Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia
Encyclopedia
Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (7 July 1907 – 23 June 1989) was a son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович Aleksandr Mihailovits was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, and an advisor of the said Emperor.-Biography: Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke...

 and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
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...

.

Life

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov was born in the Palace of Gatchina
Gatchina
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...

 on 7 July 1907, the sixth son and last of the seven children of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович Aleksandr Mihailovits was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, and an advisor of the said Emperor.-Biography: Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke...

 and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was a daughter of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and the elder of Tsar Nicholas II two sisters. She married her cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikailovich of Russia, with whom she had seven children....

. Although a grandson 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:...

 through his mother, he was not entitled to the title Grand Duke of Russia because he was only a great-grandson of Emperor 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...

 in the male line through his father. He was a sickly child and after his birth there was some doubts that he would survive so he was baptized in the nursery. Shortly after his birth his parents started to live separate lives. Prince Vasili spend his early years in Imperial Russia during the reign of his maternal uncle 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...

. At the fall of Russian monarchy in February 1917 Vasili, aged ten, was on vacation in Ai-Todor, his father estate in 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...

. By the end of March both of his parents, all his siblings and their grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna were also in Crimea.

After the Russian Revolution, when the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, Prince Vasili along with his parents, siblings and grandmother the Dowager Empress were placed under house arrest at Ai-Todor. On 11 March 1918 they were transferred with other Romanovs relatives to Dulber, the estate of Grand Duke Peter Nicholaievich in 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...

. He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov relatives imprisoned who were murdered by the Bolsheviks when he was freed with the Romanovs in his group by German troops in May 1918. He escaped from Russia on 11 April 1919 with the help of his great aunt Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (née Princess Alexandra of Denmark)
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...

, Dowager Empress Maria’s sister. King George V of the United Kingdom
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 sent the British warship HMS Marlborough
HMS Marlborough (1912)
HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and launched in 1912. In World War I she served in the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow...

 which brought Vasili's family and other Romanovs from the Crimea over the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 and then to England. Prince Vasili, who was eleven years old at the time, spent the rest of his life in exile.

During his first years in exile, Prince Vasili lived in England with his mother. In the late 1920s, he emigrated to the United States where he spent the rest of his life. Vasili earned a living by finding work as a cabin boy, shipyard worker, stockbroker, winemaker and a chicken farmer in northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

In 1980 Prince Vasili was appointed president of the Romanov Family Association
Romanov Family Association
The Romanov Family Association, Obyedineniye Chlenov Roda Romanovykh , is an organization for male-line descendants of Emperor Paul I of Russia...

 in succession to his brother Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich
Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia
Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia was a son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.-Russian prince:...

. He remained president until his death in Woodside, California
Woodside, California
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....

 aged 81.

Family

Prince Vasili married in New York City on 31 July 1931, Princess Natalia Galitzine (Moscow 26 October 1907 – Woodside 28 March 1989), a fellow Russian exile — they met in the United States. Natalia was a distant cousin of Vasili's brother Prince Rostislav's wife, and her sister married Geoffrey Tooth, who would become the second husband, of Vasili's niece, Princess Xenia Andreevna. The couple lived in California for many years. They had one daughter:
  • Princess Marina Romanov (born in San Francisco 22 May 1940); married in Woodside California on 8 January 1967 (divorced) William Beadleston (born in Long Branch, New Jersey 31 July 1938) an art dealer. They had four children.

Title and style

  • His Highness Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia


N.B. After the Russian revolution members of the Imperial family tended to drop the territorial designation “of Russia” and use the princely title with the surname Romanov.

It is often alleged that Vasili's marriage with princess Galitzin would have been morganatic. However, Pieter Broek holds that it was as acceptable dynastically as the Bagrationi marriage of Vasili's cousin, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia.

Ancestry

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