#dmitry pavlovich

[thestarik]

Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia with Victoria Battenberg, Elisabeth Feodorovna, and Dimitri Pavlovich. Peterhof, 1909

[intuizioni]

i love mitya so much

[thepaleys]

The Strained Relationship between Olga Paley and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich

While it seems that Princess Paley's relationship with her stepdaughter Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna was very cordial and even friendly, the same could not be said of her stepson, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. Here are a few excerpts from "The Flight of the Romanovs" by John Curtis Perry.

Dmitri had grown up to be a handsome, indeed dashing, young man but a Romanov Hamlet, tormented by many things simultaneously: his childhood as a virtual orphan, with his mother dead and his father banned from Russia; the terrible death of his guardian Grand Duke Sergei; his sister, closer to him than any other person, taken to Sweden in the duty of a royal marriage; and his ironic intimacy with the emperor and empress who had made him almost a member of their family but actually had deprived him in childhood of a father and in adolescence a sister. Dmitri remained always an outsider. (...)

The emperor had pardoned Dmitri’s father, Paul, his last surviving uncle, and permitted him to return to Russia when the war had broken out. Paul’s second wife, Olga, had shrewdly asked Rasputin to intercede on her husband’s behalf. She had been eager to drop her German title for a Russian one, and Paul secured permission from the emperor for his wife to be promoted from Countess Hohenfelsen to Princess Paley, taking the name of a Cossack chief to whom she was related.

There was no love lost between Dmitri and his stepmother. Olga, Princess Paley, had her own son by Paul, Vladimir, upon whom she doted. The fact that her own morganatic marriage meant that Vladimir could never be a grand duke like Dmitri irritated her tremendously. Dmitri, on his part, wrote to the emperor saying that he saw the “honorable family of Countess Hohenfelsen” as little as possible, thus making life in St. Petersburg, he said, much more peaceful.

Dmitri could only pity his father, so dominated by his aggressive second wife. In October 1916, Princess Paley was outraged to find that Grand Duke Paul had been choosing wines from their cellar and taking them to army headquarters, where he was then stationed. “I would somehow understand if you treated the Sovereign to it,” the princess complained, “but to waste it on Dmitri or Grand Duke George Mikhailovich was totally unnecessary.”

Princess Paley believed that Dmitri was scheming not only against her son but also against his own father. She wrote to her husband, “I have been telling you in every letter; ‘don’t trust Dmitri,’ and I myself was deceived by his damned tricks! I have rarely hated people, as I hate him right now!”

Of course, nothing of this comes across Princess Paley's Memoires, in which she gives the following description of Dmitri:

"During our stay at Mohileff the Grand Duke Dimitri, who was on duty with the Emperor, often came to lunch and. dine with us. Very well informed about war matters and what was in progress at the headquarters of the General Staff, endowed with remarkable intelligence and with the faculty of grasping facts and drawing from them the necessary conclusion, this young man of twenty-five was a mature man and a shrewd observer. He also recognised the imminent danger which the country was running, and he had conversations on the subject more than once with the Emperor . and with his own father. I remember that one day at Mohileff, at tea time, he said to me:

"Ah, mamotchka (a tender diminutive of mama), if only you knew what is going to happen!"

It was in vain that I pressed him to continue. he would say no more."

[skyofdarkmatter42]

Something something Fyodor Pavlovich's "Aleksey– don't love Ivan" then Mitya's "Yes, go now, and love Ivan!" then it being Katerina's love for Ivan, only fully recognized by her at the very last minute, that (pointlessly) dooms Mitya's fate at the trial

[romanovsonelastdance]

Elizaveta Feodorovna with her sister Victoria, niece Maria Pavlovna, Maria's first husband William of Sweden, and nephew Dmitri.

[adeilhistory]

Alexandra Feodorovna's christmas prayer

Alix's handwrited prayer in 1917 at Tobolsk to her childrens tutor.

I pray that Christ the Xmax King may stoop to bless, and guide you day to day holiness, Your friend in joy, Your comfort in distress, I pray that every cloud may lead you to the light, and He may raise you up from height to height, Himsef the Day-Star of your darkest night; I pray that the Christ before whose Crib you bend the knee, may fill your longing soul abundantly, with grace to follow him möre perfectly. 1917 Tobolsk - Alexandra

Nicky, Alix and Ella

Alexandra's icon and Alexandra with her oldest daughter Olga.

