Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia

Naval career From an early age, Grand Duke Kirill had a love for the sea and his parents encouraged him to follow a career in the Imperial Navy. At the age of fifteen, in autumn 1891, he began his training for the naval college. He returned to his home in Tsarkoe Selo in winter 1892, and spent the following year studying for his examinations at the naval college. From summer until autumn in 1893, he was back at sea training in the ship Prince Pojarsky. Grand Duke Kirill's uncle, Tsar Alexander III, died on and Kirill's cousin, Nicholas II, became the new Tsar. During the coronation festivities in Moscow, Kirill fell in love with his paternal first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They flirted with each other at the balls and celebrations, but Victoria Melita was already married to Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, the only brother of Tsarina Alexandra.

In 1898, he took a trip around the world. One of his last stops was in New York in January 1899. He was invited to the newly formed Russian-speaking club "Rousskaia Beceda" and elected Honorary President.

After graduating from the Naval Cadet Corps and Nikolaev Naval Academy, on 1 January 1904, Kirill was promoted to Chief of Staff to the Russian Pacific Fleet in the Imperial Russian Navy. With the start of the Russo-Japanese War, he was assigned to serve as First Officer on the battleship , but the ship was blown up by a Japanese mine at Port Arthur in April 1904. Kirill barely escaped with his life, and was invalided out of the service suffering from burns, back injuries and shell shock.

Marriage and children

Grand Duke Kirill married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 8 October 1905 without any consent from Tsar Nicholas II. Victoria's father was Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria. Victoria's mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Kirill's paternal aunt.

The marriage caused a scandal in the courts of European royalty as Princess Victoria was divorced from her first husband, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, also her first cousin. The Grand Duke of Hesse's sister was Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas II. The Tsarina already disliked her former sister-in-law and first cousin, being instrumental in leading the opposition to the marriage in the Russian court. She was not alone in her opposition, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna was also appalled at the effrontery of Kirill's marriage. Shortly after Kirill's return to Russia, the Tsar stripped Kirill of his imperial allowance and title of Imperial Highness, his honours and decorations, his position in the navy and then banished him from Russia, though the style of Imperial Highness and title of Grand Duke was restored on 5 October 1905, shortly after Kirill left Russia

In 1908, after the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, Nicholas II restored Kirill to his rank of captain in the Imperial Russian Navy and his position as aide de camp to the emperor. He was given the title Grand Duke of Russia and from then on his wife was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. From 1909–1912, Kirill served on the cruiser and was its captain in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Maritime Division of the Imperial Guard and was made Commander of the Naval Guards in 1915.

Grand Duke Kirill and Princess Victoria Melita had three children: Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia (2 February 1907 – 27 October 1951) married Friedrich Karl, Prince of Leiningen on 25 November 1925. They had seven children. Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia (9 May 1909 – 8 September 1967) married Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia on 31 October 1938. They had seven children. Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (30 August 1917 – 21 April 1992) married Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhransky on 13 August 1948. They had one daughter.

All the children were born to the rank of Prince and Princess of Russia, not entitled to the rank of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess as they were not children or grandchildren in the male line of a Russian Emperor according to the Pauline Laws. In accordance with these laws, Kirill raised his children to the rank of Grand Duke and Grand Duchess after assuming the position of senior male of the Romanov family, and Head of the Imperial House. This elevation was openly denounced by Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich when he published a private letter of the Dowager Empress in 1924 in which she stated that Kirill's assumption of the position was "premature." The Dowager Empress believed that her sons and grandsons might still be alive in Russia. Grand Duke Kirill wrote to Grand Duchess Xenia "Nothing can be compared to what I shall now have to endure on this account, and I know full well I can expect no mercy from all the malicious attacks and accusations of vanity."

Revolution

During the February Revolution of 1917, Kirill participated in a plan to establish a constitutional monarchy alongside Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. Grand Duke Paul drafted a decree and planned to convince Nicholas to sign it when he disembarked from his train at Tsarskoye Selo on 1 March 1917. Mikhail and Kirill were supposed to deliver it to the Duma and request its implementation. However Kirill alone marched to the Tauride Palace at the head of the Garde Equipage (Marine Guard). Kirill had authorised the flying of a red flag over his palace on Glinka Street in Petrograd and in correspondence with a Romanov relative claimed credit for "saving the situation by my recognition of the Provisional Government". It is probable that he had hoped that by ingratiating himself with the Provisional Government he would be declared regent after Nicholas II was made to abdicate.

In June 1917 Kirill and Victoria moved to Finland and then escaped to Coburg in 1920. The exiled family subsequently moved to a small residence in the tiny French fishing village of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.

Life abroad After a London court order in July 1924 recognized Grand Duke Michael to be legally dead, Kirill first declared himself "Guardian of the Throne" on 8 August 1924 and then on 31 August 1924 he assumed the title Emperor of all the Russias.

After claiming the throne, Kirill became known as the "Soviet Tsar" because in the event of a restoration of the monarchy, he intended to keep some of the features of the Soviet regime. The organization began to exhibit pro-Soviet sympathies, arguing that the monarchy and the Soviet Bolshevik system could peacefully coexist (their slogan being "Tsar and the Soviets", a socialist version of the traditional "Tsar and People"). Kirill became more wary of the organization when he learned that its founder, Alexander Kazem-Bek, was spotted meeting with an OGPU agent. Kirill accepted Kazem-Bek's voluntary resignation.

Just before he died, he wrote his autobiography, My Life in Russia's Service – Then and Now which was published in 1939.

Kirill was succeeded by his son Vladimir Kirillovich who styled himself "Grand Duke and head of the Russian Imperial House".

Kirill was buried at the ducal mausoleum at , Coburg. Following the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the remains of Kirill and his spouse were transferred from Coburg to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia on 7 March 1995 after negotiations conducted by his granddaughter Maria Vladimirovna.

Among his activities he was close to members of the Nazi Party, when he was in Germany. On one occasion, he is said to have paid Erich Ludendorff "a sum of nearly half a million gold marks in 1922-1923 for German-Russian national matters".

Honours Knight of the Order of St. Andrew, Russian Empire Knight of the Order of the Elephant, Kingdom of Denmark – 18 October 1928 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, Kingdom of Greece – January 1901 – during a visit to Greece Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Falcon, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – 1896 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 1897 Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, French Republic – September 1897 Knight Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine – 12 October 1899 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword, Kingdom of Portugal – 31 December 1903 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Henry the Lion, Duchy of Brunswick – 1907 Knight of the Order of the Seraphim, Kingdom of Sweden – 13 July 1912 Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, Empire of Japan – 8 July 1898 Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, Kingdom of Prussia Knight of the Order of the Rue Crown, Kingdom of Saxony

Portrayal In the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, Sir Rex Harrison portrayed Kirill as an embittered and dangerous enemy to Anna Anderson, who notoriously claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.