Paul Romanov

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian: Павел Алекса́ндрович Рома́нов; October 3, 1860 – January 30, 1919) was a Grand Duke of Russia, youngest son of Tsar Alexander II and his first wife Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt. He was the brother of Tsar Alexander III and uncle of Nicholas II.

He joined the Russian army, was a general in the Cavalry and adjutant general to his brother and a Knight of the Order of Saint Andrew. In 1889, he married Princess Alexandra of Greece. The couple had a daughter and a son, but Alejandra died during the birth of her second child. Being a widower, he began a relationship with Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, a married woman with three children. After Olga obtained her divorce and in defiance of strong family opposition, the Grand Duke married her in October 1902. Entering a morganatic marriage with a divorcee in defiance of the tsar's ban, he was banished from Russia and deprived of his titles. and privileges. Between 1902 and 1914, he lived in exile in Paris with his second wife, who bore him three children. In the spring of 1914, he settled in Russia with his second family.

With the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed to command the 1st Corps of the Imperial Guard. Afflicted with ill health, he served only intermittently. During the last days of the tsarist period, he was one of the few members of the Romanov family who remained close to Tsar Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra. It was he who informed the tsarina of the abdication of her husband.

As a consequence of the Russian Revolution, Soviet authorities arrested him in August 1918 in Petrograd. Given his precarious health, his wife asked for his release, but instead he was imprisoned in the San Pedro and San Pablo Fortress in January 1919. He was shot on January 30, 1919 along with his cousins, the Grand Dukes Demetrius Constantinovich, Nicholas Mijáilovich and Jorge Mijáilovich, in response to the murder in Germany of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. They buried him in a common grave in the Fortress of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and his body was found in 2011.

Early Years

The Tsar Alexander II with his wife and three minor children: Sergio, Paul and Mary

Grand Duke Paul was born on October 3, 1860 in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. He was the eighth child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.

His early years were spent with his two siblings closest in age: his sister María and his brother Sergio, with whom he was inseparable. When Pablo was born his mother suffered from tuberculosis and doctors advised him not to have any more children. Tragedy struck the family in 1865 with the death of his older brother, Tsarevich Nicholas, when Paul was 4. The following year, his father began an affair with Princess Catherine Dolgorukov, who gave him three children.

Pablo's early years were spent between Tsarskoye Selo and the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, with vacations in Livadia. As time passed and the Empress's health forced her to avoid the harsh Russian climate, the Tsarina spent long periods abroad with her three youngest children in Jugenheim, outside Darmstadt, and winters in the south. from France.

Education

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and his brother the great Duke Sergio Alexandrovich

Grand Duke Paul was educated by private tutors. Since the 1870s, Pablo and his brother Sergio were destined to pursue a military career. From 1864 to 1885, his tutor was Admiral Dmitri Arsenyev (1832-1915), who encouraged his students to also have a broad artistic education. Grand Duke Paul became a good amateur actor and an excellent dancer. He was much loved for his kind character, very different from his older brothers.

However, his military career progressed more slowly than that of his older brothers. He became a lieutenant in January 1874, but as he was still too young, he was the only one of Tsar Alexander II's sons who did not participate in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).

Grand Duke Paul was known as kind, religious, and approachable to people. In June, 1880, he was grieved by the death of his mother, whose slim figure and delicate health he inherited. Soon after, his father married his mistress Catherine Dolgorúkov.The grand duke, overprotected by his brother Sergius, did not know about the affair at first, but when he found out, distraught by the news, he had to travel to the outside to recover. He was on a trip to Italy with his brother Sergius when his father was assassinated in March 1881. Paul's older brother, Alexander III, ascended the Russian throne.

Since childhood, Pablo was very attached to his brother Sergius, their closeness remained even after Sergius's marriage to Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and Rhine. Pablo accompanied the couple to the United Kingdom to meet the British grandmother of Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, who was very impressed by Pablo. After Sergio's marriage, Pablo moved in with his brother and his new sister-in-law, who also became very close to him. The trio shared the same home for some time, and they traveled together to Jerusalem in 1888. The grand duke had weak lungs all his life and spent periods abroad to recuperate. On medical advice, he visited Greece in 1887.

First marriage

The great Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Princess Alejandra of Greece. 1888

During his visits to Greece, in the family environment of his cousin, Queen Olga of Greece, the Grand Duke grew closer to his eldest daughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece. Alexandra's father, King George I of Greece, he was the brother of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, Paul's sister-in-law. During the silver wedding anniversary of Kings George and Olga of Greece, Pablo asked for Alejandra's hand and was accepted.Alejandra had been to Russia several times during visits to her maternal relatives' home. Her engagement was announced on November 10, 1888. The wedding took place on June 17, 1889 in Saint Petersburg, in the chapel of the Winter Palace. Grand Duke Pablo was twenty-nine years old and his wife was ten years younger.

