The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II

by Donald Crawford

  8. MURDER MOST FAIR

  MICHAEL’S warning letter to his brother came at what proved to be the beginning of the end for Nicholas and Alexandra. On the battlefield the summer offensive had produced only stalemate at the cost of horrific casualty figures. Industrial and politically-motivated strikes had been almost unknown in the first months of the war, but by the end of 1916 the number of strikes would reach a million, double the number in the previous year. Facing their third winter of war, Russians now looked inwards and not outwards. Talk of betrayal was commonplace, with many convinced that the source of that treachery lay in the boudoir of the German-born Empress in the government she had largely created, and which did her will.

  Alexandra was no traitor, but what was true was that she and Rasputin now dictated political affairs almost without hinder from the Tsar at Stavka. Two of the best ministers who had survived her original purge were now dismissed. The first to go was the effective war minister Polivanov, ludicrously described by Alexandra as ‘simply a revolutionist.’1 The shrewd British military observer, Colonel Alfred Knox, judged him to be the ‘ablest military organiser in Russia’ and his departure ‘a disaster’.2

  The second to be shown the door was the long-serving and respected foreign minister Sergei Sazanov. He had long been in her sights — why is he ‘such a pancake?’ she had asked Nicholas — after he complained to the Tsar about ‘the dangerous part that the Empress had begun to play since Rasputin gained possession of her will and intellect.’3 There was no replacement; the obsequious prime minister Boris Stürmer now became his own foreign minister in a government which had fallen into the hands of men who, in the majority, were appointed simply because they had been approved by ‘our Friend’.

  On the front-line, Michael was appalled. ‘We were all greatly surprised here’, he wrote to Natasha. ‘I did not know Sazanov well but it was apparent that he was trusted and now with Stürmer, I am afraid we are in for some rotten business… such unsuitable people are chosen for such responsible posts, it’s too awful for words.’4

  One such appointee he had in mind was the new 50-year-old interior minister Aleksandr Protopopov, who had been a vice-president in the Duma, and who overnight became a convert to Alexandra’s mystical autocracy; increasingly deranged, he was destined to become as hated as his mentor Rasputin.

  Michael was not the only one in the Romanov family to despair at Alexandra’s disastrous conduct of government. His warning letter of November 11 was echoed by others two weeks later, to no greater effect. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and his brother Nicholas —known as ‘Bimbo’— both wrote to the Tsar supporting Michael’s views in similar terms.

  George, reporting that the ‘hatred for Stürmer is extraordinary’, begged the Tsar to ‘form a responsible ministry’, for only that ‘can avert a general catastrophe’.5 Bimbo was even more outspoken about the empress. ‘You trust her’, he wrote, ‘but what she tells you is not the truth; she is only repeating what has been cleverly suggested to her… You are on the eve of new troubles… Believe me, if I insist so much on your freeing yourself from the chains that have been forged, I do so… only in the hope of saving you and saving the throne of our dear country from the most serious and irreparable consequences.6

  By chance, this letter fell into the hands of Alexandra, unread by the Tsar. Her response was a furious attack on Bimbo — ‘am utterly disgusted… He has always hated & spoken badly of me… he is the incarnation of all that’s evil. Sweety mine, you must back me up for your and Baby’s sake… We must show that we have no fear & are firm. Wify is your staunch One & stands as a rock behind you.’7

  Unfortunately, Alexandra was not a rock but a millstone. Her elder sister Ella was among those who knew it. After the assassination of her husband Serge in 1905 she had retreated from the world and had set up her own order of nuns. Alarmed by the mounting public outcry against the empress, she had gone to Tsarskoe Selo from her convent in Moscow intent on making Alexandra see reason. However, as soon as she mentioned Rasputin, Alexandra coldly cut her short. Rising, the empress called a servant and ordered her sister to leave.

  On reaching Petrograd a shaken Ella went to the Yusupov palace on the Moika; Prince Felix Yusupov, son-in-law of Michael’s sister Xenia, was waiting for her with his wife Irina, eager to hear how her meeting had gone. She came into their private drawing room trembling and in tears. ‘She drove me away like a dog!’ she cried. ‘Poor Nicky. Poor Russia!’ 8 The two sisters would never see each other again.

