Nikolay or Nikolai is an East Slavic variant of the masculine name Nicholas, meaning "victory of the people."
Nikolay or Nikolai may refer to:
Metropolitan Nicholas (Russian: Митрополит Николай, born as Boris Dorofeyevich Yarushevich, Russian: Борис Дорофеевич Ярушевич; January 13, 1892 (December 31, 1891 OS), Kovno – December 13, 1961, Moscow), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He supported the controversial 1927 declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, pledging loyalty of the Church to the Soviet authorities without concurrence of the imprisoned Patriarchal locum tenens, Peter of Krutitsy, and Sergius' subsequent collaboration with them.
In 1941 he became Metropolitan of Volhynia and Lutsk and later, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia. Later, as the German troops advanced, he was evacuated to Moscow.
In the early hours of September 5, 1943, together with Metropolitan Sergius and Metropolitan Alexius, Nicholas had a meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, where the latter proposed to reestablish the Moscow Patriarchate and elect the Patriarch. On September 8, 1943, when the Moscow Patriarchate was reestablished, Nicholas became a permanent member of the Holy Synod. In 1944 he was appointed Metropolitan of Krutitsy. In 1946, when the External Church Relations Department was established within the Patriarchate, Metropolitan Nicholas became its chairman. In 1947 he became Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.