spb/wp30_uqo

1{2  "document_id": "lb_2wikimqa_0c8d9e57340d06b13e75f1dd42ddb5f08c1203fb62632353",3  "family": "public_2wikimqa",4  "split": "test",5  "text": "Passage 1:\nGrand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich of Russia\nGrand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia (14 February 1850 – 26 January 1918) was the first-born son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia and a grandson of Nicholas I of Russia.\n\nEarly life\nBorn in St Petersburg in the middle of the nineteenth century into the House of Romanov, he had a very privileged childhood. Most royal children were brought up by nannies and servants so by the time Nikolai had grown up he lived a very independent life having become a gifted military officer and an incorrigible womanizer. He had an affair with a notorious American woman Fanny Lear. In a scandal related to this affair, he stole three valuable diamonds from the revetment of one of the most valuable family icons. He was declared insane and he was banished to Tashkent.\n\nLater life\nHe lived for many years under constant supervision in the area around Tashkent in the southeastern Russian Empire (now Uzbekistan) and made a great contribution to the city by using his personal fortune to help improve the local area. In 1890 he ordered the building of his own palace in Tashkent to house and show his large and very valuable collection of works of art and the collection is now the center of the state Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan. He was also famous in Tashkent as a competent engineer and irrigator, constructing two large canals, the Bukhar-aryk (which was poorly aligned and soon silted up) and the much more successful Khiva-Aryk, later extended to form the Emperor Nicholas I Canal, irrigating 12,000 desyatinas, 33,000 acres (134 km2) of land in the Hungry Steppe between Djizak and Tashkent. Most of this was then settled with Slavic peasant colonisers.Nikolai had a number of children by different women. One of his grandchildren, Natalia Androsova, died in Moscow in 1999.\n\nDeath\nNikolai died of pneumonia on 26 January 1918. He was buried in St. George's Cathedral (later demolished by the Soviet regime).\n\nFamily\nNikolai married Nadezhda (variantly spelled Nadejda) Alexandrovna von Dreyer (1861–1929), daughter of Orenburg police chief Alexander Gustavovich von Dreyer and Sophia Ivanovna Opanovskaya, in 1882. Two children were born from this marriage:\n\nArtemi Nikolayevich Prince Iskander (or Prince Romanovsky-Iskander) (1883–1919), killed in the Russian Civil War\nAlexander Nikolayevich Prince Iskander (15 November 1887 N.S. – 26 January 1957), married Olga Iosifovna Rogovskaya / Rogowska (1893–1962) on 5 May 1912. The couple had two children. Alexander and Olga were later divorced, and Alexander married Natalya Khanykova (30 December 1893 – 20 April 1982) in 1930. No children resulted from the latter marriage.\nPrince Kirill Romanovsky-Iskander, adopted name (via stepfather, Nicholas Androsov) Kirill Nikolaevich Androsov (5 December 1914 – 1992)\nNatalya Alexandrovna Princess Romanovskaya-Iskander, adopted name Natalya Nikolaevna Androsova (2 February 1917 – 1999)Among his illegitimate children were the following:\nWith Alexandra Abasa (1855–4 Nov 1894):\n\nNicholas Nikolayevich Wolinsky (11 December 1875, Moscow – 30 December 1913, Rome)\nOlga Nikolayevna Wolinskaya (May 1877, Odessa – 9 October 1910, Leipzig), wife of Ludwig Adolf von Burgund, Graf (Count) von Burgund (1865-1908), official of Kaiserliche MarineWith unknown mistresses:\n\nStanislav (d. 1919)\nNicholas (d. 1922)\nDaria (d. 1936)\nTatiana (died ?)\n\nHonours\nAncestry\nPassage 2:\nGrand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia\nGrand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russia (Russian: Ольга Павловна; 22 July [O.S. 11 July] 1792 – 26 January [O.S. 15 January] 1795) was a Grand Duchess of Russia as the second youngest daughter and seventh child of the Tsarevich of Russia (later Emperor Paul I) and his consort, Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.\n\nBirth and Christening\nThe Grand Duchess Olga was born as her parents' fifth daughter and seventh child. Her birth was not greeted with much happiness by her paternal grandmother, Catherine the Great, who stated that \"A lot of girls, all married will not tell anyone\". She later wrote:\n\nThe Grand Duchess has treated us (nous a regalé) with a fifth daughter, whose shoulders are nearly as wide as mine. Since the Grand Duchess was in labour for two days and finally gave birth on July 11, the feast day of Saint Olga of Kiev, who was baptized in Constantinople in the year 956, I said, \"Well, we will have two holidays instead of one\" and so she was baptised Olga\nThe little Grand Duchess was baptised on 29 July [O.S. 18 July] 1792 and, as it was customary, she received the Great Cross of the Order of Saint Catherine.\n\nDeath\nThe almost-three-year-old Grand Duchess died on 26 January [O.S. 15] 1795. A letter to Catherine the Great stated:\n\nThe 13th Grand Duchess, Olga, died. And imagine why? For eighteen weeks, she revealed a hunger and she constantly asked to eat, because she grew too great for her two and a half years, at that time many molars came at once, and after sixteen weeks of suffering and a slow debilitating fever occurred daily, she died between seven and eight o'clock in the evening ...\n\nThe same year, Gavrila Derzhavin dedicated a poem to her death, entitled \"On the death of Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna\", just as he had dedicated a poem to her when she was born. Out of the ten children born to Paul and Sophia, Olga was the only one that died during her childhood years. The funeral was held at the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Olga's burial place. The Empress herself was at the funeral, dressed in a white dress, with gray hair disheveled, pale and silent. In 1800, when Olga would have been eight, Gerhard von Kügelgen painted a portrait of Paul I's family. Behind the family, a bust of Olga stood high in front of a forest.\n\nAncestry\nPassage 3:\nPrincess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark\nPrincess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Ελισάβετ; 24 May 1904 – 11 January 1955) was the middle daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia.\n\nEarly life\nPrincess Elizabeth was born on 24 May 1904 at the Tatoi Palace just north of Athens, Greece, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George I. She was the second daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, and his wife Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. Her father was the third son of King George I and Queen Olga of Greece, while her mother was the only daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. Her father was a grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark, while her mother was a granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.Princess Elizabeth had two sisters, an older sister Princess Olga and a younger sister Princess Marina. Princess Olga married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia in 1923. After the assassination of his cousin, King Alexander I, Paul served as Prince Regent of Yugoslavia from 1934 to 1941. Princess Marina married Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934. One of their paternal uncles was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (making Elizabeth and her sisters Philip's first cousins).\nHer family nicknamed her 'Woolly' because of her thick, dark brown hair. Princess Elizabeth was a keen horsewoman and painter.