Grigory Rasputin memoirs of contemporaries. Anna Vyrubova - Reflections on Rasputin. Commercial use of Rasputin's name

In 1996, the publishing house "Rodnik" published a book by Doctor of Economics, a well-known writer and historian Oleg Anatolyevich Platonov "The Crown of Thorns of Russia". This work continues a series of archival studies on the history of Masonic crimes against Russia. It tells about the ritual, brutal murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The book begins with a study of the life and death of Grigory Rasputin, which is, as it were, a prologue to the disclosure of the plot of the regicides. O. Platonov carefully studied and analyzed the authentic facts and documents from the collections of various museums, the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Tobolsk and Tyumen archives, conducted programmatic surveys of about 40 old-timers c. Pokrovskoye - the birthplace of G. Rasputin, the spiritual heritage of the most slandered old man. The beginning of work on a book about Rasputin was laid by a long-term study of the life of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. “The closer I got acquainted with the documents, diaries, correspondence of this family,” writes O. Platonov, “the more perplexing I was inspired by the standard idea that we were inspired of Rasputin as a fiend, an absolutely immoral and mercenary person. This terrible image did not fit into the situation the highest spirituality, morality, family harmony and harmony in which the family of the last Russian Tsar lived.From October 1905, when the royal family met Rasputin, until their tragic death, the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their children truly loved Grigory and believed into him as into a man of God...

One should not think that the Tsar and Tsarina were naive, deceived people. Due to the duty of their position, they repeatedly arranged covert checks on the reliability of the information received ... and each time they were convinced that all the stories about Grigory's immoral life were slander.41

But the myth of Rasputin as a lecher, a drunkard, a whip, thanks to the media of modern media, which were under the control of the enemies of the autocracy, was widely spread among the public. And to confirm the newspaper slander, provocateurs were used - Rasputin's doubles, who got drunk and staged brawls in certain places. Answering the question: "Who needed it?" - the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper once wrote: “Firstly, the leftists attacked. These attacks were purely party in nature. Rasputin was identified with the modern regime, they wanted to brand the existing system with his name ... he was needed only to compromise , defame, sully our time and our life. They wanted to stigmatize Russia in his name. "42 Thus, the lies and slander against Rasputin were aimed at discrediting and discrediting the Russian Autocrat Tsar Nicholas II, and in his person the entire monarchical system. The same anti-state campaign was aimed at denigrating the Russian people, the peasantry, spirituality who was personified by Rasputin.

Unfortunately, the myth about Rasputin, created at the beginning of the century by leaders of the liberal and revolutionary movement, is widely supported in our time, because, as O. Platonov says, even today "those forces (more precisely, their direct heirs) are alive and flourishing, which in created this myth at one time and are interested in its preservation.The myth of Rasputin should be regarded as a specially created obstacle (although by no means the only one) on the way to understanding our spiritual, state and national values.And it was created precisely in order to prevent a return to these values...43

And, it must be admitted, modern slanderers cope with their task successfully. Among the majority of Russian uncivilized people who have read V. Pikul's novels and E. Radzinsky's "research" (in which one can find such paragraphs where only one of the five sentences is true), an attitude has formed towards Grigory Efimovich Rasputin as a dark, sinister personality, and to Tsar Nicholas II, respectively, as a narrow-minded person who was under the influence of an intruder. And among the Orthodox intelligentsia and clergy there are many who have a negative attitude towards Rasputin. Moreover, they rely on the opinions of highly authoritative people. For example, such as the forensic investigator N. Sokolov, who investigated the case of the murder of the Royal Family, Bishop Germogen (Dolganov), Bishop Feofan (Bystrov), confessor of the Royal Family, Great Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of Empress Alexandra. But still, without doubting their authority, one cannot unequivocally assert that their judgments about the Siberian elder were infallible and that they themselves were not misled. For example, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, having never met Rasputin, completely not knowing him personally, investigated what was said and written about him and, being unable to verify the accuracy of the information, probably formed her opinion about him speculatively. But even the saints made mistakes during their lifetime. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov said bluntly about himself: “When I spoke from my own mind, there were mistakes.”44 (Below we will tell more about the position of Grand Duke Elizabeth).

But, first of all, the characterization of Grigory Efimovich by the forensic investigator N. Sokolov is questionable. Strange, out of place and even hysterical is the emotionality with which the judicial investigator, who is obliged by his position to be impartial, speaks of Rasputin in his book "The Murder of the Royal Family": "the peasant is a loafer", "tremendous impudence", "colossal ignorance", " monster", "Bolshevik deserter" (?!). From what does Mr. Sokolov draw such conclusions? And from the testimony of such "witnesses" as V. A. Maklakov and F. F. Yusupov - the murderers of Grigory Rasputin. It is natural to ask the question - what good can a killer say about the person he killed, who was for him the embodiment of evil? In addition, Sokolov did not yet know that the murder was the result of a Masonic conspiracy, and V. A. Maklakov and F. F. Yusupov were members of Masonic societies.45 The deceit of Prince Felix Yusupov, who shot Rasputin, shows, for example, such a fact . Soon, after committing a heinous crime, he writes a letter to Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna, in which he says: “I do not find words, Your Majesty, to tell you how shocked I am by everything that happened, and to what extent the accusations against me seem wild erected", 46 and later, when he was no longer in danger, Yusupov proudly boasted that he had committed the murder "in order to fulfill his duty to the Motherland and the Tsar, to destroy that evil, diabolical force that was a shame for Russia and the whole world." 47 "Fulfilling duty" Felix Yusupov meanly shot an unarmed man in the back. Moreover, this meanness was blasphemous, because he killed Rasputin during his prayer before the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, relying on the opinions of such "witnesses" (who are essentially criminals), investigator Sokolov draws his conclusions about Rasputin.

Of particular note is the personality of the daughter of Grigory Efimovich Matryona Rasputina, who claimed that her father drank a lot and had connections with women. As you know, she was married to officer B.N. Solovyov, who was a freemason. N. Sokolov, apparently, guessed this, not unreasonably considering him a provocateur. According to his information, B.N. Soloviev at one time studied in India, in an occult, theosophical school and had a hypnotic influence on Matryona. “Lieutenant Loginov, who observed the Solovyovs, who lived in Vladivostok in a common apartment with them, shows: “Matryona Solovyova did not love Solovyov until the death of her father, and, as she says, an unexpected change happened to her ... He hypnotizes her. In his presence, she cannot say anything undesirable to him. "And as if to confirm these words, we read in Solovyov's diary:" I have the power to force Matryona not to do so, to force even without her knowledge, but how dare, knowing the beginning of things ".48 It is obvious that B.N. Solovyov, assigned by the Freemasons to the daughter of Grigory Rasputin, threatens, beats, and hypnotizes her to slander her father. Moreover, he even forces her to renounce her name and be called not Matryona, but Maria. Apparently ", he also participates in the fabrication of a book of memoirs by Maria Rasputina about her father. The fact that this book is a forgery is evidenced by a competent literary style that Matryona did not own. To see this, it is enough to read her illiterate diaries, which also show that Matrena suffered from schizophrenia.As the modern researcher of the life of GE Rasputin, Doctor of Historical Sciences AN Bokhanov rightly said about the notorious "Memoirs", Matryona Rasputin "sometimes speaks from someone else's voice."

But the attitude towards Rasputin of the New Martyr of Russia Hermogenes, Bishop of Saratov, they often use. As you know, Vladyka knew the Siberian wanderer closely, initially spoke very well of him and even helped him enter "high society". But under the influence of some facts (which no one points out anywhere), Bishop Hermogenes, as Metropolitan Evlogii (Georgievsky) writes, "took up arms against Rasputin when he became convinced of his immoral behavior."49 After that, together with Hieromonk Iliodor (Sergey Trufanov , whose morality, apparently, he was convinced), Bishop Hermogenes arranged a meeting, invited Rasputin and almost cursed him, which is not surprising, since the bishop, according to Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky), was "odd, distinguished by extreme imbalance, could be violent."50

And who was Hieromonk Iliodor? An adventurer and a hypocrite who got into the trust of Grigory Efimovich, at first flattering him, and then renouncing. And just a year after that meeting, that is, on November 20, 1912, this swindler renounced both his own monastic vows and Orthodox Church. Having cut his hand, Sergei Trufanov signed a letter to the Holy Synod with his own blood, in which he wrote: "I renounce your God. I renounce your faith. I renounce your Church."51

Subsequently, Bishop Hermogenes bitterly recalled: "I did not see that, like Satan, who tempted Christ, revolves around me, instilling in me hatred, stubbornness and malice, this truly despicable creature Iliodor!".52

It is known that at the end of his life, Vladyka spiritually reconciled with Grigory Rasputin and even began to perform requiems for him. It seems that the circumstances of the death of Bishop Hermogenes, which invisibly led him to the Siberian elder, were not accidental either. Vladyka was drowned by the Bolsheviks in the Tura River, opposite the village. Pokrovskoye - the birthplace of Rasputin. As N. Kozlov writes: “Vladyka’s body was washed ashore by the waves by the hands of local peasants and buried in a village church built with donations and labors of Gregory, once persecuted by Vladyka.”53

Later it was transported to Tobolsk and buried in St. Sophia Cathedral, in the very grave where the Tobolsk saint John (Maximovich), canonized with the direct participation of Grigory Rasputin, was buried.

