The Kirill Project: 2024

The kirill project: 2024

One hundred years ago on September 13th, 1924 (August 31, Old Style) Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich took up the banner of monarchism in exile and assumed the title of Emperor.. This act was lauded by some and reviled by others. The announcement sparked a century of outright gossip and casual slander.

Today, Russian Legitimist launches a year-long program that seeks to provide scholars and history enthusiasts with documents relevant to the life and long career of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich.

We invite you to visit, read, and learn in this year-long effort to balance the historical record available in English. Russian Legitimist will make dozens of documents in Russian and in translation available that have never been published in the West, including many that have been ignored by some historians.

Please use to the dropdown menu at the top of the page to begin exploring.

Kirill Vladimirovich himself knew that he would be subject to criticism for his decisions and his acts. The Kirill Project: 2024 seeks to introduce a context for those decisions, and to reintroduce the public to this central and critical figure.

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“Nothing can be compared with what I shall now have to endure on this account, and I know full well that I can expect no mercy from all the malicious attacks and accusations of vanity.”

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich to Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, September 1924, From My Life in Russia’s Service, p. 222