Felix Yussupov
Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (Russian: Фéликс Фéликсович Юсýпов) (March 23, 1887, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – September 27, 1967, Paris, France), (variously transliterated from Russian as Yussupov, Yossopov, Iusupov, Youssoupov, Youssoupoff, or as Feliks, Graf Sumarrokow-Elston (граф Сумароков-Эльстон)), was a Russian nobleman best known for participating in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, the mystic peasant faith healer whom Yusupov and other Russian nobles believed held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II and especially over the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.
Biography
Yusupov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. His mother's family, the Yusupovs, were descendants of Tatar origin and fabulously wealthy. The Yusupov family acquired their wealth generations earlier through extensive land grants in Siberia, and they owned a string of profitable mines and fur trading posts. In order that the Yusupov name might not die out, the prince's father, Count Felix Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston (October 5 1856, Saint Petersburg - June 10 1928, Rome, Italy), General Governor of Moscow (1914-1915) (son of Count Felix Nikolaievich Sumarokov-Elston), took the surname of his wife, Princess Zenaida Nikolaievna Yusupova (September 2 1861, Saint Petersburg - November 24 1939, Paris) upon their marriage, on April 4 1882 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Felix became heir to the immense fortune after his older brother Nikolai Felixovich, Count Sumarokov-Elston (born 1883), was killed in a duel on June 22 1908. Consulting with family members about how best to administer the money and property, he decided to devote a lot of time and money to charitable works to help the poor.
However and alongside this he led a flamboyant life, and describes in his candid autobiography often spending time with Gypsy bands and adopting female clothing. Some accounts allege that Felix was also homosexual, and letters to and from family members strongly suggest that he had an on-again, off-again affair with Grand Duke Dmitri. In 1909-1912 he studied at Oxford University in England, where he established the Oxford University Russian Society. He married Princess Irina of Russia, the Tsar's niece, on February 22 1914 in the Anichkov Palace in Saint Petersburg, and the marriage was extremely well-matched and very happy. They had a daughter, also called Irina.
Rasputin and after
It was in the Yusupov family's Moika Palace (one of many luxurious estates) that Felix and Grand Duke Dmitri and others murdered Rasputin on the night of 16/17 December 1916. Despite poisoning him, shooting him, and beating him with an iron bar, the conspirators still needed to tie up their victim and throw him under the icy surface of the river Neva in order to kill him. Yusupov published several thrilling accounts of the murder night and the events surrounding it. The assassination of Rasputin did not prevent the Russian Revolution. The Yusupov family was sent to a virtual house arrest in their farm outside Saint Petersburg. Felix Yusupov went back to his palace in Saint Petersburg where he took some Rembrandt paintings and jewellery before fleeing to the Crimea with his wife and child. In Crimea the family boarded a British warship, HMS Marlborough, which took them from Yalta to Malta. From there, they travelled to Italy, then by train to Paris. In Italy, lacking a visa, he bribed the officials with diamonds. In Paris, they stayed a few days in Hotel Vendôme before going on to London. In 1920, they went back to Paris and bought a house on the Rue Gutenberg in Boulogne-sur-Seine, where they lived most of their lives.
Felix and Irina successfully sued MGM through the English courts for invasion of privacy and libel in connection with the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress. The alleged libel was not that the character based on Felix had committed murder, but that the character based on Irina was portrayed as having been raped by Rasputin. They were awarded £25,000 damages, an enormous sum at the time, which was attributed to the successful arguments of their counsel Sir Patrick Hastings. The disclaimer now at the end of every American film, "The preceding was a work of fiction, etc.," first appeared as a result of the legal precedent set by the Yusupov case.
Felix also was able to sell a pair of Rembrandt paintings from his palace for a significant fortune.
The Yusupov Palace is now open to the public, with a lurid montage in the murder room illustrating Yusupov offering Rasputin poisoned cakes while his co-conspirators wait outside.
He died in Paris in 1967. He is buried in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery.
Descendants
Descendants of Felix and Irina are:
- Princess Irina Felixovna Yussupova, (March 21, 1915, Saint Petersburg, Russia- August 30, 1983, Cormeilles, France), married Count Nikolai Dmitrievich Sheremetev (October 28 1904, Moscow, Russia - February 5 1979, Paris, France), son of Count Dmitri Sergeievich Sheremetev and wife Countess Irina Ilarionovna Vorontzova-Dachkova and a descendant of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev; had issue:
See also
Notes
References
- Greg King, The Man Who Killed Rasputin, Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ, 1995.
External links
- Lost Splendour - Yusupov's self-biography until 1919 (online). Printed in 1952, ISBN 1-885586-58-2.
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