Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov — a homosexual from the imperial family

In the Romanov family there was a rule: every member of the dynasty had to marry and leave descendants — this was considered a duty to the state. Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of Emperor Alexander III, also married, but the couple had no children. The grand duke was homosexual.

The main source of information about Sergei Alexandrovich is his personal diary, which he kept for many years. From these entries we see a person with a vivid character, deep feelings, and firm convictions.

This article is about the life of the grand duke and about how his homosexuality influenced his fate and place in history.

Childhood, education, formation

Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov was born on 11 May 1857 in Tsarskoye Selo (then an imperial residence, now the town of Pushkin), not far from Saint Petersburg. He was the sixth child and the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, the ruler who began major reforms in Russia, and Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

From childhood Sergei received an excellent education. He was taught by the best tutors of his time, among them Anna Tyutcheva — daughter of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev. Sergei loved to read, was especially interested in history and culture, and sometimes even had conversations with the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.

The emperor’s children were brought up strictly: they were not allowed to walk freely or play with other children, although they were surrounded by the luxury of the palace. At fifteen Sergei played with porcelain pugs, and on his eighteenth birthday he and his cousin Konstantin (K.R., also homosexual) blew soap bubbles. Later he recalled this day with irony, surprised at how childish he had been. Such isolation made it hard for them to grow up quickly.

Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov as a young man.

As he grew older, Sergei became an intelligent, well-mannered man. While traveling in Italy he conversed with Pope Leo XIII and, as eyewitnesses noted, it was Sergei who turned out to be right in a dispute on questions of church history.

But true maturity came to him during the war. In 1877 the Russo-Turkish War began, and twenty-year-old Sergei went to the front. Russia was at war with the Ottoman Empire, supporting the struggle for independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. In the war Sergei showed bravery and received the fourth-class Cross of St. George — an award for personal courage.

Sergei Alexandrovich loved strawberries, Crimean wines, and especially appreciated sapphires. While traveling around Europe, he did not feel much admiration for Western life. In England, which he visited in 1875, Sergei wrote that the local way of life seemed too material to him: the English, in his words, cared only about comfort, food, and sleep, without striving for spiritual or cultural goals.

“I would rather be a thousand times an ordinary mortal than a Grand Duke.”

— Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov

By temperament Sergei was clearly an introvert — a person inclined to solitude and inner experiences. His cousin Konstantin (K.R.) recalled that Sergei “never or only with great difficulty cries, he bears his grief in silence and does not speak it out.” Historian M. M. Bogoslovsky described him as “very shy.” Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger wrote that Sergei was not only shy but secretive, tried not to show his feelings, and avoided candid conversations. This behavior can be explained by the fact that Sergei was homosexual. The impossibility of living openly intensifies withdrawal and caution in expressing emotions.

“Very tall, of very aristocratic good looks and extremely elegant, he produced the impression of an exceptionally cold man.”

— General Alexander Mosolov on the appearance of Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov

Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov.

In 1880 Sergei lost his mother, and a year later his father. Emperor Alexander II was killed by revolutionaries who threw a bomb at him.

“I ask myself how it is possible to live through all this?”

— Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov

After the tragedy Sergei went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land — to Palestine, where, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ lived and preached. This journey profoundly changed him. Upon his return he created the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (a charitable organization supporting Orthodox pilgrims in the Holy Land), which built schools and hostels for pilgrims and helped travelers with lodging, food, and medical care. Thanks to this, pilgrimages to Palestine became accessible even to ordinary people.

Sergei’s future wife saved him from his inner grief — Elisabeth Feodorovna, a German princess of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt (a branch of the German princely house of Hesse), granddaughter of British Queen Victoria. She had once been courted by the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, but her father chose a Russian grand duke as her husband. For Sergei, Elisabeth became not only a wife but also a close friend. Seven years after the wedding she voluntarily converted to Orthodoxy, even though this was not required of her.

Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife.

“Let people shout about me, but never say a word against my Sergei. Take his side before them and tell them that I adore him, and also my new country, and that in this way I have learned to love their religion too…”

— Elisabeth Feodorovna, in a letter to her brother about her new life

The grand duke’s homosexuality

But Sergei and Elisabeth’s relationship remained only friendly. They had no children.

Contemporaries and historians note that for Elisabeth this marriage turned out to be unhappy. In society she tried to appear content, but in reality she suffered.

