To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin (Revealing History)

by Cook, Andrew

  There have often been rumours of Rasputin’s death. As recently as March, the Times, for instance, published a telegram from Bucharest announcing his murder. It will, therefore, be suggested that this is another rumour, and that after a few weeks of retirement he will reappear.

  What then is the evidence that differentiates this case from the groundless rumours of the past?

  It should be stated at once that the story is officially denied. The denial, however, is half-hearted, and given with conflicting details. The official answer was at first that nothing had happened. It now seems to have been modified to the extent of admitting that something has happened, that Rasputin has been wounded, but that he is going on well.

  I am informed that an inquiry at his flat in the English Prospekt brought the answer that on Friday evening, the 29th December, he left in a motor with an unknown officer and has not since been seen. In the meanwhile, interested people seem to be purposely spreading fantastic and impossible rumours with the object of discrediting the whole story. The fact that no one has seen Rasputin’s body goes to support all these official denials and contradictions.

  The following facts, however, seem to afford overwhelming proof for the fact of Rasputin’s death.

  In the first place, the whole of Russia regards it as established beyond doubt. The news published in the Bourse Gazette has already been circulated through the provinces. The mysterious telegrams that are already appearing in the Petrograd press show how widespread is the conviction of the truth of the announcement.

  Secondly, Rasputin’s entourage is in a state of deep depression and great anxiety. His flat is filled with commotion and lamentation. His principal supporter at Court, Madame Vyrubova, has refused to leave her rooms and the guard of secret police outside them has been trebled.

  Far more conclusive, however, than this hearsay evidence is the attitude of the Petrograd press. The Bourse Gazette would never have risked its existence for a rumour. Even had it done so, a mere rumour would not account for the meeting that was held on the evening of the 30th December of representative of all the Petrograd press, at which they discussed the question as to what policy they should adopt with reference to the publication of the news. The matter was decided for them, for during the conference they received a notice from the censorship, forbidding any publication of the event. None the less, both on the 31st December and 1st January there have appeared numerous indirect and mysterious references to the murder in most of the Petrograd papers. For instance, in the Novoe Vremya in a remote corner and in small print there is the following paragraph:

  On December 30th, at the Zeloti Concert, as a result of a unanimous request, in view of events that are taking place, the National Anthem was sung amidst tumultuous applause.

  Still more marked in the Ruskaya Volya there are no less than four more remarkable references to the event. It should be remembered that the Ruskaya Volya is a new daily paper that has just appeared, and that it is supposed to have particularly close connections with the Government. In addition to a poem, the motif of which are the words ‘rasputin’ and ‘novikh’ (Rasputin’s names, and also the word for ‘rake’ and the genitive plural of the work ‘new’), there are two leading articles in which the clearest reference is made to the news. In the first of them, Alexander Amphiteatrov, the editor, ends with the following words:

  ‘I wrote so far, and then there came the news of the Bourse Gazette! In its big type was announced the sensational news that there had passed from the scene of life the strangest and the most notorious embodiment of the present reactionary might.’

  The second article, entitled ‘Short Chronicle,’ deals in detail with the great excitement in Petrograd and states that never had the city passed through so nervous a day; never had the telegraph worked so incessantly as on Saturday, December 30th.

  ‘Yesterday was the great day. About it no one can say more.’

  Again, on page 6, there is a paragraph of twenty lines, headed:

  Shooting in the Street.

  Yesterday about six o’clock near the house of Prince Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston, Moika 94, several revolver shots in succession were heard in the neighbourhood of a motor car that was standing close by.

  The shooting was heard by a constable of the 3rd Kazan District and other constables who were standing on the opposite side of the Moika in the direction of the Admiralty District police station. The Kazan police station constable hurried to the spot and as he approached, the motor car went off at great speed.

  It is supposed that a number of young men, after a good supper, had shot into the air.

