Line of succession to the former Russian throne


The Monarchy of Russia was abolished in 1917 following the February Revolution, which forced Emperor Nicholas II to abdicate. Claims made on behalf of different persons to be the rightful current pretender continue to be debated.
Since 1992, the most widely acknowledged pretender is Maria Vladimirovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, a great-great-granddaughter in the male-line of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, having proclaimed herself the head of the imperial house upon her father's death. She also declared her son George Mikhailovich to be the heir-apparent.

Potential successors in March 1917

In the succession chart below, the number preceding each name indicates that individual's position in the order of succession to the throne at the time of the abdication of Nicholas II. For instance, Alexei Nikolaevich was the first in line, as the Emperor's only son. The numbers following each name indicates the line of descent and genealogical seniority from Nicholas I of Russia. For instance, Alexei Nikolaevich, 1.2.1.1, as follows from Nicholas I.
Many of the individuals on this list died without legitimate issue; some were killed during the Russian Revolution.

Michael Alexandrovich (1917–1918)

Brother of Nicholas II, who abdicated in 1917.

Nicholas Nikolaevich">Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856–1929)">Nicholas Nikolaevich (1922–1929)

Grandson of Nicholas I. Proclaimed Tsar of Russia by the Provisional Priamurye Government, which controlled portions of the Russian Far East. His rule was nominal as he was in exile during the entirety of his reign. He was without issue on his death in 1929 at the age of 72.

Kirillovichi branch (1924–present)

Kirill Vladimirovich (1924–1938)

At first, many members of the Imperial House either did not believe or were wary of acting on news of the demise of the immediate imperial family. However, camps started to be formed in the monarchist movement, where Paris was a focal location. Several monarchists grouped around Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who was first in the line of succession by male primogeniture after the execution of Alexei Nikolaevich and Michael Alexandrovich. Many of Kirill's opponents grouped around a young grand duke, Dmitri Pavlovich, who was next in the line of succession if Kirill and his brothers, the Vladimirovichi, were ineligible, though Dimitri himself refused these advances, supporting instead Grand Duke Kirill as emperor. Several grouped around the old Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, appreciating his career as general and former commander-in-chief, or his position as the oldest member of the imperial dynasty. On August 8, 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all Russia by the Zemsky Sobor of the Priamursk region, convened in Vladivostok by General Mikhail Diterikhs. At the time, Grand Duke Nicholas was already living abroad and consequently was not present at the Sobor. Two months later, the Priamursk region fell to the Bolsheviks.
Nicholas and Dmitri never publicly proclaimed themselves pretenders, but Kirill Vladimirovich assumed on 8 August 1922 the position of curator of the throne. On 31 August 1924 he proclaimed himself Kirill I, Emperor of all the Russias. With the assumption of the Imperial title his children were elevated to the title and styles of Grand Duke and Grand Duchesses of Russia according to the Statutes of the Imperial Family and the Laws of the Russian Empire. Grand Duke Kirill's role as head of the House was recognised, and the oath of loyalty signed by every male dynast of the House of Romanov, except Grand Duke Nicholas, his brother Grand Duke Peter, and the latter's son, Prince Roman Petrovich. Nicholas, one of the other monarchist alternatives, died in 1929. Kirill held his court-in-exile in France, erecting a secretariat for the monarchist movement.

Vladimir Kirillovich (1938–1992)

