Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia
Encyclopedia
Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia was a member of the Russian Imperial Family. After the Russian Revolution of 1917
and the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II
and his brother Michael, Cyril assumed the Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia and later the title Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias
.
. His father was Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich
, the third son of Tsar Alexander II
and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse
. His wife was Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
), the daughter of Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta Reuss-Köstritz. As a grandson in the male line to a Russian Tsar
, he was titled Grand Duke
, with the style Imperial Highness
.
and Nikolaev Naval Academy, on January 1, 1904, Cyril was promoted to Chief of Staff to the Russian Pacific Fleet in the Imperial Russian Navy
. With the start of the Russo-Japanese War
, he was assigned to serve as First Officer
on the battleship
, the ship was blown up by a Japanese mine
at Port Arthur
in April 1904. Cyril barely escaped with his life, and was invalided out of the service suffering from burns, back injuries and shell shock
.
, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria. Victoria's mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Cyril's paternal aunt.
The marriage caused a scandal in the courts of European royalty as Princess Victoria was divorced from her first husband, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, also her first cousin. The Grand Duke of Hesse's sister was Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna
, the wife of Nicholas II. The Tsarina already disliked her former sister-in-law and first cousin, being instrumental in leading the opposition to the marriage in the Russian court. Shortly after returning to Russia, the Tsar stripped Cyril of his imperial allowance and style Imperial Highness, his honours and decorations, his position in the navy and then banished him from Russia.
However in 1908, after the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich
had put Cyril third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne, Nicholas II restored Cyril to his rank of Captain in the Imperial Russian Navy and his position as aide de camp to the emperor. His wife came into favor, and was given the title Grand Duchess of Russia and from then on was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. From 1909-1912, he served on the cruiser and was its captain in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Maritime Division of the Imperial Guards and was made Commander of the Naval Guards in 1915.
Grand Duke Cyril and Princess Victoria Melita had three children:
of 1917, upon the abdication of the Tsar, Cyril came with his regiment to swear allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government
, wearing a red revolutionary band on his uniform. This caused grave offence in the Imperial Family and led to many members shunning him as legitimate heir to the Throne.
After the October Revolution
, Cyril and Victoria fled to Finland
, then Coburg, Germany. Eventually the exiled family moved to France
where they stayed for the rest of their lives.
On 8 August 1922 Cyril declared himself "Curator of the Russian Throne," a title which did not exist. Two years later, on 31 August 1924, he went a step further and assumed the title Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias. Though by the laws of the Russian Empire
, he was the prime claimant after the execution of Tsar's family by the Bolshevik
s, his claim to the throne was met with opposition because at his birth his mother was a Protestant and not a member of the Russian Orthodox Church
. After claiming the throne, he became known as the "Soviet Tsar" because in the event of a restoration of the monarchy, he intended to keep some of the features of the Soviet regime.
While living in exile, Cyril was supported by some emigres who styled themselves "legitimists" (legitimisti, in Russian легитимисты), underlining the "legitimacy" of Cyril's succession. The opponents of Cyril were known as the "un-predetermined" (nepredreshentsi, in Russian непредрешенцы); they believed that in the wake of the radical revolutionary events, the convening of a Zemsky Sobor
was necessary in order to choose a new monarch for Russia. (In 1922, Nicholas II's cousin Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich was proclaimed "Emperor of all Russia" by a "Zemsky Sobor of the Amur Region", convened by General Mikhail Diterikhs. However, Grand Duke Nicholas had no children.)
Cyril found his strongest support among a group of legitimists known as the Mladorossi
, a Russian emigre monarchist organization that was heavily influenced by fascism
- although it distanced itself from other fascist movements. The organization began to exhibit pro-Soviet sympathies, arguing that the monarchy and the Soviet Bolshevik system could peacefully coexist (as per their slogan "Tsar and the Soviets"). Cyril became more wary of the organization when he learned that its founder, Alexander Kazem-Bek, was spotted meeting with an OGPU agent. Cyril accepted Kazem-Bek's voluntary resignation. His sole son, Vladimir, continued ties with the organization throughout World War II
.
Cyril's son Vladimir Kirillovich succeeded him as head of the Romanov dynasty, although this was contested by some members of the Romanov family. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the remains of Cyril and his spouse were transferred from Coburg to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress
in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
and his brother Michael, Cyril assumed the Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia and later the title Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias
All the Russias
All the Russias is the standard English translation of a term which was used to refer either to the Russian Empire, or to the Russian-inhabitated lands of the Russian Empire...
.
Early life
Grand Duke Cyril was born in Tsarskoye SeloTsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo is the town containing a former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of St. Petersburg. It is now part of the town of Pushkin and of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.-History:In...
. His father was Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia ) was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia...
, the third son of Tsar Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse
Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse
Marie of Hesse and by Rhine was a princess of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and, as Maria Alexandrovna , Empress consort of Alexander II of Russia. She was born at Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy, and died at Saint Petersburg...
. His wife was Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna of Russia)
Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was born Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Francis II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz...
), the daughter of Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta Reuss-Köstritz. As a grandson in the male line to a Russian Tsar
Romanov
The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917...
, he was titled Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
, with the style Imperial Highness
Imperial Highness
His/Her Imperial Highness is a style used by members of an imperial family to denote imperial - as opposed to royal - status to show that the holder in question is descended from an Emperor rather than a King .Today the style has mainly fallen from use with the exception of the Imperial Family of...
.
