Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
| Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 18 September 1891 Ilinskoe near Moscow, Russian Empire | ||||
| Died | 5 March 1941 (aged 49) Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland | ||||
| Burial | Mainau, Lake Constance, Germany | ||||
| Spouse | Audrey Emery Elisabeth of Romania | ||||
| Issue | Prince Paul Dmitriievich Romanovsky-Ilyinsky Grand Duchess Ana Dmitriievna Romanova | ||||
| |||||
| House | House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov | ||||
| Father | Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia | ||||
| Mother | Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark | ||||
| Religion | Russian Orthodox | ||||
Biography
His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (Его Императорское Высочество Великий Князь Дмитрий Павлович) (6 September 1891[O.S.] – 5 March 1942) was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, whom he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.
Early life
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the second child and son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and a grandson of Alexander II of Russia; thus, he was a first cousin of Nicholas II of Russia. Dmitri Pavlovich's mother, Alexandra Georgievna of Greece was a daughter of George I of Greece and his Queen consort, Olga Konstantinovna of Russia. As such, he was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His mother, Alexandra, was seven months' pregnant with him when, while out with friends, she jumped into a boat, falling as she got in. The next day, she collapsed in the middle of a ball from violent labor pains brought on by the previous day's activities; Dmitri was born in the hours following the accident. Alexandra slipped into a coma, from which she never emerged. Although doctors had no hope for Dmitri's survival, he lived, with the help of Grand Duke Sergei, who gave the premature Dmitri the baths prescribed by the doctors, wrapped him in cotton wool and kept him in a cradle filled with hot water bottles to keep his temperature regulated. "I am enjoying raising Dmitri," Sergei wrote in his diary.[1]Grand Duchess Alexandra died shortly after Dmitri's birth. She was only twenty-one years old at the time of her death, and the cause was almost certainly preeclampsia. Dmitri and his sister Maria lived in St Petersburg with their father until 1902, when Grand Duke Paul married a divorced commoner, Olga Pistolkors, and was banished from Russia by the Emperor. He was not allowed to take the children with him into exile, so they were sent to live with their uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich (Paul's brother) and aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (the Empress's sister), in Moscow. The loss of their beloved father and the sudden move to Moscow caused the children great distress. [see, for instant, letter of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, 27 October 1939. The original is in the family archive at Insel Mainau, home of the late Count Lennart Bernadotte, Maria Pavlovna's son] In her memoirs, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (the Younger) describes Grand Duke Sergei as a stern disciplinarian, and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth as a cold and unwelcoming presence [Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, "Memories of a Princess"].
On 4 February 1905, Grand Duke Sergei, who had recently resigned from the post of Governor General of Moscow, was assassinated by Ivan Kalyaev, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Battle Organization, a revolutionary terrorist group. Kalyaev, armed with a homemade bomb, had aborted his first attempt to kill the Grand Duke when he spotted Dmitri and Marie with their uncle in his carriage. His uncle's death was only one of several assassinations that robbed Dmitri of close family members. His paternal grandfather, Alexander II, was murdered by revolutionary terrorists in 1881, and his maternal grandfather, George I of Greece, would be shot by an assassin in 1913. His father, Paul, and half-brother Vladimir ("Bodya") Paley would be murdered by the Bolsheviks in January 1919. After Sergei's death, Grand Duchess Elizabeth undertook to raise her niece and nephew on her own, thus making them part of a rare female-headed household. Maria Pavlovna continued to have some feelings of anger toward her aunt, whom she would blame for her overly hasty marriage to Prince William of Sweden in 1908, but Dmitri formed a very strong bond with Elizabeth and came to admire her personal fortitude (Diaries of Grand Duke Dmitri, passim].The bomber had refrained from an earlier attack because he saw that Grand Duchess Elizabeth, fifteen-year-old Maria and her younger brother Dmitri were in the carriage and he did not want to kill women and children.[2] A second attack a few days later succeeded in killing Sergei. Dmitri rushed with his aunt and sister and saw Sergei's broken body in the snow. After this incident, young Dmitri was sent to live with the tsar and his family. At some point, there was even speculation whether he might be made heir in place of the hemophiliac tsarevich by marrying the tsar's eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna.