“Their family life did not work out, although Elisabeth Feodorovna carefully concealed this and did not confess even to her Darmstadt relatives. One of the reasons was, in particular, Sergei Alexandrovich’s preference for persons of the other sex.”

— Historian Voldemar Balyazin

Nevertheless, surviving letters show that there was respect and sincere affection between the spouses. They were friends and took care of each other, although there were no marital relations in the usual sense between them. Sergei wrote tender letters to his wife:

“I am in rapture at the thought of seeing you tomorrow. I kiss you very tenderly.”

— Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, in a letter to Elisabeth

The Russian Orthodox Church explains the absence of children differently. According to the church version, Sergei and Elisabeth took a vow of chastity even before their wedding — a promise not to enter into physical relations. Such marriages were called “white”: the spouses lived together like brother and sister.

Writer Nina Berberova, describing the life of composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who was also homosexual, wrote about how such people were treated in the high circles of the Russian Empire. Although the law contained an article punishing sodomy, members of the aristocracy were usually not prosecuted. They were simply removed from the capital — given a post in the provinces or sent on a journey.

Berberova cites a case in which one of Sergei Alexandrovich’s lovers — a teacher of classical languages — was tried and exiled:

“One case is known of a man who was known to many, a teacher of Latin and Greek, a lover of the Moscow governor, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was tried and given three years of ‘banishment’ to Saratov, and then returned to Moscow.”

— Writer Nina Berberova

Sergei Alexandrovich belonged to the very highest circle of the empire and did not hide his special attitude toward young officers, especially his adjutants. In many photographs he is captured next to his adjutant Konstantin Balyasny, who often accompanied him on trips around Europe.

Sergei Alexandrovich and Konstantin Balyasny.

“…he was constantly surrounded by several relatively young men who were particularly tenderly friendly with him. I do not mean by this that he had any vicious instincts, but a certain psychological abnormality, which is often expressed in a special kind of enamored attitude toward young men, he undoubtedly had.”

— Minister of Finance Sergei Yulievich Witte

Similar hints could be heard in satirical poetry. In V. P. Myatlev’s poem “The Pride of Nations,” members of the imperial family and their entourage were mocked. The author called them “the Moscow Serge-ants” — an obvious hint at Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who held the post of Governor-General of Moscow. The line “handsome kanashki (a mocking slang term for young men) with eastern manners” referred to Balyasny:

“By Moscow ‘Serge-ants’

With dashing adjutants,

Handsome kanashki

With oriental manners,.”

— V. P. Myatlev, from the poem “The Pride of Nations”

Elisabeth, Sergei Alexandrovich, Princess Lobanova, adjutants Vladimir Hadon (standing) and Konstantin Balyasny (seated).

Among the nobility and intelligentsia homosexual relationships at that time existed quite openly. Society preferred to pretend not to notice, and for the sake of decorum many men married. Historian Dan Healey, who studied sexuality in the Russian Empire, wrote that Sergei Alexandrovich in fact headed an informal circle of influential homosexuals, a “homosexual pyramid” of the Russian Empire.

There were rumors of a close relationship between Sergei Alexandrovich and his adjutant Martynov:

“Dorofeeva Sh., a resident of Tsarskoye Selo, […] said that there it is known that Sergei Alexandrovich lives with his adjutant Martynov, that he had more than once suggested to his wife that she choose a husband for herself from among those around her. She had seen a foreign newspaper in which it was printed that “le grand duc Serge avec sa maitresse m-r un tel” (Grand Duke Sergei with his mistress — Mr. So-and-so) had arrived in Paris. What scandals, just think!”

Alexandra Viktorovna Bogdanovich, diary entry

Historian A. N. Bokhanov wrote that the main propagator of such gossip was Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna, who was considered the chief gossip of the empire. She could not stand those who did not seek her favor and therefore often spread malicious rumors. It is known that on one occasion she called Sergei Alexandrovich a “sodomite” — due to personal dislike: he also did not hide that he could not stand her or her sons.

When in 1891 Sergei was appointed Governor-General of Moscow, Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Lamsdorf (also homosexual), known for his witty remarks, made a joke: “So far Moscow has stood on seven hills, now it must stand on one hump.” This phrase was a play on words: “bugor” in Russian means a height or hump, and by its sound resembles the French word bougre, which at the time meant “sodomite.” In this way the joke hinted at the well-known reputation of the new governor-general.