  On January 1st these references became more explicit. The Rech, for instance, published in its ‘Latest News’the following paragraphs:

  At three o’clock on the night of December 30th, a constable standing at the point opposite the Kazan section of the Ofitsersky Street, heard cries and a noise issuing from the garden of No. 21. At the same time, constables standing on their points upon the Moika Quay, not far from the Prachashnaya Bridge, also heard the noise from the same garden, that looks out upon the Moika. The garden at 21, Ofitsersky Street, stretches almost to the bank of the Moika and is enclosed on the side of the quay by a two-storied house, No. 92, belonging to Prince Yusupov. The next house to No. 92 also belongs to the same owner.

  The constable in the Ofitsersky Street, some time after hearing the cries, saw several men coming out of the garden gate of No. 21. He tried to find out what had happened, but did not succeed.

  A short time after this a motor car was noticed to arrive at the garden and seen afterwards to leave it.

  According to the statements of passers by, another motor car arrived at the same garden from the Moika side about 3 o’clock. An examination shows that there were bloodstains upon the snow in the garden. The manager of the house declared that this was the blood of a dog that went mad during the night and was shot. Samples of the snow with the blood have been taken for examination.

  In the course of December 30th, the news arrived that a mysterious motor car had been seen at the Petrovsky Island during the night. On December 31st the river was examined in the neighbourhood of the Petrovsky Bridge. A freshly made hole in the ice was discovered and footsteps passing backwards and forwards to it in different directions. Divers were given the duty of examining the bed of the rivers.

  Some men’s galoshes were found in the snow on the bank with suspicious dark stains.

  The Bourse Gazette of January 1st, in a remote corner of it pages and in very small print, publishes the same story under the heading of ‘Mysterious Discovery.’The only additional detail that it gives is that the divers found nothing.

  The Novoe Vremya has another small paragraph entitled ‘Mysterious Crime.’ Much the same details are given in it with the addition that the secret police are guarding the river, and that photographs have been taken.

  The feeling in Petrograd is most remarkable. All classes speak and act as if some great weight had been taken from their shoulders. Servants, isvostchiks, working men, all freely discuss the event. Many say that it is better than the greatest Russian victory in the field.

  What effect it will have in Government circles, it is difficult to say. My present view is that it will lead to immediate dismissal of Protopopov and of various directors of the Secret Police, whilst in the course of the next few weeks the most notorious of Rasputin’s clientele will gradually retire into private life. I would suggest, for instance, that careful attention should be paid to any changes that take place in the Department of the Interior and the Holy Synod, where Rasputin’s influence was always strongest.

  It is certainly fortunate for the cause of liberalism in Russia that the crime cannot even be remotely identified with the democratic movement or any revolutionary plot.

  Further evidence of his death will, I also suggest, be forthcoming in the developments of such causes celebres as those of Sukhomlinov and Manuilov. For the moment, owing to the pressure that Rasputin app
lied, both trials have been stopped. If the proceedings are restarted, the fact will provide confirming evidence of the removal of the guiding hand that had hitherto stopped them.

  Nowhere will any regret be felt for the crime except amongst those over whom Rasputin exercised a hypnotic influence, and the unscrupulous intriguers whom he used for his own ends and rewarded with innumerable appointments in the Church and State.

  Of such a man no one can honestly say ‘de mortuis nil nisi bonum.’

  If one cannot write good about the dead, one can at least say about the death ‘nothing but good.’

  CTG.95

  From: Lt Col Sir Samuel Hoare (Petrograd)

  To: ‘C’ (London)

  Date: January 2nd 1917

  Death of Rasputin – Report No 2

  Since writing the above memorandum I have received definite information that the body of Rasputin has been discovered in the river Nevka, near the Petrovsky Bridge. I received this information in strict confidence from the Chief of the Department of Military Police in the General Staff. He has himself seen the body. It appears that traces were purposely left about the hole in the ice, into which the body was thrown, in order that it should be discovered. The chief officials of the Ministry of the Interior, the Petrograd Prefecture, the River Police and the Department of Public Prosecutions have held investigations upon the spot, and a rough map has already been published in the Evening Times under the heading of ‘Mysterious Murder.’