Maria Pavlovna's wedding to Prince William took place at Tsarskoe Selo in 1908, and after she had departed for Sweden with her new husband, Dmitri and Elizabeth Feodorovna stayed on for time at Tsarskoe as guests of the Emperor and Empress. It was during this period that Dmitri began to form a close bond with Nicholas II, looking upon him as a surrogate father. He would join the Emperor on his daily walks and seek to spend as much time with him as possible. Nicholas, in turn, treated Dmitri very kindly. He seems to have loved the young man's free spirit and sense of humor, a welcome diversion from the stresses of his daily life. Dmitri wrote several letters to his sister during his stay with Nicholas and Alexandra, describing how much he was enjoying himself there. The original letters survive in the Bernadotte family archive on the Island of Mainau. His later correspondence with Nicholas II, from 1908-1914, would fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks after the revolution and be published in 1926 in a volume of Grand Ducal letters to Nicholas II, edited by a man called Semennikov.
In 1909 Dmitri left Grand Duchess Elizabeth's care to move to St Petersburg with his head tutor and companion, G.M. Laiming. Established first at his father's vacant palace, then at the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace, which he had inherited from Grand Duke Sergei, and which would become his principal residence before the Revolution, he prepared to enter the Nikolaevskoe Cavalry School. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a cornet in the Horse Guards Regiment, which his father had once commanded, and in which he had been enrolled at birth. He is reputed to have been a very good equestrian, and competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, coming seventh. Before World War I, he instigated the idea of a national Russian sports competition, the very beginning of what under Soviet rule became the Spartakiad.
As usual in his circle at the time, Dmitri Pavlovich joined a guards regiment as an officer. He is reputed to have been a very good equestrian, and competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, coming seventh. Before World War I, he instigated the idea of a national Russian sports competition, the very beginning of what under Soviet rule became the Spartakiad.
Adulthood
Throughout his life, Dmitri Pavlovich was known as a great womanizer. Among his lovers were popular Russian ballerina and early film actress Vera Karalli[3] and Pauline Fairfax Potter, an American fashion designer and writer. He also temporarily pursued the Duchess of Marlborough (the American-born Consuelo Vanderbilt), who was separated, and later divorced, from the Duke of Marlborough. The fact that Dmitri Pavlovich was both 16 years the Duchess' junior, and economically challenged, did not assist his case. His most notable affairs were with Natasha Sheremetyev, morganatic wife of his cousin, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the early 1920s with Coco Chanel; however, the one (reputed) affair that had the most influence on the course of his life and that effectively gave him his place in history was with another man: cross-dressing and presumably[dubious – discuss] bisexual Prince Felix Yusupov, with whom he had a relationship in the winter of 1912/1913 that caused quite a scandal. It was this relationship that caused the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to decide against Dmitri marrying her eldest daughter, the Grand Duchess Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. Later, in 1916, Felix was the one who involved him in the murder of Grigori Rasputin.
Older sources (among them Felix's own memoirs) always maintained that the murder of Rasputin was Felix's idea, and that Dmitri was only involved because he owned a car that could move unimpeded through the strictly controlled city of St. Petersburg in wartime because of its imperial standard. Newer research, particularly that of Edvard Radzinsky in his book The Rasputin File, has proposed the idea that the murder originated with Dmitri, and that he probably fired the shot that ultimately stopped the dying Rasputin from escaping. It is thought that the story subsequently told by the conspirators was concocted to protect Dmitri from a stain that would endanger his chances of succeeding to the throne of Russia.
