Although he never played any political role, as a relative of Tsar Nicholas II, he was executed by firing squad at the walls of Peter and Paul Fortress during the Russian Civil War.

[1] Dmitry's father, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, was Admiral General of the Russian Navy and hoped one of his sons would follow in his footsteps.

Dmitry was 14 when his eldest brother Nikolai Konstantinovich was disinherited, declared insane and sent into internal Russian exile, after stealing some diamonds from an icon in his mother's bedroom.

During their training cruises through the Gulf of Finland, they spent their time drilling, standing watch, and taking turns leading their fellow cadets.

He believed that their promotions should be earned[3] Intensely shy, Dmitry preferred to avoid society, but on summer evenings at Petergof he often rode from Strelna to Znamenka, the house of his cousin, Grand Duke Pyotr where he was a welcome guest.

[3] Peter's wife, Grand Duchess Militsa, played the piano while Dmitry was usually persuaded to join in, accompanying with his own singing of Russian folk songs.

[2] After completing a training course with the General Staff Academy in 1880, Dmitry Konstantinovich was promoted to Ordnance Officer and scheduled to make his first official appearance, when he would deliver the report as an Imperial Adjutant in the Guards Sappers Cavalry Regiment.

Mornings were spent riding through the park in which, the grand duke put his men and their horses through intricate maneuvers; after lunch, he would lead the officers on walks through the exquisite gardens.

Three years later, on 10 December 1892, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and owing to his distinguished service, he was given command of the House Guards Grenadiers Regiment by Alexander III.

But Dmitry Konstantinovich replied that the stipend was "not intended to enable us to live as sybarites; this money is put into our hands in order that we may augment the prestige of the Imperial family".

His nephew Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich remembered him, as a "wonderful, kind person" who was almost a second father and wherever they saw him, they ran across the room, jumping up to hug him and wrap their arms around his neck.

On leaving active service, the grand duke generously gave his dacha at Krasnoye Selo to the Horse Guards Regiment, to be used as an officer's club.

With time, the grand duke frequently retreated to Crimea, where he enjoyed the last, carefree years of the Romanov dynasty along the Black Sea shores.

In 1907 he purchased a small plot of land at Gaspra in the Crimea, the following year he commissioned the construction of Kichkine, from the Tartar word "tiny Jewel".

Unable to see clearly, he misjudged the distance and, bending forward to make his farewell, missed the open coffin completely, tumbling off the steps with a loud crash as his ceremonial saber and medals struck the stone floor.

Never meddling in politics, Dmitry Konstantinovich remained silent in the turmoil that preceded the fall of the Romanovs, believing it was not his place to offer unsolicited advice to Nicholas II.

He was outraged that members of the Imperial family, among them his sister Olga, Queen of the Hellenes, had signed and sent a plea for leniency on behalf of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich to the Emperor.

After the fall of his family from power, he lived quietly, in obscurity, depending largely on Alexander Koronchentzov, his trusted Adjutant, for the necessities of daily life.

After the successful October Revolution of November 1917, the Petrograd newspapers published a decree summoning all the Romanovs to report to the dreaded Cheka, the secret police.

Dmitry went accompanied by Colonel Alexander Korochenzov, his adjutant and his niece Princess Tatiana Constantinovna, who insisted in going with him to ensure that he was not alone and subjected to unwanted pressure.

The Bolshevik leader of Petrograd, Grigory Zinoviev, decided to send the male members of the Romanov family into internal Russian exile.

The prisoners enjoyed relative freedom; aside from having to report to Cheka Headquarters once a week, they could come and go as they wished, and took long walks around the town, visiting and dining with each other frequently.

In the middle of May, Colonel Alexander von Leiming, one of Dmitry Konstantinovich's adjutants, arrived in Vologda with news that passage had been prepared to Finland, but the grand duke refused to leave Russia[13] This quiet and uncertain situation was abruptly interrupted on 14 July, two days before the murder of Nicholas II and his family.

That morning a car with four heavily armed men arrived and collected the Grand Dukes from their lodgings; they were transported to a small, walled village, where they could be more easily guarded.

While imprisoned, they learned that Nicholas II and his family had been killed; this seemed to indicate the worst and princess Tatiana left Vologda with her two young children to return to Petrograd.

Grand Duke Georgy wrote " Dmitry asked Uritsky why we were imprisoned, and his answer was that it was to save us as the people intended shooting us at Vologda",[14] an explanation hard to believe.

Until the last, Gavril recalled, Dmitry was the cheerful favorite uncle of his childhood, telling him jokes, attempting to raise the spirits, and bribing prison Guards to carry hopeful messages to his nephew's cell.

Some of their relatives made frantic efforts in their behalf to obtain their release through Maxim Gorky who was sympathetic and asked Lenin to set them free.

[15]  The grand dukes were to be shot by the order of the Presidium of the VChk in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd in January 1919 as hostages in response to the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany.

Although the bodies of the other three grand dukes were thrown into a mass grave within the fortress, that of Dmitry Konstantinovich was secretly collected the next morning by his devoted former Adjutant, von Leiming, rolled up in a rug and taken away for a private burial in the garden of a house in Petrograd, where he remains to this day.