The couple settled with their wife in their own palace in Saint Petersburg at 68 English Embankment. The mansion was located behind the Church of the Annunciation and opposite the Marine Corps in the center from Saint Petersburg. It was built in the Florentine Renaissance style by architect Alexander Krakau between 1859-1862 for Baron Alexander von Stieglitz, a prominent financier and the first Governor of the Bank of Russia. After Stieglitz's death in 1884, the mansion was inherited by his daughter adoptive, Nadezhda Polovtsova. He sold the property to the Treasury in 1887, and the grand duke bought it that same year. In 1889, he had the architect Maximilian Messmacher redesign some of the interior rooms, creating a Moorish hall. Treasures in the house included a marble staircase white, a living room decorated with caryatids, the library with oak panels and the concert hall with portraits of great composers and panels representing The Four Seasons.

The great Duke Sergio Alexandrovich; his wife, the great Duchess Isabel Feodorovna with the great Duchess Maria Pavlovna; the great Duke Paul Alexandrovich with his son, Dmitri, in his lap

The marriage of Grand Duke Paul was happy but brief. Alexandra, after a difficult first pregnancy, gave birth to a daughter on 18 April 1890, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Alexandra had a frail constitution and he was also homesick for his native Greece. In the autumn of that same year, Grand Duke Paul took his wife on a holiday in Greece. On his return to Russia, he was appointed commander of the imperial household guards at Krasnoye Selo and thus generally began to be away performing his military duties. Paul and his wife were given rooms in Catherine's palace in Tsarskoye Selo, but they saw each other only on weekends. Although Grand Duke Sergius and his wife Elizabeth moved to Moscow in May After 1891, the two couples remained very close. In the summer of 1891, Pablo and Alejandra decided to spend time with them at Ilinskoye, Sergio's estate on the outskirts of Moscow. While there, Alejandra, seven months pregnant of her second child, she carelessly got into a boat, causing premature labor, and the next day gave birth to a son, Grand Duke Demetrius Romanov. Alexandra did not regain consciousness and died six days later, on September 24. of 1891.

Second marriage

The great Duke Paul and his second wife, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich.

In 1895, the Grand Duke began an affair with the commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich. Olga was married with three young children. Her husband, Eric von Pistohlkors, was an aide-de-camp to Paul's brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, and a captain in Paul's regiment. The affair initially remained a secret, but became public at court when Olga, during a ball, wore a diamond necklace that had belonged to Paul's mother and which she had given as a gift. to Olga. The widowed tsarina, Maria Fyodorovna, recognized the jewel and Olga took it from her. Olga became pregnant by Pablo and gave birth to a son, Vladimir, in 1897, after which Eric von Pistohlkors filed for divorce.

Grand Duke Paul wanted to recognize the child, who had been legally born as the son of Eric von Pistohlkors, and marry Olga, but Tsar Nicholas II and Grand Duke Vladimir vehemently opposed their union. The grand duke turned his back on his family; he lost interest in Maria and Demitrio and instead spent long periods abroad with his lover. In 1900, he bought a mansion in the Bois de Boulogne, which had belonged to Princess Zenaida Ivanovna Yusupova, intending to settle there and marry Olga once divorced. Grand Duke Vladimir made him swear that he would not marry Olga, with this assurance Olga's divorce was granted in 1902.

Things were further complicated when, in August of that same year, Paul's niece Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna married Prince Nicholas of Greece, Paul's former brother-in-law. It was the first time Paul's former father-in-law, King George of Greece, had traveled to Russia since the death of his daughter Alexandra. Their meeting was very awkward. After the wedding celebrations were over, Pablo left for Italy, where Olga was waiting for him. He was determined to marry Olga in defiance of strong family opposition, particularly from his brother Sergio and sister-in-law Isabel, who pleaded with him to reconsider. and to think about his children and his responsibilities in Russia. His relationship with his brother and sister-in-law, so close before, never recovered.

On October 10, 1902, Grand Duke Paul married Olga in a Greek Orthodox church in Livorno, Italy. Because she was married morganatically and without the Tsar's permission, the Grand Duke was banished from Russia; dismissed from his military commissions; all his property was confiscated, and his brother, Grand Duke Sergius, was appointed guardian of Maria and Demitrio.

Two years later the Bavarian government granted Olga the title of Countess of Hohenfelsen and in 1915, after she returned to Russia, the Tsar granted her the title of Princess Paléi. With her he had three children:

• Vladimir Pávlovich Paléi (1897-1918), a talented poet.
• Irina Pávlovna Paléi (1903-1990).
• Natalia Pávlovna Paléi (1905-1981).

The Grand Duke Paul Aleksándrovich with his second wife, Princess Olga Paléi and her three sons: Vladimiro, Natalia and Irene.

Exile

The great Duke Paul with his children of his first marriage: Demitrio and Maria Pavlovna. Paris, 1914

Grand Duke Paul and his second wife were vacationing in Italy when they were informed of their banishment from Russia. They settled in Boulogne-sur-Seine, where their daughter, Irina, was born in December 1903.

