Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia (; (14 May 1879 – 30 October 1956) was a son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Emperor Alexander II and a first cousin of Nicholas II, Russia's last Tsar. In 1900, he began an affair with the famous ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, becoming the third grand duke to fall for her. Grand Duke Andrei followed a military career and graduated from the Alexandrovskaya Military Law academy in 1905. He occupied different military positions during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, but with no particular distinction. He became senator in 1911 and was appointed Major General in the Russian Army in 1915. He took part in World War I, but was away from real combat spending most of the conflict at Russia's headquarters or in idle time in Saint Petersburg. In February 1917, shortly before the fall of the Russian monarchy, Grand Duke Andrei left Saint Petersburg to join his mother in Kislovodsk. He remained in the Caucasus for the next three years. After the October Revolution he was briefly arrested along with his brother, Grand Duke Boris, but they escaped. He departed revolutionary Russia in March 1920, being the last grand duke to leave for exile. In 1921, he married his longtime mistress Mathilde Kschessinska and recognized her son as his. The couple lived in the South of France until 1929 when they moved permanently to Paris, where Kschessinska opened a ballet school. After World War II, Grand Duke Andrei lived under reduced circumstances. Until his death at age 77, he was the last surviving Russian grand duke born in Imperial Russia. Early life Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia was born on in Tsarskoye Selo, at his parents country residence, the Vladimir Villa. He was the youngest of the four Vladimirovich sons; a sister followed him a few years later, and the eldest of his brothers died in early childhood. His father, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, a brother of Tsar Alexander III of Russia, was a renowned patron of the arts. Andrei's mother, Grand Duchess, Maria Pavlovna, née a Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was one of the greatest hostesses of Russian society. Both parents doted on their four surviving children: Andrei, his two eldest brothers, Kirill and Boris, and their younger sister, Grand Duchess Elena. The children were educated at home. Raised by British nannies, English was Andrei's first language.