Felix Yusupov - a vicious circle

You have heard, my dear, Felix Yusupov did turned out to be not so, who they say they gave. I am always about this guessed. And Irina, his wife, with Grigory Rasputin. Well, you know - middle-aged lady spoke quickly in a strict gray suit. - How do I know? . I simply must watch it!.
It is high time it was put into place this upstart. Think of it, Prince! .

The news that the American company ' Metro- Goldwyn -Mayer ' has created a painting titled ... So on the day of the premiere movie theater, located on one of the main streets of the capital, was filled to capacity. Those who did not get a ticket, crowded at the entrance. The audience cared about only one thing: what will the reaction of the prince himself, guilty excitement. However, Felix 's arm with his wife Irina and appeared at the last moment, when the hall has already begun to fade the light, and left the room without waiting for end of paintings. And the audience for a long time did not differ by solving: the truth or is it all fiction?.

... Lie was outrageous. Irina was not able to ban pictures and decided to bring against the ' Metro- Goldwyn -Mayer ' action ', - wrote years later, Felix Yusupov in his ' Memoirs '. But then it is not so much angered the distortion of historical facts, but the fact that she was wounded after his wife, Grand Duchess Irene Alexandrovna Yusupova, nee Romanova, niece of Emperor Nicholas II. ... The Court held in London in February 1934, to win, but it was another opportunity for fans pozloslovit relatively regular antics of Prince. Felix, however, accustomed to scrutiny of others: the people attracted to the mysterious story, like a fairy tale unkind, the actors who were all representatives of this ancient family.


Family tradition.

Legends are not born out of the blue, as opposed to gossip.
Valentin Domil.

' The founder of our family called someone in the family archives Abubekir Ben Rayok, a descendant of the Prophet Ali, Mohammed's nephew. Titles of our ancestor, the Muslim ruler - Emir Al Omran, The Prince of Princes, Sultan of Sultans, and the Great Khan. His descendants also ruled in Egypt, Damascus, Antioch and Constantinople. At the end of the XV century, his great-grandson of Mirza Musa. captured and destroyed the rebel of the Golden Horde. was replaced by Moussa. Yousuf Khan - one of the most powerful and intelligent rulers of the time '- the story, who knew by heart all the Yusupov, was part of their heritage - the same as the family diamonds. But the intrigue was the fact that this semi-legendary Yousuf, which initiated the ' Russian ' branch of the princely family, was the unwitting cause of all ills that plague them in the future. As a child, Felix listened to the stories his mother, Zinaida, who was reputed to be not only one of the cleverest women of his era, but also the most beautiful woman in the imperial court. It was learned from her family tree, Felix, and at the same time about what angered the gods of their legendary Yousuf. What happened was that.

Nogai Khan, against the wishes of compatriots, established relations with Moscow, and for many years was an ally of Ivan the Terrible. Even sent to his court his sons, who have refused to Mohammedanism and adopted the Orthodox faith. And that the people of Khan could not forgive. It was then, allegedly by local shamans and the curse was imposed, according to which of those born in one generation to the Yusupov twenty-six years of living out a sole heir. Why do so - remains a mystery. But do know: it came to pass with ominous regularity. Not spared, and the family itself Zinaida, who lost his older brother and younger sister. Perhaps that is why it is so worried about the fate of his own boys - Nikolai and Felix, who has managed to convey not only a rare beauty and enormous fortune, but also a generic name - Yusupov. Marrying Guards officer Count Sumarokov -Elston, she is the only successor to the family, was allowed to keep his name. Needless to say, that children are not Zinaida Yusupova chayala soul, protecting them from all evils and misfortunes? . So when in 1887, was born the son of Felix, she followed a whim, began to decorate it in. lace dress. Perhaps it is this fact left an imprint on the child's psyche: the behavior of the young Felix gave rise to many regard him as bisexual. He himself is the view never denied. And among people who used his ...

Later, Felix remembered the many experiences of parents brought his antics and obstinate nature. The mother and father turned a blind eye to all: if only their boys were alive and well. And drove away the sad thoughts, especially since two of their four children died in infancy. However, to avoid the fate of Yusupov could not this time.

