Grand Duke Gabriel dead in Paris

March 1, 1955

Grand Duke Gabriel Konstanovitch of Russia, a second cousin of Nicholas II, died in Paris yesterday "after a short illness," reports the New York Times.  He was 68 years old.

Grand Duke Gabriel was married twice.  His first wife was Antonina Nesterovskya. She died in 1950.  The following year, he married Princess Irina Kurakina.  Both marriages were morganatic.  

Gabriel was the second son of Grand Duke Konstantine Konstantovitch of Russia and Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg.  He was born at Pavlovsk on July 15, 1887.  Gabriel and his older brother were born with the title of Grand Duke and rank of Imperial Highness, but this status changed three days after Gabriel's birth when Alexander III changed the family law, and limited the title of Grand Duke and Grand Duchess and the rank of Imperial Highness to the children of the Emperor and the grandchildren of the Emperor in the male line.   Great-grandchildren in the male line would now be styled as Prince with the rank of Highness.  

Gabriel was close to his older brother, Ivan.  Both young men were sickly as children, and they spent a lot of their time at the family's Crimea resort, Oreanda.  In 1911, Gabriel attended a dance at the home of the famous ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinskaya, where he was first introduced to Antonina Rafailovna Nesterovskaya, a ballerina, who was a member of a minor Russian noble family.

The couple soon became lovers, and Gabriel was determined to marry her.

Antonina was installed into a house that Gabriel purchased for her in St. Petersburg.  The couple were open about their relationship, entertained often, and were very much a devoted couple.  

 
But when Gabriel approached Nicholas II for permission to marry,  he was rebuffed in his attempt, due to family law.  He even asked his aunt, Queen Olga of Greece, to intercede on his behalf.

Despite Nicholas' denial of approval, Gabriel remained determined to marry his beloved Antonina, who had given up her career to be with him.   After Nicholas' abdication and the end of the monarchy in February 1917, Gabriel approached his mother and asked for her permission to marry.  She refused to consent to such a marriage.  Without telling his mother or other members of his family, apart from a cousin, Prince Alexander of Leuchtenberg, who helped find a priest to perform the wedding,  Gabriel and Antonina were married on April 9, 1917, in St. Petersburg.

Eventually, Gabriel's mother, Grand Duchess Elisabeth also gave her blessing to the marriage.

During the summer of 1918, male members of the Romanov family were being rounded up by the police and imprisoned.  Gabriel found himself in the same prison as his uncle Dimitri and Grand Dukes Nicholas Mikhailovitch and George Mikhailovitch.   Antonina worked tirelessly to free her husband.  She was a close friend of the writer, Maxim Gorky, who made contact with Lenin to release Gabriel.  Near the end of 1918,  Gabriel was first moved to a hospital, and Gorky arranged for Gabriel and Antonina to live with him.  It was Maxim Gorky who pushed the Petrograd Soviet to allow Gabriel and Antonina to leave Russia for Finland.

Gabriel and his wife settled in Paris, where they lived a very social life, despite the loss of his fortune.
He supported Grand Duke Kirill as Nicholas' successor.  In 1939, Kirill's son, Grand Duke Wladimir, elevated Gabriel to the Grand Ducal rank and style of Imperial Highness.

Grand Duke Gabriel is survived by his wife, Princess Irina.  He had no children.

In the 1950s, Gabriel's memoir, Memories of  Marble Palace, was published in French and in Russian. An English translation was published by Gilbert's Books in 2009.

Read more about Gabriel and his family:

 http://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2011/03/read-more-about-grand-duke-gabriel-and.html