The Last of the Tsars the First World War, where he served in the Russian Army. When Tsar Nicholas abdicated in March 1917, he did so in favour of Grand Duke Michael, who himself abdicated some 48 hours later. So Michael was in fact 'the last of the Tsars.' The play was commissioned by the Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, in the spring of 1966, after another play on the same subject, "Nicholas Romanov" by William Kinsolving, had been tried out by the Stratford Festival Company at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in February, 1966, and found insufficiently dramatic. In spite of the shared general theme,
1917–18 Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church the reinstated Moscow Patriarchate, Tikhon Belavin, Metroplitan of Moscow, was selected for the position after a drawing of lots as the new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. "Собрание определений и Деяния Священного Собора Православной Российской Церкви 1917—1918 гг.". Moscow, 1994—2000 (scanned text: "Священный Соборъ Православной Россійской Церкви. Собраніе опрдѣленій и постановленій". М. 1918. — Изданіе Соборнаго Совѣта) 1917–18 Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church The 1917–1918 Local Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia () was the first Local Council of the Russian Church since the end of the 17th century. It opened on 15 August 1917 (O.S.)