Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia - Early Life

Early Life

Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich was born on 26 April 1859 at Tsarskoye Selo, the eldest child of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna, born Princess Cecily of Baden. Known in the family as "Bimbo", he was three years old when in 1862 the family moved to Tiflis when his father was named Viceroy of the Caucasus. Nicholas spent his childhood and youth in Georgia, where his family lived for twenty years. He received a Spartan upbringing. His father occupied in military and governmental endeavors remained a distant figure. His mother was a strict disciplinarian and the dominating figure in the family. Nicholas was his mother's favorite son; they had a close relationship as reflected in their surviving letters, which have Oedipal overtones. Olga Feodorovna was a demanding strict mother, but Nicholas was always eager to please her. Growing up in the Caucasus, the Mikahailovichi, the junior branch of the Romanov dynasty, were raised in an atmosphere far removed from their cousins in the Imperial capital, and would later be regarded as more progressive and liberal minded than the other Romanovs.

The sons of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich were educated by private tutors and Nicholas, a gifted student, made up much of their teachings. From his youth he was interested in art, literature, architecture and scientific matters. However, as with all male members of his family, Nicholas was expected to follow a military career. In Tiflis, he commanded a battalion of the Caucasian Archers in 1877, and fought alongside them in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878. This experience was traumatic and made him a pacifist for the rest of his life. When his father was named as President of the Council of the Empire in 1882, the whole family returned to St. Petersburg. Nicholas was assigned to Marie Feodrovna's Horse Guards Regiment.

In 1879, when he was twenty years old, he visited the court of his maternal uncle, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, and fell in love with his cousin, Princess Victoria of Baden. "She is charming and pleases one immediately", he wrote, adding, "She kisses you and makes you say a thousand things". The Russian Orthodox Church, which prohibited first cousins to marry, would not permit any thought of marriage. Nicholas nevertheless asked his uncle Alexander II to allow the wedding, threatening that if he were not allowed to marry Victoria of Baden, he would never marry. Princess Victoria eventually became Queen of Sweden. Nicholas tried to find a royal bride for a second time in the 1880s. He was interested in Princess Amélie of Orléans, the eldest daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris. Nicholas described her as "beautiful and large of stature, beautiful eyes, but not very pretty all the while a beautiful person". He asked his parents' permission to marry her, but she was Catholic and her family was unwilling to allow her to convert and they were also eager to marry her to King Carlos I of Portugal. Nicholas Mikhailovich never came close to marriage again. Instead he poured all of his energy into scholarly pursuits and the managing of the several grand residences and estates which he owned and which gave employment and lodging to thousands. In this he was very conscientious of his responsibilities towards the welfare of those who relied upon him for their livelihood and well being. Thus in his mature years little of his attention seems to have been directed toward women save that he mentions in a letter of 1910 that he had fallen in love again, as if by some miracle, "imagine that, in love at fifty one". But this one and only mention of anything of the kind in all of his correspondence suggests this flight of fancy didn't go far, and that his feelings were unrequited. One of his greatest female friends was Princess Elena (Nelly) Mikhailovna Bariatinskaya. She was older than he was and was typical of the highly dignified and platonic relationships that were the norm among most of the Imperial family.