text:
Being There

Being There is a 1979 American satirical comedy-drama film starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, and Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Hal Ashby, it is based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosiński, and adapted for the screen by Kosiński and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, and Richard Basehart are featured in support.

Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor. The screenplay won the British Academy Film Award for Best Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. In 2015, the Library of Congress selected Being There for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
Middle-aged, simple-minded Chance lives in a wealthy old man's townhouse in Washington, D.C., along with the man's African-American maid Louise, who is kind to Chance. He has spent his whole life tending the garden and never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from television. When the old man dies, his estate lawyers order Chance out.

He wanders aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. An African-American youth points a knife at him; Chance ineffectually tries to click him out of existence with a TV remote control. Passing by a TV shop, Chance sees himself captured by a video camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a limousine chauffeuring Eve Rand, the glamorous and much younger wife of elderly business mogul Ben Rand. When she asks him his name she mishears "Chance, the gardener" as "Chauncey Gardiner".

Eve brings Chance to their palatial estate to be seen by Dr. Allenby, who is resident there caring for Ben, who is slowly dying from a blood disease. After checking Chauncey out, the doctor invites him to stay to keep an eye on him.

Chauncey’s manners are old-fashioned and courtly, and he wears expensively-tailored but outmoded 1930s clothes he took from his former employer’s attic. When Ben meets him he takes "Chauncey" for an upper-class, highly-educated businessman fallen on hard times. Ben admires him, finding him direct, wise and insightful.

Ben is also a confidant and advisor to the President of the United States, whom he introduces to Chauncey. In a discussion about the economy, Chance takes his cue from the words "stimulate growth" and talks about the changing seasons of the garden. The President misinterprets this as optimistic political advice and quotes "Chauncey Gardiner" in a speech.

Chance now rises to national prominence, attends important events, develops a close connection with the Soviet ambassador, and appears on a talk show during which his detailed advice about what a serious gardener should do is misunderstood as his opinion on presidential policy. Louise tells other African Americans as they watch Chance on TV that he has "rice pudding between the ears" and that whiteness is all that is needed to succeed in America. The President is shown as sexually impotent with his wife when watching the show.

Though Chance has now risen to the pinnacle of Washington society, the Secret Service and 16 other agencies are unable to find any background information on him. Meanwhile, Allenby becomes increasingly suspicious that Chance is not a wise political expert and that his mysterious identity may have a more mundane explanation. Allenby considers telling Ben, but remains silent when he realizes how happy Chance is making him in his final days.

The dying Ben encourages Eve to become close to "Chauncey". She is already attracted to him and makes a sexual advance. Chance has no interest in or knowledge of sex, but mimics a kissing scene from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, which happens to be on TV. When the scene ends, Chance stops suddenly and Eve is confused. She asks what he likes, meaning sexually; he replies "I like to watch," meaning television. She is momentarily taken aback, but masturbates for his voyeuristic pleasure, not noticing he has turned back to the TV and is imitating Lilias, Yoga and You on another channel.

Chance is present at Ben's death and shows genuine sadness. Questioned by Allenby, he admits that he "loves Eve very much" and also that he is just a gardener. When he leaves to inform Eve of Ben's death, Allenby says to himself, "I understand."

While the President delivers a speech at Ben's funeral, the pallbearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next presidential term, and unanimously agree on "Chauncey" as successor. Oblivious, Chance wanders off through Ben's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling flattened by a fallen branch, then walks across the surface of a lake without sinking. He pauses, dips his umbrella deep into the water to the right of his path, then continues on, while the President is heard quoting Ben: "Life is a state of mind."

Cast

 * Peter Sellers as Chance the gardener (Chauncey Gardiner)
 * Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
 * Melvyn Douglas as Ben Rand
 * Richard Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
 * Jack Warden as the President
 * Richard Basehart as Soviet Ambassador Vladimir Skrapinov
 * Than Wyenn as Ambassador Gaufridi
 * David Clennon as Thomas Franklin
 * Fran Brill as Sally Hayes
 * Ruth Attaway as Louise
 * Denise DuBarry as Johanna
 * Richard Venture as Wilson
 * Sam Weisman as Colson
 * Alice Hirson as the First Lady
 * Arthur Rosenberg as Morton Hull
 * Jerome Hellman as Gary Burns
 * James Noble as Kaufman
 * John Harkins as Courtney
 * Elya Baskin as Karpatov
 * Richard McKenzie as Ron Steigler
 * Oteil Burbridge as Lolo (boy on corner)
 * Hoyt Clark Harris Jr. as Secret Service agent Riff
 * Mark Hammer as Pallbearer

Casting
Burt Lancaster was Ashby's first choice for the role of Ben Rand. Laurence Olivier was also considered for the role, but turned it down because of the masturbation scene.

Filming
Principal filming occurred at the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in the United States, located in Asheville, North Carolina. According to MacLaine, "(Peter) believed he was Chauncey. He never had lunch with me ... He was Chauncey Gardiner the whole shoot, but believing he was having a love affair with me." The original ending as written in the script was filmed; it shows Eve finding Chance by the lake, they declare they have found each other, and both walk back together. However, Ashby was unhappy with this ending so he had a platform submerged in the lake for Sellers to walk on, creating the film's enigmatic final scene.

Melvyn Douglas's granddaughter, Illeana Douglas, visited the set and met Peter Sellers, who is her favorite actor. She has since credited the film for inspiring her to pursue a career in acting. According to Illeana, Sellers and Douglas had known each other since the 1940s, when they first met in the Burma campaign (1944–1945) during World War II. They often reminisced about their war days while on the set. The making of the film is portrayed in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, a biographical film of Sellers' life.

Music
Incidental music is used very sparingly. What little original music is used was composed by Johnny Mandel, and primarily features two recurrent piano themes based on "Gnossiennes" No. 4 and No. 5 by Erik Satie. The other major pieces of music used are the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra and "Basketball Jones" by Cheech and Chong. These pieces respectively accompany the title credits and Chance's first arrival to the Biltmore Estate. Mandel was also assisted by his cousin and fellow composer Miles Goodman with the orchestration of the film.

Reception
The film opened to positive reviews and gave Sellers a hit after many failed films outside of the Pink Panther series. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of four out of four stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of four stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh." Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a stately, beautifully acted satire with a premise that's funny but fragile." Variety called it "an unusually fine film" that "represents Peter Sellers' most smashing work since the mid-1960s." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a gentle, exquisitely funny film," adding that "Sellers hasn't been so terrific—or had such terrific material—in years."

Vincent Misiano reviewed Being There in Ares Magazine and commented that "the film's humor never flags and yet its delicately bitter irony is never far away. It satirizes politics and politicians, business and businessmen, and, finally, all the rest of us and what we imagine we see when we look at one another."

In 2006 Roger Ebert mentioned the reaction of his students to the final scene (which is unique to the film, not appearing in the book), stating that they once suggested that Chance may be walking on a submerged pier. But, Ebert writes, "The movie presents us with an image, and while you may discuss the meaning of the image, it is not permitted to devise explanations for it. Since Ashby does not show a pier, there is no pier—a movie is exactly what it shows us, and nothing more."

The credits at the film's end roll over an outtake known as the "Rafael outtake." Sellers was displeased that the outtake ran because he believed that it took away from Chauncey's mystique. He also believed that it prevented him from winning the Oscar.

As of 2023 the film holds a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.60/10. The critical consensus calls it "smart, sophisticated, and refreshingly subtle." In 2003, The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.

Awards and nominations
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in:
 * 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #26

Home media
A 30th Anniversary Edition was released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2009. The Criterion Collection issued the film on DVD and Blu-ray in March 2017.

title: Being There


text:
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and his work influenced many other artists, notably Robert Genin, and he aided medallists by designs and suggestions for their works. Puvis de Chavannes was a prominent painter in the early Third Republic. Émile Zola described his work as "an art made of reason, passion, and will".

Early life
Puvis de Chavannes was born Pierre-Cécile Puvis in a suburb of Lyon, France, on December 14, 1824. He was the son of a mining engineer and descended from an old noble family of Burgundy. He later added the ancestral "de Chavannes" to his name. Throughout his life, he spurned his Lyon origins, preferring to identify himself with the 'strong' blood of the Burgundians, where his father originated.

Puvis de Chavannes was educated at the Amiens College and at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris. He intended to follow his father's profession until a serious illness compelled him to convalesce at Mâcon with his brother and sister-in-law in 1844 and 1845, which interrupted his studies. A journey to Italy opened his mind to fresh ideas, and on his return to Paris in 1846, he announced his intention to become a painter.

