The Rasputin File

by Edvard Radzinsky

  Early the same morning Protopopov was awakened by a phone call. The mayor of Petrograd, Alexander Balk, informed him in a very worried voice that a constable standing on the Moika Canal had heard shots coming from the Yusupov palace. After which the constable had been called into the building and told by the Duma member Purishkevich, who was there, that Rasputin had been killed. Protopopov immediately called the building on Gorokhovaya Street and ascertained that Rasputin hadn’t spent the night there and still wasn’t back.

  Maria Golovina arrived at Gorokhovaya Street around eleven. She told Rasputin’s daughters that she had called the prince, but ‘they were still asleep there.’ Afterwards Munya testified that at the time she wasn’t concerned, since ‘Rasputin had asked the prince in my presence to take him to the Gypsies, and so knowing he had gone with him, I didn’t worry.’ Finally, around noon, Felix himself called her. And she reassured the daughters by telling them that Felix had given his word that he had not seen their father. What was her horror when the maid Katya swore to her that this was a lie! That Felix had come by for Rasputin during the night, and that she herself had seen him in the apartment.

  Golovina immediately called Vyrubova at her little house in Tsarskoe Selo.

  The File, from the testimony of the medical orderly Zhuk: ‘They called around 12:00 p.m. and said that Rasputin had left and not come back. Vyrubova immediately informed the palace, and there was a great deal of anxiety and constant discussion with Petrograd.’

  Protopopov was in continuous contact with Tsarskoe Selo at the time. He passed on to the empress and Vyrubova the information given to him by the constable about the events at the Yusupov palace. Then on the morning of 17 December Protopopov summoned General Popov and ordered him to open an investigation at once. So under the number 573 an order was issued to General Popov ‘to conduct an inquiry into the matter of the disappearance of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin’, and to do so, moreover, in absolute secret.

  The Impatient Visitors

  Early that same morning visitors appeared at Rasputin’s apartment, visitors who were very interested in the papers left behind by their vanished owner.

  From the interrogation of Manasevich by the Extraordinary Commission:

  ‘Were you at Rasputin’s apartment the night he disappeared?’

  ‘I was there in the morning … I arrived…and there was a commotion. Simanovich had arrived with Bishop Isidor and said they had been to the police chief, where everything had taken place.’

  ‘Did you go through his papers?’

  ‘They weren’t my concern,’ Manasevich naturally testified.

  ‘Did Protopopov visit Rasputin’s apartment while you were there?’

  ‘Not while I was there.’

  (Protopopov had evidently been there before Manasevich and the others.) From Protopopov’s interrogation:

  ‘There is a rumour that you were at his apartment immediately after the murder.’

  ‘Never… after all, the police were there.’

  But the minister of internal affairs, taking into account Rasputin’s relations with him and the ‘tsars’, had simply had no choice but to get there ahead of the police and everyone else. As soon as he had learned of Rasputin’s disappearance. So that after the visits to the apartment of all those inquisitive guests, no important papers whatever could have remained to be found.

  Events had meanwhile taken a turn. At 2:00 p.m. General Popov received information that there were bloodstains on Great Petrovsky Bridge over the Malaya Nevka river, and that a brown boot had been found lodged in a wall of the bridge’s foundation. At 3:00 p.m. the same afternoon, the boot was shown to Rasputin’s daughters, and they ‘recognized it as belonging to their father’.

  ‘I Cannot And Won’t Believe He Has Been Killed ’

  By then rumours had already begun to spread through the city. The presumed death of the favourite excited all of high society. Grand dukes, ambassadors, ministers, the royal family at Tsarskoe Selo — all were passionately discussing the rumours of the death of the semi-literate peasant from the Siberian village.

  From the diary of the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich:

  17 December … At 5:30, two phone calls — one from Princess Trubetskaya, the other from the British ambassador Buchanan…They told me that Grigory Rasputin was killed last night. The unexpected news stunned me, and I rushed by automobile to my brother Alexander’s home on the Moika Canal in order to find out what was going on [so evidently he had been told not only about the murder, but also about the fact that Felix, who was living at his brother Alexander’s at the time, was suspected of it]. A servant informed me that Felix would be coming back late.

  But the grand duke knew where to get information. He went to the seditious Yacht Club. That day the club was packed. Numerous carriages and automobiles were waiting by the entrance. And that whole aristocratic anthill was anxiously buzzing.

  ‘I went to dine at the club, where the only thing being talked about was Grishka’s disappearance,’ he recorded.

  ‘Towards the end of dinner, Dmitry Pavlovich came in, pale as death, although I didn’t talk to him, since he sat down at another table … [Prime Minister] Trepov was arguing for everyone to hear that it was all nonsense… But Dmitry Pavlovich declared to others that, in his opinion, Rasputin had either gone off somewhere or been killed … We sat down to cards, while Dmitry Pavlovich went to the French-language Mikhailov Theatre.’ So everyone got the required information. For somehow they all knew that Dmitry was somehow involved.

  At the time the Friend had moved to the palace at the tsarina’s demand.

  From Zhuk’s testimony in the File: ‘Vyrubova started staying overnight at the palace at the empress’s orders. They were afraid she too might be killed, since she…had begun receiving threatening letters a year before Rasputin’s murder … They were especially … afraid of the young grand dukes. I was ordered not to admit any of the grand dukes…The inside shutters in Vyrubova’s apartment were changed.’

  Alix suspected that it was only the beginning of a reprisal against ‘ours’ by the Romanov youth. And on the afternoon of the 17th, she wrote to the tsar:

  We are sitting together — can imagine our feelings — thoughts — our Friend has disappeared. Yesterday A[nya] saw him & he said Felix asked him to come in the night, a motor wld. fetch him to see Irina…

  This night big scandal at Yusupov’s house — big meeting, Dmitri, Purishkevitch etc. all drunk, Police heard shots, Purishkevitch ran out screaming to the Police that our Friend was killed.

  Police searching…

  Felix wished to leave tonight for Crimea, begged Kalinin [Protopopov] to stop him

  Felix pretends He never came to the house & never asked him. Seems like quite a paw [a trap]. I still trust in God’s mercy that one has only driven Him off somewhere…

  I cannot & won’t believe He has been killed. God have mercy…

  … come quickly — nobody will dare to touch her [Anya] or do anything when you are here.

  Felix came often to him lately…

  From her telegram of 17 December 1916: ‘We still hope in God’s mercy. Felix and Dmitri implicated ’

  Tsarskoe Selo knew by evening that both men were implicated.

  From the memoirs of Princess Olga, Dmitry’s stepmother:

  On Saturday evening, December 17/30, a concert was given in Tsarskoe Selo … Around eight o’clock the phone rang. An instant later Vladimir [her son from her marriage to the grand duke] ran into my room: ‘It’s the end of the elder. They just called me. Lord, now we can breathe easier. The details still aren’t known. He did in any case disappear twenty-four hours ago. It may be we’ll find out something at the concert’ … I shall never forget that evening. No one listened either to the concert or to the performers. During the intermission, I noticed that the gazes directed at us were especially intent. But at the time I still hadn’t guessed why.

  Finally, one of her friends told her. ‘ “It appears those
responsible for the affair are from the highest aristocracy. Felix Yusupov, Purishkevich, and the grand duke have been named” My heart stopped. By evening’s end Dmitry’s name was on everyone’s lips.’

  The Case Of The Missing Peasant Grigory Rasputin

  The morning of the 18th came and Rasputin still had not been found. Felix was unable to leave for the Crimea that day. He had been invited to give testimony in the case of ‘the missing peasant Rasputin’ under General Popov’s charge. For three days beginning on 17 December General Popov conducted continuous interrogations along with Colonel Popel. Among the interrogated were the two constables who had been standing that night near the Yusupov palace, Rasputin’s two daughters, the maid, Rasputin’s niece, and Maria Golovina.

  And Felix himself was interrogated on 18 December by Minister of Justice Makarov. Felix’s testimony is especially interesting, since it was given while the trail was still warm — the day after.

  But on 19 December, the third day of the inquiry, Protopopov suddenly issued an order immediately terminating the case and he appropriated all the depositions. After the fall of the Romanovs, the case file lay in the archive, and then it vanished. In 1928 a certain Vasiliev died in Paris in great poverty. He had been the last director of the Department of Police. Surviving him and published soon afterwards was the manuscript of a book he had written about the tsarist secret police. And in the book he quoted (with errors) certain documents from the missing file. The documents (together with the errors) from his book thereafter made their way into many of the works about Rasputin.

  It turns out, however, that the case file itself was published. Immediately after the February Revolution, the magazine Times Past printed the file in an issue devoted to the most sensational documents of the fallen regime.

  We shall compare the testimony in the case file with the story of the murder created by the murderers Purishkevich and Yusupov. A story that has generally been accepted.

  And that case file, along with other documents, will help us to establish a true picture of the mysterious Yusupov night.

  The Police Account

  According to the case file, when Felix was personally interrogated by Minister of Justice Makarov, the inquiry already had at its disposal the most interesting testimony of the two constables. The testimony of both men is contained in the case file.

  The forty-eight-year-old constable, Stepan Vlasyuk, who was on duty not far from the Yusupov palace, reported: ‘Around three or four in the morning I heard three or four shots quickly following one another.’ Vlasyuk went up to the constable Efimov, who was on duty nearby on the other side of the Moika canal.

  [In answer]’To my question as to where the shooting had been, Efimov indicated the Yusupov palace.’ Vlasyuk set off for the palace. Next to it he met the building custodian. But the latter said he hadn’t heard any shots. ‘At the time,’ Vlasyuk testified, ‘I saw crossing the courtyard in the direction of the gate two men in military jackets but no hats, in whom I recognized Prince Yusupov and his butler Buzhinsky. I asked the latter what the shooting had been. He replied that he hadn’t heard any shots.’ After which Vlasyuk, his mind now set at ease, went back to his post. ‘I didn’t inform anyone about what had happened, because I had heard such sounds before from bursting automobile tyres. But after fifteen or twenty minutes, Buzhinsky came over to me and said that Prince Yusupov was asking for me. No sooner had I crossed the threshold of Prince Yusupov’s study than he came to meet me with someone I didn’t know with a reddish beard and moustache … and a khaki military jacket.’

  Vlasyuk then related a remarkable conversation.

  The person asked me, ‘Have you ever heard of Purishkevich?’ ‘I have.’

  ‘I am Purishkevich. And have you ever heard of Rasputin? Well, Rasputin is dead. And if you love our mother Russia, you’ll keep quiet about it.’ ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘You can go now.’

  ‘About twenty minutes later, Kalyadin, the district police officer, came to me and I reported everything to him.’

  A Woman’s Cry And A

  Mysterious Automobile

  The second constable, Fyodor Efimov, across the canal from the Yusupov palace, was fifty-nine years old — an old, experienced policeman. He reported:

  ‘At 2: 30 a.m. I heard a shot, and three or four seconds later, I heard the sound of three or four more shots in quick succession. After the first shot, I heard a not loud cry, as if from a woman.’

  In reply to the investigator’s question about an automobile arriving at or leaving the palace after the shots were fired, Efimov reported, ‘For twenty or thirty minutes no automobile or horse cab passed along the Moika. It was only a half hour later… that an automobile drove past, although it didn’t stop anywhere.’

  We shall remember that both policemen watching the building testified about having heard three or four shots at the Yusupov palace. And that Efimov, the one who was closer, also heard ‘a not loud cry, as if from a woman’. And one other important detail — that no automobile went to the palace after the shots. The only automobile seen was one that drove from the direction of the palace half an hour after the shots.

  The inquiry had this testimony to hand when Felix Felixovich — Prince Yusupov and Count Sumarokov-Elston — was interrogated on 18 December. After telling the story of his acquaintance with Rasputin, Felix turned to ‘that evening’.

  ‘It Was The Grand Duke Who Had Killed The Dog’

  At the time I was redoing … a room in my house on the Moika … and the Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich suggested I have a house-warming party. It was decided to invite to it Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich and several officers and society ladies. The party was planned for 16 December … For reasons you can readily understand, I don’t want to give the names of the officers and ladies; it could damage them and give rise to false rumours. In order not to hamper my guests, I ordered the servants to lay out everything for tea and supper … and then not come in. The majority of the guests were supposed to come not by the front door …but by the side entrance … to which I had my own key. Those who gathered drank tea and danced. Around 12:30 Rasputin called from somewhere … inviting us to go to the Gypsies. To which the guests responded with jokes and wisecracks…Rasputin wouldn’t tell me where he was calling from. But voices could be heard over the phone, as well as a woman’s squeal.

  Makarov could have tripped Felix up here with the testimony of Rasputin’s household. But the minister did not dare impugn a kinsman of the tsar with the testimony of a servant and a peasant’s daughters. And the prince continued:

  Around 2–2:30 a.m. the … ladies were ready to go home, and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich went with them … After they had left, I heard shots in the courtyard. I went into the courtyard and saw a dog lying dead by the gate. His imperial highness subsequently informed me that it was he who had killed the dog … After that I called in the constable from the street and told him that if anyone should ask about the shots, to say that a friend of mine had killed a dog.

  A question apparently then followed about Purishkevich’s words to the constable. The prince’s answer is amusing.

  After that Purishkevich, who was in my study, started speaking. I didn’t catch everything he said …In regard to the constable’s testimony that Purishkevich allegedly told him in my study that Rasputin had been killed, Purishkevich was drunk, and I don’t recall what he said … I wasn’t at Rasputin’s on the 16th either in the afternoon or in the evening, as my guests and servants can corroborate. Some people have given serious thought to a murder plan and have linked it to me and the party in my home.

  A Sensation At The Station

  Felix had sent similar testimony to the tsarina the day before. Afterwards, on the evening of 18 December, he finally got ready to take the train to the Crimea. But…

  From the diary of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich for 18 December:

  The next day, still not having seen Yusupov, I learned that Felix…and my nephews were le
aving for the Crimea. But the rumours continued unabated all day, and A. F. Trepov informed me on the 18th by telephone that very probably Rasputin really had been killed, and that Dmitry Pavlovich, Felix Yusupov, and Purishkevich had been persistently named as involved in the murder … I breathed more easily and quietly sat down to play cards, glad that scoundrel would be causing no more harm, but afraid Trepov’s information might be false.

  At 9:00 p.m. I visited my nephews and bade them farewell … What was my surprise when at 10:30 Felix called me up and said that he had been detained by a gendarme officer at Nikolaev Station, and that he very much asked that I drop by to see him. Felix was already in bed. I spent half an hour with him listening to his confidences.

  Felix repeated verbatim to Nikolai Mikhailovich the story that he had told Minister of Justice Makarov. But the grand duke already knew about the rumours.

  ‘I listened to his narrative in silence and then told him the following: his fiction wouldn’t stand up to any criticism, and that… he was the murderer.’

  The next morning all Petrograd was abuzz with the sensational news that Prince Yusupov had been detained the night before at the Nikolaev Station. That the train to the Crimea had left without him.

  ‘I Greet You, Gentlemen Murderers!’

  Felix had not merely been detained; he had been placed under house arrest. The tsarina had demanded that the inquiry get the truth. Grand Duke Dmitry had been placed under house arrest, too. But the arrest was a highly peculiar one. Felix moved to Dmitry’s house the next day, which gave them the opportunity to work out a common story in anticipation of the investigator’s summons. But they wouldn’t be summoned by the investigator any more. The tsar was fond of history. And he remembered the events of the French revolution. The public examination of the case implicating Marie Antoinette in the theft of the queen’s necklace had been the prologue of the end of Louis XVI. That is why when Rasputin’s corpse came to the river’s surface on 19 December, General Popov was ordered to end the inquiry.