Prince Gavriil Konstantinovich of Russia
Encyclopedia
Prince Gabriel Constantinovich of Russia was the second son of Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna. A great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I
, he was born in Imperial Russia
and served in the army during World War I
. He lost much of his family during the War and the Russian Revolution. He narrowly escaped execution by the Bolsheviks and spent the rest of his life living in exile in France
.
. He was the second son among the ten children of Grand Duke Constantin Constantinovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna, born Princess Elizabeth of Saxe-Altenburg. Gabriel Constantinovich and his brother prince Ivan, born a year earlier, were the first to suffer from the reforms of Emperor Alexander III
, his father's cousin, who decreed that in the name of economizing the state budget, only the children and grandchildren of the reigning sovereign would bear the title of grand duke. Thus, Gabriel Constantinovich was three days old when Tsar Alexander III issued a manifesto announcing his title as a Prince of the Imperial Blood with the style of Highness. Grand dukes received 280,000 gold ruble
s annually from the imperial treasury, which guaranteed a comfortable life, while Prince Gabriel was given a one-time sum of one million gold rubles, and he could count on nothing else.
Gabriel Constantinovich spent his early life living in fabulous splendor on the last period of Imperial Russia. His father, a respected poet, was a second cousin of Tsar Nicholas II
and one of the wealthiest members of the Romanov
family. As a child, Prince Gabriel had frail health; he was pale and prone to illness. He and his eldest brother Prince Ivan were both often sick and together spent more than a year of their childhood living at Oreanda in the Crimea
with a doctor and several servants. Their health improved in the temperate climate, and the boys enjoyed their time spent on the beaches and in short tours around the peninsula. With only each other, for company, they forged a strong sibling relationship that was to last to the ends of their lives.
Prince Gabriel was brought up strictly; he and his siblings were taught to speak pure Russian without a mixture of foreign phrases, and they had to memorize prayers. The best writers and musicians were invited to Pavlovsk and the Marble Palace
, and Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich
devised a programme of lectures for his children, providing a good education for them.
From a very early age, Gabriel was passionately devoted to his father and to all things military. Following his father's example, Gabriel Constantinovich chose a military career, traditional for the male members of the Romanov family. In his memoirs, he recalled: Since the age of seven, I dreamed of entering the Nikolaievsky calvary School. In 1900, he was allowed to join the 1st Moscow Cadet corps as preparatory training; in 1903 he finally received permission to join the Nikolaievsky school. "Having worn a cadet's uniform for five years," he wrote, "at last my dream came true, and I became a real military man." At nineteen, he was promoted to officer's rank and awarded several orders. On 19 January 1908 Gabriel Constantinovich took his oath of allegiance to Nicholas II in a ceremony held in the church of the Catherine Palace at Tsarkoye Selo.
His family was close to the Emperor, and he spent many times with the Tsar and his family. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
and her brother, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich
, were often his playmates.
ya, Prince Gabriel met Antonina Rafailovna Nesterovskaya (14 March 1890 – 7 March 1950), a twenty-one-year-old dancer and member of an impoverished family from the lesser nobility. Gabriel was twenty-four years old, very tall and thin. Nesterovskaya was nearly a foot shorter than he was, plain and plump, but she was witty and lively. Prince Gabriel fell in love with the ballerina. He managed to speak to her during the intervals while she was dancing at the Marinsky Theater every Sunday. By January 1912, he was visiting Nesterovskaya in the little apartment where she lived with her mother. They became lovers and before Easter
1912, they joined Kschessinskaya and her lover Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovich on a trip to the Riviera, staying in Cannes
and Monte Carlo
. The Riviera idyll did not last long, because they soon had to return to St Petersburg, where the prince was studying. From then on, he considered her as his "fiancée". In 1913, he asked her to quit the Ballet Corps and she agreed.
Prince Gabriel was devoted to his mistress and installed her in an extravagant house he purchased for her on Kamennostrovsky Prospek in Saint Petersburg
. Meanwhile, Prince Gabriel, who lived before in Pavlosk, received a large three room apartment at the Marble Palace on the second floor looking on the Palace Banks. After the death of his father in 1915, Prince Gabriel was increasingly involved with his mistress. They were a hospitable couple and kept an open house entertaining lavishly for their friends. The prince was a most generous lover, and indulged his mistress' whims. She appeared insatiable in her demands, especially when she found she only had to express a desire for anything to have her wish fulfilled.
