About Me
Name: Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov
DOB: September 18, 1891
Birthplace: Ilyinskoe
Mother: Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich
Father: Alexandra Georgievna of Greece
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, of the Imperial House of Romanov (September 18, 1891 – March 5, 1941) was a Russian imperial dynast, one of the few Romanovs to escape execution by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, whom he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.
Romanov was born at Ilyinskoe near Moscow, and died at Davos. He was the son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and a grandson of Alexander II of Russia. Thus a second cousin of Nicholas II of Russia. Dmitri Pavlovich's mother, Alexandra Georgievna of Greece was a daughter of George I of Greece and his Queen consort Olga Konstantinovna of Russia.
His mother died at his birth, and Dmitri and his sister Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia were mostly raised by their uncle and aunt, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, the elder sister of the tsarina. When his uncle, then governor of Moscow, was murdered in 1905 by anarchists, young Dmitri was sent to live with the tsar and his family. At some stage, there was even speculation whether he might be made heir instead of the hemophiliac tsarevich by marrying the tsar's eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia.
As usual in his circles at the time, Dmitri Pavlovich joined a Guards regiment as an officer. He is reputed to have been a very good equestrian, and competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, coming seventh. Before World War I, he instigated the idea of national Russian sports competition, the very beginning of what under Soviet rule became the Spartakiad.
