Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia (; 24 November 1877 – 9 November 1943) was a son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II.
He followed a military career. After graduating from the in 1896, he served as cornet in the Life Guards Hussar regiment. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and became a major general in the Russian Army in 1914. During World War I, he commanded the regiment of the Ataman Cossacks in 1915. He was known in Imperial Russia for his restless behavior and as a notorious playboy.
After the fall of the Russian monarchy, he was put under house arrest in Petrograd by the provisional government in March 1917, but he managed to escape the former Imperial capital in September that year and joined his mother and younger brother in the Caucasus. He departed revolutionary Russia in March 1919 with his longtime mistress, whom he married in exile. Eventually, he settled in France where he spent the rest of his life. He died in Occupied Paris in 1943.
Early life Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich was born on at his parents' palace in Saint Petersburg.Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 109. He was the third child and second surviving son among the five children of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, née Duchess Marie Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.Beéche, The Other Grand Dukes, p. 20.
His parents were very wealthy and lived in the luxurious Vladimir Palace in Saint Petersburg. His father, Vladimir Alexandrovich, a brother of Tsar Alexander III of Russia, was a renowned patron of the arts; his mother, Maria Pavlovna, one of the greatest hostesses of Russian society. Boris, more extroverted than his siblings, was his mother's favorite.
Grand Duke Boris was educated at home. He initially was raised by a British nanny, the first language he spoke was English.Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 53. As was customary in the Russian Imperial family, Boris and his siblings also have a sailor "nanny", a male attendant from the Imperial navy, who served as the children's companion looking after them. Boris Vladimirovich's education emphasized languages and military training. The parents chose the tutors, governors and friends for their children with care.Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 63 The four siblings spent most of their time at their parents villa in Tsarkoe Selo where they had a lot of freedom and were able to visit a park with a pond.
It was traditional for the male members of the Romanov family to follow a military career. From his birth, Grand Duke Boris was appointed patron of the 45th Azov Infantry Regiment, and enrolled into the Semeonovsky Life Guards and the Life Guards Dragoon regiment, the 4th Life Guard Rifle Battalion of the Imperial Family. In 1896, at the age of eighteen, he graduated from the Nikolaievsky Cavalry School with the rank of Cornet of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. The following year, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Emperor.
A Russian Grand Duke
At age eighteen, upon coming of age, Grand Duke Boris received from his father a plot of land at Tsarskoye Selo on the eastern bank of the Kolonistky pond near the Moskovskaya Gate. There, in 1895, the Grand Duke built his own residence in the style of an English country house.Hall, The English Dacha at Tsarkoe Selo, p. 26. All the materials were imported from England and construction was finished in less than a year. The estate, named Wolf Garden, compromised a cottage, coach house, stables, and a small tea house, where the grand duke could entertain his friends. The interiors were designed by Maples importing everything from England. To complement the British atmosphere, the servants were hired from England including a British butler.Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 64. Boris Vladimirovich lived in Wolf Garden all year round while still serving in the army.Hall, The English Dacha at Tsarkoe Selo, p. 64. The property was run as a modern farm and in 1899 a small house was added for the servants.
From his early youth Boris was notorious for his restless life style. He was an extrovert, very social, he liked to drink, gamble and womanizing. He became a famous playboy.Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 389. In 1896 during the coronation ceremonies of Tsar Nicholas II, he flirted with Crown Princess Marie of Romania, who was his first cousin and was already married.King, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in the United States, p. 15. The next year, he visited her in Bucharest, fueling more rumors. She said that "he had an attractive, rather husky voice, kind eyes, and humorous smile, which crinkled his forehead into unexpected lines. Not exactly handsome, he had nevertheless great charm." The grand duke also got entangled with a Mademoiselle Demidov. He was the cause of her engagement breaking off on the eve of her wedding. The famous ballerina Anna Pavlova was one of Boris' lovers. Princess Catherine Radziwill called him "the terror of jealous husbands as well as of watchful mothers".Chavchavadze, The Grand Dukes, p. 235. His trips abroad became legendary, his escapades in doubtful taste.Perry & Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 70. He drank in the company of spongers and prostitutes.
Although loaded with wealth and privilege, Grand Duke Boris found his income insufficient and ran up a huge debt of nearly half a million rubles with his mother. In one year, he spent more than 25,000 rubles for meals, 16,000 for servants and 8,000 for automobiles, giving 46 rubles to the church.Perry & Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 126. His mother protected him from the wrath of the family.