As a direct result of his involvement in the murder, Dmitri Pavlovich was sent to the Persian front, which ultimately saved his life; most of his relatives were executed by the Bolsheviks, including his father, his aunt Elizabeth, and his morganatic half-brother Vladimir Paley, but he himself escaped, with British help, via Teheran and Bombay to London.
Outside Russia
In London in 1919, he met Felix Yusupov again, but they soon fell out; officially over Felix's open gloating in the press of having killed Rasputin, which would endanger Dmitri's chances of a succession to the throne (still thought possible at that stage) by mere association. According to Felix's memoirs, the real reason for their estrangement was that Dmitri did not believe the restoration of the Russian monarchy was possible, but some self-serving elements around him tried to keep up appearances, and elbowed the dangerously disreputable Felix out.
Dmitri Pavlovich's sister Marie had, like many aristocratic Russians in exile, found a niche for herself in the rising Paris fashion industry by founding a business called Kitmir that specialised in bead and sequin embroidery and did much work for Chanel. (Dmitri himself found work as a Champagne salesman.) This way, Dmitri met Coco Chanel, eleven years his elder just like Natasha had been, with whom he conducted a brief affair in 1921. Through Dmitri and Marie's contacts in the industry, Chanel met perfumers in Grasse, and master perfumer Ernest Beaux, which led to the creation of the famed Chanel No. 5 perfume — involvement in the creation of which is Dmitri's second claim to historic importance.
Throughout his life, Dmitri would always enjoy the companionship strong-willed and highly intelligent women, both as lovers and as platonic friends, perhaps a holdover from his adolescence when two strong-willed and intelligent women, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, loomed so large in his life. He would often have strong but overlapping relationships, as, for instance, with Natalia Brasova (wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich) and the ballerina Vera Karalli, both of whom he saw in 1915 and 1916 (he would be reunited with both women in exile, and would briefly resume his relationship with Karalli). His diaries chronicle relationships with many of the most fascinating women of his day, but the affair he most remembered for was with iconic fashion designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, whom he first met in pre-WWI Paris. Their relationship lasted about a year, beginning in spring 1921 with an off-season stay in Monte Carlo where they endeavored to live as discreetly as possible since neither was as yet sure where the relationship was going, and what the future would hold for Dmitri in particular. [Diary of Grand Duke Dmitri, March/April 1921]. Rumors that Dmitri was gay or bisexual have never been substantiated, and his own letters and diaries very firmly contradict them.
Rumors that Dmitri fired the fatal shot in the Rasputin assassination likewise have never been substantiated, resting entirely upon baseless speculation. Again, his own letters and diary entires, at times written under emotional duress as he relieved events that continued to disturb him greatly, support the conventional historical account of the assassination. His frankness, his tone, and the details he provides all speak to his credibility on this topic. His final break with Felix Yusupov in London in 1920 is well documented in letters exchanged between the two men, none of which have ever been published. The originals are all part of the Ilyinsky family collection, along with Dmitri's diaries, and have been woefully, almost incredibly, neglected by scholars. Dmitri who, as an adolescent, had envisioned Nicholas II as a 'man of action' and admired him greatly, was devastatingly disillusioned by the Tsar's attitude and behavior during the war years. Like many other grand dukes, he tried to warn Nicholas of Russia's imminent peril, but was unsuccessful. The assassination was, in his conception, a patriotic act and one of desperation, but he almost immediately regretted it, and would later describe on several occasions in his letters and diaries the disgust and remorse he felt about his own involvement in the affair. Yusupov was, in 1920, offered a chance to speak about the assassination in a US lecture tour, the profits from which would go to the Red Cross, and it was his interest in pursuing this tour that proved to be the last straw in his relationship with Dmitri.
