Prince Nicholas Romanov

World War II and post war[edit]

During World War II, Prince Nicholas and his family lived at the residence of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. When the King left Rome, Nicholas and his family went into hiding for nine months. During the occupation of Rome by Germany, Nicholas's grandmother, who was at great risk of deportation as a sister of the Queen, had to take shelter in the Holy See.^[1] In 1942, the ruling Fascists in Italy approached Prince Nicholas to offer him the throne of Montenegro. He declined.^[7][8]


Prince Nicholas wanted to study engineering at the University of Rome but the war prevented this, so following its conclusion, he found employment by working as a civilian for the Allies in the Psychological Warfare Division and the United States Information Service. On the advice of King Umberto II Prince Nicholas and his family left Italy for Egypt in 1946.^[9] While living in Egypt he was involved in the purchasing and sale of Turkish tobacco as well as finding work in an insurance company.


Returning to Europe in 1950 Prince Nicholas worked in Rome for the Austin Motor Company until 1954. Following the death of his brother-in-law he took over the management of his wife's property and business in Tuscany. The business was a large farm which he managed for 25 years from 1955 to 1980 where he bred Chianina cattle and produced wine.^[6] He sold the farm in 1982 and moved to Rougemont, Switzerland.^[1] A refugee from birth, Prince Nicholas was a stateless person and used to travel abroad on a letter issued by the King of Greece. He finally became a citizen of Italy in 1988.^[9] Prince Nicholas visited Russia for the first time in June 1992 when he acted as a second tour guide for a group of businessmen.^[10] He often appeared in the media to talk about the Romanovs, giving over 100 television interviews,^[1] and appearing in television documentaries such as the 2003 Danish documentary "En Kongelig familie" and the 2007 France 3 produced documentary called "Un nom en héritage, les Romanov".^[11] In 1999, a documentary on his life was produced by the Russian television channel NTV.^[12]

Romanov Family Association[edit]

His father Roman Petrovich came up with the idea of a family association of the Romanovs in the mid-1970s.^[9] After looking through the papers of his father, who died in 1978, Nicholas found that everything was in place for its creation. He then wrote to all the members of the Romanov family who had been in communication with his father and it was agreed that a family association should be created. A year later, in 1979, the Romanov Family Association was officially formed with Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich as president and Nicholas as vice-president. When Vasili Alexandrovich became president in 1980, Nicholas remained vice-president.^[13]


In 1989, after the death of Vasili Alexandrovich, Prince Nicholas was elected the new president of the Romanov Family Association. The Association currently has as members the majority of the male-line descendants of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, although Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna has never joined, nor did her late father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich.

Since the Russian Revolution, members of the Romanov family have tended to drop the territorial designation "of Russia" and use a princely title with the surname Romanov. However this title, and even his right to the surname Romanov are disputed.^[24]


He is also known as Prince Nicholas Romanov,^{[25][26][27][28][29][30]} Prince Nicholas of Russia,^{[31][32][33][34]} Prince Nicholas Romanoff,^{[35][36][37][38][39][40]} and Prince Nikolai Romanov.^{[41][42][43][44]}