At the end of the battle, he refused to obey the order of Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov to surrender and broke through the Japanese blockade.

In early 1906, Fersten was sent to suppress social unrest in Estonia during the unsettled times after the 1905 Russian Revolution.

He served on the General Staff of the Russian navy during World War I and, following the February Revolution, retired from service on 13 April 1917.

After the Bolsheviks took power, Fersen decided to leave Russia, and subsequently settled in his country house in Kose, Estonia, where he died in 1937.

He had four children, including Wladislaw Nikolai (1892–1962) and Magnus Arvid von Fersen (1892–1938) who also served as officers in the Imperial Russian Navy.