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NICHOLAS II. 460 NICHOLAS Denmark, to Queen Victoria, and to the President of France. The visit to Paris was taken advantage of to accentuate the friendly understanding or alliance, as it may now be called, between France and Russia. This alliance^ was definitely an- nounced on the occasion of the visit of President Faure to St. Petersburg in 1887. The Franco-Russian convention as an offset to the Anglo-Japanese entente NICHOLAS II. was further strengthened when the Czar visited Paris in September, 1901, and by the visit of President Loubet to St. Petersburg in May^ 1902. The Russo-Jap- anese war led to revolutionary uprisings at the capital in 1905 that were vigor- ously suppressed. Nicholas II. in the negotiations that culminated in the World War was anxious to avoid a con- flict, but at the same time was deter- mined that Austria should not crush Serbia. (See World War.) Russian reverses and German intrigue shook the government of the Empire in 1915-1916. The influence of the monk Rasputin on the Czar and his family created great discontent throughout the nation. His subsequent murder came too late; for the country was seething with revolu- tion. The Duma met in March, 1917, and defied the Czar's attempt to dis- solve it. Rodzianko, leader of the Duma, nrged the Emperor to crush German in- trigue and change his counsellors, if he would save his throne. The Czar pal- tered and delayed, and on March 15, 1917, he was forced to abdicate at Pskov for himself and his son in favor of the Grand-Duke Michael. The latter de- clined the honor until the National As- sembly should decide what the future government was to be. The imperial family were placed un- der arrest and after some months they were transferred to Tobolsk. Some time between night and morning of July 16- 17, 1918, the Czar and his family were shot at Ekaterinburg in the Urals by the Executive Committee of the Ural Dis- trict Soviet of the Workmen's, Peasants', and Red Army deputies. NICHOLAS I., former reigning Prince or Hospodar, and King of Montenegro; bom Oct. 7 (Sept. 25), 1841. After an educational course at Trieste and Paris, he succeeded _ his uncle, who had been assassinated in August, 1860. He mar- ried in the same year Princess Milona, the daughter of the vice-president of the Council of State. In 1890 the 30th an- niversary of his accession was cele- brated, and during 1896 the bicentenary of the foundation of his dynasty. His daughter, Princess Helen, married the Prince of Naples, now King Victor Em- manuel III. of Italy; and another daugh- ter, Princess Anne, Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg. Princess Malitza married the Russian Grand-Duke Peter, and Princess Stana, Duke George of Leuchtenberg. Prince Danilo, the eldest son, married, in 1899, the Duchess Jutta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1910 Nich- olas celebrated the 50th anniversary of his rule and assumed the title of King of Montenegro. When the Austro-Ger- mans overrafi the country in December, 1915, the King fled to France. On Nov. 8, 1918, he expressed himself in favor of a union of Montenegro with Jugo- slavia. On Nov. 29 King Nicholas was deposed by the Montenegrin National Assembly, which voted for a union of Montenegro with Serbia under King Peter. NICHOLAS, GRAND-DUKE; born in 1868. Russian General, Commander-in- Chief of the Russian army in the Great War (1914-1918). He was born in the capital city of St. Petersburg. In the Turkish War of 1877-1878 he served with distinction under his father, Grand-Duke Nicholas Nicholaevitch who commanded the Russian army in European Turkey. Later he was placed in command of a regiment, after which he was made In- spector-General of Cavalry. In 1906 he was placed in charge of the St. Peters- burg military district, and at the out- break of the war was called upon to take command of all the Russian armies. After