Life and tragic death forever linked the family of the last Russian emperor and a very integral and faithful person, as if hewn from one block, like Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. The House of Romanov, which has existed for four hundred years, perceives power as a heavy burden and a service to national unity and is ready to work for the good of the Motherland.
Childhood of the Grand Duke
Sergei Mikhailovich's father 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 governor of the Caucasus. This post was both responsible and dangerous. But Mikhail Nikolaevich managed to conquer Chechnya, Dagestan, and 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 their father. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was born on the Borzhom estate in 1869 and was baptized in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Father and mother treated their children strictly, raising them to be able to endure hardships that could be encountered 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 reading prayers, kneeling, and a cold bath. Breakfast was the simplest - tea, bread, butter.
Studies
Initially, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, like his brothers, received home education for eight years. He studied the Law of God, the history of Orthodoxy and other faiths, the history of Russia, Western European countries, America and Asia. Mathematics, geography, languages and music classes were required. Due to an error in foreign word The punishment followed was deprivation of sweets, in mathematics - kneeling in the corner for an hour. In addition, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich mastered the use of firearms, fencing and even a bayonet attack. Horse riding was an integral part of training. From seven to fifteen years old, Sergei Mikhailovich and his brothers lived near Strelna in five rooms of the Grand Duke's palace on a high bank Gulf of Finland. This upbringing and study determined the future direction of Sergei Mikhailovich’s activity - military service. Capable of mathematics, loving precision in everything from a very early age, he chose the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in 1885. This made his father very happy, who himself was trained as an artilleryman.
Journey
In 1890-1891, when Sergei Mikhailovich was a little over twenty years old, he and his brother Alexander Mikhailovich, a naval officer, traveled on the yacht Tamara 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. The still young woman was unable to bring her son Mikhail together with Countess Merenberg, Pushkin’s granddaughter.
Service
In 1889 S. graduated from artillery school with the rank of second lieutenant. He grew quickly and successfully in his career.
Almost every three years he was promoted to rank for his zeal. In 1904, before us was already Major General Sergei Mikhailovich. The Grand Duke, simultaneously with the new rank, was enlisted in the retinue of His Majesty. Sergei Mikhailovich put a lot of effort into creating modern artillery, updating it in the Russian army, and training young artillerymen, both lower and higher ranks. The quality of training for gunners improved sharply under him.
Participation in coronation events
In May 1896, on a fine day, Sergei Mikhailovich took part in the coronation ceremonies in Moscow. On the occasion of beautiful weather, the Grand Duke proceeded to the Khodynskoye field in an open carriage together with the Grand Duchess.
Among the military officials, he greeted 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 flirt to the core, she relied on sexuality. She managed to manipulate men and drive them crazy with ease.
In his youth, Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov fell in love with her. In 1894, the Grand Duke gave the twenty-two-year-old beauty a dacha 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 management. If Matilda Feliksovna wanted to perform in diamonds and sapphires, although the role of such jewelry did not fit the costume, then it was still done as the incomparable ballerina wanted. She needed Vladimir Alexandrovich to ensure a strong position in society.
Birth of a son
In 1902, she gave birth to a son, who was named Vladimir at baptism, his patronymic was Sergeevich, and the surname Krasinsky and the title of hereditary nobleman were bestowed on him by the emperor himself. Sergei Mikhailovich wanted to adopt the boy, although the child was not at all like him. However, Matilda Feliksovna was thinking about it. She had other plans. In the meantime, Sergei Mikhailovich was happily raising the boy and did not complain about his fate, although Matilda Feliksovna had practically excommunicated him from herself, having become carried away by the young Prince Andrei.
Meanwhile, she forbade Sergei Mikhailovich from looking at other women, but allowed him to give himself gifts. The Grand Duke's character changed, he became withdrawn and did not attend social events. Twenty-five years of boundless love and forgiveness - isn’t this the true feeling that came to Sergei Mikhailovich. On his sixteenth birthday, already a prisoner in Alapaevsk, he sent a congratulatory telegram to Volodya, whom he considered his son. And the young man sincerely loved him as if he were his own.