He studied first under Eugène Delacroix, but only very briefly, as Delacroix closed his studio shortly afterwards due to ill health. He studied subsequently under Henri Scheffer and then Thomas Couture. His training was not classical as he found that he preferred to work alone. He took a large studio near the Gare de Lyon and attended anatomy classes at the Académie des Beaux Arts. It was not until a number of years later, when the government of France acquired one of his works, that he gained wide recognition.

In 1850, Puvis de Chavannes made his Salon debut with Dead Christ, Jeune noir à l'épée (Black youth with a sword), The Reading Lesson, and Portrait of a Man.

Work
Puvis de Chavannes's work is seen as symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the romanticists, and he is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors, particularly the works of the Modernists. One of his protégés was Georges de Feure.

Mural work
Puvis de Chavannes is best known for his mural painting, and came to be known as 'the painter for France.' His first commission was for his brother's chateau, Le Brouchy, a medieval-style structure near Cuiseaux in Saône-et-Loire. The principal decorations take the four seasons as their theme. His first public commissions came early in the 1860s, with work at the Musée de Picardie at Amiens. The first four works were Concordia (1861), Bellum (1861), Le Travail (Work; 1863) and Le Repos (Rest; 1863). Between 1883 and 1886 he painted a mural for the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon.

The regions
Over the course of his career, Puvis received a substantial number of commissions for works to be carried out in public and private institutions throughout France. His early work at the Musée de Picardie had helped him to develop his classicizing style, and the decorative aesthetic of his mural works.

Among his public works are the later cycles completed at Amiens (Ave Picardia Nutrix, 1865), at Marseille, at Lyon and at Poitiers. Of particular importance is the cycle at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Lyon, which includes three significant works, filling the wall space in the main staircase. From left to right, the works are Antique Vision (1884), The Wood Dear to the Arts and the Muses (1884), and Christian Inspiration (1884).

Paris
Puvis' career was tied up with a complicated debate that had been ongoing since the beginning of the Third Republic (1870), and at the end of the violence of the Paris Commune. The question at stake was the identity of France and the meaning of 'Frenchness'. Royalists felt that the revolution of 1789 had been an immense disaster and that France had been thrown off course, while the Republicans felt that the Revolution had allowed France to revert to its true course. Consequently, works that were to be displayed in public spaces, such as murals, had the important task of fulfilling the ideology of the commissioning party. Many scholars of Puvis's works have noted that his success as a 'painter for France' was largely due to his ability to create works which were agreeable to the many ideologies in existence at this time.

His first Parisian commission was for a cycle at the church of Saint Genevieve, which is now the secular Pantheon, begun in 1874. His two subjects were L'Education de Sainte Geneviève and La Vie Pastoral de Sainte Geneviève. This commission was followed by works at the Sorbonne, namely the enormous hemicycle, The Sacred Grove or L'Ancienne Sorbonne amongst the muses in the Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne.

His final commission in this trinity of Republican commissions was the crowning glory of Puvis's career, the works Summer and Winter, at the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Paris.

Many of these works are characterized by their nod to classical art, visible in the careful balanced compositions, and the subject matter is frequently a direct reference to visions of Hellenistic Greece, particularly in the case of Antique Vision.

Works on canvas
Puvis de Chavannes was president and co-founder in 1890 of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts) founded in Paris. It became the dominant salon of art at the time and held exhibitions of contemporary art that was selected only by a jury composed of the officers of the Société.

Those who translated best the spirit of the work of Puvis de Chavannes in their own creations were, in Germany, the painter Ludwig von Hofmann and in France, Auguste Rodin.

His easel paintings also may be found in many American and European galleries. Some of these paintings are:
 * Death and the Maiden
 * The Dream
 * The Poor Fisherman, 1881, oil on canvas
 * Vigilance
 * The Meditation
 * Mary Magdalene at Saint Baume
 * Saint Genoveva
 * Young Girls at the Seaside, 1879, oil on canvas
 * Mad Woman at the Edge of the Sea
 * Hope
 * Hope (nude)
 * Kneeling nude woman, viewed from back
 * The Sacred Grove

As far as the appreciation of his life's work is concerned, Puvis de Chavannes was never properly understood by his contemporaries. At the beginning of his career, art criticism was divided into two camps. Adored by the idealists, he was despised by the partisans of the realists. Only with the advent of Symbolism did these two camps unite, but without achieving a convincing appreciation of the painter. Today's research has inherited this contradiction of art criticism and therefore still does not offer a convincing presentation of Puvis de Chavanne's art.

Personal life
In Montmartre, he had an affair with one of his models, Suzanne Valadon, who would become one of the leading artists of the day as well as the mother, teacher, and mentor of Maurice Utrillo. From 1856, he was in a relationship with the Romanian princess, Marie Cantacuzène. The couple were together for 40 years, and were married before their deaths in 1898.

Puvis de Chavannes Prize
Beginning in 1926, The Prix Puvis de Chavannes (Puvis de Chavannes prize) was awarded by the National Society of Fine Arts (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). The Prix Puvis de Chavannes is the retrospective exhibition in Paris of the main works of the artist awarded the prize that year. During the twentieth century, this exhibition was located at the Grand Palais or the Musée d'Art Moderne. Recipients of the prize include:

 * 1941: Wilhem Van Hasselt
 * 1944: Jean Gabriel Domergue
 * 1948: Joseph Pinchon
 * 1952: Tristan Klingsor
 * 1955: Georges Delplanque
 * 1957: Albert Decaris
 * 1958: Jean Picard Le Doux
 * 1963: Maurice Boitel,
 * 1966: Pierre Gaillardot
 * 1968: Pierre-Henry
 * 1969: Louis Vuillermoz
 * 1970: Daniel du Janerand
 * 1971: Jean-Pierre Alaux
 * 1975: Jean Monneret
 * 1987: André Hambourg
 * 1991: Gaston Sébire
 * 1993: Jean Cluseau-Lanauve
 * 2006: Paul Collomb

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes


text:
UNIVAC 1101

The ERA 1101, later renamed UNIVAC 1101, was a computer system designed and built by Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in the early 1950s and continued to be sold by the Remington Rand corporation after that company later purchased ERA. Its (initial) military model, the ERA Atlas, was the first stored-program computer that was moved from its site of manufacture and successfully installed at a distant site. Remington Rand used the 1101's architecture as the basis for a series of machines into the 1960s.

Codebreaking
ERA was formed from a group of code-breakers working for the United States Navy during World War II. The team had built a number of code-breaking machines, similar to the more famous Colossus computer in England, but designed to attack Japanese codes. After the war the Navy was interested in keeping the team together even though they had to formally be turned out of Navy service. The result was ERA, which formed in St. Paul, Minnesota in the hangars of a former Chase Aircraft shadow factory.

After the war, the team continued to build codebreaking machines, targeted at specific codes. After one of these codes changed, making an expensive computer obsolete, the team convinced the Navy that the only way to make a system that would remain useful was to build a fully programmable computer. The Navy agreed, and in 1947 they funded development of a new system under "Task 13".

The resulting machines, known as "Atlas", used drum memory for main memory and featured a simple central processing unit built for integer math. The first Atlas machine was built, moved, and installed at the Army Security Agency by December 1950. A faster version using Williams tubes and drums was delivered to the NSA in 1953.

Commercialization
The company turned to the task of selling the systems commercially. Atlas was named after a character in the popular comic strip Barnaby, and they initially decided to name the commercial versions "Mabel". Jack Hill suggested "1101" instead; 1101 is the binary representation of the number 13. The ERA 1101 was publicly announced in December 1951. Atlas II, slightly modified became the ERA 1103, while a more heavily modified version with core memory and floating point math support became the UNIVAC 1103A.

At about this time the company became embroiled in a lengthy series of political maneuverings in Washington, D.C. Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round claimed that the founding of ERA was a conflict of interest for Norris and Engstrom because they had used their war-time government connections to set up a company for their own profit. The resulting legal fight left the company drained, both financially and emotionally. In 1952 they were purchased by Remington Rand, largely as a result of these problems.

Remington Rand had recently purchased Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation, builders of the famed UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer in the US. Although ERA and UNIVAC were run separately within the company, looking to cash in on the UNIVAC's well known name, they renamed the machine to become the "UNIVAC 1101". A series of machines based on the same basic design followed, and were sold into the 1960s before being replaced by the similar-in-name-only UNIVAC 1100 family.

Description
This computer was 38 ft long, 20 ft wide, weighed about 8.4 ST and used 2700 vacuum tubes for its logic circuits. Its drum memory was 8.5 in in diameter, rotated at 3500 rpm, had 200 read-write heads, and held 16,384 24-bit words (a memory size equivalent to 48 kB) with access time between 32 microseconds and 17 milliseconds.