In 1901, Grand Duke Boris, age twenty five, had a liaison with a Frenchwoman, Jeanne Aumont-Lacroix, and had a son by her, born in Paris.Ferrand, Descendances naturelles des souverains et grands-ducs de Russie, de 1762 à 1910 , p. 408. The child, Jean Boris Lacroix (1902–1984), was not recognized. To break the relationship and strengthen his character Boris's parents sent him, with the Tsar's approval, on a world tour.
World tour
Grand Duke Boris' tour around the world lasted from until . It began in France, when in the autumn 1901, he met with his parents and brother Kirill in Paris. As there was an unexpected delay in the expedition, he spent the holidays with his aunt Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and his cousin Victoria Melita in their winter home in Nice. The long trip began in January 1902 on board the German ship Bremen, accompanied by a large entourage.Beéche, The Other Grand Dukes, p. 21. He visited Egypt and later India. He was a guest of Maharaja Surjyakanta Acharya Chowdhury of Muktagacha, Mymensingh now in Bangladesh. He was a guest of the Maharaja of Kapurthala in his kingdom near Punjab where he went tiger hunting. His trip continued with stops in Ceylon and French Indochina. He spent eight days in Siam as guest of King Chulalongkorn.Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 66. After that, he visited Japan, and on his way to the United States, he stopped in Honolulu.
On 1 August 1902, Grand Duke Boris arrived in San Francisco where he toured the city; attended the opera and went to a boxing match.King, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in the United States, p. 16. His visit to the United States drew a great deal of attention from American newspapers. A journalist in California described him as "a handsome young man of very pleasant manner who spoke good English." While in Chicago it was reported that he drank champagne from the satin slipper of a chorine from The Wizard of Oz and tipped showgirls with $20 bills. He claimed that those stories had been fabricated. He then spent two weeks in Newport, Rhode Island where he was entertained by the American society of the Gilded Age.King, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in the United States, pp. 16-18. In Newport, Boris Vladimirovich was invited to dinners and parties, he played tennis and even learned to play golf. He continued his trip sailing to New York City in Cornelius Vanderbilt's yacht. The grand duke was favorably impressed with the city's skyline and the modern use of electricityKing, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in the United States, p. 19. Boris visited President Theodore Roosevelt at his estate Sagamore Hill, on the North Shore of Long Island. Because his bad reputation had preceded him, First Lady Edith Roosevelt, who regarded his presence as both "a scandal and an insult" was conspicuously absent.King, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in the United States, p. 20. After six hectic weeks in America, Grand Duke Boris sailed back to Europe.
Jovial and increasingly stout, Boris was famous for his wild and unpredictable behavior, but eventually these excesses began to lose their appeal. He remarked to his brother Kirill, "After a while every woman is the same, nothing is new except the face".Perry & Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 71.
In October 1903, he enlisted in the Tsar's retinue. On 26 February, he left Russia for the Far East to take part in the Russo-Japanese War.Hall, Imperial Dancer, p. 94. He served under the command of the Russian governor in the Far East at the headquarters of the commander in chief of the Army, General A.N. Kuropatkin, taking part in combatKorneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 67.
On the morning of 31 March 1904, while galloping from the heights of Dacha Hill on the rim of Port Arthur, he witnessed the sinking of the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk in which more than 600 men died; his brother Grand Duke Kirill was among the few survivors.Perry & Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 84. In December 1904, for his bravery in battle, he was awarded a golden sword with the inscription For Courage and was promoted to staff captain.
In 1905, in Nice, Grand Duke Boris proposed to Princess Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg. They had met two years before in the Isle of Wight. She was seventeen years old and hesitated, deciding to postpone her decision until she had made her debut in society. By then she had forgotten about Boris and in the next season she met her future husband King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
1911 was a busy year for the grand duke. He was made colonel and in April he represented Russia at the Turin World Fair and the Fine Arts Exhibition in Rome during the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Italy's unification. On 22 June 1911, he represented his cousin Tsar Nicholas II at the coronation of Britain's King George V in Westminster Abbey. In November the same year, he was Russia's emissary at the coronation of Vajiravudh the King of Siam.Beéche, The Other Grand Dukes, p. 22. On his way back to Europe, he visited Egypt and Greece. Between 1910 and 1914, he wore the uniform of colonel of His Imperial Highness the Tsarevich Atamansky Guards Cossack Regiment. In 1914, he became a major general.Chavchavadze, The Grand Dukes, p. 236.
War