by Sergei BAZAMOV, Dr. Sc. (History), RAS Institute of Russian History (Moscow)

In the early 20th century the House of Romanovs numbered more than 60 men. Each of them, conscious of their duty and mission, served Motherland: men mainly in the army, and women engaged in charity activities or working as nurses in hospitals and hospital trains in the wartime. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Junior (1856-1929) appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army in the years of World War I (the centenary of which will be marked in 2014) was one of the outstanding representatives of the reigning dynasty.

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Junior. Photo of 1914.

The grand duke as a personality full of merits and imperfections was very expressively characterized by Georgy Shavelsky, his contemporary, religious writer, author of memoirs and archpriest (chaplain-general) of the military and marine clergy. He recalled: "For the years of the last reign in Russia there was no person whose name was so glorified and who enjoyed more repute and popularity in the whole country and especially in the lower sections of the population than this grand duke. His popularity was legendary...

Recollections of his close friends, former fellow workers and subordinates testify that in the years of his youth and prior to his marriage, the grand duke was distinguished for his short temper, impetuousness and sometimes rudeness and even cruelty... But after the marriage... his impetuous or, as many people would say, even furious temper remained in the past to be replaced by his quick and decisive actions when necessary...

What he considered useful for the state and agreeable to his conscience, he carried out decisively, sternly and sometimes even mercilessly. But he stayed calm even when it was very difficult to do so...

Indeed, he was more daring than others to tell the truth to the tzar, to punish or to pardon, to accept responsibility... though it cannot be denied that he, as a senior grand duke of high rank, could more easily allow himself to be resolute. Under close scrutiny, it was impossible not to notice that his resolution disappeared when he felt a serious danger...; he would never take part in any coup or opposition if the latter could endanger his life and had no chances of success; in cases of serious misfortunes, he became panic-stricken or used to go with the stream as it happened more than once during the war and at the beginning of the revolution.

The grand duke was full of patriotic enthusiasm but lacked patriotic sacrificial feelings. Therefore, he fell short of his own expectations to lead his Motherland to glory and the people's expectations hoping to see in him a true leader..."

The grand duke, a son of field-marshal general Nikolai Nikolayevich Senior, a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I and the first cousin once removed of Emperor Nicholas II, from his childhood wanted a military career. In 1873 he graduated from the Nikolaevsky Engineering College and a year later entered the Nikolaevsky General Staff Academy. As a responsible, disciplined and diligent student, the grand duke (after graduation in 1876) was granted a silver medal, his name was inscribed on the marble board of honor of the Academy and was promoted to the rank of a captain ahead of schedule.

When the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 broke out the young officer was a special mission aide-de-camp to his father, commander-in-chief of the army in the field. In the course of combat operations in Romania, he and his comrades-in-arms reconnoitered perfectly well the Danube banks to find a place for crossing, which was very important for the forthcoming assault of the river by the Russian troops, which became known as the Battle of Svitov. The operation was anything but simple as it was carried out under the enemy's crossfire but was victorious for our army and cleared the way to Bulgaria. The grand duke displayed bravery when he headed one of the columns and called soldiers to advance boldly: "Fellow soldiers! Don't bow to bullets, what should happen will happen!"

It should be noted that his combat teachers were such outstanding military leaders as generals Mikhail Dragomirov, a scientist and teacher, who made the theoretical heritage of the generalissimo Alexander Suvorov* the corner-stone, and Mikhail Skobelev, who became famous as a gifted military leader and strategist. Under their command the grand duke participated also in the consequent battles such as the seizure of the Shipka mountain pass which made possible separation of the Turkish armies. For his bravery he was awarded Order of St. George (4th degree) and then the golden St. George weapon, i.e. a sword with inscription "For Bravery", and was promoted to the rank of a colonel ahead of schedule.

After the war was over the grand duke served in His Majesty's Life Guards Hussar Regiment, then in the rank of major-general he headed the 2nd Cavalry Division of Guards and in 1895 he got (inherited from his

* See: A. Bogdanov, "Russia's Sword", Science in Russia, No. 1, 2011.-Ed.

father as was formerly the case in the imperial family) a post of Inspector General of Cavalry. In this capacity, the grand duke, as a perfect raider himself, in particular, introduced into national practice a horse control system developed by the well-known expert in riding, a Britishman James Phillis (in 1898-1909 he worked in Russia), dominating, by the way, in our country up to the abolition of cavalry in 1956.