\n\nMarriage and issue\nElizabeth married Count Carl Theodor of Törring-Jettenbach (22 September 1900 – 14 May 1967) on 10 January 1934. Through his mother, Duchess Sophie Adelheid in Bavaria, he was the nephew of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and of Princess Marie Gabrielle of Bavaria. Elizabeth and Carl Theodor had two children:\n\nHans Veit Kaspar Nikolaus, Count of Törring-Jettenbach (11 January 1935), who married Princess Henriette of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein and had issue\nCountess Helene Marina Elisabeth of Törring-Jettenbach (20 May 1937), who married Archduke Ferdinand Karl Max of Austria and had issue, including Archduchess Sophie of Austria, the designer Sophie Habsburg.Elizabeth died of cancer on 11 January 1955 in Munich. She was 50 years old.\n\nHonours\nDame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia.\n\nAncestry\nPassage 4:\nGrand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia\nElena Pavlovna (Russian: Елена Павловна; 24 December [O.S. 13 December] 1784 – 24 September [O.S. 12 September] 1803) was a grand duchess of Russia as the daughter of Paul I, the Russian emperor, and later became the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as the wife of the Hereditary Grand Duke Frederick Louis (1778–1819).\n\nEarly life\nGrand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Romanova was born in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire as the fourth child and second daughter of Tsesarevich Paul Petrovich of Russia (1754–1801) and his second wife, Tsesarevna Maria Feodorovna, born Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (1759–1828). \nOut of her nine siblings, Elena was closest to her elder sister Alexandra Pavlovna, whom their paternal grandmother Catherine the Great compared unfavourably to Elena. Elena was deemed more smarter and more charming than her two-year-old sister Alexandra. However, as the sisters matured, Catherine loved both of them equally.\nElena was educated privately at home, for the first years, under the supervision of her grandmother, Catherine the Great. Her education was focused mainly on fine arts, literature and music.\n\nMarriage and life in Schwerin\nMarriage\nIn 1798, negotiations took place about the marriage of Elena Pavlovna and the heir of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hereditary Grand Duke Frederick Louis (1778–1819), the eldest son of Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. The formal betrothal was celebrated on 5 May 1799, and on 23 October 1799, they were married at the Great Gatchina Palace near Saint Petersbourg.\n\nLife in Schwerin\nElena Pavlovna moved to Schwerin with her husband and led a content married life there. On 15 September 1800 she gave birth to her firstborn son, Paul Frederick, who would go on to inherit the throne of the grand duchy. He was named after his grandfathers. On 16 March 1801, Elena Pavlovna's sister Archduchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Austria died in Buda in childbirth. Only eight days later her father was assassinated. On 31 March 1803 she gave birth to a daughter, Marie Louise, named after her grandmothers, who would later become the duchess of Saxe-Altenburg.\n\nDeath and burial\nIn September 1803, Elena Pavlovna fell gravely ill and died suddenly on 24 September. She was buried in the Helena Paulovna Mausoleum in Ludwigslust. Her widower, Frederick Louis, remarried two times and had more children, but never succeeded to the throne, as his father outlived him.\n\nIssue\nHereditary Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna had two children with her husband, Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1778–1819), both of whom survived to adulthood:\n\nPaul Frederick, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (15 September 1800 – 7 March 1842), who inherited the throne of the duchy, married Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1803–1892) in 1822 and had issue.\nMarie Louise Friederike Alexandrine Elizabeth Charlotte Catherine, Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg (31 March 1803 – 26 October 1862), who married Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg on 7 October 1825 and had issue.\n\nLetters\nElena Pavlovna's letters to her maternal grandfather, Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, written between 1795 and 1797, are preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany.\n\nAncestry\nPassage 5:\nGrand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia\nGrand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian: Влади́мир Александрович; 22 April 1847 – 17 February 1909) was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, a brother of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and the senior Grand Duke of the House of Romanov during the reign of his nephew, Emperor Nicholas II.\nGrand Duke Vladimir followed a military career and occupied important military positions during the reigns of the last three Russian Emperors. Interested in artistic and intellectual pursuits; he was appointed President of the Academy of Fine Arts. He functioned as a patron of many artists and as a sponsor of the Imperial ballet.During the reign of his father, Emperor Alexander II, he was made Adjutant-General, senator in 1868 and a member of the Council of State in 1872. His brother, Alexander III, also promoted his career. He became a member of the Council of Ministers, Commander of the Imperial Guards Corps and Military Governor of Saint Petersburg. He tried to exert some influence over his nephew Tsar Nicholas II, but had to content himself with holding a rival court with his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna at his palace in Saint Petersburg. The events of Bloody Sunday in 1905, while he was Military Governor of St Petersburg, tarnished his reputation. During the last years of his life, the rift between his family and that of Nicholas II widened. He died after a stroke in 1909.\n\nEarly life\nGrand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was born on 22 April 1847 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. He was fourth among the eight children of Alexander II of Russia and his wife Maria Alexandrovna, born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.\nHe was eight years old when at the death of his grandfather Nicholas I, his father became Russian tsar. Grand Duke Vladimir was well educated and through his life he was interested in literature and the arts. However, as all male members of the Romanov family he had to follow a military career. As only the third son in a numerous family, he was far from the succession to the Russian throne. Nevertheless, in 1865, the early death of his eldest brother, the Tsarevich Nicholas, left Vladimir unexpectedly close to the throne as heir presumptive after his second brother Alexander. Unlike Alexander, the new heir, Vladimir was witty and ambitious. Rumors circulated at the time, that Alexander II would have his eldest surviving son removed from the succession placing Vladimir as his heir. Alexander himself would have preferred to step aside from the succession hoping to marry morganatically, but eventually he yielded to family pressure and married a suitable bride. Relations between the two brothers, although cordial, were never warm.