| Grand Duke Vyacheslav Konstantinovich | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 13 July 1862 Warsaw, Warsaw Governorate, Congress Poland |
| Died | 27 February 1879 (aged 16) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Burial | |
| House | House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia |
| Mother | Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg |
Grand Duke Vyacheslav Konstantinovich of Russia, (13 July 1862 – 27 February 1879), was a Romanov grand duke and the youngest son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. The English form of his first name is Wenceslas.
Biography
Vyacheslav, who was nicknamed "Slava," was the baby of the family and a family favorite. He was tall and used to joke that, when he is dead, his coffin would be stuck in a doorway of the Marble Palace. It really happened so when he died. At age sixteen, he complained suddenly of a splitting headache and violent illness. He lay with a Russian Orthodox icon on his pillow as his family surrounded him, urging him to breathe. He died within a week of brain inflammation. His mother later reported that she had seen the ghost of a white lady in the art gallery at Pavlovsk on the day before Vyacheslav became ill. She took the apparition as a portent of death. His brother Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia later recalled, as he walked in Vyacheslav's funeral procession, how much Vyacheslav enjoyed drawing funeral processions in great detail.[1]