Another hierarch who accused Rasputin of immoral behavior was, according to Bishop Hermogenes and Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), Archbishop Feofan (Bystrov) - the confessor of the Royal Family. It should be emphasized that it was precisely in their words, since Bishop Feofan himself spoke not about the specific immoral acts of Grigory Rasputin, but about his kind of "spiritual fall." Here is his testimony before the Extraordinary Commission of the Provisional Government in 1917: “He (Grigory Rasputin) was neither a hypocrite nor a scoundrel. He was a true man of God, who came from the common people. But under the influence of high society, which could not understand this simple man, there was a terrible spiritual catastrophe and he fell.”54

There is no evidence of what was meant by a "spiritual catastrophe", but you must admit that for Archbishop Feofan, who saw in Rasputin "a concrete image of the Servant of God, a holy man"55, this could mean, for example, a grave sin of despondency. But how difficult, sometimes impossible, not to fall into this sin for a person against whom all the evil of the world has risen! Let's not guess what the Siberian wanderer was guilty of. As St. John of the Ladder: "The word about fates and falls is dark for us, and no mind comprehends what kind of sins happen to us from negligence, some by the allowance of Providence, and some by the abandonment of God."

At one time, Metropolitan Veniamin, while still a hieromonk, wrote to the swindler Sergei Trufanov: “Dear Father Iliodor, On behalf of Vladyka Theophan, I am writing to you about the following. .. Hieromonk Veniamin, who loves you.”56 In this regard, firstly, it should be noted that in this case the holy of holies is violated in the relationship of the confessor with his child, namely, the mystery of confession. Secondly, again - the question arises, what kind of "dirty deeds" are these. And could Rasputin make mistakes in his life and even be a participant in any bad deeds?

And here I must say frankly - of course, I could. It should be noted that Elder Gregory, who possessed deep insight and insight, nevertheless sometimes made mistakes in people. For example, he could not unravel his killer in F. Yusupov and treated him with sincere love, like his son. But Grigory Efimovich was in a relationship with a huge number of people. Sometimes he received visitors up to 100 people daily. Among his acquaintances were people of different classes from workers and peasants to merchants and bankers. There were also many who wanted to use his location for their own personal, selfish purposes. And Metropolitan Veniamin himself notes that “The courtiers and official circles for the most part sought through him the simplest and most everyday benefits: better places, higher appointments, money scams.”57 “In many complex issues,” writes O.A. Platonov, - especially financial and legal, Grigory Efimovich was inexperienced, ingenuous, naive. This means that it is easy to deceive him, to present a dubious deed for a charitable, socially useful one. Moreover, merchants and bankers who came to him offer him money, but not as a bribe, but for charitable purposes, and they submit their requests as if they care about the well-being of Russia. and ordinary swindlers, financial swindlers. Could Rasputin make a mistake and become a participant in some kind of "dirty business" set up by them. Let's say again - of course, he could. But when he understood the essence of the issue, he drove all kinds of crooks out of his environment, and he , as befits an Orthodox Christian, repented at confession.

Of course, Rasputin's accusations by Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Benjamin were not limited to certain confessions of him in confession with Bishop Feofan. As Bishop Hermogenes wrote, "Vladyka brought me a number of facts discrediting Rasputin as a man of depraved life."59 Hieromonk Veniamin also spoke of having some "documentary facts" in his possession. And there is no doubt that there was plenty of evidence discrediting Grigory Efimovich. And they came from the bowels public institution- The Ministry of Internal Affairs, which established him under covert surveillance. Collaborating with the Freemasons, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich personally instructed to collect information discrediting Rasputin. This is how surveillance diaries appeared, in which, among others, there were reports from police agents about Grigory's meetings with prostitutes. But, as O. Platonov writes: “It is important to note that if all the persons Rasputin met are listed by last name, they are inquired about, then not a single specific name is given in the reports. And it was easy for a police agent to establish them , one had only to wait and demand documents or detain her until her identity was clarified.Despite the great desire of some superiors to "catch" Rasputin with a prostitute, according to the materials of external observation, it is clear that this was not possible.There is not a single name of a prostitute, not a single protocol drawn up about this."60

However, fabricated "documentary facts" about Rasputin's immorality could be presented to Bishop Feofan vel. Prince Nikolai Nikolaevich, who was on close terms with him, and he believed them, as given by the Ministry of the Interior.

They were also presented by the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and the Tsar. It turned out to be embarrassing, because the Sovereign immediately discovered specific facts of falsification.

It can be assumed that the same "evidence of the depravity" of the Siberian wanderer was transferred to the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, otherwise it turns out that her opinion about Rasputin consisted only of court conversations and slanderous literature.

But be that as it may, it should be noted that she could be mistaken in people and did not always correctly assess their actions. This was especially manifested (just like with Rasputin) in her attitude towards F. Yusupov. So, after the death of Grigory Efimovich, she wrote to Tsar Nicholas II: “The news came here that Felix killed him, my little Felix, I knew him as a child, who all his life was afraid to kill even an animal, who did not want to become a military man, so that he would never be able to shed blood."61 And this "little Felix" later, with devilish voluptuousness, recalled how, after a bloody atrocity, he rushed to the corpse and began to beat him with a rubber stick: "In fury and frenzy, I hit anywhere. All divine and human laws were violated ".62 Felix, who avoided war in order not to shed blood, fought with a corpse! So much so that, according to the memoirs of a participant in the murder of V. M. Purishkevich: "Blood spattered in all directions, and when Yusupov was dragged away, he was all spattered with blood." patriotic act. Of course, she did not know all the details, but in any case, it was a mistake to justify the murder of an Orthodox Christian who was not excommunicated from the Holy Church.

In general, one can notice that when describing one or another attitude towards G. E. Rasputin of various people, researchers somehow lose sight of the opinion of those who had the greatest knowledge about him, and less than others could be mistaken. Namely, the attitude of the holy Royal Passion-Bearers towards him, their veneration of Gregory as a man of God, a holy elder endowed with gifts of grace. Those "researchers" who say that they believed in him recklessly, biased to the point of fanaticism, are lying. As already mentioned, by their position they were obliged to know his life both in the past and in the present. But a fact is a fact - all the secret checks that were carried out on the instructions of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna did not confirm the information discrediting Grigory Efimovich. Those who say that the Tsar and Tsarina subsequently changed their views on Rasputin are also lying. After the tragic death royal martyrs, medallions depicting Elder Gregory were found on their chests. Until the end of their lives, they believed in him.

And here we are, probably, of little faith. We are still finding out whether Rasputin sinned or did not sin. We refer to the fabricated memories of Maria Rasputina, denunciations of recruited police agents, testimonies of people who themselves were misled. As I write these lines, such a sad feeling fills my heart, such regret about our striving to always look for something vicious in a person. Well, maybe Rasputin sinned in some way, for, as it is said in the Holy Scripture: "there is no man who would not sin" (2, Par., 6, 24), but the elder Gregory appeared before the Lord as a righteous man, a martyr washing away their sins with blood. And you, today's critics, aren't you sinful in your condemnation of the Siberian elder? Would you try to understand, to comprehend not the "evidence" about him, but himself as a person who carried such a heavy cross that it was possible that he fell under its weight. Imagine what a global evil took up arms against Rasputin if the decision to discredit him was made in Brussels, at the World Masonic Assembly. Imagine for a moment that newspapers and magazines are distributed about you personally in every city, at every corner, in which it is written in black and white that you are a drunkard, a thief, a sexual pervert, a servant of Satan. And this slander is being discussed among your relatives and friends, in the kitchens of the townsfolk and in the State Duma, among ordinary Orthodox people and in the Holy Synod. Imagine that your every step is being watched, all your actions are being recorded. Imagine, finally, that there is an attempt on your life and soon you will be killed! Imagine yourself in such a position, maybe then your heart will tremble and instead of blasphemy or praise against Rasputin, you will cross yourself and, without further ado, say simply, in a Christian way: "God rest the soul of your murdered servant Grigory." As N. Kozlov rightly noted: “It must be remembered that Elder Gregory of blessed memory was an Orthodox Christian who participated in the sacraments of the Holy Church, and at the time of his death was not under excommunication or penance, and for this alone he is worthy of church commemoration and prayers about repose with the saints..."21

NOTES

This paper contains the statements of various people. Rasputin was revered as a saint by the royal martyrs to the end. They believed in his God's chosenness A.A. Vyrubova, N.D. Loman, M.V. Golovin. They treated him positively. book. Olga Alexandrovna, N.D. Zhevakhov, S.Yu. Witte. At different times, he was treated differently by ep. Feofan, Metropolitan. Benjamin, Ep. Hermogenes. S.P. had an extremely negative attitude towards Rasputin. Beletsky.

The numbers in the text "Slandered Elder", taken in brackets, indicate the page number of the book by O.A. Platonov "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", M., 1993

1. Grigory Rasputin, Collection of historical materials, M., 1997, pp. 502, 483, 485.

2. R. Beets, V. Marchenko, "Confessor of the royal family", M., 1996, p.95.

3. Newspaper "Tatyana's Day", 1998

4. O.A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", M., 1996, p. 95.

5. Grigory Rasputin, Collection of historical materials, M., 1997, v. 1, p. 138.

6. See item 4, page 13.

7. R. Beats, "Wheat and tares", M., 1997, p. 41.

8. Encyclopedia for children, M., 1995, v. 5, p. 131.

9. Grigory Rasputin, Collection of historical materials, M., 1997, v. 1, p. 254

10. Ibid., p. 283.

11. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 111.

