Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov

Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov
File:Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov.png
Marshal of the Imperial Court
In office 1914–1917
Personal details
Born	1868
Died	July 10, 1918

Prince Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov (Russian: Василий Александрович Долгоруков) (1868-1918) was an advisor to Russian Emperor Nicholas II, and a Marshal from 1914-17. After the arrest of the Russian Imperial Family following the February Revolution, he voluntarily accompanied the family into internal exile in Tsarskoe Selo and later Tobolsk. He was barred from joining them in Yekaterinburg in April 1918, and was killed by order of the Bolshevik government in that July.

Early life

Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov was born in 1868 to Prince and Princess Alexander Vasilievich and Mary Sergeyevna Dolgorukov.

Career

File:Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Prince Vasily Dolgorukov and servants at Tsarskoye Selo.jpg

Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and Prince Dolgorukov with servants & guards at Tsarskoye Selo in 1917. Dolgorukov is standing behind Nicholas

In 1907 Dolgorukov became an adjutant, in 1910 a General, and in 1914 a commander of the Imperial Guard cavalry regiment, the Life-Guard Horse Artillery unit. During World War I, he was appointed Marshal of the Imperial Court. In this position, he assisted his stepfather, Count Pavel Benckendorff, in giving military advice to the Tsar. Deeply devoted to the Tsar, on August 14, 1917 he voluntarily accompanied the Imperial family to imprisonment in Tobolsk. He was separated from them when they were transferred to Ekaterinburg.

Dolgorukov was initially allowed to stay in the city when he arrived at the end of April, but was arrested by the Cheka secret police, along with Count Ilya Tatishchev, as "enemies of the socialist revolution", after maps of the region showing river routes were found in his lodgings. During imprisonment, Dolgorukov constantly pressured the British Consulate in Ekaterinburg to help the Imperial family, using pencil-written notes smuggled from his prison cell. Accused of plotting to rescue the Imperial family, Dolgorukov and Count Tatishchev were taken by Cheka agents beyond the city's Ivanovskoe Cemetery on July 10, shot in the head and thrown into a pit. They were executed by Grigory Nikulin, Yakov Yurovsky's assistant, both of whom also murdered the Imperial family a week later. Dolgorukov was only buried when the town was captured by the White Army.

Canonization

On October 31/November 1, 1981 the Russian Orthodox Church canonized the Prince, even outside of Russia, as The Holy Martyr Warrior, Vasily.

References

• Helen Rappaport, Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs, 2008, ISBN 978-0-099-52009-2.