The Rasputin File

by Edvard Radzinsky

  Of course the tsar had offered it — the peasant had spoken such desired words!

  He continued his scandalous merry-making on the way to Pokrovskoe — he was celebrating his victory. The agents reported:

  On 9 August at 11:00 he boarded the steamboat, where he took a separate cabin, and set out for Pokrovskoe. He emerged drunk from his cabin about an hour later and went to see the soldiers of the local escort detachment, who were travelling on the same steamboat. Giving them twenty-five roubles, he made them sing songs … He withdrew to his cabin … When he came back he gave the soldiers one hundred roubles … the singing grew louder, and Rasputin joined in. The singing continued until 1:00, and [then] he took the soldiers to second class, meaning to treat them to dinner. But the captain would not allow the lower ranks to be present. He then ordered them dinner, paid for it, and sang again. Then he started arguing with the passengers, ran into the steamboat waiter, and calling him a crook, said that he had stolen three thousand roubles from him. After the captain told him that on their arrival a police report would be filled out, he withdrew to his cabin. Resting his head on a little table by the open window, he muttered something to himself for a long time, while the public ‘admired’ him. Rasputin fell from the table to the floor and lay on the floor the rest of the way to the village of Pokrovskoe.

  At 8:00 p.m. the agents and two deckhands carried Rasputin ashore, where the four heaved the dead drunk peasant into a wagon, which took him home. The captain filled out a police report at public insistence.

  On August 10, the agents reported: ‘Rasputin, ah-ing in amazement that he had got drunk so quickly — he had only had three bottles of wine, added, “Oh-oh, dear fellow, it didn’t turn out so good!” The Tobolsk governor, Stankevich, who hated Rasputin, immediately exchanged letters with Petrograd, and after receiving Dzhunkovsky’s happy consent, at once proceeded with the case. To his own ruin.’

  ‘The case was supposed to be heard at the district court and Tsarskoe Selo was very agitated about it,’ Beletsky recalled. But Rasputin wasn’t worried. When he heard that the governor meant to hold him in custody for three months for drunkenness and harassment of the other passengers, Rasputin, according to the agents’ reports, ‘merely spat and said, “What is the governor to me!”’

  He was right. The poor governor was unfamiliar with Rasputin’s law: it was enough to attack him, for … So Stankevich had assured his own future dismissal. In Tsarskoe Selo Our Friend would explain, not without mockery, that ‘I was not drunk…I was treating the new draftees out of patriotic considerations.’

  ‘Where Are We Heading,

  Where Are We Heading?’

  Society had been agitated the whole of August. At the beginning of the month sensational rumours had begun spreading in the circles close to the throne, rumours they were afraid to credit. And then a strange letter was received by Felix and Irina Yusupov in the Crimea.

  The war had caught the Yusupovs in Germany in 1914. They had miraculously escaped arrest by the Germans and had managed to take the last train leaving for Russia. Since then, a happy event had occurred in the life of the young Yusupovs: the beauty Irina had given birth to a daughter. Irina and the infant were both frequently ill. And taking refuge from the terrible Petrograd climate, Irina and her daughter had been living in the Crimea at Ai-Tudor, Irina’s father’s estate. In August 1915, Felix joined them there from Petrograd, where he had been in military training.

  It was then that Felix’s mother, Zinaida Yusupova, sent her son from Petrograd via a trusted messenger an enigmatic letter that proved highly disturbing to him.

  ‘9 August … In general, it is all vile and especially in the sphere of the Validols. The “Book” has tremendous influence, and in a few days it will manifest itself in the area of a great change … I do not yet dare write about this and am not even supposed to know, but in my opinion it will all be disastrous. If you haven’t, then Irina has probably guessed what I’m talking about. I’m tired out from writing such a complicated letter … the Validol instead of Bonheur.’

  The letter was written in code, and the mother, not trusting the quickness of her son, was relying on the intelligent Irina. I think she easily decoded it. We too shall attempt her work of the remote past.

