Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (; 18 September 1891 – 5 March 1942) was a son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, Marie of Edinburgh (consort of Ferdinand I of Romania), King George II of Greece, King Alexander of Greece, Helen of Greece and Denmark, (second wife of Carol II of Romania), King Paul of Greece, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (consort of Queen Elizabeth II).
His early life was marked by the death of his mother and his father's banishment from Russia after marrying a commoner in 1902. Grand Duke Dmitri and his elder sister Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, to whom he remained very close throughout his life, were raised in Moscow by their paternal uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, an older sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. His uncle was killed in 1905 and as his aunt entered religious life, Dmitri spent a great deal of his youth in the company of Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family at the Alexander Palace as they viewed him almost like a foster son.
Grand Duke Dmitri followed a military career, graduating from the . He was commissioned as a cornet in the Horse Guards Regiment. An excellent equestrian, he competed in the Olympic Games of 1912 in Stockholm. As a grandson of Tsar Alexander II in the male line, he occupied a prominent position as the Russian imperial court, but he had little interest in his military career, leading instead a fast life. Through his friendship with Felix Yusupov, he took part in the assassination of the mystic Grigori Rasputin, who was seen to have an undue and insidious influence on the Tsar and his wife.
Banished to the war front in Persia, he escaped the Russian Revolution and emigrated to Western Europe. He lived briefly in England, and during the 1920s in Paris, where he had a brief but notorious affair with the famous French fashion designer Coco Chanel. He also lived briefly in the United States. In 1926, he married Audrey Emery, an American heiress. The couple had a son before divorcing in 1937.
As the youngest Grand Duke to have survived the Russian Revolution, he was a prominent figure in the Russian community in exile, but he was not interested in politics, supporting instead the claim of his first cousin, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia. By the outbreak of World War II, his health was already in decline, and he died of tuberculosis in Davos, Switzerland aged 50.
Early life
Grand Duke Dmitri was born on 18 September [O.S. 6 September] 1891 as the second child and only son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and his first wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. Dmitri's father, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, was the youngest child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Dmitri's mother, Alexandra, was a daughter of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia,Perry & Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 43 and a sister of King Constantine I, and Andrew who was the father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, making them first cousins. He was also first cousins to Marie, Queen of Romania and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia, who were the daughters of his paternal aunt Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia who married Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The birth took place under tragic circumstances. During the summer of 1891, Grand Duchess Alexandra and Grand Duke Paul visited Paul's brother Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich at his country estate near Moscow. Alexandra was seven months pregnant with Dmitri when, while taking a stroll with some friends by the Moskva River, she jumped into a boat, falling as she got in.Hayter-Menzies, Grand Duke Dmitri Palovich p. 48 The next day, she collapsed in the middle of a ball from violent labor pains brought on by the previous day's activities; Dmitri was born in the hours following the accident. Alexandra slipped into a coma from which she never emerged. She died of eclampsia six days after Dmitri's birth. Although doctors had no hope for Dmitri's survival, he still lived, with the help of his uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, who gave the premature Dmitri the baths that were prescribed by the doctors, wrapped him in cotton wool and kept him in a cradle filled with hot water bottles to keep his temperature regulated, the treatment of the time to keep premature babies alive.
At birth, Dmitri had an older sister, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, with whom he had a close relationship throughout his life. Grand Duke Paul was so distraught by the unexpected death of his young wife that he initially neglected Dmitri and Maria. The children were therefore largely cared for by Paul's elder brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who had no children of their own. They spent Christmases and later some summer holidays with Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Elisabeth who set aside a playroom and bedrooms for the youngsters at their country home, Ilinskoe.
In his widowhood, Grand Duke Paul settled with his children in his palace in St Petersburg. The children occupied a nursery suite on the second floor, looked after by nurses and attendants.Van der Kiste, The Romanovs 1818–1959, p. 141. A commander of the imperial Horse Guards, Grand Duke Paul loved his children, but as was customary at the time, he refrained from showing them spontaneous affection. Dmitri and his sister were initially educated at home by governesses and private tutors, while they adored their father who visited them twice daily.Van der Kiste, The Romanovs 1818–1959, p. 142. Like all male members of the Romanov family, Grand Duke Dmitri was destined to follow a military career which traditionally began for a Grand Duke at the age of seven.Hall & Beeche, The Romanovs 1818–1959, p. 176. This was delayed, in Dmitri's case, until he was nine years old. In the spring of 1901, his education was entrusted to General George Mikhailovich Laiming. Laiming was a warm, affectionate man who became devoted to his charge. He moved into the palace with his wife and their four-year-old son Boris. In their apartments, Dmitri and his sister enjoyed a warm family environment.
Youth and education
In 1895, Grand Duke Paul began an affair with a married woman, Olga Valerianova Pistolkors. He was able to obtain a divorce for her and he eventually married Olga in 1902, while the couple was staying abroad. The marriage was a violation of the house law of the Romanovs, and as they had married defying Nicholas II's opposition, the Tsar forbade them to return to Russia and Grand Duke Paul was not allowed to take the children with him into exile.Van der Kiste, The Romanovs 1818–1959, p. 166. Left fatherless, eleven-year-old Dmitri and his twelve-year-old sister were sent to live with their uncle, Grand Duke Sergei, and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (the Empress's sister), in Moscow.Van der Kiste, The Romanovs 1818–1959, p. 167.
The loss of their father and the sudden move to Moscow caused the children great distress.See letter of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, 27 October 1939. Dmitri and Maria resented their aunt and uncle, blaming them for the forced separation from their real father, who had abandoned them. The original is in the family archive at Insel Mainau, home of the late Count Lennart Bernadotte In her memoirs, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (the Younger) describes Grand Duke Sergei as a stern disciplinarian, and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth as a cold and unwelcoming presence.Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna (1931) "Education of a Princess". The Viking Press. In 1903, at the age of twelve, Dmitri was enrolled in the Chevalier Guard regiment following studies at the Calvary Academy.Hayter-Menzies, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, p. 51.
On 4 February 1905, Grand Duke Sergei, who had recently resigned from the post of Governor-General of Moscow, was assassinated by Ivan Kalyaev, a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.Hayter-Menzies, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, p. 50. Kalyaev, armed with a homemade bomb, had aborted his first attempt to kill the Grand Duke when he spotted Dmitri and Marie with their uncle in his carriage. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei is the subject matter of the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus' 1949 play The Just Assassins. His uncle's death was only one of several assassinations that robbed Dmitri of close family members. After Sergei's death, Dmitri's father, Grand Duke Paul was allowed to return to Russia to attend the funeral. He asked Nicholas II to restore the custody of his children but instead, Nicholas named Sergei's widow Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna as the children's guardian. Maria Pavlovna continued to have some feelings of anger toward her aunt, whom she would blame for her overly hasty and unsuccessful marriage to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden in 1908, but Dmitri formed a very strong bond with Elizabeth and came to admire her personal fortitude.
Formative years
Maria Pavlovna's wedding to Prince William took place at Tsarskoe Selo in 1908, and she departed for Sweden with her husband. Elizabeth Feodorovna stayed on for a time at Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo as guests of the Emperor and the Empress. It was during this period that Dmitri began to form a close bond with Nicholas II, looking upon him as a surrogate father. He joined him on his daily walks and sought to spend as much time with him as possible. Nicholas, in turn, treated Dmitri very kindly. He seems to have loved the young man's free spirit and sense of humor, a welcome diversion from the stresses of his daily life.Dmitri wrote several letters to his sister during his stay with Nicholas and Alexandra, describing how much he was enjoying himself there. The original letters survive in the Bernadotte family archive on the Island of Mainau. His later correspondence with Nicholas II, from 1908-1914, would fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks and be published in 1925 in "Nicholas II and the Grand Dukes" ["Николай II и Великие Князья"], edited by V.P. Semennikov.
In 1909, Dmitri left his aunt's care to move to St Petersburg with his head tutor and companion, General Laiming. He lived at his father's vacant palace and then at the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, which he had inherited from his uncle Grand Duke Sergei, and would become his principal residence until he left Russia. He enrolled in the Nikolaevskoe Cavalry School, and upon graduation, he was commissioned as a cornet in the Horse Guards Regiment, which his father had once commanded.
As a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II in the male line, he occupied a prominent position as the Russian imperial court, and led a fast life in the Russian upper class. He was an excellent equestrian, and he competed in show jumping at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He placed ninth in the individual jumping event whereas Russia placed fifth in the team jumping event. Disappointed in the performance of the Russian team, Dmitri started the idea of a national Russian sports competition, the very beginning of what under Soviet rule became the Spartakiad.