12. R. Beets, V. Marchenko, "Confessor of the Imperial Family", M., 1994, p.47.

13. Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), "At the turn of two eras", M., 199, p. 134.

14. R. Beats, "Wheat and tares", M., 1997, p. 216.

15. Ibid., p. 216.

16. Grigory Rasputin, Collection of historical materials, M., 1997, v. 1, p. 489.

17. Ibid., vol. 1, p. 489.

18. R. Beats, "Wheat and tares", M., 1997, p. 46.

19. A.A. Taneeva (Vyrubova), "Pages of my life", M., 2000, p. 143.

20. O.A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", M., 1996, p. 23.

21. R. Beats, "Wheat and tares", M., 1997, p. 49.

22. Ibid., p. 224.

23. Ibid., p. 3.

24. See par. 21, p. 144.

25. A.A. Taneeva (Vyrubova), "Pages of my life", M., 2000, p. 142.

26. See par. 21, p. 8.

27. Ibid., p. 45.

28. Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), "At the turn of two eras", M., 1994, p. 140.

29. O.A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", M., 1996, p. 288.

30. Ibid., p. 146.

31. Ibid., p. 261.

32. A. Groyan, "Martyr for Christ and for the Tsar Gregory the New", M., 2000, p. 74.

33. A.N. Bokhanov, "Rasputin. Anatomy of a myth", M., 2000, p. 359.

34. Grigory Rasputin, Collection of historical materials, M., 1997, v. 1, p. 532.

35. N. Kozlov, "In memory of an old man", in the book "G.E. Rasputin-New. Spiritual heritage", Galich, 1994, p.17.

36. Ibid., p. 17.

37. O.A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", M., 1996, p. 264.

38. R. Beats, "Wheat and Tares", M., 1997, p. 156.

39. N. Kozlov, "In memory of the old man", in the book "G.E. Rasputin-New. Spiritual heritage", Galich, 1994.

40. O. A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", Moscow, 1996, p. 7.

41. Ibid., p.8

42. Ibid., p. 10.

43. Prot. Alexander Shargunov, "Lent", Moscow, 1995, p. 4.

44. O. A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", Moscow, 1996, p. 248.

45. V. I. Voeikov, "With the Tsar and without the Tsar", Moscow, 1994, p. 113.

46. ​​R. Batts, "Wheat and Tares", Moscow, 1997, p. 162.

47. N. A. Sokolov, "The murder of the royal family", S.-P., 1998, p. 120

48. Metropolitan. Evlogy (Georgievsky), "The Way of My Life", Moscow, 1994, p. 183.

49. Ibid., pp. 183-184.

50. R. Batts, "Wheat and Tares", Moscow, 1997, p. 65.

51. Ibid., p. 199.

52. N. Kozlov article "In Memory of the Elder" in the book 1994, G. E. Rasputin - New "Spiritual Heritage", Galich, 1994, p. 17.

53. R. Batts, V. Marchenko, "Confessor of the Royal Family", Moscow, 1994, p. 47.

54. Metropolitan. Veniamin (Fedchenkov) "At the turn of two eras", Moscow, 1994, p. 134.

55. R. Batts, "Wheat and Tares", Moscow, 1997, p. 114.

56. Metropolitan. Veniamin (Fedchenkov) "At the turn of two eras", Moscow, 1994, p. 138.

57. O. A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", Moscow, 1996, p. 203.

58. R. Batts, "Wheat and Tares", Moscow, 1997, p. 113.

59. O. A. Platonov, "The Crown of Thorns of Russia", Moscow, 1996, p. 163.

60. R. Batts, "Wheat and Tares", Moscow, 1997, p. 163.

61. Ibid., p. 159.

62. G. E. Rasputin - New "Spiritual Heritage", Galich, 1994, p. 17.

Evsin Igor Vasilievich, editor of the newspaper "Blagovest", Ryazan, journalist, writer

5. Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

Rasputin, G. E. The life of an experienced wanderer. - May 1907.

G. E. Rasputin. My thoughts and reflections. - Petrograd, 1915. .

The books are a literary record of his conversations, since the surviving notes of Rasputin testify to his illiteracy.

The eldest daughter writes about her father:

... my father was literate, to put it mildly, not quite. He began to take his first writing and reading lessons in St. Petersburg.

In total, there are 100 canonical prophecies of Rasputin. The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House:

As long as I live, the dynasty will live.

Some authors believe that there are mentions of Rasputin in the letters of Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin's surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in the letters is indicated by the words "Friend", or "He" with capital letters, although this has no documentary evidence. The letters were published in the USSR by 1927, and by the Berlin publishing house "Slovo" in 1922. The correspondence was preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation - the Novoromanovsky archive.

6. Assassination of Khionia Guseva

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an assassination attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovsky. He was stabbed in the stomach and seriously wounded by Khionia Guseva, who had come from Tsaritsyn. . Rasputin testified that he suspected Iliodor of organizing the assassination attempt, but could not provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by ship to Tyumen for treatment. Rasputin remained in the Tyumen hospital until August 17, 1914. The investigation into the assassination attempt lasted about a year. Guseva was declared mentally ill in July 1915 and freed from criminal liability by being placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk. On March 27, 1917, on the personal instructions of A.F. Kerensky, Guseva was released.

7. Estimates of the influence of Rasputin

M. A. Taube, who was Deputy Minister of Public Education in 1911-1915, cites the following episode in his memoirs. Once a man came to the ministry with a letter from Rasputin and a request to appoint him an inspector of public schools in his native province. The minister (L. A. Kasso) ordered this petitioner to be lowered down the stairs. According to Taube, this case proved how exaggerated were all the rumors and gossip about the behind-the-scenes influence of Rasputin.

According to the memoirs of the courtiers, Rasputin was not close to the royal family and generally rarely visited the royal palace. So, according to the memoirs of the palace commandant V.N. Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gherardi, when asked how often Rasputin visits the palace, answered: “once a month, and sometimes once every two months.” In the memoirs of the maid of honor A. A. Vyrubova, it is said that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the tsar received him much less often. Another lady-in-waiting, S.K. Buxgevden, recalled:

“I lived in the Alexander Palace from 1913 to 1917, and my room was connected by a corridor with the chambers of the Imperial children. I never saw Rasputin during all this time, although I was constantly in the company of the Grand Duchesses. Monsieur Gilliard, who also lived there for several years, also never saw him.”

Gilliard, for all the time he spent at court, recalls the only meeting with Rasputin: “Once, when I was about to leave, I met him in the hall. I had time to examine him while he took off his fur coat. He was a tall man with an emaciated face, with a very sharp gray-blue eyes from under the disheveled eyebrows. He had long hair and a big man's beard." Nicholas II himself in 1911 told V.N. Kokovtsov about Rasputin that:

... personally almost does not know "this peasant" and saw him briefly, it seems, no more than two or three times, and, moreover, at very long distances of time.

At the same time, the image of Rasputin was widely used in revolutionary and German propaganda. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II, many rumors circulated in Petersburg society about Rasputin and his influence on power. It was said that he himself absolutely subjugated the tsar and tsarina and rules the country, either Alexandra Feodorovna seized power with the help of Rasputin, or the country was ruled by a “triumvirate” of Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the tsarina.

The publication of reports about Rasputin in the press could be limited only partially. According to the law, articles about the imperial family were subject to preliminary censorship by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Court. Any articles in which Rasputin's name was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were banned, but articles where only Rasputin appeared could not be banned.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov delivered a speech critical of the government and the "court party", in which the name of Rasputin was also mentioned. Milyukov took the information he gave about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt of October 16, 1916 and Neue Freye Press of June 25, regarding which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V. M. Purishkevich delivered a speech at a meeting of the Duma, in which great importance was attached to Rasputin. The image of Rasputin was also used by German propaganda. In March 1916, German zeppelins scattered over the Russian trenches a caricature depicting Wilhelm leaning on the German people, and Nikolai Romanov leaning on Rasputin's genitals.

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the Empress was Rasputin's mistress were spread among the officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became chairman of the Provisional Government.

V. I. Lenin wrote:

The first revolution and the counter-revolutionary epoch following it (1907-1914) revealed the whole essence of the tsarist monarchy, brought it to the “last line”, revealed all its rottenness, vileness, all the cynicism and depravity of the royal gang with the monstrous Rasputin at its head, all the atrocities of the family The Romanovs - those pogromists who flooded Russia with the blood of Jews, workers, revolutionaries ...

8. Rasputin's entourage

Rasputin's inner circle at one time or another included:

Vyrubova, Anna Alexandrovna

Manasevich-Manuilov, Ivan Fyodorovich

Aron Simanovich

Andronikov, Mikhail Mikhailovich

Dmitry Rubinstein

9. Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

Vladimir Kokovtsov wrote with surprise in his memoirs:

... oddly enough, the question of Rasputin involuntarily became the central issue of the near future and did not leave the scene for almost the entire time of my chairmanship in the Council of Ministers, bringing me to resignation with a little over two years.

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian varnak, a vagabond, smart and trained himself in a certain way of a simpleton and holy fool, and plays his role according to a learned recipe. In appearance, he lacked only a prisoner's coat and an ace of diamonds on his back. By manners - this is a man capable of anything. Of course, he does not believe in his antics, but he has developed for himself firmly learned methods by which he deceives both those who sincerely believe in all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, meaning in fact only to achieve through it of those benefits that are not given in any other way.