The direct result of his involvement in the December 1916 assassination was exile to the Persian front where he served briefly under General Nikolai Nikolaevich Baratov at his headquarters in the Persian city of Kazvin. But after the February revolution Baratov had to ask Dmitri to leave since there were rumblings from the lower ranks and his safety could not be guaranteed. In Tehran he lived briefly with General Meidel, then head of the Persian Cossack Division, before being taken in by the British Minister to Tehran, Sir Charles Marling and his wife Lucia. Sir Charles became an important father figure to Dmitri, and the relationship there established between Dmitri and the entire Marling family, would prove to be a close and enduring one. It was Sir Charles who, by persuading the British Foreign Office in 1918 that Dmitri would undoubtedly become the next Emperor of Russia, gained his admission to Great Britain after many previous rejections. [See Sir Charles's correspondence with the FO, preserved at the Public Records Office, Kew, UK. Nikolai Nikolaevich's papers are at the Hoover Institute, Stanford, and Dmitri's diaries likewise provide a detailed account of his life in Persia, his relationship with the Marlings, and his attempts to gain entry to Britain].
Dmitri married an American heiress, Audrey Emery, in 1927 morganatically, procuring for her the title of Princess Romanovskaya-Ilyinskaya and the style of Serene Highness from his cousin Cyril for her as the marriage officially was regarded as unequal. The two had a son, Prince Paul Romanovsky-Ilyinsky, who was elected Mayor of Palm Beach, Florida in 1989, and thus the only Romanov descendant known to have held elected public office. Following the fall of communist Russia in 1991, a delegation of Russian royalists approached Paul Ilyinsky and asked him to assume the title of Tsar, a position he declined.[4] Dmitri and Audrey were divorced in 1937.
Also during the 1930s, Dmitri was embroiled with the somewhat fascist Young Russian (in Russian: Союз Младороссов) movement around Alexander Kazembek, who was later found out to have been a possible Soviet agent provocateur - a thoroughly dishonourable affair. However, Dmitri reputedly rebuked later advances from Hitler to lead exiled Russian nobles within the German army against the Bolsheviks with the firm statement that nothing would induce him to fight against fellow Russians. However, at that time Dmitri was in no condition to fight at all any more.
After his divorce, Dmitri began a romantic relationship with Elizabeth of Romania in 1937. Elisabeth and Dmitri spent considerable time together during her mother's illness and care at a sanatorium near Dresden. According to the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmarigen (Prince Karl Fredrich Hohenzollern-Sigmarigen), the office of Peter Broadmann- CEO and Finance Director at Sigmarigen, historians identify the marriage, however, documents were not saved. The couple resided at Elisabeth's private residence at Banloc, Timis, on the Hungarian border. Much of this story and the people surrounding it disappeared during World War II. Then history became more secretive for the Romanians as they became dominated by a Soviet state. The child, known as Grand Duchess Ana Romanova, has sought the assistance of historians and investigators to assist her in piecing her life together. According to The House of Hohenzollern-Sigmarigen, on the 17 July 2013 at Sigmarigen, the following statement has been released.
"... as far as we know there was a marriage between Elisabeth of Romania and Dmitri of Russia, but there is not save information, if they had children together. It also can be that children came into the marriage from the side of Dmitri of Russia which are not direct descendants of the marriage between Elisabeth and Dmitri". - Peter Brodmann, Group Prince of Hohenzollern - Investments.
Through the books authored by Dmitri Pavlovich's sister, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, much is learned about her brother. After his divorce decree, Dmitri spent a considerable amount of his time with the Romanian royal family. In particularly, Elisabetha. Photographs of the two together at a reunion at Ahlbeck, Germany in 1937 confirm their association and close proximity to Queen Marie while receiving treatment.