According to one of the cavalry officers, "the grand duke looked quite impressive ahorse. Despite the fact that he was very tall and extremely long-legged, he had such ideal, somewhat coquettish "Nikolaevsky" seat of a cavalryman of the old school, which so beautified the horseman, making him and his horse an inseparable and harmonious whole... He had a rather singular face of a very high-ranking chief and leader, a masterful, severe, honest, resolute and, at the same time, proud face. His look was intent, greedy, as if all-seeing and unforgiving. His movements were steady and free, his voice was sharp, loud and a little throaty, used to command and yelling words with some semi-scornful negligence. He was a guardsman from top to toe, a guardsman to the core... His prestige at that time was enormous. Everybody trembled before him, and it was not easy to please him during military exercises."

Indeed, not infrequently he carried out inspection shows placing a special emphasis on fast riding. In such cases he could swear hard at a horseman, who was not up to the mark, send off a whole regiment or even a division from manoeuvres or, in another case, on the contrary, apologize for harsh words and admit his wrongness in public. The grand duke paid attention also to reorganization of the Officer Cavalry School, where Alexei Brusilov*, a gifted Russian military leader served in 1883-1906. In general, according to officers subordinated to the grand duke, the cavalry in his charge displayed well coordinated work and had a good command of cold steel though it was prepared inadequately for an unmounted battle.

In 1905 the Council of State Defense was created on his suggestion for control of the whole armed forces. It included the ministers of the armed forces and navy, chiefs of the General Staff, the Main Staff and the Main Naval Staff, inspector generals of all arms of the service (by tradition, grand dukes), and was headed by the initiator of its foundation. One of the most important targets of the Council was a personnel problem, in particular, replacement of generals of mediocre abilities, who displayed their professional inability in the fields of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, with candidates recommended by a special Higher Examination Board.

The same year the grand duke became commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Petersburg Military District and the Guards, which allowed him to transfer

* See: S. Bazanov, "General Brusilov: His Life, His Hour of Glory", Science in Russia, No. 4, 2006.--Ed.

to the latter a number of gifted army officers distinguished in battles of the Russo-Japanese war. According to recollections of his comrades-in-arms the grand duke tried to introduce new methods of military training, highly estimated battle experience and was very demanding, therefore some people "had no special liking for him at first. And only after several years, when his reforms increased combat effectiveness of regiments and self-discipline, the relations changed drastically". At that time the grand duke, one of the eldest in the family, enjoyed enormous authority in the army and in the country.

Probably this fact enabled him to take steps which by far not everyone could dare to do. During the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, when the state power faced the problem: to make concessions to the rebellious people or to impose dictatorship, he drew his revolver and threatened to commit suicide if the tzar would refuse to sign a document drawn up under supervision of Sergei Witte, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. The question was the legislative act, which set up the State Duma and declared political rights and freedoms, i.e. the Highest Manifesto on Improvement of State Order published on October 17, 1905.

In 1914, when World War 1* broke out, the grand duke was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief. According to Brusilov, "he was an ideal candidate... He was a man who was undoubtedly devoted to military science, knew and was fond of military profession both in theory and practice...His appointment gave deep satisfaction to the army. The troops trusted him... The grand duke was for severe and fair discipline in the troops, took care of soldier's needs and saw to it that there was no domination of headquarters over line troops, spared no awards for the latter but was stingy of awards for staff and rear workers..."

Meanwhile, the first for our army in this war the East-Prussian operation of the North-Western Front (August of 1914) ended in failure. Its causes are a matter of disputes by historians to the present time. But there are indubitable facts such as haste to undertake offensive (at the request of the allied France insistently attacked by the Germans), lack of coordination of the Russian command, interception of its radio messages by German

* World War I of 1914-1918--one of the biggest wars in world history. Its participants were the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) and countries of the Entente (Russia, Great Britain, France, the USA and others).--Ed.

intelligence. But despite the unsuccessful start of the campaign the enemy was forced to conduct operations on two fronts and lost illusions of a blitzkrieg. By the way, in the headquarters of the Entente countries they also had wrong ideas regarding the combat power of the German military bloc and hoped to gain victory in a short time.

The grand duke analyzed the mistakes made in the course of the operations and took steps for their elimination, in particular, he carried out personnel shifts (first of all, he appointed General of the Infantry Nikolai Ruzsky commander-in-chief of the North-Western Front armies instead of General of the Cavalry Yakov Zhilinsky), which proved to be expedient in the course of the war.