Rasputin's secretary Aron Simanovich writes in his book:

How did contemporaries imagine Rasputin? Like a drunken, dirty peasant who penetrated the royal family, appointed and dismissed ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the Petersburg scandalous chronicle. In addition, there are wild orgies in Villa Rode, lustful dances among aristocratic admirers, high-ranking henchmen and drunken gypsies, and at the same time incomprehensible power over the king and his family, hypnotic power and faith in one's special purpose. That was it.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, the investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, writes in his book-forensic investigation:

The head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, Pokhvisnev, who held this position in 1913-1917, shows: “According to the established procedure, all telegrams addressed to the Sovereign and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all telegrams that went to the name of Their Majesties from Rasputin, were known to me at one time. There were a lot of them. It is, of course, impossible to recall their contents consistently. In all honesty, I can say that Rasputin's enormous influence with the Sovereign and the Empress was established with complete evidence by the content of the telegrams.

The State Archives of the Russian Federation (GA RF) contains 1796 telegrams from Nicholas II to the family, Rasputin, ministers for 1904, August 1915 - March 1917, delivered from the tsar's headquarters in Mogilev.

However, it is important to know the fate of investigator Sokolov, who did not listen to Henry Ford's persuasion to stay in the United States just in case and died unexpectedly in France at the age of forty-odd years in November 1924 (found dead in the courtyard of his house). The circumstances surrounding the publication of his book are obscure. The manuscript of the book and the materials of the investigation fell into the hands of the “benefactor” of the investigator, Prince Nikolai Orlov, who already in 1925 published the manuscript under the heading “The Murder of the Royal Family. From the notes of the judicial investigator N. A. Sokolov.

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes in 1914 the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin as follows:

Father John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: "Rasputin", he said: "Look, by your last name it will be for you"

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), an elder of the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage, spoke very sharply about Rasputin: "Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven ...".

10. Murder and funeral of Rasputin

Killed by conspirators (F. F. Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and British intelligence officer Oswald Reiner) on the night of December 17, 1916. They tried to poison Rasputin (potassium cyanide was added to his cakes) and shoot him (11 shots were fired at him). However, he came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb over the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the killers, who heard the rising barking of the dog. They caught Rasputin, tied him hand and foot with ropes, took him by car to a pre-selected place not far from Kamenny Island and threw him off the bridge into the Neva hole in such a way that the body was under the ice.

The emperor and empress entrusted the forensic medical examination to the well-known professor of the Military Medical Academy D.P. Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not been preserved; the cause of death can only be hypothesized.

Prior to the February Revolution of 1917, there were attempts to canonize Rasputin.

Rasputin was buried by Bishop Isidore (Kolokolov), who knew him well. In his memoirs, A. I. Spiridovich recalls that Bishop Isidore served the funeral mass (which he had no right to do).

It was said later that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached about the funeral, rejected this request. In those days, a legend was started that the Empress was present at the autopsy and the funeral service, which also reached the English Embassy. It was a typical gossip directed against the Empress.

At first they wanted to bury the murdered man in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovsky, but because of the danger of possible unrest in connection with sending the body across half the country, they buried it in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the temple of Seraphim of Sarov built by Anna Vyrubova.

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin lasted a little over two months and was hastily terminated by Kerensky on March 4, 1917. Three months elapsed between Rasputin's death and the desecration of his grave.

The burial was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. For several days the coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage. Rasputin's body was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler of the Polytechnic Institute. . An official act was drawn up on the burning of the corpse of Rasputin. At the place of burning, two inscriptions are inscribed on a birch, one of which is in German: “Hier ist der Hund begraben” (“A dog is buried here”) and further “The corpse of Rasputin Grigory was burned here on the night of March 10-11, 1917” .

Memories of Grigory Evfimovich Rasputin contemporaries
The extremely difficult years of the Russian-Japanese war and revolution for the Sovereign were combined with personal tragedy. On July 30, 1904, a long-awaited event took place - the birth of the heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich; a few months later, it was discovered that the baby had inherited an incurable terrible disease through the female line - hemophilia, a chronic disease due to reduced blood clotting, in which even slight bleeding posed a serious danger to the child, even a slight bruise could cause life-threatening internal blood ¬outpouring. The illness of the Heir demanded from his August parents an extraordinary strain of mental and spiritual strength. A very active and cheerful child, it was difficult to protect him from the dangers that constantly threatened him. For vigilant supervision, two sailors from the guards crew of the imperial yacht Shtandart were assigned to the Heir, but bruises could not be completely avoided, and from time to time terrible, painful attacks of illness occurred. When the best doctors were powerless to stop the hemorrhage and alleviate the suffering of the unfortunate child, the Empress, hoping for God's mercy, resorted to the help of the prayers of the "Man of God" Grigory Rasputin, in whom she saw an intercessor before the Lord for her family and dearly beloved sick son. There is a lot of evidence that Grigory Efimovich could really stop the attacks of hemophilia and stop the torment of the young Tsesarevich. Grigory Rasputin was one of the closest people to the entire Royal Family, but Their Majesties were by no means completely under his influence, as enemies tried to present; their meetings happened infrequently and, according to the close circle, were mainly associated with the ill health of Tsarevich Alexei. (For example, contrary to the legends of “the omnipotence of this temporary worker,” Rasputin’s influence was not even enough to free his only son from the draft, who ran the household in his absence. Despite repeated requests, the only royal beneficence was that the young man was assigned to an ambulance train, delivering the wounded from the front line to the Tsarsko-Rural infirmaries). Historian S.S. Oldenburg, in his book “The Reign of Emperor Nicholas II”, tracing how Rasputin’s political advice was carried out, finds out that the Sovereign most often made his decision on important issues, contrary to the advice of the elder.

“One evening, after dinner, the Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna acted out in the dining room, in the presence of Their Majesties, retinue and several guests, two small scenes from Molière's play “The Philistine in the Nobility”. Performing the duties of a prompter, I hid behind the screens that replaced the backstage. Leaning a little, I could observe the Empress in the first row of spectators - lively and smiling in conversation with her neighbors. When the performance was over, I went out through the inner door into the corridor in front of Alexei Nikolaevich's room. His groans reached my ears clearly. Suddenly, I saw the Empress in front of me, who was approaching at a run, holding in a hurry with both hands a long dress that interfered with her. I leaned against the wall and she walked beside me without noticing me. Her face was agitated and expressed acute anxiety. I returned to the hall; animation reigned there, footmen in livery carried dishes with refreshments and refreshments; everyone was laughing, joking, the evening was in full swing. A few minutes later the Empress returned; she put on her mask again and tried to smile at those who crowded in front of her. But I noticed that the Sovereign, continuing to talk, took a place from where he could watch the door, and I caught on the fly the desperate look that the Empress gave him on the threshold. An hour later, I returned to my room, still deeply moved by this scene, which suddenly revealed to me the drama of this double existence. ...The fact is that they did not want it to become known what disease the Grand Duke Heir was suffering from. I realized that this disease in their eyes mattered state secret". (Pierre Gilliard, "From the memories of Emperor Nicholas II and his family")

“The life of Alexei Nikolaevich was one of the most tragic in the history of royal children. He was a charming, affectionate boy, the most beautiful of all children. Parents and his nanny, Maria Vishnyakova, spoiled him very much in early childhood, fulfilling his slightest whims. And this is understandable, since it was very difficult to see the constant suffering of the little one: if he hit his head or hand on the furniture, a huge blue tumor immediately appeared, indicating an internal hemorrhage that caused him severe suffering. At the age of five or six he moved into man's hands, to Uncle Derevenka. This one did not spoil him so much, although he was very devoted and had great patience. I hear the voice of Alexei Nikolaevich during his illness: “Raise my hand,” or: “Turn your leg back,” or “Warm my hands,” and often Derevenko calmed him down. When he began to grow up, his parents explained to Alexei Nikolayevich his illness, asking him to be careful. But the Heir was very lively, loved the games and amusements of the boys, and it was often impossible to keep him. “Give me a bicycle,” he asked his mother. “Alexei, you know that you can’t!” - "I want to learn to play tennis like sisters!" "You know you don't dare to play." Sometimes Alexei Nikolaevich wept, repeating: “Why am I not like all the boys?” Frequent suffering and involuntary self-sacrifice developed in the character of Alexei Nikolaevich pity and compassion for all who were sick, as well as an amazing respect for his mother and all elders. The heir took an ardent part if some grief befell the servants. His Majesty was also compassionate, but did not actively express it, while Alexei Nikolaevich did not calm down until he immediately helped. I remember the incident with the cook, who for some reason was refused a position. Aleksey Nikolaevich somehow found out about this and pestered his parents all day until they ordered the cook to be taken back again. He defended and stood up for all his people.
Alexei Nikolaevich was distinguished by great abilities, he studied like Olga Nikolaevna; his favorite game was toy soldiers, of which he had a huge number. He arranged them for hours on a large table, arranging wars, maneuvers and parades. Derevenko, or Dina, as the Heir called him, took part in all these games, as well as his sons, two little boys, and Dr. Derevenko's son, Kolya. In recent years, little cadets have come to play with the Heir. All of them were told to handle Aleksey Nikolayevich carefully. The Empress was afraid for him and rarely invited his cousins, frisky and rude boys, to him. Of course, relatives were angry at this. (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")