\n\nA Russian Grand Duke\nIn 1867 Grand Duke Vladimir was named honorary president of the Russian ethnographic society, the same year he accompanied his father and his brother Alexander to the World Fair in Paris, where his father was shot by a Polish nationalist. In 1871 he visited the Caucasus region, Georgia, Chechnya and Dagestan with his father and his brothers. In 1872 he accompanied his father to Vienna at the reunion of the three emperors: Russia, Germany and Austria.A member of the European beau monde, he made frequent trips to Paris. He became portly as a young man, although in later life he slimmed down. He was a skillful painter and gathered an important book collection. He was a well known gourmet, accumulating a collection of menus copied after meals, adding notations with his impressions about the food.\n\nMarriage\nWhile traveling through Germany with his family in June 1871, Grand Duke Vladimir met Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (14 May 1854 – 6 September 1920), daughter of Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz. She was seventeen years old and was already engaged to a distant relative, Prince George of Schwarzburg. Grand Duke Vladimir was then twenty four. They were smitten with each other. Vladimir was a second cousin of Maria's father Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a grandson of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia. They were also second cousins in descent from Frederick William III of Prussia. In order to marry Vladimir, Maria broke off her previous engagement, but she refused to yield to the necessary conversion to the Orthodox religion. This delayed the couple's engagement for almost two years. Finally, Tsar Alexander II consented to Marie's continued adherence to her Lutheran faith, allowing Vladimir to marry her without loss of his rights to the Russian throne. The engagement was announced in April 1874.The wedding took place in Saint Petersburg on 28 August 1874 at the Winter palace. Vladimir's wife adopted the patronymic Pavlovna upon her marriage and was known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. Only decades later, after Vladimir's death, she converted to the Russian Orthodox confession, then, Emperor Nicholas II bestowed her the title \"the Orthodox Grand Duchess\". Grand Duke Vladimir and his wife were both witty and ambitious. They enjoyed entertaining and their residence in St. Petersburg became the heart of the Imperial capital social life. Well suited to each other, they had a long and happy marriage.\n\nVladimir's palace\nBy the time of his marriage, construction had already been completed on Vladimir's own residence and he moved there with his wife. Named the Vladimir Palace, it was one of the last imperial palaces constructed in Saint Petersburg. Grand Duke Vladimir appointed architect Aleksandr Rezanov to head the project because of his knowledge of ancient Russian architecture. A team of architects assisted Rezanov: Vasily Kenel, Andrei Huhn, Ieronim Kitner and Vladimir Shreter. The foundation stone was laid on 15 July 1867. Construction work lasted five years, from 1867 to 1872. The furniture was designed by architect Victor Shroeter.\nThe site chosen for the palace was the Embankment near the Winter Palace in the center of St Petersburg. It had previously been occupied by the house of Count Vorontsov-Dashkov which had been bought by the treasury. The lot was enlarged by purchasing the neighboring house of Madame Karatinga. The total construction and furnishing cost of Vladimir Palace was 820,000 rubles, a much modest amount than the one spent building previous palaces for other grand dukes a decade earlier.The Vladimir palace stands, like the Winter Palace and the Marble Palace, by the Neva on the  Dvorstsovaya Embankment. The façade, richly ornamented with stucco rustication, was patterned after Leon Battista Alberti's palazzi in Florence. The main porch is built of Bremen sandstone and adorned with griffins, coats-of-arms, and cast-iron lanterns. Other details are cast in Portland cement.\nThe palace and its outbuildings contain some 360 rooms, all decorated in eclectic historic styles: Neo-Renaissance (reception room, parlor), Gothic Revival (dining room), Russian Revival (Oak Hall), Rococo (White Hall), Byzantine style (study), Louis XIV, various oriental styles, and so on. This interior ornamentation, further augmented by Maximilian Messmacher in 1881–1891, is considered by art historians, such as Nikolay Punin, a major monument to the 19th-century passion for historicism. Grand Duke Vladimir decorated his apartments with his collection of Russian paintings by the best artists of his time, such as Ilya Repin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Feodor Bruni, Vasili Vereshchagin, Ivan Kramskoy, Mikhail Vrubel, Nikolai Sverchkov and Rudolf Ferdinandovich Frentz.\n\nChildren\nGrand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna had five children:\n\nGrand Duke Alexander Vladimirovich of Russia (31 August 1875 – 16 March 1877). He died in infancy\nGrand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia (12 October (N.S.), 1876 – 12 October 1938). He married his first cousin Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They had three children.\nGrand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia (1877–1943). He married his mistress Zinaida Rashevskaya. He did not leave legitimate descendants.\nGrand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia (1879–1956). He married his mistress Matilda Kchessinska. They had one son.\nGrand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (1882–1957). She married Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, third son of George I of Greece and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. They had three daughters.\n\nDuring three reigns\nGrand Duke Vladimir occupied important military positions during three reigns. He experienced battle in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, taking part in the campaign alongside his father and his brothers Alexander and Sergei. He fought against the Turkish troops as the commanding officer of the XII Corps of the Russian army. However, his military career interested him less than art and literature. In 1880 his father appointed him President of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He also became a member of the Academy of Science and an agent of the Rumyantsev Museum. Grand Duke Vladimir was in the Imperial capital when his father was assassinated and succeeded by Alexander III in 1881. It fell upon Vladimir, who regained his composure more quickly than his brother, to announce their father's death to the public. Vladimir inherited his father's personal library, which the Grand Duke added to his large book-collection that was arranged in three libraries at the Vladimir Palace. (After the Russian Revolution of 1917 these books were sold off randomly by weight and currently form part of several American university-collections.)\nAlthough Alexander III was not close to Vladimir and there was a rivalry between their wives, he promoted his brother's career. The day after their father's death he appointed Vladimir as Military Governor of St Petersburg, a post previously held by their uncle Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. Vladimir served on the State Council and chaired the official commission that supervised the building of the Church of the Saviour, built between 1883 and 1907 on the site of the assassination of his father, Emperor Alexander II of Russia.Grand Duke Vladimir was a keen philanthropist. A talented painter himself, he became a famous patron of the arts. He frequented many artists and gathered a valuable collection of paintings and old icons. He later took a great interest in ballet. He financed the tour of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.Emperor Alexander III's three sons rendered Vladimir and Vladimir's own three sons remote in the line of succession to Russia's throne. Nevertheless, Vladimir seemed unexpectedly close to becoming Emperor in 1888 when Alexander III with his wife and all of their children were involved in a train accident at Borki (in present-day Ukraine). Vladimir and his wife, then in Paris, did not bother to come back to Russia. This annoyed Alexander III, who commented that if he had died with his children, Vladimir would have rushed to return to Russia to become Emperor. At Alexander III's death in 1894 there were unfounded rumors that the army intended to proclaim Grand Duke Vladimir emperor in place of his nephew Nicholas II. Vladimir tried to  influence the new Emperor, particularly at the beginning of Nicholas II's reign.Although the Grand Duke was conservative in his political views, he did not believe in human virtues. Something of a rascal himself, he preferred the company of amusing witty people - regardless of their ideology or background. The more liberal members of Russian society were invited to lavish parties at his residence. He often intimidated people with his coarseness, rudeness and hot temper. Vladimir Alexandrovich was also a devoted family man, close to his children.\n\nLast years\nIn January 1905 a wave of strikes broke out in St. Petersburg. On 9 January (O.S.)/22 (N.S.) a peaceful procession of workers led by a priest, Father Georgy Gapon, marched towards the Winter Palace from different points in the city hoping to present requests for reforms directly to Emperor Nicholas II. The Tsar, however, was not in the capital. General Ivan Fullon, St Petersburg Governor, tried to stop the march. When a large group of workers reached Winter Palace Square, troops acting on direct orders from Guards Commander Prince Sergei Vasilchikov opened fire upon the demonstrators. More than 100 marchers were killed and several hundred were wounded. Although Grand Duke Vladimir claimed no direct responsibility about that tragedy, since he was also away from the city, his reputation was tarnished. The massacre, known as Bloody Sunday, was followed by a series of strikes in other cities, peasant uprisings in the country, and mutinies in the armed forces, which seriously threatened the tsarist regime and became known as the Revolution of 1905. A month after Bloody Sunday, Vladimir's brother Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a terrorist bomb in Moscow.In October 1905, Vladimir's eldest son and heir Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia married his first cousin Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Vladimir's sister Maria. Nicholas II was enraged by the marriage, which was contracted without his permission and was in violation of the Russian Orthodox ban on marriages between first cousins. Nicholas stripped Kirill of his imperial titles and banished him. Vladimir protested the treatment given to his son and resigned from all his posts in protest. Vladimir “shouted so violently at his nephew that the court chamberlain, waiting outside the door, feared for his master’s safety and almost ran off to summon the imperial guards.” Vladimir slammed his fists on Nicholas' desk and ripped off the military decorations from his uniform, shouting, \"I have served your father, your grandfather and you. But now as you have degraded my son I no longer wish to serve you.” Eventually, Nicholas II relented and forgave his cousins for marrying without his consent, but he did not allow them to return to Russia. The full pardon came only after several deaths in the family, including Vladimir's own, had placed Kirill third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne.Grand Duke Vladimir died suddenly on 4(O.S.)/17(N.S.) February 1909 after suffering a major cerebral hemorrhage. Vladimir's widow and their four children survived the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1924 in exile, Kirill proclaimed himself Emperor de jure, Vladimir's line thereby claimed headship of the Imperial House. Vladimir was the paternal grandfather and namesake of the future pretender claimant Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia, born 1917. His granddaughter Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark becomes a British princess by marriage to  Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, in 1934. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich's great granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, is the current claimant and his great grandson Prince Michael becomes a  honorary member of the Romanov Family Association.\n\nHonours and awards\nThe Grand Duke received the following Russian and foreign decorations:\nRussianKnight of St. Andrew, 22 April 1847\nKnight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 22 April 1847\nKnight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 22 April 1847\nKnight of the White Eagle, 22 April 1847\nKnight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class, 11 June 1865\nKnight of St. George, 3rd Class, 14 November 1877\nKnight of St. Vladimir, 4th Class, 22 April 1868; 2nd Class with Swords, 15 September 1877; 1st Class, 15 May 1883Foreign\n\nAncestry\nNotes\nPassage 6:\nPrincess Charlotte of Württemberg\nPrincess Charlotte of Württemberg (9 January 1807 – 2 February [O.S. 21 January] 1873), later known as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was the wife of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.\n\nEarly life\nShe was born in Stuttgart, as Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, the eldest daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and of Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest by royal standards. In Paris, Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.\n\nMarriage and issue\nIn 1822, she became engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed (Mikhail's mother was her father's aunt). It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15. The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations. On 17 December 1823, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Elena Pavlovna. On 20 February 1824, the couple married in Saint Petersburg and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army, and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters, only two of whom lived to mature adulthood:\n\nGrand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (9 March 1825, Moscow – 19 November 1846, Vienna); died unmarried.\nGrand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (26 May 1826, Moscow – 28 January 1845, Wiesbaden); married Adolf, Duke of Nassau and died in childbirth.\nGrand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), married Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz\nGrand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831, Moscow – 27 March 1832, Moscow), died in childhood\nGrand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834, Moscow – 22 March 1836, Saint Petersburg), died in childhood\n\nInfluence at court and in society\nElena became a close friend of her brother-in-law, Emperor Alexander I of Russia and of his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, who married the then Tsarevich Alexander in 1841. