Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia

Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia (St. Petersburg 14 January 1850 (4 January O.S.) – Paris, 14 November 1908) was the fifth child and the fourth son of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse). Destined to a naval career, Alexei Alexandrovich started his military training at the age of 7. By the age of 20 he had been appointed lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Navy and had visited all European military ports of Russia. In 1871 he was sent as a goodwill ambassador to the United States and Japan.

In 1883 he was appointed general admiral. He had a significant contribution in the equipment of the Russian navy with new ships and in modernizing the naval ports. In 1905, after the defeat in the Battle of Tsushima he was relieved of his command. He died in Paris in 1908.

Read more about Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Of Russia:  Early Life, Love Affair With Alexandra Zhukovskaya, Palace of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, Military Career, Life At The Russian Court, Death, Popular Culture, Ancestry

Famous quotes containing the words grand, duke and/or russia:

    There is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no,—why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unincumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag,—that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror—and they last longer.
    David Lloyd George (1863–1945)

    Today’s difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)