Children and descendants of GD Alexander Mikhailovitch

[dp5486]

It puzzles me too. I couldn't understand if she already did have two children how she could leave them in Russia. It has been a while since I looked through Xenia's biography. I will have to check and see if I can find the source for this information in the back of the book.

Thank you for the name of her first husband too!

[Sainte-Claire1875]

The "m" word is indeed regarded as a prejorative term by little people, so I'm asking you to remove it, please. I realize your intentions are benign, but we really don't know who may be reading this. I certainly don't want for you or us to offend, especially with good intentions.

I'm sorry. I removed it. I just didn't know any other word to use for it, as I don't remember what the scientific word is for it, and that's the only word I could recall for it.  

[Sainte-Claire1875]

Well, many people who knew the boys when they were young described them as being very 'wild'. They were, as most boys are, very energetic and adventurous, and they liked to do daring things. Though the children did have some discipline, it was very minimal. So the boys were in some ways misbehaved alot. Alix didn't really like the boys being around OTMAA because of their 'wild' tendancies, and of course Alix had sort 'isolated' her children from most of the family members and they rarely saw their cousins.

OTMA didn't particularly like playing with the male cousins because they were so 'wild' but Aleksey loved having boys to play with (though he couldn't do as much as they could due to his illness).

[dp5486]

I think it was Rostislav who was closest to Alexei. Isn't there a story somewhere that the cousins came to play with Alexei and when he saw that Rostislav had been punished and forced to remain behind he told them all to leave?

Dmitri had an interest in ships and carried a book about them with him everywhere (courtesy of the Marlborough article on this site OR Xenia's biography-can't remember which).

Feodor seemed to be the most rebellious. I think I read that he caused his mother great distress by questioning her religion (something I do as well!)

Also, does anyone have a photo of Andrei's wife Elsa alone or with her husband?

Thanks!

[M_Breheny]

Perhaps this topic has already been discussed, but I haven't been able to find it.

I know that Alexander III proclaimed that great-grandchildren of a Tsar could no longer be addressed as Grand Dukes or Grand Duchesses, only as Princes or Princesses.  But weren't Xenia and Sandro's six boys and Irena the grandchildren of Alexander III?  Why were they Princes and Princess instead of Grand Dukes and Grand Duchess?  Is it because only their mother (and not their father) was the child of a Tsar?

[Sainte-Claire1875]

  Why were they Princes and Princess instead of Grand Dukes and Grand Duchess?  Is it because only their mother (and not their father) was the child of a Tsar?

That is exactly why they were not ranked as Grand Dukes and Grand Duchess. You got it!  
A lot of people think that Alexander III made it that way because it was too expensive to pay all the Grand Dukes in Russia, especially since Mikhail Nikolaevich had so many sons (Sandro's father). So after that, it only passed through the male line of direct decendants of the Tsar, and the female line was in a sense invalid. (So a Prince's 'allowance' was less than the 'allowance' of a Grand Duke...)

[Marlene]

Xenia and Sandro's children took their rank from their father, not their mother.  
Alexander wanted to limit the size of the Grand Ducal rank for  numerous reasons including the place in the succession, as well allowances, etc.  While all members of the Imperial family were expected to marry equally, there was less pressure on the princes of Russia to marry equally.  However, an unequal marriage for a prince of Russia meant the same as an unequal marriage for a Grand Duke ... the wife and children would not share the title, and would not be considered members of the Imperial family, and the children would not have dynastic rights.  But as the princes of Russia were largely further down the line of succession, there was less importance to maintain a dynastic line, at least before 1918.  None of Alexander and Xenia's sons married equally.  

Perhaps this topic has already been discussed, but I haven't been able to find it.

I know that Alexander III proclaimed that great-grandchildren of a Tsar could no longer be addressed as Grand Dukes or Grand Duchesses, only as Princes or Princesses.  But weren't Xenia and Sandro's six boys and Irena the grandchildren of Alexander III?  Why were they Princes and Princess instead of Grand Dukes and Grand Duchess?  Is it because only their mother (and not their father) was the child of a Tsar?

[Nadya_Arapov]

I was wondering if anyone had any information on Prince Andrei Alexandrovich's wife Elisabeta "Elsa" di Ruffo. From what I read in Hall's biography of Xenia, she was divorced with two children at the time of their marriage. Being that she left with Sandro and Andrei on the Forsythe for France, what became of her children from her previous marriage?

Thanks!

I can't answer you question about Elsa's children. I can provide you with a little bit of information about her family, the Meshcherskys and Sasso-Ruffos, though.

Elsa's aunt (her mother's half-sister) authored a book of memoirs (she was still living ca. 1989). I believe they were titled "A Russia Princess Remembers." Her name was Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Meshcherskaya. Fascinating reading. Ekaterina's mother chose to remain in Russia after the Revolution. She had been an opera singer and Elsa's mother (Natalia "Lily" Sasso-Ruffo)  went absolutely ballistic when Ekaterina's mother married her (much older) father, Prince Meshchersky, who was over 70. Her father responded in kind, promptly disowining Lily. I don't think Elsa's mother ever laid eyes on her father again. Elsa's parents had a romantic history. He met her while posing as a gondolier in Venice. Eventually he revealed his real identity and they wed. Sadly he had many affairs and the marriage soured. The Duce de Sasso-Ruffo is supposed to have been a very handsome (devilishly so) man.

[Nadya_Arapov]

Rostislav towards the back, and Dimitri in the foreground, with two of their tutors. Ai Tudor, 1914.

[Nadya_Arapov]

A servant, Irina, and Nikita. In Syracuse, Italy, waiting to board the train to Rome. 1919.

[Nadya_Arapov]

Princes Roman Petrovich of Russia (left) and Prince Nikita Alexandrovich (right). Italy (probably Genoa), 1919.

[Nadya_Arapov]

The Grand Duchess Xenia and her son Andrei. St. Petersburg. 1915.

[Nadya_Arapov]

Prince Vassili with his bike. Ai Tudor. 1914. I love this photo. It seems as though he might simply ride off the page and come to life.

[Nadya_Arapov]

Vassili and his governess. Ai Tudor, 1914.

[Nadya_Arapov]

Nikita, St. Petersburg, 1915.