|
GRAND DUKE PAUL ALEXANDROVITCH ROMANOV
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich Romanov was uncle to Tsar Nicholas II. He had two children Marie born 1890 and Dmitry born 1891. His wife, Alexandra of Greece died while giving birth to Dmitry. Paul was beside himself with grief and spent much of his time away from his children trying to bury his grief in military work. Paul’s elder brother Serge and his wife Ella took Marie and Dmitry into their household at Ilinskoie, treating them as the children they never had. As they were devoted to children it was a source of eternal sadness to them that they never had childtren of their own.
It was not until Dmitri was considered strong enough to travel that he and Marie were to return to St. Petersburgh to live with their father in his palace. They occupied a nursery suite on the second floor, looked after by nurses and attendants, entirely isolated from the rest of the palace. The head nurse and her assistant were both English, and until Marie was six years old she heard virtually no words or Russian; the immediate household and all the family spoke English.
About four years after the death of his wife, Paul began a scandalous affair with Olga von Pistolkors, the wife of a captain in his regiment and aide-de-camp to Grand Duke Vladimir. In January 1897 a son was born and named Vladimir. In 1900 Paul bought a house in Paris and indicated that he was considering remarriage. This episode sparked outrage among the Royal family, Captain Pistolkors was faced with the choice of leaving the army or divorcing his wife. He chose the latter and Olga fled to Italy where she was joined by Paul. They were married in 1902 in the Greek church at Leghorn.
Tsar Nicholas was forced to exile his uncle. Paul was banished from Russia, deprived of all his rights, and all his official revenues were confiscated. Serge became Marie and Dmitri’s legal guardian, thus formalizing a state of affairs which had existed for over a decade. Sergei was assassinated in 1905 by a Socialist Revolutionary and Ella devoted herself to the creation of a cloister. Dmitry went to live with his cousin the Tsar.
The Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovitch with his second wife
Olga and their children, Vladimir, Natalie and Irena
Paul and Olga led a relatively simple life, and their house at Boulogne-sur-Seine (now Boulogne-Billencourt) in Paris became a magnet for writers, artists and holidaying Russians. They had two daughters, Irina was born in 1903 and Natalia in 1905. Following Serge’s death Paul was granted permission to return to Russia at intervals but was not allowed to live there. In 1907 Paul travelled to Tsarskoe-Selo for his daughter Maria’s marriage to Prince William of Sweden, (the union would not last and was dissolved in 1911) And, shortly afterward he lost both his remaining elder brothers. Alexis, who also resided in Paris died of pneumonia in 1908 aged 58 and three months later Vladimir suffered a major cerebral haemorrhage and died at Saint Pettersburg in 1909 aged 60.
In 1912 after Dmitri had come of age and taken his oath of allegiance to the Tsar, Paul’s banishment was lifted and he was allowed to return to Russia and settle with his wife and family. Olga and her children were given the title of Prince and Princesses Paley. Paul, who had always owned a palace in St Petersburg, cherished the idea of building his own house at Tsarskoe-Selo, similar to his Paris home. His son Vladimir had already been sent to St Petersburg and enrolled in the military academy. By May 1914 the house was finished and the family moved in.
Before he went to war, initially in command of a corps of the imperial guard and then at army headquarters, Paul spent much of his time reading, walking, playing with his younger daughters and taking them to the circus. Soon after the outbreak of war they transformed their ballroom into a workshop where Princess Paley, the ladies of Tsarkoe-Selo and their children made comforts for wounded soldiers. Yet, almost unnoticed by the family, Paul’s health was declining. For some years before his return to Russia there had been concern about the state of his liver, and a tendency to suffer from stomach ulcers. During the winter of 1915-16 he was seriously ill with pleurisy. He was losing weight, had a suspected gall bladder infection, and at one stage there was talk of operating on him in order to save his life.
Paul recovered but the fate of the Russian monarchy was in a much worse state and would never recover from the events that lay ahead. In December 1916, Paul’s son Dmitri, Prince Felix Youssupov and Vladimir Purishkevich murdered Grigory Rasputin hoping that his removal would restore balance. The Empress, however, seemed more determined to be guided by what she thought Rasputin would have advised and several of the family were discussing the incompetence of the Government, ministers and above all the Empress, who was leading the country to destruction they talked openly about saving the throne by a change of sovereign.
