WOODSIDE, CALIF. -- Prince Vasili Romanov, 81, the nephew of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, died June 24 at his home here. The cause of death was not reported. Prince Vasili's mother was Grand Duchess Xenia, the sister of Nicholas II, and his father, Grand Duke Alexander, was the czar's cousin. His grandparents were Tsar Alexander III and Empress Marie Fedorovna. Great-uncles included the kings of Great Britain, Greece and Denmark. Born in a 1,000-room palace, the prince was 10 years old when the Russian revolution erupted, leveling his family's dynasty. Unlike the czar, who was murdered along with the empress and their five children, Prince Vasili and his family survived. Prince Vasili was rescued from the Bolsheviks by a British battleship. He took to sea as a cabin boy, and toiled as a shipyard worker and stockbroker in San Francisco, a winemaker in the Almaden Valley and a chicken farmer in Sonoma. As he aged, the prince grew weary of being asked his opinion about the Soviet Union -- though it was clear he still thought wistfully of Mother Russia. He could have returned to his homeland as a tourist but had long vowed never to return "under the Bolsheviks. {They're} everything we detested." His wife of 58 years, Princess Natasha, died in March at age 82. His survivors include a daughter, Marina Beadleston of Aspen, Colo.