History Should Remember Prince Felix Yusupov
The life of the complicated man who murdered Rasputin and changed Russia forever
Much like the ‘Mad Monk’ Iliodor, Prince Felix Yusupov seems to occupy that same space just outside of mainstream history: a footnote of the Russian revolution and a member of the supporting cast in the life of Grigori Rasputin. But it is worth looking further, to understand the man behind the murder that would define his legacy.
Yusupov was a character filled with complexity and almost constant contradiction.
He was a devoted husband and father, yet struggled with his sexuality his entire life. He longed to serve his country at the height of the war, yet was too idle and fearful to fight. He was a deeply religious man, yet he participated in the misguided killing of a holy man.
These contradictions of character came to a head in his involvement with Rasputin one mysterious and much-contested evening in late December 1916, which would go on to change Russia forever. Yusupov saw in himself a man of great historical importance, and this, as far as he was concerned, was how history would remember him. And in ways he never would have imagined, he was exactly right.
