Aleksandr Baryatinsky

Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky (; 22 May 1870 – 8 March 1910) was a Russian nobleman, staff captain, and bon vivant, widely known for his romance with the famous Italian opera singer Lina Cavalieri.

Early life Baryatinsky was the eldest son of Prince Vladimir Anatolyevich Baryatinsky (1843–1914), a general in the army, by his marriage to Countess Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Stenbock-Fermor (1847–1920). He was the grandson of Lieutenant-General Prince Anatoly Baryatinsky (1821–1881) and a cousin of Field Marshal Prince Alexander Baryatinsky (1815–1879). On his mother’s side, he was descended from the millionaire business man S. Y. Yakovlev.

He was educated at home and then at the Page Corps, becoming a page du chambre in October 1889. With his younger brother Anatoly, he hoped to be commissioned into the Horse Guards, but at the request of the Emperor Alexander III he instead went into the Nizhny Novgorod Regiment of Dragoons. As a headquarters-captain, he was an adjutant to Eugen, Duke of Leuchtenberg. In 1896 he was awarded the Order of St Stanislav (third class). In 1901, for family reasons, he resigned his commission.

The Baryatinskys spent the winter of 1909–1910 in Florence, where they rented a villa. There, Baryatinsky suffered his first apoplectic attack, but began to recover. A few months later, while playing bridge with friends, he fell to the floor and passed out. A few days later, on 8 March 1910, without having regained consciousness, he died of acute meningitis and was buried in a cemetery in Florence. He was survived by his widow and two young sons.

On 6 October 1916, at Yalta, Catherine Baryatinsky married secondly Prince Serge Obolensky (1890–1978), a son of General Prince Platon Sergeievich Obolensky.

According to a contemporary:

Family

After the death of his father in 1910 and his grandfather in 1914, Andrei Alexandrovich Baryatinsky (1902–1944) inherited one of the richest estates in Russia, but was made destitute by the revolution. In 1925, he married Marie Paule Jedlinski (1906–1971), and they had one daughter, Elena (1927–1988), who was married three times. Andrei Alexandrovich earned a living by physical labor and died in Libya.

Alexander Alexandrovich Baryatinsky (1905–1992), a godson of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich, was twice married, but did not have children. He died in Grants Pass, Oregon.