Although Ernie’s letter had been a personal one, Nicholas decided he would be honest about it, and passed it on to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a sign that he had not been a party to any peace proposals. That was a mistake. For the rumours immediately started to spread.
‘In Russia everything is secret but nothing is hidden.’ And the terrible, tenacious rumour was born that the tsarina was a spy who was corresponding with the Germans and giving them military secrets. A rumour that for the country at large would become an explanation for the catastrophe at the front.
From Vyrubova’s testimony: ‘She [the tsarina] heard on more than one occasion from nurses and the wounded in the infirmaries that she, as a German, was suspected of spying by the people and the army.’
Although if anyone is to be suspected of divulging military secrets, it should probably be brother Ernie. His offer to begin peace negotiations strangely coincided with the secret preparation of a German counter-offensive. It was as if he were warning Alix: hurry! And soon after the rejection of Ernie’s offer, a powerful German offensive began in the second half of April. And a painful Russian retreat.
‘7 May 1915 … Went to A[nya] till 5, saw our Friend there — thinks much of you, prays, we sat and talked together, — and still God will help. It’s horrid not being with you at a time so full of heartache & anxiety.’
The rumours of treachery were naturally also linked to the hated elder. People started saying there were German spies in the circle of the constantly drunk Rasputin. And she heard that too in her infirmary.
She was tormented by the knowledge of how the commander-in-chief would use those vile rumours at Headquarters. Which is why in almost every letter to the tsar at Headquarters, she persisted in writing about Our Friend. And never failed to write his name with a capital letter, like that of a saint.
‘14 June 1915 … I send you a stick (fish holding a bird), wh. was sent to Him fr. New Athos to give to you — he used it first & now sends it to you as a blessing — if you can sometimes use it, wld. be nice & to have it in yr. compartment near the one Mr. Ph[ilippe] touched, is nice too.’ Thus did Our two Friends meet in Nicky’s compartment.
Against the background of the Russian army’s defeats, the rumours about secret negotiations with the Germans had alarmed the Allies. In the same letter of 14 June Alix wrote:
Paul came to tea & remained 1 & 3/4 hours, he was very nice & spoke honestly & simply, meaning well, not wishing to meddle with what does not concern him … Paleolog [the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue] dined with him a few days ago & then they had a long private talk & the latter tried to find out from him, very cleverly, whether he knew if you had any ideas about forming a separate peace with Germany, as he heard such things spoken about here, & as tho’ in France one had got wind of it … Paul answered that he was convinced it was not true … I said you were not dreaming of peace & knew it would mean revolution here & therefore the Germans are trying to egg it on.
No, Nicky was not thinking of betraying his allies, and had every intention of prosecuting the war to the end. The heavy losses, however, had forced him to consider calling up new conscripts in order to continue fighting. The call-up would have to send Rasputin’s only son into the army. ‘Says you will save your reign by not calling out the 2nd class now,’ Alix wrote in her letter of 14 June.
It was not only that Rasputin feared for his son. The peasant had gladdened her with information about the changed mood in the villages — that a new harvest of blood might bring on a revolution much more quickly than a separate peace. That is why, after writing the obligatory words about carrying the war to a victorious conclusion, she asked Nicky not to draft new conscripts, thereby covertly calling on him to think about ending the war.
Alix was at the time being openly spied upon. In her letter of 14 June she wrote that Mary Vassiltchikov [the Princess Vasilchikova, of the same last name as Ernie’s unfortunate courier] & family live in the green corner house & fr. her window she watches like a cat all the people, that go in & out of our house… [She] told C[ounte]ss Fred[ericks] that she saw Gr[igory] driving in — (odious). So to punish her, we went to A[nya] this evening by a round about way.’
