PHOTO: Tikhon posing in front of a portrait of his grandfather Emperor Alexander III in the Uniform of the Danish Royal Regiment of Life Guards (1899). Artist: Valentin Serov (1865-1911)

On this day – 8th April 1993 – Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovsky-Romanov died in Toronto, Canada.

Tikhon was the eldest son of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) and Colonel Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky (1881-1958), grandson of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, nephew of Emperor Nicholas II.

Born in Ai-Todor in Crimea on 25 August (O.S. 12 August) 1917, where Olga Alexandrovna’s family had moved with the Empress Maria Feodorovna in March 1917 after the February Revolution . Maria Feodorovna wrote in a letter to to Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna:

“Just last evening, when I felt completely lost, my dear Olga gave birth to Baby, a little son who brought such unexpected joy to my broken heart … I am very glad that Baby appeared just at that moment when from grief and despair I suffered terribly.”

in 1920, when the Red Army was approaching, together with his parents and brother Tikhon Nikolaevich left Russia and emigrated to Denmark, where his grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna had already arrived.

PHOTO: Tokhon with his mother Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. 1950s

Tikhon was brought up in the Russian spirit, spoke excellent Russian and was closely and directly connected with refugees from Russia, as his parents’ house gradually became the center of the Russian colony in Denmark.

He was educated in the Russian gymnasiums (schools) in Berlin and Paris, then studied at the Danish military school and served in the Danish Royal Guard, during the Second World War. After the occupation of Denmark, the Wehrmacht and the Danish army were imprisoned in special camps, where he spent several months in prison.

In 1948, together with his parents and brother Guri Nikolaevich (1919–1984), they left Denmark for Canada.

Tikhon married three times, his last marriage to Olga Nikolaevna Pupynina (1926-2020). He had one child, a daughter Olga Tikhonovna (born 9 January 1964) from his second marriage. He had no children from his first or third marriages.

On 6 April 1993, Tikhon Nikolaevich was hospitalized at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, it was found that he suffered a myocardial infarction. On 8 April after a second heart operation, Tikhon Nikolaevich died. The funeral service took place on 15 April at the Holy Trinity Church in Toronto. The burial took place on the same day at York Cemetery in the north of Toronto, where he was buried next to his parents, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Colonel N. A. Kulikovsky.

PHOTO: Tikhon’s third wife Olga Nikolaevna Pupynina (1926-2020), posing in front of a portrait of her husband, painted in 1940, by Grand Dichess Olga Nikolaevna

Tikhon never recognized the dynastic rights of the descendants of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (1876-1938). Although he did not make any claim to the throne, his candidacy was supported by a number of monarchist organizations that believed that the tsar should be elected by the All-Russian Zemsky Sobor.

He was an honorary member of the Romanov Family Association, and served as an arbiter of the Supreme Monarchical Council. In 1991, Tikhon organized a Charity Fund named in memory of his mother. Tikhon Nikolaevich was also a trustee of the “Orthodox Brotherhood in the Name of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II.” In the midst of perestroika, Tikhon Nikolaevich addressed a number of appeals to the Russians. One of them was devoted to the need to rename the city of Sverdlovsk to Yekaterinburg.

In the early 1990s, Tikhon Kulikovsky-Romanov was the closest surviving relative of Emperor Nicholas II, therefore, his genetic material should have been a strong argument in identifying the remains of the imperial family. During his lifetime, however, he refused to provide his blood to experts, believing that the investigation was not conducted at the proper level, by incompetent people and organizations. However, samples of his blood taken during the operation had been stored and transferred for examination to Russian expert E.I. Rogaev. Rogayev’s studies showed a one hundred percent match between T. N. Kulikovsky-Romanov and Nicholas II.

In 2007, Tikhon Kulikovsky’s genetic material also helped identify the remains of the two remaining children of the last tsar Tsesearevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria.

Memory Eternal! Вечная Память! 

© Paul Gilbert. 8 April 2024