Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia

Russian royal (1860–1919)

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia ( Павел Александрович; 3 October 1860 – 28 January 1919) was the sixth son and youngest child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia by his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander III and uncle of Nicholas II, Russia's last monarch. He entered the Imperial Russian Army, was a general in the cavalry and adjutant general to his brother Emperor Alexander III, and a Knight of the Order of St. Andrew. In 1889, he married Princess Alexandra of Greece, his paternal first cousin once removed. The couple had a daughter and a son, but Alexandra died after the birth of their second child. In his widowhood, Grand Duke Paul began a relationship with Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, a married woman with three children. After obtaining a divorce for Olga and in defiance of strong family opposition, Grand Duke Paul married her in October 1902. As he contracted a morganatic marriage with a divorcée in defiance of the Tsar's prohibition, Grand Duke Paul was banished from living in Russia and deprived of his titles and privileges. Between 1902 and 1914, he lived in exile in Paris with his second wife, who gave him three children. In the spring of 1914, he settled back in Russia with his second family. With the outbreak of World War I, Grand Duke Paul was appointed in command of the first 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 II and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. It fell upon Grand Duke Paul to inform Alexandra of Nicholas II's abdication. After the fall of the Russian monarchy, Grand Duke Paul initially remained at his palace in Tsarskoe Selo during the period of the provisional government. With the Bolsheviks ascending to power, his palace was expropriated, and eventually he was arrested and sent to prison. In declining health, he was shot by the Bolsheviks with other Romanov relatives in the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Fortress in January 1919, and his remains were thrown into a common grave.

Grand Duke Paul was born on 3 October 1860 [O. S. 21 September 1860] at the Catherine Palace, in Saint Petersburg. He was the eighth and youngest child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. By the time of Paul's birth, his mother was afflicted with tuberculosis and the doctors advised her not to have more children. Relations between Paul's parents ceased. The family was struck by tragedy in 1865 with the death of Paul's eldest brother, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia, when Paul was four years old. The following year, his father, Alexander II, started an affair with Princess Catherine Dolgorukova, who gave him three children.

Grand Duke Paul was educated at home by private tutors. From the 1870s, Paul and his brother Sergei were kept in Russia by their studies. They were destined to follow a military career. From 1864 to 1885, their tutor was Admiral Dmitri Arsenyev (1832 1915), who encouraged his pupils to have a broad artistic education as well. He was widely liked due to his gentle character, very different from his boisterous eldest brothers. He was from birth a Guard cornet in an Infantry Regiment. Grand Duke Paul, overprotected by his brother Sergei, did not know of the affair. Emotionally distraught by the news, he had to travel abroad to recuperate. Grand Duke Paul was on a trip to Italy with his brother Sergei when their father Alexander II was assassinated on 13 March [O. S. 1 March] 1881. Paul's eldest surviving brother, Alexander III, ascended to the Russian throne. Since childhood, Paul was very attached to his brother Sergei, their closeness remaining even after Sergei's engagement and later marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864–1918). Grand Duke Paul suffered from weak lungs and spent periods abroad to recuperate.

During his visits to Greece, in the family atmosphere of his first cousin Queen Olga of Greece, Grand Duke Paul grew closer with Olga's eldest daughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. Alexandra's father, King George I of Greece, was a brother of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, Paul's sister in law. During the silver wedding anniversary of King George and Queen Olga, Paul asked for Alexandra's hand and he was accepted. Their engagement was announced on 10 November 1888. Paul settled with his wife in his own palace in St. Petersburg on the English Embankment, No. 68. The mansion was located behind the Church of the Annunciation and faced the Corps de la Marine in the very center of Saint Petersburg. It was built in the Florentine renaissance revival style by the architect Alexander Krakau between 1859 and 1862 for Baron Alexander von Stieglitz, a prominent financier and the first Governor of the State Bank of the Russian Empire. Grand Duke Paul's marriage was happy, but brief. In the summer of 1891, Paul and Alexandra decided to spend some time with them at Ilinskoie, Sergei's country estate outside Moscow. During this period, his brother Sergei and Sergei's wife took care of Paul's motherless children in a pattern of behavior that would be repeated in the years to follow. In his widowhood, the grieving grand duke moved to Tsarskoye Selo, leaving his palace in St Peterburg that had been his home with Alexandra to never return. For a long time, the palace stood vacant. After that, the building changed many hands over time. When the revolution ended, the mansion was sold to the Russian Society for the Production of Equipment and Military Supplies. Eventually it became home to various Soviet institutions. Grand Duke Paul's brother, Tsar Alexander III, died on 1 November 1894 [O. S. 20 October 1894] and Paul's nephew, Nicholas II, became the new tsar. There was only an eight year gap between uncle and nephew and Paul had known Nicholas II's wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, since she was a little girl, when in his youth he made many visits to his mother's native Darmstadt. Therefore, Grand Duke Paul was well liked by the new Tsar and Tsarina.

