Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich
Head of the House of Romanov (disputed until 1929)
Tenure	31 August 1924[1] – 12 October 1938
Predecessor	Nicholas II
Successor	Vladimir
Born	12 October [O.S. 30 September] 1876 Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	12 October 1938(1938-10-12) (aged 62) Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Burial	Friedhof am Glockenberg [de], Coburg (1938–1995) Grand Ducal Mausoleum, Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg (since 1995)
Spouse	Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ​ ​ (m. 1905; died 1936)​
Issue	Maria Kirillovna, Princess of Leiningen Kira Kirillovna, Princess of Prussia Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia
Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia
Mother	Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Religion	Russian Orthodox

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (

In World War I, Grand Duke Kirill was appointed Commander of the Naval Depot of the Guards in 1915. He achieved the rank of rear admiral in the Imperial Navy in 1916. During the February Revolution of 1917, Kirill marched to the Tauride Palace at the head of the Naval Guards and swore allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government.

During the rule of the Provisional Governmental in the summer 1917, Kirill escaped to Finland, where his wife gave birth to the couple's only son. In exile, they lived for some years among his wife's relatives in Germany and, from the late 1920s, on an estate they bought in Saint-Briac, France.

With the death of his cousins Nicholas II and Grand Duke Michael, Kirill proclaimed himself to be the head of the House of Romanov and, as next in line to the throne, as the Guardian of the Throne in 1924. Kirill proclaimed himself emperor-in-exile in 1926. He worked for the restoration of the monarchy from exile for the rest of his life, but his claims were contested by some factions of the monarchists in a division that continues today.

He wrote a book of memoirs, My Life in Russia's Service, which was published after his death. His granddaughter, Maria Vladimirovna, is one of two claimants to the headship of the House of Romanov.

Early life

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia was born on 12 October [

In 1898, he took a trip around the world. One of his last stops was in New York in January 1899. He was invited to the newly formed Russian-speaking club "Rousskaia Beceda" and elected Honorary President.^[12]

After graduating from the

Grand Duke Kirill married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 8 October 1905 without any consent from Tsar Nicholas II.^[1] Victoria's father was Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria. Victoria's mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Kirill's paternal aunt.

The marriage caused a scandal in the courts of European royalty as Princess Victoria was divorced from her first husband, Grand Duke

In 1908, after the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, Nicholas II restored Kirill to his rank of captain in the Imperial Russian Navy and his position as aide de camp to the emperor.^[17] He was given the title Grand Duke of Russia and from then on his wife was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. From 1909–1912, Kirill served on the cruiser Oleg and was its captain in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Maritime Division of the Imperial Guard and was made Commander of the Naval Guards in 1915.

Grand Duke Kirill and Princess Victoria Melita had three children:

• Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia (2 February 1907 – 27 October 1951) married Friedrich Karl, Prince of Leiningen on 25 November 1925. They had seven children.
• Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia (9 May 1909 – 8 September 1967) married Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia on 31 October 1938. They had seven children.
• Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (30 August 1917 – 21 April 1992) married Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhransky on 13 August 1948. They had one daughter.

All the children were born to the rank of Prince and Princess of Russia, not entitled to the rank of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess as they were not children or grandchildren in the male line of a Russian Emperor according to the

During the February Revolution of 1917, Kirill marched to the Tauride Palace at the head of the Garde Equipage (Marine Guard) to swear allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government, wearing a red band on his uniform.^[13][19] Kirill had authorised the flying of a red flag over his palace on Glinka Street in Petrograd and in correspondence with a Romanov relative claimed credit for "saving the situation by my recognition of the Provisional Government".^[20] It is probable that he had hoped that by ingratiating himself with the Provisional Government he would be declared regent after Nicholas II was made to abdicate.^[21]

In June 1917 Kirill and Victoria moved to Finland and then escaped to Coburg in 1920. The exiled family subsequently moved to a small residence in the tiny French fishing village of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.