"From the very first time when Rasputin appeared at the bedside of the sick Heir, relief followed immediately." (From the memoirs of the palace commandant General Voeikov)
“In the autumn of 1912, the Royal Family went hunting in Skierniewice, the estate of Their Majesties in Poland. I returned to my dacha in Tsarskoye Selo, but not for long. I received a telegram from the Empress, in which it was reported that Alexei Nikolayevich, playing by the pond, had unsuccessfully jumped into the boat, which caused internal hemorrhage. At this moment he was lying and was seriously ill. As soon as he felt better, Their Majesties moved to Spala, where I was also called. At first, Aleksey Nikolaevich was on his feet, although he complained of pain in his stomach, then in his back. He had changed a lot, but the doctor could not determine exactly where the hemorrhage had occurred. Once the Empress took him for a ride with her, I was with them too. During the walk, Aleksey Nikolaevich complained all the time of inner pain, every push tormented him, his face was drawn out and turned pale. The empress, frightened, ordered to turn home. When we arrived at the palace, he was already carried out almost unconscious. For the next three weeks he was between life and death, screaming in pain day and night; it was hard for those around him to hear his constant groans, so sometimes, passing through his room, we plugged our ears. The Empress did not undress all this time, did not go to bed and hardly rested, she sat for hours by the bed of her little sick son, who was lying on a barrel with his leg raised - unconscious. Alexey Nikolayevich could not straighten this leg for a long time afterwards. A tiny, waxy face with a pointed nose looked like a dead man, the look of huge eyes was meaningless and sad. Once, entering his son's room and hearing his desperate moans, the Emperor ran out of the room and, locking himself in his office, burst into tears. Once Alexei Nikolaevich said to his parents: “When I die, put up a small stone monument for me in the park.”
From St. Petersburg they discharged Dr. Raukhfus, Professor Fedorov with an assistant, Dr. Derevenko. At the consultation, they declared the state of health of the Heir to be hopeless. One evening after dinner, when we went upstairs to the drawing room of the Empress, Princess Irina of Prussia unexpectedly appeared at the door, having come to help and console her sister. Pale and agitated, she asked us to disperse, since Alexei Nikolaevich's condition was hopeless. I returned back to the palace at eleven o'clock in the evening; Their Majesties entered in utter despair. The empress repeated that she could not believe that the Lord would leave them. They ordered me to send a telegram to Rasputin. He replied: “The disease is not dangerous, as it seems. Don't let the doctors torment him." Soon the Heir began to recover. (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")

“Days 12 to 23 were the hardest. The poor thing (Tsesarevich Alexei - comp.) suffered greatly, the pains were sporadic and appeared every quarter of an hour. From the high temperature he was delirious both day and night, he sat up in bed, and pain immediately began from movement. He almost did not sleep all this time, did not have the strength to cry and only moaned, repeating the same words all the time: "Lord, have mercy on me." I could hardly stay in his room, but I had to relieve Alix, who was completely exhausted, spending nights at his bedside. She endured this test better than I did, especially when it was very difficult for Alexei. (From a letter from the Sovereign to his mother, autumn 1912, Spala)
“The Tsarevich, lying in bed, moaned plaintively, pressing his head against his mother’s hand, and his thin, bloodless face was unrecognizable. From time to time he interrupted his groans to whisper only one word: "Mother", in which he expressed all his suffering, all his despair. And his mother kissed his hair, forehead, eyes, as if with this caress she could alleviate his suffering, breathe into him a little of the life that seemed to be leaving him. Oh, what a torture for a mother to be present powerless at the torment of her child, to languish for long hours in mortal anguish, what a torment to know ... that it was she who gave him that terrible disease against which science could do nothing. How I now understood the innermost drama of this life and how easy it became for me to restore the stages of this long journey to Golgotha! (From the memoirs of the teacher of the Heir P. Zhilyar)

“The following fact from the life of the Heir will touch the heart of every mother. Everyone knows that during the constant illnesses of Alexei Nikolayevich, Their Majesties always turned to Rasputin, believing that his prayer would help the poor boy. In 1915, when the Sovereign stood at the head of the army, he left for Headquarters, taking Alexei Nikolaevich with him. At a distance of several hours from Tsarskoye Selo, Alexei Nikolaevich began to have a nosebleed. Dr. Derevenko, who constantly accompanied him, tried to stop the bleeding, but nothing helped, and the situation became so formidable that Derevenko decided to ask the Sovereign to return the train back, since Alexei Nikolaevich was bleeding.
... The Empress knelt beside the bed, puzzling over what to do next. Returning home, I received a note from her with an order to call Grigory Efimovich. He arrived at the palace and went with his parents to Alexei Nikolaevich. According to their stories, he went up to the bed, crossed the Heir, telling his parents that there was nothing serious and they had nothing to worry about, turned around and left. The bleeding has stopped. The Emperor left for Headquarters the next day. The doctors said they didn't understand at all how it happened." (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")
“After the revolution, I met with Professor Fedorov, who treated the Heir. We talked about cases in which, according to the professor, medical science is powerless to stop internal hemorrhage. In such cases, as soon as Rasputin overshadowed the Heir with the sign of the cross, the hemorrhage stopped. “It is impossible not to understand the parents of a sick boy,” said Professor Fedorov. (From "Unpublished Memoirs" by A. A. Vyrubova)

“I saw Rasputin here two or three times. Every time I saw him near the sick Alexei Nikolaevich. On this basis, he appeared with us; The empress considered him a righteous man and believed in the power of his prayers. (From the memoirs of the room girl of the Grand Duchesses E.N. Ersberg)
“Rasputin did not visit the palace as often as they shouted about it. His appearance seems to be explained by the illness of Alexei Nikolaevich. I saw him myself once. He was understood by me as follows: a smart, cunning, kind man. (From the memoirs of the tutor of the royal children, the Englishman S.I. Gibbs)
“Drank tea with Milica and Stana. We met a man of God - Grigory from the Tobolsk province. (November 1, 1905) ... After dinner, we had the joy of seeing Gregory upon his return from Jerusalem and from Athos (June 4, 1911) ”(From the diary of Nicholas II)
“In moments of doubt and spiritual anxiety, I like to talk with him (Rasputin - comp.), And after such a conversation, my heart always becomes easy and calm.” (Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich)
“Count Fredericks (Minister of the Imperial Court - comp.) Once, in an intimate conversation, in my presence, when the question touched on the topic of the day, he said: “You know that I love the Sovereign like a son, and therefore, he could not resist asking His Majesty what, finally, was Rasputin, about whom everyone was talking so much. His Majesty answered me quite calmly and simply - “indeed, too much and, as usual, a lot of superfluous talk, as well as about anyone who is not from the usual environment, we are occasionally accepted. This is just a simple Russian person, very religious and believing ... The Empress likes him for his sincerity; she believes in his devotion and in the strength of his prayers for our family and Alexei... but this is our completely private matter... it's amazing how people like to interfere in everything that does not concern them at all... who does he interfere with? » (From the memoirs of the adjutant wing Mordvinov)

“Our servants, when Rasputin happened to spend the night with us or came to our dacha, said that Rasputin did not sleep at night, but prayed. When we lived in the Kharkov province in the country, there was such a case that the children saw him in the forest, immersed in deep prayer. This message of the children interested our neighbor, the general, who, without disgust, could not hear the name of Rasputin. She was not too lazy to follow the guys into the forest, and indeed, although an hour had already passed, she saw Rasputin immersed in prayer. (From the memoirs of a journalist, candidate of rights G.P. Sazonov)
“Once Rasputin was invited to visit by a well-known general, but when this gentleman realized that he would not achieve any benefits with his cordiality, he turned away from his former friend. Rasputin had to move into a cramped, modest apartment, where he subsisted on voluntary donations from his admirers. The housing of the "old man" was very modest, he ate rather poorly, and wine was brought to him as a gift only in the last year of his life. (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen")

Although Rasputin was constantly accused of debauchery, wrote A. Vyrubova, it seems strange that when the commission of inquiry began to operate after the revolution, there was not a single woman in Petrograd or in Russia who would come forward with accusations against him ; information was drawn from the records of the "guards" who were assigned to him. The investigator of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission A.F. Romanov revealed the secrets of the appearance of some “evidence”: “Among the various kinds of papers selected during the search, a photograph was found in which, in the setting of a finished lunch or dinner, a table with the remains food, unfinished glasses - Rasputin and some priest with some laughing women are depicted. Behind them are balalaeshniks. The impression of revelry in a separate office. Upon closer examination of this photograph, it was discovered that two male figures were etched on it: one between Rasputin and the sister of mercy standing next to him, and the other between the priest and standing next to give him mine. Later it turned out that the photo was taken in the infirmary named after the Empress after breakfast on the occasion of the opening. It seems that Colonel L. and another gentleman took by the arms - one Rasputin and a sister of mercy, and the other a priest and one lady, brought them to the dining room, trying to make them laugh, and in this form they were photographed by a previously invited photographer . Then the initiators etched out their images...” Another investigator of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission, V.M. Rudnev debunked another myth: about the allegedly huge fortune of Rasputin. It turned out that after his death, not a penny of money remained, while the children were forced to apply for the highest allowance. Rudnev writes: “Rasputin, constantly receiving money from petitioners for satisfying their petitions, widely distributed this money to the needy and, in general, to people of the poor classes who turned to him with any requests, even of a non-material nature.” Nevertheless, the situation around the Royal Family and Rasputin was saturated with so many lies that people of high spiritual life fell into its net. In 1910, the confessor of the Empress, Bishop Feofan, “reported to the Tsarina that in confession such and such had revealed to him the bad behavior of Gregory. What was it like for the deeply believing Empress to hear from her confessor what was revealed to him in confession! /.../ The queen was aware of the canonical decree on the severest punishment of confessors who dare to violate the secrecy of confession, inclusive, up to the reduction of such confessors to a primitive state. By this act of his, unacceptable for a confessor, he resolutely pushed away from himself the hitherto so devoted spiritual daughter-Queen ... ”(Hegumen Seraphim, Orthodox Tsar-Martyr. Russian type. at the Spiritual Mission. Beijing, 1920) In addition, later the woman who informed vl. Feofan something bad about Rasputin, she refused her words. (From the comments to the book of Abbot Seraphim (Kuznetsov) "Orthodox Tsar-Martyr", compiled by S. Fomin)