Gabriel Constantinovich was devotedly in love, but he could not marry his mistress because the Romanov's family status forbade any morganatic union. He appealed to his aunt, Olga, Queen of the Hellenes
, to intercede on his behalf, and she went to see Nicholas II requesting permission for his nephew to marry, but the Tsar flatly refused. Through the twists and turns of the years that followed, Prince Gabriel remained passionate in his devotion to the dancer, determined that one day he would overcome the obstacles and marry her.
, Prince Gabriel had to be separated from his mistress. He and four of his brothers joined the active Russian army in the military effort, fighting in advance operations. His brother Prince Oleg
was killed in action at the beginning of the war. The following year Gabriel's father died of a heart attack. Evacuated to Petrograd in the fall of 1914, he joined the military academy, graduating at the age of twenty-nine with the rank of colonel. His affair with Nesteroskaya continued openly and was discussed publicly. The two lived together for a long time, and in 1916 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, seeing the sincerity of their feelings, decided to help them get married even though it was considered a misalliance.
After the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in the February Revolution
of 1917, Prince Gabriel asked his mother for permission to marry Antonina Nesteroskaya, but she did not give him her consent. He decided to disobey, and on 9 April 1917 at three o'clock pm in a little church, they married. A morganatic union would have never been allowed under the reign of Nicholas II and Gabriel kept his marriage secret from both his mother and his uncle Dimitri Constantinovich, who only later learned of the wedding.
Gabriel had asked his cousin Prince Alexander of Leuchtenberg, who himself intended to marry morganatically, to find a priest to bless the wedding secretly. At the wedding ceremony, only Lydia Tchistiakova (Antonina's sister) and a couple of their friends were present. Gabriel Constantinovich had told his secret to his brother Ivan a few days before, but his elder brother did not want to attend the ceremony because of their mother. However, he promised to keep the secret. On his way to the church, Prince Gabriel saw his brothers Konstantine and George
who were walking on Morskaïa Street. They had just met Antonina in wedding dress in another car. Only later, the two brothers realized what had happened. Once married, Prince Gabriel went to see his mother who, although she was very upset, at the end gave him her blessing. From then on Prince Gabriel moved in to Nesteroskaya's apartment where for a time, the couple lived quietly.
Prince Gabriel tried to keep a low profile in Petrograd during the spring 1917. Fearing a vengeful mob, Antonina telephoned to warn him, and dispatched a car and driver to collect him from the Military Academy and spirit him to the relative safety of her house.
of November 1917, the Petrograd newspapers published a decree summoning all male Romanovs to report to the Cheka
, the secret police. Initially they were just required not to leave the city. In March 1918 the Romanovs who registered were summoned again, now to be sent away into internal Russian exile. In the spring of 1918, when the Bolsheviks had initially tried to arrest him, Gabriel was suffering from tuberculosis; rather than imprison him, the Bolsheviks allowed him to stay with his wife Antonina at her Petrograd apartment. By the summer of 1918, however, he had recovered, and one day in July, a contingent of armed soldiers arrived at the modest apartment and took him into custody. He was put in Spalernaia prison in a cell adjoining those of his uncle Dimitri Constantinovich and Grand Dukes Nicholas Mikhailovich
and George Mikhailovich
.
Prince Gabriel, younger and more resilient than his relatives, found prison less of an ordeal, but he was shocked at his uncle's appearance when they were first reunited. Until the last, Gabriel recalled, Dimitri was the cheerful favorite uncle of his childhood, telling him jokes, attempting to raise the spirits, and bribing prison Guards to carry hopeful messages to his nephew's cell. Throughout Gabriel's incarceration Antonina was tireless in her efforts to obtain her husband's release. She finally succeeded with the intervention of Maxim Gorky
, who lobbied Lenin on Gabriel's behalf. Gorky's wife was among Antonina's friends. Near the end of 1918, Gabriel was moved to a hospital. Shortly after, Gorky took the couple under his own roof; they lived for a while in his apartment in Petrograd. A few weeks later, again with Gorky's assistance, the Petrograd Soviet gave the couple permission to leave Russia for Finland
. They hurriedly left Russia and made their roundabout way to France
. The Prince's release came just in time. On the early hours of 28 January 1919, his relatives at Spalernaia prison were executed by firing squad at the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
In 1920, Prince Gabriel and his wife took residence in Paris. The couple did not lose interest in society once they were in exile. They were constant attendees at many Russian balls, frequently enjoyed evenings out in Russian nightclubs, and continued their friendship with other Romanovs in exile. Their circle included Tamara de Lempicka
who painted a famous portrait of Gabriel Constantinovich.
By 1924, Prince Gabriel's economical situation was very difficult. Antonina, having considered then rejected the idea of opening a ballet school, instead turned to the world of couture, and established her own fashion house. Christened the House of Berry, the shop opened in a small building. Five years later after achieving some measure of success, Antonina was able to move the shop to a more fashionable location. When Antonina received important or wealthy clients, especially American millionaires, they were quickly whisked to a salon where, surrounded by the trappings of imperial Russia, they were entertained by Gabriel Constantinovich himself, who seemed to relish the experience. Visitors later recalled that the Prince frequently spent hours with them, often lecturing them on members of the extended family and using his photographs and paintings as visual aids to a vanished era. Gabriel and his wife, with the proceeds from their successful couture business, lived a comfortable, if not splendid life. Their entire hallways in their apartment were filled with family photographs. They lived happily and often had tea parties. In Paris, they often mingled with other Russian émigrés, including Prince Felix Yussupov, and his wife Princess Irina Alexandrovna, and Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovich by then married to Mathilde Kschessinska
ya.
The Great Depression
eventually marked a sharp turn in the fortune of their fashion business, and they had to close the shop in 1936. The couple lived very modestly in a Paris suburb, where Prince Gabriel wrote his memoirs. To earn money he organized bridge parties and his wife occasionally gave ballet lessons. A portion of Prince Gabriel's memoirs was later published as In the Marble Palace; the book appeared first in both Russian and French. A number of Russian editions have appeared over the years, the most recent in 2001. However, it took time for the memoirs to be published in English, because a first English translation was allegedly lost in the bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984. Gabriel's memoirs provide a detailed account of the private day to day lives of members of the Romanov family and have been sourced for many contemporary biographies on the Russian Imperial family.
" by Cyril's son Vladimir Cyrillovich on 15 May 1939. He was the only Romanov prince to be elevated to this style. The legality of these actions were controversial, since both Cyril and Vladimir's claims were contested. Other members of the Romanov family dismissed the new title turning Prince Gabriel’s elevation as Grand Duke as a source of amusement.
During the tumultuous years of World War II
, Gabriel Constantinovich continued to live in Paris with his wife. The relationship between them never wavered, and they remained devoted to each other. Prince Gabriel's wife died on 7 March 1950 at the age of sixty. Gabriel Constantinovich not only survived his wife, but remarried the following year on 11 May 1951. His second wife was Princess Irina Ivanovna Kurakina ( 22 September 1903 – 17 January 1993), a forty-eight-year-old exiled Russian noblewoman who was created HSH Princess Romanovskaya by Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich. Prince Gabriel died four years later on 28 February 1955 in Paris. He had no children by either marriage and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint Genieve des Bois in Paris.
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and a poet and playwright of some renown...
and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna. A great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
, he was born in Imperial Russia
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...
and served in the army during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He lost much of his family during the War and the Russian Revolution. He narrowly escaped execution by the Bolsheviks and spent the rest of his life living in exile in 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...
.
Early life
Prince Gabriel Constantinovich of Russia was born on 15 July 1887 at PavlovskPavlovsk Palace
Pavlovsk Palace is an 18th-century Russian Imperial residence built by Paul I of Russia near Saint Petersburg. After his death, it became the home of his widow, Maria Feodorovna...
. He was the second son among the ten children of Grand Duke Constantin Constantinovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna, born Princess Elizabeth of Saxe-Altenburg. Gabriel Constantinovich and his brother prince Ivan, born a year earlier, were the first to suffer from the reforms of Emperor Alexander III
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...