Life abroad

After a London court order in July 1924 recognized Grand Duke Michael to be

After claiming the throne, Kirill became known as the "Soviet Tsar" because in the event of a restoration of the monarchy, he intended to keep some of the features of the Soviet regime.[13] While living in exile, he was supported by some émigrés who styled themselves "legitimists" (legitimisti, in Russian легитимисты), underlining the "legitimacy" of Kirill's succession. The opponents of Kirill were known as the "un-predetermined" (nepredreshentsi, in Russian непредрешенцы); they believed that in the wake of the radical revolutionary events that the convening of a Zemsky Sobor was necessary in order to choose a new monarch for Russia.

Kirill found his strongest support among a group of legitimists known as the Mladorossi, a Russian émigré monarchist organization that ultimately became heavily influenced by fascism – although it distanced itself from other fascist movements.^[23] The organization began to exhibit pro-Soviet sympathies, arguing that the monarchy and the Soviet Bolshevik system could peacefully coexist (their slogan being "Tsar and the Soviets", a socialist version of the traditional "Tsar and People" ). Kirill became more wary of the organization when he learned that its founder, Alexander Kazem-Bek, was spotted meeting with an OGPU agent. Kirill accepted Kazem-Bek's voluntary resignation.

Just before he died, he wrote his autobiography, My Life in Russia's Service – Then and Now which was published in 1939.^[24]

Kirill was succeeded by his son Vladimir Kirillovich who styled himself "Grand Duke and head of the Russian Imperial House".

Kirill was buried at the ducal mausoleum at

, Russia on 7 March 1995 after negotiations conducted by his granddaughter Maria Vladimirovna.

Among his activities he was close to members of the Nazi Party, when he was in Germany. On one occasion, he is said to have paid Erich Ludendorff "a sum of nearly half a million gold marks in 1922-1923 for German-Russian national matters".^[26]

Honours

• Knight of the Order of St. Andrew, Russian Empire^[27]
• Knight of the Order of the Elephant, Kingdom of Denmark – 18 October 1928^[28]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, Kingdom of Greece – January 1901 – during a visit to Greece^[29]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Falcon, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – 1896^[30]
• Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 1897^[31]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, French Republic – September 1897^[32]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine – 12 October 1899^[33]
• Order of the Tower and Sword, Kingdom of Portugal – 31 December 1903^[34]
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Henry the Lion, Duchy of Brunswick – 1907^[35]
• Knight of the Order of the Seraphim, Kingdom of Sweden – 13 July 1912^[36]
• Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, Empire of Japan – 8 July 1898^[37]
• Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, Kingdom of Prussia^[27]
• Knight of the Order of the Rue Crown, Kingdom of Saxony^[27]

Portrayal

In the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, Sir Rex Harrison portrayed Kirill as an embittered and dangerous enemy to Anna Anderson, who notoriously claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia
8. Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 13. Princess Alexandrine of Prussia 3. Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 14. Heinrich LXIII, Prince Reuss of Köstritz 7. Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz 15. Countess Eleonore of Stolberg-Wernigerode