“I have never had and do not have any doubts about the moral purity and impeccability of these relations (between the Royal Family and Rasputin - comp.). I officially declare this as a former confessor of the Empress. All relations with her developed and were supported solely by the fact that Grigory Evfimovich literally saved the life of his beloved son, the Heir to the Tsarevich, from death with his prayers, while modern scientific medicine was powerless to help. And if other rumors spread in the revolutionary crowd, then this is a lie that speaks only about the crowd itself and about those who spread it, but by no means about Alexandra Feodorovna ... ”(From the testimony of the confessor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Bishop Feofan (By-strov) Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry of the Provisional Government)

“All books are full of stories about the influence of Rasputin on state affairs, and they assert that Rasputin was constantly with Their Majesties. Probably, if I began to refute it, then no one would believe it. I will only draw attention to the fact that his every step, from the time Their Majesties met at the Grand Duchess Milica Nikolaevna to his murder in the Yusupov house, was recorded by the police. ... Their Majesties had three kinds of protection: the palace police, the convoy and the introductory regiment. All this was in charge of the palace commandant. The last until 1917 was General Voeikov. No one could be received by Their Majesties or even approach the palace without the knowledge of the palace police. Each of them, as well as all the soldiers of the combined regiment at the main posts, kept an accurate record of the persons passing and passing by. In addition, they were required to report by telephone to the duty officer of the Consolidated Regiment about every person who passed into the palace. Every step of Their Majesties was recorded. ... Everywhere the police came out, secret and overt, with their records, following every step of the Sovereign. As soon as she stopped somewhere or talked with acquaintances, these unfortunates would immediately be surrounded by the police, asking for their last name and the reason for their conversation with the Empress. ... If I say that Rasputin came two or three times a year to Their Majesties, and lately they may have seen him four or five times a year, then you can check the exact records of these police books if I'm telling the truth. In 1916, the Sovereign personally saw him only twice. But Their Majesties made the mistake of surrounding the visits of Grigory Efimovich with secrecy. This gave rise to conversations. Every person likes to have some intimacy and wants sometimes to be alone with his thoughts or prayers, close the doors of his room. The same was true of Their Majesties in relation to Rasputin, who was for them the personification of hopes and prayers. They forgot about earthly things for an hour, listening to stories about his wanderings and so on. He was escorted by some side passage along a small staircase, received not in a large reception room, but in Her Majesty's office, having previously passed at least ten police and security posts with records. This hour-long conversation made noise for a year among the courtiers. (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova “Pages from my life”)

“The strongest anger against Rasputin rose in the last two or three years of his life. His apartment in Petrograd, where he spent most of his time, was overflowing with all sorts of poor people and various petitioners who, imagining that he had tremendous power and influence at the Court, came to him with their needs. Grigory Efimovich, running from one to another, with an illiterate hand wrote notes on pieces of paper to various influential people, always with almost the same content: “dear, dear, accept”; or: "dear, dear, listen." The unfortunate did not know that they could least of all count on success by asking through him, since everyone treated him negatively. One of the most difficult assignments of the Empress - mostly due to the illness of Alexei Nikolaevich - was to go to the apartment of Grigory Efimovich, always full of petitioners and often rascals, who immediately surrounded me and did not believe that I could help in anything I can’t, because I was considered almost omnipotent. All these petitions, which went through Grigory Efimovich and which he brought in recent years in pockets to Their Majesties, only made them angry; they put them in a general package in the name of Count Rostovtsev, who examined them and gave them a legal move. But, of course, this created a lot of talk, and I remember how well-meaning people asked Their Majesties to give Grigory Efimovich a cell in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra or another monastery in order to protect him there from the crowd, newspaper reporters and all sorts of crooks, who later, in order to denigrate Their Majesties, took advantage of its simplicity, took it away with them and got it drunk; but Their Majesties then did not pay attention to these advices. (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")

“I saw only the moral side of this man, who for some reason was called immoral. And I was not alone in my assessment of the character of the Siberian peasant. I know for sure that many women of my circle who had affairs on the side, as well as ladies from the demi-monde, thanks to the influence of Rasputin, climbed out of the mud into which they plunged. I remember that one day, while walking along Morskaya with an officer, a co-worker of my husband, captain of the 1st rank Den, I met Rasputin. He looked sternly at me, and when I returned home, I found a note in which the elder ordered me to go to him. Partly out of curiosity, I obeyed. When I saw Grigory Efimovich, he demanded an explanation from me.
- What should I explain? I asked.
- You know better than me. What is it, you want to be like these dissolute secular ladies? Why don't you play with your husband?
To women who sought his advice, he invariably repeated:
- You decide to do something bad, come to me and tell me everything, as in the spirit.
About Rasputin I can only tell what I saw in him. If I were a Rasputinian or a victim of base passion, I would not live happily with my spouse, and Captain 1st Rank of the Imperial Russian Navy Den would not allow me to meet with Rasputin if he behaved inappropriately in Tsarskoye Selo. His duty as a husband would override loyalty to the Imperial Family. Knowing the religious convictions of the Empress and the peculiarities inherent in both classes, the revolutionaries found in the person of Rasputin a suitable tool for the destruction of the Empire. (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen"

“There were many sorrows for me: no matter where a mistake was made, as if like me, but I have nothing to do with it. In the artels he endured various ridicule. He plowed diligently and slept little, but still he thought in his heart how to find something, how people were saved. ... So I went on a pilgrimage. On the pilgrimage, I often had to endure all sorts of misfortunes and misfortunes, so it happened that the murderers undertook against me, that there were different pursuits, but for all the grace of God! ... I walked 40-50 miles a day and did not ask for a storm, or wind, or rain. I rarely had to eat, ... I had no capital with me and never collected: God will send it, they will let me in with an overnight stay - I will eat here. So more than once he came to Kyiv from Tobolsk, did not change his linen and did not lay his hands on his body - these are secret chains, that is, he did this for experience and testing. ... I also found one joy among the joys of all: I read the Gospel a little every day, I read a little, but I thought more. /.../ I am a simple peasant, when in general I was looking for benefactors (for the construction of a temple - comp.), I was driving from the Tobolsk province with one ruble, looking along the road along the Kama, how the gentlemen were throwing cakes into the water, and I and there is no seagull on the bookmark. How it was to survive! I'm coming to Petersburg. It doesn't matter how blind you are on the road, so am I in Petersburg. I was the first to come to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to venerate the relics, and behind the porch I have a large bag of black linen. He served an orphan's prayer service for 3 kopecks and 2 kopecks for a candle.
I leave the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, I ask a certain bishop of the theological academy Sergius (Stragorodsky, the future patriarch - comp.). The police approached, "What kind of friend are you to the bishop, you are a bully, buddy." By the grace of God, he ran through the back gates, found the porter with the help of the gatekeepers. The doorman showed me mercy by giving me a blow on the neck; I knelt before him, he understood something special in me and reported to the bishop; the bishop called me, saw me, and then we began to talk. He told me about St. Petersburg, introduced me to the streets and other things, and then to the High-Rankings, and then it came to Father Tsar, who showed me mercy, understood me and gave money for the temple. I went home with joy and turned to the priests about building a new church. The enemy, as a non-hater of good deeds, before I had time to get there, seduced them. I assist them in the construction of the temple, and they are looking for me to accuse me of pernicious heresy and flog such nonsense, you can’t even express it and it won’t come to mind. That's how strong the enemy is to dig a hole for a person and put good deeds into nothing. They accuse me as a champion of the lowest and dirtiest sects, and the hierarch rebels in every possible way. (From the diary of Grigory Rasputin)
“It is difficult to acquire salvation in the world, especially at the present time. Everyone is watching the one who seeks salvation, like some kind of robber, and everyone is trying to ridicule him. (Grigory Rasputin)
“At the present time, like the Greeks, all literate bishops observe and serve theology, but there is no poverty of spirit, and the people only follow poverty of the spirit, they will follow it in droves, because theology is high, and the poverty of the spirit is higher. Without poverty, the bishop will cry if the cross is not given, and if it is in him, then a thin cassock is pleasant - and a crowd will follow a thin cassock. I am an eyewitness to this - sorry, I am very familiar with many bishops, may the Lord save them for their unity. Because there is no spirit in the temple, and there are many letters - the temple is empty. And at the present time, when Father John (of Kronstadt) served, there was a spirit of poverty in the church, and thousands went to him for spiritual food. (From the conversations of Grigory Rasputin, 1911)

