The Lives of Some Russian Grand Dukes and Grandduchesses
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John Curtis Perry, Constantine Pleshakov. The Flight of the Romanovs. A Family Saga. New York: Basic Books, 1999. xviii + 427 pp. $30.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-465-02462-9. Reviewed by Linda P. Rose Published on H-Russia (February, 2000) Descendants of the Romanov dynasty are part Perry and Pleshakov's book appears on a of the landscapes of Europe, Scandinavia, Aus‐ scene that is already crowded with books about tralia, the United States, South America and Cana‐ Romanovs. They contend that their book is the da. In January 1998, the Romanov Family Associa‐ first to study the grand dukes and duchesses of tion listed thirty-four living descendants of Tsar late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-cen‐ Nicholas I. While their ancestors were tsars or tury Russia. Some receive four or fve pages of grand dukes or grand duchesses, most work for coverage, others ten-to-twelve pages. Yet there al‐ their living. Few are invited to the weddings or fu‐ ready are exhaustive studies or autobiographies nerals of reigning European royalty. None can be of the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (broth‐ called a grand duke or a grand duchess using Tsar er of Nicholas II), the Grand Duchess Victoria Alexander III's definition that only the children, Melita and the Grand Duke Kyril Vladimirovich, siblings and grandchildren through the male line the Grand Duchess George, Grand Duchess Marie of an emperor could be a grand duke or grand Pavlovna, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna duchess. (sister of Nicholas II) and the Grand Duchess Eliz‐ In The Flight of the Romanovs, A Family Saga, abeth Feodorovna (Nicholas II's sister-in-law). John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov de‐ There are numerous books about the Romanov scribe the often troubled lives of the grand dukes tsars. Massie (1995) discusses the lives of the sur‐ and grand duchesses living at the time of the as‐ viving Romanovs. Maylunas and Mironenko sassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. The book (1997) use the diaries of some the grand dukes reflects an extensive body of research that the au‐ and grand duchesses to enable their readers to thors have translated into in a well-written and understand how these Romanovs felt about the readable study of the lives of a small set of privi‐ events of their day. Chavchavadze (1990) pro‐ leged Russians. duced an earlier work about the Romanov grand dukes.[1] H-Net Reviews In using a large lens rather than focusing fleet was destroyed. While Alexis benefited fnan‐ more narrowly, Perry and Pleshakov miss a fuller cially from the debacle, Russia lost much of its in‐ understanding of each of these Romanovs. They ternational prestige. The Grand Duke Nicholas do mine some new territory: the story of Grand Nicholaevich (Nicholasha) urged his cousin, Tsar Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, who robbed his Nicholas II to accept a constitution to end the tur‐ mother of a diamond necklace to give to his mis‐ moil at home during the Russo-Japanese War. tress. Tsar Alexander II exiled the young guard's Nicholas as could be expected undermined the officer to Tashkent. They also describe the little- constitution at every turn. By 1917, no one be‐ known life of Vladimir, the son of Kyril Alexan‐ lieved that Russia could be a constitutional drovich (the pretender to the Russian throne) dur‐ monarchy. After Nicholas abdicated for himself ing World War II. The authors provide a balanced and for his son, the tsar's brother (Michael picture of the lives of the grand dukes and grand Alexandrovich) immediately abdicated and bolted duchesses within the context of their relation‐ from the scene. Another grand duke, Kyril ships to their own nuclear family and to the reign‐ Vladimirovich (later Pretender to the Romanov ing tsar, although a glossary of names would have throne) marched his soldiers to the new Provi‐ greatly assisted readers. sional government to pledge his allegiance to Many of the Romanovs who took center stage them and to disavow his connection to his cousin, in the early years of the twentieth century did lit‐ the ex-tsar. tle to hide the behaviors that dismayed not only As with the Windsors today, the tsar received their own family but the other royal families of little help from some of his close relatives. Europe. Several of the married grand dukes were Nicholas II spent much of his reign vainly trying well-known for their preference for and pursuit to get his relatives to do what he (and his wife and of men. Other grand dukes ran off to be with the mother) believed to be proper Romanov (and Rus‐ women of their choice or to contract morganatic sian Orthodox) behavior. His family seldom took marriages. The Grand Duke Kyril Vladimirovich his advice (or orders), so convinced were they married the ex-wife of the Tsarina Alexandra's that he would change his mind. His father, brother. Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, (Alexander III's) robust stature and compelling Nicholas II's brother (and sometime heir), mar‐ voice had kept his relatives in check, but ried a twice-divorced woman. Few cared when Nicholas's small stature and quick charm failed to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, former gover‐ convince anyone of his convictions. During the nor of Moscow, was assassinated, so medieval had last year of Nicholas's reign, a cabal of grand been the grand duke's behavior towards some res‐ dukes and grand duchesses hoped to induce the idents of Moscow. tsar to abdicate, exile the tsarina to a convent, and Pleshakov and Perry dismiss the political in‐ set up a regency for the tsarevich. One of the fluence of the Romanov grand dukes. The men are grand dukes, Dmitri Pavlovich was involved in portrayed as larger-than-life in their pursuit of the murder of Rasputin. None understood the baubles, wine, good horses and cards, women or forces for change that were about to erupt in Rus‐ men, and in their avoidance of work. But some of sia and would signal their deaths or emigration. the grand dukes had lasting effects on Russia. Cer‐ Perry and Pleshakov describe the diaspora of tainly their abilities did not match their positions Romanovs to France, Germany, Yugoslavia and of leadership. Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich other European states. Many were barred from retired as head of the imperial navy after the dis‐ entering England, but the Dowager Empress astrous Russo-Japanese war in which the Russian Marie Feodorovna, sister of Queen Alexandra of 2 H-Net Reviews Great Britain and Marie's daughter, Xenia Alexan‐ pital and rescued abandoned or orphaned chil‐ drovich, one of the last tsar's sisters and her chil‐ dren from Moscow's poorest, crime-ridden areas. dren accompanied her mother to England. Xenia Elizabeth, half-a-dozen grand dukes and the Tsar, lived in a "grace and favor" home provided by the Tsarina and their children were all executed by Windsors. The tsar's second sister, Olga Alexan‐ the Bolsheviks. drovna, settled with her family, frst in Denmark The book begins in 1881 with the assassina‐ and then in Canada to the relentless work of tion of Alexander II and ends in 1998 with the farming. Grand Duke Kyril Alexandrovich and burial of the last Russian tsar, his wife, and three Grand Duchess Victoria Melita set up shop as pre‐ of his fve children in the SS Peter and Paul Cathe‐ tenders to the Russian throne in a small seaside dral. Between those years, wars and revolutions home in France. From there, Kyril distributed destroyed much of what the Romanovs had built. medals, promotions and titles. The ethnic rivalries suppressed by the tsars and Some White Russians viewed World War II as Communists have divided Russia into a number an opportunity for the Nazis to eliminate the Com‐ of countries. Other ethnic groups continue to munists and impose a Romanov ruler on one or wage war against their Russian rulers. The cur‐ more parts of the former Russia. The end of the rent grand dukes and grand duchesses of Russia war brought the forced, illegal repatriation of are the entrepreneurs who are amassing huge many thousands of Whites to Russia. After being amounts of money while the poor get poorer. At brought to Germany by Hitler, Vladimir, the son the end of the story, can knowledge about the of Kyril and Victoria Melita, escaped to Liechten‐ lives of former Russian grand dukes and grand stein at the end of the war. He settled in Switzer‐ duchesses help Russia . or the world today? land, married, and had a child, Maria. Like her Note grandfather Kyril, Maria argues that her son's [1]. David Chavchavadze, The Grand Dukes. claim to the Russian throne is purer than any of New York: Florida Atlantic University, 1990; the other possible Romanov claimants, including Grand Duchess George, A Romanov Diary. New that of the son of the Grand Duke Dmitri, a son of York: Atlantic International Publications, 1988; one of Alexander III's brothers. Grand Duke Kirill, My Life in Russia's Service - It is easy for the reader to lose interest in the Then and Now. London: Selvyn and Blount, 1939; carefully drawn portraits of Romanov grand Grand Duchess Marie, Education of a Princess. dukes and grand duchesses. Readers are put off New York: Viking Press, 1931; Grand Duchess by most of the Romanovs' devotion to their own Marie, A Princess in Exile. New York: Viking Press, self-interests and pleasures. Sympathy may be felt 1932; Hugh Mager, Elizabeth: Grand Duchess of for the grand duchesses who mobilized efforts to Russia.