Irina Alexandrowna Romanowa

Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia (Vorlage:Lang-ru) (July 15, 1895 - February 26, 1970) was the daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. She was also the only niece of Tsar Nicholas II. On February 22, 1914 she married the wealthy Prince Felix Yussupov, one of the men who murdered the starets Grigori Rasputin in 1916.

Overview

At the time of her marriage Irina, the eldest child and only daughter in a family of seven children, was considered one of the most eligible marriage partners in Imperial Russia. Her family had spent long periods living in the south of France beginning in about 1906 due to her father's political disagreements with the Tsar. Her father was also carrying on an affair with a woman in the south of France and often asked Xenia for a divorce, which she refused to grant him. Xenia also enjoyed extramarital affairs. Irina's parents tried to hide their unhappy marriage from their seven children and Irina, a shy and tongue-tied girl with deep blue eyes and golden hair, had a happy childhood.

Felix was a bisexual who enjoyed dressing in women's clothing, but he was drawn to Irina when he first encountered her. "One day when I was out riding I met a very beautiful girl accompanied by an elderly lady. Our eyes met and she made such an impression on me that I reined in my horse to gaze at her as she walked on," he wrote in his memoirs. One day in 1910 he was paid a visit by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and was happy to discover the girl he had seen on the riding trail was their only daugher, Irina. "This time I had plenty of time to admire the wondrous beauty of the girl who was eventually to become my wife and lifelong companion. She had beautiful features, clear-cut as a cameo, and looked very like her father." He renewed his acquaintance with Irina in 1913 and was even more drawn to her. "She was very shy and reserved, which added a certain mystery to her charm ... Little by little, Irina became less timid. At first her eyes were more eloquent than her conversation but, as she became more expansive, I learned to admire the keenness of her intelligence and her sound judgment. I concealed nothing in my past life from her, and, far from being perturbed by what I told her, she showed great tolerance and comprehension." Yussupov wrote that Irina showed none of the artifice or lack of honesty that put him off relations with other women.

Although Irina was understanding about Yussupov's wild past, her parents weren't. When her parents and maternal grandmother heard the rumors about Felix, they wanted to call off the wedding. Most of the stories they heard had originated from Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, Irina's first cousin once removed, who had been one of Felix's friends and, it has been speculated, might have been involved in a romantic relationship with Felix. Dmitri told Felix he was also interested in marrying Irina, but Irina said she preferred Felix. Felix was able to persuade Irina's reluctant family to relent and allow the ceremony to go forward. Irina was given away by her uncle, the Tsar, and his wedding present to her was a bag of twenty-nine uncut diamonds, ranging from three to seven carats each. Irina and Felix also received a large assortment of precious gems from other wedding guests. They later managed to take many of these gems out of the country following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and used them to provide a living in exile. Felix and Irina had one daughter, Princess Irina Felixovna Yussupova, nicknamed Bebé, born on March 21, 1915. "I shall never forget my happiness when I heard the child's first cry," her father wrote.

Murder of Grigori Rasputin

After Yussupov decided that Grigori Rasputin's association with Tsarina Alexandra was destroying the country, he, Dimitri Pavlovich, and other co-conspirators decided that the starets must be killed. Felix started seeing Rasputin. It has been speculated that Felix told the monk that he needed assistance to overcome his homosexual impulses and enjoy a satisfactory marriage to Irina or, alternately, that it was Irina who needed Rasputin's "cure." On December 16, 1916, the night of the murder, Felix invited Rasputin to his residence at the Moika Palace and told him that Irina would be in residence and Rasputin would have an opportunity to meet her. Rasputin had often expressed interest in meeting the beautiful 21-year-old princess. Irina, however, was on a visit to the Crimea at the time.

Datei:Rasputin2.jpg

Rasputin

Irina had been aware that Felix had talked about eliminating Rasputin and it may have been originally intended that she participate in the murder. "You too must take part in it," Felix wrote to her before the murder. "Dm(itri) Pavl(ovich) knows all about it and is helping. It will all take place in the middle of December, when Dm(itri) comes back." In late November 1916, Irina wrote to Felix: "Thanks for your insane letter. I didn't understand the half of it. I see that you're planning to do something wild. Please take care and do not get mixed up in any shady business. The dirtiest thing is that you have decided to do it all without me. I don't se how I can take part in it now, since it's all arranged." Felix responded on November 27, 1916: "Your presence by the middle of December is essential. The plan I'm writing you about has been worked out in detail and is three quarters done, and only the finale is left, and for that your arrival is awaited. It (the murder) is the only way of saving a situation that is almost hopeless ... You will serve as the lure ... Of course, not a word to anyone." A frightened Irina backed out of the plan on December 3, 1916. "I know that if I come, I shall certainly get sick ... You don't know how things are with me. I