War service
After graduating from the Sea Cadet CorpsSea Cadet Corps (Russia)
The Sea Cadet Corps , occasionally translated as the Marine Cadet Corps or the Naval Cadet Corps, is an educational establishment for training Naval officers for the Russian Navy in Saint Petersburg.It is the oldest existing high school in Russia.-History:...
and Nikolaev Naval Academy, on January 1, 1904, Cyril was promoted to Chief of Staff to the Russian Pacific Fleet in the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
. With the start of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, he was assigned to serve as First Officer
First officer
In commercial aviation, the first officer is the second pilot of an aircraft. The first officer is second-in-command of the aircraft, to the captain who is the legal commander...
on the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
, the ship was blown up by a Japanese mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
at Port Arthur
Lüshunkou
Lüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
in April 1904. Cyril barely escaped with his life, and was invalided out of the service suffering from burns, back injuries and shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....
.
Marriage and children
Grand Duke Cyril married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 8 October 1905. Victoria's father was Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and GothaAlfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria. Victoria's mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Cyril's paternal aunt.
The marriage caused a scandal in the courts of European royalty as Princess Victoria was divorced from her first husband, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, also her first cousin. The Grand Duke of Hesse's sister was Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna
Alexandra Fyodorovna of Hesse
Alix of Hesse and by Rhine later Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova , was Empress consort of Russia as spouse of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of the Russian Empire...
, the wife of Nicholas II. The Tsarina already disliked her former sister-in-law and first cousin, being instrumental in leading the opposition to the marriage in the Russian court. Shortly after returning to Russia, the Tsar stripped Cyril of his imperial allowance and style Imperial Highness, his honours and decorations, his position in the navy and then banished him from Russia.
However in 1908, after the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia was the sixth child and the fourth son of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna . Destined to a naval career, Alexei Alexandrovich started his military training at the age of 7...
had put Cyril third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne, Nicholas II restored Cyril to his rank of Captain in the Imperial Russian Navy and his position as aide de camp to the emperor. His wife came into favor, and was given the title Grand Duchess of Russia and from then on was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. From 1909-1912, he served on the cruiser and was its captain in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Maritime Division of the Imperial Guards and was made Commander of the Naval Guards in 1915.
Grand Duke Cyril and Princess Victoria Melita had three children:
- Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. She was born in Coburg when her parents were in exile because their marriage had not been approved by Tsar Nicholas II...
(2 February 1907 27 October 1951) who married Friedrich Karl, Prince of Leiningen - Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia was the second daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna...
(9 May 1909 8 September 1967) who married Louis Ferdinand, Prince of PrussiaLouis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia-Children:* Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia , married firstly Waltraud Freytag on 22 August 1967 in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; secondly Ehrengard von Reden on 23 April 1976; thirdly Sibylle Kretschmer. He renounced his succession rights on 18 September 1967... - Vladimir Kirillovich, Grand Duke of Russia (30 August 1917 21 April 1992) who became the claimant to the title 'Emperor of Russia' upon the death of his father
Revolution
During the February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917, upon the abdication of the Tsar, Cyril came with his regiment to swear allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
, wearing a red revolutionary band on his uniform. This caused grave offence in the Imperial Family and led to many members shunning him as legitimate heir to the Throne.
After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Cyril and Victoria fled to Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, then Coburg, Germany. Eventually the exiled family moved to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where they stayed for the rest of their lives.
Life abroad
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, he was the prime claimant after the execution of Tsar's family by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, his claim to the throne was met with opposition because at his birth his mother was a Protestant and not a member of the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
. After claiming the throne, he became known as the "Soviet Tsar" because in the event of a restoration of the monarchy, he intended to keep some of the features of the Soviet regime.
While living in exile, Cyril was supported by some emigres who styled themselves "legitimists" (legitimisti, in Russian легитимисты), underlining the "legitimacy" of Cyril's succession. The opponents of Cyril were known as the "un-predetermined" (nepredreshentsi, in Russian непредрешенцы); they believed that in the wake of the radical revolutionary events, the convening of a Zemsky Sobor
Zemsky Sobor
The zemsky sobor was the first Russian parliament of the feudal Estates type, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term roughly means assembly of the land. It could be summoned either by tsar, or patriarch, or the Boyar Duma...
was necessary in order to choose a new monarch for Russia. (In 1922, Nicholas II's cousin Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich was proclaimed "Emperor of all Russia" by a "Zemsky Sobor of the Amur Region", convened by General Mikhail Diterikhs. However, Grand Duke Nicholas had no children.)
Cyril found his strongest support among a group of legitimists known as the Mladorossi
Mladorossi
The Union of Mladorossi was a political group of Russian émigré monarchists who advocated a hybrid of Russian monarchy and the Soviet system, best evidenced by their motto "Tsar and the Soviets"....
, a Russian emigre monarchist organization that was heavily influenced by fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
- although it distanced itself from other fascist movements. The organization began to exhibit pro-Soviet sympathies, arguing that the monarchy and the Soviet Bolshevik system could peacefully coexist (as per their slogan "Tsar and the Soviets"). Cyril became more wary of the organization when he learned that its founder, Alexander Kazem-Bek, was spotted meeting with an OGPU agent. Cyril accepted Kazem-Bek's voluntary resignation. His sole son, Vladimir, continued ties with the organization throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Cyril's son Vladimir Kirillovich succeeded him as head of the Romanov dynasty, although this was contested by some members of the Romanov family. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the remains of Cyril and his spouse were transferred from Coburg to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...
in St. Petersburg, Russia.