At the very end of the 19th century, Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova commissioned a painting from the increasingly popular artist Serov. More specifically, paintings, as she needed portraits of all her family members.
Valentin Alexandrovich was famous for his extreme dislike of writing “rich, famous and swaggering”, but he liked the princess and her family. The artist gallantly remarked that if all rich people were the same, then there would be no injustice and misfortune in the world. The princess sadly replied that not everything in life is measured by money. Alas, the history of the Yusupov family was so complex and tragic that it had every reason to be sad.
Origin of the genus
The origin of the family was very ancient. Even at the end of the 19th century, when among the highest nobility of the Russian Empire there were more and more people from the environment of we althy merchants and manufacturers, the Yusupovs remained not only rich, but also honored their family, knew a lot about their ancient roots. In those years, not everyone could boast of this.
So, the history of the Yusupov family begins with the Khan of the Nogai Horde - Yusuf-Murza. He, knowing full well about the glory of Ivan IV the Terrible, did not at all want to quarrel withRussians. Desiring reconciliation with the formidable sovereign, he sent his sons to his court. Ivan appreciated this behavior: the heirs of Yusuf were not only showered with villages and rich gifts, but also became "forever masters of all Tatars in the Russian land." So they found a new homeland.
So the Yusupovs (princes) appeared. The history of Russian births has been replenished with another glorious page. The progenitor of the family himself ended badly.
Khan knew perfectly well that his sons would be much better off in distant and alien Muscovy. As soon as they managed to cross the borders of their former state, their father was treacherously stabbed to death by his own brother. The history of the Yusupov family says that the tribesmen were so furious at the news that the sons of the murdered khan had converted to Orthodoxy that they asked one of the most powerful steppe sorceresses to put a curse on their entire family. It was scary.
Curse of the Family
The Yusupovs themselves from generation to generation passed on the words of the curse: “And let only one of the family live up to 26 years old. And so be it, until the whole race is rooted out.” Superstitions are superstitions, but the words of such an ornate spell came true without fail. No matter how many women from this family gave birth to children, only one of them always lived to the ill-fated 26 years and more advanced age.
However, modern historians say that the family must have had some kind of genetic disease. The fact is that the “family curse of the Yusupov princes” did not begin to manifest itself immediately, no matter what the legend says. One child began to survive only after Boris Grigorievich (1696-1759). Until then, there is no information about the small number of surviving heirs, which suggests a hereditary disease. This suspicion is confirmed by the fact that the girls in the family fared much better - they were much more likely to live to adulthood.
Since then, each head of the family had only one son. Because of this, throughout the XVIII-XIX centuries, the family was actually on the verge of complete extinction. However, this sad circumstance also had its positive side: unlike all other princely families, which by the end of the 19th century, for the most part, completely squandered their fortunes, the Yusupovs were more than fine with money.
Family well-being
However, problems with the gene pool did not affect material well-being. By the revolution, the Yusupov family was only a little "poorer" than the Romanovs themselves. Although the history of the Yusupov family transparently hints that in fact the family was much richer than the imperial family.
Only according to official information, the distant descendants of Yusuf owned more than 250 thousand acres of land, they also owned hundreds of factories, mines, roads and other profitable places. Every year, the profit from all this exceeded 15 million (!) Gold rubles, which, translated into modern money, exceeds 13 billion rubles annually.
The luxury of the palaces that belonged to them aroused envy even among families whose ancestors came fromtimes of Rurik. So, in the St. Petersburg estate, many rooms were furnished with furniture that previously belonged to the executed Marie Antoinette. Among their property were such paintings that even the Hermitage collection would be honored to have them in its collection.
In the caskets of women from the Yusupov family, jewelry, previously collected all over the world, lay casually. Their value was incredible. For example, the "modest" pearl "Pelegrin", with which Zinaida Nikolaevna can be seen in all the pictures, was once an accessory of the famous Spanish crown and was a favorite decoration of Philip II himself.
However, everyone considered their family happy, but the Yusupovs themselves were not happy about this. The history of the family with an abundance of happy days has never been different.
Countess de Chauveau
Zinaida Nikolaevna's grandmother, Countess de Chauveau, probably lived the happiest life (compared to the rest of the women in the family). She came from an ancient and noble family of the Naryshkins. Zinaida Ivanovna was married off to Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov at a very young age.
She gave birth to her mature husband, first a son, and then a daughter, who died in childbirth. Only later did she find out that all the Yusupovs faced this. The story of the family impressed the young girl so much that she flatly refused to give birth: “I don’t want to produce dead people.”
On the hardships of family life
She immediately declared to her husband that he was free to run after all the yard girls, she would not force him. And so they lived until1849, until the already old prince died. The princess at that time was not even forty years old, and therefore she, as it is now customary to put it, "indulged in all serious things." In those years, gossip about her adventures was transmitted throughout the empire, to say nothing of St. Petersburg!
But the most scandalous episode of her biography was a passionate passion for one young Narodnaya Volya. When he was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg Fortress, she abandoned all balls and masquerades, by hook or by crook trying to soften the prison regime for her lover.