Kirill died in 1938, and was succeeded as pretender by his only son Vladimir Kirillovich, who chose to assume the title of Grand Duke rather than that of Emperor.
The Kirillovichi supporters claim that Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was the sole male dynast of the Imperial House to enter into an equal marriage after 1917. Opponents refute the equality of this marriage. In 1946, responding to a question from the Spanish Royal House on whether the House of Bagration-Moukhrani could now, after the dissolution of the Russian Empire, be considered of royal rank, the Grand Duke issued a statement confirming the formerly sovereign status and royal titulature of the senior branch of the Royal House of Georgia. On August 13, 1948, he married Princess Leonida Bagration-Moukransky. The Grand Duke's marriage to Princess Leonida is controversial; some consider it to be morganatic. The Romanov Family Association, whose bylaws prohibit support of anyone for Russia's defunct throne, recognised neither Vladimir Kirillovich nor his daughter Maria Vladimirovna as rightful claimants.
However, having recognised the Moukhransky branch of the House of Bagration as a former royal dynasty in 1946 in his claimed capacity as head of the House of Romanov, he declared his 1948 marriage to Princess Leonida to be dynastic, notwithstanding her family's status as Russian subjects at the end of the monarchy. From the time of their marriage in 1948 she assumed her husband's rank, bearing the title Grand Duchess of Russia and the style Her Imperial Highness.
In 1969 Vladimir, expressing his opinion that the House of Romanov faced almost inevitable extinction in the dynastic male line, proclaimed his daughter Maria Vladimirovna the future curatrix of the throne, implying that she would ultimately succeed. That act angered other dynasts and groups in monarchist circles. Three Romanov dynasts, Princes Vsevold, Andrei and Roman wrote to Vladimir, addressing him as "Prince" rather than "Grand Duke", asserting that Maria Vladimirovna's mother was of no higher status than the wife of any other dynastic Romanov prince. They also said that they did not recognise Maria Vladimirovna as a grand duchess and that his proclamation declaring her the dynasty's future curatrix was illegal.
In 1989, when Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia, died, Vladimir immediately proclaimed his daughter as the dynasty's heiress, as Prince Vasili was the last male Romanov other than himself whom, having been born of an equal marriage, Vladimir recognised as a dynast.

Maria Vladimirovna (1992–present)

When Vladimir Kirillovich died in 1992, Maria Vladimirovna proclaimed herself the new Head of the Imperial House, assuming the position of Head of the House and proclaiming her son George Mikhailovich the heir-apparent. Her son, who was born in 1981, was given the patronymic "Mikhailovich" because from 1976 until her divorce in 1985, Maria was married to Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, who was granted the title "His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia" by Vladimir. Maria styles herself "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia" as her title of pretension, and her son styles himself "His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Georgi Mikhailovich of Russia" as his title of pretension.

Nikolaevichi branch (1992-2016)

Nicholas Romanov (1992–2014)

In 1979, seven undisputed male and female dynasts founded the Romanov Family Association, which by the end of the same year had admitted more than half of the surviving undisputed dynasts into its membership, as well as a fair number of those male-line descendants Vladimir did not recognise as dynasts because of morganatic birth. Vladimir Kirillovich never joined the association and neither has his daughter Maria.
The RFA, which included the last two surviving females recognised as dynasts among its membership, chose Prince Nicholas Romanov, as its president in 1989, following the death of Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia, the only undisputed male dynast still living at that time other than Vladimir Kirillovich. The RFA's official position, expressed in its founding charter, is that the Russian nation should determine which sort of government its people desire and, if the choice is monarchy, who should be monarch. Nonetheless, once Vladimir was no longer alive, Prince Nicholas Romanov was recognised as the head of the Imperial House of Romanov while serving as third president of the RFA by the members of the family, with the exception of Maria Vladimirovna and her son George Mikhailovich. Following the death of Vladimir Kirillovich in April 1992, Nicholas took "H.H. Prince of Russia" as his title of pretension.

Dimitri Romanov (2014–2016)

After Nicholas' death in 2014, his brother Prince Dimitri Romanov took up the claim. Dimitri had affirmed in July 2009 that his brother Nicholas, and not Maria Vladimirovna, was the Head of the Imperial Family, simultaneously declaring, however, that pursuant to a 1992 family meeting he attended in Paris, all of the then living senior male descendants of the House of Romanov agreed not to put forward any claim. Prince Dimitri died childless in 2016, extinguishing the asserted claims of the Romanovs of the Nikolayevich branch with the death of the last male of that line.

Mikhailovichi branch (2016-present)

Andrew Romanov (2016–present)

This claim then passed on to the line of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, in the person of Andrew Andreevich, Prince of Russia.

House of Leiningen

Nikolai Kirillovich (2013–present)

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, converted to the Eastern Orthodox faith in 2013, in order to pretend the Russian throne under the name of Prince Nikolai Kirillovich of Leiningen-Romanov. He is the grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia and great-grandson of Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. The Monarchist Party of Russia supports Prince Nikolai as the heir of the Russian throne, since they are of the opinion that neither Maria Vladimirovna Romanova nor Nicholas Romanov qualified as dynasts. In early 2014, Nikolai Kirilovich declared himself Emperor Nicholas III and sovereign the "Romanov Empire", a micronation founded in 2011 by monarchist businessman and politician Anton Bakov.
Karl Emich was disinherited and gave up use of the Leiningen Fürstliche title because of his parents' disapproval of his second marriage to a commoner. His younger brother Andreas became the Prince of Leiningen. In 2007, Nicholas married Countess Isabelle von und zu Egloffstein, who gave birth to their only son, Emich, in 2010.

