Russia in the New Year of 1917 was in anarchy and the threats to the existence of the Romanov Dynasty were becoming greater each day. The Russian Front in the war with Germany was collapsing, and food and munitions shortages were causing the people to demonstrate in the streets and outside Imperial buildings.
A provisional government was formed in March 1917, due to the rising unpopularity of the Tsar and the Romanov Dynasty, and the consequence of Soviet and Bolshevik tendencies for a change of power in Russia. The intention was to exert sufficient pressure on Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate.
He did so on the evening of 15 March, in favour of his younger brother Grand Duke Michael who was at that time the commander of a very successful fighting division on the German‒Russian Front. Michael awoke the following morning to this news and was very concerned, as he had no previous knowledge or consultation with his brother Nicholas about any transfer of power. He firmly rejected this title, but did qualify this: he would only accept and carry out the duties of becoming the new Tsar if he were supported by a vote from the people and the acceptance of the Interim Government under the leadership of Alexander Kerensky.

Michael was a popular choice as could be seen by the early rumours which quickly circulated the streets of Petrograd and filtered into Russia and the World. He was loved and feted by the population at large, especially as he had the confidence and support of the Army and some other armed factions appearing in the discontented Russia. He was a unifying force for good even outside Russia; many Western Governments would have approved of his accession and certainly deemed him a man with whom they felt they could do business with.
Events however that day overtook the implications of Michael’s proposed accession, as the new government would not accept the handover of royal authority. Michael was relieved of his command in April 1917 and spent the rest of the year under surveillance or house arrest with his wife Natasha and their son George, always assisted by his faithful friend and secretary of the past five years, Nicholas Johnson, who was also a British citizen.