Although held in high regard by Paul von Hindenburg, he struggled with the colossal task of leading Russia's war effort against Germany, including strategy, tactics, logistics and coordination with the government.

[4] His father was the sixth child and third son born to Nicholas I of Russia and his Empress consort Alexandra Fedorovna of Prussia (1798–1860).

With disorder spreading and the future of the dynasty at stake, the tsar had a choice of instituting the reforms suggested by Count Sergei Witte or imposing a military dictatorship.

In an emotional scene at the palace, Nicholas refused, drew his pistol and threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the tsar did not endorse Witte's plan.

Since the Montenegrins were a fiercely Slavic, anti-Ottoman people from the Balkans, Anastasia reinforced the Pan-Slavic tendencies of Nicholas.

Ownership of borzoi hounds was restricted to members of the highest nobility, and Nicholas's packs were well-known.

[8] Grand Duke Nicholas was responsible for all Russian forces fighting against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.

He decided that their major effort must be in Poland, which thrust toward Germany like a salient, flanked by German East Prussia in the north, and Austro-Hungarian Galicia in the south.

The grand duke begged for the artillery and ammunition they desperately lacked, so he could not embark on a coherent plan for victory.

He failed in terms of strategy and tactics, as well as logistics, selection of generals, maintaining morale, and gaining support from the government.

[11] The Russian military leadership regarded Muslims, Germans and Poles as traitors and spies, while Jews were considered political unreliables.

[12][4] Upon his dismissal, the grand duke was immediately appointed commander-in-chief and viceroy in the Caucasus (replacing Count Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov).

While the grand duke was in command, the Russian army sent an expeditionary force through to Persia to link up with British troops.

It is reported that, while visiting the garrison of Kostroma he met Said Nursi, a famous Muslim cleric who was a prisoner of war.

[17] Nicholas tried to have a railway built from Russian Georgia to the conquered territories with a view to bringing up more supplies for a new offensive in 1917.

There appears to have been some sentiment to have him head the White Army forces active in southern Russia at the time, but the leaders in charge, especially General Anton Denikin, were afraid that a strong monarchist figurehead would alienate the more left leaning constituents of the movement.

He and his wife escaped just ahead of the Red Army in April 1919, aboard the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Marlborough.

On 8 August 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all the Russias by the Zemsky Sobor of the Priamurye region in the Far East by White Army general Mikhail Diterikhs.

After a stay in Genoa as a guest of his brother-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Nicholas and his wife took up residence in a small chateau at Choigny, 20 miles outside of Paris.

Conversely a top priority of the Soviet secret police was to penetrate this monarchist organization and to kidnap Nicholas.

Grand Duke Nicholas died on 5 January 1929 of natural causes on the French Riviera, where he had gone to escape the rigors of winter.

The bodies of Nicholas Nikolaevich and his wife were re-buried in Moscow at the World War I memorial military cemetery in May 2015.