After the Emperor's abdication
In the summer of 1917, Kshesinskaya, fleeing, moved away from revolutionary Petrograd to Kislovodsk. S. M. Romanov remained there to settle the affairs of his beloved woman.
He wanted to equip a hiding place for treasure in her mansion. Having lingered too long in the revolutionary city, trying to smuggle jewelry abroad through the English embassy and put it in the name of Vladimir, which he failed, the Grand Duke was arrested in the spring of 1918.
Martyrdom
First, Mikhailovich, along with others, was exiled to Vyatka. Then a month later they are sent to Yekaterinburg. Judging by the reviews, he had a very democratic attitude towards the new government. This was reported by bank manager V.P. Anichkov, who played preference with him in the evenings.
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, and guards were posted. 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 safe place. However, they were brought to the mines. Sergei Mikhailovich, sensing the crime, began to resist and was killed. His last thought was about his beloved Mala, whose he held in his hand. The rest were thrown alive into the mines, where they died like true martyrs.
So, tragically, as a result of bloody terror, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov ended his life. The biography, which began with severe trials in childhood, and continued with a half-requited love for a flighty coquette, ended at the age of forty-eight. He was too young to die, but life had other plans.
Vel. Book Sergiy Mikhailovich Romanov and Feodor Remez
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was born on September 25, 1869 in Borjomi, Tiflis province, the grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. His father is Vel. Book Mikhail Nikolaevich is known as a major military figure and an equally capable administrator. For twenty-two years he held the dangerous and responsible post of governor of the Caucasus. He managed not only to end the seemingly endless war with the North Caucasian highlanders, but also to create a strong bastion of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus.
The father wanted his children to be brought up in a military spirit, strict discipline and a sense of duty. The upbringing of Sergei Mikhailovich and his brothers was similar to military service in a regiment. They slept on narrow iron beds with the thinnest mattresses laid on wooden boards. They got up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and “whoever dared to sleep for another 5 minutes was punished in the most severe way.” Breakfast consisted of tea, bread and butter. Everything else was strictly prohibited, so as not to accustom the Grand Dukes to luxury.
Education was taken very seriously, the curriculum, divided into an eight-year period of study, consisted of lessons on the Law of God, the history of the Orthodox Church, the comparative history of other faiths, Russian grammar and literature, the history of Russia, Europe, America and Asia, geography, mathematics, languages and music. In addition, the Princes were taught the use of firearms, horse riding, fencing and bayonet attack. The question “Who should I be?” the Grand Dukes did not exist. The choice of career lay between cavalry, artillery and navy. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich graduated from the artillery school. According to brother Alexander: “ he gladdened his father’s heart by going into the artillery and studying artillery science in detail.”
Since 1905 Vel. Book Sergei Mikhailovich holds the post of artillery inspector general. On the eve of World War I, returning from a trip to Austria, he reported to the government about the feverish work of military factories in the Central European powers. As Inspector General of Artillery, he did everything in his power to influence the government on the issue of rearmament of our artillery, in anticipation of the inevitable war with Germany. General A.S. Lukomsky noted: “Russian field artillery owes a lot to the Grand Duke. Thanks to his knowledge and the enormous energy with which he trained personnel, constantly visiting and monitoring, our field artillery in the Japanese and European wars was at its proper height. During World War I, the Grand Duke was at the front and at Headquarters, where he kept himself in moral shape. I understood and envied him. In a society of people obsessed with shed blood, growing cabbage and potatoes served as a distraction for my brother Sergei, giving some meaning to life.” (From the book of memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich).
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was not distinguished by his spectacular appearance; many found him ugly, as the wife of his brother George once directly told him. “This is my charm,” the Grand Duke retorted, not at all embarrassed. But he was distinguished by an excellent sense of humor and truly aristocratic ease of use. Like the brothers Georgy and Alexander, Sergei Mikhailovich was also interested in numismatics and collected a significant collection of coins.
