Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov was one of the most colorful and controversial members of the Russian imperial family at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He gained his greatest fame for his participation in the murder of Grigori Rasputin in 1916. What else do we know about him?
The Prince Who Survived Through Murder
December 1916. St. Petersburg. Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov stands in the Yusupov Palace and knows that in a moment his life will change. Together with Felix Yusupov and Vladimir Purishkevich, they conspired against Grigori Rasputin – the elder who had ensnared the imperial family with his influence.
The assassination succeeded, but the consequences were immediate. The Tsar exiled Dmitry to the Persian front.
This exile saved his life. When the February Revolution broke out in 1917, and then the Bolsheviks murdered the imperial family in 1918, the prince was far from Russia. Many of his relatives perished – he survived because he had entered into the conspiracy.
The Child Who Narrowly Escaped Death
Dmitry came into the world as the second child of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich – brother of Alexander III and uncle of Nicholas II. His mother, Alexandra Georgievna, died six days after his birth. The newborn himself was thought to be dead, but his nanny managed to revive him.
He was raised by Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, but the latter was killed in 1905. Dmitry then came to the imperial family in St. Petersburg and became almost a member of it. For a time, his marriage to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, the Tsar’s daughter, was even considered. However, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna blocked these plans.
Since Tsarevich Alexei suffered from hemophilia, part of the court saw Dmitry as a potential heir to the throne.
Equestrian, Soldier, and Weak Man
He joined the army and excelled as an equestrian. In 1912, he went to the Olympics in Stockholm and placed seventh in the equestrian competition. During the Great War, he received the Cross of St. George for pulling a wounded soldier from the battlefield under fire near Koszyn.
Despite his military successes, he had poor health – tuberculosis, hemorrhages, frequent breakdowns. People said of him that he was a man without character, dependent on others, easily influenced.
It was rumored that he was in love with Princess Irina Alexandrovna, who married Felix Yusupov. Others whispered about a romance with Natalia Brassova, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Michael.
Emigration and Searching for Himself
After the revolution, Dmitry remained under the care of British diplomat Charles Marling throughout 1917 and almost all of 1918. Some monarchists saw him as a regent or even tsar, but the prince himself was not eager for power. He left via Bombay for Western Europe.
In Paris and London, he lived the life of an émigré aristocrat. He befriended British King George V, visited the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, attended receptions. He also had a romance with Coco Chanel, but the designer left him.
In 1926, he married Audrey Emery, an American millionaire heiress. The marriage lasted a decade and ended in divorce. He left behind a son, Paul – Dmitry’s only descendant.
Final Years in the Alps
Over time, the prince increasingly sank into depression and a sense of uprootedness. Some monarchist émigrés – especially in Germany and Great Britain – still saw him as a pretender to the throne. He himself stayed away from politics.
From the 1930s, he lived with his sister Maria and her husband in Swiss Davos. There he died on March 5, 1942, of uremia. He was temporarily buried in Switzerland. Only after the death of Maria Pavlovna in 1958 did her son transfer Dmitry’s ashes to the crypt in the German estate of Mainau.
He was the last male descendant of Tsar Alexander II who lived to see World War II. And one of the few Romanovs who survived the Bolshevik massacre.
