NIKOLAI NIKOLAEVICH (THE YOUNGER; 1856-1929), AUTOGRAPH Autograph letter addressed to Count Alexei Vasilievich Olsufyev (1831-1915). Bezzabotnoe, August 12, 1913

3 pp. 20.7 x 17.5 cm. On monogrammed letterhead. Fold marks. A reply giving his opinion of the memoirs of his father compiled by A.V. Olsufyev. He also reports that the monument to his father, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder (1831-1891), will be unveiled in December and consecrated in January. The Bezzabotnoe estate, which the Grand Duke received as a wedding gift, was located near St Petersburg, between Strelna and Krasnoe Selo. The bronze equestrian statue of the Grand Duke on a tall artistic pedestal was unveiled on 12 January 1914 on Manezhnaya Square in Petrograd. The equestrian figure was cast after a model by the Italian sculptor Pietro Canonica. The monument commemorating the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 was laid on 19 February 1913, the year of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. Emperor Nicholas II attended both the laying and the unveiling. The monument was dismantled in 1918. Count Alexei Vasilievich Olsufyev (1831-1915) was a Russian general and philologist of the Olsufyev family, son of V.D. Olsufyev and owner of the Yershovo estate near Moscow. In 1855-1863 he was adjutant to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder.