page_title: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Bain News Service, publisher. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia 1 negative&#160;: glass&#160;; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Format: Glass negatives. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.14259 Call Number: LC-B2- 2826-2
context_page_description: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II and advisor to him.
context_section_description: Alexander was born in Tiflis, in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Georgia). He was the son of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia, the youngest son of Nicholas I of Russia, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (Cecily of Baden). He was mostly known as "Sandro".
  He was a naval officer. In his youth, he made a good-will visit to the Japanese Empire on behalf of the Russian Empire and another to the Brazilian Empire. He married his first cousin's daughter, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Alexander III on 6 August [O.S. 25 July] 1894. He was a brother-in-law and a close advisor of Tsar Nicholas II.
  Before the revolution, the Grand Duke liked to spend his vacation in France, particularly Biarritz and the Côte d'Azur, where his older brother, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia had financed in 1908 the construction of the Hôtel Carlton, in Cannes.
  His impact on Nicholas has been both criticized and appreciated. His memoirs document that he openly challenged the Tsaritsa Alexandra's political influence on her husband but wished that Nicholas had used troops to resist the revolution. He also admitted that he had been brought up to share the anti-Semitic views that he claimed were prevalent in Russia prior to the revolution. His appeal to Nicholas, as his children approached adulthood, to relax the requirement for equal marriage for Romanov dynasts was rejected, and all seven of his children married titled but non-royal Russian aristocrats, but only his daughter obtained permission of Nicholas to do so. When Sandro's eldest son, Andrei Aleksandrovich, married at Yalta in the Crimea in 1918, Nicholas, who had abdicated on 15 March 1917, was a prisoner at Yekaterinburg with his family. They would be executed by the Bolsheviks a few days later.
  Alexander left the Crimea with his eldest son, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, and his son's new bride, Elisabetta Ruffo di Sant'Antimo, who was pregnant, in December 1918. His wife and mother-in-law, Empress-Dowager Maria Fyodorovna and his sons as well as other Romanovs, were rescued from the Crimea by the British battleship HMS Marlborough in 1919.
  Alexander lived in Paris and wrote his memoirs. Once a Grand Duke (Farrar & Rinehart 1933) is a source of dynastical and court life in Imperial Russia's last half-century. He also spent a time as guest of future Emperor Ras Tafari. He talks about why he was invited to the Ethiopian Empire in his sequel, Always a Grand Duke. He died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. He was the last surviving legitimate grandchild of Nicholas I of Russia. He was buried there in Roquebrune. His wife, Xenia, died in Hampton Court Palace in 1960.
  Together, Alexander and Xenia had seven children:
  Princess Irina Alexandrovna (1895–1970)
  Prince Andrei Alexandrovich (1897–1981)
  Prince Feodor Alexandrovich (1898–1968)
  Prince Nikita Alexandrovich (1900–1974)
  Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich (1901–1980)
  Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich (1902–1978)
  Prince Vasili Alexandrovich (1907–1989)
caption: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich
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