The Yusupovs in exile - their life after 1919 year

[ashdean]

Felix & Irina's greatest hardship during the war apart from the usual shortage of food etc...was the severing of contact between their daughter Irina who was in Italy.....and Irina's mother Grand Duchess Xenia who was in Scotland ( on the royal estate Balmoral )for most of the war & her brothers who were in Britain or the US...

[Annie]

I never heard anything about Dmitri being a nazi sympathizer. He dated Coco Channel, whom I think was Jewish? Then he was married to an American woman, Audrey Emery. After they divorced in 1938, he slowly sickened from TB and passed away in 1941, before the war was far from over.

[RealAnastasia]

Well...I don't like Felix . He could have supported Hitler or not. He is not an admirable man for me. Not a bit. However, the story of his life is interesting and, analyzing him, you may understand how Russian high society was, before WWI.
I'm very interesting in him...but I'm very far of admiring him.

RealAnastasia.

[Romanov_fan]

He was indeed the most accurate representative of Russian high society. He might reveal it's more decadent aspects though, in my opinion. But, then, many did live the way he did, and it was something that Nicholas and Alexandra shyed away from. I wonder if he cut a more flamboyant figure in exile or before? Or maybe he was always that way? What does everyone think?

[lori_c]

By most accounts, Felix was a nervous child who was pushed by his father to grow up and be in the military.  Felix was very immature and shied away from anything as responsible as military service.  During his Oxford days he became quite popular and I think (though I could be wrong) there is a hall named for him there.

I think he DEFINITELY was flamboyant before he even married Irina. This continued on through to exile.  Though I think he tried to keep a lower profile during the occupancy of Paris by the Nazis.l

[Tatyana]

In 1934, at the behest of Felix, Irina Youssoupoff started a lawsuit against the film company MGM:

The claimant, Princess Irina Alexandrovna Youssoupoff of Russia, bought an action against the defendant filmmaker in defamation. Her claim was that in the film Rasputin and the Empress, she was recognizable in the character of the princess Natasha, who was seduced by the mad monk. The defence included, among other things, a claim that the princess had not been seduced, she had been raped. So, even if the character of Natasha was recognizable as Irina, no blame could be attached to her, and the depiction was not defamatory. However, the CourtOfAppeal found that she had been defamed. While a statement that a person had been raped might not fall within the traditional formula of `exposing the claimant to hadred, ridicule, or contempt' -- it might evoke sympathy rather than any of these reactions -- it was still damaging to a person's reputation. A better test was whether the defamation could cause the claimant to be `shunned and avoided'.

Therefore, Every Time you see any variation of the disclaimer "no resemblance to persons living or dead"  in connection with a TV show or a movie, it is because of Felix Yousoupoff's diligence in defending his wife's reputation.

TATYANA

[Annie]

That is very interesting. When I got really into Felix a few years ago, my son found that and showed it to me. I had no idea it was Felix who was responsible for that! Russian history crosses over into Hollywood and everyone's life!

There are still issues with it today. Right now, there's a movie called "Factory Girl" in which Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars) plays a character singer Bob Dylan says is based on him and Dylan has threatened to sue. When the movie was in its early stages, they found out about this and changed the character's name to "Billy Quinn", but the actor was obviously made up to look like Dylan's clothes and hair, and he imitates his voice, even wears his trademark harmonica holder. Even though they put the disclaimer on it, and even though the name was changed, Dylan is STILL threatening to sue over it. (he thinks the movie makes it look like he caused the suicide of the "Factory Girl.")

I had always wondered, even before I knew it was Felix who was responsible, if that blanket disclaimer would always hold up in court. Sometimes a character is so clearly meant to be someone real I don't buy the disclaimer and I guess the person in question doesn't either.

[ashdean]

The court case which restored to a great extent the Youssoupoff fortunes has been the subject of books,rafio & TV programmes..

[TampaBay]

I once read a book on great law suits.  Accoring to this book, Felix and Irina collect the equivalent of about $20 million USD dollars adjusted for inflation to the year 2000.

TampaBay

[scarlett_riviera]

Wow, they collected quite a large sum! I hope Felix didn't squander it all in a flash, but he was also so generous to his friends. So I guess the money was put into good use.
I hope Zenaida was still alive to enjoy it! It's hard to imagine a beautiful princess like her dying in poverty.

[ashdean]

Wow, they collected quite a large sum! I hope Felix didn't squander it all in a flash, but he was also so generous to his friends. So I guess the money was put into good use.
I hope Zenaida was still alive to enjoy it! It's hard to imagine a beautiful princess like her dying in poverty.

The money that remained (after the debts were paid) was put in a trust on which they lived for the rest of their lives.Princess Zenaida accompanied by her maid & pet dog was already living in a small apartment in a home for refugees in the Serves area of Paris. The cash meant that her treasured Pelegrina & several other gems including the Azra necklace were redeemed from pawn &  still her property when in November 1939 after a few weeks illness the exqusite Princess died in  chic nursing home in the Neuilly area of Paris with her son in attendance...

[Romanov_fan]

Yeah, he was in a position where he would be paid attention to, and he really used that position. He was in my opinion always flamboyant, but maybe more before, since it was harder to be later. But, he always had people watching him, and most descriptions of him seem to be later in his life, does anyone think that? That maybe made it easier for him to be flamboyant later, that he knew he still had a crowd, in fact that he needed to be flamboyant to draw a crowd. Before the revolution, he would have been paid attention to anyway as the sole surviving Prince Yusupov after his brother's death. After maybe he needed to be more flamboyant, and to emphasize his role as the murderer of Rasputin more, to get attention.

[Valmont]

He was indeed the most accurate representative of Russian high society. He might reveal it's more decadent aspects though, in my opinion. But, then, many did live the way he did, and it was something that Nicholas and Alexandra shyed away from. I wonder if he cut a more flamboyant figure in exile or before? Or maybe he was always that way? What does everyone think?

I do not think Felix would be the  most acurate representative of Russian high society, he was one of the most scandalous, I would dare to say Miechen was more representative than Felix..

[Romanov_fan]

I think that's true in the sense of the older generation, but in my opinion, Felix really represented the younger generation well, the generation just before the war/ during it. He was them, in my opinion. It seems Russian high society was getting ever more decadent.. but since the older generation, as represented by Miechen no doubt left more of a mark than Felix's generation and had more time to represent Russian high society, I suppose you are right.

[Windsor]

Hello, everyone!  This is my first post as a new member (after lurking around and learning so much from all you brillant people for a long time now).  Hopefully I am doing this correctly 

I am very interested in how the Yussupovs lived in exile, particularly Zinaida, but also Felix and Irena.  What type of homes did they have?  Servants?  What was their daily routine like?  We always hear how they "lost it all" but I would assume they still maintained a certain level of comfort - just not on the grand scale they had before the revolution.  Correct?

Thank you.