The letter, in Russian, addressed to an Aleksandr Alekseevich P---, undated, with original envelope, late 19th century. Contained in a folded blue cardboard envelope with a tipped in label identifying the correspondent in Russian pre-Revolutionary orthography. Grand Duke Pavel, or Paul, Alexandrovich (1860-1919) was the youngest son of Emperor Alexander II and father of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger (see lot 223) and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, one of the murderers of Rasputin. The Grand Duke was exiled for marriage to a commoner without the permission of Emperor Nicholas II, but was allowed to return to Russia after the outbreak of World War I. Unfortunately, this ultimately resulted in his arrest by the Bolshevik authorities and his execution in January 1919. He was buried in a mass grave in St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress and his body was recovered only in 2011. He was canonized as a Passion Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981.