[imperial-russia]

Grand Ducal siblings Maria and Dmitri Pavlovichi during a visit to their cousin, the Tsar Nicholas II., 1905

[gegengestalt]

I draw a cover for every single chapter of The Brothers Karamazov (but I can only use MS Paint)

Book XII: A Judicial Error (Part 2) and Epilogue.

Well, I did it. It's done. All 96 chapters of The Brothers Karamazov. I had so much fun with these last ones that I almost didn't want it to be over. I will not start over because as much as the first ones hurt my eyes, the visible improvement is a part of the project. I got to experience the entire book and its characters again and learnt a lot using a limited tool. I will probably redraw some of them individually if I feel like it.

You have also been a part of it as well: the little comments I've received in these posts and in other social media have brought me many smiles. Enthusiasm tastes better in company.

I - II - III(1) - III(2) - IV - V - VI+VII - VIII - IX - X - XI - XII(1)

[alexeykaramazov]

Happy Father’s Day to Fyodor PavloBitch Karamazov

[possessedbydevils]

Pavel and his gay voice

[chimera-vanya]

I take no criticism

[thestarik]

The Romanovs with Princess Dagmar of Denmark, Princess Thyra of Denmark, Dimitri Pavlovich, Queen Louise of Denmark, and King Frederik of Denmark. Peterhof.

[thepaleys]

Marianne - The Most Scandalous of the von Pistohlkors Siblings

Marianne von Pistohlkors was born in 1890 and was known by many names throughout her life. Her family called her "Babaka", her friends called her "Malanya".

In 1908, at the age of 17, she married Lt. Col. Peter Petrovich Durnovo, the son of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Pyotr Durnovo, and a classmate of her older brother Alexander. They had one son, Kyrill, born in November 1908. During that time, she was known as Mrs. Durnovo.

There are different versions as to why the couple got divorced just three years after their marriage. Some say Durnovo had a drinking problem and was abusive, others say Marianne was having an affair with none other than Rasputin:

"She was married first to the guards hussar Durnovo. She was acquainted with Rasputin. Once Durnovo, having suddenly appeared at a small gathering of the Elder's admirers, caught the moment when the Elder was embracing his wife. With a strong blow the hussar knocked the Elder down, took his wife away, and Rasputin, lying down, shouted: "I will remember you" - A.I. Spiridonovich

Either way, the couple was divorced in 1911, but it didn't take long for 22-year-old Marianne to find a new husband: a year after her divorce, she married Christopher Ivanovich von Derfelden, another officer and collegue of her brother Alexander. From then on and during most of WWI, she was known as Marianne von Derfelden. And it would be under that name that she would be implicated in one of the most famous murders of history.

Marianne was considered a very attractive woman. She was also witty, inteligent and social, which made her very popular in Saint Petersburg high society in the final years leading up to World War One. One of her most famous stunts was to attend a costume ball given by Kleinmichel dressed as an Egyptian in which she performed a provocative dance with a naval officer (who was not her husband).

Two photographs of the evening were published in a famous social magazine and were a tremendous success.

At the time, Marianne was also an amateur actress and model.

After World War One started, Marianne became a nurse and drove ambulances around the city. On January 5, 1916, she received the St. George Medal for her efforts.

Since her mother and stepfather had returned to Russia in 1914, Marianne had also developed a close friendship (some even refer to it as flirtation) with her step-brother, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. They attended the same parties and had the same circle of friends. They also were among the Saint Petersburg aristocratic groups that hated Rasputin and thought he was a bad influence on the Empress.

This was a time when the rumours in Petrograd society were particularly wild and farfetched, so the nature of Dmitri and Marianne's relationship varies between "friendly", "flirtatious" to "they were lovers and took pictures of themselves reenacting Kamasutra positions" and "they participated in orgies thrown by Prince Felix Yussupov in his palace".

Whatever the nature of their relationship, the truth was that Marianne was deeply involved in the conspiracy to murder Rasputin. It had never been fully proved that she was the Yussupov Palace, but she knew about the plans and there were rumours that some of the meetings to organize the murder took place at her apartment.

When it was discovered that Dmitri was one of the co-conspirators and was sent to the Persian front as punishment, Marianne was one of the few people who went to the train station to say goodbye, which ultimatly alerted the authorities to her participation and Empress Alexandra ordered her house arrest. Her telephone was taken and her house was searched [apparently, when the guards asked for a key to open a closed drawer, she told them 'you'll only find love letters'], but nothing was discovered and she was set free on three days later.