Princess Vasilchikova was expelled from the capital. But rumours about the tsarina’s sneaking out of her own palace for meetings with the peasant had reached Headquarters. And Headquarters was given a scare. First the appearance of Ernie’s letter, and now the peasant, who had not long before warned of defeat and who detested the war. How great his influence had become if it made the tsarina forget her royal majesty and quit her own palace! And, finally, there were rumours that the peasant had been poisoning the tsarina against the commander-in-chief.
And the commander-in-chief decided to take the initiative.
Rasputin’s Merry Days
Dzhunkovsky had apparently been ordered to hurry up his report to the tsar. New information was being continously sent on from the agents to the chief of the gendarme corps.
26 April. Around 10:00 p.m. some unknown men and women began to gather along with the banker Rubinstein at Rasputin’s. At 11:00 guitar playing was heard. This continued until 2:00 a.m.
27 April. Rasputin was summoned to Tsarskoe Selo, but since he hadn’t had much sleep, Volynsky and the Baroness Kusova advised him not to go
looking like that. Between themselves they were of the view that ‘our elder has grown spoiled.’ They advised him to go back to bed for another two hours.
30 April. He brought a prostitute home with him.
2 June. He came home completely drunk at 10:00 p.m. Instead of going up to his apartment, he sent the porter for the masseuse Utkina, who lived in the same building. But it turned out she wasn’t home. Then he himself went to apartment 31 in the same building to the dressmaker Katya’s. Apparently she wouldn’t let him in, since soon afterwards he returned to the stairway and started making advances on the porter, asking her for a kiss. Freeing herself, she called his apartment, and the maid took him away.
But Dzhunkovsky’s chief blow was to be his report about the scandal at the Yar.
The Sacrificial List Is Open
Meanwhile, the brutal defeats continued. In May and June the Russian army withdrew from Galicia, Poland, and a part of the Baltic territories. By June Lvov, the ancient capital of Galicia, had been surrendered. The Germans had taken charge of the palace of the Austrian Hapsburgs.
‘12 June 1915 … William will now be sleeping in old Fr[anz] J[osef]’s bed wh. you occupied one night — I don’t like that, it’s humiliating, — but that one can bear … I hope to see our Friend a moment in the morning at Anias…that will do me good.’
The defeats at the front forced the commander-in-chief to continue more actively a favourite practice of Russian rulers: finding the people guilty of the failure. The best candidate for punishment was the war minister, Sukhomlinov. Not only was he disliked by the grand duke; the Duma also hated him for his devotion to the ‘tsars’. And the old minister was not merely held responsible for the shortage of cannon, shells, bullets, and uniforms; he was also a focus of the popular campaign of spy-hunting.
First, Sergei Myasoedov, the counter-intelligence chief and a man close to Sukhomlinov, was on the basis of a suspect denunciation charged with spying and executed. After which the shadow fell on the minister.
Prince Andronikov and Chervinskaya started hurrying among the salons. ‘I was sure Sukhomlinov was surrounded by a whole group of spies,’ Andronikov later explained to the Extraordinary Commission. Something similar was repeated by both the Duma opposition and the grand dukes. Andronikov used Rasputin, too. His voice was added to the popular chorus, and he threw his own stone at the minister. Manasevich egged him on: for once, Rasputin stood with everyone else. And the tsar yielded to the commander-in-chief’s demands and in June handed over Sukhomlinov. The old minister was removed from office, arrested, and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The peasant did not fully understand what had happened. The innocent
Sukhomlinov, accused of state treason, was the tsar’s first important sacrifice to public opinion and to the commander-in-chief. After it, new sacrifices would surely follow. But if the peasant did not grasp the implications, the tsarina did.
On 24 June she wrote to Nicky, Now others can think that public opinion is enough to clear out our Friend.’
