Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (russian: Князь Владимир Павлович Палей; 9 January 1897 – 18 July 1918) was a
Russian nobleman and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...
who was murdered by the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
when he was 21 years old.
Life
He was born as Vladimir von Pistohlkors in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
, on 9 January 1897. His father was
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (russian: Павел Александрович; 3 October 1860 – 28 January 1919) was the sixth son and youngest child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia by his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrov ...
, the youngest child of
Emperor Alexander II. His mother was his father's mistress,
Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, who was still married to Erich Gerhard von
Pistohlkors at that time.
In 1902, Grand Duke Paul—-a widower after his short marriage to
Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, with whom he had two children before her premature death in childbirth-—wed Olga
morganatically. In 1904, she was created Countess von Hohenfelsen by
Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, thus providing Vladimir with the title of Count Vladimir von Hohenfelsen. In 1915, Olga was created
Princess Paley
Princess Paley was a Russian noble title that was created in 1915 by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It was first bestowed upon Olga Valerianovna Karnovich, Countess von Hohenfelsen, the morganatic second wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Ru ...
by
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 Pol ...
, which allowed Vladimir to use the title of
Prince Paley.
Prince Vladimir had two elder half-siblings from his father's marriage to
Alexandra Georgievna of Greece
Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark ( el, Αλεξάνδρα); – ), later known as Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia (russian: Алекса́ндра Гео́ргиевна), was a member of the Greek royal family and of the ...
, ''née'' Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark:
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and Grand Duke
Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (russian: Великий Князь Дмитрий Павлович; 18 September 1891 – 5 March 1942) was a son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a ...
. He had two full sisters, both of whom eventually were styled as
Her Serene Highness Princess Paley: Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna. He also had three half-siblings from his mother's first marriage:
Alexander Erikovich von Pistohlkors, Olga Erikovna von Pistohlkors, and
Marianna Erikovna (or Marianne) von Pistohlkors.
He spent his childhood in Paris and later graduated from the
Corps des Pages, an aristocratic military school in Saint Petersburg.
[Saenz, Jorge F., ''A poet among the Romanovs'', Eurohistory, 2004.]
/ref> In December 1914, he entered the regiment of the Emperor’s Hussars and fought with the Russian army in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. He was promoted to lieutenant and decorated as a war hero with the Order of Saint Anne.
Even as a teenager, he showed remarkable talent as a poet. He published two volumes of poetry (1916 and 1918) and wrote several plays and essays, as well as a French translation of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovitch's play, ''The King of the Jews''.[
In the summer of 1917, he and his family were placed for a short time under house arrest by the Provisional Government, because of a poem he wrote about Aleksandr Kerensky. In March 1918, he was arrested by the ]Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
and sent to exile in Vyatka, and later in Ekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
and Alapaevsk. He was brutally murdered in a mineshaft near Alapaevsk, together with his cousins Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Konstantine Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia, and other relatives. Their bodies were recovered by the Imperial White Army and placed in coffins, then moved around during fighting with the Red Army. They were brought and buried months later at the Russian Mission Orthodox cemetery in Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, the site of which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
and is now a parking area.
A biography of Prince Vladimir Paley by Andrey Baranovsky was published in 1997 in Russian, and another (''A Poet Among The Romanovs'') by Jorge F. Saenz was published in 2004, in both Russian and English. He is now venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church as a Saint and martyr.
Ancestry
See also
* Romanov sainthood
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paley, Vladimir Pavlovich
1897 births
1918 deaths
Russian male poets
Murdered Russian royalty
Writers from Saint Petersburg
Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia
Executed people from Saint Petersburg
20th-century Russian poets
Princes Paley
Morganatic issue of Romanovs
Burials in Beijing