History
Early Life[]
Nikolai was born in luxury and privilege and was a nobleman in the Russian Empire, and his family, the Kravinoffs, were among the richest and more powerful families in Saint Petersburg. By the beginning of the 20th Century future still looked glorious for him: he married Anna Makarova, a beautiful woman coming from another noble family, who helped him cement his position into society, and he was even a personal friend (or so he considered himself) of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, and he often frequented the imperial court at the Winter Palace. When rumors of uprisings from the people started reaching the nobility, nobody paid too much attention to it: the world looked like it would have never changed, but it did in a matter of days. In 1917, the February Revolution put an abrupt end at Nicholas II’s reign, and most of Russian nobility was decimated by peasants.[1]
Birth of Sergei[]
Nikolai did the only sensible thing, and took his pregnant wife to Volgograd, waiting for things to come back to normal. They didn’t. Anna gave birth to Nikolai’s firstborn, Sergei Kravinoff, while in hiding in Volgograd, and if this wasn’t humiliating enough, soon they were reached by terrible news: the Tsar and his family had been massacred, and a new regime was rising in Russia. As it became clear that nothing would have been the same, at least for a long time, Nikolai invested all his fortune into one last escape. He bought a house, later Kravinoff Estate, in New York City, in the faraway Americas, and brought his family there.[1]
Namor[]
In the 1930s Nikolai traveled to the Russian city of Murmansk, where he met Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Madame Lillian von Loont of the Thule Society, Baron Karl Mordo, and Director Vazhin to determine what has been uncovered by the Soviets. As von Loont speculated that it was the Philosopher's Stone, Mordo and von Strucker argue over whether to bring the Unforgotten Stone to the surface. Director Vazhin reminds the Thule Society that they were brought on as consultants alone, and that for now all they will be doing is X-raying the artefact. Due to a battle underneath the ocean involving Namor, tendrils of living darkness erupt from the ocean and coil around them, Baron von Strucker babbles that something is rising from the cold depths, filled with an endless hunger for flesh. Regaining his senses they escape as the entity unleashed from the Unforgotten Stone tore the facility apart.[2]
Later Life[]
He believed that sooner or later the European powers or even America itself would have intervened against the new-born Soviet Union to re-establish the old nobility to their rightful places, but this never happened, and New York became his last home. Living on his former glory, Nikolai became increasingly depressed, and he didn’t care of his position anymore. He even slept with one of his servants, Sonya Smerdyakova, who gave birth to a bastard son, Dmitri Smerdyakov. Nikolai saw in the baby everything he used to be and was no more, he saw his shame, his self-contempt, his humiliation: he never smiled at him, he barely could stand his presence at all. When Dimitri left Kravinoff Estate with the mysterious Mr. Fiers, nobody even noticed he had left.[3] Nikolai saw Sergei grow distant from his home country, and Anna become insane with grief. Nothing was left for him, but to die a foreigner in a foreign land.[1]See Also
- 1 appearance(s) of Nikolai Kravinoff (Earth-616)
- 4 minor appearance(s) of Nikolai Kravinoff (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Nikolai Kravinoff (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Nikolai Kravinoff (Earth-616)
- 3 image(s) of Nikolai Kravinoff (Earth-616)