  ‘Validol’ derives from the word vali, which is what rulers were called by the Ottoman Turks — an Egyptian pasha, a Moldavian overlord. It was Zinaida’s name for the tsar and the royal family. The ‘Book’ was Rasputin, who was always quoting from the good book. ‘Bonheur’ (‘Luck’) was Nikolai Nikolaevich, since that was what he had been called at court during the previously lucky days of the war.

  And so, on 9 August she had informed her son that ‘In general it is all vile and especially in the royal family. Rasputin has tremendous influence, and in a few days it will manifest itself in the area of a great change. I do not yet dare write about this and am not even supposed to know, but in my opinion it will all be disastrous…The tsar instead of Nikolai Nikolaevich.’ It’s always the same: ‘In Russia everything is secret but nothing is hidden.’ The court already knew everything.

  The news of the removal of the grand duke as commander-in-chief, who was so popular with the army, produced universal shock. And like Zinaida, everyone believed that Rasputin was behind it.

  From the testimony of Prince Scherbatov:

  The decision to make himself commander-in-chief (even though he had been saying for two weeks that such a thing was out of the question) was explained as the influence of the empress and Rasputin. But I think that he, being a weak-willed person, was always afraid of anyone with too great a role, whether Stolypin, or the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. We did not suppose that the tsar had any tactical or strategic abilities, or that he would introduce anything useful in the military sense. But that he would introduce into Headquarters those negative qualities the court always introduces into the military milieu. Furthermore, his presence at Headquarters made proper government of the country technically impossible. If the ministers were going back and forth to Headquarters, even if just once a week, that would each week deprive any government of more than two days.

  He was right about that. After the tsar’s departure for Headquarters, the government of the country would gradually be transferred to her hands. Her dream had become a reality.

  And it began. Dzhunkovsky recalled that he had already grasped his fate on 10 August ‘from what Rasputin told my agent in Pokrovskoe. He said, “Well, your Dzhunkovsky,” and whistled. And on 16 August there was a note from the sovereign saying I was to leave.’ By the middle of August the newspapers were already full of rumours that ‘a reshuffling at the very highest ranks’ was in the offing.

  Nicholas left for Headquarters near the end of August to inform the ‘dread uncle’ of his removal. How afraid Alix was that he would change his mind, and how she prayed that he would not!

  22 Aug. 1915 … God anointed you at your coronation, he placed you where you stand & you have done your duty…

  All is for the good, as our Friend says, the worst is over … shall wire to Friend tonight…—&He will particularly think of you …

  The meeting with N. won’t be agreeable — you did trust him & now you know, what months ago our Friend said, that he was acting wrongly towards you & your country & wife…

  God is with you& our Friend for you — all is well — & later all will thank you for having saved your country … The left are furious because all slips through their hands & their cards are clear to us & the game they wished to use Nikolasha for.

  Just before his departure, Alix gave Nicky a little comb that had belonged to Grigory. ‘23 Aug. 1915 … Remember to comb your hair before all difficult talks & decisions, the little comb will bring its help.’

  But the dowager empress (‘Aunt Minnie’, as she was called in the great Romanov family) understood it all. She had no illusions about the peasant’s role.

  From the diary of Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich:

  24 Au
gust … In the afternoon I went to see Aunt Minnie … Found her in a despondent state … She believes the removal of Nikolai Nikolaevich will lead to inevitable ruin. She kept asking, ‘Where are we heading? Where are we heading? It is not Nicky, not he … He is sweet, honest, and kind. It is she. She alone is responsible for all that is happening …’ She also added that it reminds her of the times of Emperor Paul, who in his last year started sending away all the people who were devoted to him, and our great-grandfather’s sad end haunts her in all this horror.

  From Aunt Minnie’s diary: ‘21 August … All my words have been to no avail…There is no room in my brain for all this.’

  On 25 August Nicky informed Alix from Headquarters of the most difficult conversation of his life.

