Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, (Кирилл Владимирович Рома́нов; Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov; 12 October 1876 – 12 October 1938) was a member of the Russian Imperial Family. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II and his brother Michael, Kirill assumed the Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia and later the title Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias.

Early life
Grand Duke Kirill was born in Tsarskoye Selo. His father was Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, the third son of Tsar Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse. His mother was Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna), the daughter of Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz. As a grandson in the male line to a Russian Tsar, he was titled Grand Duke, with the style Imperial Highness.

War service
After graduating from the Sea Cadet Corps and Nikolaev Naval Academy, on 1 January 1904, Kirill was promoted to Chief of Staff to the Russian Pacific Fleet in the Imperial Russian Navy. With the start of the Russo-Japanese War, he was assigned to serve as First Officer on the battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Petropavlovsk, but the ship was blown up by a Japanese mine at Port Arthur in April 1904. Kirill barely escaped with his life, and was invalided out of the service suffering from burns, back injuries and shell shock.

Marriage and children
Grand Duke Kirill married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 8 October 1905. Victoria's father was Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria. Victoria's mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Kirill's paternal aunt.

The marriage caused a scandal in the courts of European royalty as Princess Victoria was divorced from her first husband, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, also her first cousin. The Grand Duke of Hesse's sister was Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, the wife of Nicholas II. The Tsarina already disliked her former sister-in-law and first cousin, being instrumental in leading the opposition to the marriage in the Russian court. Shortly after Kirill's return to Russia, the Tsar stripped Kirill of his imperial allowance and style Imperial Highness, his honours and decorations, his position in the navy and then banished him from Russia.

However in 1908, after the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich had put Kirill third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne, Nicholas II restored Kirill to his rank of Captain in the Imperial Russian Navy and his position as aide de camp to the emperor. His wife came into favor, and was given the title Grand Duchess of Russia and from then on was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. From 1909-1912, he served on the cruiser RUSSIAN CRUISER Oleg and was its captain in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Maritime Division of the Imperial Guards and was made Commander of the Naval Guards in 1915.

Grand Duke Kirill and Princess Victoria Melita had three children:
 * Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia (2 February 1907 – 27 October 1951) who married Friedrich Karl, Prince of Leiningen
 * Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia (9 May 1909 – 8 September 1967) who married Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia
 * Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (30 August 1917 – 21 April 1992) who became the claimant to the title Emperor of Russia upon the death of his father

Revolution
During the February Revolution of 1917, Kirill marched to the Tauride Palace at the head of the Garde Equipage (Marine Guard) to swear allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government, wearing a red band on his uniform. This caused grave offence to some in the Imperial Family and led to some members shunning him as legitimate heir to the Throne. Kirill then authorised the flying of a red flag over his palace on Glinka Street in Petrograd and in correspondence with a Romanov relative claimed credit for "saving the situation by my recognition of the Provisional Government".

After the October Revolution, Kirill and Victoria fled to Finland, then Coburg, Germany. Eventually the exiled family moved to France where they stayed for the rest of their lives.

Life abroad
On 8 August 1924 Kirill declared himself "Guardian of the Throne," a title which did not exist. A few weeks later, on 31 August 1924, he went a step further and assumed the title Emperor of all the Russians. Though by the laws of the Russian Empire, he was the heir to the throne after the execution of Tsar and his family and the disappearance and presumed murder of the Tsar's brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia by the Bolsheviks, his claim was later met with opposition for several reasons. After claiming the throne, he became known as the "Soviet Tsar" because in the event of a restoration of the monarchy, he intended to keep some of the features of the Soviet regime.

While living in exile, Kirill was supported by some emigres who styled themselves "legitimists" (legitimisti, in Russian легитимисты), underlining the "legitimacy" of Kirill's succession. The opponents of Kirill were known as the "un-predetermined" (nepredreshentsi, in Russian непредрешенцы); they believed that in the wake of the radical revolutionary events, the convening of a Zemsky Sobor was necessary in order to choose a new monarch for Russia. (In 1922, Nicholas II's cousin Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich was proclaimed "Emperor of all Russia" by a "Zemsky Sobor of the Amur Region", convened by General Mikhail Diterikhs. However, Grand Duke Nicholas had no children.)

Kirill found his strongest support among a group of legitimists known as the Mladorossi, a Russian emigre monarchist organization that was heavily influenced by fascism - although it distanced itself from other fascist movements. The organization began to exhibit pro-Soviet sympathies, arguing that the monarchy and the Soviet Bolshevik system could peacefully coexist (as per their slogan "Tsar and the Soviets"). Kirill became more wary of the organization when he learned that its founder, Alexander Kazem-Bek, was spotted meeting with an OGPU agent. Kirill accepted Kazem-Bek's voluntary resignation. His sole son, Vladimir, continued ties with the organization throughout World War II.

Kirill's son Vladimir Kirillovich succeeded him as head of the Romanov dynasty, although this was contested by some members of the Romanov family. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the remains of Kirill and his spouse were transferred from Coburg to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Honours

 * Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, Kingdom of Greece - January 1901 - during a visit to Greece

Portrayal
Sir Rex Harrison portrayed Kirill as an embittered and dangerous enemy to Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna.