by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2018

• Unofficial Royalty: Russian Titles and Patronymics

Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the fourth of the six sons and the fifth of the eight children of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (Empress Maria Alexandrovna), is most well-known for his coast-to-coast official visit to the United States in 1871 where one of the highlights was buffalo hunting with Buffalo Bill Cody, General George Armstrong Custer, and General Philip Sheridan.  Alexei was born at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia on January 14, 1850.

Alexei had seven siblings including Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia:

• Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna (1842 – 1849), died of meningitis at the age of six
• Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (1843 – 1865), engaged to Dagmar of Denmark (the future wife of his brother Alexander III), died of meningitis at the age of 21
• Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia (1845 – 1894), married Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847 – 1909), married Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna), had issue
• Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (1853 – 1920) married, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue
• Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857 – 1905), married, Elisabeth of Hesse of Hesse and by Rhine (Elizabeth Feodorovna), no issue
• Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (1860 – 1919), married (1) Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Alexandra Georgievna), had issue (2) Olga Karnovich, had issue

Alexei was destined for a career in the Russian Imperial Navy. At the age of seven, he received the rank of midshipman and in 1858,  Admiral Konstantin Nikolayevich Posyet became his tutor. Alexei’s winters were devoted to the scientific and theoretical study of naval matters. During the summers, he served, under the guidance of Admiral Posyet, on board various ships in the Baltic Sea. 1866, Alexei was elevated to the rank of Lieutenant and continued his career as an officer on the frigate Alexander Nevsky.

In 1868, while Alexei was serving on the ship, the Alexander Nevsky hit a coastal spit in the North Sea off Thyborøn, a fishing village in Jutland, Denmark. Apparently, both Admiral Posyet and the ship’s captain miscalculated the ship’s position due to incorrect drift information recorded in the pilot book. The ship sank and three sailors and an officer were killed. The captain and admiral were convicted of dereliction of duty at a court-martial but Alexei’s father Alexander II intervened and pardoned them due to their long service to the navy. At the time of the shipwreck, Alexei refused to be among the first to be sent ashore although in later life he often claimed that he almost drowned and enjoyed telling the story about the shipwreck.

Alexei was ultimately promoted to Admiral-General, Chief of the Fleet and Naval Department, and Chairman of the Admiralty Board. He was instrumental in the modernization of the Russian navy. At the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, when the Russian naval fleet was defeated, Alexei was dismissed from all naval posts. He was considered one of the people responsible for Russia’s defeat in the war.

From 1869 – 1870, Alexei had an affair with his mother’s maid of honor Alexandra Vassilievna Zhukovskaya, daughter of the poet and playwright Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky who had been a tutor to Emperor Alexander II. Some historians say that the couple married and that the marriage was then annulled because it occurred without the emperor’s consent. Whether the couple married or not, their union resulted in a son Alexei Alexeievich_Belevsky-Zhukovsky, born on November 26, 1871, in Salzburg, Austria. Alexander II was furious about the affair and refused to give Alexandra Vassilyevna a noble title. However, the emperor did officially recognize the paternity of Alexei Alexeievich but not his legitimacy. In 1875, Alexandra Vassilyevna married Baron Christian Heinrich von Wörman and lived out her life in the Kingdom Saxony in the German Empire. She was later awarded a life pension by Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia.

In 1884, Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia, Alexei’s brother, agreed to grant Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich’s son Alexei Alexeievich the title of Count Belevsky-Zhukovsky. Alexei Alexeievich married Princess Maria Petrovna Trubetskoi, the maid of honor of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, and they had four children. In 1904, the couple divorced and Alexei Alexeievich later married Baroness Natalia Vladimirovna Shooping. He served in the Sumy Hussar Regiment and was the aide-de-camp of his uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. During World War I, Alexei Alexeievich held the post of Chief Quartermaster of the Supreme Court. After the Russian Revolution, he stayed in the Soviet Union, while his former wife and children left. Arrested in Tbilisi, now the capital of the country of Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union, Alexei Alexeievich was shot by the Soviets around 1932.

On August 20, 1871, a squadron of Russian Imperial Navy ships left Kronstadt, on an island near St. Petersburg, the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet, on a sixteen-month voyage that would take Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich around the world. Alexei first visited Denmark meeting King Christian IX and England where he met his brother-in-law Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. He then sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. He visited many cities including Washington, D.C. where he met President Ulysses S. Grant. Alexei visited New York City and Boston and then crossed the Canadian border and visited Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. Back in the United States, he visited Buffalo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.

On his 22nd birthday, January 14, 1872, Alexei went buffalo hunting with Buffalo Bill Cody, General George Armstrong Custer, General Philip Sheridan, and Spotted Tail, chief of the Brulé Lakota. On January 28, 1872, Alexei’s train left for Louisville, Kentucky, where he visited the Mammoth Cave. He then traveled to Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans, where he attended the 1872 Mardi Gras celebrations. The Russian fleet met Alexei at Pensacola, Florida where it started its voyage to the Far East.

The fleet first stopped in Havana, Cuba, and then sailed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where Alexei entertained Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and the imperial court aboard his ship. Sailing back across the Atlantic Ocean and then around Africa, Alexei visited stopped in Cape Town in South Africa, Jakarta in Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canton and Shanghai in China.

On October 15, 1872, Alexei arrived in Nagasaki, Japan. He also visited other cities in Japan and met Emperor Meiji and his wife. On November 26, 1872, the Russian fleet set sail for Vladivostok, the base of the Russian Pacific fleet, and arrived there on December 5, 1872.  Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich traveled by train through Siberia back to St. Petersburg

Upon his return to Russia, Alexei bought an older building on the Moika River Embankment and had it redesigned and renovated. The Alexeevsky Palace became Alexei’s St. Petersburg home where he enjoyed entertaining and collecting art. Today the palace is the home of the St. Petersburg Music House where many classical concerts are held.

In the 1880s, Alexei conducted an open, long-term affair with Zinaida Dmtrievna Skobelyeva, the wife of his cousin Eugen Maximilianovich Romanowsky, 5th Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince Romanowsky.  His cousin did not seem to mind as he was cash-poor and lived off Alexei’s generosity and even continued to live in Alexei’s palace after Zinaida’s death.

After Alexei was dismissed from his naval positions in 1905, he spent most of the time in Paris, France in a house he had bought in 1897. There he welcomed writers, painters, actors, and actresses. He loved living in Paris and was a familiar figure in restaurants and theaters. Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich died of pneumonia on November 27, 1908, in Paris at the age of 58. His body was returned to Russia on a funeral train. After his funeral, which was attended by his nephew Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, Nicholas’ wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and Nicholas’ mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Alexei was the first to be interred in the newly built Grand Ducal Mausoleum adjacent to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

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Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Alexei Alexandrowitsch Romanow. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Alexandrowitsch_Romanow [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Alexei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2018). Alexis Alexandrovitch de Russie. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Alexandrovitch_de_Russie [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].
• Ru.wikipedia.org. (2018). Алексей Александрович. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].