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and of the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and co-founded (1854) a group of nursing sisters (Society of the Sisters of Marcy) which would eventually become the forerunners of the Red Cross in Russia. During her time in Russia she became known as the \"family intellectual\", and was considered the most exceptional woman in the imperial family since Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796). She founded the Russian Musical Society (1859) and the Russian Conservatoire (1862), and was liberal on serfdom. She helped to push her nephew Alexander II to abolish serfdom while he stayed with her.As a patroness of the composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), she commissioned some of his early operas: Fomka the Fool (1853), The Siberian Hunters (1852), and Vengeance (1852/1853).Elena died in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 66.\n\nAncestry\nBibliography\nLincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias. 1983\nSebag Montefiore, Simon. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. 2016. Knopf Publishing Group.\nTaylor, Philip S., Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music, Indianapolis, 2007\nZeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn. 2001\nPassage 7:\nAbdul-Vahed Niyazov\nAbdul-Vahed Validovich Niyazov (Russian: Абдул-Вахед Валидович Ниязов), born Vadim Valerianovich Medvedev (Russian: Вадим Валерианович Медведев; 23 April 1969) is a Russian businessman and Islamic social and political activist. He was president of the Islamic Cultural Center of Russia, and the public division of Russian Council of Muftis.\n\nLife and career\nNiyazov was born on 23 April 1969 in Omsk as Vadim Valerianovich Medvedev.  After graduating from high school, he served in the engineering and construction troops of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. In 1990 he began studying at the Moscow Historical and Archival Institute, but failed to graduate.In April 1991 Niyazov became president of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Moscow, which in 1993 became the Islamic Cultural Centre of Russia, established with the financial support of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Moscow. In February 1994 he became deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Supreme Coordination Centre of the Spiritual Directorates of Muslims of Russia (VKTs DUMR, Russian: ВКЦ ДУМР). In May 1995 Niyazov became co-chairman of the Union of Muslims of Russia. In autumn 1998, he was elected chairman of the Council of the All-Russian political social movement \"Refakh\" (Prosperity).  On 19 December 1999 Niyazov was elected a deputy of the State Duma's  third convocation as part of the \"Interregional movement Unity (\"Bear\")\" electoral bloc, on the federal list of the Union of Muslims of Russia. He worked as deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on the regulations and organization of the work of the State Duma. He was expelled from the faction for \"provocative\" statements in support of \"world Islamic extremism and terrorism\", on the subject of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict during the Second Intifada.In May 2001 Niyazov became chairman of the political council of the \"Eurasian Party - Union of Patriots of Russia\". By late 2007 Niyazov was head of the movement \"Muslims in support of President Putin\". In 2011 he was elected Honorary President of the international initiative \"SalamWorld\", which aimed to create a social network for Muslims along Sharia norms. The site had closed by 2015 after spending three years in development and tens of million of dollars in marketing, having had backup and funding issues. Since 2018, Niyazov has been president of the European Muslim Forum.\nPassage 8:\nPrince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia\nPrince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia (15 August [O.S. 2 August] 1901 –  7 July 1980) was the fourth son and fifth child of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.\n\nEarly life\nPrince Dmitri Alexandrovich Romanov was born at the Gatchina Palace, near Saint Petersburg, Russia on 15 August 1901. He was the fourth son and fifth child among seven siblings. His parents, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1866–1933) and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (1875–1960), were first cousins once removed. Consequently, Prince Dmitri was the great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I (from his father's side) while the great-great-grandson of the same Tsar Nicholas I (from his mother's side), the grandson of Tsar Alexander III and the nephew of Tsar Nicholas II.\nDuring the Russian Revolution Prince Dmitri was imprisoned along with his parents and grandmother the Dowager Empress at Dulber, in the Crimea. He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov cousins who were murdered by the Bolsheviks when he was freed by German troops in 1918. He left Russia on  11 April 1919, at the age of seventeen, aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Marlborough to attend  to Malta where they spent nine months before settling to England.\n\nExile\nIn exile, Prince Dmitri lived between England and France. He had a varied career. In the late 1920s he emigrated to the United States where he worked as a stockbroker in Manhattan. He returned to Europe in the early 1930s. For a brief period in the 1930s, he managed Coco Chanel's shop at Biarritz.\nIt was through Chanel that he met a Russian aristocrat who worked as model for her fashion house: Countess Marina Sergeievna Golenistcheva-Koutouzova (20 November 1912 – 7 January 1969). She was the second daughter of Count Sergei Alexandrovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1885 – 1950) and his wife Countess Maria Alexandrovna, born Chernysheva-Bezobrazova (1890 – 1960). Countess Marina was a direct descendant of sisters Anastasia Romanova, the wife of Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolenskiy, one of the Seven Boyars of 1610, and Marfa Romanova, the wife of Prince Boris Keybulatovich Tcherkasskiy. Anastasia and Marfa were the daughters of Nikita Romanovich (Russian: Никита Романович; born c. 1522 – 23 April 1586), also known as Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev, who was a prominent boyar of the Tsardom of Russia. His grandson Michael I (Tsar 1613-1645) founded the Romanov dynasty of Russian tsars. Anastasia and Marfa were the paternal aunts of Tsar Michael I of Russia of Russia and the paternal nieces of Tsaritsa Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva of Russia. After the revolution, Marina and her family moved to Kislovodsk and later to Crimea, where her father served as head of the Yalta County. In August 1920 the family was evacuated to Istanbul and then to Paris. In the French capital, Marina began to work for Chanel.\nPrince Dmitri fell in love with her and they married in Paris on 25 October 1931. The wedding attracted a lot of attention and the bride wore a Chanel wedding dress.The couple had one daughter :\n\nPrincess Nadejda Dmitrievna (4 July 1933 – 17 September 2002). Nadejda married Anthony Allen, with whom she had two daughters and one son: Penelope, Marina and Alexander; after divorcing Allen, she married William Hall Clark.During World War II, Prince Dmitri served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. After the war, he became secretary of the travelers club in Paris.In 1947 he divorced Princess Marina who moved with their daughter to the United States. In 1949 she remarried Otto de Neufville (1898–1971), a descendant of a French-German aristocratic family. Marina Sergeievna Golenistcheva-Koutouzova died on January 7, 1969, in Sharon, Connecticut.