Grand Prince Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov (1856-1935): Imperial Avenger
The life of Nikolai Nikolaevich until the crisis of 1908 followed the established route of a senior Romanov prince outside the immediate line of succession: military service without important commands, senior government service without significant responsibility, influence through family connections and society pleasures. His rise to the highest position in the state was a fortuitous accident, and historians to this day disagree whether it was more blessing or curse for his country. Having been promoted to high command primarily as a dynastic placeholder, he proved himself a politically astute and capable administrator, though his military gifts were never of the calibre the situation would have called for. It was the sustained experience of failure, though overtly expected, that tinged Nikolai's view of the world and made him into the leader that emerged after Russia's defeat.
The role Nikolai and Grad Prince Sergei Alexandrovich played in the resignation of Czar Nicholas II remains controversial to this day. Certainly both men were on record as having opposed the war and were intimately involved in convincing the Emperor to give up his crown, taking seats on the Regency Council that guided the fate of Russia during the minority of Alexei II. The early death of Sergei from the effects of wounds sustained in an assassination attempt in 1905 left Nikolai the most influential person on the council, a position he managed to sustain and expand into de-facto rulership of both the Russian government and the apparatus of the Patriotic Union by 1912. His personal authority, bolstered by a legend of personal heroism and military prowess during the war, ensured that he remained the power behind the throne even after the tragic death of Czar Alexei and the ascension of Mikhail II, a handsome, but retiring man given to crippling self-doubt.
At a time when Russia's future seemed in doubt and the direction of her government uncertain, certainty was Nikolai's greatest asset. Though pragmatic in his approaches, he never doubted his mission in life: to turn Russia into a modern, united, militarily powerful nation and avenge the humiliation of defeat at German hands. His was the will that turned the broken pieces of the Patriotic Union into a steel corset to hold together a shattered nation, forged a military cadre from the defeated force left after the war under the very eyes of Germany's inspectors, and oversaw its expansion into a modern fighting force using the industrial infrastructure laid down in secret during the twenty years of treaty restrictions. It has been argued that, despite his total dedication to the goal of vengeance on Germany, Nikolai would not have been foolish enough to actually go to war the way Mikhail did. However, it was clear that he would not live forever, and the military he created was instilled with a single-minded dedication to victory that was almost certain to produce overconfidence. The recklessness that characterised Russia's foreign policy in the 1930s and 1940s appears not to have originated from any individual's choices as much as from a common ethos that, unchecked by the wiser counsel of men ho had seen the war of 1906, was allowed free rein. Generals and politicians competed for the greatest public show of patriotic dedication, uncompromising courage, and optimism. All these were qualities Nikolai had fostered in the functionaries he had raised to positions of power, and absent his control, they ran amuck with predictably disastrous consequences.