  Yet none of this served to penetrate the calm of Nicholas, who ignored it all, and who appeared helpless against the tirades of his wife. Dimitri told Felix Yusupov that while at the Stavka he had become convinced that ‘the drugs administered to the Tsar were paralysing his will power and were given with this intention.’9

  Rasputin seemed to confirm this, telling Yusupov that ‘the Emperor is given a tea which causes Divine grace to descend on him. His heart was filled with peace, everything looked good and cheerful to him.’ The ‘tea’ was provided by a quack doctor called Badmaev, using ‘herbs provided by nature herself… God makes them grow, that’s why they have Divine properties.’10

  Paléologue, the worldly French ambassador in Petrograd, who knew Badmaev as ‘an ingenious disciple of the Mongol sorcerers’, concluded that judging by its effects, the ‘tea’ must be a mixture of henbane and hashish for ‘every time that the Tsar has used this drug… he has not only recovered sleep and appetite, but experienced a general feeling of well-being, a delightful sense of increased vigour and a curious euphoria.’11

  Given that, it was clear that whatever the protests to him, the Tsar would never assert himself against his wife, and would never get rid of Rasputin — ‘the principal scoundrel’, as Michael put it. In which case, he would have to be removed by others. He would have to be killed.

  FOR most of Russia’s élite, the death of Rasputin was the best news of the year. He was murdered in the early hours of Saturday, December 17, at the Yusupov’s magnificent palace on the Moika, which among other things boasted a theatre which could seat 1,000, as was to be expected in a family which was richer than any of the Romanovs. Apart from Prince Felix Yusupov and his co-conspirator Grand Duke Dimitri, three others were involved — Vladimir Purishkevich, a right-wing member of the Duma, Dr Lazovert, an army doctor, and Captain Serge Sukhotin, a friend of Yusupov.

  As a preliminary to the murder, Yusupov cultivated Rasputin’s friendship, and in so doing found him boastfully frank. Alexandra ‘has a wise, strong mind, and I can get anything and everything from her’. Nicholas was ‘a simple soul… he is made for family life, to admire nature and flowers, but not to reign’. As for the ministers, ‘all owe their positions to me…they know very well that if they don’t obey me, they’ll come to a bad end… All I have to do to enforce my will is to bang my hand on the table.’12

  He also told Yusupov about the future. ‘We’ll make Alexandra regent during her son’s minority. As for him, we’ll send him to Livadia for a rest. He’ll be glad to go, he’s worn out and needs a rest… The Tsarina is a very wise woman, a second Catherine the Great. Anyway, she’s been running everything lately and, you’ll see, the more she does, the better things will be. She’s promised to begin by sending away all those chatterboxes at the Duma.’13

  Rasputin condemned himself. The plan was to poison him, lacing cakes and drink with cyanide potassium provided by Dr. Lazovert. The bait they offered Rasputin was Yusupov’s wife Irina — she was eager to meet him, he was told; in truth, she had gone off to the Crimea for Christmas.

  A basement was hurriedly converted into a dining room. Yusupov collected Rasputin from his apartment on Gorokhovaya Street on Friday evening, December 16, and drove him to the Moika. Taking him into the basement dining room he told Rasputin that Irina would join him as soon as she could get rid of her last guests upstairs; to keep up the pretence of a party, the other plotters were talking noisily in the room above and playing ‘Yankee Doodle’
on a gramophone.14

  Yusupov handed out cakes, which Rasputin devoured with obvious relish, while drinking glass after glass of poisoned wine, firstly Crimean then Madeira. To Yusupov’s horrified amazement, neither the cakes nor the wine had any apparent effect. Two hours after his arrival, Rasputin appeared no worse than before. Making an excuse that he wanted Irina to come down, Yusupov hurried frantically upstairs to report that the poison had failed entirely. Aghast, the plotters swiftly decided that the only alternative now was to shoot him. Dimitri offered to do it, but when Yusupov insisted that this was his task, he handed him his revolver.15

  Yusupov went back downstairs, gave Rasputin another glass of Madeira and, after suggesting that they look closely at a crucifix on a cabinet, shot him through the chest. Rasputin gave ‘a wild scream’ and crumpled onto the bearskin rug. When the others rushed down at the sound of the shot, they found Rasputin lying on his back, his blouse bloodstained, and his face twitching. In a moment he was motionless; the doctor examined him and pronounced him dead.

