608 NIKOLAYEVICH MICHAEL: (1832-1909) Grand Duke of Russia, son of Tsar Nicholas I and brother of Emperor Alexander II. A lengthy A.L.S., Mikhail, four pages, 4to, Oreanda, 18th September 1867, to Prince Nicolas Orloff, in Cyrillic. The Grand Duke refers to his correspondent's letter received five days ago, regrets that they couldn't meet each other and states 'I am also to blame for my long silence and for not having answered your letters dated May 7-19 and June 9-21. The last one was specially interesting, written after the arrival of our Sovereign to Paris. Before that, Trubetzkoy wrote to me twice, but none of his letters reached me, and same happened with the Sovereign's telegram sent on May 25th after the assassination attempt. This carelessness does not give any credit to French post and telegraph departments.' and further continues 'His Majesty is doing well and is satisfied with his stay. The Sovereign departures on September 24th. I pray to God that his way back home will be safe. Melnikov promised to take the Sovereign from Kursk by railway. Here he has relaxed and recovered, which was very necessary, because trips abroad and ovations on his way back fatigued him physically and morally.' Michael Nikolayevich further refers to other Grand Dukes and expresses his thoughts, stating in part 'Here we met V. K. Vladimir Alexandrovich. His materialism frightens me. He does not do any exercise, sleeps and eats too much. Besides that he did not like Crimea and got bored here. Instead of going back through Kiev, or Russia, which he knows so little, he requested to travel through Vienna. What a shame!..... However, we and everyone like Alexey Alexandrovich….at the age of seventeen he already has sense of duty, he is polite and courteous, qualities that have not been appreciated yet in his older brothers almost at all. I sympathise him from all my heart.' and concludes with 'You can imagine how happy my wife and I are to meet so often Their Majesties. It is impossible not to love and not to respect them whole-hearted. They are so kind and attentive…' A very interesting content letter. With a small area of paper loss to the upper left corner of the first sheet, only affecting two words. G £200-300

Nikolai Alekseyevich Orloff (1827-1885) Russian Diplomat, notable for his humanitarian interest in his country's internal affairs. As Military, he lost an eye being 27 during the Crimean War. He represented Russia at Brussels 1860-70, Paris and Berlin.

Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy (1890-1938) Russian Linguist and Historian. Founder of morphophonology.

Alexander II (1818-1881) Emperor of Russia 1855-81. Assassinated. Married to Maria Alexandrovna (1824-1880).

Michael Nikolayevich refers in the present letter to the assassination attempt suffered by the Emperor Alexander II, which took place in Paris during the International Exposition of 1867, when his carriage, with his two sons and Napoleon III, was attacked.

Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847-1909) Grand Duke of Russia. Son of Emperor Alexander II and brother of Tsar Alexander III. Senior Grand Duke of the House of Romanov during the reign of his nephew Tsar Nicholas II.

Alexei Alexandrovich (1850-1908) Grand Duke of Russia. Son of Emperor Alexander II and brother of Tsar Alexander III. In 1871 he was sent as Russian Ambassador to the United States and Japan.