  It is also certain that Rasputin was actually killed in Prince Yusupov’s house and not in the motor. During the evening there seems to have been a certain amount of promiscuous shooting, in which a dog was killed in the courtyard and a window broken. Early in the morning, six men appeared in the courtyard with a body dressed in a shuba, that they put in a motor that was waiting. I understand that these facts are stated in detail in the report of the four secret police, who were waiting for Rasputin in the courtyard. A very well-known Russian told me that one of his friends had seen this report, in which were stated all the details of the arrivals and departures to and from Prince Yusupov’s house during the evening.

  It is also said that the company did not assemble at the house until very late in the evening, as most of the people had previously been to a party at the house of Mme. Golovina.

  I am also informed, upon absolutely reliable authority, that the Empress was informed of the crime whether late on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning. As late as six o’clock on Saturday afternoon, when the news had already been published in the Bourse Gazette, she appears to have known nothing of what had happened. On Sunday morning, however, she ordered that a Liturgy should be performed in the Imperial chapel at Tsarskoe, and that special prayers should be said for Rasputin.

  I also hear, but on less reliable authority, that Her Majesty sent the following telegram to the Emperor, who was still at the Stavka:

  “Our friend had been taken from us. Dmitri and Felix (Prince Yusupov) are parties to it.”

  A cousin of Yusupov told me that his intended departure to the Caucasus had been stopped, and that the Grand Duke Dmitri and he had both been placed under domiciliary arrest.

  CTG.119

  From: Lt Col Sir Samuel Hoare (Petrograd)

  To: ‘C’ (London)

  Date: February 5th 1917

  Death of Rasputin – Report No 3

  Further details obtained from the Examining Magistrates and other reliable sources.

  The following particulars may be taken as quite accurate as they have been given by people directly connected with the affair.

  For some days before his death, Rasputin had been nervous and unwell. He had received a shock from what appeared to be the attempted suicide of the Cossack officer who was engaged to his daughter. As he was always in fear of his life, he took the greatest precautions for keeping his movements secret. He, however, always made it a practice to tell his two confidants, Simonovich and Bishop Isidor, where he was and where he was going. Simonovich is an unbaptised Jew, a curiosity seller, and Isidor a bishop who, for bad behaviour was compelled to retire from his see. They live together in the Nikolaevsky Street. It was Rasputin’s habit to telephone to them, whenever he left his house, and to tell them where he was to be found. On the evening of the 29th December, he was at his flat at No. 64, Gorokhovaya, with his two daughters, a niece and a secretary, all of whom acted as servants for the flat. Late in the evening he sent away the detectives of the Secret Police, and told them that they were not wanted any more. Shortly afterwards, a motor with a cape cart hood arrived and someone came and knocked at the back door. This proved to be a boy who frequently visited Rasputin, and to whom Rasputin always opened the door himself. The boy said something to Rasputin, and Rasputin answered ‘I will come with you.’The two then went off in the motor in the direction of the Fontanka, and at the Fontanka Bridge were seen to turn right. Nothing more can be heard of the motor. A motor shortly afterwards drove up to Prince Yusupov’s house. This, however, was a closed motor, and not the motor that had been seen to leave 64, Gorokhovaya. The dvornik at Prince Yusupov’s house seemed either very stupid or very clever, and very little could be got out of him. He, however, admitted that the driver of the motor was in uniform, and was a very simple-looking person. He is supposed to have been the Grand Duchess Irene’s brother.

  At 12.30 the gorodovoi (i. E. The policeman) outside the Ministry of the Interior in the Moika heard four shots. This fact he reported to the Criminal Investigation Department, this is situated close by. At 3.30 the gorodovoi standing outside Prince Yusupov’s house was called into the house by a man in general’s uniform. The unknown general said, ‘Do you know me?’ To which the gorodovoi replied, ‘Not at all.’ ‘Are you a patriot?’ was the next question. ‘Certainly’. The general then said, ‘Rasputin is destroyed, You can go.’ Shortly afterwards a motor left the house and was not seen again. The gorodovoi seems to have taken some time to think about what had happened, but after a time went off, and reported the matter to the nearest police station.

