Rasputin, the wrong man in the right place.

Grigori Rasputin was born on January 9, 1869, in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoe, one of nine children of Efim and Anna.  Even the number of surviving siblings of Rasputin is a matter of dispute. Possibly all of his nine brothers and sisters died only a few days after they were born and the only sister to perhaps survive was born in 1875 and named Feodosiya. That such biographical information is unclear is due to both the disorganization at this level of Russian society and the remote location of Rasputin’s birth and early life. Pokrovskoe was a small town located on the Tura river between the Siberian cities of Tyumen and Tobolsk. Tyumen is 1300 miles east of Moscow, even today an eighteen-hour automobile journey. In the late nineteenth century, this would have been a remote and isolated part of the world.

Few individuals have generated as many legends and falsehoods as Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, the so-called “Mad Monk” of Russia. That Rasputin was neither mad or a monk is typical of much of the characterization of this Siberian peasant who would achieve a position of great influence over the government and court of Nicholas II of Russia, the last Tsar of the Romanov dynasty.

By the spring of 1907, Alexandra decided to introduce Rasputin to Anna Vyrubova, officially a lady-in-waiting at court but also the Tsarina’s closest friend.  Anna was another deeply religious woman from an aristocratic family, who married briefly and unhappily and became one of Rasputin’s most devout disciples.  Her opinion only strengthened his appeal to the Tsarina who trusted Vyrubova implicitly.  This connection further ingratiated Rasputin with other members of the aristocracy, although the staretz was starting to engender feelings of either great enthusiasm or profound disgust, a consistent thread throughout the rest of Rasputin’s life.

By 1911, Stolypin had survived numerous assassination attempts, including a bombing that killed 28 people and almost killed his daughter.  As a result, Stolypin moved into the secure confines of the Winter Palace.  Pragmatic and politically astute, after a single interview with Rasputin, Stolypin came to the conclusion that the man’s influence over the ruling family was dangerous and should be eliminated.  However, historical accounts indicate that he repeatedly brought up the matter with the Tsar, who typically responded by deflecting any confrontation.  To his daughter, Stolypin said in the summer of 1911:

“Nothing can be done about it. Every time I had an opportunity to warn the Tsar, I did.  And here is what he told me recently:  “I agree with you Pyotr Arkadievich, but better ten Rasputins than one of the Empress’s  hysterical fits.  That’s what the reason was.  The empress is ill, seriously ill, she believes that Rasputin is the only person in the whole world who can help the heir and it is beyond human capacity to dissuade her about it.”

 

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Rasputin, the wrong man in the right place.

Rasputin routinely spent his summers in Pokrovskoe and June, 1914 found him back in his home town.  On June 29, Rasputin emerged from his house in order to hand a telegram to his postman.  He was greeted by a mysterious female stranger, dressed in black with a white kerchief over her features, only her eyes visible.  She silently bowed in front of him and Rasputin paused to reach for his wallet, thinking that she was a beggar in search of money.  The woman then produced a large dagger and rapidly stabbed Rasputin in the naval.  He fled with the stranger chasing him down the street, stopping only when Rasputin was able to knock her to the ground with a stick that was lying on the ground.  Both he and his wife screamed for help and a crowd quickly gathered, securing the attacker and taking her to jail.  Rasputin was taken into his home, losing consciousness and initially thought near death.

Yusopov continued to meet with Rasputin and then offered the ultimate bait, a visit to his home to meet Yusopov’s wife, Irina, an invitation that the lecherous Rasputin, having never met the glamorous and beautiful Irina, couldn’t conceivably turn down.  He didn’t.  Yusopov notified his conspirators that they would carry out their plan on December 16.  His wife would actually be at another family palace in the Crimea.

Several theories about the actual shooter have also evolved, the conspirators not wanting Grand Duke Dmitri, a royal, to have to take the blame for the murder.  Perhaps Yusopov or even Purishkevich might have initially wounded Rasputin, prompting the physically strong and probably intoxicated man to attempt to flee the palace. Whatever the sequence, a bullet into the forehead of Rasputin is what ultimately killed him.  Who actually shot him and exactly how will never be ascertained.

The most familiar story of what ensued came from an account written by Yusopov in 1927.  Rasputin and the Prince entered the house from a side door and made their way to the cellar, sounds of music and voices supplying the background of the cover story.  Yusopov and Rasputin exchanged small talk, and the holy man ultimately ate the cakes and drank some Madeira, the prince becoming alarmed when the poisoned items seemed to have no effect. Rasputin began to grow impatient and made vague suggestions about knowing what Felix was up to.  Panicked, Yusopov went upstairs and retrieved the Grand Duke’s revolver.  He went back downstairs and after a few moments of hesitation told Rasputin to say a prayer and shot him in the midsection.

When the men returned, the group congratulated each other until Yusopov claimed he became concerned and wanted to make sure that Rasputin was actually dead.  The body was as they had left it, but suddenly Yusopov noticed that one eye was twitching.  As he moved closer, suddenly both eyes, “the green eyes of a viper” opened wide and Rasputin, foaming at the mouth, leapt to his feet and tried to grab Yusopov around the neck.  This from an individual who was shot in the midsection and allegedly poisoned with enough cyanide to kill a half a dozen men.  Yusopov managed to get away from Rasputin’s grasp and ran up the stairs, screaming for help.  The rest of the group quickly pursued Rasputin out into the side courtyard, the wounded staretz crawling on all fours, bellowing that he would tell the Tsarina everything.

Purishkevitch then drew his own revolver and put two more bullets into the lurching Rasputin, slowing him down until two more rounds finished the job.  The body was dragged back inside, quickly wrapped in a rug, driven to a bridge on the edge of the city and tossed into the freezing water.

It would take divers to find the body, which had actually frozen to the bottom of the ice.  It was removed, photographed, placed in a wooden coffin and driven away in an ambulance.  Rasputin’s autopsy would ascribe the cause of death to gunshot, one in the chest, one in the back and one administered at close range directly into the forehead.  There was no poison in his system.  His face was horribly bruised, most of the damage probably administered by hitting the side of the bridge on the way into the river.

Grand Duke Dmitri’s banishment to the Caucasus meant that he avoided the clutches of the vengeful Bolsheviks who murdered most of his relatives.  Via Teheran and the help of the British embassy he made his way to Europe.  Living first in England and then in Paris.  His major claim to fame was his subsequent relationship with prominent women, among them Coco Chanel.  Broke, he ultimately married a Cincinnati heiress, they divorced a decade later and Dmitri died of tuberculosis, aged 50, in 1942, in Davos, Switzerland.

Needless to say, Rasputin’s immediate family had a rough go of it after the revolution.  Their large house in Pokrovskoe was seized by the Bolsheviks, only Rasputin’s daughter Maria was safely able to emigrate to the west.  His wife, other daughter and son, all harassed by the Bolsheviks, were dead by 1933.  Maria was able to capitalize on her famous name and performed in cabarets and even as a circus performer.  She eventually settled in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, teaching foreign language and writing her memoirs, which only added more contrived melodrama to the Rasputin legend.  She died in 1977 and is buried in of all places, a cemetery on Venice Boulevard in metropolitan LA.

 

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