| Prince Vasili Alexandrovich | |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Princess Natalia Aleksandrovna Galitzine |
| Issue | |
| Princess Marina Vassilievna | |
| House | House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia |
| Mother | Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia |
| Born | 7 July 1907 Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire |
| Died | 23 June 1989 (aged 81) Woodside, California, United States |
Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (7 July 1907 – 23 June 1989) 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.
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Prince Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov was born in the Palace of Gatchina on 7 July 1907, the sixth son and last of the seven children of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia.[1] 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.[2] He was a sickly child and after his birth there was some doubts that he would survive so he was baptized in the nursery.[1] Shortly after his birth his parents started to live separate lives.[3] Prince Vasili spend his early years in Imperial Russia during the reign of his maternal uncle Tsar Nicholas II. At the fall of Russian monarchy in February 1917 Vasili, aged ten, was on vacation in Ai-Todor, his father estate in Crimea.[4] By the end of March both of his parents, all his siblings and their grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna were also in Crimea.[5]
After the Russian Revolution, when the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, Prince Vasili along with his parents, siblings and grandmother the Dowager Empress were placed under house arrest at Ai-Todor.[6] On 11 March 1918 they were transferred with other Romanovs relatives to Dulber, the estate of Grand Duke Peter Nicholaievich in Crimea.[7] He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov relatives imprisoned who were murdered by the Bolsheviks when he was freed with the Romanovs in his group by German troops in May 1918.[8] He escaped from Russia on 11 April 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.[9] 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 northern California.[10]
In 1980 Prince Vasili was appointed president of the Romanov Family Association in succession to his brother Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich. He remained president until his death in Woodside, California aged 81.[10]
Prince Vasili married in New York City on 31 July 1931, Princess Natalia Galitzine (Moscow 26 October 1907 – Woodside 28 March 1989), a fellow Russian exile — they met in the United States. Natalia was a distant cousin of Vasili's brother Prince Rostislav[11]'s wife, and her sister married Geoffrey Tooth, who would become the second husband, of Vasili's niece, Princess Xenia Andreevna.[10] The couple lived in California for many years. They had one daughter:
N.B. After the Russian revolution members of the Imperial family tended to drop the territorial designation “of Russia” and use the princely title with the surname Romanov.[13]
It is often alleged that Vasili's marriage with princess Galitzin would have been morganatic. However, Pieter Broek holds that it was as acceptable dynastically as the Bagrationi marriage of Vasili's cousin, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia.
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Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia
Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg
Born: 7 July 1907 Died: 23 June 1989 |
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| Preceded by Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia |
President of the Romanov Family Association 1980 - 1989 |
Succeeded by Nicholas Romanovich, Prince of Russia |
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