The Man Who Killed Rasputin: Prince Felix Youssoupov and the Murder That Helped Bring Down the Russian Empire

A recreation of the plot to murder Rasputin chronicles the life of Felix Youssoupov, a Russian nobleman who led the murderers

The butler didn't do it, the scion of one of Russia's most noble families did it--murder the confidante of the czarina, the notorious Rasputin, that is. Prince Felix Youssoupov was one of the spoiled darlings of prerevolutionary St. Petersburg society, a hedonist who stumbled from one party to another. King's popular biography makes easy, compelling reading, beginning with an account of the strange life of Gregory Rasputin, who, because of his unexplained ability to control the symptoms of the czarevitch's hemophilia, came to exert enormous influence over the czarina. Rasputin grew increasingly unpopular among the high-born in the Russian capital. Enter Prince Felix, who, in his own mind, was rising to the occasion, and, with co-conspirators, hatched an assassination scheme. The effects of the deed and Youssoupov's life after the revolution are fully explored in this book general readers of Russian history will enjoy. Brad Hooper