Vladimir Palei

Vladimir Pavlovich Palei was a Russian poet, cousin of Tsar Nicholas II.

Personal data

Born in Saint Petersburg on January 9, 1897, the son of Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovich of Russia and Olga Valerianovna von Pistohlkors (birth name: Karnovich), who later received the title of Princess Palei. In 1904 the Bavarian government granted him the title of Count of Hohenfelsen. He spent his early years in Paris, since his parents were not allowed to return to Russia.

Studies and military career

In 1908 he was sent to study at the Page Corps, an aristocratic military academy in Saint Petersburg run by his tutor, Colonel Alexander Fenoult. He lived in his house as a member of his family, in the Vorontsov Palace, home of the elite military academy. In 1914, when his parents were residing in Russia again, he was called to serve in the Russian Army in World War I. For his bravery in action he was awarded the Order of Saint Anne.

Literary work

Together with their parents and sisters in 1910.

Vladímir Paléi, in addition to having a talent for music and painting, began to write verses with increasing mastery around the age of thirteen.

At the beginning of 1915, he produced a masterful translation into French of the dramatic work in verse of the Grand Duke Constantine Konstantinovich (who signed under the pseudonym K.R., Konstantin Románov) The King of Judea. In August 1915 he received the title of Prince Paléi.

In August 1916, while still in the army, his first book of verse was published. The work was published with the modest title of Sbórnik (Selection). It was an elegant edition, with illuminated engravings, and the proceeds from its sale went to charity sponsored by Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The volume included eighty-six poems, written between 1913 and 1916. The compositions dealt with multiple themes—love, nature, mythology, music, the arts, theater, family, friends, patriotism, war. … The work revealed a strong attachment to the best traditions of the most famous Russian poets, such as Aleksandr Pushkin, Apollon Maikov and Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, but also showed influence from the symbolists and the frequent use of the personification of objects to express feelings. The author's strong and pure religious beliefs were also manifested in several of the poems in the Selection, linked to themes such as prayer, sin, repentance, and eternal life.

Some Petrograd newspapers published comments on the work. The author of one of them, F. Bátyushkov, criticized the influence on Palei's poetry that of K.R. seemed to have, which he seemed to consider somewhat old-fashioned, but also noted how refreshing the young author's work was and expressed that his talent could develop and make the trunk stronger.

On April 3, 1918, the eve of his departure into exile, his second Selection of poems appeared, printed in the typography of the seventh company of the Izmailovsky Regiment. It contained eighty-five compositions, thirty-seven written in 1916 and the rest in 1917. Most of these poems were short works, with the notable exception of Dream and Mask, written between June and October 1916. It was a small edition, of only three hundred copies. Due to political circumstances, the book went completely unnoticed and no comments on it were published.

Like those of the first Selection, these new poems dealt with various themes, such as love, faith, the World War, the poet's family, nature, mythology, memories of France and Paléi's admiration for authors such as Pushkin, Paul Verlaine and Rabindranath Tagore. A few, such as the Great Fast, written in March 1917, described the troubled atmosphere since the fall of the dynasty, and the young poet's pleas to the Almighty: “Oh, let me rise again with enthusiasm, / allow me to see in the neighbor something other than lies, / allow me to love and allow me to be ready / when I am called to You! ”

He left several unpublished works in Russian, French and English, although most of what he wrote during his exile has been lost. In 1996 a volume with a large part of his poetry in Russian, two plays and some other of his writings was published in Moscow.

Exile and murder

The February Revolution of 1917 forced Vladimir Paléi to leave the army and for a little over a year he remained with his parents in Petrograd, mainly dedicated to writing. Although theoretically there was a regime of freedom of the press, in August and September of that year he was under house arrest together with his parents and sisters, for having satirized the President of the Government in his poem Whisper of Mirrors Russian Provisional, Aleksandr Kerensky.

At the end of March 1918 the Bolshevik government in Petrograd decided to exile him to Viatka, along with various members of the imperial family. The Soviet authorities offered to avoid exile if he would sign a document disowning his father, but he indignantly refused the offer.

After a brief stay in Viatka, the poet was sent to Yekaterinburg and finally to Alapáyevsk, in the vicinity of which he was executed by the local Bolsheviks, at dawn on July 18, 1918, at the age of 21.. Together with him, his aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, his cousins Grand Duke Sergius Mikhailovich Romanov and Princes Ivan Konstantinovich, Constantine Konstantinovich and Igor Konstantinovich Romanov, Varvara Yakovleva, nun of the Convent of St. Martha and St. Mary of Moscow, Varvara Yakovleva, and the Secretary of the Grand Duke Sergius, Fyodor Semyonovich Remez. All nine have been beatified by the Russian Orthodox Church as martyrs.