I do not perceive myself to be Nikolai, but I do not trust my memories enough to claim I could not possibly be him, provided someone had the needed technologies to interfere with this timeline and my memories of it.

Thank you for this reference.

Explains a lot of Hannu Rajaniemi's "Quantum Thief" trilogy background ("Great Common Task" for those who read it):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Thief