Succession controversy

In applying Romanov House Law to determine headship of the dynasty, it must be determined if there are surviving male dynasts of the House of Romanov and then which among them is entitled to claim the Romanov legacy pursuant to house law. If only one male Romanov dynast survives, his claim precedes that of any female Romanov dynast or any male lawfully descended in the female line from a male Romanov dynast. If no Romanov male dynast survives, semi-salic succession is invoked, and the title passes to the last surviving male dynast's closest female relative. In that case, one must assess who the last surviving male dynast was: Some consider this to have been Vladimir Kirillovich, while others upheld that status for Paul Romanovsky-Ilyinsky of Palm Beach and, subsequently, for their cousins Nicholas Romanovich and Dimitri Romanovich of the Nikolayevich branch. Still others have supported the claims of other surviving male relatives in the male lines of Grand Dukes Dimitri Pavlovich or Alexander Nikolayevich. Females of male-line Romanov descent who have been deemed by some to have succeeded the last male include Maria Vladimirovna and Catherine Ioanovna. Semi-salic succession as applied under the house law might also allocate the claim to the defunct Russian throne to a male who descends through dynastically valid marriages from any daughter of Alexander III, Alexander II or Nicholas I, provided that he is or is willing to become Eastern Orthodox.

Line of Maria Vladimirovna

If one accepts that Vladimir Kirillovich's marriage to Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhranskaya was non-morganatic and that he was succeeded by his daughter Maria Vladimirovna then the line of succession is:
  1. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, who has been styled Grand Duke of Russia since birth, also a :Category:Prussian princes|Prince of Prussia
George is, as yet, the only descendant of Grand Duchess Maria. If both died without further male heirs, the succession would then follow semi-Salic law and the right to the Imperial Crown will presumably pass either to Andreas, Prince of Leiningen, as the nearest male relation to Maria and her son that is not descended from Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich through morganatic marriage, or to the nearest non-morganatically descended male Eastern Orthodox relative.

Line of Andrew Romanov

The line of succession to Prince Andrew Romanov based on descent from Emperor Nicholas I of Russia is:
  1. Andreas, Prince of Leiningen : He is a grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, and great-grandson of Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. His eldest brother is a claimant to the Russian throne since 2013. He is also a second cousin of George Mikhailovich, as his paternal grandmother was the eldest sister of George’s maternal grandfather. He is the head of the princely House of Leiningen.
  2. Ferdinand, Hereditary Prince of Leiningen : He is the son of the previous.
  3. Georg Friedrich of Hohenzollern, Prince of Prussia : He is grandson of Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia, and great-grandson of Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. He is also a second cousin of George Mikhailovich, as his paternal grandmother was the younger sister of George’s maternal grandfather. Prince Georg Friedrich is the head of the Prussian Royal House and German Imperial House.
  4. Alexander Karađorđević, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia : He is a great-grandson of Marie of Romania, daughter of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. He is the head of the Yugoslavian/Serbian Royal House.

    Dynastic marriage

Vladimir Kirillovich and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhransky

Maria Vladimirovna has the support of most monarchist groups and followers, most societies of Russian nobles — including the Assembly of the Russian Nobility, and recognition of her claim by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill I Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia who, in a televised March 2013 interview, stated "Today, none of those persons who are descendants of the Romanoffs are pretenders to the Russian throne. But in the person of Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna and her son, Georgii, the succession of the Romanoffs is preserved — no longer to the Russian Imperial throne, but to history itself". The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad has also recognised Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial House.
The Romanov Family Association has as members most of the morganatic descendants of the dynasty. Its president was acknowledged as the foremost family representative when Nicholas II and his family's remains were interred in St. Petersburg in July 1998, and at several other government-sponsored memorial occasions. By contrast, Maria Vladimirovna has, at those same events, generally been acknowledged as occupying the foremost position in church-organised solemnities, such as masses for relic veneration.