Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov

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Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov

Grand Duke Pawel Alexandrowitsch Romanow , Russian Павел Александрович (born September 21 July / October 3,  1860 greg. In Peterhof ; † January 30, 1919 in Petrograd ) was a member of the Romanow-Holstein-Gottorp family .

Life

Pawel was the sixth son of the Russian Tsar Alexander II (1818-1881) and his first wife Princess Marie of Hessen-Darmstadt (1824-1880), daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II and Princess Wilhelmine Luise of Baden . He was the younger brother of the future Tsar Alexander III. and Maria Alexandrowna Romanowa , later Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

After becoming a widower for the first time in 1891, Grand Duke Pavel joined the Russian army and rose to become general . During World War I he commanded the First Corps of the Imperial Guard .

In 1917, together with the French politician Gaston Doumergue , Pawel tried to persuade the tsar to conclude a secret Franco-Russian agreement in Saint Petersburg , but his efforts failed. Doumergues' offer to Russia to “freely determine its western border” was an attempt to prevent a separate peace with the German Reich . On February 14, 1917, Russia, in turn, assured the French that they would support their demands. France was granted Alsace-Lorraine to the extent of the former Duchy of Lorraine with the Saar Basin, the areas on the left bank of the Rhine not annexed "should form an autonomous and neutral state" under French protection, which remains occupied until all peace conditions are met.

Valentin Serov : Portrait of the Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (1897)

In February 1917, a provisional government was formed under Prince Lvov . Shortly afterwards, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and the Bolsheviks under Lenin and Trotsky seized power after the October Revolution of 1917.

The Romanovs' assets were confiscated and the family , including Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov, placed under house arrest in the Alexander Palace . His son, Vladimir Pavlovich Paley , was taken to Alapayevsk , where he was murdered by the Cheka . Pavel was sent to the Petrograd prison in August 1918. There, his health deteriorated and his wife tried to obtain a release on this account. But their efforts were futile. On 29 January 1919 he was in the Peter and Paul Fortress relocated where it the next day along with his cousins Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov , Georgi Mikhailovich Romanov and Dmitry Konstantinovich Romanov shot was. The widow was denied the right to a funeral. With the exception of Dmitri Konstantinowitsch, whose remains were carried away by his adjutant the next day and privately buried in Petrograd, the bodies were buried in a mass grave within the fortress by the Bolsheviks. In 2011, Russian archaeologists reported that excavations in the Peter and Paul Fortress likely found the graves of the grand dukes by chance.

Private life

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark

First marriage

In 1889, Grand Duke Pawel Alexandrowitsch Romanow married his cousin Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (1870-1891), daughter of the Greek King George I from the house of Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinowna Romanowa in Saint Petersburg . The marriage had two children:

Alexandra died at the age of 21 as a result of a fall on the banks of the Moscow River . Before that, she gave birth to her son Dimitri, seven months pregnant. She then fell into a coma and died six days later.

During his marriage, Pawel led a ménage à trois together with the married Olga von Pistohlkors (1865-1929) . After the death of his wife, he asked his nephew Tsar Nicholas II for permission to marry Olga, but at the instigation of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the latter refused the request.

Second marriage

Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov with his family, 1916

Nevertheless, in 1902, Olga Pistohlkors was married for a second, morganatic one , which led to a scandal: Pawel lost his military rank and position and was banished from Russia with his wife, his children from his first marriage were taken care of by Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Elisabeth . Pawel and Olga then settled in Paris. They had three children together:

Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria granted Olga and her descendants the title of Count of Hohenfelsen on October 29, 1904 . In 1914, when the First World War broke out , Pavel and his family were allowed to return to Russia and from then on lived in Tsarskoye Selo . On July 23, 1915, the Tsar granted his wife and their children the title of Princess or Prince Paley by imperial decree.

swell

  • Jacques Ferrand: Il est toujours des Romanov (Les Romanovs en 1995) , Paris 1995
  • Gothaischer Genealogischer Hofkalender 1918 and 1920, Perthes, Gotha

Web links

Commons : Pawel Alexandrovich Romanov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dtv Atlas for World History , Volume 2; First World War / Alliances, War Aims (1914-1918), ISBN 3-423-03002-X , page 123
  2. ↑ dtv Atlas for World History , Volume 2; First World War / Political Crises, Russian Revolution (1917), 129
  3. ↑ Les Russes pensent avoir retrouvé les restes de princes Romanov. Tribune de Genève, June 8, 2011, archived from the original on February 1, 2015 ; Retrieved February 7, 2013 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Romanov, Pavel Alexandrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Romanov, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (full name); Александрович, Павел (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member from the House of Romanow-Holstein-Gottorp
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Peterhof
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1919
Place of death Petrograd