In 1895, Paul began an affair with a commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich. Olga was married with three young children, a son and two daughters. The affair initially remained secret, but it became public knowledge at court when Olga attended a court ball wearing a diamond necklace that had belonged to Paul's mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna recognized the jewels and had Olga removed from the ball. In the subsequent scandal, Paul was moved to a different regimental command and Eric von Pistohlkors was sent away, but it was already too late. Paul wanted to recognize Vladimir as his son and marry Olga, but his family opposed his union. His nephew Nicholas II of Russia and older brother Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia were particularly angry about his intentions. His brother Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia and his sister in law, Grand Duchess Elizabeth begged him to reconsider and think about his children and his responsibilities in Russia. Despite his family's opposition, Paul remained infatuated with Olga. He lost interest in Maria and Dmitri and spent long periods abroad with his mistress. Paul's family was outraged by his marriage. Emperor Nicholas II wrote to his mother: "The nearer the relative who refuses to submit to our family statutes the graver must be his punishment. . How painful and distressing it all is and how ashamed one feels for the sake of our family before the world! What guarantee is there now that Cyril won't start the same sort of thing tomorrow and Boris, or Sergei Mikhailovich the day after? And, in the end, I fear, a whole colony of members of the Russian Imperial Family will be established in Paris with their semi legitimate and illegitimate wives! God alone knows what times we are living in, when undisguised selfishness stifles all feelings of conscience, duty or even ordinary decency!". Nicholas' mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna was equally angry: "This marriage of Uncle Paul's is really too distressing! Alas, he seems to have forgotten everything— his duty to his children, to his country, service honour, all, all, have been sacrificed How could he go through with it after all he had been told by his brothers and by us all? The thought of the misery of his poor little children for whom he had been everything and whom he has abandoned distresses me more than I can say And then there is the scandal! I am simply ashamed of it So he is even slinging mud at our family! Awful, awful! And into what an awkward and disagreeable position it puts you, my poor Nicky, you who will have to punish him, because such an act cannot remain unpunished, and, into the bargain, marrying a divorced woman!". They settled in Boulogne sur Seine where a daughter, Irina, was born on 5 December 1903 [O. S. 22 November 1903]. In 1904, Grand Duke Paul arranged, through Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, for his wife and their children to be granted the hereditary title of Count and Countesses de Hohenfelsen with a coat of arms. In 1912, on the occasion of Dmitri reaching his majority, Tsar Nicholas II, finally relented and pardoned his only surviving uncle, restoring Grand Duke Paul's titles and privileges. He also recognized as valid Paul's second marriage. However, Grand Duke Paul decided to remain living in France. In 1913, Paul visited Russia, once again, to take part in the celebration of the Romanov Tercentenary.

At the out break of World War I, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich's two sons, Dmitri and Vladimir, joined the war effort and his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, became an army nurse. In August 1915, the Tsar granted Paul's wife, Olga, the title of Princess Paley with the style of Serene Highness, and their children also became Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Princesses Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna Paley. In the same month, Prince Vladimir Paley joined a regiment. Although he had been away from active service for many years and his health was frail, Grand Duke Paul begged his nephew, Tsar Nicholas II, to give him an active military appointment on the battlefield. However, before he could assume his military appointment, Paul felt gravely ill with gall bladder trouble. After a difficult spell at the front under heavy enemy bombardment at the village of Sokoul, he was awarded a St George's Cross 4th class, one of the most coveted military decorations. Due to his bad health, the grand duke was moved, in September 1916, to a new appointment as inspector general of the Guard at the Tsar's headquarters and his son, Vladimir, was placed under his orders. In the autumn of 1916, Paul took a three week holiday in Crimea with his wife and children. On his way back north, in November, he visited the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in Kiev. Maria Feodorovna and her son in law, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, enlisted Paul's help in order to persuade Nicholas II and his wife of the need for change and to get rid of Rasputin's damaging influence. Grand Duke Paul had an audience with the Tsar and Tsarina in December. Nevertheless, he was able to retain Nicholas II and Alexandra's confidence even after it was shaken with Paul's son Dmitri's involvement in Rasputin's murder in the early hours of 30 December 1916 [O. S. 17 December 1916]. The Grand Duke supported his son and wrote a letter to the Tsar asking for clemency for Dmitri. It was signed by Paul, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich and Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the three most senior grand dukes in the last period of Imperial Russia. The manifesto was then delivered to the Duma to be presented for the Tsar's signature on March 1, at Nicholas II's return from headquarters.