A few days after Dmitri's departure, the French Ambassador, Maurice Paléologue, met Marianne at a restaurant and this was what he wrote about the meeting in his memoirs:

Dining at the Restaurant Contant this evening, I saw pretty Madame D----- at the next table with three officers of the Chevaliers-Gardes; she was in mourning. During the night of January 6-7, she was arrested on suspicion of having taken part in the murder of Rasputin, or at any rate known of the preparations. Thanks to the high influences which protect her, she was simply kept under observation in her flat and released three days later. When a police officer asked her for the key of her bureau in order to secure her papers, she replied sweetly and simply: "You'll only find love-letters." The remark is Madame D----- personified. Twenty-six years of age, divorced, remarried at once, then separated from her second husband, she leads a wild life. Every evening, or rather every night, she holds high revel until morning: theatre, ballet, supper, gypsy singers, tango, champagne, etc. And yet it would be a great mistake to judge her solely by this tawdry dissipation; at bottom she is warm-hearted, proud and an enthusiast. Rasputin's murder, of the preparations for which she knew, came as a thunderbolt to her. The Grand Duke Dimitri seemed to her a hero, the saviour of Russia. She went into mourning on learning the news of his arrest. When she heard that he had been sent to the Russian army front in Persia, she swore to continue his patriotic work and avenge him. Since the police evacuated her residence four days ago, she has been concerned in all the ramifications of the plot against the Emperor, carrying letters to some and passwords to others. Yesterday she called on two colonels of the guard to win them over to the good cause. She knows that the agents of the terrible Okhrana are watching her, and is fertile in resources to throw them off the scent. Any night she expects to be incarcerated in the fortress or sent to Siberia; but she has never been so happy before. The heroines of the Fronde, Madame de Longueville, Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Lesdiguières must have known this unreal exaltation, by virtue of which the conscientiousness of a great peril rekindles a great love. When she finished dinner she passed close to my table, followed by her three officers. She came up to me. I rose to shake hands. In rapid tones she said: "I know that our mutual friend came to see you yesterday and told you everything . . . He's extremely anxious about me. It's only natural . . . he loves me so much! Anyhow, he thought you would be ready to help me in case of disaster and was anxious to make certain. But I knew what you'd say. What could you do for me if things went badly? Nothing; that's obvious . . . . But I'm grateful for the nice things you've said about me, and I'm sure that at the bottom of your heart---though not as ambassador---I have your approval . . . We may never meet again. Good-bye!" And with these words she sped away swiftly and silently, escorted by her chevaliers-gardes.

As mentioned in the quote above, by 1916, Marianne was already separated from her second husband and would soon marry again, this time in October 1917 to Count Nikolai Konstantinovich von Zarnekau, a son of Prince Konstantin of Oldenburg.

Perhaps because of the preassures of the revolution [Marianne later revealed that her life with Nikolai was marked by poverty], this marriage was even shorter than the others and, by 1918, she was already in a relationship with Andrei Nikolaevich Lavrentiev, a Russian actor and theater director.

According to her mother’s recollections, Marianne warned her family several times about the impending arrest, having received information from a commissar who was infatuated with her. “She was quick, … tactfully and easily met Kuzmin. He fell madly in love with her. And he freed us for her sake,” wrote Olga Paley. On August 9, 1918, the Danish envoy H. Scavenius proposed a plan through Marianne to save the Grand Duke: Pavel Alexandrovich, dressed in an Austro-Hungarian uniform, was to hide in the Austro-Hungarian embassy, ​​but the latter refused to change into the uniform of a state hostile to the Russian Empire. Despite all her efforts, she still failed to save her family.

After the death of her son and husband, Olga Valerianovna and her younger daughters illegally emigrated to Finland with the assistance of P. P. Durnovo, Marianna's first husband. Her father and brother Alexander left the country with their families.

Marianne, however, remained in Russia until 1921. She became an actress at the Bolshoi Theater under the stage name Maria Pavlovna in honour of her late stepfather. In 1921, she moved with her lover to Riga, where they remained for several years. In 1936, under the stage name Marianne Fiori, Marianne moved to New York and would remain in the United States until her death. In 1961, she was married for the fourth time to Mikhail Aleksandrovich Paltov, the son of chamberlain Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Paltov , formerly a captain of the Life Guards Horse Grenadier Regiment.

[leonardoeatscarrots]

[romanovsonelastdance]

Close up of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia.

[adeilhistory]

Alexandra Feodorovna's icon

Alix with her daughter Olga Nikolaevna

Alexandra's icon found at Ekaterinburg in 1919