‘Our Friend’s Enemies Are Ours’
The sad situation at the front demanded new decisions that would unite society. The commander-in-chief spoke constantly to the tsar about this. And persuaded the tsar to take a popular step — to nominate new ministers who would force the Duma to support the government. He explained that ‘a person with the German last name of Sabler cannot be chief procurator of the Most Holy Synod at a time of national hatred of Germans! Moreover, he is hated by the Duma.’ Nicholas knew that the Duma hated Sabler for his loyalty to Our Friend. But he understood that in everything else the commander-in-chief was right. It was decided to appoint Alexander Samarin, from an old aristocratic family and the head of the nobility in patriarchal Moscow, as the new chief procurator. The tsar agreed as well to changing the minister of internal affairs. It was decided to remove the Rasputin loyalist Maklakov. And to nominate the liberal Prince Scherbatov from a distinguished noble family — he was respected by both the opposition and the court. General Alexei Polivanov, who had once been close to Guchkov and was now close to the commander-in-chief, and who would also have to be approved by the Duma, was nominated minister of war.
But there was also a trap here. When the future ministers were summoned to Headquarters, they declared that they could not work productively so long as Grigory Rasputin remained in Petrograd.
The File, from the testimony of R. G. Mollov, appointed deputy minister of internal affairs under Scherbatov: ‘When I was offered the post of Deputy Minister of internal affairs, I immediately asked Prince Scherbatov, “What is the situation with Rasputin?” Scherbatov reassured me by saying that when he had accepted the post of minister of internal affairs, the sovereign had given him and the new chief procurator, Samarin, his word that Rasputin would never return from Siberia.’
The File, from the testimony of Yatskevich: ‘Samarin … set the condition of “the removal of all extraneous influences from church life”. The sovereign gave him a polite but evasive answer.’ That is the truth: the most well-bred of monarchs was polite with them. And nothing more. And Prince Scherbatov had fobbed off the wished-for as the actual. Tsars do not make promises to their subjects. Nicholas was merely availing himself of an of t-tried device: sending the peasant home for a while.
Nicholas returned to Tsarskoe Selo at the beginning of June. He told Alix nothing about the new ministers. Especially since the decision had not yet been made. But it was not for nothing that Rasputin had as allies Andronikov and Manasevich, both of whom had worked for the Synod. First Our Friend, and then Alix and the Friend, learned that Sabler was to be removed. They decided to ask Nicky to leave Sabler in place until Our Friend could find a suitable candidate.
Nicky was not inclined to explain to her that a candidate had already been found. Instead he talked to her about how summer was coming on. And how Grigory usually went home. And how in order to reduce the number of silly rumours about him, it would be a good thing for him to go back to Pokrovskoe now. So that in the autumn, when the situation at the front was better, he could come back. ‘The empress told me that it really was necessary for Rasputin to leave, and she added that the sovereign wished it, too,’ Yulia Dehn testified in the File.
Before leaving for Headquarters, the tsar summoned Sabler. But he did not have the resolve to tell him. The File, from the testimony of Yatskevich:
Sabler … was received by the sovereign with his latest report and, as always, treated affectionately … In answer to his question as to when he should give his next one, the sovereign said, ‘I shall write to you, I shall write.’ And then the conversation was broken off, since the heir had come into the study, as he always seemed to do whenever it was necessary to show someone the door. Sabler happily returned to his dacha, and around 8:00 received a note about his retirement: the sovereign wrote ‘that circumstances obliged him’, etc.
Thus was Samarin appointed. And the tsar had not been impolite.
The Wanderer Collects His Knapsack
Petrograd was soon afterwards filled with rumours of Grishka’s departure. And Manasevich and Andronikov expected that Rasputin would rush to the tsarina. But the peasant, to their astonishment, very calmly got ready to leave. More than that, he talked about how happy he was that he had at last been given permission to leave the capital. And he repeated something he had often told his devotees and that Zhukovskaya had written down:
What a joy is freedom. In the daytime you would chop down trees, and what trees we have! They have never seen the like here. And at night you would build a bonfire on the snow and we would all dance around it … you would throw off your shirt and go about naked in the frost, but the frost was no match for you! Here in your cities it’s just a heap of storm clouds, and not life! … The only reason I keep my strength is because I know that as soon as there’s some kind of commotion, then my knapsack’s on my back and my stick’s in my hand and I’m off.