  Thanks be to God, it’s all over. And here I am with this new responsibility on my shoulders, but let God’s will be done! … The whole morning of that memorable day, 23 August … I prayed a great deal and endlessly reread your first letter. The closer the moment of our meeting, the more did peace reign in my soul. N. came in with a warm, cheerful smile and simply asked when I would order him to leave. I answered in the same style that he could remain another two days. Then we talked about matters pertaining to the military operations, about some of the generals, and so on, and that was it.

  Just as they had meant to send Grigory’s enemy Stolypin off to serve as governor-general of the Caucasus, now the tsar was sending another of the peasant’s deposed enemies there.

  But the tsarina would battle with Nikolai Nikolaevich until the end, until the very revolution itself. Soon afterwards (on 15 September 1915) she would write, ‘I find he is taking far too big a suite…I very much dread they will try to continue making messes.’

  ‘Ours’ Take Action

  And so, Rasputin was living in Pokrovskoe, waiting for the completion of the palace coup. And it truly was a coup. The commander-in-chief had fallen. And along with him the highly important minister of internal affairs and the head of the Department of Police had been removed from their posts. And, according to Alix’s plan (although the tsar did not know it yet), Chief Procurator Samarin of the Holy Synod was also to fall.

  The peasant proposed ‘our’ candidates to her for minister of internal affairs and chief of the Department of Police. Everything that had been thought out on Gorokhovaya Street at the beginning of the year was now coming to pass. And those who were bringing it to pass were the new rulers: the tsarina and the Friend and their absent chief assistant, our Friend. Or, more precisely, his man, Prince Andronikov, with whom Rasputin had discussed everything during the three days he was in the capital. Immediately after Grigory’s departure, the ‘dubious prince’ was received by Vyrubova.

  The File, from Vyrubova’s testimony: ‘I met [the prince] not long before he brought Khvostov to see me … He was a scented person of servile behaviour and dyed facial hair who always brought a mass of rumours, flowers, and candy.’ But then he brought Khvostov, the future minister of internal affairs, to her for a look.

  From Alix’s letter to Nicky of 29 August: ‘Beloved, A[nya] just saw Andr[onikov] & Khvostov & the latter made her an excellent impression.’

  After which Andronikov, that shady ‘scented and dyed’ personage, passed on a list of candidates for the head of the church to the tsarina herself!

  From Alix’s letter to Nicky of 7 September: ‘Well, Dear, here are a list of names, very little indeed, who might replace Samarin. Ania got them through Andronikov.’

  The tsarina wanted people who were loyal. But she was afraid that Nicky would err. He had erred so many times before: Stolypin, Kokovtsev, Dzhunkovsky, and so on. And now she had decided to take care of the ministers herself. But how not to err? Very simple. Follow the rule reiterated many times in her letters: only he should be a minister who believed in and was devoted to the man of God. For that would automatically mean devotion to and faith in ‘Mama’, since the wishes of the ‘man of God’ always coincided with her own. Such must the ministers be now! But since she and Anya did not know any such people, the novice stateswomen sagely decided to rely on Grigory. And Grigory, although leaving the capital, had sent the ‘scented and dyed’ Andronikov to help them.

  But what kind of candidates had Andronikov presented in Grigory’s name? The first was Beletsky, whom they had intended as early as the beginning of the year to make the head of the Department of Police. But there was a certain difficulty with the minister of internal affairs. Andronikov had proposed Rasputin’s old acquaintance Alexei Khvostov, the same young Nizhny Novgorod governor Rasputin and Sazonov had visited on the eve of Stolypin’s murder.

  The Road To Power, 1915-Style

  In the four years since that visit, Khvostov had left the post of governor, retired from the service, and been elected to the Duma. He had, however, remained just as jolly, fat, and ruddy-cheeked as before. In the Duma, he had become the leader of a rightist faction whose members proudly wore on their lapels the pin of the anti-Semitic organization Union of the Russian People. His anti-Semitic speeches had been very well received in Tsarskoe Selo. As Khvostov later explained to the investigators of the Extraordinary Commission, ‘I took up German espionage and German domination. That question interested me to the highest degree.’ It would have been hard to find a better candidate — a man of the Duma yet a leader of the right and an indomitable foe of German espionage, which, in view of the rumours circulating around Rasputin and the tsarina, was no small matter. And, finally, Khvostov was a Russian, which was highly important, given the unfortunate predominance of German last names at court.

