Born into one of the richest and most powerful families in Russia, Felix Yusupov was a man of contradictions. As a nobleman who grew up privileged, he showed both rebellious traits and a complex way of dealing with his own bisexuality in a conservative environment. His role in the murder of the mysterious Grigori Rasputin is legendary, but his personal life and his later existence in exile are also fascinating.

Aristocratic origins and eccentric lifestyle

Felix Felixovich Yusupov was born in St Petersburg in 1887 and brought up in a palace environment surrounded by art and culture. Despite his aristocratic background, Yusupov sought personal significance and freedom, which often brought him into conflict with his family’s expectations. During his student days at Oxford, he became known for his love of art and fashion as well as his extravagant social life, which often pushed the boundaries of convention. He spent most of his free time socialising with friends such as Oswald Rayner, a British intelligence officer who, like Yusupov, is believed to have been involved in the assassination of Rasputin. He also became friends with the pianist Luigi Franchetti and Jacques de Beistegui. Both moved into his residence in Oxford, which was small by Russian standards. In 1912, however, Yusupov returned to Russia to take care of the management of his fortune. For a time in St Petersburg, he developed a close and dissolute friendship with Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, a cousin of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

Homosexual tendencies in a conservative environment

Felix Yusupov led an extravagant life full of luxury and decadence. He was known for his penchant for dressing in women’s clothes, which was not uncommon in both aristocratic circles and artistic communities at the time, and was often admired by contemporaries for his androgynous appearance and beauty.

Yusupov’s sexual orientation was an open secret among his contemporaries. In an era when homosexuality was both illegal and taboo in Russia, Yusupov led his life with a certain caution, but also with an unmistakable rejection of the prevailing norms.

Marriage and family

In 1914, Felix Yusupov married Irina Alexandrovna Romanova, a niece of the Tsar. Their marriage was a union of two powerful families and brought him a position close to the Tsar’s court. Despite his known bisexual tendencies and the rumours associated with them, the couple had a respected marriage and had a daughter, Irina Felixovna Yusupova. The marriage offered him a certain social security, even if his personal life remained complex and surrounded by rumours.

The assassination of Rasputin

Growing dissatisfaction with Rasputin’s influence at the Russian court, particularly his closeness to Tsarina Alexandra, led to Yusupov taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate the monk. The German-born tsarina saw Rasputin as a miracle healer who could help her son Alexei, who was suffering from haemophilia, to think.

On 16 December 1916, Yusupov lured Rasputin to his palace, where he and other conspirators, including Grand Duke Dmitry, poisoned, shot and ultimately murdered the monk.

The act was brutal, and the body was later found in the frozen Neva. The Tsarina demanded that Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri be shot immediately, but was dissuaded from this plan. Instead, Yusupov was banished to his country estates and Dimitri was transferred to the world war front on the Persian border.

After the tsar abdicated during the February Revolution of 1917, the Yusupovs were able to return to their palace in St. Petersburg. They later managed to flee to the Crimea with valuable jewellery and two Rembrandt paintings. From there, they were evacuated on the English warship HMS Marlborough together with the mother of the overthrown tsar and other Romanovs.

Life in exile

Yusupov spent most of his life in Europe, mainly in France, where he tried to redefine his aristocratic existence in a changed world. In exile, he surrounded himself with a mixture of other Russian émigrés, aristocrats and artists. He and his wife Irina remained important figures in the Russian exile community and were often hosts or guests at social events in Paris. Nevertheless, he experienced financial difficulties in exile due to the loss of his enormous fortune in Russia, but managed to find a new role in émigré society.

Despite the glamour and apparent normality that he and Irina tried to maintain in their exile life, Yusupov was often characterised by nostalgia and a certain melancholy about the lost Russia. He remained an ambivalent figure throughout his life, oscillating between longing for the past and trying to gain a foothold in the new reality.

Late years

In his later years, Yusupov increasingly withdrew and lived a relatively reclusive life. He died in Paris in 1967, leaving behind a complex legacy ranging from his role in one of the most dramatic events in Russian history to his long exile. His memoirs and the stories he left behind offer unique insights into the last era of the Russian Empire and the turbulence of the 20th century.