In 1908, the elder brother Nikolai had a crush on a girl who was already engaged to another. But the thought of being together with your beloved has left him after she got married. Persistence Nicholas led to indignation lawful wedded husband, who summoned him to a duel. And while the story of unrequited love was known to all home on the eve of Zinaida shared with Felix ' the duel all about lies. Nicholas I had. they made ​​it up. God, what happiness! . After all, he is about to celebrate twenty-six years! ' . ' The next morning I was awakened by his valet Ivan. Seized with foreboding, I jumped out of bed and rushed to my mother. The servants ran up the stairs to the gloomy faces. I questions no one answered. From his father's room came the heartbreaking cries. I went into the father, very pale, stood before the stretcher on which lay the body of his brother. My mother on her knees. When my mother had calmed down, she called me. I went up, but then she took me by Nicholas. The scene was horrible. I froze the blood in the veins. Then my mother fell into a stupor and waking up, I have not let a single step '. All this made a huge impression on Felix, left in the memory forever. But time passed and the events of those sad days, pushed to the background.


Irina.

The greatest happiness in life - a belief that you love, love for your own sake, or rather - like against you.
Victor Hugo.

- Felix, you're last in the Yusupov family and therefore should marry, - once said Zinaida, and he realized that the carefree life came to an end. After all, the young Prince saw his future very differently. ' I replied that I was not inclined to family life, and if furnished with children, will not be able to put their projects on the state of. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, we had a house that did not live. I could turn them into hospitals, clinics, shelters for the elderly. And in St. Petersburg on the Moika. - Would have created a museum of the best things from our collections. In the Crimean and Caucasian estates would open spa. One or two rooms of all the houses and estates would have left a. The earth would go to farmers, mills and factories would be joint-stock companies ' - that's Felix Yusupov had hoped to dispose of their capital. Perhaps these dreams were inspired by the romantic ideas of universal liberty, equality and fraternity, and may be soaked with the milk of a mother who inspired his sons: ' The more you are given, the more you have other. Be humble. If what's above the other, God forbid you show it to them '. It is not known, could have been Duke ever to realize their patronage intentions or whether they would be dissolved in caring for their own well-being: was restless in 1913, and the carefree days of life were already numbered. However, while this no one knew. But the point that in many ways changed the course of his personal history, was very close.

' One day I saw a horse walking a beautiful girl, a lady accompanied the venerable age. Our eyes met. She made such an impression on me that I stopped the horse and looked after her. The next day, and after I did the same path, hoping to once again see a beautiful stranger. It does not appear. But soon the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna visited us together with his daughter, Princess Irina.

What were my joy and surprise when I learned in my Irina stranger!. Viewing it looked like an ancient cameo ', - Yusupov wrote half a century later in his ' Memoirs '. And while his thoughts were occupied only memories of a recent meeting: ... I realized the true sense of harmony ', - he confessed. And when the Grand Duke Alexis came one day to the parents to discuss the proposed marriage between his daughter Irina and Felix, was really happy, ' because it is consistent with the aspirations of a secret '. When the question about the wedding was finally resolved, the young people were able to spend all free time together. As acknowledged later Felix Yusupov and his conquered not only the exquisite appearance, intelligence and charm of the bride, but also how easily she had listened to his confession. And repent to her future husband was actually in what, after all the rumors of his amorous passions and impetuous youth, it is no secret was. ... Not in the least shocked, she met my story with a rare insight into. I realized that it was contrary to my nature, and why women in the society of men pulled me over. Women's pettiness, malice and nepryamota hid it in the same way. Irene, the only daughter, grew up with his brothers, and happily escaped so unpleasant qualities ', - he noted with pleasure.

Since then, all the feelings, hopes and plans have been associated exclusively with Irina. The wedding day was scheduled for February 22, 1914 in St. Petersburg in the chapel of the palace Anichkov. ... For our future arrangement of my parents was released in the second floor left side of the house on the Moika. The first - ball-room with columns of yellow marble, and a winter garden for the game in depth. Further, a large living room, upholstered in ivory silk. On the walls - French painting of the XVIII century. S-shaped white with gilt sofas upholstered in silk embroidered with flowers of the same light as the wall color. Then my own living room. It furniture of mahogany with a bright green beam steering and embroidery. On the bright blue walls - tapestries and paintings by Dutch artists. Then, amethyst dining. '- The sole heir to the multi-million dollar state of luxury was no stranger: say that a capital Yusupov at that time could be compared only to the imperial. Honeymoon couple spent in France receptions and balls in Paris, traveling across the country. It seemed a celebration of life, which was filled every day, will never end. A year later, March 21, 1915 a daughter, named in honor of the mother, Irina. ' After hearing the first cry of a newborn, I felt the happiest of men ' - confessed Felix. But the old clock in the ceremonial hall of the house on the Moika already begun its countdown: time to the fateful day had less.


