| Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich | |
|---|---|
 Alexandrovich,c. 1894 | |
| Born | (1847-04-22)22 April 1847 Winter Palace,Saint Petersburg,Russian Empire |
| Died | 17 February 1909(1909-02-17) (aged 61) Vladimir Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Burial | Grand Ducal Mausoleum,Fortress of St. Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Spouse | |
| Issue Detail | |
| House | Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Alexander II of Russia |
| Mother | Marie of Hesse and by Rhine |
| Religion | Russian Orthodoxy |
| Signature |  |
| Part ofa series on |
| Conservatism in Russia |
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Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian:Влади́мир Александрович; 22[1] April 1847 – 17 February 1909) was a son of EmperorAlexander II of Russia, a brother of EmperorAlexander III of Russia and the senior Grand Duke of theHouse of Romanov during the reign of his nephew, EmperorNicholas II.
Grand Duke Vladimir followed a military career and occupied important military positions during the reigns of the last three Russian Emperors. Interested in artistic and intellectual pursuits; he was appointed President of the Academy of Fine Arts. He functioned as a patron of many artists and as a sponsor of the Imperial ballet.[2]
During the reign of his father, Emperor Alexander II, he was made Adjutant-General, senator in 1868 and a member of theCouncil of State in 1872. His brother, Alexander III, also promoted his career. He became a member of theCouncil of Ministers, Commander of the Imperial Guards Corps[3] and Military Governor of Saint Petersburg. He tried to exert some influence over his nephew Tsar Nicholas II, but had to content himself with holding a rival court with his wifeGrand Duchess Maria Pavlovna at his palace inSaint Petersburg. The events ofBloody Sunday in 1905, while he was Military Governor of St Petersburg, tarnished his reputation. During the last years of his life, the rift between his family and that of Nicholas II widened.[4] He died after a stroke in 1909.
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was born on 22 April 1847 at theWinter Palace inSaint Petersburg.[5] He was fourth among the eight children ofAlexander II of Russia and his wifeMaria Alexandrovna, born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
He was eight years old when at the death of his grandfatherNicholas I, his father became Russian tsar.[5] Grand Duke Vladimir was well educated and through his life he was interested in literature and the arts. However, as all male members of the Romanov family he had to follow a military career. As only the third son in a numerous family, he was far from the succession to the Russian throne.[5] Nevertheless, in 1865, the early death of his eldest brother, theTsarevich Nicholas, left Vladimir unexpectedly close to the throne as heir presumptive after his second brother Alexander.[5] Unlike Alexander, the new heir, Vladimir was witty and ambitious. Rumors circulated at the time, that Alexander II would have his eldest surviving son removed from the succession placing Vladimir as his heir. Alexander himself would have preferred to step aside from the succession hoping tomarry morganatically, but eventually he yielded to family pressure and married a suitable bride.[6] Relations between the two brothers, although cordial, were never warm.
In 1867 Grand Duke Vladimir was named honorary president of the Russian ethnographic society, the same year he accompanied his father and his brother Alexander to the World Fair inParis, where his father was shot by a Polish nationalist.[5] In 1871 he visited the Caucasus region,Georgia,Chechnya andDagestan with his father and his brothers.[5] In 1872 he accompanied his father to Vienna at the reunion of the three emperors: Russia, Germany and Austria.[5]
A member of the European beau monde, he made frequent trips to Paris. He became portly as a young man, although in later life he slimmed down. He was a skillful painter and gathered an important book collection. He was a well known gourmet, accumulating a collection of menus copied after meals, adding notations with his impressions about the food.
While traveling through Germany with his family in June 1871, Grand Duke Vladimir metDuchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (14 May 1854 – 6 September 1920), daughter of Grand DukeFrederick Francis II and of Augusta ofReuss-Köstritz.[9] She was seventeen years old and was already engaged to a distant relative,Prince George of Schwarzburg.[9] Grand Duke Vladimir was then twenty four.[9] The two were smitten with each other. Vladimir was a second-cousin of Maria's father, who was also a grandson ofGrand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia. They were also second-cousins in descent fromFrederick William III of Prussia (1770-1840). In order to marry Vladimir, Maria broke off her previous engagement, but she refused to undergo the expected conversion to theOrthodox religion.[10] This delayed the couple's engagement for almost two years. Finally, Emperor Alexander II consented to Marie's continued adherence to her Lutheran faith, allowing Vladimir to marry her without loss of his rights to the Russian throne. The engagement was announced in April 1874.[10]
The wedding took place on 28 August 1874 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.[10] Vladimir's wife adopted the patronymicPavlovna upon her marriage and became known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia - or asMiechen within the Romanov family. Decades later on 10 April 1908, shortly before the death in 1909 of Vladimir Aleksandrovich, she converted to the Russian Orthodox confession;[11]on 13 April 1908 Emperor Nicholas II commanded the use of the style "the Orthodox Grand Duchess".[12] - «именовать Ея Императорское Высочество Благоверною Великою Княгинею»[13]
Both Grand Duke Vladimir and his wife were witty and ambitious. They enjoyed entertaining and their residence in Saint Petersburg became the heart of the Imperial capital's social life. Well suited to each other, they had a long and happy marriage.[7][14]
By the time of his marriage, construction had already been completed on Vladimir's own residence and he moved there with his wife.[14] Named theVladimir Palace, it was one of the last imperial palaces constructed in Saint Petersburg. Grand Duke Vladimir appointed architect Aleksandr Rezanov to head the project because of his knowledge of ancient Russian architecture.[15] A team of architects assisted Rezanov:Vasily Kenel,Andrei Huhn [ru],Ieronim Kitner [ru] and Vladimir Shreter. The foundation stone was laid on 15 July 1867.[16] Construction work lasted five years, from 1867 to 1872. The furniture was designed by architectVictor Schröter.
