Socialite and charity
As a leading figure in pre-Revolutionary Russian society, Zinaida was famed for her beauty, elegance and the lavishness of her hospitality. In her book of memoirs, Ladies of the Russian Court, Meriel Buchanan (1886-1959), daughter of the last British ambassador to Imperial Russia, described Princess Zinaida as:
'Delicate in health, easily exhausted, essentially feminine, she was not one of those capable, competent women, able to run big charitable organisations. She was always ready to give, freely and generously, to anyone who appealed to her, to do what she could to help anyone in distress, to lend her name, her house, her resources for any worthy cause, but she shrank from publicity, from all the complications of executive administration.'
Zinaida Yusupova was also known for her generosity; at Arkhangelskoye, she built schools, hospitals, houses, a church, and even a theatre, all for the use of her servants and those who lived on the estate, and she took a great interest in their lives. Her son Felix later recalled that no one who ever came to her with a request or favor was ever turned away, and her generosity won her many admirers. Her friendship with the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, based on their mutual charity and faith, no doubt inspired Elizabeth to dedicate herself solely to the Church and the poor. 'If all rich people, Princess, were like you, there would be no room for injustice,’ the painter Valentin Serov, who disliked the powerful and flattered no one, told her. ‘Injustice cannot be eradicated, and especially not with money, Valentin Alexandrovich,’ replied the ‘glorious’ Princess (as Serov called her in a letter to his wife). Even when living modestly in exile she participated in charity, mainly supporting Russian refugees. She, for example, established an agency in Rome that found work for emigrants, donated money to those who wanted to learn a profession, and opened sewing workshops and free cafeterias for fellow Russian refugees.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova served as lady-in-waiting to both Empress Maria Feodorovna and later Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She was a friend of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. In private, she became a severe critic of Empress Alexandra, Elizabeth's sister. Zinaida's eldest son, Nicholas, was killed in a duel in 1908 at the age of 25, an event which cast a shadow over the rest of her life. In February 1914, Zinaida's younger son, Felix, married Princess Irina Alexandrovna, Tsar Nicholas II's only niece and a great-granddaughter of Christian IX of Denmark. Felix fell from grace for participating in the murder of Grigori Rasputin; Empress Alexandra wanted him shot immediately, but this was not carried out. His mother supported his actions, seeing Rasputin's death as vital for the situation in Russia to improve, as the reputations of the Tsar and Empress had been damaged by Rasputin's apparent influence over them, an opinion most of the aristocracy shared, such as the Tsar's mother the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and the Empress's sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Felix Yusupov then moved to his estate in the Crimea, accompanied by his family.
