Felix Yusupov

Russian aristocrat and leader of the plot to assassinate Grigori Rasputin

• Born: March 23, 1886
• Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia
• Died: September 27, 1967
• Place of death: Paris, France

Cause of notoriety: Yusupov was a decadent member of the Russian royal family who confessed to, but remained unconvicted of, the murder of the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin.

Active: December 16, 1916

Locale: St. Petersburg, Russia

Early Life

Felix Yusupov (yoo-suh-POV) was born to a life of extreme privilege. A member of the nobility, he married the niece of Czar Nicholas II and amassed a fortune, which arguably was second only to that of the czar. He owned a beautiful estate, Moika Palace, near the bank of the Neva River in St. Petersburg, but traveled extensively and was educated at Oxford College in England. Handsome and articulate, Yusupov was also pompous, patronizing, and openly effeminate, rarely attempting to hide his homosexuality. His beautiful wife, Irina, and he were a favored couple and often visited the czar and czarina at the Winter Palace. However, the Yusupov marriage was troubled by the prince’s blatant infidelity.

Political Career

In his political thinking, Yusupov was an abject reactionary, still clinging to concepts long abandoned by Westerners, such as the divine right of kings and absolute monarchy. While at Oxford, Yusupov was befriended by Oswald Raynor and John Scales, two young men who seemed to share his interests and ideas. However, Yusupov was unaware that Raynor and Scales were clandestine members of the British Secret Intelligence Service, an organization that was keenly aware of the prince’s close ties to the czar. Russia had recently aligned itself with England and France, and British intelligence wanted reassurance that Russia would maintain the pact in the likely case of war with Germany.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Yusupov became aware of what he perceived as the malignant presence of the rogue, self-proclaimed man of God, Grigori Rasputin, who was from Siberia. Rasputin had become an infamous person in St. Petersburg. Despite his filthy clothes and poor hygiene, countless women surrendered to his seductive will. He also developed a reputation for faith healing, and he possessed an inordinate amount of charisma and self-confidence. The prince instinctively felt superior to the poorly educated and coarse peasant. He also felt envious of the clearly growing but apparently incomprehensible influence that Rasputin now enjoyed over the royal Romanov family. Finally, Yusupov was angered by the obvious lust that Rasputin felt toward Irina, a feeling that might well have been reciprocated. For all of his other failings, Yusupov had shown little inclination toward physical violence, but this temperament was about to change.

Yusupov was most bothered by the peasant’s close ties to the royal couple, particularly Empress Alexandra. Rasputin’s alleged healing of Alexandra’s son, Alexei, from the uncontrolled bleeding of hemophilia likely explained the holy man’s closeness to and influence over the royal family; however, the young man’s hemophilia was a state secret, so Rasputin’s influence remained a mystery. In 1914, Rasputin advised the czar to stay out of World War I; once Russia entered the war, Rasputin advised the czar to seek a unilateral peace with Germany. These two views infuriated nationalists such as Yusupov. After listening to several rabidly anti-Rasputin speeches in the Russian Duma, Yusupov took the initiative in organizing a plot to kill the monk. His coconspirators included the grand duke Dmitri Pavlovich (the czar’s cousin), Vladimir Purishkevich (an outspoken member of the Duma), Lieutenant Sukhotin (a wounded but recovering army officer), and a Dr. Lazavert (friend of Purishkevich). The timing of the murder was set for late in the evening of December 16, 1916, and the site would be the basement of Moika Palace.

Rasputin was lured to the Yusupov residence by the promise of a tryst with Irina, who in reality was not present that evening. The victim was led to an ornate room, which looked to be prepared for a party. Rasputin was told that Irina would be down shortly, and in the meantime he was offered and unwittingly consumed a substantial quantity of pastries and wines laced with the highly poisonous potassium cyanide. The conspirators felt that the use of guns might alert the St. Petersburg police, whose headquarters were nearby; however, when Rasputin showed few ill effects as a result of the poison, Yusupov shot him twice. Rasputin was also beaten, and his body was then rolled up in an old rug and dropped through a hole chopped in the ice of the frozen Neva River. When Rasputin’s body was recovered and autopsied, water was found in his lungs, proving that, remarkably, he was a drowning victim. Speculation also existed that Raynor and Scales, Yusupov’s intelligence friends, were also present that evening. Rasputin had suffered a third gunshot wound, delivered to the forehead at point-blank range, a sign of a professional assassin.

Impact

The czar and czarina were shocked and saddened by the murder of Rasputin, but Yusupov never faced charges because of his close ties to the Romanovs. Many monarchists supported the act, seeing it as the removal of a malignant influence, but peasants were upset by the loss of their only voice in government. Rasputin had prophesied that if he was assassinated by royalty or the nobility, then the czar and his immediate family would be swept from power and all would be dead within two years. His prediction came true in 1916; the Russian Revolution occurred in 1917, and the czar, the czarina, and their five children were executed in 1918.

Bibliography

Cowles, Virginia. The Last Czar. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977. This work features another recounting of the murder and the preceding speeches in the Duma that aroused Yusupov to action.

Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra. New York: Atheneum, 1967. An outstanding source, which particularly excels at describing Yusupov’s youth and upbringing. It also gives a chilling account of Rasputin’s murder.

Taylor, Edmond. The Fall of the Dynasties. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963. This is a rather pedestrian retelling of the events, but it does include some interesting theories and analyses.