The situation in the main south-western direction developed much favorably for the Russian army in 1914 than in the north-western direction. Our troops achieved an important victory in the Galician battle (August 6-September 13), which was one of the most large-scale battles in the first global conflict of the 20th century. Then the grand duke focused on Warsaw and Krakow directions correctly determining that the enemy would try to inflict a blow just there, and he sent the main

forces of the South-Western Front and a part of troops of the North-Western Front (almost half of the whole Russian army in the field) to the middle-reach region of the Vistula. This offensive called the Watrsaw-Ivangorod operation (September 15-October 26) proved to be successful for our troops and is among the major battles of World War I, shattering the myth about the invincibility of the German army.

The year 1914 ended with another victory of Russia in the Lodz operation (October 29-December 6), and on the whole the campaign of the first year of war was won by our troops and without doubt in many ways due to the skilled command of the grand duke. Quartermaster-General of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Headquarters Yuri Danilov noted: "His popularity increased with every day. His name became a property of not only the army but also of the whole Russian people... the grand duke was certainly personified as a defender of soldiers and a restorer of truth and justice in the army."

The outcome of the year 1914 made the German bloc concentrate its efforts on the Eastern (Russian) Front in the next year, which greatly complicated the situation for our army suffering a setback. And only seizure of the Przemysl fortress (today Poland) with the 120,000 garrison in March was a light spot in the dismal situation at the theater of operations. This victory brought the Order of St. George 2nd degree to the grand duke (apart from him, during World War I only three military leaders received this order, while nobody received the 1st degree order).

In April of 1915 the enemy launched a large-scale offensive and by autumn forced our troops out of Galicia, Lithuania and Poland. But according to the commander of the German army at the Eastern Front Field-Marshal General Paul von Hindenburg "the operation... failed to destroy the enemy. The Russians expectedly got out of the clutches and achieved a frontal setback in the desired direction", which was undoubtedly the grand duke's success.

But just at that time for a score of reasons (including the intrigues of "the tzar's friend" Grigory Rasputin and at the request of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna who fell under Rasputin's influence) the tzar dismissed the grand duke from office of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and took the post himself. Contemporaries considered this decision erroneous and unfair. As the General Brusilov wrote in his memoirs later, "the army was aware that the grand duke was not guilty of a tight situation in the army and believed in him as a military leader. And nobody believed in the tzar's knowledge of military science... The impression this replacement made in the troops was grave or, one can safely say, distressing." However, the grand duke's prestige suffered little from such replacement, and Zemsky Sobor of 1915 (forum of representatives of all social classes) even styled him as "a glorious epic hero".

In September of that year the tzar appointed his uncle viceroy to Caucasia, commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front and a chieftain of the Caucasian Cossack troops. At that time in Persia (Iran) the German-Turkish intelligence service launched a vigorous activity, whose purpose was to draw the country into the war on the side of the German bloc. To stop the enemy's machinations the grand duke prepared a plan of the Hamadan operation and entrusted its elaboration to the commander of the Caucasian army, a gifted military leader and General of the Infantry Nikolai Yudenich. Here also the success accompanied the grand duke. His army seized the cities of Hamadan, Qom and some others, which strengthened the positions of Russia in the southern direction and cleared the way to lend assistance to the British troops in Mesopotamia (Iraq). In 1916 the Russian army occupied the Turkish cities of Erzurum, Trebizond and Erzinjan.

During the February Revolution of 1917 the grand duke, like other commanders-in-chief of the fronts, supported the idea of the tzar's abdication suggested by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. As the emperor saw no other way out of the current situation in the country, he took an appropriate decision. But before that he appointed again the grand duke the Supreme Commander-in-Chief by one of his last decrees, which was greeted with joy and hope by the army officers. However, the Provisional Government which came to power in March of 1917 cancelled the decree referring to "negative attitude of the people to the Romanov dynasty". His reaction was as follows: "I am glad to prove again my love of the Motherland of which Russia was never doubtful."

Then the grand duke with his family started for his estate Chair (Crimea) and two years later together with his brother Pyotr went to Italy and in 1921 to France. He enjoyed enormous popularity among the Russian emigration but he did not pretend to any post or title and after the grand duke Kirill Vladimirovich declared himself All-Russia Emperor he said that only Russian people could resolve the problem of the successor to the throne.

His life ended in 1929 in Cap d'Antibes in the south of France. In the necropolis close to the St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church in Alexander III Avenue in Cannes one can see a marble gravestone with an inscription: "To Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich from the Russian foreign army."

Illustrations supplied by the author