Poet. He is remembered as being a Russian aristocrat and poet, who was murdered at the age of 21 by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks during the country's civil war. He was the elder son of Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovitch of Russia and his second wife Princess Olga Paley. His father was the first cousin to Emperor Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia. After having his childhood years in Paris, France, he returned to Russia and graduated to Corp des Pages, a military school. During World War I, he entered the regiment of the Emperor's Hussars and fought with the Russian army. He was promoted to lieutenant and decorated with the Order of Saint Anne. He published two books of poetry and several plays and essays. One of his poems caused him to be arrested. In exile from St. Petersburg by the Bolsheviks in March of 1918, he was murdered in a mine shaft near Alapaievsk in Urals along with several of his Romanov cousins and others. The White Army rescued these bodies, and the bodies were smuggled by rail out of the country and into China. In April of 1920 his remains were buried in an underground crypt in the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission Church Cemetery in Beijing, China. The church had the last service in 1964, then the building demolished in 1986 for construction of a park and golf course. The underground crypt with the bodies has remained intact.
Poet. He is remembered as being a Russian aristocrat and poet, who was murdered at the age of 21 by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks during the country's civil war. He was the elder son of Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovitch of Russia and his second wife Princess Olga Paley. His father was the first cousin to Emperor Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia. After having his childhood years in Paris, France, he returned to Russia and graduated to Corp des Pages, a military school. During World War I, he entered the regiment of the Emperor's Hussars and fought with the Russian army. He was promoted to lieutenant and decorated with the Order of Saint Anne. He published two books of poetry and several plays and essays. One of his poems caused him to be arrested. In exile from St. Petersburg by the Bolsheviks in March of 1918, he was murdered in a mine shaft near Alapaievsk in Urals along with several of his Romanov cousins and others. The White Army rescued these bodies, and the bodies were smuggled by rail out of the country and into China. In April of 1920 his remains were buried in an underground crypt in the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission Church Cemetery in Beijing, China. The church had the last service in 1964, then the building demolished in 1986 for construction of a park and golf course. The underground crypt with the bodies has remained intact.
Bio by: Linda Davis
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