Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308030 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 314 pages

Customer Reviews

The best justification for the Russian Revolution
Prince Felix Yusupov (1887- 1967) was a Russian aristocrat and
the only thing noteworthy he ever achived was murdering Grigori Rasputin.

Yusupov was born in Saint Petersburg and married Princess Irina of Russia, the beautiful niece of the last Emperor Nicolas II. They had but one daughter. His mother's family, the Yusupovs , were descendants of Edigey Khan, were fabulously wealthy, and in their Moika Palace (one of many luxurious estates) they kept uncut precisous stones for decorating perpuses. The Yusupov family acquired their wealth generations earlier through extensive land grants in Siberia, and they owned a string of profitable mines and fur trading posts. In order that the Yusupov name might not die out, the prince's father, Count Elston-Sumarokov, took his wife's surname and title upon their marriage.

Felix was raised in opulent excess by his doting mother. He was bisexual and a transvestite. Felix claimed to have caught the eye of King Edward VII of England while in drag. There is also a strong sense that there was a homoerotic undertone to Felix's fascination with Rasputin. Rasputin, however, was apparently more interested in Yusupov's wife Irina, and it was on the pretext of a tryst with her that Felix invited him to the Moika Palace on the night he died. Rasputin, in keeping with his mysterious nature, withstood an amazing amount of abuse before finally dying. Reportedly he was repeatedly poisoned, shot half a dozen times, beaten severely, and finally drowned in a sack, while still struggling.

The assassination of Rasputin failed to prevent the Russian Revolution. The Yusupov family was sent to a virtual house arrest in their farm ,outside Saint Petersburg.Felix Yusupov went back to he's palace ,in Saint Petersburg, during the October Revolution, where he took some Rembrandt's paintings and jewellery with him and fled to Crimea. From there they moved to France, where they lived rest of their life.

Felix and Irina successfully sued MGM through the English courts for invasion of privacy and libel in connection with the 1932 film "Rasputin and the Empress". The alleged libel was not that the character based on Felix had committed murder, but that the character based on Irina was portrayed as Rasputin's mistress. They were awarded £25,000 damages, an enormous sum at the time. Felix also was able to sell a pair of Rembrandt paintings from his palace for a significant fortune.

If you read the whole book and absorb the whole atmosphere one cannot escape the impression of decadence, superficiality, arrogance and immorality. Here a man describes his own life which is a compeletely wasted one, a life in which nothing whatsoever was achieved and that by a man who had all and could have used it. Comparing him and his fellow noble man with the the aristrocats before the French Revolution is worthwhile. He never reflects why the Russian Revolutions came about, why all this splendor was lost. He is even too silly for that!People like him deserved their fate. Well, what a fate ... he lived much better than most hard working people and never work himself even in exile.

I liked this book because it is quite frank about things and whenever you are asked whether the Russian Revolution was justified, just answer the question by handing over this book. It does mean to justify the exceess of the Revolution, the killings and the murderous communist regime but it it helps to underatnd why the Czarist regime was equally unjust und could and should not have survived. Noble persons like Prince Felix Yusupov are the best proof for it. And I suppose he did not even get this!

An amazing insight into the Russian Aristocracy
A truly mindblowing insight into the realities of the Russian Aristocracy and NOT as the previous reviewer says 'the best justification for the Russian Revolution', not at all. I'm sure that THAT reviewer would have behaved in the same way...or probably worse, had he been in Prince Felix Youssoupoff's (expensive) shoes. All rich kids do daft things but realising the danger Russia was in, Prince Felix Youssoupoff did what was right and very brave, sadly it wasn't enough and Russia was plunged into decades of murder and pain on an unimaginable scale. Was it 20 or 30 million who starved to death in the Ukraine during Stalin's time? Russia was changing at the time of the revolution; nothing, NOTHING could have been worse than what happened, ask ANY Russian if millions of deaths were a price worth paying for 'a better world'. I have travelled extensively in Russia, the revolution was a disaster. The period described by Youssoupoff was unjust and extraordinary but nowhere near as appalling as what followed. One of the most extraordinary books I have ever read.

Another sorry story about Russian downfall and revolution
The merit of the book is that it is written by the person who participated in most of the events described. However, you really learn nothing new when you have already read few books about the period. Perhaps you get somewhat better insight to the vain and empty - so it seems - lives of aristocracy but otherwise it's the same old story of good czar and bad conspirators and Rasputin. One gets tired of this naive picture where Rasputin and German origin empress are the root of all evil. I am afraid that Romanov Russia was rotten and corrupt to the core. Only withdrawal from the war and wise reforms in Alexander II style could perhaps have left Russia on tracks. Ironically it was Rasputin plan (or a plan Rasputin was used for) to replace weak Nicolas II and make a separate peace with Germany. Alas, as Kerensky also didn't use his chance to sue for peace because of loyalty to allies, honor etc, the fate of Russia was sealed for decades to come... Russian soldiers were demoralized, without leadership, under supplied and tired of fighting. Bolsheviks made peace and stayed on power. The beginning of the book was boring but generally it was decent pastime reading.