Neither Manasevich nor Andronikov grasped that departure was in fact his strongest action. That they could not manage without him — not Alix, not the tsar, not the boy. And that they would always call him back. They would live in triviality for a while but they would call him back. They would give in.
Rasputin learned of the changes in the government on the day of his departure. It had turned out amusingly: one thing had been prepared, and something altogether different had resulted. He called Vyrubova to tell her. Anya limped off to the tsarina in horror. Now the peasant could rest easy. For he knew that Mama’ would not leave the tsar in peace.
On the evening of 15 June Rasputin set out for the village of Pokrovskoe.
The Tsarina’s Attack
Alix by then was already writing her first letter. She would now overwhelm Nicky with desperate letters. And in them He would demand, advise, and prophesy — Our Friend, who had no suspicion he was doing any such thing.
15 June 1915 …Town is so full of gossip, as tho’ all the ministers were being changed … & our Friend, to whom A[nya] went to bid goodbye, was most anxious to know what was true. (As though also Samarin instead of Sabler … certainly Samarin wld. go against our Friend…—he is so terribly Moscovite & narrowminded.) Well, A[nya] answered that I knew nothing. He gave over this message for you, that you are to pay less attention to what people will say to you, not let yourself be influenced by them but use yr. own instinct … He regrets you did not speak to Him more about all you think & were intending to do & speak about with yr. ministers & the changes you were thinking of making. He prays so hard for you and Russia & can help more when you speak to Him frankly. — I suffer hideously being away from you. 20 years we shared all together, & now grave things are passing, I do not know your thoughts nor decisions, & it’s such pain.
Nicky tried to assuage her anger, and wrote that everyone spoke of Samarin ‘as a pure and devout man’, etc. But she was implacable. 16 June. Just received yr. precious letter … Yes, Lovy, about Samarin I am much more than sad, simply in despair, just one of Ella’s not good, very bigoted clique [this about her beloved sister!]…now we shall have stories against our Friend beginning & all will go badly… that means Ella’s influence & worries fr. morn to night, & he against us, once against Gr[igory] … My heart feels like lead.’
And she let loose on poor Nicky an impassioned monologue:
16 June …I always remember what our Friend says & how often we do not enough heed His words. He was so much against yr. going to the Headquarters, because people get round you there & make you do things, wh. would have been better not done — here the atmosphere in your own house is a healthier one & you would see things more rightly — if only you would come back quicker…you see, I have abso
lutely no faith in N — know him to be far fr. clever & having gone against a Man of God’s, his work can’t be blessed, nor his advice be good… When Gr[igory] heard in town yesterday before He left, that Samarin was named…—He was in utter despair…now the Moscou set will be like a spider’s net around us, our Friend’s enemies are ours, & Schtcherbatov will make one with them, I feel sure. I beg your pardon for writing all this, but I am so wretched ever since I heard it & can’t get calm — I see now why Gr[igory] did not wish you to go there — here I might have helped you. People are afraid of my influence … because they know I have a strong will & sooner see through them & help you being firm. I should have left nothing untried to dissuade you, had you been here … & you would have remembered our Friend’s words. When He says not to do a thing & one does not listen, one sees one’s fault always afterwards…
I entreat you, at the first talk with S[amarin] & when you see him, to speak very firmly…for Russia’s sake — Russia will not be blessed if her Sovereign lets a man of God’s sent to help him — be persecuted, I am sure.
Tell him severely… that you forbid any intrigues against our Friend or talks about Him…otherwise you will not keep him…
Do not laugh at me, if you know the tears I have cried today…
Our first Friend [Philippe] gave me that Image with the bell to warn me against those, that are not right & it will keep them fr. approaching, I shall feel it & thus guard you from them — Even the family feel this & therefore try & get at you alone.
The Rasputin File Page 43