Fatum.

Life does not give anything for free, and everything that is presented by fate, and secretly determined a price.
Stefan Zweig.

' It was really something special in his unassumingly form. In the holy man did not look like. The person slyly and lasciviously, like a satyr. Most of all, I was amazed eyes: terrified expression, and they are so close to the nose and deep set '- Felix wrote in his diary the first impression from the meeting with Grigori Rasputin. The fact that the ' old man ' long and firmly seized the hearts and minds of the imperial couple, it is no secret was. Although many considered him a charlatan and a warlock, no one denied that Grigori had a special hypnotic force. Feeling impunity, ' the elder ' has been actively involved in politics, creating rivalries and intrigues. They said that it was at the instigation in September 1911 at the Kiev Opera House, was killed, Prime Minister Stolypin, who fought with the arbitrariness of Rasputin. But after Rasputin managed to stop the attack of hemophilia in royal heir Alexei, Nicholas II and his wife believed in him, as God. The very same ' healer ' had no doubt in his own indispensability, and undertook to decide the destinies of the fatherland, whispering prophecies of the Emperor and Empress. In the imperial environment, many have tried to explain to Nicholas, as a dangerous influence of ' prophet ' to the country. And when the last arguments were exhausted, it was decided to remove the ' old man ' even at the cost of murder, because that's what many saw in it the cause of all ills. ... In the internal struggle which took place in me, overcame the power, I do not peculiar '- Felix Yusupov admitted many years later. Although heavy the mission seemed impossible, the only way, he believed, could save homeland. The place of execution plan chosen. Yusupov's house on the Moika - the one where just recently heard music and laughter, Toast and wishes of the young years of cloudless happiness. Among those who took up the execution of the sentence, except for the Felix were a few of his closest friends, including the Grand Duke Dmitry. At night, December 29th, the eve of the new 1916, when all of St. Petersburg was preparing for the upcoming Christmas accomplished that, according to Felix, was to change the course of history.

However, in spite of the strictest secrecy, a shot sounded in the basement of the mansion, did not go unnoticed. In the morning the empress told that Rasputin did not return home. The first suspects ' in the ' old man ' became Felix Yusupov and Dmitri Romanov. Enraged Empress demanded immediately shoot the criminals, but her husband confined to the expulsion of Grand Duke Dmitri went to the Turkish front in Persia, and Felix - to the family estate. 'With a heavy heart that I sat in the car. The bell rang, the locomotive whistled shrilly, the platform broke, floated, disappeared. And then he disappeared in the winter night Petersburg. The train rushed into the darkness of the empty snow-covered plains. And I sank into my sad thoughts at a monotonous clickety. ' - He recalled. Part to the fact that Felix loved so much, it was unbearably painful: the young prince felt that the child sees the city for the last time. Consolation is that he was expecting to Rakitnoye meeting with relatives. And flew from St. Petersburg to one another alarming. ' The world has gone mad and died in front of. In March, the revolution broke out. ' - Said Yusupov, desperately aware of: the victim was not accepted by the sky, and what should have happened, happened. It was a fateful 1917 was the destroying of fate and the city, sweeping away everything that was dear and loved.


' Let us not curse the exile. '.

No guessing for a long time, be cautious in their hopes:.
The wheel of fate insidiously, turning any possible.
Khusrawi.

On that memorable night in St. Petersburg two years have passed. In a country where anarchy, the fate of a disgraced prince and his family no one else is interested in. Yusupov, with his family, leaving his place of exile, settled in the Crimean estates Ai- Todor and Dulber forever parted with the idea to return the remaining money in revolutionary Petrograd and jewelry. Of all the countless treasures Yusupov managed to save only what was on his. The most valuable was the famous ' Pelegrina ' with which the mother, Zinaida, had never parted.