, his father's cousin, who decreed that in the name of economizing the state budget, only the children and grandchildren of the reigning sovereign would bear the title of grand duke. Thus, Gabriel Constantinovich was three days old when Tsar Alexander III issued a manifesto announcing his title as a Prince of the Imperial Blood with the style of Highness. Grand dukes received 280,000 gold ruble
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s annually from the imperial treasury, which guaranteed a comfortable life, while Prince Gabriel was given a one-time sum of one million gold rubles, and he could count on nothing else.
Gabriel Constantinovich spent his early life living in fabulous splendor on the last period of Imperial Russia. His father, a respected poet, was a second cousin 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 one of the wealthiest members of the Romanov
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...
family. As a child, Prince Gabriel had frail health; he was pale and prone to illness. He and his eldest brother Prince Ivan were both often sick and together spent more than a year of their childhood living at Oreanda in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
with a doctor and several servants. Their health improved in the temperate climate, and the boys enjoyed their time spent on the beaches and in short tours around the peninsula. With only each other, for company, they forged a strong sibling relationship that was to last to the ends of their lives.
Prince Gabriel was brought up strictly; he and his siblings were taught to speak pure Russian without a mixture of foreign phrases, and they had to memorize prayers. The best writers and musicians were invited to Pavlovsk and the Marble Palace
Marble Palace
Marble Palace is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Quay, slightly to the east from New Michael Palace....
, and Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and a poet and playwright of some renown...
devised a programme of lectures for his children, providing a good education for them.
From a very early age, Gabriel was passionately devoted to his father and to all things military. Following his father's example, Gabriel Constantinovich chose a military career, traditional for the male members of the Romanov family. In his memoirs, he recalled: Since the age of seven, I dreamed of entering the Nikolaievsky calvary School. In 1900, he was allowed to join the 1st Moscow Cadet corps as preparatory training; in 1903 he finally received permission to join the Nikolaievsky school. "Having worn a cadet's uniform for five years," he wrote, "at last my dream came true, and I became a real military man." At nineteen, he was promoted to officer's rank and awarded several orders. On 19 January 1908 Gabriel Constantinovich took his oath of allegiance to Nicholas II in a ceremony held in the church of the Catherine Palace at Tsarkoye Selo.
His family was close to the Emperor, and he spent many times with the Tsar and his family. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890-1958)
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, known as "Maria Pavlovna the Younger" was the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Alexandra Georgievna of Greece by marriage Princess of Sweden...
and her brother, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...
, were often his playmates.
A Russian prince
Unlike his serious and reserved brothers, Prince Gabriel was much more social, and began to associate with an aristocratic crowd considered fast by the standards of the day. In August 1911, during a small ball at the mansion of the famous ballerina Mathilde KschessinskaMathilde Kschessinska
Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
ya, Prince Gabriel met Antonina Rafailovna Nesterovskaya (14 March 1890 – 7 March 1950), a twenty-one-year-old dancer and member of an impoverished family from the lesser nobility. Gabriel was twenty-four years old, very tall and thin. Nesterovskaya was nearly a foot shorter than he was, plain and plump, but she was witty and lively. Prince Gabriel fell in love with the ballerina. He managed to speak to her during the intervals while she was dancing at the Marinsky Theater every Sunday. By January 1912, he was visiting Nesterovskaya in the little apartment where she lived with her mother. They became lovers and before Easter
1912, they joined Kschessinskaya and her lover Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovich on a trip to the Riviera, staying in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
and Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
. The Riviera idyll did not last long, because they soon had to return to St Petersburg, where the prince was studying. From then on, he considered her as his "fiancée". In 1913, he asked her to quit the Ballet Corps and she agreed.
Prince Gabriel was devoted to his mistress and installed her in an extravagant house he purchased for her on Kamennostrovsky Prospek in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. Meanwhile, Prince Gabriel, who lived before in Pavlosk, received a large three room apartment at the Marble Palace on the second floor looking on the Palace Banks. After the death of his father in 1915, Prince Gabriel was increasingly involved with his mistress. They were a hospitable couple and kept an open house entertaining lavishly for their friends. The prince was a most generous lover, and indulged his mistress' whims. She appeared insatiable in her demands, especially when she found she only had to express a desire for anything to have her wish fulfilled.