In the same 1891, Sergei’s younger brother, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, suffered a loss — his wife died in childbirth. Care for his children, Maria and Dmitri (a homosexual and future lover of Felix Yusupov), was taken over by Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Elisabeth Feodorovna. Later, when Pavel Alexandrovich entered into a morganatic (unequal) marriage and was forced to leave Russia, they effectively replaced the children’s parents. In the Governor-General’s residence (today the building of the Mayor’s Office on Tverskaya Street), the children were given separate rooms. Sergei Alexandrovich himself lived on the first floor, and Elisabeth Feodorovna on the third.

Sergei Alexandrovich and the children of Pavel Alexandrovich: Maria and Dmitri.

Deputy of the First State Duma, Constitutional Democrat Vladimir Pavlovich Obninsky, wrote about Sergei Alexandrovich:

“This dry, unpleasant man, who was already then influencing his young nephew [meaning Dmitri Pavlovich], bore on his face the sharp marks of the vice that consumed him, which made his wife’s, Elisaveta Feodorovna’s, family life unbearable and led her, through a series of infatuations natural in her position, to monasticism.”

— Vladimir Pavlovich Obninsky on Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov

Continuing to speak about the moral decay of the nobility and the army, Obninsky claimed:

“Many well-known people of Petersburg — actors, writers, musicians, grand dukes — gave themselves up to this shameful vice. Their names were on everyone’s lips, many flaunted their way of life. <…> Curious also was the fact that not all Guards regiments were afflicted with this vice. At a time, for example, when the Preobrazhensky Regiment (an elite Guards infantry regiment), together with its commander, indulged in it almost to a man, the Life Hussars (an elite Guards cavalry regiment) were distinguished by a naturalness in their attachments.”

— Vladimir Pavlovich Obninsky

By this Obninsky hinted that the commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (K.R.) — Sergei Alexandrovich’s cousin — also belonged to this milieu. They were very close and remained friends all their lives. In Konstantin’s diaries there are indeed mentions of his same-sex relationships.

Group of battalion commander with company commanders and Sergei Alexandrovich. 1887.

Governor-General of Moscow

“He was often self-confident. At such moments he would tense, his gaze would become hard… Because of this people formed a false impression. While he was considered a cold proud man, he helped very many people, but did so in strict secrecy.”

— Ernest Ludwig, Elisabeth Feodorovna’s brother, about Sergei Alexandrovich

The Governor-General of Moscow governed not only the capital itself but also the neighboring provinces. In this position Sergei Alexandrovich worked a great deal on issues of education, cared for the poor, and supported science and the development of culture in Moscow.

He provided funds to more than 90 various organizations and societies. Among them were the Society for the Care, Upbringing and Education of Blind Children, the Society for Public Health, the Moscow Architectural Society, the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, and the Russian Musical Society. In addition, Sergei Alexandrovich himself created the Society for the Care of Children of Poor Parents. Thanks to his donations free shelters and nurseries were opened in the Moscow province.

The grand duke also paid attention to culture. He transferred archaeological finds and works of art to the Imperial Historical Museum on Red Square (today the State Historical Museum). Under him the museum became a cultural center — exhibitions, lectures, and concerts began to be held there. Sergei Alexandrovich also took part in creating the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka — today’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

During his administration the first electric street lights appeared in Moscow. He forbade factories to discharge waste into the Moskva River in order to improve the city’s sanitary conditions. On his initiative the first student dormitories of Moscow University were opened, and the first electric tram began running through the streets. Under him the new stage of the Mytishchi water supply system, which provided Moscow with clean water, was completed.

Moscow under Sergei Alexandrovich.

However, there was also a tragic page in his service. In 1896, during the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, a terrible stampede occurred on Khodynka Field (the Khodynka Field disaster), in which many people were killed. Although the Ministry of the Imperial Court was responsible for organizing the celebration, many blamed Sergei Alexandrovich as head of the Moscow administration.

In politics he held conservative views. He supported government-sponsored trade unions, the so-called “Zubatov” unions — named after their organizer Sergei Zubatov. These unions were created to counter revolutionary workers’ movements. Sergei Alexandrovich also opposed liberal reforms, did not support the idea of introducing a constitution and elected bodies of power in Russia. Under him, in 1892, an order was issued limiting the right of Jews of lower ranks to live in Moscow and its environs.

When public discontent grew and revolutionary sentiment increased, Sergei Alexandrovich submitted his resignation on 1 January 1905 and left the post of Governor-General. But the Revolutionary Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SRs) had already sentenced him to death.

