Zinaida Yusupova

Princess Zinaida Yusupova
The 7th Princess of Yusupov
Period	19 July 1891 – 24 November 1939
Predecessor	Prince Nikolai Yusupov VI
successor	Prince Felix Yusupov VIII
Spouse(s)	Count Felix Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston
Issue Prince Nicholas Felixovich Yusupov Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov VIII
Full name Zinaida Nikolayevna Yusupova
Noble family	Yusupov
Father	Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov VI
Mother	Countess Tatiana Alexandrovna de Ribeaupierre
Born	2 September 1861 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	24 November 1939 (aged 78) Paris, France
Religion	Russian Orthodox Church

Princess Zinaida Nikolayevna Yusupova (Russian: Зинаи́да Никола́евна Юсу́пова; 2 September 1861 – 24 November 1939) was an Imperial Russian noblewoman, the only heiress of Russia's largest private fortune of her time. Famed for her beauty and the lavishness of her hospitality, she was a leading figure in pre-Revolutionary Russian society. In 1882, she married Count Felix Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston, who served briefly as General Governor of Moscow (1914–1915). Zinaida is best known as the mother of Prince Felix Yusupov, the murderer of Rasputin. She escaped revolutionary Russia and spent her remaining years living in exile.

Princess Zinaida Nikolayevna Yusupova was the only surviving child of Prince Nicholas Borisovich Yusupov (October 12, 1827 – July 31, 1891), Marshal of the Imperial Court, and Countess Tatiana Alexandrovna de Ribeaupierre (June 29, 1828 – January 14, 1879). Prince Yusupov was a patron of the arts, and first served in the chancery of Tsar Nicholas I. Zinaida's mother, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, was the daughter of Comte Alexandre de Ribeaupierre and his wife Catherine Mikhailovna Potemkina, a niece of Prince Potemkin.

Princess Zinaida's only brother, Prince Boris Nicholaievich Yusupov, died in early childhood. She also had a younger sister, Princess Tatiana Nicholaievna, who died young, in 1888. As the only surviving child of a distinguished, highly placed, and vastly rich couple, Zinaida enjoyed great favor at court. She was the greatest Russian heiress of her day, and the last of her line, the House of Yusupov. The Yusupovs, a family of Crimean Tatars origin, were very wealthy, having acquired their vast fortune generations earlier. Their properties included four palaces in St. Petersburg, three palaces in Moscow, 37 estates in different parts of Russia (Kursk, Voronezh and Poltava). They owned more than 100,000 acres (400 km²) of land and their industries included sugarbeet factories, brick plants, saw-mills, textile and cardboard factories, iron-ore mines, flour mills, distilleries and oil fields on the Caspian Sea.