At the fall of the Russian monarchy in March 1917, Grand Duke Paul, his wife, and their children remained united living at their luxurious estate in Tsarkoe Selo amid the upheaval. As Tsar Nicholas II and his family were sent to internal exile in Siberia, the Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky, placed Paul under house arrest on 9 September [O. S. 27 August ]. His telephone line was cut and a squad of soldiers guarded all the exits to his home. Through the intervention of his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, whose second wedding he was not able to attend, the guards in charge of overseeing his house were removed. Paul was arrested and held for two weeks at the Bolsheviks' headquarters in the Smolny Institute. The Bolshevik Government confiscated all property held by the banks on 27 December. By early January 1918, Grand Duke Paul and his family could no longer afford to heat their large Tsarskoe Selo palace and they were forced to move to a nearby English dacha that belonged to his nephew, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. Shortly after they moved out, their home was expropriated and turned into a museum, while Lenin himself rode in their car. In March 1918, all male members of the Romanov family, including Paul's son, Vladimir, were ordered to register at Cheka headquarters and shortly after they were sent away into internal Russian exile. They never saw Vladimir again. He was murdered by the Bolsheviks, along with several other Romanov relatives, on 18 July 1918 in a mine shaft near Alapayevsk, one day after the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family at Yekaterinburg. Grand Duke Paul, who was too ill to travel, initially escaped the fate of his son. It was difficult to find provisions, but as the Grand Duke suffered from a stomach ulcer, he was kept on a strict diet. He was taken to the local Soviet, housed in Grand Duke Vladimir's Tsarkoe Selo villa. The next morning, he was sent to Spalernaia prison, where he would remain for most of his incarceration. The four Grand Dukes, all men in their fifties, each had their own cell, 7 feet (2 m) by 3 feet (1 m). Their days began at 7 a. m., when they were awakened by the steps in the hall of their jailers and the clank of their keys in the door. Lunch was served at noon, which consisted of dirty hot water with a few fish bones in it and black bread. The lights were turned on in the cells at 7 p. m., although as the winter approached, the prisoners had to sit in darkness until that time. During the short time they were given to exercise, the Grand Dukes were able to exchange a few words. Paul's wife was allowed to visit him twice a week, staying from 1 p. m. to 6 p. m.

On 6 December, as the Grand Duke's health, already bad, declined sharply, he was transferred to the prison hospital on the island of Goloday. Before he left, he was allowed to say goodbye to his young daughters, Irina and Natalia. Princess Paley continued making desperate attempts to have her husband released through the intervention of Maxim Gorky. On January 9, 1919, the Presidium of the Cheka in a meeting was attended by Martin Latsis, Yakov Peters, Ivan Ksenofontov and Secretary Murnek issued a resolution: "The Cheka's verdict against the persons of the former imperial pack to approve, informing the Central Executive Committee". On 27 January 1919, Grand Duke Paul was taken to Cheka headquarters and then transferred to another prison, Gorochovaia. He was kept there until 10 p. m., when he was driven to the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress. At 3 a. m. on the following day, the four Grand Dukes were taken outside the fortress and stripped to the waist, despite the fact that it was almost His three cousins were each escorted, with a soldier on each side, towards a trench that had been dug in the courtyard. The fusillade of shots sent them reeling into the trench, joining thirteen other bodies in the mass grave. Grand Duke Paul, who was too emaciated and too sick to stand, was carried on a stretcher. Before he was murdered, he was heard saying «Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing». He was killed shortly afterwards. Grand Dukes Paul, Michael, George and Dmitri were buried in a mass grave in the Fortress, the Bolsheviks having refused the distraught Princess Paley the right to bury her husband. On 31 January 1919, The Petrograd Pravda published the news about the execution of the four Grand Dukes. In 1981, Grand Duke Paul was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as a holy martyr. In 1999, he was rehabilitated by the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia.