CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH (I 779-1831), grand duke and cesarevich of Russia, was born at Tsarskoye Selo on April 27, 1779, the second son of the tsar Paul and his wife Maria Feodorovna, and was educated under the direction of his grandmother, Catherine II. The only person who really took him in hand was Cesar La Harpe, who was tutor-in-chief from 1783 to May 1795, and educated both the empress's grandsons.
Like Alexander, Constantine was married by Catherine when not yet 17 years of age, and he made his wife, Juliana of Coburg, intensely miserable. After a first separation in the year 1799, she went back permanently to her German home in 18oi, the victim of a frivolous intrigue. Constantine's first campaign took place under the leadership of the great Suvorov. The battle of Bassignano was lost by Constantine's fault, but at Novi he distinguished himself by such personal bravery that the emperor Paul bestowed on him the title of cesarevich, which according to the fundamental law of the constitution belonged only to the heir to the throne.
In command of the Guards during the campaign of 18o5 Con stantine shared the responsibility for the battle of Austerlitz; while in 1807, 1812, 1813 and 1814 he showed courage but not competence as a soldier.
Constantine's importance in political history dates only from the moment when Alexander made him commander-in-chief of the forces of Congress Poland. The command of the Lithuanian troops and of those of the Russian provinces that had formerly belonged to the kingdom of Poland was added in 181g. He or ganized their army for the Poles, and felt himself more a Pole than a Russian, especially after his marriage (May 27, 182o), with a Polish lady, Johanna Grudzinska. After this marriage he formally renounced any claim to the succession to the tsardom, but the fact was only revealed to two or three persons, and his brother Nicholas was left in ignorance of it. On the death of Alexander (Dec. 1, 1825), there was much confusion and un certainty. After three weeks hesitation Constantine sent an uncon ditional renunciation of any claim to Nicholas, whose accession was then announced. On the 26th the Dekabrist rising in Petrograd took place and the mutineers shouted, "Long live Constantine!" The rising was easily suppressed. Constantine had had no part in the plot. But differences soon arose between him and his brother in consequence of the share taken by the Poles in the Dekabrist conspiracy. Constantine held obstinately to the belief that the Polish army and bureaucracy were loyally devoted to the Russian empire. The eastern policy of the tsar and the Turkish War of 1828 and 182g caused a fresh breach between them. It was owing to the opposition of Constantine that the Polish army took no part in this war.
The insurrection at Warsaw in Nov. 183o took Constantine completely by surprise. It was owing to his utter failure to grasp the situation that the Polish regiments passed over to the revolutionaries ; and during the continuance of the revolution he showed himself as incompetent as he was lacking in judgment. The suppression of the revolution he did not live to see. He died of cholera at Vitebsk on June 27, 1831.
See also Karrnovich, The Cesarevich Constantine Pavlovich (1899) (Russian) ; T. Schiemann, Geschichte Russlands unter Kaiser Nicolaus I., vol. i. (19o4) ; Pusyrevski, The Russo-Polish War of 183r (2nd ed., 189o) (Russian) .