To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin (Revealing History) (34 page)

On December 29th, the Duma session was abruptly closed twenty-four hours before the appointed time. On November 14th the debates had begun with Milyukov’s fierce attack upon the ‘Dark Forces’that had become the synonym for Rasputin’s activities, an attack in which for the first time a Member dared to mention Rasputin by name. They ended with another onslaught, less personal, less sensational, but hardly less effective. ‘The atmosphere is charged with electricity,’ so ran Milyukov’s peroration, ‘no one knows where or when the blow will fall (applause).’The following morning the blow, the effects of which cannot be gauged, had already fallen.

On Saturday afternoon I was at the Restriction of the Enemy Supplies Committee. Several times during the sitting individual members left the room and returned with whispered messages to their neighbours. At the time I paid no attention to these interruptions of business. When the Committee broke up, I went with the chairman and the secretary to another room for the purpose of discussing various points connected with the publication of the Russian Black List. Before we could go far with our discussion, a well-known official of the Ministry of Commerce entered with the news that Rasputin had been murdered that morning by the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Yusupov. Professor Struve, Chairman of the Committee, at once sent out for an evening paper. In a few minutes the
Bourse Gazette
was brought in with the news actually published in it. The
Bourse Gazette
is always a paper of headlines. In this case, the first heavy type was devoted to the peace proposals, the second to the fight in Romania. Then came a headline, ‘Death of Gregory Rasputin in Petrograd.’ In the body of the paper there was little more than a single line, and that on the second page. The announcement ran as follows: ‘A six o’clock this morning Gregory Rasputin Novikh died after a party in one of the most aristocratic houses in the centre of Petrograd.’

To one who had only been in Russia a few months the news was almost overwhelming. To Russian public men like Professor Struve, a publicist whose name has for a generation been in the forefront of Russian political and economic life, it seemed almost incredible. As I had no wish to appear to meddle in Russian internal affairs, I did not attempt to discuss the situation nor, needless to say, could I continue our prosaic conversation about the Black List.

Since Saturday, I have made it my business to discover as many details as I can about the murder, and I have been in touch with various people representing different classes and sections of opinion.

The result of my inquiries is as follows: Rasputin has not been seen since the evening of Friday, the 29th December, when he left his flat in company with an officer in a motor car. Prince Yusupov had a party on the same evening that was attended by one or two of the Grand Dukes. On the evening following Rasputin’s disappearance, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich had another party in his rooms in the Palace of the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna, the upper floors of which are used by the Anglo-Russian Hospital. The party seems to have been of a most riotous description and did not break up until 7.30 on Sunday morning.

The details of the story vary. Some people say that Rasputin was got into a room and told to kill himself. I have heard it said that he did kill himself. I have also heard it stated that he fired the revolver that was given him at 2 o’clock in the morning in self-defence. The generally accepted story, however, is that he was shot. A motor is supposed to have taken the body to the Islands, where it was thrown into the sea or one of the rivers. This story is generally supported in Petrograd.

There seems also general agreement that he was killed either by the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich or by Prince Yusupov. Many people say that lots were drawn as to who should kill him and that the lot fell upon the Grand Duke Dmitri, but that Prince Yusupov undertook the duty.

The Grand Duke Dmitri was brought up by the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna in the palace in which he is now living on the Nevsky Prospekt. He has had a gay career, and not long ago was in disgrace for some escapade.

Prince Yusupov, who is also Count Sumarokov-Elston, is the Count Elston who had so great a success in London society a year or two before the war. It will be remembered that during one season he was regarded as the greatest catch in London. This view of his eligibility was certainly correct, as he is one of the richest men in Russia. He has since married the Grand Duchess Irene, who a fortnight ago signed the protest of Princess Vassilshchikova to the Empress against the ‘Dark Forces.’

Whether it was the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich or Prince Yusupov who actually did the deed, it seems certain that it was planned and carried out by some of the best known people in Petrograd society. I am informed that the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Yusupov were together all the afternoon of December 31st, and that, when asked, they make no secret of the fact that Rasputin has been killed. Perhaps the fact that Rasputin had recently been meddling more than usually in the domestic affairs of the Imperial family hastened the event.

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.