Meanwhile in the capital events were moving beyond all control from the forces of law and order. In February one of the queues for bread in Petrograd broke ranks and ransacked a baker’s shop. Ministers informed the Tsar that this was the beginning of street disorders and within three days the situation had escalated, troops were called out and fired into the crowds, leaving over three hundred dead. When reinforcements were sent to the city, some of the garrisons mutinied and began to fraternize with the rebels.
In March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, he and his family were placed under house arrest and moved to Tobolsk in Siberia. In August Paul and his family were placed under arrest in their own home. Paul was unable to attend Marie’s second wedding to Alexander Putiatin, son of the commander of the palaces at Tsarkoe-Selo.
And then came the revolution in which Lenin and his hardline Bolshevik supporters seized power and took control of Russia. In October Paul’s house was searched and the officer in charge told him that he had orders to take him to the Smolny Institute, Petrograd, where the Soviet were sitting. The Bolsheviks had vowed death to the whole aristocracy, and everybody feared the worst.
Paul’s son Vladimir was given a chance to disown his father and all the Romanovs but he refused. He was taken to Ekaterinburg, where the former Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and then north to Alapaevsk along with other imperial captives including Ella, the widow of Grand Duke Serge. On the evening of 18 July they were collected by a group of soldiers, ordered into a lorry, and driven into the countryside where they were all thrown down a disused mine shaft. A couple of hand grenades were thrown in after them.
Grand Duke Paul was unaware of their fate and matters at home gradually changed for the worse. As winter grew near it was evident that the family did not have enough fuel for central heating. Still suffering from his stomach ulcer, Paul was kept on a strict diet, and only with difficulty were the necessary provisions procured. In January 1918 their fuel ran out completely and they had to move into the house of his nephew Boris, also at Tsarskoe-Selo where stoves could be heated by wood fires.
Shortly afterwards came uncomfirmed reports in Bolshevik newspapers of the Tsar’s death. On 19 July Paul and Olga read with horror that “Nicholas Romanov” had made an effort to escape from prison, and had been killed by the Red Guard. No mention was made of the fate of his wife and children. Not for some weeks was it revealed to a horrified world that the former Tsar, Tsarina, their children and remaining servants at Ipatiev House had been roused from their sleep one night, ushered into a small room downstairs and shot dead by a small group of Bolshevik guards.
On 31 July Paul was arrested. The Bolsheviks were determined to round up the last few Grand Dukes remaining on Russian soil. He was held in Schpalernaia prison for six months, partly in the prison itself and partly, because of ill-health in the infirmary. He had a few chances to escape but he knew that if he gave in to temptation he would put the lives of his cousins in danger and he could never have lived with that on his conscience. On 28 January 1919 Paul was taken to the fortress of St Peter and St Paul where he joined three other Grand Dukes.
The Fortress of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, St Petersburg, Russia
At 3 a.m. the next day all four were ordered outside, stripped to the naked to the waist, and led in front of the Cathedral. They saw a vast common grave in which there were already 13 common bodies. The soldiers of the Red Guard made them stand in line near the grave, and without further torture summarily drew their pistols and shot them dead. Just before the shots rang out, one observer heard Paul say out loud, in Russian: “God forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Princess Paley escaped to Finland and eventually to France with her daughters, who were married within a few years. She passed away in Paris in November 1929, aged sixty-four.
IRINA PAVLOVNA PALEI
Born: 21 Dec 1903 in Paris
Died: 15 Nov 1990 in Biarritz
Married: 4 Jun 1923 in Paris
Spouse: Fedor Alexandrovich, Prince Romanov (b. 23.12.1898)
Divorced: 1936
Married: 11 Apr 1950 in Biarritz
Spouse: Hubert, Count de Monbrison (b. 15.8.1892)
Children (1st Marriage):
Irina Fedorovna, Princess Romanova (b. 7.5.1923)
Mihail Fedorovich, Prince Romanov (b. 4.5.1924)
Biography Notes
Princess Palei. Created Princess Romanovskaja in 1951 by Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich.
NATALIA PAVLOVNA PALEI
Born: 5 Dec 1905 in Paris
Died: 27 Dec 1981 in New York
Married: 10 Aug 1927 in Paris
Spouse: Lucien Lelong (b. 11.10.1889)
Divorced:1937
Married: 8 Sep 1937 in Fairfield, Connecticut
Spouse: John Chapman Wilson (b. 19.8.1899)
|
