Prince Vladimir Paley

Prince Vladimir Paley was a prince and poet of the Russian imperial house, born on 28 December 1896 (9 January 1897) in Saint Petersburg and killed at the age of 21, in the night of 17 to 18 July 1918, near Alapayevsk. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia canonized him in 1981 among the New Martyrs of Russia.

He was the son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Olga Pistohlkors, from their morganatic marriage. He spent his childhood mostly in France, where the family lived in exile; in 1908 he came back to Russia and entered the Corps of Pages. He had learned French, English, German and then Russian, played the piano and drew. At about the age of thirteen he began to write poems, first in French. He was a believer and belonged to the Orthodox brotherhood of Saint Prince Vladimir in Berlin. In 1915 his mother received for herself and her children the title of princess and prince, with the name Paley.

He went to the front in 1915 as an officer of the Hussars of the Guard, and in 1917 he received the Order of Saint Anne, fourth class, for courage. After the revolution, in March 1918, he was asked to renounce his father in exchange for freedom, and he refused; on 22 March (4 April) he was sent into exile at Vyatka, then to Yekaterinburg and, on 7 (20) May 1918, to Alapayevsk. In a letter to his parents from the prison there he wrote that his faith gave him courage and hope.

In the night of 5 (18) July 1918 he was thrown into the shaft of the Novaya Selimskaya mine, 18 kilometres from Alapayevsk, together with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, the three Konstantinovich princes, Feodor Remez and Sister Barbara. His body was found in October 1918. The Russian Church Outside Russia canonized him in November 1981, and in 2009 the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia rehabilitated him.