  Andronikov knew Khvostov well, as of course he did more or less all important people. And he knew that Khvostov would accept any conditions to ascend Olympus with such speed. And after his conversation with Khvostov, it seemed that Andronikov was able to persuade Rasputin of it, too. For the peasant remembered the reception that Khvostov had given him. But Andronikov apparently convinced him that the old haughty Khvostov no longer existed. There was a new Khvostov, who understood that in order to be minister, he would have to serve Our Friend.

  Rasputin’s wavering was decisively overcome by the prince’s proposal to appoint Beletsky, whom Rasputin had already met and of whose loyalty he was assured, under Khvostov. Beletsky would take responsibility for the Department of Police away from Khvostov and, it follows, responsibility for Rasputin’s security along with it. So the candidacy was a superb one. And after meeting Vyrubova, Khvostov proceeded to the tsarina. ‘The empress received me graciously and hinted … that, although I was not without fault as far as Rasputin was concerned, she was sure that my eyes had been opened … and she would not stand in the way of my nomination, providing Rasputin’s security remained with Beletsky.’

  While Anya and the tsarina were talking over future nominations with Andronikov, a dangerous event occurred in the Duma.

  The Peasant Unites The Haters

  Society and the Duma were full of rumours leaking from the palace. The removal of the grand duke had created a new reality. There was a new commander-in-chief who was considered incapable of heading the army, and there was Prime Minister Goremykin, an old man completely under the tsarina’s thumb who was considered incapable of heading the government. And there were persistent rumours about impending nominations that, in the tsar’s absence, would become the prerogative of the tsarina. That threatened the creation of a cabinet of ‘dark forces’. One that would, it was believed, operate with the prime minister’s responsibilities assigned to the semi-literate peasant. Who was about to return to the capital.

  On 25 August 1915, the Progressive Bloc was formed in the Duma. The struggle against the ‘dark forces’ had accomplished the impossible. It had united all those extremely disparate and at times mutually hostile people. It comprised 300 deputies out of a possible 442. The Bloc was supposed to remove the ‘dark forces’ (Rasputin and the tsarina) from power without repercussions, and lead the country to the creation of a truly constitutional monarchy. And
to that end to secure the retirement from the government of Goremykin and the creation of ‘a government of confidence’ that would be answerable to the Duma. The Bloc’s slogan was: ‘The masses remain calm — the Duma speaks for them.’

  At the same time, Guchkov was preparing in the Duma a resolution of inquiry regarding Rasputin’s scandal at the Yar. It was then that Khvostov demonstrated that his recommendation by Our Friend’s envoy had not been in vain. ‘Khvostov said that …are solution of inquiry was being prepared in the Duma. They had asked Khvostov for his signature, but he refused and observed that if the question were raised, the amnesty [the tsar’s amnesty for convicts was then being considered] would not be granted. They thought it over … and rejected the resolution,’ Vyrubova testified. On 30 August 1915, Alix wrote to Nicky, ‘Guchkov ought to be got rid of, only how is the question, wartime — is there nothing one could hook on to have him shut up…but it’s loathsome to see his game, his speeches & underhand work … [They] say he [Rasputin] lives at T[sarskoe] S[elo], as before they said we had Ernie here.’

  The most preposterous rumours were abroad in the capital, while Our Friend remained as before in Pokrovskoe awaiting the promised changes. All that time he fought for his son’s release from the draft. He realized that his pitiful, weak-minded son would perish at the front. And he sent his wife Praskovia to Petrograd to entreat the tsars to leave his son at home. And he sent pleading telegrams and petitions. And in her next letter Alix again asked Nicky, ‘Can you not find out when his province is called up & let know at once? Does it concern His son? Please, answer as quickly as you can.’ On 30 August she repeated her request. ‘I enclose a petition from our Friend, you write your decision upon it, I think it certainly might be done.’