Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia

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Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia
Born	July 7, 1907(1907-07-07) Gatchina
Died	June 23, 1989 (aged 81) Woodside, California, United States
Spouse	Princess Natalia Galitzine
Parents	Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (July 7, 1907 Gatchina, Russia - 23 June 1989 in California, United States) was a son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

[edit] Life

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov was born in the Palace of Gatchina on July 7, 1907, the sixth son and last of the seven children of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. Although a grandson of Emperor Alexander III through his mother, he was not entitled to the title Grand Duke of Russia because he was only a great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I in the male line through his father. He spent his early years in Imperial Russia.

During the Russian Revolution Prince Vasili was imprisoned along with his parents, siblings and grandmother the Dowager Empress at Dulber, in the Crimea. He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov relatives who were murdered by the Bolsheviks when he was freed by German troops in 1918. He escaped from Russia on April 11, 1919 with the help of his great aunt Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (née Princess Alexandra of Denmark), Dowager Empress Maria’s sister. King George V of the United Kingdom sent the British warship HMS Marlborough which brought Vasili's family and other Romanovs from the Crimea over the Black Sea to Malta and then to England. Prince Vasili, who was eleven years old at the time, spent the rest of his life in exile.

During his first years in exile, Prince Vasili lived in England with his mother. In the late 1920s, he emigrated to the United States where he spent the rest of his life. Vasili earned a living by finding work as a cabin boy, shipyard worker, stockbroker, winemaker and a chicken farmer.

In 1980 Prince Vasili was appointed president of the Romanov Family Association in succesion to his brother Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich.

[edit] Family

Prince Vasili married in New York City on July 31 1931, Princess Natalia Galitzine (Moscow 26 Oct 1907-Woodside 28 Mar 1989). The couple lived in California for many years. They had one daughter :

• Princess Marina Romanov (born in San Francisco 22 May 1940); married in Woodside California on January 8, 1967 (divorced) William Beadleston (born in Long Branch, New Jersey 31 Jul 1938)

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] References

• Van Der Kiste, John & Hall Coryne . Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II, Sutton Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0750927496.
• Vasili Romanov, 81, Nephew of Last Czar, New York Times