The site chosen for the palace was the Embankment near theWinter Palace in the center of St Petersburg.[15] It had previously been occupied by the house of CountVorontsov-Dashkov [ru] which had been bought by the treasury. The lot was enlarged by purchasing the neighboring house of Madame Karatinga.[15] The total construction and furnishing cost of Vladimir Palace was 820,000 rubles, a much more modest amount than the one spent building previous palaces for other grand dukes a decade earlier.[15]
The Vladimir palace stands, like the Winter Palace and theMarble Palace, by theNeva on theDvorstsovaya Embankment.[17] The façade, richly ornamented withstuccorustication, was patterned afterLeon Battista Alberti'spalazzi inFlorence. The main porch is built ofBremen sandstone and adorned withgriffins, coats-of-arms, and cast-ironlanterns. Other details are cast inPortland cement.
The palace and its outbuildings contain some 360 rooms, all decorated in eclectic historic styles:Neo-Renaissance (reception room, parlor),Gothic Revival (dining room),Russian Revival (Oak Hall),Rococo (White Hall),Byzantine style (study),Louis XIV, various oriental styles, and so on. This interior ornamentation, further augmented byMaximilian Messmacher in 1881–1891, is considered by art historians, such asNikolay Punin, a major monument to the 19th-century passion forhistoricism.[18] Grand Duke Vladimir decorated his apartments with his collection of Russian paintings by the best artists of his time, such as[17]Ilya Repin,Ivan Aivazovsky,Feodor Bruni,Vasili Vereshchagin,Ivan Kramskoy,Mikhail Vrubel,Nikolai Sverchkov andRudolf Ferdinandovich Frentz [ru].[19]
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna had five children:
Grand Duke Vladimir occupied important military positions during three reigns. He experienced battle in theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, taking part in the campaign alongside his father and his brothers Alexander and Sergei.[21] He fought against the Turkish troops as the commanding officer of the XII Corps of theRussian army. However, his military career interested him less than art and literature.[22] In 1880 his father appointed him President of theImperial Academy of Fine Arts.[5] He also became a member of the Academy of Science and an agent of theRumyantsev Museum.[2][23] Grand Duke Vladimir was in the Imperial capital when his father was assassinated and succeeded by Alexander III in 1881. It fell upon Vladimir, who regained his composure more quickly than his brother, to announce their father's death to the public.[24] Vladimir inherited his father's personal library, which the Grand Duke added to his large book-collection that was arranged in three libraries at the Vladimir Palace.[25] (After theRussian Revolution of 1917 these books were sold off randomly by weight and currently form part of several American university-collections.[25])
Although Alexander III was not close to Vladimir and there was a rivalry between their wives, he promoted his brother's career. The day after their father's death he appointed Vladimir asMilitary Governor of St Petersburg, a post previously held by their uncleGrand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich.[23] Vladimir served on theState Council and chaired the official commission that supervised the building of theChurch of the Savior on Blood, built between 1883 and 1907 on the site of the assassination of his father, Emperor Alexander II of Russia.[23]
Grand Duke Vladimir was a keen philanthropist. A talented painter himself, he became a famous patron of the arts.[2] He frequented many artists and gathered a valuable collection of paintings and old icons.[26] He later took a great interest in ballet. He financed the tour ofSergei Diaghilev'sBallets Russes.[2]
Emperor Alexander III's three sons rendered Vladimir and Vladimir's own three sons remote in the line of succession to Russia's throne. Nevertheless, Vladimir seemed unexpectedly close to becoming Emperor in 1888 when Alexander III with his wife and all of their children were involved in theBorki train disaster. Vladimir and his wife, then in Paris, did not bother to come back to Russia. This annoyed Alexander III, who commented that if he had died with his children, Vladimir would have rushed to return to Russia to become Emperor.[27] At Alexander III's death in 1894 there were unfounded rumors that the army intended to proclaim Grand Duke Vladimir emperor in place of his nephew Nicholas II.[28] Vladimir tried to influence the new Emperor, particularly at the beginning of Nicholas II's reign.[29]
Although the Grand Duke was conservative in his political views, he did believe in human virtues. Something of a rascal himself, he preferred the company of amusing witty people - regardless of their ideology or background.[18] The more liberal members of Russian society were invited to lavish parties at his residence. He often intimidated people with his coarseness, rudeness and hot temper.[18] Vladimir Alexandrovich was also a devoted family man, close to his children.