Instructions were 24 bits long, with six bits for the opcode, four bits for the "skip" value (telling how many memory locations to skip to get to the next instruction in program sequence), and 14 bits for the memory address. Numbers were binary with negative values in ones' complement. The addition time was 96 microseconds and the multiplication time was 352 microseconds.

The single 48-bit accumulator was fundamentally subtractive, addition being carried out by subtracting the ones' complement of the number to be added. This may appear rather strange, but the subtractive adder reduces the chance of getting negative zero in normal operations.

The machine had 38 instructions.

Instruction set

 * Conventions
 * y is memory box at address y
 * X = X-Register (24 bits)

 * is interpreted as the contents of
 * Q = Q-Register (24 bits)

 * A = Accumulator (48 bits)

 * Arithmetic

 * Insert (y) in A
 * Insert complement of (y) in A

 * Insert (y) in A [multiple precision]
 * Insert complement of (y) in A [multiple precision]

 * Insert absolute value (y) in A
 * Insert complement of absolute value (y) in A

 * Add (y) to (A)
 * Subtract (y) from (A)

 * Add (y) to (A) [multiple precision]
 * Subtract (y) from (A) [multiple precision]

 * Add absolute value of (y) to (A)
 * Subtract absolute value of (y) from (A)

 * Insert (Q) in A
 * Clear right half of A

 * Add (Q) to (A)
 * Transmit (A) to Q

 * Insert [(y) + 1] in A

 * Multiply and divide

 * Form product (Q) * (y) in A
 * Add logical product (Q) * (y) to (A)

 * Form logical product (Q) * (y) in A
 * Divide (A) by (y), (quotient forms in Q, non-negative remainder left in A)

 * Add product (Q) * (y) to (A)

 * Logical and control flow

 * Store right half of (A) at y
 * Shift (A) left

 * Store (Q) at y
 * Shift (Q) left

 * Replace (y) with (A) using (Q) as operator
 * Take (y) as next order

 * Replace (y) with (A) [address portion only]
 * Take (y) as next order if (A) is not zero

 * Insert (y) in Q
 * Take (y) as next order if (A) is negative

 * Take (y) as next order if (Q) is negative

 * Input Output and control

 * Print right-hand 6 digits of (y)
 * Optional Stop

 * Print and punch right-hand 6 digits of (y)
 * Intermediate Stop

 * Final Stop

title: UNIVAC 1101


text:
...And Justice for All (album)

...And Justice for All is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on August 25, 1988, by Elektra Records. It was the first Metallica album to feature bassist Jason Newsted, following the death of their previous bassist Cliff Burton in 1986. Burton received posthumous co-writing credit on "To Live Is to Die" as Newsted followed bass lines Burton had recorded prior to his death.

Metallica recorded the album with producer Flemming Rasmussen over four months in early 1988 at One on One Recording Studios in Los Angeles. It features aggressive complexity, fast tempos, and few verse-chorus structures. It contains lyrical themes of political and legal injustices, such as governmental corruption, censorship, and war. The cover, designed by Roger Gorman with illustration by Stephen Gorman and based on a concept by Metallica guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, depicts Lady Justice bound in ropes, being pulled by them to the point of breaking, with dollar bills piled upon and falling off her scales. The album title is derived from the last four words of the American Pledge of Allegiance. Three of its songs were released as singles: "Harvester of Sorrow", "Eye of the Beholder", and "One"; the title track, "...And Justice for All", was released as a promotional single.

...And Justice for All was acclaimed by music critics for its depth and complexity, although its dry mix and nearly inaudible bass guitar were criticized. It was included in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the year's best albums, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1989, controversially losing out to Jethro Tull in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental category. The single "One" backed the band's debut music video, and earned Metallica their first Grammy Award in 1990 (and the first ever in the Best Metal Performance category). It was successful in the United States, peaking at number six on the Billboard 200, and was certified 8× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2003 for shipping eight million copies in the U.S.

The album was reissued on November 2, 2018, in vinyl, CD, and cassette formats, as well as receiving a deluxe box set treatment with bonus tracks and unreleased video footage. The reissue reached number 37 and 42 on Billboard's Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts, respectively.

Background
...And Justice for All is the first Metallica album to feature bassist Jason Newsted after the death of Cliff Burton in 1986; Newsted had previously played on the 1987 Metallica EP The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited. Metallica had intended to record the album earlier, but was sidetracked by the large number of festival dates scheduled for the summer of 1987, including the European leg of the Monsters of Rock festival. Another reason was frontman James Hetfield's arm injury in a skateboarding accident.

Metallica's previous studio album, Master of Puppets (1986), was their last under their contract with the record label Music for Nations. Manager Peter Mensch wanted them to sign with British record distributor Phonogram Records. Phonogram manager Martin Hooker offered them "well over £1 million, which at that time was the biggest deal we'd ever offered anyone". His explanation was that the final figure for combined British and European sales of all three Metallica albums was more than 1.5 million copies.

Recording
...And Justice for All was recorded from January to May 1988 at One on One Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Metallica produced the album with Flemming Rasmussen. He had been initially unavailable for the planned start on January 1, 1988, and the band hired Mike Clink, who had caught their attention for producing the debut Guns N' Roses album Appetite for Destruction (1987). Plans deteriorated, and Rasmussen became available three weeks after drummer Lars Ulrich had first called him. Rasmussen listened to Clink's rough mixes for the album on his February 14 flight to Los Angeles, and upon his arrival, Clink was fired. Hetfield explained that recording with Clink had been problematic, and Rasmussen was a last-minute replacement. Clink is credited with engineering drums on "The Shortest Straw" and "Harvester of Sorrow". Awaiting Rasmussen's arrival, the band had recorded two cover songs—"Breadfan" and "The Prince"—to "fine‑tune the sound while they got into the studio vibe". Both were released as B-sides for singles from the album and were later included on the 1998 cover album Garage Inc.

Rasmussen's first task was to adjust and arrange the guitar sound, with which the band was dissatisfied. A guide track for the tempos and a click track for Ulrich's drumming were used. The band played in a live room, recording the instruments separately. Each song used three reels: one for drums, a second for bass and guitars, and a third for other parts. Hetfield wrote lyrics during the recording sessions; these were occasionally unfinished as recording began, and Rasmussen said that Hetfield "wasn't really interested in singing" but instead "wanted that hard vibe". Metallica's recording process was new to Newsted, who questioned his impact on the overall sound and the lack of discussion with the rest of the team. He recorded his parts separately, with only the assistant engineer present. The experience differed from his previous band, Flotsam and Jetsam, whose style he described as "basically everybody playing the same thing like a sonic wall".

Mixing
...And Justice for All is noted for its "dry, sterile" production. Rasmussen said that was not his intention, as he tried for an ambient sound similar to the previous two albums. He was not present during the album's mixing, for which Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero had been hired beforehand. Rasmussen assumed that, in his absence from the mixing process, Thompson and Barbiero used only the close microphones on the mix and none of the room microphones, causing the "clicking", thin drum sound. The bass guitar is nearly inaudible, while the guitars sound "strangled mechanistic". He saw the "synthetic" percussion as another reason for the compressed sound.

At the instruction of Hetfield and Ulrich, Newsted's bass guitar was made almost inaudible. According to Rasmussen: "After Lars and James heard their initial mixes the first thing they said was, 'Take the bass down so you can just hear it, and then once you've done that, take it down a further three dBs.' I have no idea why they wanted that, but it was totally out of my hands." In 2009, Hetfield said that the bass was obscured as the basslines often doubled his rhythm guitar, making the instruments indiscernible, and because the low frequencies were competing with his "scooped" guitar sound.

Newsted was not satisfied with the final mix and was unhappy that the bass was inaudible. Thompson was also unhappy, and blamed Ulrich for the decision; he tried to quit the project, but was blocked by management. Rasmussen said in 2018: "I'm probably one of the only people in the world, including Jason and Toby Wright, the assistant engineer, who heard the bass tracks on And Justice for All, and they are fucking brilliant."

In 2019, Hetfield and Ulrich said they had mixed the bass low not to belittle Newsted, but because their hearing was "shot" following heavy touring and so they "basically kept turning everything else up until the bass disappeared". They decided not to adjust the mix for the remastered 2018 reissue, saying: "These records are a product of a certain time in life; they're snapshots of history and they're part of our story ... And Justice for All could use a little more low end and St. Anger could use a little less tin snare drum, but those things are what make those records part of our history."