A daughter was born by cesarean section, 27 October 1937, performed by an American physician who was a recent graduate of Stanford University (OB/GYN)who was in Europe as a consultant to Queen Marie of Romania's physicians at the sanatorium near Dresden, Emil von Dessonneck. Hidden from her uncle Carol II, this baby became the ward of Princess Ileana. She was placed in a foster home at the time of the Anschluss with Austria in 1938, and was often shuttled between Germany and Austria. American author of plays, screenplays, and memoirs, Lillian Florence "Lilly" Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) wrote several plays on her experiences and relationships with the Romanian Princesses that worked with the underground in Europe to defeat Facism. Her story "Julia", in the book "Pentimento: A Book of Portraits" (1973), identifies the disappearance of the baby. This story later became a film, "Julia" (1977 which starred Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, and Meryl Streep. Vanessa Redgrave won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role as the title-named character, Julia, and Jason Robards won his second consecutive Best Actor in a Supporting Role award. The film was Meryl Streep's first cinema debut. Another play, "Watch on the Rhine" (1941), identifies political and sinister corruption of the Nazi regime in Europe. Hellman's depositions reveal only loyalty to families and individuals during the Cold War who still lived within the iron curtain of soviet states. Hellman refused to give their names. Eventually, Princess Ileana immigrated to The United States. The baby, Ana Dmitriievna, arrived in Massachusetts from Germany in 1968. The two were reunited in 1988 by telephone as Ileana, now Mother Alexandra was then Abbess at her Monastery of the Transfiguration, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. They met privately there in June 6, 1990, in the presence of an Orthodox priest and Ana Dmitriievna Romanova's thirteen year old son. Mother Alexandra shared with her this most difficult story, her apologies and grief for what had been a most unwarranted childhood, as well as the fear of her elimination due to greedy relatives. Ana Romanova is the only full biological first cousin of King Michael I of Romania. Like King Michael I, Ana Romanova is a third cousin of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Death
Despite his athletic interests, Dmitri Pavlovich's health had always been somewhat frail, and in the 1930s his chronic tuberculosis became acute and necessitated extended stays at a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, where he died in 1941 from acute uremia following complications after having been pronounced cured. Rumours circulated that either the Bolsheviks finally got him (or that Hitler had taken his firm "no" badly), but soon lost relevance in the general clamour and mayhem of World War II.
After the war, Dmitri was reburied in the palace chapel on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance in southern Germany as a favour to his sister Marie, as her son Count Lennart Bernadotte owned the property there.
Descendant
Paul R. Ilyinsky (1928–2004) was his only son, by his morganatic wife Audrey Emery. Ana D. Romanova (1937- present) was his only daughter royal with his second wife, Elisabeth of Romania
Ancestry
References
- ^ Perry, John Curtis, and Pleshakov, Constantine, The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga, Basic Books, 1999, p. 43
- ^ Maylunas, Andrei, and Mironenko, Sergei, A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, Doubleday, 1997, p. 258
- ^ Radzinsky, Edvard, The Rasputin File, Doubleday, 2000, pp. 476-477
- ^ Xavier Waterkeyn Assassination: Political murder through the ages New Holland Publishers p.111 ISBN 978-1-74110-566-7
- Perry, John Curtis and Pleshakov, Constantine, The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga. New York, 1999.
- Crawford, Rosemary and Donald, Michael and Natasha. London, 1997.
- Radzinsky, Edvard, Rasputin: The Last Word. London, 2000.
- Youssoupoff, Prince Félix, Mémoires. Paris 1990 (reprint).
- http://www.hohenzollern.com/beteiligungen/slg-baumaerkte.php
("... as far as we know there was a marriage between Elisabeth of Romania and Dmitri of Russia, but there is not save information, if they had children together. It also can be that children came into the marriage from the side of Dmitri of Russia which are not direct descendants of the marriage between Elisabeth and Dmitri". - Peter Brodmann, Group Prince of Hohenzollern - Investments).
- Grand Duchess Marie of Russia (ed Russell Lord), Education of a Princess - a Memoir, 1930, ASIN: B000K5SJJ4
- Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, A Princess in Exile, 1932, ASIN: B000TG41CS
- http://www.tkinter.smig.net/PrincessIleana/ILiveAgain/index.htm
- http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6454/
- The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (Random House, 1995) by Robert K. Massie, pgs 210-212, 213, 217, and 218 ISBN 0-394-58048-6 and ISBN 0-679-43572-7