Yusupov, Felix, prince

NOBLEMAN (RUSSIA)
BORN 24 Mar 1887, St. Petersburg - DIED 27 Sep 1967, Paris
BIRTH NAME Yusopov, Felix Felixovich
GRAVE LOCATION Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne: Cimetière russe de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, rue Léo Lagrange (Tomb 391, plan II)

The family of Felix Yusupov's mother Zenaida Yusupova was very rich, owning land in Siberia, mines and fur trading posts. His father took his mother's name. He was governor of Moscow from 1914 until 1915. After his older brother Nikolai was killed in a duel in 1908 Felix became heir to the fortune.

From 1909 until 1912 he studied in Oxford. He used the Yusupov money to help the poor, but he also led a wild life himself. It is possible that he had an affair with Grand Duke Dmitri. In 1914 he married princess Irina, a niece of the Tsar. They had a daughter, another Irina. In December 1916 Felix, Dmitri and others killed Rasputin at the Moika Palace.

Rasputin was considered a threat to the empire at the time. He had healed the Tsar's son Alexei of haemophilia and the Tsar called him holy man and prophet. He was a controversial person and his influence on the Tsar was used by forces that wanted to weaken the position of the Romanovs. They poisoned and shot him, but before he was death they also had to put him under the ice in the river Neva.

The Yusupov familiy was placed under house arrest near St. Petersburg. From the Crimea they fled to Malta on the British warship HMS Marlborough, taking some of the Rembrandt paintings with them. From Malta they moved on to Italy and Paris. After a time in London they returned to Paris in 1920 and settled there.

In 1932 MGM made a movie "Rasputin and the Empress". In the movie Irina was raped by Rasputin and because of this the Yusupovs sued MGM and won, receiving tne enormous sum of 25.000 pounds. Selling the Rembrandts brought more money in. Felix Yusupov died in Paris in 1967 and was buried at the Russian Cemetery in Ste.-Geneviève-des-Bois, not far from Paris.

Family
• Father: Yusupov, Felix, prince
• Mother: Yusupova, Zenaida Nikolaievna, princess

Images

The grave of prince Felix Yusupov at the Cimetière Russe, Ste.-Geneviève-des-Bois.
Picture by Androom (18 Nov 2006)

 

Sources
• Judd, Denis, Gevallen tronen, Unieboek, Bussum, 1976
Felix Yusupov - Wikipedia
Grigori Rasputin - Wikipedia


Yusupova, Zenaida Nikolaievna, princess

Published: 06 Jan 2008
Last update: 19 Feb 2024