Life and tragic death forever bound the family of the last Russian emperor and a very whole and faithful, as if carved from one block, such a person as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. The House of Romanovs, which has existed for four hundred years, perceives power as a heavy burden and service to national unity and is ready to work for the good of the Motherland.
Childhood of the Grand Duke
The father of Sergei Mikhailovich was the son of Emperor Nicholas I Mikhail Nikolaevich. He was valued as a major military figure and a very capable administrator. For 22 years he was the governor of the Caucasus. This post was both responsible and dangerous. But Mikhail Nikolayevich managed to conquer Chechnya, Dagestan, the Western Caucasus and put an end to the endless war. Mother, Olga Feodorovna, Princess of Baden, was the niece of Elizabeth I Alekseevna, who herself grew up in Spartan conditions. There were 7 children in the family.
In the photo Olga Fedorovna with her son Sergei. She raised her children in unconditional admiration for her father. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was born in the Borjomi estate in 1869.year and was baptized in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The father and mother were strict with the children, raising them to be able to endure hardships, which they could meet in military service, for which they were prepared from childhood. Their grandfather Nicholas I, who slept on a soldier's bed and covered himself with an overcoat, was clearly taken as a model. The sons had narrow iron beds, instead of spring mattresses - boards on which a symbolic thinnest mattress was laid. The rise was at six in the morning. Lateness was not allowed. Then the reading of prayers, kneeling, and a cold bath. Breakfast was the simplest - tea, bread, butter.
Study
Initially, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, like his brothers, was educated at home for eight years. He studied the Law of God, the history of Orthodoxy and other confessions, the history of Russia, Western European countries, America and Asia. Mathematics, geography, languages and music were obligatory. Due to a mistake in a foreign word, a punishment followed - deprivation of sweets, in mathematics - an hour kneeling in a corner. In addition, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich mastered the handling of firearms, fencing and even a bayonet attack. Horse riding was an integral part of the training. From the age of seven to fifteen, Sergei Mikhailovich and his brothers lived near Strelna in five rooms of the Grand Duke's palace on the high bank of the Gulf of Finland. Such upbringing and study determined the future direction of Sergei Mikhailovich's activity - military service. Capable of mathematics, loving accuracy in everything from an early age, he chose Mikhailovskoyeartillery school in 1885. By this, he was very pleased with his father, who himself had the education of an artilleryman.
Travel
In 1890-1891, when Sergei Mikhailovich was just over twenty years old, he, together with his brother Alexander Mikhailovich, a naval officer, traveled on the Tamara yacht to the Indian Ocean, visited Batavia and Bombay. It was in India that Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich learned about the sudden death of his mother from a heart attack. Still a young woman, she could not bear the morganatic marriage of her son Mikhail to Countess Merenberg, Pushkin's granddaughter.
Service
In 1889, S. M. Romanov graduated from the artillery school with the rank of second lieutenant. He quickly and successfully grew in service.
Almost every three years he was promoted for his diligence. In 1904, Major General Sergei Mikhailovich was already in front of us. The Grand Duke, simultaneously with the new rank, was enrolled in the retinue of His Majesty. Sergei Mikhailovich put a lot of effort into the creation of modern artillery, for its renewal in the Russian army, for the study of young artillerymen, both lower and higher ranks. The quality of gunnery training under him has increased dramatically.
Participation in coronation events
In May 1896, on a fine day, Sergei Mikhailovich took part in the coronation celebrations in Moscow. The Grand Duke, on the occasion of fine weather, proceeded to Khodynka field in an open carriage together with the Grand Duchess.
Among the militaryhe greeted the ranks at the entrance to the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh members of the imperial family.
Fiery Passion
Prima ballerina of the Imperial Mariinsky Theater M. F. Kshesinskaya was an extremely purposeful and strong-willed woman. A coquette to the marrow of her bones, she relied on sexuality. Manipulating men, driving them crazy was easy for her.
In his youth, Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov fell in love with her. The Grand Duke in 1894 gave the twenty-two-year-old beauty a summer cottage in Strelna, not far from his family estate Mikhailovskoye, for her birthday. At this dacha, Sergei Mikhailovich spent five years with his Malechka, living like a family. But life with a notorious coquette was not easy. At the same time, she had an affair with Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. She distributed the roles in such a way that Sergei Mikhailovich paid all her bills and defended her interests before the theater authorities. If Matilda Feliksovna wanted to perform in diamonds and sapphires, although such jewelry did not fit the costume in terms of role, then it was still done the way the incomparable ballerina wanted. She needed Vladimir Alexandrovich to secure a strong position in society.
Birth of a son
In 1902, she gave birth to a son, who was named Vladimir at baptism, he received a patronymic Sergeevich, and the surname Krasinsky and the title of a hereditary nobleman were bestowed on him by the emperor himself. Sergei Mikhailovich wanted to adopt a boy, although the child did not look like him at all. However, Matilda Feliksovnapondered. She had other plans. In the meantime, Sergei Mikhailovich was happy to educate the boy and did not complain about his fate, although Matilda Feliksovna had already practically excommunicated him from herself, carried away by the young Prince Andrei.
Meanwhile, she forbade Sergei Mikhailovich to look at other women, but allowed her to make gifts for herself. The Grand Duke's character changed, he became withdrawn and did not attend social events. Twenty-five years of boundless love and forgiveness - is this not a true feeling that came to Sergei Mikhailovich. Volodya, whom he considered his son, on the day of his sixteenth birthday, already being a prisoner in Alapaevsk, he sent a congratulatory telegram. And the young man sincerely loved him like his own.
After the abdication of the emperor
In the summer of 1917, Kshesinskaya, fleeing, went away from revolutionary Petrograd to Kislovodsk. S. M. Romanov stayed in it to settle the affairs of his beloved woman.
He wanted to set up a treasure stash in her mansion. After too much delay in the revolutionary city, trying to smuggle jewelry abroad through the British embassy and put them in the name of Vladimir, which he failed, the Grand Duke was arrested in the spring of 1918.
Martyrdom
First, Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov, along with other grand dukes, was exiled to Vyatka. Then a month later they are sent to Yekaterinburg. He, judging by the reviews, was very democratic about the new government. This was reported by the one who played with himin the evenings in preference bank manager V. P. Anichkov.
At the end of May 1918, all the Grand Dukes were transferred to Alapaevsk. At first they were allowed to walk around the city, and the inhabitants interacted with them lovingly. But a month later, strict control was established over everyone, guards were placed. The number of products decreased, and Sergei Mikhailovich protested against such treatment. But secretly on the night of July 18, they were loaded onto a train under the pretext that they would transport everyone to a safe place. However, they were brought to the mines. Sergei Mikhailovich, sensing the atrocity, began to resist and was killed. His last thought was of his beloved Male, whose golden medallion he held in his hand. The rest were thrown alive into the mines, where they died like true martyrs.
Thus, tragically, as a result of bloody terror, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov ended his life. The biography, which began with severe trials in childhood, continued with a half-requited love for a windy coquette, ended at forty-eight years. He was too young to die, but life had a different plan.