Music
...And Justice for All is a musically progressive album featuring long and complex songs, fast tempos and few verse-chorus structures. Metallica decided to broaden its sonic range, writing songs with multiple sections, heavy guitar arpeggios and unusual time signatures. Hetfield explained: "Songwriting-wise, [the album] was just us really showing off and trying to show what we could do. 'We've jammed six riffs into one song? Let's make it eight. Let's go crazy with it.'"

Critic Simon Reynolds noted the riff changes and experimentation with timing on the album's intricately constructed songs: "The tempo shifts, gear changes, lapses, decelerations and abrupt halts". BBC Music's Eamonn Stack wrote that ...And Justice for All sounds different from the band's previous albums, with longer songs, sparser arrangements, and harsher vocals by Hetfield. According to journalist Martin Popoff, the album is less melodic than its predecessors because of its frequent tempo changes, unusual song structures and layered guitars. He argued that the album is more of a progressive metal record because of its intricately performed music and bleak sound. Music writer Joel McIver called the album's music aggressive enough for Metallica to maintain its place with bands "at the mellower end of extreme metal". According to writer Christopher Knowles, Metallica took "the thrash concept to its logical conclusion" on the album.

Lyrics
The album title was revealed in April 1988: ...And Justice for All, after the final words of the Pledge of Allegiance. The lyrics address political and legal injustice as seen through the prism of war (including nuclear war) and censored speech. The majority of the songs raise issues that differ from the violent retaliation of the previous releases. Tom King writes that for the first time the lyrics dealt with political and environmental issues. He named contemporaries Nuclear Assault as the only other band who applied ecological lyrics to thrash metal songs rather than singing about Satan and Egyptian plagues. McIver noted that Hetfield, the band's main lyricist, wrote about topics that he had not addressed before, such as his revolt against the establishment. Ulrich described the songwriting process as their "CNN years", with him and Hetfield watching the channel in search for song subjects—"I'd read about the blacklisting thing, we'd get a title, 'The Shortest Straw,' and a song would come out of that."

Concerns about the state of the environment ("Blackened"), corruption ("...And Justice for All"), and blacklisting and discrimination ("The Shortest Straw") are emphasized with traditional existential themes. Issues such as freedom of speech and civil liberties ("Eye of the Beholder") are presented from a grim and pessimistic point of view. "One" was unofficially nicknamed an "antiwar anthem" for its lyrics, which portray the suffering of a wounded soldier. "Dyers Eve" is a lyrical rant from Hetfield to his parents. Burton received co-writing credit on "To Live Is to Die" as the bass line is a medley of unused recordings Burton had performed prior to his death. Because the original recordings are not used on the track, the composition is credited as written by Burton and played by Newsted. The spoken word section of the song was erroneously attributed in its entirety to Burton in the liner notes. The first line was actually from the film Excalibur ("When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.") while the second line comes from Lord Foul's Bane, a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson ("These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives."). The second half of the speech ("All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?") was written by Burton.

Artwork
The artwork was created by Stephen Gorman, based on a concept developed by Hetfield and Ulrich. It depicts a cracked statue of a blindfolded Lady Justice, bound by ropes with her breasts exposed and her scales overflowing with dollar bills, with the title in graffiti style.

Critical reception
Released on September 7, 1988, by Elektra Records, ...And Justice for All was acclaimed by music critics. In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Michael Azerrad said that Metallica's compositions are impressive and called the album's music "a marvel of precisely channeled aggression". Spin magazine's Sharon Liveten called it a "gem of a double record" and found the music both edgy and technically proficient. Simon Reynolds, writing in Melody Maker, said that "other bands would give their eye teeth" for the songs' riffs and found the album's densely complicated style of metal to be distinct from the monotonous sound of contemporary rock music: "Everything depends on utter punctuality and supreme surgical finesse. It's probably the most incisive music I've ever heard, in the literal sense of the word." Borivoj Krgin of Metal Forces said that it was the most ideal album he has heard because of typically exceptional production and musicianship that is more impressive than that of Master of Puppets. In a less enthusiastic review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau believed that the band's compositions lack song form and that the album "goes on longer" than Master of Puppets. In 1988, ...And Justice for All was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, but controversially lost to Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly, named this one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history.

In a retrospective review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that ...And Justice for All was both the band's "most ambitious" and ultimately "flattest-sounding" album. AllMusic's Steve Huey noted that Metallica followed the blueprint of the previous two albums, with more sophisticated songs and "apocalyptic" lyrics that envisioned a society in decay. Music journalist Mick Wall was critical of the progressive elements on the album and believed that, apart from "One" and "Dyers Eve", most of the album sounded clumsy. Colin Larkin, writing in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006), wrote that, apart from the praiseworthy "One", the album diminished the band's creativity by concentrating the songs with too many riffs. Ulrich said in retrospect that the album has improved with time and it is well-liked among their contemporaries.

Accolades
In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, it was voted the 39th best album of 1988, having received 117 points within 12 top-ten votes. The album was ranked at number nine on IGN's "Top 25 Metal Albums". Guitar World lists it 12th on the "100 Greatest Guitar Albums" from a 2006 reader poll, and lists all of its tracks on "The 100 Greatest Metallica Songs of All Time". Kerrang! listed the album at number 42 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". Martin Popoff ranks it at number 19 in his book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time, the fourth highest ranked Metallica album on the list. It is featured in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2017, it was ranked 21st on Rolling Stone list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".

After years of refusing to release music videos, Metallica released its first for "One". The video was controversial among fans, who had valued the band's apparent opposition to MTV and other forms of mainstream music. Slant Magazine ranked it number 48 on their list of the "100 Greatest Music Videos", saying that Metallica "evoke a revolution of the soul far more devastating than that presented in the original text". The guitar solo was ranked number seven in Guitar World's compilation of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" of all time. Additionally, heavy metal website Noisecreep classed the song ninth among the "10 Best '80s Metal Songs".

Commercial performance
Although Metallica's music was considered unappealing for mainstream radio, ...And Justice for All was highly successful in the US. It became Metallica's best-selling album upon release, peaking at number six on the Billboard 200, where it charted for 83 weeks. More than 9,700,000 copies have been sold in the United States since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. It was certified platinum nine weeks after it was released in stores, and 1.7 million copies were sold in the US by the end of 1988. Since its release, the album has scanned more than 8 million copies in the US and, according to MTV's Chris Harris, "helped cement [Metallica's] status as a rock and roll force to be reckoned with". Classic Rock explained that with this album, Metallica received substantial media exposure, becoming a multi-platinum act by 1990. The group broke through on radio in early 1989 with "One", which was released as the third single from the record. According to Billboard, the accompanying Damaged Justice tour evolved the band into arena headliners, while significant airplay was garnered by "One" and by the group's first music video.

...And Justice for All achieved similar chart success outside the United States. It topped the charts in Finland, peaked within the top 5 on the charts in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and remained on the UK chart for six weeks. The album managed to peak in the top 10 on the Norwegian and Swiss album charts. It was less successful in Spain, Mexico, and France, where it peaked at number 92 on the former chart, number 130 on the latter, and number 64 in Spain. ...And Justice for All received a three times platinum certification from Music Canada for shipping 300,000 copies, a platinum certification from IFPI Finland for having a shipment of little over 50,000 copies, and was certified gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) for shipments of 250,000 copies. It was awarded gold by the British Phonographic Industry in 2013 for shipping 100,000 copies in the UK. ...And Justice for All was surpassed commercially by the band's following album, Metallica (1991).

Live performances
Guitarist Kirk Hammett noted that the length of the songs was problematic for fans and for the band: "Touring behind it, we realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long. One day after we played "Justice" and got off the stage one of us said, 'we're never fucking playing that song again. Nevertheless, "One" quickly became a permanent fixture in the band's setlist. When performed live, the opening war sound is lengthened from seventeen seconds to approximately two minutes. At the song's conclusion, the stage turns pitch-black and fire erupts from around the stage. The live performance is characterized as a "musical and visual highlight" by Rolling Stone journalist Denise Sheppard. Other songs from ...And Justice for All that have frequently been performed are "Blackened" and "Harvester of Sorrow", which were often featured during the album's promotional Damaged Justice Tour.

Metallica played the title track in the opening show of the Sick of the Studio '07 tour, for the first time since October 1989, and made it a set-fixture for the remainder of that tour. A statue of Lady Justice is commonly placed on the scene, to be torn down as the song approaches its conclusion. In 2009, "The Shortest Straw" returned to the setlist during the World Magnetic Tour after a 12-year absence, and has been sporadically performed since. "Eye of the Beholder" has not been played live since 1989; one such performance appears on Metallica's live extended play Six Feet Down Under. "Dyers Eve" debuted live in 2004, sixteen years after it was recorded, during the Madly in Anger with the World Tour at The Forum in Inglewood, California. "To Live Is to Die" premiered at the band's 30th-anniversary concert in 2011 at The Fillmore in San Francisco. "The Frayed Ends of Sanity", the last song on the album to be performed live, debuted live in Helsinki on the Metallica By Request tour in 2014, although the band had previously played segments during solos, impromptu jams, or in a "Justice" medley.

