Vladimir Alexandrovich

On his birthday, April 10 ( 22 ), 1847 , Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was appointed chief of the Life Guards of the Dragoon Regiment , was a member of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment and the Life Guards Sapper Battalion .

August 6, 1864 promoted to headquarters captain ; On July 20, 1865, he was appointed adjutant wing to His Imperial Majesty; December 20, 1867 - Commander of the 1st Battalion L.-G. Preobrazhensky Regiment; August 30, 1868 promoted to major general , with the appointment to the retinue of His Majesty , November 22 appointed senator of the 1st department; April 10, 1872 - Adjutant General , April 16 - a member of the State Council, and April 17 - the commander of the Guards Rifle Brigade; On August 16, 1874 he was promoted to lieutenant general , on August 30 he was appointed head of the 1st Guards Infantry Division .

During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–78, he commanded the 12th corps and was on the left flank of the Eastern or Ruschuk detachment of the heir to the Tsarevich (later Emperor Alexander III ); twice repelled the attacks of Suleiman Pasha at the positions near Mechka, between the rivers Lom and Yantroy (November 14 and 30, 1877), for which he was awarded the Order of St. George of the 3rd degree.

On August 17, 1880 he was appointed commander of the Guards Corps , on November 30 he was promoted to general from infantry, and on March 2, 1881 he was appointed commander of the troops of the Guard and the St. Petersburg Military District ^[1] .

The manifesto of Emperor Alexander III of March 14, 1881 ^[2] was appointed regent ("ruler of the state") in case of the death of the emperor - until the heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich (or in case of the death of the latter).

Since 1898 - Honorary Chairman of the Russian Imperial Fire Society ^[1] .

From 1884 to 1905, he served as commander in chief of the troops of the Guard and the St. Petersburg Military District. On the night of January 8 (21) to January 9 ( 22 ), 1905 , in view of the expected provocations, Vladimir Alexandrovich ordered his subordinate, commander of the 1st Guards Corps, Prince S.I. Vasilchikov , to use military force to prevent the march of workers and residents of St. -Petersburg to the Winter Palace under the leadership of the priest George Gapon with a petition about his needs for the king .

General A. A. Mosolov , who for several years was a close associate of Emperor Nicholas II, wrote in the early 1930s about the personality of the Grand Duke, as well as his relationship with the emperor: “He is handsome, well-built, although he is a little shorter than his brothers , with a voice reaching the most remote rooms of the clubs he visited, a great hunting lover, an exceptional connoisseur of food (he owned rare collections of menus with his own notes made immediately after the meal), Vladimir Alexandrovich had an undeniable author th. <...> Sovereign Nicholas II experienced a feeling of exceptional timidity in front of Vladimir Alexandrovich, bordering on fear. The Grand Duke, probably noticing the impression he made on the emperor, began to stay away from government issues. ” ^[3]

In connection with the scandalous marriage on 8 October 1905 in Bavaria, his eldest son Cyril (there was no highest permission for marriage, although there was a blessing from Maria Pavlovna) with divorced Grand Duchess of Hesse Princess Victoria-Melita Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (former wife of Empress Alexandra’s brother Alexandra Fied ), Vladimir was forced to resign from the post of commander of the guard and the St. Petersburg military district (dismissed on October 26, 1905).

He was a well-known philanthropist , patronized many artists, and collected a valuable collection of paintings. From October 30, 1869, he was the president’s companion (Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna), and from February 14, 1876, he was president of the Imperial Academy of Arts , he was a trustee of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museum .

In connection with the role of Vladimir Alexandrovich in the events of Bloody Sunday in January 1905, the artists Valentin Serov and Vasily Polenov left the Academy of Arts, whose president was Vladimir Alexandrovich ^[4] .

Positions:

• Member of the Council of State (since 1872);
• Member of the Committee of Ministers;
• senator (c 1868) ^[1] ;
• Chairman of the Commission for the construction of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Spas-on-Blood) in St. Petersburg (1883-1889);
• patron and honorary member of the Berlin Orthodox Church of the Holy Prince-Vladimir Brotherhood (from 29.03.1890);
• honorary member of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy (from July 31, 1899);

The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich on February 4 ( 17 ), 1909 was officially announced by the Highest Manifesto on the same day ^[5] ; On February 7, the transfer of his body from his palace to the Peter and Paul Cathedral took place ; on February 8, the funeral and burial took place there, which was led by Metropolitan Anthony of St. Petersburg and Ladoga (Vadkovsky) ; the emperor, the widow of the late Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (arrived with Nicholas II), other members of the imperial family, the chairman of the Council of Ministers P. A. Stolypin and other ministers, as well as the king of Bulgaria Ferdinand I were present ^[6] .

Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was buried in the Grand Duke's tomb ( Peter and Paul Fortress , St. Petersburg ).