In 1887, as a young man, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, together with his father, Chairman of the State Council of the Russian Empire, traveled to the Urals. In Yekaterinburg his father Vel. Book Mikhail Nikolaevich took upon himself the patronage of the Siberian-Ural Scientific and Industrial Exhibition, and in 1981 accepted the duties of the August patronage of the UOLE (Ural Society of Natural History Lovers). After the death of his father, a hall in his memory was opened at the UOLE Museum and a prize was established for success in the study of the Ural region. It is no coincidence that in a conversation with the security officer Kabanov, assigned to accompany the Romanov Princes in May 1918 from Yekaterinburg to Alapaevsk, Vel. Book Sergei Mikhailovich said that he knew this city, since even “as a junior artillery officer he visited all the Ural factories on foot. I was also in Alapaevsk.”
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich bore the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh, a mourner and prayer book of the Russian land. From his childhood, he loved work and activities, and while traveling around Russia with his father, he became acquainted with the needs of ordinary people and loved his Russian people with all his soul. Standing in a high official position, he always received everyone who came to him, listened carefully, and did everything possible for the petitioners. He was especially distinguished among the commanders for his simplicity and sincere affectionate manner. Access to the Grand Duke was open to everyone, from a simple peasant to a high dignitary. He was a faithful, sincere and devoted servant of the Tsar and the Motherland until the end of his days. Along the way to exile in the Urals, in Alapaevsk, at stations during stops people came to him asking for help.
After the October Revolution of 1917 Vel. Book Sergei Mikhailovich limited himself to assurances of loyalty to the new system and completely withdrew from politics. He was single and lived in Petrograd until, according to the Bolshevik decree of March 26, 1918 on the census of the Romanovs, he was exiled to Vyatka with the Princes of Imperial Blood siblings: John, Konstantin, Igor, sons of the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. As stated in the document issued by the Petrograd Cheka “in order to prevent and suppress political crimes.” In April, the Romanov princes were expelled from Vyatka to Yekaterinburg, and on May 20 they arrived in Alapaevsk. With Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, the manager of his affairs, Fyodor Semenovich Remez (1878-1918), left Petrograd for exile. Fyodor Semenovich still had a family in Petrograd; this person close to the Prince voluntarily went with him to suffering and death, thereby fulfilling the covenant of Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 13:15).
Deprived of their native shelter, slandered, they were persecuted in their native land. The last earthly refuge for them was the Floor School, on the outskirts of Alapaevsk, where they were under the constant control of Bolshevik commissars and Red Army soldiers. Here the Grand Duke took upon himself negotiations with the commissars regarding the tightening of the prison regime and the transfer of prisoners to soldiers' rations from June 21, which followed the murder of Vel. Book Mikhail Alexandrovich in Perm. The Grand Duke protested against such violence, but his protests were not answered. The prince sent a telegram to the chairman of the Regional Council in Yekaterinburg, where he wrote the following: “ Without knowing any guilt, we petition for the removal of the prison regime from us. For myself and my relatives who are in Alapaevsk. Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov.”The prisoners tried to brighten up their situation by working in the school area, cleaning it, planting vegetables and flowers, and, according to the Bolsheviks, they arranged a cozy corner for walking. The princes gathered every day for prayer in the room of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.
On the night of July 18, 1918, under the pretext of moving to a “quieter and safer” place, the Romanov Princes were secretly taken to the abandoned Nizhne-Selimskaya mine in the morning, staging a staged attack, allegedly with the aim of liberating the Princes by a detachment of White Guards. An atrocity was committed near the mine; Alapaevsk prisoners were thrown alive into a damp, dark pit 60 meters deep. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was killed by a revolver shot, this was shown by a medical examination. According to an eyewitness, he was the only one who resisted the killers and was shot at the edge of the mine. When all the victims were in the mine, the security officers began throwing grenades there in order to completely hide the traces of the crime. The body of Fyodor Semenovich Remez was damaged by the grenade explosion; it was severely burned from the explosion. The remaining martyrs died in terrible suffering from thirst, hunger and injuries received when falling onto ledges of varying depths.