“Taking into account that the question of the belonging of the peasant of the settlement of Pokrovskaya Grigory Rasputin-New to the Khlysty sect was carefully considered by His Eminence, His Grace Alexy, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia, according to the investigation file, on the basis of the personal observation of the peasant Grigory No ¬ on the basis of information received about him from people who know him well that, based on such personal observations of this case, His Eminence considers the peasant Grigory Ras-Putin-New to be an Orthodox Christian, a person who is spiritually inclined and seeks the truth of Christ - the case of the peasant of the settlement of Pokrovskaya, Grigory Rasputin-New, to stop further production and classify it as finished. Such a definition of the Consistory by His Grace Alexy of the same November 29 was approved. (Conclusion of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory, 1912)
“After the revolution, materials will appear in the press, presented as police reports about the daily life of Rasputin. From them, the public learns about how the "tsar's friend" drank, met with prostitutes, and rowdy. The scientific examination of these data leaves no doubt that these "sensational "documents" are another anti-Romanov fake, of which many were fabricated in those troubled times." (A. Bokhanov, "Emperor Nicholas II")

“During our return to Tyumen, Rasputin insisted that we stop at Pokrovsky and meet his wife. Rasputin's house was only slightly larger than the others. The "old man" expressed the hope that someday Their Majesties would come to visit him. “But it’s so far away,” I objected, amazed at his words. “They must come,” the peasant said angrily. A few minutes later he spoke prophetic words. “Willingly or not, they will come to Tobolsk and see my native village before they die.” We spent the day visiting Rasputin. His wife turned out to be a sweet, kind woman. The peasants also turned out to be nice people - they were honest, simple people. They cultivated the land that belonged to Rasputin without demanding any payment - like good Christians. Rasputin had three children. Two daughters studied in Petrograd, the boy was a peasant. The villagers were very friendly to us, but the majority were opposed to Rasputin returning to Petrograd. Since we decided to go further to Yekaterinburg in order to follow from there to the Verkhoturye Monastery, I thought that it would be better for Rasputin to stay with his family. However, he refused to follow my advice. I told Anna (Vyrubova - comp.) that we had enough gossip and that she should persuade Rasputin to leave us. She promised to talk to him, but at the last moment he went with us to Yekaterinburg. I will never forget my first impressions of this fateful city. As soon as we stepped onto the platform, I was seized by a premonition of trouble - the rest had such a feeling. Rasputin was also uneasy, Anna was visibly nervous. I was sincerely delighted when we reached the Verkhotursky Monastery, located on the left bank of the Tura River.” (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen")

“It is well known that Rasputin condemned the war, but not everyone knows that he tried to prevent the declaration of war. When the mobilization began, Rasputin telegraphed Anna (Vyrubova - comp.) from Siberia. In a telegram, he begged the Emperor "not to start a war", that "with the war there will be an end to Russia and to themselves" and that "they will put it down to the last man." No attention was paid to this telegram for the simple reason that Rasputin had no political influence, just as he did not have it in deciding other issues, contrary to popular belief. (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen")
"Dear friend! Once again I will say: a formidable cloud over Russia, trouble, a lot of grief, it is dark, and there is no light; Tears are a sea and there is no measure, but blood? What will I say? There are no words, indescribable horror. I know that everyone wants war from you, and the faithful, not knowing that for the sake of death. God's punishment is hard when it takes away the way, the beginning of the end. You are the King, the father of the people, do not let the insane triumph and destroy themselves and the people. Germany will be defeated, but Russia? Think it's different. There has not been a bitter sufferer from the age, everything is drowning in great blood, death without end, sadness. Gregory". (Note sent by Grigory Rasputin to the Sovereign from Tyumen after the declaration of war, July 1914)

“Rasputin's mysterious doppelgangers also played some, as yet not completely clear, role in creating the rumors. Chairman of the State Duma M. V. Rodzianko, in his book of memoirs “The Collapse of the Empire”, relates the story of Count D. M. Grabbe (ataman of the Don Army) about how, shortly after the murder of Rasputin, he was “invited to breakfast by the famous Prince Andronnikov, who did business through Rasputin . Entering the dining room, Grabbe was amazed to see Rasputin in the next room. Not far from the table stood a man who looked like two drops of water to Rasputin. Andronnikov looked inquisitively at his guest. Grabbe pretended not to be surprised at all. The man stood, stood, left the room and did not appear again. (From the comments on the book of Abbot Seraphim (Kuznetsov) "Orthodox Martyr Tsar", comp. S. Fomin)

“The last time the Sovereign saw Rasputin was in my house in Tsarskoye Selo, where, by order of Their Majesties, I summoned him. This was about a month before he was killed. ... Grigory Efimovich pointed out that we need to think about how to provide for all orphans and the disabled after the war, so that "no one would be left offended: after all, everyone gave you everything that he had most dear." Their Majesties rose to bid him farewell. The emperor said, as always: "Gregory, cross us all." “Today you bless me,” Grigory Efimovich replied, which the Emperor did. Whether Rasputin felt that he was seeing them for the last time, I don’t know... /.../ In recent months, he kept expecting that he would soon be killed. (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")
“...I will soon die in terrible suffering. But what to do? God has destined for me a lofty feat to die for the salvation of my dear Sovereigns and Holy Rus' ... The heir is alive as long as I am alive. My death will be your death." (From the prophecies of Grigory Rasputin to the Royal Family)
“Although I arrived at the Palace early, Her Majesty was already on her feet and greeted me very cordially. She told me that Protopopov strongly advised her not to receive anyone: a conspiracy to kill her had been discovered. And then for the first time she admitted that she had bad premonitions about the fate of Grigory Efimovich. She did not feel the slightest fear for herself. (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen")

“... On December 17, the “bloodless revolution” began with the assassination of Rasputin. ... I told the Empress that Rasputin was going to the Yusupovs to get acquainted with Irina Aleksandrovna. “It must be some mistake,” the Empress replied, “since Irina is in the Crimea and the Yusupovs’ parents are not in the city.” ... An hour or two later, the palace was called by the Minister of Internal Affairs Protopopov, who reported that at night a policeman who was on duty near the Yusupovs' house, having heard a shot in the house, called. A drunken Purishkevich ran out to him and declared that Rasputin had been killed. The same police officer saw a military motor without lights, which drove away from the house shortly after the shots were fired. ...Terrible were the days. On the morning of the 19th, Protopopov signaled that Rasputin's body had been found. ... All the police in Petrograd were put on their feet. First, Rasputin's overshoe was found in an ice-hole on Krestovsky Island, and then the divers stumbled upon his body: his arms and legs were tangled with a rope; he probably freed his right hand when he was thrown into the water, his fingers were folded in a cross. The body was transported to the Chesmensky almshouse, where an autopsy was performed. Despite numerous gunshot wounds and a huge lacerated wound on his left side, made with a knife or a spur, Grigory Efimovich was probably still alive when he was thrown into the hole, since his lungs were full of water. When the people in the capital learned of the murder of Rasputin, everyone went crazy with joy; there were no limits to the jubilation of the society, they congratulated each other: "The beast was crushed, - as they said, - the evil spirit was gone." ...During these demonstrations about the murder of Rasputin, Protopopov asked Her Majesty's advice by phone on where to bury him. Subsequently, he hoped to send the body to Siberia, but he did not advise doing this right now, pointing out the possibility of unrest along the way. They decided to temporarily bury him in Tsarskoye Selo, and in the spring to transport him to his homeland. /.../ Their Majesties arrived with the Princesses and I and two or three strangers. The coffin had already been lowered into the grave when we arrived; The confessor of Their Majesties served a short memorial service, and they began to fill up the grave. It was a foggy cold morning, and the whole situation was terribly difficult: they were not even buried in a cemetery. Immediately after a short memorial service, they left. Rasputin's daughters, who alone were present at the funeral, placed on the chest of the slain icon, which the Empress had brought from Novgorod. Here is the truth about the funeral of Rasputin, about which so much has been said and written. The empress did not cry for hours over his body, and no one of his admirers was on duty at the coffin. Horror and disgust for what had happened seized the hearts of Their Majesties. The sovereign, returning from Headquarters on the 20th, kept repeating: “I am ashamed in front of Russia that the hands of my relatives are stained with the blood of this peasant.” /.../ The sovereign sent the Grand Dukes Dmitry Pavlovich and Nikolai Mikhailovich, as well as Felix Yusupov from Petrograd. Despite the mildness of punishment, a whole storm of anger arose among the Grand Dukes. The sovereign received a letter, signed by all members of the Imperial House, with a request to leave Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich in Petrograd because of his poor health ... The sovereign wrote on it only one phrase: "No one is given the right to kill." (From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova "Pages from my life")

“Two days later, the corpse of Rasputin was removed from under the ice. He was taken to the nearest hospital, where an autopsy was performed. Grigory Efimovich was wounded in the face and side, he had a bullet hole on his back. The facial expression is peaceful, the stiff fingers of the right hand are raised for the sign of the cross; it was impossible to lower the hand into a natural position! An autopsy showed that when the elder was thrown into the Neva, he was still alive! The news of the murder brought all the inhabitants of the Palace into indescribable horror. Anna Vyrubova lay in a bed, heartbroken. The entire Imperial Family was terribly upset. The gossip that the news of the murder of Grigory Efimovich caused Her Majesty to have a fit of hysterics is not true. It would be wrong to say that the Empress was not shocked and upset, but she controlled herself. The sovereign was alarmed, but this alarm was explained not simply by the murder of a person he knew, but by the fact that it was Rasputin who was killed. He realized that this was not an ordinary murder, but a blow directed against the power of the Tsar, which until now had been indisputable! (From the memoirs of Yulia Den "The True Queen")

