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One of the
most intriguing figures in Russian history is Rasputin (at left),
the starets, or "holy man" who held a very strong
influence over the royal family, particularly
Empress Alexandra.
Rasputin convinced many of his followers that in order to be redeemed,
you had to sin, and he was happy to help many of the court ladies
with the latter. Eventually a group of conspirators decided that
Rasputin had to be killed. Among them was Felix Yusupov, a member
of the Yusupov family. In his spare time, Felix enjoyed dressing
up in women’s clothing when going out on the town with his
friends.
Under the
guise of a social visit to the palace, Yusupov first fed poisoned
cakes to Rasputin. When that didn’t work, he shot him. The
starets appeared dead, but when Yusupov left the room
to tell his friends the good news, Rasputin rose again and staggered
up the steps. The panicked conspirators eventually subdued the
unexpectedly hearty starets and heaved him through a hole in the ice
of the nearby Neva River, where he died of drowning, having survived
the massive dose of poison and several gunshot wounds.
Nobody was
punished for this crime. Felix and his wife moved to Paris after the
revolution where he enjoyed a successful career as a dress designer.
The Yusupov
Palace, where the murder took place, is open to the public and
we're weird enough that we had to go visit it, so we splurged wildly
and had the hotel arrange for a driver and a guide to take us there.
As part of the tour, we stood in the room where the murder had taken place, enhanced
by wax figures of Yusupov and Rasputin with plastic “cakes” out on
the table. However tacky the presentation, we were very much aware that we were following
Rasputin's last steps on the staircase
as we left the room.
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