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Lost Splendor - Prince Felix Youssoupoff The Amazing Memoirs of the Man Who Killed Rasputin

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Born to great riches, master of vast feudal estates and many palaces, Felix Youssoupoff led the life of a grand lord in the days before the Russian Revolution. Married to a niece of Czar Nicholas II, he could observe at close range the rampant corruption and intrigues of the imperial court, which culminated in the rise to power of the sinister monk Rasputin. Finally impelled by patriotism and his love for the Romanoff dynasty, which he felt was in danger of destroying itself and Russia, he killed Rasputin in 1916 with the help of the Grand Duke Dimitri and others.   More than any other single event, the assassination of Rasputin helped to bring about the cataclysmic upheaval that ended in the advent of the Soviet regime.

In 1919, the Youssoupoffs left Russia. They sold two Rembrandt paintings (now in the National Gallery in Washington), as well as Princess Irina's jewelry. Contesting their portrayal in an MGM film and a CBS television drama, both dealing with Rasputin, they subsequently won large libel settlements in 1934 and 1965.   Prince Youssoupoff, speaking about his wife to a magazine reporter, said, "Isn't she beautiful? We live as happily together as we did the first day...This is love, true love-something I've felt for no one but her."

Prince Youssoupoff...is perfectly objective, remarkably modest, and as accurate as human fallibility allows. His book is therefore readable, of historical value, and ultimately tragic. It is as if Count Fersen had written a detailed account of the last years of Marie Antoinette.    --Harold Nicholson, The Observer, London

To read the Introduction, click HERE. To find out how you can obtain a copy of this book, Email: info@tolstoyfoundation.com or Call: (845) 268-6722