What happened to the once through the fertile land of ancient Tauris, Felix tried not to remember. Perhaps the fate of so tested their strength, because the main test was yet to come. No wonder the bitter spring of 1919 Yusupov says later: ' Leaving Russia to this day, April 13, we knew that the expulsion - is not the most serious of what awaited us. But we could not imagine that after thirty two years, it would never end! . The same anxiety, the same thought tormented them: when the return?. A ray of sunshine, breaking through in the clouds, shone for a moment the coast, dotted with white dots, in which everyone was trying to distinguish your home, throw, maybe forever. The outlines of the mountains melted. Soon, all gone. Left around the endless sea '. Along with the native beach disappearing hope, because of the fatherland, for which he was ready to go at all, no longer existed.

Looking into the distance, Felix mentally said goodbye to the past, but the words sounded in memory of the Crimean soothsayer, who has visited shortly before his departure: ... - The Lord be with you. Rasputin - an instrument of the devil, you killed him, as Saint George the dragon. And the ' old man ' now thy keeper. ' - Then her words seemed strange, but in the future he once convinced of this: hundreds of those who left the country, absorbed the merciless Moloch of the Revolution.


Life 'before ' and ' after'.

Experience is the totality of our disappointments.
Paul Aage.

Rome, London, Paris. What a pleasure it was to walk the streets of the cities in those blessed days, when Felix knew is wanted, and a few days later, he will once again be in his native St. Petersburg. Now, it seemed weird happiness, unrealizable and unattainable. But life went on, and we had to adapt to the changing world. Despite the fact that money is desperately short, Felix Yusupov, using his name and connections in the highest circles of European capitals, an organization engaged in charitable societies, in every way to help immigrants who are every day becoming more and more. And they open in Paris in 1924 couture has been a relief for the tens of refugees who have found work and let the initially modest revenues. Dmitri led his sister, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanova. Former heir of ancient dynasties, left without means of livelihood, and now, having mastered the craft of seamstresses, creating exquisite outfits for the beauties of Paris. ' Atelier we call ' IrFe ', adding the first letters of their names. Modelershey took a Russian lady, a little eccentric. Funds for advertising, we did not have. Irina and several female friends were going to do to show our dresses. ' - So begins the story of one of the many projects of the Prince. A few years later, its affiliates will Touquet in France, and later - in Berlin and London. Of course, all this was not so, why lay the soul. But even in the most difficult times of World War II in occupied Paris, Felix knew only of him depends the fate of loved ones. But most importantly, no matter what happens, there is always a Irina - his royal wife, who, despite all the hardships and tribulations, uncomplainingly taking all.

'. On the outskirts of Auteuil at the end of the street - Pierre Guerin in the alley, we found the former stables converted into a dwelling house. The house was old and no amenities, but the place is wonderful. Trees and cobbled courtyard ' - this ' house ', which became for many years the sole property of their princely couple, then, in 1943, seemed to be a rare success. It was there, sitting by the open window, Felix Yusupov wrote the first lines of his ' Memoirs ': ' This is the story of a typical old Russian family in the surroundings for the eastern wilderness and luxury. It begins with the Tatars of the Golden Horde, continues in the imperial court in St. Petersburg and ends in exile '. Concluding the story of his life in September 1953, the prince wrote: ... Eh when I see Russia?. Hoping no one ordered. I do in those years when you do not think about the future. And yet I still dream about the time it is true, for me not to come, and called: ' After the expulsion '.

Anticipation of Felix Yusupov was prescient: he died on September 27, 1967 away from the bustle of the secular in a small house outside of Paris, Pierre- Guérin. His wife, Irina, the only three survived her beloved husband, with whom, following a vow of loyalty to this day, more than half a century, shared the joys and sorrows. At the funeral, Yusupov in the cemetery of Saint - Genevieve-des- Bois, he threw a handful of the traditions of his native land. The only person who happens one day to visit the homeland of his ancestors, was their granddaughter, Xenia. She, like my grandmother and mother who gave birth to only one child - a daughter Tatiana, perhaps hoping to unlock a vicious circle.


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