Original release
All lyrics written by James Hetfield, except for the spoken word section of "To Live Is to Die", posthumously attributed to Cliff Burton as it was adapted from four lines Burton authored. The bonus tracks on the digital re-release were recorded live at the Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, Washington on August 29 and 30, 1989, and later appeared on the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993).

2018 deluxe box set
In 2018, the album was remastered and reissued in a limited edition deluxe box set with an expanded track listing and bonus content. The deluxe edition set includes the original album on vinyl and CD, three LPs with a remixed and remastered version of the concerts performed at the Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, Washington on August 29 and 30, 1989 (originally included in the box set Live Shit: Binge & Purge), eleven CDs of live tracks, demo recordings, B-sides, rough mixes, and radio edits recorded from 1986 to 1989, and four DVDs of unreleased footage of the band.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Metallica
 * James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, second guitar solo on "To Live is to Die", production
 * Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
 * Jason Newsted – bass
 * Lars Ulrich – drums, production

Production
 * Flemming Rasmussen – production, engineering
 * Toby "Rage" Wright – assistant and additional engineering
 * Mike Clink – drum engineering on "The Shortest Straw" and "Harvester of Sorrow"
 * Steve Thompson, Michael Barbiero – mixing
 * George Cowan – assistant mixing engineer
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering
 * George Marino – 1995 remastering
 * Reuben Cohen – 2018 remastering

Artwork
 * James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich – cover concept
 * Stephen Gorman – cover illustration
 * Ross "Tobacco Road" Halfin – photography
 * Pushead – hammer illustration
 * Reiner Design Consultants, Inc. – design, layout

title: ...And Justice for All (album)


text:
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович; 4 December 1878 – 13 June 1918) was the youngest son and fifth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and youngest brother of Nicholas II. He was de jure Emperor of Russia after his brother Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 and proclaimed his brother "Emperor Michael II", but Michael declined to take power a day later.

Michael was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Alexander II. He was then fourth in line to the throne after his father and elder brothers Nicholas and George. After the assassination of his grandfather in 1881, he became third in line and, in 1894, after the death of his father, second in line. George died in 1899, leaving Michael as heir presumptive to Nicholas II.

The birth of Nicholas's son Alexei in 1904 moved Michael back to second in line, but Alexei was gravely ill with hemophilia and Michael suspected the boy would die, leaving him as heir. Michael caused a commotion at the imperial court when he took Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, a married woman, as a lover. Nicholas sent Michael to Orel to avoid scandal but this did not deter Michael, who travelled frequently to see his mistress. After the couple's only child, George, was born in 1910, Michael brought Natalia to St. Petersburg, where she was shunned by society. In 1912, Michael shocked Nicholas by marrying Natalia in the hope that he would be removed from the line of succession. Michael and Natalia left Russia to live in exile abroad in France, Switzerland and England.

After the outbreak of World War I, Michael returned to Russia, assuming command of a cavalry division. When Nicholas abdicated on 15 March 1917, Michael was named as his successor instead of Alexei. Michael, however, deferred acceptance of the throne until ratification by an elected assembly. He was never confirmed as emperor and, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was imprisoned and murdered.

Early life
Michael was born at Anichkov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg as the youngest son and penultimate child of Tsesarevich Alexander of Russia and his wife, Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark). His maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. His paternal grandmother Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse) died before his second birthday. His paternal grandfather, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, was assassinated on 1 March 1881 and, as a result, Michael's parents became Emperor and Empress of All the Russias before his third birthday. After the assassination, the new Tsar Alexander III moved his family, including Michael, to the greater safety of Gatchina Palace, which was 29 miles southwest of Saint Petersburg and surrounded by a moat.

Michael was raised in the company of his younger sister, Olga, who nicknamed him "Floppy" because he "flopped" into chairs; his elder siblings and parents called him "Misha". Conditions in the nursery were modest, even spartan. The children slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold water and ate a simple porridge for breakfast. Michael, like his siblings, was taught by private tutors and was cared for by an English nanny, Mrs Elizabeth Franklin.

Michael and Olga frequently went on hikes in the forests around Gatchina with their father, who took the opportunity to teach them woodsmanship. Physical activities such as equestrianism were also taught at an early age, as was religious observance. Though Christmas and Easter were times of celebration and extravagance, Lent was strictly observed—meat, dairy products and any form of entertainment were avoided. Family holidays were taken in the summer at Peterhof Palace and with Michael's grandparents in Denmark.

Michael was almost 16 when his father fell fatally ill; the annual trip to Denmark was cancelled. On 1 November 1894, Alexander III died at the untimely age of 49. Michael's eldest brother, Nicholas, became Tsar, and Michael's childhood was effectively over.

Military career and public duties
Michael's mother, Dowager Empress Marie, moved back to Anichkov Palace with Michael and Olga. Like most male members of his family, Michael was enrolled in the military. He completed training at a gunnery school and joined the Horse Guards Artillery. In November 1898, he attained legal adulthood and, just eight months later, became heir presumptive to Nicholas as the middle brother, George, was killed in a motorcycle accident. George's death and the subsequent change in the line of succession highlighted that Nicholas lacked a son. As the succession was limited to males, his three daughters were ineligible. When Nicholas's wife, Alexandra, became pregnant in 1900 she hoped that the child would be male. She manoeuvred to get herself declared regent for her unborn child in the event of Nicholas's death, but the government disagreed and determined that Michael would succeed regardless of the unborn child's gender. She was delivered of a fourth daughter the following year.

Michael was perceived as unremarkable, quiet and good-natured. He performed the usual public duties expected of an heir to the throne. In 1901, he represented Russia at the funeral of Queen Victoria and was given the Order of the Bath. The following year he was made a Knight of the Garter in King Edward VII's coronation honours. In June 1902, Michael transferred to the Blue Cuirassier Regiment and moved to Gatchina, where the regiment was based. Since coming of age, Michael had assumed financial independence. His assets included the largest sugar refinery in the country, capital amounting to millions of roubles, a collection of motor vehicles, and country estates at Otrovo in Russian Poland and Brasovo near Orel.

Michael was heir presumptive until 12 August 1904, when the birth of Tsarevich Alexei to Nicholas and Alexandra provided an heir apparent. Michael again became second-in-line to the throne, but was named as co-regent for the boy, along with Alexandra, in the event of Nicholas's death.

Romances
In 1902, Michael met Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They fell in love and began to correspond in her native English. Michael spoke both French and English fluently. At first it seemed they would marry; however, the Eastern Orthodox Church prohibited the marriage of first cousins, and Michael's father and Beatrice's mother were siblings. Nicholas refused to permit the marriage and, to Michael's and Beatrice's mutual dismay, their romance ended.

Michael's attention turned to Alexandra Kossikovskaya (September 1875, Orel region – 1923, Berlin), known affectionately as "Dina", who was his sister Olga's lady-in-waiting. Dina's father, Vladimir Kossikovsky, was a lawyer and Dina was a commoner. Michael rejected the notion, proposed by his friends, that he keep her as a mistress, and in July 1906, he wrote to Nicholas asking permission to marry her. Nicholas and Dowager Empress Marie were appalled. Both felt that royalty should marry royalty and, according to Russian house law, any children of a marriage between a royal and a commoner would be ineligible for the succession. Nicholas threatened to revoke Michael's army commission and exile him from Russia if he married without his permission. Marie had Dina dismissed as Olga's lady-in-waiting and took Michael to Denmark until mid-September.

Shortly after his return to Russia, three British newspapers announced on 24 September 1906 that Michael was to marry Princess Patricia of Connaught, but neither he nor Patricia knew anything about it. Buckingham Palace issued a denial. Nevertheless, two years later, in October 1908, Michael visited London, and he and Patricia were "paired" at social engagements. It seems likely that Michael's mother was plotting to get him married to a more suitable bride and the originator of the false report, Reuters correspondent Guy Beringer, read too much into the plans. Michael and Dina were planning to elope, but their plans were stymied as Dina was under surveillance by the Okhrana, Nicholas's secret police, and she was prevented from travelling. Under family pressure and unable to see Dina, by August 1907 Michael appeared to be losing interest. Dina went to live abroad. She never married and believed herself to be Michael's rightful fiancée, but their romance was over. In early December 1907, Michael was introduced to Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, the wife of a fellow officer, and from 1908 they began a deep friendship. Natalia was a commoner who had a daughter from her first marriage. By August 1909, they were lovers, and, by November 1909, Natalia was living apart from her second husband in an apartment in Moscow paid for by Michael. In an attempt to prevent scandal, Nicholas transferred Michael to the Chernigov Hussars at Orel, 250 miles from Moscow, but Michael travelled from there several times a month to see Natalia. Their only child, George (named after Michael's dead brother) was born in July 1910, before her divorce from her second husband was finalised. To ensure that the child could be recognised as his, rather than Wulfert's, Michael had the date of the divorce back-dated. Nicholas issued a decree giving the boy the surname "Brasov", taken from Michael's estate at Brasovo, which was a tacit acknowledgement that Michael was the father.

