Ioann Konstantinovich Romanov (1886-1918)

Prince Ioann, elder son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia by his wife Elisabeta of Saxe Altenburg, was a gentle, religious human being, nicknamed Ioannchik by his relatives. He once entertained the possibility of becoming an Orthodox monk, but eventually fell in love with the fair and strong-willed Princess Elena Petrovna of Serbia, and married her on September 2, 1911. They were a very happy couple, blessed on January 20, 1914 with a son, Vsevolod (see his grave), and on July 25, 1915 with a daughter, Princess Ekaterina, who lives now (2003) in Uruguay and was the last member of the Imperial Family to be born before the fall of the dynasty. Prince Ioann fought in the First War War and was decorated as a war hero. When the Revolution started he was at the front and escaped a general massacre of officers because his men said he treated them fairly. In March, 1918 he was exiled to the Urals by the Bolsheviks, and later murdered in an atrocious way in a mineshaft near Alpaievsk, along with his brothers Konstantin and Igor and other relatives and friends. His body was eventually buried in Beijing, in the cemetery of the Russian Orthodox Mission, which was destroyed years later to build the new Soviet Embassy.
As was the case with some other executed Romanovs, the body was taken by the White army to China where it was buried in April 1920 in the St Serafim Sarovsky Churchyard in Beijing

Bio by: Jorge