Can anyone shed more light on GD George, brother of the last Tsar? As someone who has read extensively about the Romanovs, I find that he is one figure who remains more or less in the shadows - we all know about his illness, his close companionship with his elder brother and last days in the Caucaus - but i was rather surprised to read Peter Kurth's assertion in The Last Tsar that he was a homosexual, along with many other near relations - uncles & cousins far beyond Grand Dukes Sergei Alexandrovitch, Konstantin Konstantinovitch, Alexis Michailovitch, Ernest of Hesse & the Greek & Danish relations. In fact, the literature seems to suggest that perhaps it ran in the Vladimir clan as well. Peter Kurth even goes as far as to say that before the sabre attack on Tsarevitch Nicholas in Japan, that he & his Greek cousin George visited an all-male brothel. Is any of this true, and what is this information based on - documents in the Russian archives, diaries, letters or just hear-say?
I presume you are referring to "Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra"? Peter doesn't quite say what you write above. On page 40, he writes: "Gossip spread like wildfire, since both of the Georges in Nicholas's company, his brother and his cousin, were homosexual. There was talk of male brothels and 'unspeakable acts,' and the rumor even got around that George of Greece had played a role in provoking the attack by insulting the honor of a Japanese boy. This story, unfounded, was favored by Queen Victoria."
Peter clearly says these were rumors-and indeed I've encountered a lot of similar gossip about Prince George of Greece on the trip in a variety of sources.
That Prince George of Greece was gay was well known-he had an enduring relationship with another close royal male relative.
The idea that Grand Duke George Alexandrovich was gay is less easy to sustain, though again there have been a lot of rumors and family gossip. I suspect Peter, from his close association with many members of the present day Romanov Family, has heard the stories firsthand.
But George Alexandrovich was named a few years back as homosexual in a scholarly article by a respected Russian historian, Simon Karlinsky. He wrote an article (publication was in something like the Hoover Institute Digest, though I could be wrong on this) called "The Seven Gay Grand Dukes," in which he named George Alexandrovich; Konstantin Konstantinovich; Dimitri Konstantinovich; Serge Alexandrovich; and-if I recall-Dimitri Pavlovich, and two others I cannot remember-I think one was Nicholas Mikhailovich and the other may have been Serge Mikhailovich, though I am not at all certain. So George Alexandrovich's homosexuality has certainly been asserted by others than Peter Kurth.
But that's balanced again George's time in the Caucasus, where he was said to have contracted not one but two morganatic marriages, the first with a native Caucasian woman in 1893 shortly after arriving at Abbas Touman. The union, said to have produced a child, was dissolved after two years. In 1894, he was believed to have contracted a second morganatic marriage, this time with a local woman, Mlle. Orkovska, who bore him two sons and a daughter. These children, allegedly given the surname of Romanovsky, as well as firm evidence to support either of the two unions, disappeared after the Revolution. I do know one gentleman who lives in the United States and says he is a grandson, I think. I've never asked for evidence, but he has provided it to some well-placed friends who have no doubt that his claim is true. Of course, having offspring doesn't preclude one being gay-witness Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich or Felix Yusupov. But there are a number of claims about George that will probably never be resolved, given the lack of documentation.
Greg King
