Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia

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H.I.H. George Mikhailovitch, Tsarevitch and Grand Duke of Russia, with his mother, 1992

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (Russian: Georgiy Mikhailovich Romanov, Russian cyrillic: Георгий Михайлович Романов) (born March 13, 1981) is the heir apparent to the disputed Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia, and claims the titles Tsarevich and Grand Duke of Russia. He has all his life been styled His Imperial Highness Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, apparently by grant of his maternal grandfather. George also claims the title Prince of Prussia with the style of Royal Highness.

He was born in 1981, the son of HRH Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia (at the time styled HIH Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia) and HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia. He has lived in France and in Spain.

On April 21, 1992, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia, his mother succeeded as the Curatrix of the Throne of Russia, making him heir-apparent and Tsarevitch. However, this claim to the throne is not uncontested; some monarchists believe that male-line heirs of the Romanov are better entitled to the legacy than Maria, a woman; and some, for example the Romanov Family Association favor the position that it is up to the Russian people to decide whether to restore monarchy and who in that case to choose (at leat some of them also believe that the strict Romanov imperial line is totally extinct, all descendants being morganauts). "Prince" Nicholas Romanov has been elected President of the Romanov Family Association and as such is considered by the Association to be the person trusted with the family headship. There exist several male-line morganaut descendants of Nicholas I of Russia, for example the mentioned president Nicholas, so some of his adherents claim that he has a better right to the throne as he is of unbroken male line Romanov descent. However, Nicholas is actually the product of a marriage contrary to Dynastic Law of Imperial Russia (morganatic marriage) and therefore ineligible to succeed to the throne under the Russian succession law.

George is technically the only person in the line of succession of his mother; in Semi-Salic law, if they are available, only the male-line descendants of the last female ruler are included in the line of succession. However, if George were to die before his mother, then the line of succession would then include all the male line descendants of George's great-aunt, HSH Princess Maria of Leiningen.

At the time of George's birth (as was until Vladimir's death), the official succession consisted of no one (George was only in the "hidden" part of the succession, not in the official line), since only male heirs are included in the line in Semi-Salic Law. However, his mother was the heiress-presumptive and George was technically second-in-line.

In 1996, when he, his mother, and his grandmother Leonida returned to Russia after living in Madrid, one of President Boris Yeltsin's former bodyguards was assigned as tutor to the 15-year-old prince.

When asked by reporters if he expected the monarchy in Russia to be restored some day, he replied, "I hope so."

George is the 108th heir in the line of succession to the British Throne.