Romanov, Gavriil Konstantinovich

Gabriel was the second son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and Elizabeth Mavrikeevna (née Elizabeth Augustus Maria Agnes, duchess of Saxe-Altenburg). He was one of the first children of the imperial family to receive the title of the prince of the blood of the imperial . At the age of three he had typhoid fever , which affected his health. In September 1900, Gabriel was enrolled in the First Moscow Cadet Corps . Two academic years from 1903 to 1905, Gabriel and his elder brother John spent in the Crimea , and then entered the Nikolaev Cavalry School . In 1908 they took the oath as adjutants .

In May 1910, the prince received pneumonia and was sent for treatment in Switzerland . Having recovered, he could not continue active military service. Being on sick leave at the time, Gabriel decided to get a higher education. Following his brother Oleg , who entered the Alexander Lyceum and became the first member of the imperial family who received an education in it, Gabriel began to listen to lectures there. Three years later, he received a diploma on his successful completion. He was the second member of the dynasty, who had a diploma of a civil school.

In the fall of 1913, the prince again went abroad, visited Paris , London and Rome . There he received an audience with Pope Pius X. After that, the prince wanted to see in Berlin and with the Emperor Wilhelm II , which he also succeeded.

From the autumn of 1913, the prince served as the head of the reconnaissance of the 4th squadron of the l-gv. Hussar Regiment .

Military Service

When the First World War began, Gabriel and his brothers went to the front, participated in the battles, fought bravely and even managed to bring some of them out of the encirclement. After the death of his brother Oleg Gabriel was recalled to Petrograd. There, in the fall of 1916, he entered the Academy of the General Staff, at the age of 29 he rose to the rank of colonel. After the revolution of April 28, 1917, he was dismissed for illness from service, with his uniform and pension.

Relationship with Nesterovskaya

In 1911, at the dacha at Matilda Kshesinskaya, he met her friend, the ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater, Antonina Rafailovna Nesterovskaya (Nina). Closer, they met in Monte Carlo , where Gabriel came to rest, and Nesterovskaya and Kshesinskaya - to perform.

The prince wanted to marry his darling, but, although the princes of the imperial blood could enter into a morganatic marriage, the emperor denied him permission for this marriage. However, in 1912 they were secretly engaged. Soon after the February Revolution — April 9, 1917 , without already asking for the permission of the renounced emperor, they finally got married.

Years of Terror

After the February Revolution, the newlyweds, believing that life goes on, rented a cottage in Finland, which was still part of the Russian Empire, a few miles from Perkjärvi station. However, during the October Revolution, they again lived in Petrograd.

When the Bolsheviks issued a decree stating that within three days all the Romanovs should appear on the commission for instructions regarding their expulsion from Petrograd, Gabriel, who suffered from tuberculosis , also lay ill with the flu . In his memoirs, he extensively quotes Nina’s heart-rending memories of this period (this text was separately published by her in the magazine “ Illustrated Russia ” in 1934) ^[1] . She wrote about how she begged Uritsky (also a tuberculosis) not to expel her husband from the capital, unlike his brothers and cousins. Gabriel the patient remained lying in the apartment, in which there were continuous searches, but in the end he was nevertheless arrested.

Active Nina actively petitioned for a sick husband in front of everyone she could get. She came to MF Andreeva ( Nina Berberova clarifies that the doctor and Gorky were treated by one doctor, Manukhin ^[2] ), and as a result her husband Maxim Gorky said that Lenin had given his consent to the release of her husband and the official paper about this from Moscow Lunacharsky himself - however, due to the murder of Uritzky, all this has stalled. As a result, thanks to the help of Bokii , who took the place of Uritsky, the prince was moved from the prison to the Gerzoni clinic, but the morganatic wife of the grand duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Brasov , with whom the prince was forbidden to communicate, was located there, and two days later he was transported to the apartment to Gorky where Nina joined him. The writer was busy with them, and received permission from Zinoviev to leave for Finland.

On November 20, 1918, Maxim Gorky addressed a letter to V.I. Lenin, which stated:

Dear Vladimir Ilyich!
Make a small and clever thing - order that the former Grand Duke Gabriel Konstantinovich Romanov be released from prison. This is a very good person, firstly, and dangerously ill, and secondly.
Why fabricate martyrs? This is the most harmful occupation in general, and for people who want to build a free state in particular.
In addition, a little romanticism never spoils politics.
(...)
Release the same Romanov and be healthy.
A. Peshkov.
(...)