  The plotters went back upstairs, leaving the body in the basement. Dimitri, the doctor and the captain then drove off to Gorokhovaya Street, the captain in Rasputin’s overcoat and cap, so as to pretend that Rasputin had returned home safely. Dimitri then went to collect his closed car in which the body was to be taken away to be dumped in the frozen Neva. It was reasoned that the corpse, weighted down with chains, would stay hidden under the ice until the spring thaw. It would be at least three months before he could possibly be found.

  While Yusupov and Purishkevich were waiting for Dimitri to return, Yusupov went back to the basement to check on the body. As he bent over him he was horrified to see an eye open, and then with a violent effort the ‘dead man’ leapt to his feet and grabbed at Yusupov, his hands reaching out to strangle him. Yusupov desperately struggled to free himself, then rushed upstairs to Purishkevich.

  The two men came back just in time to see Rasputin, ‘gasping and roaring like a wounded animal’,16 stumbling out through a side door in the basement to the courtyard outside. Running after him, Purishkevich fired two shots, and then two more. The fleeing Rasputin collapsed into the snow. This time he must be dead. Although he had clearly survived the first bullet, he could not survive four more.

  However, the shots had been heard, and a curious policeman arrived to find out the cause. Yusupov stood so that he could not see the body and told the policeman that there had been some ‘horseplay’ and a dog had been shot. The man went away, but returned after his superiors queried his explanation. This time, Purishkevich confronted him and boldly told him what had actually happened, but adding that ‘if you love your country and your Tsar, you will keep your mouth shut’.17

  The man nodded, as if in promise, turned and went away. After he had gone, Dimitri and the others returned. Desperate to get rid of the body, they bundled it into Dimitri’s car, and raced off through the dark, early-morning streets to Petrovsky Island where they realised that in their haste they had forgotten the chains intended to weigh down the body. It was too late to do anything about that. At a bridge they took the body and threw it into the icy Neva below.

  Two days later, on Monday December 19, searching police found the corpse, visible just below the ice, with one arm outstretched. A post-mortem examination found there was water in his lungs, suggesting that he was still alive when he was thrown into the river.18 Nevertheless, poisoned, shot or drowned, it came to the same thing. The hated Rasputin was no more.

  THERE was never any chance that the identity of those involved in the murder would remain unknown. The policeman who had spoken to Purishkevich filed a full report; two servants had seen the body in the courtyard; and at Tsarskoe Selo they knew that Rasputin was going to the Yusupov palace that Friday evening, because he had announced it. By early Saturday evening, hardly more than twelve hours after his body was dumped in the Neva, Petrograd was alive with rumours of his death — at seven p.m. the French ambassador Paléologue was noting the details of it all.19

  It was about that time that Dimitri went to the Michael Theatre, taking his place in a box as if nothing had happened. He would not be there long, fleeing to ‘escape the ovation of the audience.’ And when he got back to his palace on the Nevsky Prospekt it was to find ‘people kneeling in prayer’; he had become so much a hero that in churches across the country candles were being lit in his honour before icons of St. Dimitri.

  This was not what he and Yusupov had intended. The murder planned to be kept secret for months had become public knowledge even before the discovery of the body. Yusupov, who had intended to go off to the Crimea to the house just vacated by Michael and Natasha, was ordered to stay in the capital; next day at lunchtime, Dimitri, who was about to leave to spend Christmas with Michael and Natasha at Brasova, found himself ‘under house arrest’. In both instances the order came from the Empress — as ever, assuming powers she did not properly have. Yusupov later claimed that Alexandra’s first instinct was to have Dimitri shot.20

  Dimitri, in fact, was at risk of being killed in a revenge attack at his palace on the Nevsky Prospekt. At the beginning of the war he had given it over and it was now the Anglo-Russian hospital, staffed by British doctors and nurses; however he maintained an apartment on an upstairs floor. While he was there, a gang of armed men, probably sent by the interior minister Protopopov, arrived to hunt him down — but went away after the British staff convinced them that Dimitri was not in the building. Troops were then sent to guard the palace from any further threats.21

