Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia

Infobox Russian Royalty|grand duke
name = Paul Alexandrovich
title =Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia

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imgw = 200px
caption =
spouse = Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark
Olga Valerianovna Karnovitsch
issue = Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich
Prince Vladimir Pavlovich
Princess Irina Pavlovna
Princess Natalia Pavlovna
imperial house =House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
father =Alexander II of Russia
mother =Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
date of birth = birth date|1860|10|3|mf=y
place of birth = Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire
date of death =death date and age|1919|1|24|1860|10|3|mf=y
place of death =Peter and Paul Fortress, Petrograd, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, USSR
place of burial=|

Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich of Russia (Павел Александрович) (October 3, 1860 N.S.–January 24, 1919 N.S.) was the eighth child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by his first wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna. His birth was commemorated by the naming of the city of Pavlodar in Kazakhstan. He entered the Russian Army and rose to the rank of General, but was known as a gentle person, religious and accessible to people.

First marriage

On 17 June 1889, in Saint Petersburg, he married Princess Alexandra of Greece, who bore him two children:
* Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia b. 6 April 1890
* Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia b. 18 September 1891

Alexandra died just hours after Dmitri's birth. She had carelessly stepped into a waiting boat, causing premature labor; Dimitri was born in the hours following the accident. Alexandra slipped into a coma and never came out.

econd marriage

In 1893, the young widower became close to a commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, and years later requested Nicholas II's permission to marry her, but it was refused, and the couple settled in Paris. On 10 October 1902 they were married in an Orthodox church in Livorno, Italy. The Bavarian government granted Olga the title of Countess of Hohenfelsen in 1904, but the marriage caused a scandal in the Russian Court. Paul was dismissed of his military commissions, all his properties were seized, and his brother Grand Duke Sergei was appointed guardian of Maria and Dmitri.

For many years, he lived in exile in France with Olga and the three children they had: Vladimir, who became a remarkable poet, and two girls, Irina and Natalia. Eventually he was pardoned and settled with his family in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1915 the Tsar granted Olga and their children the title of Prince and Princesses Paley with the style of Serene Highness, and their children also became Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Princesses Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna Paley.

World War I

During World War I he was placed in command of the First Corps of the Imperial Guard and later was moved to a new appointment at the Tsar's headquarters. In 1917 he tried to convince the sovereigns to grant a Constitution, but his efforts failed. However, he was one of the few members of the Imperial Family who remained quite close to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna during the final days of the old régime.

Revolution and death

After the Bolsheviks seized power, he and his family faced a terrible ordeal. Their properties were confiscated, they lived under constant harassment, and in March 1918 his son Vladimir Paley was exiled to the Urals, where he was to be executed on July 18 1918 in a mineshaft near Alapayevsk.

In August, 1918, he was arrested and taken to prison in Saint Petersburg. His health, already bad, declined sharply, and his wife did all she could to have him released. Her efforts were useless: on January 29 1919, Paul was moved to St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress, and in the first hours of the following day he was shot there, along with his cousins Grand Dukes Dimitry Konstantinovich, Nikolay Mikhailovich and Georgy Mikhailovich.

They were buried in a mass grave in the Fortress, the Bolsheviks having refused the distraught Princess Paley the right to bury her husband. His body has never been found.

Ancestry

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1= 1. Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
2= 2. Alexander II of Russia
3= 3. Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
4= 4. Nicholas I of Russia
5= 5. Charlotte of Prussia
6= 6. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
7= 7. Wilhelmine of Baden
8= 8. Paul I of Russia
9= 9. Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg
10= 10. Frederick William III of Prussia
11= 11. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
12= 12. Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse
13= 13. Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
14= 14. Charles Louis of Baden
15= 15. Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
16= 16. Peter III of Russia
17= 17. Catherine II of Russia
18= 18. Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
19= 19. Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt
20= 20. Frederick William II of Prussia
21= 21. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
22= 22. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
23= 23. Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt
24= 24. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
25= 25. Karoline of Zweibrücken
26= 26. Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt
27= 27. Luise of Leiningen-Heidesheim
28= 28. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden
29= 29. Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt
30= 30. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
31= 31. Karoline of Zweibrücken