Felix Yusupov writes in his memoirs about Nina: “Prince Gavrila survived thanks to the heightened efforts and agility of his wife. The rest were put in the Peter and Paul Fortress and soon shot ” ^[3] (in the Peter and Paul Fortress 4 grand dukes were arrested in Petersburg, like Gabriel - see the shooting of the grand dukes in the Peter and Paul Fortress ). Three of the four of his brothers who had survived by that time were also executed ( John , Igor , Konstantin - see. Alapaevsk martyrs ), only George was saved.

On November 11, 1918, the couple left Petrograd and arrived in Beloostrov by train. In Finland, the sick Gabriel was transported in a hand truck. The couple went to a sanatorium near Helsingfors to treat Gabriel.

Life in emigration

Gabriel Konstantinovich managed to go with his wife to Finland . From there they moved to France .

In 1920, the prince and his wife settled in Paris . After some time, the couple began to run out of funds. Gavriil Konstantinovich arranged a party in the bridge for earnings. Antonina gave dance lessons, decided to open a ballet studio, but later changed her mind and founded a fashion house that existed from 1925 to 1936.

Gavriil Konstantinovich was the honorary patron of several Russian emigre organizations. Gavriil Konstantinovich and his wife maintained contacts with Russian émigrés, visited balls. The circle of their friends included Tamara Lempitska , who wrote the famous portrait of Gabriel Konstantinovich.

In 1939, a significant event occurred in the life of Gabriel Konstantinovich. He was born when Alexander III had already limited the circle of the Grand Dukes to the grandchildren of the reigning emperors. Therefore, as the great-grandson of Nicholas I , Gabriel Konstantinovich bore the title of Prince of Imperial Blood. Probably, this injustice, from which he suffered one of the first, left an unpleasant aftertaste in his soul. On May 15, 1939, Vladimir Kirillovich granted the title of Grand Duke to Prince Imperial blood, Gavriil Konstantinovich. Two days later, he wrote to Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich : "I am infinitely happy, because I have suffered all my life because of the false situation in which I was put by the will of fate." However, the majority of the members of the House of Romanov did not recognize the prince of the new title.

Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich died on February 28, 1955 in Paris and was buried in the famous cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois .

• 1st wife Nesterovskaya, Antonina Rafailovna . Since April 9 (April 22), 1917. In 1926, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich granted her the title of Princess Strelninskaya, and in 1935 - of the Most Holy Princess Romanovskaya-Strelninskaya (after the name of the estate of this branch of the Romanov family). Died in 1950
• After her death, Gabriel Konstantinovich married on June 11, 1951, Princess Irina Ivanovna Kurakina (1903-1993), daughter of John , Bishop of the Constantinople Patriarchate . In the same year, she was granted the title of Holy Princess Romanovskaya-Kurakina.

Both marriages of Gabriel Konstantinovich were childless.

• Medal "In memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III" (02.26.1896)
• Medal "In commemoration of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II" (05.26.1896)
• Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First Called (06/14/1907),
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (06/14/1907),
• Order of the White Eagle (06/14/1907)
• Order of St. Anne, 1 degree (06.14.1907),
• Order of St. Stanislav 1 degree (06/14/1907),
• badge commemorating the 100th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo (04/17/1912),
• Medal "In memory of the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812" (10/30/1912)
• Medal "In commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the house of the Romanovs" (March 6, 1913)
• Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription "For courage" (10/27/1914)
• Order of St. Stanislav 3rd degree with swords and bow (10/27/1914),
• St. George’s Arms and the Order of St. Vladimir 4th century with swords and bow (8.11.1914),
• Order of St. Vladimir 3rd century. with swords (06.20.1915)

Foreign

• Saxe-Altenburg Family Order of the Ernest House 1 st. (14.04.1909),
• the Serbian Order of the Star of Karageorgievich 1 st. (08.19.1911),
• Greek Order of the Savior , a large cross (04/22/1912).

1. Gavriil Konstantinovich, Vel.kn. In the Marble Palace. - St. Petersburg, 1993.
2. see also Gabriel Konstantinovich, Vel. Prince In the marble palace . - M .: Zakharov, 2005. - 384 p. - ISBN 5-8159-0440-6 .
3. Grigoryan V. G. Biographical reference book. - M.: AST: Astrel: Keeper, 2007.
4. Dumin S.V. Romanovs. Imperial House in Exile . - M .: Zakharov-AST, 1998. - 384 p. - ISBN 5-8159-0006-0 .
5. Pchelov E.V. Romanovs. The history of the dynasty. - M.: OLMA-Press, 2004.

• Romanov, Gabriel Konstantinovich (Neopr.) . // Project "Russian Army in the Great War."
• Led Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich. In the marble palace. From the chronicles of our family. New York. 1955.
• Portrait of Gabriel Konstantinovich by Tamara Lempitski
• On the site "Russian Imperial Army"