In 1904 he arranged through Prince Regent Leopold of Bavaria for his wife and children to obtain the hereditary title of Count and Countesses of Hohenfelsen with a coat of arms. With the assassination of his brother Sergius in February 1905, Paul was allowed to return to Russia for the funeral, but Olga was refused entry in April to attend the promotion of her son Alexander Pistohlkors as an army officer. Paul claimed custody of Maria and Demetrii, but the tsar did. from his sister-in-law his guardian. From then on, the grand duke was able to visit his children but not return to Russia permanently with his second wife. On December 5 of that same year, Pablo and Olga had another daughter, Natalia, completing their family. Although an outlaw of the Romanovs, the grand duke lived a happy life in Paris with Olga and their three children. They had a staff of sixteen maids, gardeners, cooks, and tutors, and were great collectors of porcelain and art. mansion in Boulogne-sur-Seine, they had a hectic social life that offered lavish dinners and receptions among writers, artists and Russians abroad. The couple were very close to their three children, and on Sundays the whole family attended a private mass at the Russian church on rue Daru.

Although he was not consulted for the engagement of his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Pablo attended the wedding in 1908. That same year, Pablo, Olga, and their three children visited Russia together for the first time. time. Soon after, they returned to Paris, but their son, Vladimir, stayed in Russia and became a student in the Corps des Pages.

In 1912, upon Demetrius' coming of age, Tsar Nicholas II finally relented and pardoned his only surviving uncle, restoring Grand Duke Paul's titles and privileges. He also recognized his second marriage as valid. However, the grand duke decided to continue living in France. In 1913 he visited Russia, once again, to participate in the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov family on the Russian throne and returned permanently to Russia only when he completed a house for himself and his family in Tsarskoe Selo in May 1914..

World War I

The great Duke Paul and his second family. From left to right: his wife Princess Olga, her daughter Princess Irina, Prince Vladimir, Princess Natalia and him. 1916.

During the Great War, Grand Duke Paul Alelsandrovich's two sons, Demetrius and Vladimir, joined the battle and his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, became an army nurse. In August 1915, the tsar granted his wife the title of Princess Paley with the address Serene Highness, and their children also became Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Princesses Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna Paley. month, Prince Vladimir Paley joined a regiment. Although he had been away from active service for many years and his health was failing, Grand Duke Paul begged his nephew, Tsar Nicholas II, to assign him an active military post on the battlefields. At this time, Paul he was, once again, one of the few members of the Romanov family on good terms with Empress Alexandra. Through his intervention, Nicholas II placed Paul in command of the First Imperial Guard Corps in 1915. However, before he could take up his military appointment, he became seriously ill with gallbladder trouble. It was feared that he had cancer, and he spent the autumn and winter of 1915–1916 ill. Only after several months did he recover In May 1916, the Grand Duke, ignoring his doctor's advice, took command of his Guards regiment. He served with the rank of General of the Cavalry. After a difficult battle at the front lines under heavy enemy shelling in the village of Sokoul, he was awarded the St. George's Cross, one of the most coveted military decorations. Due to his failing health, the Grand Duke was appointed, in September 1916, Inspector General of the Guard at the Tsar's headquarters and his son, Vladimir, was placed under his command.

The great Duke Paul (the highest) and his son Vladimir (the youngest without a mustache)

In the fall of 1916, Pablo took a three-week vacation to the Crimea with his wife and children. On his way back north, in November, he visited the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna in kyiv. The Dowager Tsarina and her son-in-law, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, requested his help in convincing Nicholas II and his wife of the need for change and rid themselves of Rasputin's damaging influence. The Grand Duke had an audience with the Tsar and the Tsarina in December, and though she handled the issue tactfully, she was unsuccessful. However, he was able to maintain the trust of Nicholas II and Alexandra even after she was shaken by her son Demitrio's involvement in Rasputin's assassination in December 1916. Paul, who was in Stavka with Nicholas II when the news of the two received of the event, he was horrified by his son's part in the assassination. The grand duke supported his son and wrote a letter to the tsar asking for clemency for Demitrios. However, after spending time under house arrest, Demetrius was sent to the Persian front as a form of exile.

In March 1917, Alejandra summoned Pablo and asked him to go to the front and gather some troops to save the throne. He refused, convinced that it would be a fruitless task. Instead, with the help of Prince Michael Putiatin and the lawyer Nicholas Ivanov, the Grand Duke drafted a manifesto introducing the idea of a constitutional monarchy with Nicholas II as Emperor. It was signed by Paul, Grand Duke Michael, and Grand Duke Cyril, the three most important Grand Dukes in the late period of Imperial Russia. The manifesto was then handed over to the Duma to be presented for the czar's signature on March 1. However, before that, the tsar's train stopped, and Nicholas II abdicated on March 2. It fell to Grand Duke Pablo to inform the Tsarina of the abdication of her husband.

Ancestors