Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (; born Duchess Marie of Mecklenberg-Schwerin; – 6 September 1920) was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his first wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz. A prominent hostess in Saint Petersburg following her marriage in 1874 to the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, she was known by many as the "grandest of the grand duchesses".

Appearance and personality Marie was noted for her attractiveness and sense of style. When Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn visited Germany in search of brides, Queen Victoria noted that Marie was "said to be very pretty."Gelardi, p. 45 When they first met, her future husband Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia admired her "wonderfully expressive eyes."Gelardi, p. 44 At her wedding, Thomas W. Knox observed that "Vladimir's bride is good-looking, solid, well-formed, with plump and finely rounded shoulders; a neck neither long nor short; regularly formed features, with the exception of the nose, which has a slight tendency to pugginess."Gelardi, p. 48 At the coronation of her brother-in-law Alexander III, her niece, Marie of Edinburgh, noted that "she is not thin enough for classical lines but she wears her clothes better than any other woman present; her shoulders are superb and as white as cream; there is a smartness about her that no one else can attain."Gelardi, p. 7 In 1910, the popular British novelist and author Elinor Glyn wrote that Marie was "a most stately, magnificent looking princess."Gelardi, p. 240

Marie was famous for her wittiness and sociability. Meriel Buchanan attended one of Marie's dinner parties at Vladimir Palace, and she wrote that Marie "know[s] exactly what to say to each individual person, an inimitable gift which royalties do not always possess, but which she had at her command in the fullest sense."Gelardi, p. 239 When she visited Sofia, Bulgaria, she impressed A.A. Mossolov, head of the court Chancellery, with her wit and vivacity. He wrote: "For three hours, the Grand Duchess was the centre of the animated and brilliant conversation. She was talking to persons whom she had never before met; and she did not make a single mistake." Glyn reflected that Marie "had a very highly cultivated and far-seeing mind, with a delightful sense of humour, and was adored by everyone."Gelardi, p. 241

Marie was interested in literature. In late 1909, she invited Glyn to come to Russia to write a Russian-based story. She told Glyn: "Everyone always writes books about our peasants. Come and write one about how real people live."Gelardi, p. 178. Glyn produced a piece of fiction called His Hour, which she dedicated to Marie, saying "her kind appreciation of the finished work is a source of the deepest gratification to me." Glyn modeled one of the characters, Princess Ardacheff, after Marie.

Like her husband, Marie loved the arts. After her husband's death, Marie succeeded him as president of the Academy of Fine Arts.Virginia Cowles, 1913; An End and a Beginning, Harper & Row, 1968

Marie was addicted to gambling. The painter Henry Jones Thaddeus attended one of Marie's parties, where she insisted that her guests play roulette.Gelardi, p. 159 When she and her husband traveled abroad, she liked to frequent the casinos of Monte Carlo.Gelardi, p. 221 During Nicholas II's reign, she defied a prohibition on the playing of roulette and baccarat in private homes, and she was temporarily banned from Court.

Early life Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore was born a duchess of the Grand Ducal House of Mecklenburg to Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – the then-Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his first wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz (1822–1862) – in the Schloss Ludwigslust. She was eight years old when her mother died in 1862. Her father married twice more. She studied singing with Gustav Graben-Hoffmann..In her family, she was called Miechen.

Marriage

Marie married Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, the third son of Alexander II of Russia. She was one of the very few royals with a Slavic patriline, who ever married a male dynast of the House of Romanov. Previously, she had been engaged to George Albert I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, but broke it off as soon as she met Vladimir.

Marie and Vladimir married on 28 August 1874. The wedding took place in the chapel of the Winter Palace. It was not as lavish as the wedding of Vladimir's sister Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh. Lord Augustus Loftus noted, "Every thing went off very well; although the marriage was not so resplendent as that of the Duke of Edinburgh. At this season of the year this town is a desert and therefore only those came who were obliged to come."Gelardi, p. 47

As the Russian emperor's daughter-in-law, Marie took on a new style Her Imperial Highness.

Marie and Vladimir had four sons and one daughter.

Upon her marriage she took the Russian name of Maria Pavlovna. She was Emperor Paul I of Russia's great-great-granddaughter, and she wished to emphasize her exalted ancestry with the patronymic "Pavlovna."

Religion For three years, Marie and Vladimir could not marry, because Marie refused to convert from Lutheranism to the Russian Orthodox Church. Vladimir's mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna was disappointed by Marie's refusal to convert: She herself had converted from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, and she thought that the Russian Orthodox church was "quite good enough for any daughter-in-law of hers." She told Vladimir that she hoped that Marie would "become Russian in body and soul," indicating her hope that Marie would convert.

