He tried to exert some influence over his nephew Tsar Nicholas II, but had to content himself with holding a rival court with his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna at his palace in Saint Petersburg.

[5] He was fourth among the eight children of Alexander II of Russia and his wife Maria Alexandrovna, born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

Rumors circulated at the time, that Alexander II would have his eldest surviving son removed from the succession placing Vladimir as his heir.

In order to marry Vladimir, Maria broke off her previous engagement, but she refused to undergo the expected conversion to the Orthodox religion.

Finally, Emperor Alexander II consented to Marie's continued adherence to her Lutheran faith, allowing Vladimir to marry her without loss of his rights to the Russian throne.

[12] - «именовать Ея Императорское Высочество Благоверною Великою Княгинею»[13] Both Grand Duke Vladimir and his wife were witty and ambitious.

Grand Duke Vladimir appointed architect Aleksandr Rezanov to head the project because of his knowledge of ancient Russian architecture.

This interior ornamentation, further augmented by Maximilian Messmacher in 1881–1891, is considered by art historians, such as Nikolay Punin, a major monument to the 19th-century passion for historicism.

[18] Grand Duke Vladimir decorated his apartments with his collection of Russian paintings by the best artists of his time, such as[17] Ilya Repin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Feodor Bruni, Vasili Vereshchagin, Ivan Kramskoy, Mikhail Vrubel, Nikolai Sverchkov and Rudolf Ferdinandovich Frentz [ru].

He experienced battle in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, taking part in the campaign alongside his father and his brothers Alexander and Sergei.

The day after their father's death he appointed Vladimir as Military Governor of St Petersburg, a post previously held by their uncle Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich.

[23] Vladimir served on the State Council and chaired the official commission that supervised the building of the Church of the Saviour, built between 1883 and 1907 on the site of the assassination of his father, Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Nevertheless, Vladimir seemed unexpectedly close to becoming Emperor in 1888 when Alexander III with his wife and all of their children were involved in a train accident at Borki (in present-day Ukraine).

[27] At Alexander III's death in 1894 there were unfounded rumors that the army intended to proclaim Grand Duke Vladimir emperor in place of his nephew Nicholas II.

a peaceful procession of workers led by a priest, Father Georgy Gapon, marched towards the Winter Palace from different points in the city hoping to present requests for reforms directly to Emperor Nicholas II.

[32] When a large group of workers reached Winter Palace Square, troops acting on direct orders from Guards Commander Prince Sergei Vasilchikov opened fire upon the demonstrators.

The massacre, known as Bloody Sunday, was followed by a series of strikes in other cities, peasant uprisings in the country, and mutinies in the armed forces, which seriously threatened the tsarist regime and became known as the Revolution of 1905.

[33] A month after Bloody Sunday, Vladimir's brother Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a terrorist bomb in Moscow.

[36] Vladimir “shouted so violently at his nephew that the court chamberlain, waiting outside the door, feared for his master’s safety and almost ran off to summon the imperial guards.”[37] Vladimir slammed his fists on Nicholas' desk and ripped off the military decorations from his uniform, shouting, "I have served your father, your grandfather and you.

But now as you have degraded my son I no longer wish to serve you.”[38] Eventually, Nicholas II relented and forgave his cousins for marrying without his consent, but he did not allow them to return to Russia.

[36] The full pardon came only after several deaths in the family, including Vladimir's own, had placed Kirill third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne.

In 1924 in exile, Kirill proclaimed himself Emperor de jure, Vladimir's line thereby claimed headship of the Imperial House.

[40] The Grand Duke received the following Russian and foreign decorations:[41] Media related to Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia at Wikimedia Commons