With the arrival of the White units in Alapaevsk, the Alapaevsk investigative commission, having discovered the location of the mine, brought the bodies to the surface. On October 18, the bodies were in the Catherine Church, where litias, memorial services and an all-night vigil were served, and on October 19, the bodies of the Alapaevsk martyrs, after the Funeral Liturgy and funeral service in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, were temporarily buried in a crypt on the south side of the altar of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. As Abbot Seraphim wrote, there were so many people that people could not fit in the churches, but stood, cried and prayed right on the street. This is how the city residents said goodbye. During the retreat of the White Army units of A.V. Kolchak, the bodies were taken to Siberia, then to China and buried in April 1920 in a crypt at the Church of the Holy Righteous Seraphim of Sarov at the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing. The bodies of the martyrs Vel. Book Elizabeth Feodorovna and nun Varvara were escorted further to the Holy Land - Jerusalem. Russian Foreign Orthodox Church in 1981, the Alapaevsk martyrs were canonized as the New Martyrs of Russia. In 1992 in Russia Vel. Book Elizabeth and nun Varvara.
) - the fifth of six sons of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich and Olga Fedorovna, grandson of Nicholas I; adjutant general (1908), artillery general (1914), field artillery inspector general under the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (1916-1917), member of the State Defense Council (1905-1908).
Biography
In 1890-1891, together with his brother, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, he sailed on the family yacht "Tamara" from Sevastopol to the Indian Ocean to Batavia and to India, to Bombay - the journey was described by Gustav Radde in the two-volume book "23,000 miles on a yacht" Tamara" (1892-1893).
He made efforts to influence the government on the issue of rearmament of Russian artillery in anticipation of a war with Germany; his efforts in this matter were unsuccessful. Count A. A. Ignatiev, who was a military agent in France during the First World War, in his memoirs “Fifty Years in Service,” directly pointed out the incompetence of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich in matters of artillery and his “inclination” to certain suppliers. He was a close friend of Emperor Nicholas II for many years and was at Headquarters until the last days of the Russian Empire.
Family
Sergei Mikhailovich was never married. He avoided taking part in social celebrations and was known in high circles as a reserved and silent person. He was easy to deal with ordinary people and accessible to everyone.
For many years he cohabited with the famous ballerina Kshesinskaya. On June 18, 1902, her son Vladimir was born, who, according to the Highest Decree of October 15, 1911, received the surname “Krasinsky” (according to family tradition, the Krzezinskys were descended from the Counts Krasinsky), the patronymic “ Sergeevich"and hereditary nobility. When, after the revolution, Kshesinskaya married Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, he adopted her son, who became Vladimir Andreevich- and in her memoirs, written after World War II, Kshesinskaya claims that the child was Andrei’s, and Sergei nobly “took the blame” upon himself.
Achievement list
- 11/08/1898 - 03/10/1904 - commander of the 2nd E.I.V. Feldzeichmeister General of the Guards Battery. horse artillery brigade
- 03/10/1904 - 06/16/1904 - was at the disposal of E.I.V. Feldzeichmeister General
- 06/16/1904 - 08/07/1904 - commander of the Guards. horse art brigades
- 09/07/1904 - 06/02/1905 - inspector of all artillery
- 06/02/1905 - 01/05/1916 - Inspector General of Artillery
- 01/05/1916 - 1917 - field general inspector of artillery under the Supreme Commander-in-Chief
Military ranks and ranks
- Entered service (09/25/1885)
- Second Lieutenant of the Guard (Art. 09/25/1888)
- Aide-de-camp to His Majesty (Vys. Ave. 11/26/1888)
- Lieutenant of the Guard for distinction (Article 30.08.1892)
- Staff Captain of the Guard for Distinction (Article 05/14/1896)
- Captain of the Guard for Distinction (Art. 5.04.1898)
- Colonel of the Guard (Art. 04/18/1899)
- Major General with enrollment in His Majesty's Retinue (Vys. Ave. 03/10/1904)
- Lieutenant General (Vys. Ave. 04/13/1908)
- Adjutant General to His Imperial Majesty (Vys. Ave. 04/13/1908)
- General of Artillery (Art. 04/06/1914)
Patronage
- Chief of the 153rd Baku Infantry Regiment (Vys. Ave. 09/25/1869)
- Chief of the 3rd Vladivostok Fortress Artillery Regiment (Vys. Ave. 09/7/1909)
Awards
- Order of St. Anne 1st class. (1869)
- Order of St. Stanislaus 1st class. (1869)
- Order of St. Vladimir 4th class. (12/17/1894)
- Medal "In memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III" (1896)
- Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class. (01/25/1901)
- Highest Gratitude (1904)
- Order of St. Vladimir 2nd class. (1911)
- Mecklenburg-Schwerin Order of the Wendish Crown 1st class.
