Iusupov

(also Youssoupoff), a princely family in Russia from the 16th to early 20th centuries.

The Iusupovs traced their descent from the Nogai prince Yusuf (died 1555), whose sons took up residence in Russia in 1563. The most famous members of the family were state figures.

Grigorii Dmitrievich Iusupov (1676–1730) became a senator in 1726 and general in chief in 1730. He headed the Military Collegium under Emperor Peter II.

Boris Grigor’evich Iusupov (1695–1759) was president of the Commerce Collegium in 1751 and owned several factories.

Nikolai Borisovich Iusupov (1750–1831), who became a senator in 1788 and a member of the Council of State in 1823, was a bibliophile and a collector of paintings and sculpture. In 1810 he acquired the estate of Arkhangel’skoe, near Moscow, and turned it into a model palace and park.

The Iusupov male line came to an end with the death of Nikolai Borisovich’s grandson, also named Nikolai Borisovich Iusupov, on July 19 (31), 1891. By special order of the tsar, the princely title and Iusupov family name were given to Count Fe-liks Feliksovich Sumarokov-El’ston (born 1856; died June 11, 1928, in Rome), the husband of Nikolai Borisovich Iusupov’s daughter Zinaida Nikolaevna Iusupovna (born Sept. 20 [Oct. 2], 1861; died Nov. 24, 1939, in Paris).

The couple’s son Feliks Feliksovich Iusupov (born Mar. 11 [23], 1887; died Sept. 27, 1967, in Paris) was an ardent monarchist. In 1914 he married the Grand Duchess Irina Alek-sandrovna (born 1895; died Feb. 26, 1970, in Paris), who was a niece of Emperor Nicholas II. Seeking to salvage the prestige of the autocracy, he helped organize, and took part in, the murder of G. E. Rasputin. After the October Revolution he was a White émigré.