He owned the palace in St. Petersburg (Palace Embankment, d. 26) and the so-called. Reserve palace in Tsarskoye Selo (Sadovaya st., D. 22) with a plot of land in 46 dess. 500 sq. soot. (transferred to him in 1875, on March 18, 1882, he was granted ownership of the right of a mayorate , and since 1910 he was called Vladimirsky ).

• Enrolled in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment (04/10/1847) ^[7]
• Warrant Officer of the Guard (04/10/1854)
• Second Lieutenant of the Guard (12.24.1855)
• Lieutenant Guard (01/08/1858)
• Captain of the Guard (08/06/1864)
• Adjutant Wing to His Imperial Majesty (07.20.1865)
• Captain of the Guard (04/10/1866)
• Colonel (04/10/1867)
• Major General , with the appointment of His Imperial Majesty in the retinue (08.30.1868)
• Adjutant General (04/10/1872)
• Lieutenant General (08.16.1874)
• General from Infantry (11/30/1880)

• Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (04/10/1847) ^[8] ;
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (04/10/1847);
• Order of the White Eagle (04/10/1847);
• Order of St. Anne 1st Art. (04/10/1847);
• Order of St. Stanislav 1st Art. (1865);
• Order of St. Vladimir 4th art. (1868);
• Order of St. Vladimir , 2nd art. with swords (1877);
• Order of St. George 3rd Art. (11/15/1877);
• Golden weapon “For courage” with diamonds (1877);
• Order of St. Vladimir 1st Art. (1883);
• Portrait of His Majesty for wearing on his chest (1896);
• A diamond-studded portrait of Emperors Nicholas I , Alexander II , Alexander III , Nicholas II for wearing on his chest (1904).

Foreign:

• Prussian Order of the Black Eagle (1857);
• Hesse-Darmstadt Order of Ludwig 1st Art. (1857);
• Oldenburg Order of Merit of the Duke Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig (1860);
• Danish Order of the Elephant (1865);
• French Legion of Honor 1st Art. (1867);
• Württemberg Order of Frederick 1st Art. (1867);
• Saxe-Weimar Order of the White Falcon (1867);
• Greek Order of the Savior (1867);
• Montenegrin Order of Prince Daniel I (1867);
• Italian Order of the Annunciation (1869);
• Swedish Order of Seraphim (07.27.1869);
• Belgian Order of Leopold I 1st Art. (1869);
• Dutch Order of Leo 1st Art. (1869);
• Baden Order of the Tseringen Lion , 2nd art. with a chain (1872);
• Austrian Order of St. Stephen the Great Cross (1872);
• Chain to the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle (1872);
• Mecklenburg-Schwerin Order of the Vendian Crown 1st Art. with a chain (1874);
• Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece (1891);
• Chain to the Swedish Order of the Seraphim (07/12/1897).

On August 16, 1874, he married in St. Petersburg Mary Pavlovna (1854-1920), nee Maria Alexandrin Elizabeth Eleanor, Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the eldest daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick Franz II . His wife was a relative of his father, Emperor Alexander II: a second cousin of his grandfather (the spouses were descendants of the Russian emperor Paul I ) and a second cousin of his grandmother (the spouses were great-grandchildren of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III and his wife Louise Mecklenburg-Strelitskaya ).

Children ^[9] :

• Alexander Vladimirovich (August 19, 1875 - March 4, 1877).
• Kirill Vladimirovich (1876-1938), Grand Duke, Rear of His Majesty's Rear Admiral.
• Boris Vladimirovich (1877-1943), Grand Duke, retinues of His Majesty Major General. Camp ataman of all Cossack troops ^[10] .
• Andrei Vladimirovich (1879-1956), Grand Duke, retinues of His Majesty Major General, Senator.
• Elena Vladimirovna (1882-1957), Grand Duchess, married Princess of Greece and Denmark.

Before the revolution, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was erected several monuments, which were bronze busts, cast according to the model of the sculptor V. A. Beklemishev , on a high granite pedestal:

• Krasnoe Selo (near St. Petersburg). Monument on the territory of the Krasnoselsky avant-garde camp. Opened July 19, 1912. The monument was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, so far only a pedestal from it has survived.
• Peterhof . Monument opposite the building of the officer meeting of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment. Opened March 21, 1914. The monument is also destroyed by the Bolsheviks.
• Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin city). Near the building of its own palace (Sadovaya St. 22). Opened June 22, 1910. The monument is also destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Only a pedestal from it has survived to the present ^[11] .

• Fedor Nikitin - “ Rimsky-Korsakov ” (1953).
• Dmitry Isaev - “ The Emperor ’s Love ” (2003).
• Valery Kukhareshin - Poddubny (2014).

• Krylov-Tolstikovich A., Barkovets O. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. Ed. Abris. SPb. 2010. ( ISBN 978-5-88810-098-1 )
• Shilov D.N. Members of the State Council of the Russian Empire 1801-1906. St. Petersburg, 2007, pp. 132-138.

• Profile of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich on the official website of the RAS