\nDuring the 1950s, Prince Dmitri studied wine-making and worked as the European sales representative for a whisky firm in London. As his ex-wife did, Prince Dmitri also remarried. His second wife was the Dowager Lady Milbanke, née Margaret Sheila MacKellar Chisholm (9 September 1898 – 13 October 1969). Born in rural New South Wales, Australia, she was married, firstly, to Francis St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough (heir to the 5th Earl of Rosslyn), and secondly, to Sir John Milbanke, 11th baronet. She married Prince Dmitri on 20 October 1954. No children were born of this marriage. The couple lived modestly in  Belgravia, in central London. Princess Dmitri died October 13, 1969, and was buried in a chapel, near Edinburgh, next to her youngest son, Peter St. Clair-Erskine, who had died, at the age of twenty, in 1939.\nFollowing the creation of the Romanov Family Association in 1979, Prince Dmitri was chosen as its first president serving until his death a year later in England.\n\nAncestry\nNotes\nPassage 9:\nGrand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia\nGrand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (29 January 1882 – 13 March 1957), sometimes known as Helen, Helena, Helene, Ellen, Yelena, Hélène, or Eleni, was the only daughter and youngest child of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Her husband was Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and they were both first cousins of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. She was also first cousin of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen consort of Denmark and the grandmother of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy, and Prince Michael of Kent.\n\nEarly life\nElena and her three surviving older brothers, Kirill, Boris, and Andrei, had an English nanny and spoke English as their first language. The young Elena had a temper and was sometimes out of control. At four years old, she posed for the artist Henry Jones Thaddeus. She grabbed a paper knife and threatened her nurse, who hid behind Thaddeus. \"The little lady then transferred her attentions to me, her black eyes ablaze with fury,\" recalled Thaddeus. Elena, raised by a mother who was highly conscious of her social status, was also considered snobbish by some. \"Poor little thing, I feel sorry for her,\" wrote her mother's social rival, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, \"for she is really quite sweet, but vain and pretty grandiose.\"\n\nMarriage and children\nShe was engaged to Prince Max of Baden, but Max backed out of the engagement. Elena's mother was furious and society gossiped about Elena's difficulty in finding a husband. At one point in 1899, the seventeen-year-old Elena was reputedly engaged to Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, however this came to nothing as he fell in love with Countess Sophie Chotek.Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, the third son of George I of Greece, first proposed in 1900, but Elena's mother was reluctant to allow her daughter to marry a younger son with no real fortune or prospects of inheriting a throne. She finally agreed to let Elena marry Nicholas, who was Elena's second cousin through his mother Olga Constantinovna of Russia and her father Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, in 1902 after it became clear that no other offers were on the horizon.The couple married on 29 August 1902 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. Like many imperial weddings, it was a grand affair, and was attended by the Emperor and Empress of Russia, the King and Queen of the Hellenes, among other royals and nobility of Russia.Elena's \"grand manner\" irritated some people at court. According to the British diplomat Francis Elliot, there was an incident between Elena and her sister-in-law Princess Marie Bonaparte: Allegedly, Elena refused to greet Marie and \"drew back her skirts as if not to be touched by her.\" Elena thought that Marie was beneath her, because her grandfather operated the Monte Carlo Casino. Elena looked down on another sister-in-law Princess Alice of Battenberg because of the latter's morganatic blood. The Dowager Empress wrote that Elena \"has a very brusque and arrogant tone that can shock people.\"Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark had three daughters:\n\nPrincess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903–1997); married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893-1976) in 1923 and had issue:\nPrince Alexander of Yugoslavia (1924–2016); married firstly to Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (b. 1934) from 1955 to 1967 and had issue; married secondly to Princess Barbara of Liechtenstein (b. 1942) in 1973 and had issue.\nPrince Nikola of Yugoslavia (1928–1954); did not marry and had no issue.\nPrincess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia (b. 1936); married firstly to Howard Oxenberg (1919-2010) from 1961 to 1966 and had issue; married secondly to Neil Balfour (b. 1944) from 1969 to 1978 and had issue; married thirdly to Manuel Ulloa Elías (1922-1992) in 1987, no issue.\nPrincess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (1904–1955); married Carl Theodor, Count of Törring-Jettenbach (1900-1967)in 1934 and had issue:\nHans Veit, Count of Törring-Jettenbach (b. 1935); married Princess Henriette of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (b. 1938) in 1964 and had issue.\nCountess Helene of Törring-Jettenbach (b. 1937); married Archduke Ferdinand Karl Max of Austria (1918-2004) in 1956 and had issue.\nPrincess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906–1968); married Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902-1942) in 1934 and had issue:\nPrince Edward, Duke of Kent (b. 1935); married Katharine Worsley (b. 1933) in 1961 and had issue.\nPrincess Alexandra of Kent (b. 1936); married The Hon. Sir Angus Ogilvy (1928-2004) in 1963 and had issue.\nPrince Michael of Kent (b. 1942); married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz (b. 1945) in 1978 and had issue.Grand Duchess Elena suffered from ill health after the birth of Princess Marina, which caused her husband anguish. \nAccording to her niece, Princess Sophie of Greece, Grand Duchess Elena's priorities, throughout her life, remained as follows: “God first, the Grand Dukes of Russia then and finally everything else.” Thus, the Grand Duchess and her husband, Prince Nicholas, visited Russia annually to visit their relatives.\n\nLife in exile\nThe family was later affected by the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent turmoil in Greece, which became a republic and resulted in the family living in France for a time.\nWhile living in France Grand Duchess Elena became deeply involved in charity work for Russian exiles, particularly children. Short of money due to their exile from Greece and the loss of their Russian income, Prince Nicholas and his family lived in reduced, but elegant, circumstances. Grand Duchess Elena's fabulous jewel collection, as well as Prince Nicholas' own artwork, were their sources of income.\nPrincess Olga of Greece married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia; Princess Elizabeth of Greece married Count Karl Theodor zu Toerring-Jettenbach, son of Duchess Sophie in Bavaria and scion of an old and rich Bavarian mediatized family; and Princess Marina of Greece married the Prince George, Duke of Kent in November 1934.\nGrand Duchess Elena became a widow early in 1938, as Prince Nicholas suffered a heart attack and died suddenly. She remained in Greece throughout the Second World War, dying there in 1957. She bequeathed her personal library to the Anavryta School.