Emperor Alexander II finally agreed to let Vladimir marry Marie without insisting on her conversion to Orthodoxy.Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, Sutton Publishing, 2004, p. 45 Every bride of a Russian grand duke needed to convert to Russian Orthodoxy before Marie, so Marie's decision was shocking and unprecedented. Lord Augustus Loftus noted: "It is a matter of surprise here for a Foreign Princess married to a grand duke to retain her own religion but it is a process to which they will have to accustom themselves or they will find no wives for the Russian grand dukes. I think it is a healthy practice and it will do them good." In a letter to Hamilton Fish, Eugene Schuyler wrote: "The Grand Duchess will retain the Lutheran religion. This is worthy of note, as hitherto the Russian laws have required the wives of all grand dukes to adopt the orthodox Russian faith."

Marie set the precedent for brides who did not have to convert to Russian Orthodoxy to marry Russian grand dukes. At the time of Marie's marriage, Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine wrote to her mother, Queen Victoria, "My mother-in-law tells me that since Miechen has been allowed to retain her religion, this right will of course be conceded to all Princesses in the future."Gelardi, p. 46 Many years later, Alice's daughter Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine would use Marie's precedent to retain her Lutheran faith and marry Marie's brother-in-law, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia.

Marie was furious when her sister-in-law Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia converted to Russian Orthodoxy after her marriage. Grand Duchess Elizabeth predicted Marie's response, and she asked her father Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine: "Please do not yet tell anybody at Darmstadt until I write again when Miechen [Marie] knows."Gelardi, p. 126

In 1908, Marie converted to Orthodoxy. The decision was unexpected because she had been Lutheran for 35 years.Gelardi, p. 230 Meriel Buchanan, daughter of a British ambassador to Russia, defended Marie's conversion as sincere: "For some time past the Grand Duchess had turned more and more to the colour and ceremonial of the Russian Church. She had prayed to the Virgin for the safety of her son [Kirill] when he was injured [during the Russo-Japanese War], and seeing in his escape from death an answer to these prayers, she finally adopted the Orthodox religion." However, some believed that the ambitious Marie acted to improve the chances of her own sons ascending the throne. After Emperor Nicholas II's sickly son Tsesarevich Alexei and unmarried, childless brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Marie's husband and her sons were in line for the throne. In 1916, Vladimir Purishkevich wrote in his diary: "I shall never forget the story of Ivan Grigorevich Scheglovitov, former Minister of Justice. He said that one day Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich asked him whether the descendants of the Vladimir line have any legal rights to the throne and if not, why not? Scheglovitov... told him that the Grand Dukes had no rights whatsoever because their mother continued in the Lutheran faith even after marriage. Boris left him but came back sometime later with a paper showing that the Grand Duchess had given up her Protestant religion and had embraced the Orthodox."Gelardi, p. 311

Life in Russia Marie lived at the Vladimir Palace situated on the Palace Embankment on the Neva River.

Marie was famous for being one of the best hostesses in the capital. During the reign of her nephew Emperor Nicholas II, her Grand Ducal court was the most cosmopolitan and popular one in the capital.Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1967, p. 388 The painter Henry Jones Thaddeus recalled that she was the "ideal hostess" and that "Her Imperial Highness was the life and soul of the company, the most brilliant contributor to the general discussion." Meriel Buchanan attended Marie's dinner party at Vladimir Palace, and she wrote, "Here one always met only the prettiest and smartest women, the most distinguished men, the most entertaining members of the diplomatic body."

During Alexander II's reign, Marie survived the Winter Palace explosion of February 1880. Revolutionaries had planted 125 pounds of dynamite in the dining room, and the Imperial family narrowly avoided death only because Alexander II had unusually gone to dinner late.Gelardi, p. 90 She told painter Henry Jones Thaddeus about her experience. She explained that she was late for dinner because one of her children was ill. At the palace, Alexander II delayed going to the dining room to ask about her child. She recalled that, "At this moment the most awful explosion rents the air. The dining-room vanished from our view, and we were plunged into impenetrable darkness. A poisonous gas filled the room, suffocating us, as well as adding to our horror." She reflected that "It really seemed as if the hand of Providence had delayed the Czar’s arrival; otherwise we should have shared the same fate [as the dining room]."

Marie was close to her father-in-law, Alexander II. She recalled that he was "devoted to her" and "kindness itself." However, she incurred his anger by refusing to accept his second wife, Catherine Dolgorukov.Gelardi, p. 94 She privately criticized Alexander II for his obsession with Catherine: "The creature... seems to have him bound as in a spell, to make him deaf and blind."Gelardi, p. 95 She resented him for forcing his family to accept Catherine, and she expressed her anger in a letter to the late Empress Maria's brother, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine: "The Tsar has commanded us as his subjects to be friendly with this wife; if not he would force us to it. You can imagine the internal conflict that agitates us all, and the perpetual struggle between feelings, duty, and external pressure."