Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
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His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (Павел Александрович) (October 3, 1860 N.S.–January 24, 1919 N.S.) was the eighth child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by his first wife Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse. He entered the Russian Army and rose to the rank of General, but was known as a gentle person, religious and accessible to people.
In 1889 he married HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece, who bore him two children: HIH Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and HIH Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia. Alexandra died soon after Dmitri's birth.
In 1893, the young widower became close to a commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, and years later requested Nicholas II's permission to marry her, but it was refused, and the couple settled in Paris. In 1902 they were married in an Orthodox church in Livorno, Italy. The Bavarian government granted Olga the title of Countess of Hohenfelsen in 1904, but the marriage caused a scandal in the Russian Court. Paul was dismissed of his military commissions, all his properties were seized, and his brother Grand Duke Sergei was appointed guardian of Maria and Dmitri.
For many years, he lived in exile in France with Olga and the three children they had: Vladimir, who became a remarkable poet, and two girls, Irina and Natalia. Eventually he was pardoned and settled with his family in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1915 the Tsar granted Olga and their children the title of Prince and Princesses Paley with the style of Serenity, and their children also became His Serenity Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Their Serenities Princesses Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna Paley.
During World War I he was placed in command of the First Corps of the Imperial Guard and later was moved to a new appointment at the Tsar's headquarters. In 1917 he tried to convince the sovereigns to grant a Constitution, but his efforts failed. However, he was one of the few members of the Imperial Family who remained quite close to the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna during the final days of the old régime.
After the Bolsheviks seized power, he and his family faced a terrible ordeal. Their properties were confiscated, they lived under constant harassment, and in March 1918 his son Vladimir Paley was exiled to the Urals, where he was to be executed on July 18, 1918 in a mineshaft near Alapayevsk.
In August, 1918, he was arrested and taken to prison in Saint Petersburg. His health, already bad, declined sharply, and his wife did all she could to have him released. Her efforts were useless: on January 29, 1919, Paul was moved to St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress, and in the first hours of the following day he was shot there, along with his cousins Grand Dukes Dimitry Konstantinovich, Nikolay Mikhailovich and Georgy Mikhailovich.
They were buried in a mass grave in the Fortress, the Bolsheviks having refused the distraught Princess Paley the right to bury her husband. His body has never been found.