- Mecklenburg-Schwerin Order of the Vulture (English)Russian 4 tbsp.
- Order of the Württemberg Crown [ ]
- Order of Merit of Duke Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig with chain
- Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen (1898)
- Bulgarian Order "St. Alexander" 1st class. (20.08.1898)
- Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor (06/20/1911)
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Notes
Sources
- Kuzmin Yu. A. Russian imperial family 1797-1917. Biobibliographic reference book. - St. Petersburg. : Dmitry Bulanin, 2005. - pp. 322-324. - ISBN 5-86007-435-2.
- Miller L. Holy Martyr of Russia Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. - M.: Pilgrim, 2006. - 266 p.
- Online ""
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Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was born on September 25, 1869 in the palace of his parents, located near the town of Borjomi, Gori district, Tiflis province.
His father was Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich (the fifth of the six sons of Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich), and his mother was Olga Feodorovna (nee Cecilia-Augusta, Princess and Margravine of Baden)
At the time of the birth of his son Sergei, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich was the Viceroy of the Caucasus and the Commander-in-Chief of the Active Army, having managed to become famous not only as a talented military leader, but also as an excellent administrator-manager. Occupying the dangerous and responsible post of Viceroy of the Caucasus for twenty-two years, he everywhere carried out the peacemaking policy begun by his predecessor, which over time led not only to the end of the seemingly endless war with the North Caucasian mountaineers, but also ultimately turned the Caucasus into a strong outpost of the Russian Empire.
While raising children, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich wanted to see in his sons faithful successors of Russian Military Glory, therefore he raised them in strict discipline and a sense of duty to the Fatherland. Therefore, the upbringing of Sergei Mikhailovich and his brothers was like going through military service in the regiment. They slept on narrow iron beds with very thin mattresses placed on wooden planks. Their day, as per the established order in the army, began with getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning. And “whoever dared to sleep for another 5 minutes was punished in the most cruel way.” Their breakfast consisted of slightly sweetened tea, gray bran bread and butter. All the rest, any other delicacies served at the table, were prohibited. For from their earliest years, young Grand Dukes were not accustomed to luxury!
Similar rigor was observed in matters of general education. In accordance with the program of the Alexander Men's Classical Gymnasium, a curriculum designed for an eight-year period of study was developed especially for them (the children of the Grand Duke received education at home). Among the main disciplines, the Law of God, History of the Orthodox Church and other faiths, Russian Grammar and Literature, History of Russia and History of Foreign Countries, Mathematics, Geography, Natural Science, Music, Dance, etc. were studied. Particular attention was also paid to the study of English, French, German languages, as well as the study of Greek and Latin.
Along with general education, the young Grand Dukes were also taught military disciplines - formation, riding, handling firearms, fencing and the basics of Russian bayonet fighting. Thus, the question: “Who should I be?” Sergei Mikhailovich and his brothers did not exist. The choice lay only between cavalry, artillery and infantry...
Having entered service in September 1885, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich chose artillery for himself, graduating from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. And in the words of his older brother Alexander: “...made his father’s heart happy by going into artillery and studying the intricacies of artillery science.”
It should be noted that the promotion of the Grand Duke was not facilitated by his relationship with the Russian Imperial House and personal friendship with the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich - they were the same age in age - but by his personal qualities as a military specialist in the field of artillery.
