Someone I'm reading about these days...

"Vladimir Paley, first cousin to the last Tsar, was a poet among the Romanovs, but not a Romanov himself. The rules of the imperial family prevented him from being considered a member of the dynasty, due to the "unequal" marriage of his parents. This ciucumstances could have saved his life; however, when he was requested by the Bolsheviks to denounce his beloved father, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, young Prince Vladimir instead chose loyalty, honor and affection. His only crime was being related to a dynasty of which he had not even been an offcial member. This is the compelling story of a young man, and a talented poet, who in different ciucumstances would have attained great heights. Destiny, however, played a sad role in bringing a brutal end to a promising life..."

"I owe so much to this boy, who was the first to wake up in me the feeling of beauty by his conversations, by his readings, by his own writings. That, if through me you have received something, it is partly to him that you owe it...Because it was he who was the first to shape your soul...I know he would never be for you what he was for me. An uncle is never a brother and especially when one has not known him. But revere his memory as that of an essentially pure being..." --A letter written by Princess Irina Paley, younger sister of Prince Vladimir Paley, to her son Prince Mikhail on January 29, 1938