New husband
In those years, and for lesser sins, it was possible to fly out of high society, but Zinaida Ivanovna was pitied: after all, the Yusupovs! The incredible story had its continuation, but for a long time it was believed that the princess's whims were over. Her revelry suddenly stopped, the woman lived a complete recluse for a long time. Then she meets a handsome, well-born, but completely ruined Frenchman, falls in love and leaves Russia forever. She abandoned the "cursed surname" and became the Comtesse de Chauveau, Marquise de Serres.
Strange find
Everyone forgot about this strange and stupid story, but then the revolution broke out. The Bolsheviks were well aware of the we alth of the family, since the curse of the family of the princes Yusupov, even in Moscow, was on everyone's lips. They assumed that the "crazy potbelly stove" could well have hidden her jewelry somewhere in her former house on Liteiny Prospekt, and therefore they knocked all its premises literally millimeter by millimeter. An absolutely incredible find awaited them: they discovered a secret room, the door to which wasimmured.
There was a coffin in the room, in which the embalmed body of a young man rested. We can safely assume that the clue to the missing Narodnaya Volya has been found. Most likely, the countess could not get a review of the sentence, and therefore went on a spree. Only after ransoming the body of her executed lover did she manage to calm down.
Zinaida Ivanovna, as we have already said, had an only son. Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov himself had three children at once. The eldest was the son Boris. There were two daughters - Zinaida and Tatyana. No one was surprised that Boris died at an early age from scarlet fever. Parents were consoled only by the fact that their daughters grew up beautiful and were completely he althy. It was only in 1878 that misfortune befell Zinaida.
New Trouble
The family lived in their Arkhangelsk estate in the fall of that year. Nikolai Borisovich, being constantly busy in the service, came home rarely and not for long. Tatyana preferred to read, and Zinaida loved to take long horseback rides. One day she hurt her leg. The wound was tiny and did not seem to pose any danger, but by the evening the girl had a fever.
Dr. Botkin, hastily summoned to the estate, made a disappointing diagnosis. Blood poisoning in those days ended only in death. By morning, Zinaida's temperature did not subside, she fell into unconsciousness. It seemed that the family of the Yusupov princes would soon suffer another loss.
John of Kronstadt: a phenomenon
Subsequently, Zinaida recalled that in thatIn a strange and unsteady state that separated reality from dreams, she dreamed of St. John of Kronstadt, with whom her family had long been friends. When she suddenly regained consciousness, the elder was urgently summoned to the estate. He prayed for her, and the girl quickly recovered. That's just the sad story of the princely family of the Yusupovs did not end there. Tatyana died of measles at the age of 22.
Procreation
No wonder the old prince longed for his daughter's marriage. Zinaida Nikolaevna then recalled that her father, who had become ill a lot by that time, was very afraid not to live to see his grandchildren.
Soon the applicant was found. Young Yusupova was betrothed by the Bulgarian prince Battenberg, who was a direct relative of the imperial couple. In the retinue of the prince was a modest young man Felix Elston, whose duties included introducing the future bride to the groom. And then thunder struck. Felix and Zinaida fell in love literally at first sight, and the feelings were mutual. Soon the young people got married.
Nikolai Borisovich at first almost fainted from such an extravagant decision of his daughter, but he did not dare to argue with his only heiress. Just a year later, the young couple had their first child, who was named Nikolai in honor of his grandfather.
New shocks
The boy was very withdrawn and unsociable, the princess tried all her life to bring him closer to her, but did not achieve much success. On Christmas Day 1887, a little boy said to his mother with icy calm: “I don’t want you to have otherchildren . It soon turned out that one of the nannies told him that the Yusupovs were a cursed family. The stupid woman was immediately fired. Zinaida, who by that time was expecting the birth of her second child, thought with fear how his older brother would meet him.
At first, everything indicated that the boy hated his younger brother Felix. Only when he was ten years old did they begin to communicate normally. But all contemporaries noted that the relationship between the two young princes was just like a strong friendship, but not brotherly love. So the history of the Yusupov family continued. The discussion of the terrible curse that hung over their family gradually faded away. But then came 1908.
The death of Nicholas
Nikolai fell madly in love with Maria Heiden, who was soon to marry Arvid Manteuffel, and the wedding took place, as the young loved each other.
Despite the desperate exhortations of all his friends, the offended Nikolai followed them on their honeymoon. The duel was only a matter of time. It took place on June 22, 1908. Nikolai died six months before his twenty-sixth birthday. Parents almost went crazy with grief, and from now on all their thoughts were directed to young Felix. Unfortunately, the obvious happened: the spoiled boy became a "spoiled cherub", greedy and capricious.
However, the trouble was not in this, but in his exceptional extravagance. When the family sailed from blazing Russia in 1919, they had more than enough money. For just a couple of small andof faded diamonds, Felix bought French passports for all his household members, they bought a house in the Bois de Boulogne. Alas, the prince did not give up the free life he led in his homeland. As a result, his wife and daughter Irina were buried right in the grave of Zinaida Nikolaevna. There was no money for the funeral. The lineage ended completely.