\n\nAncestry\nPassage 10:\nGrand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia\nGrand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (Russian: Мария Владимировна Романова, romanized: Maria Vladimirovna Romanova; born 23 December 1953) has been a claimant to the headship of the House of Romanov, the Imperial Family of Russia (who reigned as Emperors and Autocrats of all the Russias from 1613 to 1917) since 1992. Although she has used Grand Duchess of Russia as her title of pretence with the style Imperial Highness throughout her life, her right to do so is disputed. She is a great-great-granddaughter in the male line of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.\n\nEarly life\nBirth\nMaria Vladimirovna was born in Madrid, the only child of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, head of the Imperial Family of Russia and titular Empress of Russia, and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani of Georgian, Polish, German and Swedish descent. Her paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Fyodorovna (née Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) through whom she is a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her godfather was Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia, for whom Prince Nicholas of Romania stood in at the christening ceremony, and her godmother was Queen Ioanna of Bulgaria.\n\nEducation\nMaria was educated in Runnymede College in Madrid and Paris before studying Russian history and literature at Oxford University.Maria Vladimirovna lives in Madrid. She is fluent in Russian, English, French, and Spanish, and also speaks some German, Italian, and Arabic.On 23 December 1969, upon reaching her dynastic majority, Maria swore an oath of loyalty to her father, to Russia, and to uphold the Fundamental Laws of Russia which governed succession to the defunct throne. At the same time, her father issued a controversial decree recognising her as heiress presumptive and declaring that, in the event he predeceased other dynastic Romanov males, then Maria would become the \"Curatrix of the Imperial Throne\" until the death of the last male dynast. This has been viewed as an attempt by her father to ensure the succession remained in his branch of the imperial family, while the heads of the other branches of the imperial family, the Princes Vsevolod Ioannovich of the Konstantinovichi, Roman Petrovich of the Nikolaevichi and Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of the Mihailovichi declared that her father's actions were illegal. As it happened, Vladimir Kirillovich, who died in 1992, outlived all the other male Romanov dynasts, and his daughter had no occasion to assume curatorship.\n\nMarriage\nIn Dinard on 4 September 1976 (civil) and at the Russian Orthodox Chapel in Madrid on 22 September 1976 (religious), Maria married Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, her third cousin once removed. He is a Hohenzollern great-grandson of Germany's last emperor Wilhelm II and a great-great-great grandchild of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom. Franz Wilhelm converted to the Eastern Orthodox faith prior to the wedding, taking the name Michael Pavlovich and receiving the title of a Grand Duke of Russia from Maria's father.The couple separated in 1982, a year after the birth of their only child, George Mikhailovich, who had been granted the title Grand Duke of Russia at birth by his grandfather Vladimir. Following the divorce on 19 June 1985, Franz Wilhelm reverted to his Prussian name and style.\n\nSuccession claims and activities\nMaria Vladimirovna is a patrilineal descendant of Alexander II of Russia, who is also a male-line descendant of Elimar I, Count of Oldenburg.\nWhen Vladimir Kirillovich died on 21 April 1992, his daughter Maria claimed to succeed him as head of the Russian Imperial Family on the grounds that she was the only child of the last male dynast of the Imperial house according to the Romanovs' Pauline laws. Although the charter of the Romanov Family Association (RFA), which represents other descendants of the Romanov family, asserts the premise that Russia's form of government should be determined democratically and that therefore the Association and its members undertake to adopt no position on any claims to the Imperial throne, its two most recent presidents have personally opposed Maria's claims: Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia, who maintained his own claims to dynastic status and to headship of the Romanov family, stated, \"Strictly applying the Pauline Laws as amended in 1911 to all marriages of Equal Rank, the situation is very clear. At the present time, not one of the Emperors or Grand Dukes of Russia has left living descendants with unchallengeable rights to the Throne of Russia,\" and his younger brother, Prince Dimitri Romanov, said of Maria's assumption of titles, including \"de jure Empress of all the Russias\", \"It seems that there are no limits to this charade\".  The supporters of Maria Vladimirovna point to the fact that neither Nicholas nor his brother Dimitri had any dynastic claims due to the morganatic marriage of their parents.By the Pauline Laws, she is the rightful heir to the throne. The Pauline Laws emphasize male succession before female succession. As an example, if Tsarevich Alexei Romanov had not been murdered in 1918, and died without issue (i.e., without children), his sisters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia wouldn't become Empresses before male Romanov relatives. \nAlexander III had four sons: Nicholas II of Russia whose only male son died before he could produce heirs, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia, who died shortly before he was 11 months old, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, who died with no issue, and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia whose only son, George Mikhailovich, Count Brasov died at age 20, childless.\nFrom there, the line of succession looks to Alexander III's father, Alexander II. His sons, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia, and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia both died without issue. Excluding the future Alexander III, the third boy Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia – born after the childless Tsarevich and Alexander III, whose descendants couldn’t claim leadership for many reasons – had four sons. The eldest died in infancy and the second eldest, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, had one son, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. His only child is Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, making her the legal heir to the Russian throne.\nFollowing the discovery of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and most of his immediate family in 1991, Maria Vladimirovna wrote to President Boris Yeltsin regarding the burial of the remains, saying of her Romanov cousins, whom she does not recognise as members of the Imperial House (including the grandchildren of Nicholas II's sister Grand Duchess Xenia), that they \"do not have the slightest right to speak their mind and wishes on this question. They can only go and pray at the grave, as can any other Russian, who so wishes\". At the behest of the Russian Orthodox Church, Maria did not recognise the authenticity of the remains and declined to attend the reburial ceremony in 1998, however according to Victor Aksyuchits, ex-advisor of Boris Nemtsov, the exact reason behind Maria's absence from the state burial for Nicholas II and his family in 1998 was motivated by the Russian government's refusal to recognize her status as official Head of the Romanov House, after asking via a letter prior the funeral ceremony. She has also said, regarding some of her Romanov cousins, that \"My feeling about them is that now that something important is happening in Russia, they suddenly have awakened and said, 'Ah ha! There might be something to gain out of this.'