Datei:Yussupov.jpg

Felix Felixovich Yussupov

want to cry all the time. My mood is terrible ... Don't drag me to Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Come down here instead ... Don't be angry with me, please don't be angry. I love you terribly. I can't live without you. May the Lord protect you. Again, on December 9, 1916, she warned Felix, reporting a foreboding conversation she had had with their 21-month-old daughter: "Something unbelievable's been going on with Baby. A couple of nights ago she didn't sleep well and kept repeating, "War, nanny, war!" the next day she was asked, "War or peace?" And Baby answered, "War!" The next day I said, "Say, 'peace.'" And she looked right at me and answered, "War!" It's very strange."

Irina's pleas were in vain. Her husband and his co-conspirators went forward with the plan without her. Following Rasputin's murder, the Tsar exiled both Yussupov and Dmitri Pavlovich. However, their exile meant that they were among the few members of the Romanov family to escape execution during the revolution that followed.

Exile

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Irina, Felix, and their young daughter took up residence at Ai Todor, the estate owned by Irina's father, Alexander Mikhailovich. Irina was permitted to remain free, unlike many of her relatives, because she had renounced her rights to the throne when she married Felix. However, they lived in a state of constant uncertainty. They and other surviving members of the Imperial Family escaped Russia aboard the British ship HMS Marlborough, which sailed on April 7, 1919. Felix Yussupov enjoyed boasting about the murder of Rasputin while on the ship. One of the British officers noted that Irina "appeared shy and retiring at first, but it was only necessary to take a little notice of her pretty, small daughter to break through her reserve and discover that she was also very charming and spoke fluent English.

In exile, Irina and Felix lived better than most emigrees following the Revolution. For a time they ran a fashion house called Irfe, with Irina modeling the dresses the pair designed. Later they lived from the proceeds of a lawsuit they won against MGM for making a 1928 movie called "Rasputin and the Empress." In the movie, the lecherous Rasputin seduces the Tsar's only niece, called "Princess Natasha" in the movie. In 1934, the Yussupovs won a judgement of about 25,000 pounds against the movie studio. Felix also wrote his memoirs and continued to be both celebrated and infamous as the man who murdered Rasputin. Their daughter was largely raised by her paternal grandparents until she was nine and was badly spoiled by them. Her unstable upbringing caused her to become "capricious," according to Felix. Felix and Irina, raised mainly by nannies themselves, were ill-suited to take on the day to day burdens of child-rearing. Irina's only child adored her father, but had a more distant relationship with her mother. Irina and Felix, close to one another as they weren't to their daughter, enjoyed a happy and successful marriage for more than fifty years. When Felix died in 1967, Irina was grief-stricken and passed away herself just three years later.

Descendants

• Princess Irina Felixovna Yusupova, (March 21, 1915- August 30, 1983), married Count Nikolai Sheremetiev (1904-1979); had issue:
  • Countess Xenia Sheremeteva (born March 1, 1942), married Ilias Sfyris (born 1932); had issue:
    • Tatiana Sfyris (born August 28, 1968), married Alexis Giannakoupoulos (born 1963), divorced, no issue; married Anthony Vamvakidis and has issue:
      • Marilia Vamvakidis (born July 17, 2004)
      • Yasmine Xenia Vamvakidis (born May 7, 2006)

Genetics

As a matrilineal relative of Nicholas II of Russia, Irina and all her female-line descendants are members of mitochondrial haplogroup T.A DNA sample from Irina's granddaughter Xenia Sfyris was used to identify the remains of Tsar Nicholas II after they were exhumed in 1991.

References

• Greg King, The Man Who Killed Rasputin, Carol Publishing Group, 1995, ISBN 0-8065-1971-1
• Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, Random House, 1995 ISBN 394-58048-6
• Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, Darya Galy, translator, A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, Doubleday, 1997, ISBN 0-385-48673-1
• John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999 ISBN 0-465-02462-9
• Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, Nan A. Talese, a division of Doubleday, 2000, ISBN 0-385-48909-9
• Felix Yussupov, Lost Splendor, 1952 [1]
• Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars, Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7

External links

• An Online Gotha