V. Romanov; Successor to Russian Throne

The successor to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, collapsed and died Tuesday at a news briefing. He was 74.

The grand duke was in Miami to talk with a forum of civic leaders. He was speaking with members of the Spanish language media at the Northern Trust Bank Tuesday morning when he fell unconscious.

He was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital shortly before 2 p.m., hospital spokeswoman Odalys Lloret said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Romanov’s father was Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov, cousin of the last czar--Nicholas II. He was a direct descendant of Czar Alexander II, who ruled from 1855 to 1881. Because of the close relationships between royal families in the 19th Century, the grand duke was also a descendant of Britain’s Queen Victoria.

Romanov was born in exile in Finland in 1917. Nicholas II was forced to abdicate before the Bolshevik Revolution.

Romanov was a landowner in Brittany, France, and kept in touch with other Russian emigres but he “never lost hope of going back,” he told The Times last November when he visited the Soviet Union for the first time. In an unusual gesture, he had been invited to St. Petersburg to help celebrate the 74th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

With the grand duke at his death was his wife of 44 years, who is a grand duchess.

The grand duke succeeded to the head of the Romanov dynasty in 1938 when his father died. His heir as head of the Russian imperial family is his only child, Grand Duchess Maria, a 38-year-old graduate of Oxford University who lives in Madrid.

Also surviving is his 11-year-old grandson, Grand Duke George, of Madrid.