some instances this practice forged a “feudal bond of affection” between master and servants, but the practice could also backfire, as “the servants were naturally afraid to discipline their master’s children … [and] so tended to indulge them and let them have their way.”31 Certainly in the case of Nikolai Nikolaevich, close contact with servants does not seem to have produced the desired humility. The Grand Duke became notorious in later life for his harsh treatment of subordinates.

By the time he was 12, the young Grand Duke was spending a lot of time in the presence of the Emperor and Empress and enjoying the life at Court. “Dear Papa,” he wrote on 18 (30) September 1869, “Thank you very much for your letter, which pleased me a lot.... I hope that you...