\"Maria hopes for the restoration of the monarchy someday and is \"ready to respond to a call from the people\". When questioned about the ongoing rift among Romanov descendants, Maria said:\n\n\"Attempts to disparage my rights have originated with people who, firstly, do not belong to the Imperial Family, and, secondly, either do not themselves know the relevant laws or think that others do not know these laws. In either case, there is unscrupulousness at work. The only thing that causes me regret is that some of our relatives waste their time and energy on little intrigues instead of striving to be of some use to their country. I have never quarreled with anyone about these matters and I remain open to a discussion and cooperation with all, including, of course, my relatives. But there can be no foundation for cooperation without respect for our dynastic laws, fulfilling these laws, and following our family traditions.\"\nIn 2002, Maria became frustrated with the internal strife within the Russian monarchist movement. When representatives of the Union of Descendants of Noble Families, one of two rival nobility associations (the other, older one being the Assembly of the Russian Nobility) were discovered to be distributing chivalric titles and awards of the Order of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, without her approval, she published a relatively strongly worded disclaimer.In 2003, Kirill I Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia stated in a congratulatory message on Maria Vladimirovna's 55th birthday, \"you are the embodiment of a Russian Grand Duchess: noble, wise, compassionate, and consumed with a genuine love for Russia. Though you may reside far from Russia, you continue to take an active part in its life, rejoicing when there are triumphs and empathizing when there are trials. It is deeply gratifying to know that, even in these new historical circumstances, you are making a significant contribution to the building of Russia's global standing on the basis of spiritual and moral values, and the centuries-old traditions of the Russian people. The Russian Orthodox Church remains the preserver of the historical memory of the Russian people, and supports, as it has traditionally, the warmest possible relations with the Russian Imperial House.\"In March 2013, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, made a statement which seems to have drawn further supporters. In an interview, he was asked if any of the Romanovs had a legitimate claim to the throne and responded: \"Well, to the second part of your question: are the claims, as you say, of the descendants of the Romanovs to the Russian throne legitimate? I would like to say right away that there are no claims. Today, none of the descendants of the Romanovs make claims the Russian throne. But in the person of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and her son George, the succession of the Romanovs is preserved - not to the Russian imperial throne, but simply historically.\" (Сегодня никто из лиц, принадлежащих к потомкам Романовых, не претендует на Российский престол. Но в лице Великой княгини Марии Владимировны и ее сына Георгия сохраняется преемственность Романовых — уже не на Российском императорском престоле, а просто в истории). Further, the Patriarch noted: \"And I must thank this family and many other Romanovs with gratitude for their today's contribution to the life of our Fatherland. Maria Vladimirovna supports a lot of good initiatives, she visits Russia, she meets people, she elevates the most ordinary people who have distinguished themselves to a nobility. I remember well how on the Smolensk land an old peasant woman was elevated to the dignity of nobility, who did so much for those who were by her side during the difficult years of the war and in the post-war period. Therefore, the cultural contribution of this family continues to be very noticeable in the life of our society. \" In December 2013, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna visited the United States at the request of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which received her with full honours and recognition as head of the Russian Imperial House. On 17 July 2018 she participated in the liturgical commemoration of the centenary of the assassinations of Saints Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their children conducted in Yekaterinburg by Patriarch Kirill I.In January 2021, Grand Duchess Maria announced the morganatic engagement of her son to Rebecca Virginia Bettarini from Italy. Bettarini converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Victoria Romanovna. Grand Duchess Maria granted permission for the couple to marry. She decreed that Bettarini will have the title Princess, with the predicate \"Her Serene Highness\" and the right to use the surname Romanov. In March, she issued a statement condemning the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, after previously voicing her support for Crimea and Donbas annexation in 2014 by Russia.\n\nHonours\nRussian Dynastic honours\nHouse of Romanov: Sovereign Knight of the Order of St. Andrew Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign, Grand Mistress and Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Catherine Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight of the Order of the White Eagle Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of St. George Disputed In abeyance\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Vladimir Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Anna Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Stanislas Disputed\n House of Romanov: Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saint Michael the Archangel Disputed\n\nRussian Orthodox Church\nRussian Orthodox Church: Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, 1st Class \n Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia: Order of Our Lady of the Sign, 1st Class\n Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia: Medal of John of Shanghai and San Francisco\n\nMoldovan Orthodox Church\nMoldovan Orthodox Church: Medal of Saint Paraskevi\n\nUkrainian Orthodox Church\nUkrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate): Medal of Saint Barbara\n\nForeign dynastic\nEthiopian Imperial Family: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Queen of Sheba\n Georgian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Queen Tamara\n Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Sovereign Military Order of Malta\n Transnistria: Commander of the Order of the Republic\n Poland: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle\n Portuguese Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint Michael of the Wing\n\nAwards\nItaly: Honorary Citizen of the City of Agrigento\n Russia: Winner of the  Russian International Person of the Year\n Russia: Honorary Citizen of the Ivolginsky District\n Russia: Honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts\n Russia: Medal of the Assembly of the Russian Nobility\n\nAncestry\nSee also\nList of Grand Duchesses of Russia",6  "char_len": 59305,7  "document_hash": "3f6952a17f11fb7ed8b7a6aeb1e96d8abd13547c987652d07df0ef8381d7fb7f",8  "questions": [9    {10      "question_id": "q00",11      "qtype": "2wikimqa",12      "question": "Where did Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna Of Russia's father die?"13    }14  ]15}