  Rasputin was buried in near-secrecy at Tsarskoe Selo on Friday, December 23, on a plot of land owned by Alexandra’s devoted companion Anna Vyrubova, four days after his corpse was pulled from the Neva, and with a grief-stricken Alexandra pinning a farewell note to his body. 22

  Afterwards the punishment Nicholas decreed for Dimitri was his immediate exile to Kasvin, on the Persian front. Yusupov was banished to his estate in Kursk. However, Purishkevich was deemed too powerful and escaped punishment entirely, as did the others in consequence.23

  WAITING for Dimitri at Brasova, Michael and Natasha did not know that he had been arrested until the arrival from Petrograd of other guests joining them for Christmas. Michael had written in his diary on the day Rasputin’s body was found that ‘we read in the papers that Grigory Rasputin was assassinated in Petrograd’,24 though there were no details, and thereafter the newspapers were banned from reporting more. However, when their guests and staff arrived, they brought them all the rumours from the capital.

  Natasha’s 13-year-old daughter Tata, whose schoolgirl crush on the handsome Dimitri remained as strong as the day he had first walked through the door of the Gatchina villa two years earlier, ‘was thrilled to the core’ on learning that ‘my darling Dimitri’ was among the plotters, though downcast when she realised that not only would he miss Christmas but that it might be years before any of them would see him again.25

  Although Natasha had often talked to Dimitri about the need to get rid of Rasputin — as had Michael — neither were privy to the plot to murder him. But had Natasha, in particular, influenced his decision? Alexandra certainly thought so, believing that she and her ‘bad set’ bore some responsibility, hardly surprisingly since she included Dimitri among them. Five months earlier she had written to Nicholas about Dimitri: ‘Don’t let him go to that lady so often — such society is his ruin — nothing but flattery and he likes it…and don’t let him be too free with his tongue either.’26

  What would have confirmed her suspicions about Natasha’s role was that as soon as he arrived in faraway Persia, to begin his exile, Dimitri wrote to her in Gatchina. ‘Natasha, dearest, how often I remember now our charming conversations, how much I miss them, be happy and do not forget me…’27 A second letter arrived a month later in the same terms. ‘We are so far apart, 2,500 miles separate us, my lot is a miserable one…please don’t forget your sincerely devoted and truly loving friend.’28

  Both letters
were opened and read by the Okhrana before delivery, as Dimitri knew they would be. But neither contained any clue to her prior knowledge of the murder or anything said by either Michael or Natasha about Rasputin. Dimitri was too careful to compromise them in that way; in any event, by then all the talk in Petrograd was no longer about the dead and gone Rasputin, but what now should be done about Nicholas and Alexandra.

  9. PALACE PLOTTERS

  WHEN Michael and Natasha returned to Gatchina at the New Year of 1917 it was to find that the death of Rasputin had done nothing to ease tension, for it had provided drama but no other tangible improvement in political conditions. The government had not fallen, the hated Protopopov was still interior minister, claiming that he was now guided by Rasputin’s ghost,1 and Alexandra was still effectively Regent, grieving but otherwise unchanged in her purpose. The only desperate action had come from an officer who attempted to assassinate her on December 28 en route between the palace and her hospital in Tsarskoe Selo. Caught, he was hanged next morning, although his arrest and execution were kept ‘absolutely secret’.2

  Nevertheless, there was still hopes of a palace coup, as there had been before Christmas when there had been hot-headed talk by the three Vladimirovich brothers — Grand Dukes Kirill, Boris and Andrew — of a night march on Tsarskoe Selo by four Guards regiments. This excited plot, aimed at the seizure of Alexandra and her despatch to some faraway convent, came to nothing since only the three brothers believed it to be possible. Even so, they continued to press the case for it.

  At one champagne supper party, Boris was reported to have been discussing the timing and the regiments which could be used, seemingly indifferent to the fact that the whole conversation could be overheard by servants, gypsy singers and with ‘harlots looking on and listening’, noted Paléologue in his diary for January 9.3