Elena Pavlovna (1806/1807-1873), Grand Princess

Categories / Capital/Personalia
ELENA PAVLOVNA (nee Frederica Charlotte Maria Princess of Wurttemberg) (1806-1873, St. Petersburg), Grand Princess, wife of Grand Prince Mikhail Pavlovich (from 1823). Owned a literary-political saloon, in which statesmen, diplomats, and art figures gathered from the 1840s through to the early 1870s. She patronized a group of liberal-minded officials (N.A. Milyutin, A.A. Abaza, Prince V.A. Cherkassky), who played an active role preparing and executing the Great Reforms of the 1860s-70s. In 1854, Elena Pavlovna founded the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Nurses Community in St. Petersburg, and during the Crimean War of 1853-56 she equipped a medical group headed by N.I. Pirogov at her own expense, and sent it to the front. She was the founder (1859) and President of the Russian Musical Society. The St. Petersburg Conservatory was opened with her support, its classes initially taking place at her palace. She founded the Midwife and Clinical Institutes (today the St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education, 41 Kirochnaya Street). She directed the Mariinsky and Pavlovsky Women's Institutes (all these institutions were a part of the Grand Princess Elena Pavlovna Office of Institutions). She owned the Mikhailovsky Palace, Kamenny Island, and Oranienbaum (see Lomonosov). She was buried at the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral.

References: Кони А. Ф. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна // Главные деятели освобождения крестьян. СПб., 1903. С. 11-23; Чернуха В. Г. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна на государственной арене // О благородстве и преимуществе женского пола: Из истории жен. вопроса в России: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1997. С. 85-93; Крылова А. В. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна. СПб., 2001.

Y. A. Kuzmin. Abaza Alexander Aggeevich
Cherkassky Vladimir Alexandrovich, Duke
Elena Pavlovna, Grand Princess
Mikhail Pavlovich, Grand Prince
Milyutin Nikolay Alexeevich
Pirogov Nikolay Ivanovich
Kirochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 41
Чернуха В. Г. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна на государственной арене // О благородстве и преимуществе женского пола: Из истории жен. вопроса в России: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1997
Кони А. Ф. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна // Главные деятели освобождения крестьян. СПб., 1903
Крылова А. В. Великая княгиня Елена Павловна. СПб., 2001 Musical Society, The Russian
Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education
Mikhailovsky Palace
SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral
1854