2025-02-28 The 70th Anniversary of the Death of Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich

February 28, 2025, marks the 70th anniversary of the death of Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich (1955), son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and Grand Duchess Elisabeth Mavrikievna (née Princess of Saxe-Altenburg).

• Prince of the Imperial Blood Gavriil Konstantinovich Prince of the Imperial Blood Gavriil Konstantinovich
• Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich
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Gavriil Konstantinovich (born 3/16 July 1887; died 15/28 February 1955), Prince of the Imperial Blood (from 1939, Grand Duke), was the second son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and Grand Duchess Elisabeth Mavrikievna (née Princess of Saxe-Altenburg). He was a great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.

Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich was born in Pavlovsk. In 1900, he enrolled in the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps; and in 1905, in the Nikolaevsky Cavalry School. He also attended a course of lectures at the Imperial Lyceum. In 1907 he was mustered into the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. In the following year,1908, he was appointed an aide-de-camp.

He served at the front during World War I. In addition to the Dynastic Orders of the Imperial House, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class with swords and bow, and the Order of St. George. In 1915, he was discharged from the regiment of His Majesty’s Retinue, and in 1916 he completed an accelerated course of study at the Imperial Nikolaev Military Academy and was promoted to colonel.

In 1917, in Petrograd, he entered into an unequal marriage with Antonina Rafailovna Nesterovskaya.

He was arrested in 1918 in Petrograd and held in the Ss. Peter and Paul Fortress, together with Grand Dukes Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai Mikhailovich, and Georgii Mikhailovich, who were all later executed. He was released and given permission to leave the country thanks to the interventions of his wife and Maxim Gorky.

Beginning in 1920 he lived in Paris.

In 1935, he petitioned Emperor-in-Exile Kirill I Vladimirovich for a title for his wife, who then became known as Her Most Serene Highness Princess Romanovskaya-Strelninskaya.

He served as the Chairman of the Union of Military Units of the Russian Imperial Army. He also served as a member of the Council of the Imperial House.

On May 15, 1939, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, elevated him to the title of Grand Duke with the style of Imperial Highness.

Widowed in 1950, he entered into a second unequal marriage with Princess Irina Ivanovna Kurakina in the following year. He had asked Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich for permission to marry and received for his new wife the title of Her Most Serene Highness Princess Romanovskaya-Kurakina. He had no children from either of his marriages.

There were occasions when, under the influence of his disloyal relatives, his devotion to the legitimist cause waivered, but at key moments he always returned to the dynastic laws; and at the end of his life he recognized his errors and passed away a committed legitimist and loyal subject of the rightful Head of the Imperial House, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich.

He was the author of the memoir In the Marble Palace.

He died in Paris and was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

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Excepts from Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich’s memoir, In the Marble Palace (1955):

“When the Revolution broke out, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich was living in Petrograd and was in command of the Naval Guards. In the summer of 1917, he and his wife, Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, and their two young daughters, Princesses Maria Kirillovna and Kira Kirillovna, moved to Finland, to the Etter estate in Heikko, near the city of Borgo. On August 30, 1917, their son Prince Vladimir Kirillovich, the current Head of the Russian Imperial House, was born in Borgo.”

“In 1924, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was elevated to the title Grand Duke by his father, as were also his sisters [elevated to the title of Grand Duchess], and he became known as the Heir Tsesarevich.”

“In August 1948, [Grand Duke Vladimir] married Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhranskaya and, as Head of the Imperial House, bestowed upon her the title of Grand Duchess.”

“In 1920, Kirill Vladimirovich and his family traveled to Switzerland to meet with Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and other relatives who were also there. From Switzerland, they moved to Coburg, where Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna owned a house. Then they moved to France, to Saint-Briac in Brittany, where they bought a small estate. In 1922, Kirill Vladimirovich, as the senior member of the Russian Imperial House, assumed the title of Curator of the Russian Imperial Throne, and in 1924, the title of Russian Emperor.”

For the full text of the memoir (in Russian), see: http://www.tinlib.ru/istorija/v_mramornom_dvorce/p1.php.

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Grant, O Lord, eternal peace and blessed repose to Thy servant, the Right-Believing Grand Duke Gavriil Konstantinovich, and may his memory be eternal.