Gabriel Constantinovich was devotedly in love, but he could not marry his mistress because the Romanov's family status forbade any morganatic union. He appealed to his aunt, Olga, Queen of the Hellenes
Olga Konstantinovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia , later Queen Olga of the Hellenes , was the queen consort of King George I of Greece and briefly in 1920, Queen Regent of Greece...
, to intercede on his behalf, and she went to see Nicholas II requesting permission for his nephew to marry, but the Tsar flatly refused. Through the twists and turns of the years that followed, Prince Gabriel remained passionate in his devotion to the dancer, determined that one day he would overcome the obstacles and marry her.
War and revolution
At the outbreak of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Prince Gabriel had to be separated from his mistress. He and four of his brothers joined the active Russian army in the military effort, fighting in advance operations. His brother Prince Oleg
Prince Oleg Constantinovich of Russia
Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Russia , was a son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.He died of wounds suffered in battle against the Germans during World War I.-Early life:...
was killed in action at the beginning of the war. The following year Gabriel's father died of a heart attack. Evacuated to Petrograd in the fall of 1914, he joined the military academy, graduating at the age of twenty-nine with the rank of colonel. His affair with Nesteroskaya continued openly and was discussed publicly. The two lived together for a long time, and in 1916 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, seeing the sincerity of their feelings, decided to help them get married even though it was considered a misalliance.
After the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in the February Revolution
February 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, Prince Gabriel asked his mother for permission to marry Antonina Nesteroskaya, but she did not give him her consent. He decided to disobey, and on 9 April 1917 at three o'clock pm in a little church, they married. A morganatic union would have never been allowed under the reign of Nicholas II and Gabriel kept his marriage secret from both his mother and his uncle Dimitri Constantinovich, who only later learned of the wedding.
Gabriel had asked his cousin Prince Alexander of Leuchtenberg, who himself intended to marry morganatically, to find a priest to bless the wedding secretly. At the wedding ceremony, only Lydia Tchistiakova (Antonina's sister) and a couple of their friends were present. Gabriel Constantinovich had told his secret to his brother Ivan a few days before, but his elder brother did not want to attend the ceremony because of their mother. However, he promised to keep the secret. On his way to the church, Prince Gabriel saw his brothers Konstantine and George
Prince George Constantinovich of Russia
Prince Georgy Konstantinovich of Russia , was the youngest son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Mavrikiyevna....
who were walking on Morskaïa Street. They had just met Antonina in wedding dress in another car. Only later, the two brothers realized what had happened. Once married, Prince Gabriel went to see his mother who, although she was very upset, at the end gave him her blessing. From then on Prince Gabriel moved in to Nesteroskaya's apartment where for a time, the couple lived quietly.
Prince Gabriel tried to keep a low profile in Petrograd during the spring 1917. Fearing a vengeful mob, Antonina telephoned to warn him, and dispatched a car and driver to collect him from the Military Academy and spirit him to the relative safety of her house.
Captivity
After the successful Bolshevik coupOctober 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...
of November 1917, the Petrograd newspapers published a decree summoning all male Romanovs to report to the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
, the secret police. Initially they were just required not to leave the city. In March 1918 the Romanovs who registered were summoned again, now to be sent away into internal Russian exile. In the spring of 1918, when the Bolsheviks had initially tried to arrest him, Gabriel was suffering from tuberculosis; rather than imprison him, the Bolsheviks allowed him to stay with his wife Antonina at her Petrograd apartment. By the summer of 1918, however, he had recovered, and one day in July, a contingent of armed soldiers arrived at the modest apartment and took him into custody. He was put in Spalernaia prison in a cell adjoining those of his uncle Dimitri Constantinovich and Grand Dukes Nicholas Mikhailovich
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia , 26 April 1859 – 28 January 1919 was the eldest son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and a first cousin of Alexander III....
and George Mikhailovich
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (1863-1919)
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia was a son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and a first cousin of Emperor Alexander III. He was a General in the Russian army in World War I...
.
