Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia

Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia, born on April fourteenth, eighteen fifty-nine, was a multifaceted individual known for his contributions as a historian, lepidopterist, military personnel, entomologist, and necropolis scholar. He was the eldest son of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia and a first cousin of Tsar Alexander III, which placed him in the intricate web of Russian aristocracy.

In the tumultuous aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Nicholas faced a tragic fate. On January twenty-seventh, nineteen nineteen, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd. The following day, he was executed by a firing squad alongside his brother, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, and his cousins, Grand Dukes Paul Alexandrovich and Dmitri Constantinovich. This brutal act was reportedly ordered by Vladimir Lenin as a response to the recent executions of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin.

Described by his brother Sandro as a dreamer and a poet, Nicholas was a historian with republican inclinations. He lived as a disillusioned bachelor, cherishing the memory of his only love, a queen from a Scandinavian country, likely referring to Queen Victoria of Sweden, his maternal first cousin. Their love was thwarted by the prohibitions of the Russian Orthodox Church against marriages between first cousins, leaving Nicholas with a poignant sense of longing.