The successful Bolshevik coup of November 1917 surprised Maria Pavlovna and her husband in Moscow, where they had traveled to remove some of Maria's jewels from the state bank. They returned to Petrograd with their lives, but without the jewels. Later on, Serge's parents retrieved Maria's diamonds. In the spring 1918, the couple moved to a cottage in Tsarkoe Selo to be closer to Grand Duke Paul who was under house arrest. There, the grand duchess tended a vegetable garden and kept a goat. On 8 July 1918, she gave birth to a son: