How modern descendants of the Russian imperial dynasty of the Romanovs live

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Surely many of the history textbooks remember that on the night of July 1918 a real tragedy happened, which marked the end of the reign of the greatest dynasty in the history of Russia. On that same unfortunate night, the Bolshevik detachment that came for the Russian Tsar Nicholas II knew no mercy, not sparing any small children or women. However, despite the fact that the family of the last tsar was executed more than a century ago, there are still living descendants in the world who can easily claim the Russian crown.

During the executions, it became clear that ten or more living tsarist relatives managed to escape their fate, in particular, Maria Feodorovna, who was the mother of the last tsar. And also survived on the night of judgment of her daughters - Ksenia and Olga - and their families. Among the 53 representatives of the Romanov dynasty that existed throughout history, according to historical estimates, only 35 of them survived for several years.

For the Russian royalists, the existence of at least a few heirs to this dynasty holds the hope that at some point one of the members of the royal family can regain the throne - if only they can decide which of them actually has the strongest claims. Currently, the two branches of the Romanov family disagree over who is the legitimate claimant to the abolished monarchy.

1. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

As the great-granddaughter of Alexander II, Maria, the daughter of Prince Vladimir, currently residing in Spain, is considered one of the most famous pretenders to the Russian throne. Her father, who was already born outside the Russian Empire, in 1938 not only claimed the post of head of the royal family, but also took it, according to some sources. As a result, at the moment when the crown prince Vladimir died in 1992, it was his daughter who inherited the right to the throne. Soon she put her son George on the throne, making him the legal heir. However, no matter what actions Maria takes, many still do not include her in the list of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty. So, according to historical research, it is not included in the union of their descendants, which was created in 1979 to restore the dynasty, but all because only non-dynastic descendants can enter it, that is, those whose ancestors married outside the Romanov dynasty. Therefore, many honorary members of the Association do not believe that Mary has a legal right to the throne, while others willingly support her.

2. Prince Andrey Romanov

Andrew is considered the great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, who ruled in Russia for many years until his death. In addition to all this, he is the grandson of Duchess Xenia, one of the few who managed to leave the country during the shootings with his mother, escaping on a military ship sent by her cousin, King George V.

Andrei himself was born in the capital of Britain, but spent most of his life in the United States, namely, in sunny California, where he developed his creative potential - he wrote books and paintings. After the death of Dmitry Romanovich, he managed to inherit the right to the throne, which was supported by the entire family association of the Romanov family.

3. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

As it turned out, the husband of Her Majesty Elizabeth II is also related to the legendary Romanovs. According to historical reports and some sources, Tsarina Alexandra is his great-aunt, respectively, the Duke of Edinburgh is her grand-nephew, and King Nicholas I is her great-grandson. This means that not only his son, the Prince of Wales, but also his grandchildren - William and Harry - are included in the family tree of the Russian dynasty.

When, in the early nineties, several unknown graves were exhumed, which supposedly could contain the remains of the last royal family from the Romanov family, Philip did not hesitate to take a blood test to help identify the remains. As a result, his DNA matched the DNA of the found bodies. This helped to establish their identities and confirm the fact that these previously unknown persons are the Romanovs.

4. Princess Olga Andreevna Romanova

British socialite and organizer of the London Ball of Russian Debutantes in London, Olga is the daughter of Andrei Alexandrovich, who in turn was the eldest nephew of Nicholas II.

And three years ago she became the president of the Romanov Family Association, founded in 1979 to unite descendants. Olga Andreevna has four children, one of whom is Francis-Alexander Matthew, a highly successful photographer who appeared on the TLC Secret Princes show, where he was billed as Prince Alexander of Russia.

5. Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent (cousin of Queen Elizabeth II) became famous in Russia for his connection with the Romanovs, thanks to his incredible resemblance to the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who was his grandmother's cousin. And it is not at all surprising that the summer before last he joined Olya, as well as other descendants of the Romanovs in the glorious city of Petersburg, in order to celebrate the centenary of the execution of the royal family, and visited the cathedral, where the remains of the king, queen and three girls are buried. (Two more bodies, discovered in 2007 and identified by DNA comparison with living relatives of the Romanovs as two of the murdered children, Alexei and Maria, were not buried, as some in the Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept this identification.)

6. Prince Rostislav Romanov

Rostislav, the great-grandson of the Grand Duchess Xenia, was born in Chicago, but spent almost all of his childhood and youth in the city on the Thames, glorious Foggy Albion with Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but he is one of the few descendants of the Romanovs who not only lived, but also worked fruitfully in Russia. An experienced artist and designer, he worked at the legendary Petrodvortsov watch factory, which was founded long ago by his distant ancestor Peter the Great. And for the centenary of the Russian Revolution, a talented young man developed a unique watch design, adorned with a drop of his own blood in order to perpetuate the memory of the cruel bloodshed that marked the end of the reign of the great family.

7. King of Greece Constantine II

The grandfather of Constantine II, Constantine I, was the king of Greece, and at the same time was considered a cousin of Philip of Edingburgh, when his great-grandmother in the past was a princess in the Romanov family. In 1967, Constantine II, in order to avoid military persecution, was forced to leave Greece and live far beyond its borders in exile. He chose Foggy Albion as his place of residence, where he lived for many years. However, this did not prevent him from returning home in the middle of the 2000s with his Danish wife Anna-Maria.

8. Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster

A descendant of Tsar Michael I, Duke Hugh Grosvenor, at the age of twenty-five, after the death of his father, inherited a fabulous fortune, the value of which is approximately $ 12 billion. This ensured him the status of a billionaire, making him not only an enviable groom, but also one of the youngest and richest people in the world. It is also worth noting the fact that Hugh is the godfather of Prince George, who is ranked 3rd in line to the throne of Great Britain. The Duke also comes from the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who opposed Nicholas I during his reactionary reign.

9. Nicoletta Romanova

The great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Nicholas I is a TV presenter and actress, Nikoletta Romanova for some time fruitfully collaborated with one fashion jewelry house Damiani on the Romanov Collection dedicated to the royal family.

BONUS: Impostor-swindlers

1. Anna Anderson / Franziska Schanzkowska

A dozen women claimed the title of the youngest Romanov Princess, Anastasia, but the most famous was Anna Anderson, who surfaced in 1920 in a German psychiatric hospital after jumping from the Berlin Bridge. Anderson continued to insist on her claim, even after evidence emerged that she was in fact a Polish woman named Franziska Szankowska. When she died in 1984 in Charlottesville, Virginia, her death certificate included the name, date of birth, and place of birth of the Russian princess. Later analysis of her DNA showed that she was a descendant of the Shantskovskaya and not the Russian royal family.

2. Mikhail Golenevsky

As a Polish intelligence officer, he worked as a spy in the Soviet Union but ended up passing information to the CIA, helping to expose KGB mules in Western governments and intelligence agencies. When he fled to the United States of America in 1961, Golenevsky told his CIA correspondents that he was in fact Alexei, a young prince believed to have been killed on that same unfortunate day along with his family. Despite his stated age, he was eighteen years younger than Alexei, and doctors could not confirm that he had hemophilia, like Alexei, Golenevsky continued to claim that he was Romanov until he died in 1993.

Sometimes not only great rulers or scientists make their contribution to history, but also the most ordinary women. Today it is very interesting to find out, and how it all ended.