Like all male members of the Romanov dynasty, he followed a military career, and he fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, receiving the Order of St George for courage and bravery in action.

After thirteen years of service, Grand Duke Sergei resigned from the Governorship on 1 January 1905, though he remained head of the Moscow Military District.

He was the seventh child and fifth son among the eight children of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna, née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

[3] Until he was old enough to begin lessons, Sergei's earlier years were spent with his younger brother Paul, from whom he was inseparable, and their sister at Livadia, the family's Crimean retreat, at Tsarskoye Selo, and at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

"[4] As time passed and the Empress's health made it necessary for her to avoid the harsh Russian climate, they spent long sojourns abroad in Jugenheim outside Darmstadt and winters in the South of France.

On 12 October, following the battle of Meyk, the Emperor decorated him with the Order of St George, for courage and bravery in action with the enemy, for a reconnaissance expedition at Kara Loma near Koshev.

His niece, Marie, Queen of the Romanians, remembered him: "Dry, nervous, short of speech, impatient, he had none of the rather careless good humor of his three elder brothers ... but for all that we loved him, felt irresistibly attracted to him, hard though he could be.

[23] They spent their honeymoon in Ilinskoye, Sergei's 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) country estate forty miles west of Moscow on the left bank of the Moskva River, that he inherited from his mother.

The couple later settled in Saint Petersburg in a mansion occupying the southeast corner of the Fontanka Canal and the Nevsky Prospekt, a short drive from his former apartments in the Winter Palace.

Sergei and Ella represented Russia in 1887 during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and in 1888, they were sent to the Holy Land on the occasion of the consecration of the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem built in memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

[34] It started four weeks before he arrived in person, after the publication of an imperial ukase by the Minister of the Interior Ivan Durnovo, by which all Jews of lower social stance (artisans, minor traders and so on) had to be expelled from Moscow.

In January 1892, in a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, Brest station was packed with Jews of all ages and sexes, all in rags and surrounded by meager remnants of households goods, all leaving voluntarily rather than face deportation.

At the same time, however, severe restrictions were imposed on the students and professors in the universities as a part of the state's policy of conspiracy prevention and elimination of revolutionary ideas.

[37] The Muscovite nobility and merchants despised him because he was rough and lacked tact while attempting to fight commercial fraud and enforce strict policy measures.

However, he did significantly improve general living conditions during his tenure and was extremely conscientious in carrying out his duties: “Even in the country when he was supposed to be resting," his niece remembered, "he was constantly receiving couriers from Moscow and giving audiences.” He paid much attention to detail, attending personally to matters that could easily have been left to subordinates, punishing corruption and fraud.

[40] In addition, he was a patron of organizations as diverse as the Moscow and Saint Petersburg Universities, The Printer's Mutual Aid Fund, the Society of Care for Aged Actors, the Pskov Non-Classical Secondary School, and Prince Nikola's Alm Houses.

The coronation ceremonies of the new Emperor and his wife, as tradition demanded, took place in Moscow and Sergei as Governor General of the City was in charge of overseeing the arrangements.

18 May] 1896, families began to gather outside the frail wooden fence that protected the field, watching carts laden with beer, and the eagerly sought after gifts.

[43] While Grand Duke Sergei had not directly participated in the planning for Khodynka Field, he was blamed for the lack of foresight and as Governor-General, held as ultimately responsible.

He laid the blame on others, most notably on Ilarion Count Voronzov-Dashkov, head of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, with whom there had been some dispute over the management of the coronation festivities,[44] and Colonel Alexander Vlasovsky (1842–1899), the city of Moscow's Chief of Police.

The night of the tragedy Tsar Nicholas II, for diplomatic reasons, attended a ball in honor of the French; because of that, his reputation also suffered for what was perceived to be his lack of sympathy for the victims.

Although Sergei was often condemned as a complete reactionary during his governorship, according to his brother-in-law Ernest, Grand Duke of Hesse, he wanted and strove for improvements, which angered conservatives, but blocked revolutionary reforms, which infuriated radicals, because he considered them impractical or thought that Russia was not ready for them.

His cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich left a damaging description about him: "Try as I will", he wrote, "I cannot find a single redeeming feature in his character… Obstinate, arrogant, disagreeable, he flaunted his many peculiarities in the face of the entire nation…".

[55] He was of the opinion that only the utmost severity could put an end to the revolutionary ferment, but in the wake of civil disorder Nicholas II was forced to make concessions.

[56] According to Marie Pavlovna, "it appeared to my uncle little less than monstrous ... he expressed deep sorrow for the state of affairs in Russia, of the necessity for serious measures, and of the criminal weakness of the Tsar's ministers and councilors".

To kill the Grand Duchess and the children would surely have sparked a wave of apprehension throughout the empire, and would have set back the revolutionary cause by years.

The arrival of the Grand Duke's recognizable carriage, drawn by a pair of horses and driven by his coachman Andrei Rudinkin, alerted the terrorist who had been waiting in the Kremlin with a bomb wrapped in newspapers.

[63][65] On impact, the carriage horses had bolted towards the Nikolsky Gate, dragging with them the front wheels and coachbox as well as the semi-conscious and badly burned driver, Rudinkin, whose back had been riddled with bits of bomb and stones.

[63] Part of the obligations of the sisters of the Martha and Mary convent was to make an annual pilgrimage to the sepulchral church in memory of the Grand Duke on the day of his repose, 4 February.

The wooden coffins were met at the railway station by the deputy British governor, Sir Harry Charles Luke, and taken for burial at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives.