Yusopov Palace

Yusupov Palace

Our historic visit today was the Yusupov palace, home of the second wealthiest family during the 19th century, next to the Czar's family - Romanov. The palace is known for two reasons. First, it is a very livable palace, much more so than any imperial palace. The palace was lived in by 3 people: mother, father, and son with 200 servants. The personal rooms are small, but ornate, but the highlight is the beautiful theatre that could hold 118 people. Second, this is where Felix Yusupov murdered Rasputin, because they felt that he had too much influence over the Czar, Nicholas II.

Palace Theater

Nicholas had married Alexandria, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, and after bearing 4 girls, a son was born. Unfortunately, he had hemophilia, which was kept a closely guarded state secret. Rasputin, a self-taught monk, gained influence because he was able to control the bleeding through prayer, when the doctors couldn't. The family isolated itself from the royal court to keep their little secret and Rasputin was one of the few able to get an audience with the Czar at any time. To the court, he was a womanizer and drunkard, yet they would bribe him to use his influence.

Rasputin was invited to the Yusupov Palace by Felix using Irena, his wife as bait. There they fed him cakes with Cyanide, shot him 3 times and when he still was moving, clubbed him, wrapped him in a carpet, and dumped him in the river. The autopsy showed that he eventually died of hypothermia. These events are recounted with wax figures in the basement room where it all occurred.

In the evening, we did a canal tour seeing the city as Peter the Great meant it to be seen from the water. The historic center of the city sports numerous palaces, now being used for many purposes. The weather was perfect for a cruise, low 70's so everyone was in the open air enjoying the sights.