Page "Prince Gabriel Constantinovich of Russia" Paragraph 2

Gabriel Constantinovich spent his early life living in fabulous splendor on the last period of Imperial Russia.

His father, a respected poet, was a second cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and one of the wealthiest members of the Romanov family.

As a child, Prince Gabriel had frail health ; he was pale and prone to illness.

He and his eldest brother Prince Ivan were both often sick and together spent more than a year of their childhood living at Oreanda in the Crimea with a doctor and several servants.

Their health improved in the temperate climate, and the boys enjoyed their time spent on the beaches and in short tours around the peninsula.

With only each other, for company, they forged a strong sibling relationship that was to last to the ends of their lives.