A portable writing bureau was meant for traveling. When closed, this tiny box took up little room but when opened it served as a fully featured desk and enabled the traveller to work and write letters in comfortable conditions. Such portable writing bureaus were taken not only for long distance travels but also for military campaigns. Such boxes were usually locked by a key and had hidden compartments. Inside, there were also convenient compartments for writing tools, paper and an ink-pot as seen in the displayed exhibit.

Vladimir Gogenfelzen was born in Russia but spent his childhood in France. He was born from a morganatic marriage –i.e. between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty prevents the passage of the husband’s titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage. Therefore he did not have the name of his father, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich. As it was the tradition of the Romanov house, he was supposed to become a military officer. And Vladimir Gogenfelzen entered the Corps of Pages – a privileged educational institution, – and then served as a lieutenant of the Imperial Guards Hussar Regiment. Despite his military career, he took lessons of drawing and music, was fond of literature: read a lot and wrote pieces himself. In his adolescent years he was conferred the title of a duke and the surname Paley – which belonged to his grandmother.

After the October revolution, he was asked to renounce his father – a member of the Romanov dynasty – and regain his freedom but he refused. Vladimir Paley was exiled to Ekaterinburg and later appeared in Alapaevsk together with the other Royal family members and their entourage. In one of his letters he wrote: “Everything that I was interested in earlier: those magnificent ballets, those decadence paintings, that new music, – all that seems now vulgar and in bad taste. I am looking for truth, light and kindness…” Duke Vladimir Paley was killed on 18 July 1918. He was just a bit over 20 years of age.