Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia (Russian: Княжна Екатери́на Иоа́нновна; 12 July 1915 – 14 July 2007) was a great-great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and a niece of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. She was the last member of the Imperial Family to be born before the fall of the dynasty, and was ultimately to become the last surviving uncontested dynast of the Imperial House of Russia.

Life

Born in Pavlovsk Palace, she was the second child of Prince John Konstantinovich of Russia and Princess Jelena of Serbia. After the Revolution, her father was arrested and deported from the capital and her mother followed her husband into exile. Catherine and her brother Vsevolod remained in the care of her grandmother, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavriekievna of Russia. On 18 July 1918, their father Prince John was killed, and their mother Princess Jelena was arrested and spent several months in Soviet prisons. Grand Duchess Elizabeth was able to take Catherine and her brother to Sweden. Sometime later, they were reunited with their mother.

The family lived in Serbia, then moved to England. There, Catherine received an excellent education, although she never learned the Russian language because her mother, devastated by her husband's death, didn't want her children speaking that language in front of her.

From 1937 to 1945, Princess Catherine Ivanovna lived in Italy. During her stay there, she married the Italian diplomat Ruggero Farace, Marchese Farace di Villaforesta (4 August 1909 - 14 September 1970) in Rome, Italy on 15 September 1937; on occasion of her wedding, she renounced to her succession rights to the Russian throne. They had three children:

• Nobile Nicoletta Farace (b. Rome, Italy, 23 July 1938), married on 25 March 1966 to Alberto Grundland. They had two children:
  • Eduardo Alberto Grundland (b. 15 January 1967), married on 15 November 1999 to Maria Ester Pita Blanco and had one son:
    • Federico Grundland Pita (b. 15 March 2005).
  • Alexandra Gabriella Grundland (b. 17 September 1971), married on 24 March 2001 to Roberto Castro Padula and had one son:
    • Santiago Castro Grundland (b. 15 October 2006).
• Nobile Fiammetta Farace (b. Budapest, Hungary, 19 February 1940), married firstly on 16 September 1969 to Victor Carlos Arcelus (divorced in 1980) and secondly in 1981 to Nelson Zanelli. She had three children:
  • Victor John Arcelus (b. 24 November 1973).
  • Sebastian Carlos Arcelus (b. 5 November 1976), married on 16 October 2007 to Stephanie Janette Block and had one daughter:
    • Vivienne Helena Arcelus (b. 19 January 2015).
  • Alessandro Zanelli (b. 31 July 1984).
• Giovanni Farace, Marchese Farace di Villaforesta (b. Rome, Italy, 20 October 1943), married on 14 February 1968 to Marie-Claude Tillier-Debesse (b. Paris, 1944) and had two sons:
  • Alessandro Farace (b. 29 August 1971).
  • Yann Farace (b. 4 October 1974), married on 4 October 2009 to Anne-Sophie Laignel and had one son:
    • Tancredi Farace (b. 20 November 2010).

In 1945, after the end of the World War II, Princess Catherine separated from her husband (although they never legally divorced) and moved with her children to South America. In later years, she lived in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she died two days after her 92nd birthday.

Titles, styles and honours

Honours

•  House of Romanov: Dame Grand Cordon of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine.

Bibliography

• Grigoryan VG Biographical Directory. M.: AST: Astrel: Guardian 2007.
• Dumin SV Romanova. Ivperatorsky home in exile. M. Zakharov-ACT, 1998.
• Pchelov EV Romanovs. History dinastii.- Moscow: Olma-Press, 2004
• Gabriel K., Vel.kn. In the Marble Palace. St. Petersburg, 1993.