  In the early morning the Minister of Justice, Makarov, was rung up by an unknown voice that said ‘Rasputin has been murdered, look for his body in the Islands.’

  As a result of these incidents, two examining judges, Sereda and Zarvatsky, and the police, went round in the morning to Prince Yusupov’s house. The only trace that they could find of the murder was some bloodstains on the snow outside the small door that leads into the bachelor rooms which Prince Yusupov used before he married. They carefully collected the snow for examination. When they were there, Prince Yusupov came out, and said that he could explain the whole incident, and that all that had happened was that the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich had shot a dog that had attacked him. The examining judges then went off to the Minister of Justice and congratulated themselves on having escaped the risk of being taken in, when all that had happened was the shooting of a dog. Whey they were waiting in Makarov’s ante-room, Prince Yusupov arrived and went into the Minister’s room. Shortly afterwards Makarov came out and said to the judges, ‘It is all right, Prince Yusupov has explained everything;it was only a dog, thank you, You can go.’At Gorokhovaya 64, Rasputin’s flat, there was in the meanwhile great excitement. At seven in the morning Simonovich and Isidor arrived. They could not understand why Rasputin had not told them where he was to be found. Shortly afterwards, there entered Mlle. Golovina, Rasputin’s friend, who said ‘I know where he is, he is all right, I will telephone.’She then, For some reason, telephoned in English, and, having got an answer, said to them, ‘He will be back soon.’ However, she seemed dissatisfied, and went out to telephone again, this time at the public call office in the street, as she evidently did not wish Simonovich and Isidor to know what she was saying. She then came back and said, ‘He has left the place where I thought he was and has gone away.’

  In the meanwhile, in view of the mysterious telephone message and the reports of the police, a search had begun. When, there fore, a golosh was d
iscovered near the Petrovsky Bridge, it was taken to 64 Gorokhovaya for recognition. The Rasputin family at once recognised it as Rasputin’s. The river in the neighbourhood was carefully searched. The great cold made this difficult, as the divers were not at all anxious to work. Eventually on Monday morning, something was seen in the ice. After great difficulty it was pulled out, and found to be Rasputin’s body, completely frozen into a block of ice. Both his hands were raised, and one side of his face was badly damaged by the fall into the river. The body was put into a motor lorry and ordered to be taken to the Vyborg Military Hospital. The whole party, examining judges, police and the rest, then went off to have luncheon with a German Jew who is known as Artmanov. They had not begun luncheon, when they received a telephone message from Protopopov saying that on no account must the body be taken to the Vyborg side, because it was a workman’s quarter, and there might be demonstrations. They replied that it had already been sent there, but Protopopov said that it must be stopped. They asked how could it be stopped. He said that he did not mind how, but that stopped it must be. Accordingly, they informed all the police at the street corners along the route through which it was to pass that they were to stop the lorry, when they saw it approaching. The lorry was finally stopped, and was ordered to proceed instead to the Chestminsky Almshouse, a desolate institution on the road to Tsarskoe. The examining judges had previously arranged that the post mortem examination should take place after twenty-four hours, as the body was so frozen that it was impossible to make any examination before that time. Protopopov, however, telephoned to say that the examination must be finished by 8.00a.m. the next morning. The judges and the doctor declared that it was impossible. Protopopov, however, said that it was necessary, and that the body was to be returned to the relations at 8 next morning. The judges then asked, how were they to reach the almhouse, that was some distance from Petrograd, as they could not afford a motor that would cost 200 roubles. Protopopov said that it would be all right as far as payment went. Accordingly Sereda, the examining judge, Got hold of Kosorotov, the well- known surgeon, and went off with him in a motor to the almshouse.