In 1887, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, together with his father, who by that time held the post of Chairman of the State Council, traveled to the Urals. While in Yekaterinburg, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich took upon himself the patronage of the Siberian-Ural Scientific and Industrial Exhibition, and in 1891 assumed the duties of the August Patronage of the Ural Society of Natural History Amateurs (UOLE). (After the death of the Grand Duke, which followed in 1909, a hall in his memory was opened at the UOLE Museum and a prize was established for success in the study of the Ural region.) Therefore, finding himself in Yekaterinburg in 1918, no longer of his own free will, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich noticed, Chekist A.G., who transported him to Alapaevsk. Kabanov that he knows this city, since even “... as a junior artillery officer (that’s right - a cadet!) he walked through all the Ural factories. I was also in Alapaevsk.”
Having graduated from school in 1888 as a Second Lieutenant of the Guard, he received almost all of his subsequent military ranks - Lieutenant of the Guard (1892), Staff Captain of the Guard (1896) and Captain of the Guard (1898) for distinction.
Since April 1899, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich has been Colonel of the Guard, and since March 1904 - Major General of His Majesty's Retinue.
Since 1905, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed by the Highest Command to the post of Inspector General of Artillery and introduced to the Council of State Defense.
Having drawn conclusions for himself from the politically unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 for Russia, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, in this new and most responsible position for himself, did everything in his power, trying to maximally improve the work of the Main Artillery Directorate of the War Ministry subordinate to him. . And, it must be said that with his numerous inspection trips to various garrisons and training grounds, the Grand Duke did a lot to increase combat effectiveness domestic artillery in practical shooting and coordination of gun crews. As well as updating and equipping artillery parks with heavy artillery guns, the Imperial Russian Army owes exclusively to this man.
Returning from a trip to Vienna in 1913, the Grand Duke reported to the government about the feverish work being done in the military factories of the central European powers. And as Inspector General of Artillery, he did everything in his power to influence the government on the issue of rearmament of our field artillery with even more advanced systems on the eve of the inevitable war with Germany.
And, nevertheless, in many Soviet sources, with reference to the work “Fifty Years in Service,” written by Count A.A., who transferred to serve in the Red Army. Ignatiev (during the First World War he was the Military Attaché of the Russian Empire in France), who left memoirs, reports that the Grand Duke was incompetent “in matters of artillery” and also had a “penchant” for individual suppliers. However, this is not so, a clear example of which is the lines from the memoirs of Assistant Minister of War Lieutenant General A.S. Lukomsky, who noted that: “Russian field artillery owes a lot to the Grand Duke. Thanks to his knowledge and the enormous energy with which he trained personnel, constantly visiting and monitoring, our field artillery in the Japanese and European wars was at its proper height.”
Despite his business qualities, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, and despite his rather large stature, did not have a spectacular appearance. And many even found him ugly, as the wife of his brother George, Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna, once directly told him. "That's my charm"- Sergei Mikhailovich answered without being embarrassed at all. And he more than compensated for his dull appearance with an excellent sense of humor and truly aristocratic simplicity in communication.
Of all his siblings, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was the most warm relations with Alexander Mikhailovich, but their relationship cooled after the start of his courtship and subsequent marriage to the Tsar’s sister, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, with whom Sergei Mikhailovich was secretly in love.
Being one of the Sovereign's closest friends, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was well acquainted with his youth passion - the prima ballerina of the Imperial Mariinsky Theater Matilda Feliksovna Kshesinskaya, as her relatives called her. There were many very contradictory rumors about the relationship between the Grand Duke and Malya (as her relatives called her). But be that as it may, M.F. On June 18, 1902, in Strelna, Kshesinskaya gave birth to a son, Vladimir, who, according to the Highest Decree to the Government Senate of October 15, 1911, received the surname “Krasinsky” (according to family tradition, the Krzesinskys came from the family of Counts Krasinsky), the patronymic “Sergeevich” and Hereditary Nobility. (Later, in 1921, while already in exile, M.F. Kshesinskaya married Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, who adopted her son, as a result of which he received a new patronymic “Andreevich.”)
Like his brothers, Sergei Mikhailovich was fond of numismatics and collected a significant collection of coins, which he donated to the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III back in 1909.
Occupying a high official position, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich differed from many senior officials in his simplicity and sincerely affectionate manner. Access to the Grand Duke was open to everyone: from a simple peasant to a high dignitary. He always listened carefully to everyone who came to him and in most cases tried to help if the petitioner’s cause was just.