See also

• White émigré

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Almanach de Gotha (182nd ed.). Almanach de Gotha. 1998. p. 214.
2. ^ ^{a b} Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 53.
3. ^ Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 167–168
4. ^ Korneva & Cheboksarova, Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, p. 54.
5. ^ ^{a b} Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 168.
6. ^ ^{a b} Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 169
7. ^ ^{a b c} Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 170.
8. ^ Illustrirte Zeitung, Der Motorschlitten des Großfürsten Kyrill von Russland. Vol. 136, Part 1, Nr. 3523, J. J. Weber, Leipzig 5. Januar 1911, Page 46, online: Illustrirte Zeitung – "Der Motorschlitten des Großfürsten Kyrill von Russland" (in German) at the Internet Archive
9. ^ Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 171.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 172.
11. ^ Sullivan, A Fatal Passion, p. 173.
12. ^ "A Club of Russians. The "Rousskaia Beceda," its aims and objects. A membership of forty, all of whom must speak Russian". New York Tribune Illustrated Sunday Supplement. 15 January 1899. p. 5.
13. ^ ^{a b c} "Grand Duke Cyril Dies In Paris Exile". The New York Times. 13 October 1938. p. 23.
14. ^ "Czar Furious With Cousin". New York Times. 15 October 1905. p. 6.
15. ^ "Grand Duke Degraded". The New York Times. 17 October 1905. p. 1.
16. ISBN 0385486731
    .
17. ^ "Death Wins Pardon For A Grand Duke". The New York Times. 19 November 1908. p. 6.
18. ^ Romanov, Kirill V. "My Life in Russia's Service," London: Seleyn & Blount, 1939., p.222.
19. ^ "Duke Cyril Prompt To Side With Duma". New York Times. 17 March 1917. p. 2.
20. ISBN 033002213X
    .
21. ^ Crawford, Rosemary and Donald Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1997) p.276.
22. ^ Shain, Yossi The Frontier of Loyalty: Political Exiles in the Age of the Nation-State University of Michigan Press (2005) p.69.
23. ^ "This era of globalization is also an era of monarchs as symbols: An Interview with the Director of the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House, A. N. Zakatov on the website "Russia for Everyone"". Imperial House. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
24. ^ Cyril; Lieven, Leonid (1939). My life in Russia's service - then and now. London: Selwyn & Blount.
25. ^ Klüglein, Norbert (1995) [1991]. Führer durch Coburg Stadt und Land (in German). Verkehrsverein Coburg.
26. ISBN 1-57027-039-2
    .
27. ^ ^{a b c} Justus Perthes, Almanach de Gotha (1922) p. 84
28. ISBN 8776744345
29. ^ "Court circular". The Times. No. 36659. London. 8 January 1902. p. 4.
30. ^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach Archived 6 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine (1900), "Großherzogliche Hausorden" p. 17
31. ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
32. ISBN 978-2-35077-135-9
    .
33. ^ "Ludewigs-orden", Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1907, p. 8
34. ^ Bragança, Jose Vicente de; Estrela, Paulo Jorge (2017). "Troca de Decorações entre os Reis de Portugal e os Imperadores da Rússia" [Exchange of Decorations between the Kings of Portugal and the Emperors of Russia]. Pro Phalaris (in Portuguese). 16: 12. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
35. ^ Zimmermann, Paul: Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Herzogtums Braunschweig für das Jahr 1912. Braunschweig 1912. Meyer. p. 9
36. ^ Svensk rikskalender (in Swedish), 1921, p. 784, retrieved 6 January 2018 – via runeberg.org
37. ^ 刑部芳則 (2017). 明治時代の勲章外交儀礼 (PDF) (in Japanese). 明治聖徳記念学会紀要. p. 149.

References

• Beéche, Arturo. The Other Grand Dukes, Eurohistory, 2012.
  ISBN 978-0-9854603-9-6
• Chavchavadze, David. The Grand Dukes, Atlantic, 1989,
  ISBN 0-938311-11-5
• Korneva, Galina and Cheboksarova, Tatiana. Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. Eurohistory.com, 2014.
  ISBN 978-0-9854603-6-5
• Pedersen, Jørgen. Riddere af Elefantordenen 1559–2009, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2009.
  ISBN 8776744345
• Perry, John and Pleshakov, Constantine. The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999,
  ISBN 0-465-02462-9
  .
• Kirill, Grand Duke. My Life in Russia's Service - Then and Now. London: Seleyn & Blount. 1939. ASIN: B001AS1FMI
• Sullivan, Michael John. A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia,
  ISBN 0-679-42400-8

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg Born: 12 October 1876 Died: 12 October 1938
Titles in pretence
Vacant Title last held by Nicholas II	— TITULAR — Emperor of Russia 31 August 19241 – 12 October 1938 Reason for succession failure: Empire abolished in 1917	Succeeded by Vladimir Cyrillovitch
Notes and references
1. Almanach de Gotha (182nd ed.). Almanach de Gotha. 1998. p. 214.