Prince Vladimir Nikolayevich Orlov (Dec. 31, 1868-Aug. 29, 1927), part of the
Orlov family, was one of
Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...
's closest advisors, and between 1906 and 1915 headed the Tsar's military cabinet.
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Biography
Orlov, who bore the nickname "Fat Orlov",[Virginia Rounding: "Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina"]
St. Martin's Press, 2012 may have introduced to the Tsar the motorcar in 1903, and was married to Olga, a daughter of Prince Constantine Esperovich Beloselsky-Belozersky
Prince Constantine Esperovich Beloselsky-Belozersky ( 1843 – 26 May 1920, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a Russian general, landowner and horse breeder.
Biography
He was born on 16 June 1843 to Prince Esper Alexandrovitch Beloselsky-Belozersky and El ...
.[Paul Ham: "1914 The Year The World Ended"]
Random House, 2014 His son Prince Nicholas Vladimirovich Orlov (1891–1961) wed in 1917 Nadezhda Petrovna Romanov Orloff. Orlov competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics
The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from ...
, in equestrian events.
Patron of engineers
As the head of the military cabinet, Orlov was a keen technologist interested in military applications of the motor car. He was the patron of Adolphe Kégresse
Adolphe Kégresse (1879, Héricourt, Haute-Saône - 1943) was a French military engineer who invented the half-track and dual clutch transmission.
Born at Héricourt, and educated in Montbéliard, he moved in 1905 to Saint Petersburg, Russia to ...
, the brilliant mechanical engineer responsible for the Kégresse track
A Kégresse track is a kind of rubber or canvas continuous track which uses a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a half-track, suitable for use over rough or soft ...
. Orlov wrote in a letter to the Tsar on 15 May 1914:
Indeed, Kégresse continued as Head of the Mechanical Department of the Russian Imperial Garage at Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the c ...
until the fall of the Romanovs caused him to flee to his homeland.
Fall over Rasputin
Orlov continued his military duties until he was banished by the Tsar in 1915 to the Caucasus after losing the struggle for power to Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
. On August 19, 1915, after an unsuccessful attempt to discredit Rasputin and the Tsarina in a newspaper he and Vladimir Dzhunkovsky, First Deputy Interior Minister, were discharged from their posts,["Grigori Rasputin, the 'mad monk'"]
/ref> and four days later, the Tsar took supreme command of the Russian armies fighting on the Eastern Front of the First World War.[ As '']London Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' correspondent Robert Wilton put it,
In exile
Orlov, exiled by events subsequent to the Russian revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
and settled in Paris. Orlov died in Samois-sur-Seine and is buried in Paris, France.Vladimir Prince Orlov at Sports Reference
/ref>[findagrave.com: "Vladimir Nikolaevich Orlov"]
/ref>
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orlov, Vladimir Nikolayevich
1868 births
1927 deaths
People of the Russian Revolution
Russian people of World War I
19th-century people from the Russian Empire
20th-century Russian people
Nicholas II of Russia
Politicians of the Russian Empire
Cabinet ministers of the Russian Empire
Russian princes
Russian anti-communists
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France
Russian male equestrians
Olympic equestrians of Russia
Equestrians at the 1900 Summer Olympics