Prince Gabriel, younger and more resilient than his relatives, found prison less of an ordeal, but he was shocked at his uncle's appearance when they were first reunited. Until the last, Gabriel recalled, Dimitri was the cheerful favorite uncle of his childhood, telling him jokes, attempting to raise the spirits, and bribing prison Guards to carry hopeful messages to his nephew's cell. Throughout Gabriel's incarceration Antonina was tireless in her efforts to obtain her husband's release. She finally succeeded with the intervention of Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, who lobbied Lenin on Gabriel's behalf. Gorky's wife was among Antonina's friends. Near the end of 1918, Gabriel was moved to a hospital. Shortly after, Gorky took the couple under his own roof; they lived for a while in his apartment in Petrograd. A few weeks later, again with Gorky's assistance, the Petrograd Soviet gave the couple permission to leave Russia for 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...
. They hurriedly left Russia and made their roundabout way 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...
. The Prince's release came just in time. On the early hours of 28 January 1919, his relatives at Spalernaia prison were executed by firing squad at the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Exile
Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara de Lempicka , born Maria Górska in Moscow, in the Russian Empire, was a Polish Art Deco painter and "the first woman artist to be a glamour star."- Early life :...
who painted a famous portrait of Gabriel Constantinovich.
By 1924, Prince Gabriel's economical situation was very difficult. Antonina, having considered then rejected the idea of opening a ballet school, instead turned to the world of couture, and established her own fashion house. Christened the House of Berry, the shop opened in a small building. Five years later after achieving some measure of success, Antonina was able to move the shop to a more fashionable location. When Antonina received important or wealthy clients, especially American millionaires, they were quickly whisked to a salon where, surrounded by the trappings of imperial Russia, they were entertained by Gabriel Constantinovich himself, who seemed to relish the experience. Visitors later recalled that the Prince frequently spent hours with them, often lecturing them on members of the extended family and using his photographs and paintings as visual aids to a vanished era. Gabriel and his wife, with the proceeds from their successful couture business, lived a comfortable, if not splendid life. Their entire hallways in their apartment were filled with family photographs. They lived happily and often had tea parties. In Paris, they often mingled with other Russian émigrés, including Prince Felix Yussupov, and his wife Princess Irina Alexandrovna, and Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovich by then married to Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
ya.
The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
eventually marked a sharp turn in the fortune of their fashion business, and they had to close the shop in 1936. The couple lived very modestly in a Paris suburb, where Prince Gabriel wrote his memoirs. To earn money he organized bridge parties and his wife occasionally gave ballet lessons. A portion of Prince Gabriel's memoirs was later published as In the Marble Palace; the book appeared first in both Russian and French. A number of Russian editions have appeared over the years, the most recent in 2001. However, it took time for the memoirs to be published in English, because a first English translation was allegedly lost in the bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984. Gabriel's memoirs provide a detailed account of the private day to day lives of members of the Romanov family and have been sourced for many contemporary biographies on the Russian Imperial family.
Last years
Gabriel Constantinovich kept in touch with his Romanov relatives during his long years in exile. He supported the claims of the chief Romanov pretender, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia. Cyril repaid the favour by ennobling Nesterovskaya as "Princess Romanovskaya-Strelninskaya". Gabriel himself was awarded the style of "Grand DukeGrand 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...
" by Cyril's son Vladimir Cyrillovich on 15 May 1939. He was the only Romanov prince to be elevated to this style. The legality of these actions were controversial, since both Cyril and Vladimir's claims were contested. Other members of the Romanov family dismissed the new title turning Prince Gabriel’s elevation as Grand Duke as a source of amusement.
During the tumultuous years of 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...
, Gabriel Constantinovich continued to live in Paris with his wife. The relationship between them never wavered, and they remained devoted to each other. Prince Gabriel's wife died on 7 March 1950 at the age of sixty. Gabriel Constantinovich not only survived his wife, but remarried the following year on 11 May 1951. His second wife was Princess Irina Ivanovna Kurakina ( 22 September 1903 – 17 January 1993), a forty-eight-year-old exiled Russian noblewoman who was created HSH Princess Romanovskaya by Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich. Prince Gabriel died four years later on 28 February 1955 in Paris. He had no children by either marriage and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint Genieve des Bois in Paris.