Born in Imperial Russia during the reign of his uncle, Prince Nikita escaped the fate of many of his relatives who were killed by the Bolsheviks.

Prince Nikita spent his childhood and adolescence in fabulous splendor under the reign of his uncle, Tsar Nicholas II.

It was there where Prince Nikita and his immediate family found refuge from the disturbances in the former Imperial capital after the fall of the monarchy in Russia in February 1917.

King George V sent the British warship HMS Marlborough, which brought Prince Nikita's family and other members of the Romanov dynasty, headed by the Dowager Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, from the Crimea over the Black Sea to Malta and then to England.

During his first years in exile, Prince Nikita lived in Paris in the house of his sister Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia.

Well known by White Russians in exile for her elegance and grace, the Princess was a daughter of Count Hilarion Vorontsov Illarionovich - Dashkov and his first wife, Irina, born Naryshkina.

After the birth of his youngest son, Prince Nikita moved his family from Paris to England where his mother, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna lived.

As the Red Army advanced on the Eastern Front, fearing to end up in Soviet-occupied territory, the family moved back to Paris.