In May 1911, Nicholas permitted Natalia to move from Moscow to Brasovo and granted her the surname "Brasova". In May 1912, Michael went to Copenhagen for the funeral of his uncle King Frederik VIII of Denmark, where he fell ill with a stomach ulcer that was to trouble him for years afterwards. After a holiday in France, where he and Natalia were trailed by the Okhrana, Michael was transferred back to Saint Petersburg to command the Chevalier Gardes. He took Natalia to the capital with him and set her up in an apartment, but she was shunned by society and, within a few months, he had moved her to a villa in Gatchina.

Marriage
In September 1912, Michael and Natalia spent a holiday abroad and, as usual, they were trailed by the Okhrana. In Berlin, Michael announced that he and Natalia would drive to Cannes and instructed his staff to follow by train. The Okhrana was under instructions to follow by train rather than car, so Michael and Natalia would be unaccompanied on their journey south. Michael's journey was a deliberate ruse. On the way to Cannes, the couple diverted to Vienna, where they were married on 16 October 1912 by Father Misitsch at the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Sava. A few days later, after travelling through Venice and Milan, they arrived at Cannes, where George and Natalia's daughter from her first marriage joined them. Two weeks after the marriage, Michael wrote to his mother and brother to inform them. They were both horrified by Michael's action. His mother said it was "unspeakably awful in every way", and his brother was shocked that his brother had "broken his word ... that he would not marry her".

Nicholas was particularly upset because his heir, Alexei, was gravely ill with haemophilia, which Michael cited as one of his reasons for marrying Natalia. Michael feared that he would become heir presumptive again on Alexei's death and would never be able to marry Natalia. By marrying her beforehand, he would be removed from the line of succession early and preclude losing Natalia. In a series of decrees over December 1912 and January 1913, Nicholas relieved Michael of his command, banished him from Russia, froze all his assets in Russia, seized control of his estates and removed him from the Regency. Society in Russia was shocked at the severity of Nicholas's reprisal, but there was little sympathy for Natalia. She was not entitled to be known as Grand Duchess; she instead used the style "Madame or Countess Brasova".

For six months, they stayed in hotels in France and Switzerland without any decrease in their standard of living. They were visited by Michael's sister Grand Duchess Xenia and cousin Grand Duke Andrew. In July 1913, they saw Michael's mother in London, who told Natalia "a few home truths", according to Xenia's diary. After another trip to continental Europe, Michael took a one-year lease on Knebworth House, a staffed and furnished stately home 20 miles north of London. Michael's finances were stretched as he had to rely on remittances sent from Russia at Nicholas's command, and Nicholas still controlled all his estates and assets.

War
Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Michael telegraphed the Emperor, requesting permission to return to Russia to serve in the army – providing his wife and son could come too. Nicholas agreed, and Michael travelled back to Saint Petersburg via Newcastle upon Tyne, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Michael had already leased Paddockhurst in Sussex, an estate larger than Knebworth, and had planned to move there on the expiry of the Knebworth lease. He moved his furniture and furnishings there. The war was not expected to last long and the couple assumed they would be moving back to England at its conclusion. In the meantime, Michael offered its use to the British military. At Saint Petersburg, renamed Petrograd in September 1914, they moved into a villa at 24 Nikolaevskaya street, Gatchina, that Michael had bought for Natalia. Natalia was not permitted to live in any of the imperial palaces. The Grand Duke, promoted from his previous rank of colonel to major-general, received command of a newly formed division: the Caucasian Native Cavalry, which became known as the "Savage Division". The appointment was perceived as a demotion because the division mostly comprised new Muslim recruits rather than the elite troops that Michael had commanded previously. The six regiments in the division were each composed of a different ethnic group: Chechens, Dagestanis, Kabardin, Tatars, Circassians and Ingush, commanded by ethnic Russian officers. The men were all volunteers, as conscription did not apply to the Caucasus. Although it was difficult to maintain discipline, they formed an effective fighting force. For his actions commanding his troops in the Carpathian mountains in January 1915 Michael earned the military's highest honour, the Order of St. George, 4th Class. Unlike his brother the Emperor, he proved a popular military leader.

By January 1915 the horrific nature of the war had become apparent. Michael felt "greatly embittered towards people in general and most of all towards those who are at the top, who hold power and allow all that horror to happen. If the question of war were decided by the people at large, I would not be so passionately averse to that great calamity." Michael confessed in a letter to his wife that he felt "ashamed to face the people, i.e. the soldiers and officers, particularly when visiting field hospitals, where so much suffering is to be seen, for they might think that one is also responsible, for one is placed so high and yet has failed to prevent all that from happening and protect one's country from this disaster."

At the start of the war, Michael wrote to Nicholas asking him to legitimise his son in order that the boy would be provided for in the event of Michael's death at the front. Eventually Nicholas agreed to make George legitimate and granted him the style of "Count Brasov" by decree on 26 March 1915.

Retreat
By June 1915, the Russians were in retreat. When Grand Duke Constantine died that month, Michael was the only member of the imperial family absent from the funeral in Petrograd. Natalia chided him for his absence and Michael retorted that it was simply wrong for his relatives to abandon their units to attend Constantine's funeral at such a time. The American war correspondent, Stanley Washburn, reported that Michael wore "a simple uniform with nothing to indicate his rank but shoulder straps of the same material as his uniform". Michael was "unaffected and democratic" and "living so simply in a dirty village". Natalia was appalled that Michael eschewed fancy uniforms and decorations for life at the front, but he was convinced "that at such a difficult time I must serve Russia and serve here at the front".

In July 1915, Michael caught diphtheria but recovered. The war was going badly for Russia and the following month Nicholas appointed himself Supreme Commander of the Russian forces. The move was not welcomed. Nicholas's bad decisions included instructing Michael to authorise a payment to a friend of Rasputin, an army engineer called Bratolyubov, who claimed to have invented a devastating flame-thrower. The claim was bogus and Bratolyubov was arrested for fraud, but Rasputin intervened and he was released. Michael appeared gullible and naïve; a friend of Natalia's said he "trusted everybody ... Had his wife not watched over him constantly, he would have been deceived at every step."

In October 1915, Michael regained control of his estates and assets from Nicholas and, in February 1916, was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, which included the Savage Division, a Cossack division and a Don Cossack division. The slights against him by the Tsar's retinue continued, though. When he was promoted to lieutenant-general in July 1916, unlike all other Grand Dukes who attained that rank, he was not appointed as an aide-de-camp to the Tsar with the rank of adjutant-general. Michael admitted that he "always despised Petrograd high society ... no people are more devious than they are; with a few exceptions, they are all scum." Michael made no public political statements, but it was assumed that he was a liberal, like his wife, and British consul Bruce Lockhart thought he "would have made an excellent constitutional monarch".

Throughout the summer of 1916, Michael's corps was involved in the Brusilov Offensive. The Guards Army suffered heavy losses under the incompetent leadership of Michael's uncle, Grand Duke Paul, who was removed from command. In contrast, Michael was awarded a second gallantry medal, the Order of St. Vladimir with Swords, for his part in actions against the enemy and was belatedly made an adjutant-general. The poor progress of the war and their almost constant separation depressed both Michael and Natalia. Michael was still suffering from stomach ulcers and, in October 1916, he was ordered to take leave in the Crimea.

Before leaving for his sister Xenia's estate at Ai-Todor, 12 miles from Yalta, he wrote a candid letter to his brother warning him that the political situation was tense: "I am deeply concerned and worried by what is happening around us. There has been a shocking alteration in the mood of the most loyal people ... which fills me with a most serious apprehension not only for you and for the fate of our family, but even for the integrity of the state order. The public hatred for certain people who allegedly are close to you and who are forming part of the present government has, to my amazement, brought together the right, the left and the moderate; and this hatred, along with the demands for changes are already openly expressed."