Assassination

Revolutionaries considered Sergei Alexandrovich one of the main representatives and leaders of the “reactionary party,” which, in their view, defended the interests of the tsarist regime. He was called “the most ruthless and consistent exponent of the interests of the dynasty.”

After his resignation Sergei Alexandrovich continued to live in Moscow. He understood that danger surrounded him and therefore began to travel around the city without his family in order not to put them at risk. According to the recollections of his adjutant Zhunkovsky, the grand duke’s security was organized extremely poorly.

Sergei Alexandrovich received numerous letters with threats and understood that he might be killed. Because of this he often went out alone, without adjutants, unwilling to endanger their lives.

Meanwhile members of the SRs’ Combat Organization (the terrorist wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party) carefully studied his daily routine, routes, and security system.

On 4 February 1905, at about three o’clock in the afternoon, an explosion thundered within the walls of the Kremlin. That day Sergei Alexandrovich, as usual, drove out of the Nikolayevsky Palace in the Kremlin. When his carriage was passing the Nikolskaya Tower, Ivan Kalyayev, a member of the SR party, threw a bomb into it. The explosion was so powerful that the grand duke’s body was torn apart. The coachman received fatal wounds, and windows were blown out in nearby buildings.

At that moment Elisabeth Feodorovna was in the Nikolayevsky Palace. Having learned of the tragedy, she was one of the first to arrive at the scene. Silently, without tears, she collected her husband’s remains with her own hands.

Carriage after the explosion.

“Despite it being a weekday, crowds of thousands are flocking to the Kremlin to pay their last respects and bow before the remains of the martyr Grand Duke.”

— “Government Herald,” 11 February 1905, No. 33

The funeral of Sergei Alexandrovich took place on 4 July 1906 in the Chudov Monastery, which was located on the territory of the Kremlin. At the place of his death a memorial cross designed by artist Viktor Vasnetsov was erected. On the cross was engraved a Gospel phrase: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” — Christ’s words about forgiving his killers.

Memorial cross at the site of the explosion.

Memory and oblivion

After her husband’s death, Elisabeth Feodorovna completely renounced secular life and devoted herself to serving people. In Moscow, on Bolshaya Ordynka Street, she founded the Martha and Mary Convent — a community of sisters of mercy who cared for the sick and helped the poor.

During the Civil War, in 1918, Elisabeth Feodorovna was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Later she was killed in Alapayevsk.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the new authorities began destroying everything that reminded them of the imperial family. In 1918 the memorial cross at the site of Sergei Alexandrovich’s death was demolished. According to contemporaries, Vladimir Lenin personally took part in its destruction. In 1932 the Chudov Monastery itself, where the grand duke’s remains rested, was torn down, and his tomb disappeared.

Decades later, during archaeological excavations in the Kremlin, the remains of Sergei Alexandrovich were discovered. In 1995 they were transferred to the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow — the burial place of the Romanov dynasty. There a new memorial cross, made after the model of the destroyed one, was erected. Its copy was also installed in the Kremlin.

Conclusion

The question of the grand duke’s sexual preferences is still debated, although, in our view, everything is obvious. Nevertheless, among some conservative circles there are those who consider all this slander. Among monarchists there is a movement that advocates the canonization of Sergei Alexandrovich. For private veneration he is even depicted on icons. And that is a good thing.

In 2024 the mayor of Moscow unveiled a monument in honor of Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife near Tretyakovskaya metro station.

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References and Sources

• Богданович А. В. Три последних самодержца. (in Russian) [Bogdanovich A. V. – The Last Three Autocrats]
• Боханов А. Н. Николай II. 1997. (in Russian) [Bokhanov A. N. – Nicholas II]
• Великий князь Сергей Александрович Романов: биографические материалы. Кн. 1: 1857–1877. 2006. (in Russian) [Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov: Biographical Materials. Vol. 1: 1857–1877]
• Вяткин В. В. Великий князь Сергей Александрович: к вопросу о его нравственном становлении. 2011. (in Russian) [Vyatkin V. V. – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich: On the Question of His Moral Formation]
• Кон И. С. Лунный свет на заре: лики и маски однополой любви. (in Russian) [Kon I. S. – Moonlight at Dawn: Faces and Masks of Same-Sex Love]
• Секачев В. Великий князь Сергей Александрович: тиран или мученик? (in Russian) [Sekachev V. – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich: Tyrant or Martyr?]

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