In January 1905 a wave of strikes broke out in St. Petersburg.[31] On 9 January (O.S.)/22 (N.S.) a peaceful procession of workers led by a priest, FatherGeorgy Gapon, marched towards the Winter Palace from different points in the city hoping to present requests for reforms directly to Emperor Nicholas II.[32] The Tsar, however, was not in the capital.[33] GeneralIvan Fullon, St Petersburg Governor, tried to stop the march.[32] When a large group of workers reached Winter Palace Square, troops acting on direct orders from Guards Commander PrinceSergei Vasilchikov opened fire upon the demonstrators. More than 100 marchers were killed and several hundred were wounded.[33] Although Grand Duke Vladimir claimed no direct responsibility about that tragedy, since he was also away from the city, his reputation was tarnished. The massacre, known asBloody Sunday, was followed by a series of strikes in other cities, peasant uprisings in the country, and mutinies in the armed forces, which seriously threatened the tsarist regime and became known as theRevolution of 1905.[33] A month after Bloody Sunday, Vladimir's brother Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a terrorist bomb inMoscow.[34]
In October 1905, Vladimir's eldest son and heirGrand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia married his first cousinVictoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Vladimir's sisterMaria. Nicholas II was enraged by the marriage, which was contracted without his permission and was in violation of the Russian Orthodox ban on marriages between first cousins. Nicholas stripped Kirill of his imperial titles and banished him.[35] Vladimir protested the treatment given to his son and resigned from all his posts in protest.[36] Vladimir “shouted so violently at his nephew that the court chamberlain, waiting outside the door, feared for his master’s safety and almost ran off to summon the imperial guards.”[37] Vladimir slammed his fists on Nicholas' desk and ripped off the military decorations from his uniform, shouting, "I have served your father, your grandfather and you. But now as you have degraded my son I no longer wish to serve you.”[38] Eventually, Nicholas II relented and forgave his cousins for marrying without his consent, but he did not allow them to return to Russia.[36] The full pardon came only after several deaths in the family, including Vladimir's own, had placed Kirill third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne.[36]
Grand Duke Vladimir died suddenly on 4(O.S.)/17(N.S.) February 1909 after suffering a major cerebral hemorrhage.[39] Vladimir's widow and their four children survived theRussian Revolution of 1917. In 1924 in exile, Kirill proclaimed himself Emperorde jure, Vladimir's line thereby claimed headship of the Imperial House. Vladimir was the paternal grandfather and namesake of the future pretender claimantGrand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. His granddaughterPrincess Marina of Greece and Denmark became aBritish princess by marriage toPrince George, Duke of Kent, fourth son ofKing George V andQueen Mary, in 1934. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich's great granddaughter,Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, is the current claimant and his great grandsonPrince Michael of Kent is an honorary member of theRomanov Family Association.[40]
The Grand Duke received the following Russian and foreign decorations:[41]
Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of theLudwig Order,8 June 1857[42]
Kingdom of Prussia:[43]
Principality of Serbia:Grand Cross of the Cross of Takovo,27 July 1857[44]
Oldenburg:Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown,28 July 1860[45]
Württemberg:Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown,1864[46]
Denmark:Knight of the Elephant,14 June 1866[47]
French Empire: Grand Cross of theLegion of Honour,6 June 1867[48]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach:Grand Cross of the White Falcon,17 June 1867
Kingdom of Greece:Grand Cross of the Redeemer,28 June 1867
Principality of Montenegro: Grand Cross of theOrder of Prince Danilo I,22 November 1868
Kingdom of Italy:Knight of the Annunciation,April 1869[49]
Sweden-Norway:Knight of the Seraphim,27 July 1869[50]
Belgium:Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold,13 June 1870
Netherlands:Grand Cross of the Netherlands Lion,1 July 1870
Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Royal HungarianOrder of St. Stephen,19 August 1872
Baden:
Mecklenburg:Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown, with Crown in Ore,22 April 1874
United Principalities of Romania: Iron Cross for the Crossing of the Danube (1877),1878
Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of theSaxe-Ernestine House Order,1880[52]
Spain:Knight of the Golden Fleece,29 October 1891[53]
Kingdom of Bavaria:Knight of St. Hubert,1897[54]
Empire of Japan: Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Chrysanthemum,13 April 1902[55]
United Kingdom: Honorary Grand Cross of theRoyal Victorian Order,29 December 1903[56]One of the most unexpected events to take place among the Romanovs during the early twentieth century was the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna's religious conversion. For thirty-five years, Miechen had clung steadfastly to her Lutheran faith. But in 1908, she took the bold and unexpected step of embracing Orthodoxy.
'[...] Announcing this long wished for occasion to Out Loyal subjects, we command to call her Imperial Highness the Blessed Grand Duchess.'
Media related toVladimir Alexandrovich of Russia at Wikimedia Commons