Increasing public unrest
Michael and other members of the imperial family, including Grand Dukes Alexander, George, Nicholas and Dmitri and Grand Duchess Elizabeth, warned of the growing public unrest, and of the perception that Nicholas was governed by his German-born wife Alexandra and the self-styled holy man Rasputin. Nicholas and Alexandra refused to listen. In December 1916, Dmitri and four of his friends killed Rasputin. Michael learned of the murder at Brasovo, where he was spending Christmas with his family. On 28 December, according to the French ambassador, there was a failed attempt to assassinate Alexandra; the lone assailant was caught and hanged the next day. The Duma President Mikhail Rodzianko, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna and British ambassador Buchanan joined calls for Alexandra to be removed from influence, but Nicholas still refused to take their advice. Plots and gossip against Nicholas and Alexandra continued to build.

In January 1917, Michael returned to the front to hand over command of his corps; from 29 January he was Inspector-General of Cavalry stationed at Gatchina. General Aleksei Brusilov, Michael's commander on the south-eastern front, begged him to tell the Tsar of "the need for immediate and drastic reforms", but Michael warned him, "I have no influence ... My brother has time and time again had warnings and entreaties of this kind from every quarter." Brusilov recorded in his memoirs, "[Michael] was an absolutely honourable and upright man, taking no sides and lending himself to no intrigues ... he shunned every kind of gossip, whether connected with the services or with family matters. As a soldier, he was an excellent leader and an unassuming and conscientious worker."

Through February, Grand Duke Alexander, Duma President Rodzianko and Michael pressured Nicholas and Alexandra to yield to popular demands. Public unrest grew and, on 27 February, soldiers in Petrograd joined demonstrators, elements of the military mutinied and prisoners were freed. Nicholas, who was at army headquarters in Mogilev, prorogued the Duma, but the deputies refused to leave and instead set up their own rival government. After consulting Rodzianko at the Mariinsky Palace in Petrograd, Michael advised Nicholas to dismiss his ministers and set up a new government led by the leader of the majority party in the Duma, Georgy Lvov. His advice was supported by General Mikhail Alekseyev, Nicholas's chief of staff. Nicholas rejected the suggestion and issued futile orders for troops to move on Petrograd.

Revolution
On the night of 27–28 February 1917, Michael attempted to return to Gatchina from Petrograd, where he had been in conference with Rodzianko and Nikolai Golitsyn and from where he had telegraphed the Tsar, but revolutionary patrols and sporadic fire prevented his progress. Revolutionaries patrolled the streets, rounding up people connected with the old regime. Michael managed to reach the Winter Palace, where he ordered the guards to withdraw to the Admiralty, because it afforded greater safety and a better tactical position, and because it was a less politically charged location. Michael himself took refuge in the apartment of an acquaintance, Princess Putyatina, on Millionnaya street. In the neighbouring apartments, the Tsar's Chamberlain Nikolai Stolypin and the Procurator of the Holy Synod were detained by revolutionaries and in the house next door General Baron Staekelberg was killed when his house was stormed by a mob.

On 1 March, Rodzianko sent guards to Putyatina's apartment to ensure Michael's safety, and Michael signed a document drawn up by Rodzianko and Grand Duke Paul proposing the creation of a constitutional monarchy. The newly formed Petrograd Soviet rejected the document, which became irrelevant. Calls for the Tsar's abdication had superseded it.

Abdication of Nicholas II
On the afternoon of 15 March 1917, Emperor Nicholas II, under pressure from generals and Duma representatives, abdicated in favour of his son, Alexei, with Michael as Regent. Later that evening, though, he reconsidered his decision. Alexei was gravely ill with haemophilia and Nicholas feared that if Alexei was emperor, he would be separated from his parents. In a second abdication document, signed at 11.40 p.m. but marked as having been issued at 3.00 p.m., the time of the earlier one, Nicholas II declared: "We have judged it right to abdicate the Throne of the Russian State and to lay down the Supreme Power. Not wishing to be parted from Our Beloved Son, We hand over Our Succession to Our Brother the Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich and Bless Him on his accession to the Throne." By early morning, Michael was proclaimed as "Emperor Michael II" to Russian troops and in cities throughout Russia, but his accession was not universally welcomed. While some units cheered and swore allegiance to the new emperor, others remained indifferent. The newly formed Provisional Government had not agreed to Michael's succession. When Michael awoke that morning, he discovered not only that his brother had abdicated in his favour, as Nicholas had not informed him previously, but also that a delegation from the Duma would visit him at Putyatina's apartment in a few hours' time. The meeting with Duma President Rodzianko, the new Prime Minister Prince Lvov and other ministers, including Pavel Milyukov and Alexander Kerensky, lasted all morning. Putyatina laid on a lunch, and in the afternoon two lawyers (Baron Nolde and Vladimir Nabokov) were called to the apartment to draft a manifesto for Michael to sign. The legal position was complicated, as the legitimacy of the government, whether Nicholas had the right to remove his son from the succession, and whether Michael actually was emperor, were all open to question. After further discussion, and several drafts, the meeting settled on a declaration of conditional acceptance as an appropriate form of words. In it, Michael deferred to the will of the people and acknowledged the Provisional Government as the de facto executive, but neither abdicated nor refused to accept the throne. He wrote:

"Inspired, in common with the whole people, by the belief that the welfare of our country must be set above everything else, I have taken the firm decision to assume the supreme power only if and when our great people, having elected by universal suffrage a Constituent Assembly to determine the form of government and lay down the fundamental law of the new Russian State, invest me with such power. Calling upon them the blessing of God, I therefore request all the citizens of the Russian Empire to submit to the Provisional Government, established and invested with full authority by the Duma, until such time as the Constituent Assembly, elected within the shortest possible time by universal, direct, equal and secret suffrage, shall manifest the will of the people by deciding upon the new form of government."

Commentators, ranging from Kerensky to French ambassador Maurice Paléologue, regarded Michael's action as noble and patriotic, but Nicholas was appalled that Michael had "kowtowed to the Constituent Assembly" and called the manifesto "rubbish".

The hopes of the monarchists that Michael might be able to assume the throne following the election of the Constituent Assembly were overtaken by events. His renunciation of the throne, though conditional, marked the end of the Tsarist regime in Russia. The Provisional Government had little effective power; real power was held by the Petrograd Soviet.

Arrest
Michael returned to Gatchina and was not permitted to return to his unit or to travel beyond the Petrograd area. On 5 April 1917, he was discharged from military service. By July, Prince Lvov had resigned as Prime Minister to be replaced by Alexander Kerensky, who ordered ex-Emperor Nicholas removed from Petrograd to Tobolsk in the Urals because it was "some remote place, some quiet corner, where they would attract less attention". On the eve of Nicholas's departure, Kerensky gave permission for Michael to visit him. Kerensky remained present during the meeting and the brothers exchanged awkward pleasantries "fidgeting all the while, and sometimes one would take hold of the other's hand or the buttons of his uniform". It was the last time they saw each other.

On 21 August 1917, guards surrounded the villa on Nikolaevskaya street where Michael was living with Natalia. On the orders of Kerensky, they were both under house arrest, along with Nicholas Johnson, who had been Michael's secretary since December 1912. A week later, they were moved to an apartment in Petrograd. Michael's stomach problems worsened and, with the intervention of British ambassador Buchanan and foreign minister Mikhail Tereshchenko, they were moved back to Gatchina in the first week of September. Tereshchenko told Buchanan that the Dowager Empress would be allowed to leave the country, for Britain if she wished, and that Michael would follow in due course. The British, however, were not prepared to accept any Russian Grand Duke for fear it would provoke a negative public reaction in Britain, where there was little sympathy for the Romanovs.

On 1 September 1917, Kerensky declared Russia a republic. Michael wrote in his diary: "We woke up this morning to hear Russia declared a Republic. What does it matter which form the government will be as long as there is order and justice?" Two weeks later, Michael's house arrest was lifted. Kerensky had armed the Bolsheviks after a power struggle with the commander-in-chief and in October there was a second revolution as the Bolsheviks seized power from Kerensky. With a permit to travel issued by Peter Polotsov, a former colleague of Michael from the Savage Division who was now a commander in Petrograd, Michael planned to move his family to the greater safety of Finland. They packed valuables and prepared to move, but their preparations were seen by Bolshevik sympathisers and they were placed once more under house arrest. The last of Michael's cars were seized by the Bolsheviks.

The house arrest was lifted again in November, and the Constituent Assembly was elected and met in January 1918. Despite being the minority party, the Bolsheviks dissolved it. On 3 March 1918 (N.S.), the Bolshevik government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which effectively ceded vast areas of the former Russian Empire to the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. On 7 March 1918, Michael and his secretary Johnson were re-arrested on the orders of Moisei Uritsky, the Head of the Petrograd secret police, and imprisoned at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny Institute.