On the eve of the First World War, the Grand Duke was promoted to the rank of General of Artillery, and since 1916, as Inspector of the General Staff for Artillery, he was constantly at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and was the only Grand Duke who could communicate with the Sovereign on a daily basis.
With the beginning of the events of the February Troubles, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich asked the British representative at Headquarters, General Sir John Hanbury-Wilms, to write a letter to the Tsar with a request to form a constitutional government accountable to the State Duma.
Having been dismissed under the Provisional Government, the Grand Duke declared his loyalty to the new system and did not leave Petrograd, remaining to live in it until, on the basis of the Decree of March 26, 1918 of the Council of Commissars of the Petrograd Labor Commune, signed by G.E. Zinoviev and M.S. Uritsky “in order to prevent and suppress crimes” he was exiled to Vologda. (His two brothers were also sent there - Grand Dukes Nicholas and George, as well as the Princes of the Imperial Blood "Konstantinovich" - John, Constantine and Igor.)
From Vologda Sergei Mikhailovich together with F.M. Remez and his personal physician, Dr. Gelmersen, were briefly transferred to Vyatka, where they were “joined” by Princes “Konstantinovich” and Prince V.P., who had been exiled there. Paley, from where they were all transferred to Yekaterinburg just a few days later.
Once in this city, the Grand Duke, together with his servant F.S. Remez settled in one of the rooms of a private house (Fetisovskaya St., 15), which was shared with him by the Manager of the Yekaterinburg branch of Volzhsko-Kama Bank V.P. Anichkov. In the evenings, the Grand Duke played preference with the owner and his friends, and also held conversations on various burning topics.
According to Anichkov: “ Sergei Mikhailovich sincerely advised the Russian intelligentsia to work with the Bolsheviks in order to dissolve them, ignoramuses, in intellectual work. So he hoped to find a line of reconciliation, believing that the Bolshevik method of governance had much in common with the old regime.
- Exactly like under the Imperial government, but with the Bolsheviks everything comes out in a more caricatured form. The same derzhimordstvo as before, the same Shemyakin court, the same bribery.
Sergei Mikhailovich had a negative attitude towards the previous regime...».
On May 13, 1918, all Members of the House of Romanov in Yekaterinburg were informed of their transfer to Alapaevsk, and on May 19, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich signed on a copy of the text of the Resolution of the Ural Regional Council that he undertakes to be ready “... to be sent to the station, accompanied by a member URAL REGIONAL EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION."
On May 20, 1918, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, together with his servant F.S. Remez, as well as other Members of the House of Romanov who were in Yekaterinburg, were taken to Alapaevsk.
On the night of July 18 (5), Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich suffered martyrdom along with the rest, exiled to Alapaevsk by Members of the House of Romanov. But unlike those killed by an ax head in the occipital region, the Grand Duke was shot in the head while resisting his killers, after which his body was thrown into the Mezhnaya mine, located on the road from Alapaevsk to Verkhnyaya Sinyachikha.
On October 31, 1918, units of the White Army occupied Alapaevsk.
The corpses of the murdered, discovered almost immediately, were removed from the mine, placed in coffins and placed for funeral services in the city’s Catherine Church, after which they were buried in the crypt of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the city of Alapaevsk.
However, with the advance of the Red Army, the bodies were transported further and further to the East several times.
The next temporary burial of the Alapaevsk Martyrs took place in Chita, in one of the cells of the Bogoroditsky Monastery, and then their remains were transported to Beijing, where they were buried in the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, located on the territory of the Russian Spiritual Mission.
With the final coming to power of the communists in 1947, the Russian Spiritual Mission was closed, and the USSR Embassy was located on its territory. As a result, the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov was destroyed, and a garage was built in its place.
To date, the burial places of the Alapaevsk Martyrs in its aisles have not been identified.
In 1981, by the decision of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich was canonized as the Holy New Martyrs of Russia who suffered from the godless power.
Posthumously rehabilitated on June 9, 1999 by the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.
