August 25, 2015
Dmitry Romanovich Romanov
Dmitry Romanovich Romanov, now 89, and the oldest relative of the late Russian Tsar Nicholas II, will visit Crimea this week, for the first time since its reunification with Russia last year. In an interview to Tass news agency, Romanov said he was happy to have an opportunity to visit the peninsula adding that many episodes in the history of the Russian Imperial House were closely linked to Crimea. Dmitry Romanovich said he was planning to visit the Livadia Palace where a monument to Nicholas II was unveiled this summer and the Dulber Palace, which was the summer residence of his grandfather - Grand Duke Peter Nicholayevich, the inspector general of Russian engineering troops.
"I hope that I will realise my lifelong dream to visit Sevastopol, the city of Russian naval glory," Dmitry Romanovich said. His great uncle, Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholayevich, Jr, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army and naval forces, used to be the honorary citizen of Sevastopol.
"A bottle with Crimean soil has been kept in our house as a relic for decades. My father Roman Petrovich, the prince of imperial blood, the second cousin of the last Russian emperor, took it away with him when he was parting with Russia," Dmitry Romanovich said, adding that his father remembers that parting all his life as a fatal moment.
“In April 1919, he stood on the deck of a cruiser for a long time peering at the Crimean coast. He never had a chance to return to Crimea. So, my trip is going to be a tribute to the older generation of our family, to all my relatives,” Dmitry Romanovich went on to say.
He knows Crimea very well from his father’s memories and recollections. The family spent the winter months in their palace in St. Petersburg and moved to Dulber in Crimea for the summer months. In 1911, they organized a ball in Dulber at the request of Empress Alexandra where the young Romanovs were the main guests.
“My father and Grand Duchess Olga, the tsar’s eldest daughter, opened the ball, one of the last before WWI broke out,” he said.
At present, Dmitry Romanovich lives with his family in Denmark. The head of the Romanov Family Association will visit Crimea on August 25-28.