Imprisonment
On 11 March 1918, Uritsky sent Michael and Johnson to Perm, a thousand miles to the east, on the order of the Council of the People's Commissars, which included both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. The journey, by freight train in a coach without windows or heat, took eight days at an average speed of 5 miles per hour. At first, Michael was billeted in a hotel but two days after his arrival he was jailed by the local Soviet. Natalia lobbied the Commissars in Petrograd for his release and, on 9 April 1918, he was set at liberty within Perm. He moved into the best room in the best hotel in Perm, along with Johnson and two manservants, valet Vasily Chelyshev and former chauffeur Borunov. Natalia feared for George's safety, and in March 1918, she arranged for him to be smuggled out of Russia by his governess, Margaret Neame, with the help of Danish diplomats and the Putyatins.

In May, Natalia was granted a travel permit to join Michael. Accompanied by family friends Prince Putyatin and Margaret Abakanovich, she arrived at Perm before the Orthodox Easter and they spent about a week together. Meanwhile, as part of the truce between the Bolsheviks and the Central Powers, prisoners-of-war from Austria-Hungary were being shipped out of Russia. Czech troops were strung out along the Trans-Siberian Railway on their way to Vladivostok, where they were due to take ship. The Czechs, though, were not going home to fight for the Austrian empire but to fight for a separate homeland independent of Austria. The Germans demanded that the Bolsheviks disarm the Czechs, who fought back, seized the railway, joined forces with Russians fighting against the Bolsheviks and advanced westwards toward Perm. With the approach of the Czechs, Michael and Natalia feared that she would become trapped there, possibly in a dangerous situation and so, on 18 May, she left unhappily. By early June, Michael was again ill with stomach trouble.

Death
On 12 June 1918, the leader of the local secret police, Gavril Myasnikov, with the connivance of other local Bolsheviks, hatched a plan to murder Michael. Myasnikov assembled a team of four men who, like him, were all former prisoners of the Tsarist regime: Vasily Ivanchenko, Ivan Kolpashchikov, Andrei Markov and Nikolai Zhuzhgov. Using a forged order, the four men gained entry to Michael's hotel at 11.45 p.m. At first, Michael refused to accompany the men until he spoke with the local chairman of the secret police, Pavel Malkov, and then because he was ill. His protestations were futile and he got dressed. Johnson insisted on accompanying him and the four men plus their two prisoners climbed into two horse-drawn three-seater traps.

They drove out of the town into the forest near Motovilikha. When Michael queried their destination, he was told they were going to a remote railway crossing to catch a train. By now it was the early hours of 13 June. They all alighted from the carriages in the middle of the wood, and both Michael and Johnson were fired upon, once each, but as the assassins were using home-made bullets, their guns jammed. Michael, who may or may not have been injured, moved towards the wounded Johnson with arms outstretched, when he was shot at point-blank range in the head. Both Zhuzhgov and Markov claimed to have fired the fatal shot. Johnson was shot dead by Ivanchenko.

The bodies were stripped and buried. Anything of value was stolen and the clothes were taken back to Perm. After they were shown to Myasnikov as proof of the murders, the clothes were burned. The Ural Regional Soviet, headed by Alexander Beloborodov, approved the killing, either retrospectively or beforehand, as did Lenin. Michael was the first of the Romanovs to be killed by the Bolsheviks, but he was not the last. Neither Michael's nor Johnson's remains have been found.

The Perm authorities distributed a concocted cover story that Michael was abducted by unidentified men and had disappeared. Chelyshev and Borunov were arrested. Shortly before his own arrest, Colonel Peter Znamerovsky, a former Imperial army officer also exiled to Perm, managed to send Natalia a brief telegram saying that Michael had disappeared. Znamerovsky, Chelyshev and Borunov were all killed by the Perm Bolsheviks. Soviet disinformation about Michael's disappearance led to unfounded rumours that he had escaped and was leading a successful counter-revolution. In the ultimately forlorn hope that Michael would ally with Germany, the Germans arranged for Natalia and her daughter to escape to Kiev in German-controlled Ukraine. On the collapse of the Germans in November 1918, Natalia fled to the coast, and she and her daughter were evacuated by the British Royal Navy.

On 8 June 2009, four days short of the 91st anniversary of their deaths, both Michael and Johnson were officially rehabilitated. Russian State Prosecutors stated, "The analysis of the archive material shows that these individuals were subject to repression through arrest, exile and scrutiny ... without being charged of committing concrete class and social-related crimes."

Michael's son George, Count Brasov, died in a car crash shortly before his 21st birthday in 1931. Natalia died penniless in a Parisian charity hospital in 1952. His stepdaughter Natalia Mamontova married three times and wrote a book about her life entitled Step-Daughter of Imperial Russia, published in 1940.

Russian

 * Life-Guards Horse Artillery Brigade – lieutenant, 1898
 * Life-Guards Her Imperial Majesty Empress Maria Feodorovna's Cuirassier Regiment – captain and squadron commander, 1902
 * 17th Hussar Chernigovskii HIH Grand Princess Elizavet Feodorovna Hussars – colonel, commanding, 1910
 * Life-Guards Her Imperial Majesty Empress Maria Feodorovna's Chevalier Guards Regiment – colonel, commanding, 1912
 * Caucasian Native Mounted Division – major-general, commanding, 1914
 * Second Cavalry Corps, Seventh Army – lieutenant-general, 1916
 * Inspector-General of Cavalry, 1917

Foreign

 * Ulanen-Regiment Kaiser Alexander III von Rußland (Westpreußisches) Nr.1, Prussian/Imperial German Army – colonel and regimental chief, December 1901, during an official visit to Berlin
 * à la suite Imperial German Navy

Honours

 * Russian orders
 * Knight of St. Andrew, 12 October 1878
 * Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 12 October 1878 (by statute of the Order of St. Andrew)
 * Knight of the White Eagle, 12 October 1878 (by statute of the Order of St. Andrew)
 * Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 12 October 1878 (by statute of the Order of St. Andrew)
 * Knight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class, 12 October 1878 (by statute of the Order of St. Andrew)
 * Alexander III Commemorative Medal, 17 March 1896
 * Nicholas II Coronation Medal, 26 May 1896
 * Knight of St. Vladimir, 4th Class (civil), 22 November 1905; with Swords (for actions during the Brusilov Offensive, while in command of the 2nd Cavalry Corps), 1916
 * Knight of St. George, 4th Class (for actions in the Carpathian Mountains, while in command of the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division), January 1915
 * St. George Sword, 27 June 1915

• 🇩🇰 Denmark:
 * Foreign orders

• * Commemorative Medal for the Golden Wedding of King Christian IX and Queen Louise, 26 May 1892

• * Knight of the Elephant, 6 August 1897

• * Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog, 27 September 1899

• Emirate of Bukhara:

• * Order of the Golden Star of Bukhara, 1st Class, 1 January 1893

• * Order of the Crown of Bukhara, in Diamonds, 25 May 1896

• * Order of the Sun of Alexander, in Diamonds, 19 May 1898

•  Mecklenburg: Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown, with Crown in Ore, 16 July 1894

•  Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 26 November 1894

•  Principality of Montenegro: Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Danilo I, 17 May 1896

•  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the White Falcon, 25 May 1896

•   Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, 15 May 1897

•  Siam: Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri, 4 July 1897

•  Kingdom of Romania: Grand Cross of the Star of Romania, 8 July 1898

•    Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, 9 November 1899

•  Empire of Japan: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 8 September 1900

• 🇬🇷 Kingdom of Greece: Grand Cross of the Redeemer, 22 September 1900

•  Kingdom of Italy: Knight of the Annunciation, 16 January 1901

•  undefined:

• * Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (civil), 15 February 1901

• * Stranger Knight Companion of the Garter, 15 July 1902

• * Commemorative Medal for the Coronation of King Edward VII, 19 August 1902

•  undefined: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, 14 April 1901

•  Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross of the Sash of the Two Orders, 27 April 1901

•  Kingdom of Prussia:

• * Knight of the Black Eagle, 15 December 1901 – during an official visit to Berlin

• * Grand Commander's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, 23 May 1905

•  undefined: Knight of the Golden Fleece, 26 December 1901

•  Persian Empire: Order of the August Portrait, in Diamonds, 12 February 1902

•  Oldenburg: Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown, 26 June 1902

• 🇳🇴 Norway:

• * Silver Commemorative Medal for the Coronation of King Haakon VII, 6 June 1906

• * Grand Cross of St. Olav, with Collar, 22 June 1906

• 🇸🇪 Sweden: Knight of the Seraphim, 12 May 1908