“Direct participation in the murder of G.E. Rasputin was received by: Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich; Prince F.F. Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston, who had recently married the Emperor's niece Princess Irina Alexandrovna (daughter of the younger sister of the Sovereign Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich); Chairman of the Union of the Russian People, Deputy of the State Duma V.M. Purishkevich; lieutenant (M. Paleolog calls him captain) of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment A.S. Sukhotin; senior doctor of the Red Cross detachment Pole Stanislav S. Lazavert. The alleged inspirer and organizer of the murder of Rasputin was V.A. Maklakov is a cadet, a mason of high dedication, defender of Beilis at the trial. By the way, other participants in the murder belonged to this community (it is known, for example, that Grand Duke Dimitry Pavlovich participated in Masonic gatherings; Prince F.F. Yusupov since 1900 was a member of the Mayak Masonic Society; V.M. Purishkevich was also a member of the Masonic lodge in his youth).
By involving the Grand Duke, the conspirators made the Emperor himself the judge, hoping for a not too severe punishment. Nicholas II unequivocally declared to the petitions of his relatives: “No one has been given the right to engage in murders. I know that the conscience of many haunts, since not only Dmitry Pavlovich is involved in this. I am surprised at your appeal to me. Nicholas." Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Yusupov's father-in-law, writes: “Members of the Imperial Family asked me to intercede for Dimitri and Felix before the Sovereign. I was going to do it anyway, although I was sick of all this talk and cruelty. They ran back and forth, conferring, gossiping, and wrote a stupid letter to Nicky. All this looked as if they were expecting the All-Russian Emperor to reward his relatives for the grave crime they had committed! “You are somehow strange, Sandro! You don't realize that Felix and Dimitri saved Russia!" They called me "strange" because I could not forget that Nicky, as the supreme judge of his subjects, was obliged to punish the murderers, and especially if they were members of his Family. /.../ I delivered a defensive speech full of conviction. I asked the Sovereign not to look at Felix and Dmitry Pavlovich as ordinary murderers, but as patriots who went down the wrong path and were inspired by the desire to save their homeland. “You speak very well,” said the Sovereign, after a pause, “but you will agree that no one, whether he is the Grand Duke or a simple peasant, has the right to kill.” He hit the spot. Nicky, of course, did not have such a brilliant gift for words as some of his relatives, but he understood the basics of justice firmly. As we parted, he promised me to be merciful in choosing the punishment for the two guilty. It happened, however, that they were not punished at all. Dimitri Pavlovich was exiled to the Persian front at the disposal of General Baratov. Felix was ordered to leave for his cozy estate in the Kursk province. Book. Gabriel Konstantinovich later wrote: “Looking back at the past, I confess that we were mistaken in rejoicing at the murder of Rasputin. The murder of Rasputin turned out to be a signal for a revolution. The Russian Grand Duke should not have stained himself with participation in the murder, no matter what the motives were. This is not a Christian thing." (From the comments on the book of Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov) “The Orthodox Tsar-Martyr”, compiled by S. Fomin)

“The sovereign went to a small table where the Bible lay, which he read every day, opened it and pulled out a small piece of paper hidden between the pages, folded in half. His Majesty unfolded the sheet and handed it to me. During the years spent in Russia, I learned very well to read and write in Russian, but the paper that the Sovereign handed me was scribbled like children's, and I could not make out a word. “Forgive me,” the Emperor said, “I understand that you find it difficult to make out this handwriting. I myself managed to read the letter with great difficulty, although the handwriting is familiar to me. This is the last letter written to me by Grigory Efimovich on the eve of his assassination. Listen to him, Mr. Gibbs: “I am writing this letter, the last letter that will remain after me in St. Petersburg. I foresee that I shall die before January 1 (1917). I appeal to the Russian people, to the Pope, Mother and Children, to the entire Russian land, what they should know and understand. If I am killed by ordinary murderers, especially by my brothers - Russian peasants, then you, the Russian Tsar, should not be afraid for your Children - they will rule in Russia for hundreds of years. But if I am killed by the boyars and nobles, if they shed my blood, and it remains in their hands, then for twenty-five years they will not be able to wash my blood from their hands. They will have to flee Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, everyone will kill each other and hate each other, and in twenty-five years not a single nobleman will remain in Russia. King of the Russian Land, if you hear the ringing of the funeral bell for the murdered Gregory, then know: if one of your relatives is guilty of my death, then I will tell you that none of your Family, none of your Children and Relatives will live more than two years . And if he does live, he will pray to God for death, for he will see the shame and shame of the Russian land, the coming of the Antichrist, pestilence, poverty, destroyed temples of God, spat on shrines, where everyone will become a dead man. Russian Tsar, you will be killed by the Russian people, and the people themselves will be cursed and will become an instrument of the devil, killing each other and multiplying death throughout the world. Three times in twenty-five years there will be black robbers, servants of the Antichrist, to exterminate the Russian people and the Orthodox faith. And the Russian land will perish. And I am dying, I have already died, and I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your Blessed Family." (From the memoirs of the tutor of the royal children, the Englishman S.I. Gibbs)
“Already two days after the abdication of the Sovereign, the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, ordered the burning of Rasputin's body. However, fearing popular indignation due to blasphemy over the remains of an Orthodox person, the coffin, already pulled out of the grave, was kept for several days in the palace stables. Later, the authorities announced that they intended to rebury Rasputin in the vicinity of Petrograd. On March 11, the coffin was taken to Petrograd, but a truck allegedly broke down on a forest road. Rasputin's body was doused with gasoline and burned. (From the comments to the book of memoirs by Yulia Tsen "The True Queen", compiled by A.D. Stepanov)

(1873-1956) - a well-known jurist, professor at the Imperial St. Petersburg University, the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, teacher at the Higher Women's Courses. As a journalist, he collaborated with Novoye Vremya, was a newspaper correspondent in the State Duma. Chairman of the Society of Duma Journalists. Since 1911 - the vowel of the St. Petersburg City Duma. The published essay below was written while already in exile.

In addition to the author of the memoirs himself and G. E. Rasputin, the following were present at the evening: Irina Alekseevna Pilenko, Lyubov Valerianovna Golovina, Maria Evgenievna Golovina, Olga Evgenievna Golovina, Princess T., sister of mercy (Akilina Laptinskaya?), two ladies; then another lady came.

The initials of names and surnames in the text, thus presented by Pilenko himself (although the names were easily deciphered by knowledgeable people):

L. V. G—a — Lyubov Valerianovna Golovina
M—I, M—ka — Maria (Munya) Evgenievna Golovina
Princess T. - Princess Tarkhanova or Tumanova

Source: today. 11/29/1931. No. 330. P. 4.

Alexander Alexandrovich Pilenko.

Dinner with Rasputin. (Autobiographical prints).

Petrograd, October 1915

"Would you like to dine with Rasputin?" my wife once told me.

I decided it would be interesting.

Two weeks later we had an invitation to L. V. G—oh, an ardent admirer of the "old man." Her youngest daughter, M—ya, served as either a secretary or a maid for him.

- M-ka? - he used to say: - a good girl, she doesn’t steal anything from me.

We arrived at the Fontanka [Moyka? — A.R.] a few minutes before seven. It was dim in the spacious living room. Princess T. was sitting, two ladies unknown to me and a sister of mercy with a stone face. When I lit a cigarette, she said distinctly, without addressing anyone in particular:

- Those who smoke, those souls will be smoked; but in paradise, yellow, they won’t let them through ...

I decided not to be surprised. The ladies spoke in an undertone, as if next to the dead man's room.

There was a loud, master call. M—I rushed as fast as I could into the hallway. Rasputin entered slowly, with a flare. He wore patent leather high boots, velvet harem pants, and a loose-fitting shirt of lilac fai. It was girded with a thick, white, twisted, silk cord: a peyzan from a ballet or from the first act of Eugene Onegin. On top of all this velvet and silk, a vile, obviously unwashed head was planted: a swollen nose, swollen eyes and greasy hair, “feathers” on all sides.

"The donkey's head from A Midsummer Night's Dream," I thought.

The ladies rushed forward: I did not keep track of whether he made a gesture of blessing, but they all kissed his hand ...

I decided in advance to keep aloof and close my "aura". I had the impression that Rasputin's main strength lay in his unusually developed intuition, in his ability to immediately feel who he was dealing with and what the given person expected of him. I remember that in St. George's Monastery I confessed to the local hermit, who was very famous in religious circles. He says something to me, and an absurd thought was spinning in my brain:

“Ah, didn’t ask if he should be paid and how much?” Three? Or maybe twenty-five?

And he suddenly stopped and calmly answered my unspoken thought:

“No, dear, I don’t take anything for a confession...

Based on the totality of indirect observations, I was convinced that Rasputin was the same kind of intuitive virtuoso. In order not to give him a weapon, I decided, as far as possible, to close all individual radiations. Sphinx sits, stone man.

He came up to me and said suspiciously to G-oh:

- And who is this?

- A. A. Pilenko, - she answered ingratiatingly - a professor, I have known him for a long time. He writes in Novoye Vremya,” she added emphatically, “please, Grigory Yefimovich.

He looked at me searchingly:

- Manuilov is dragging me from you ...

I said nothing. “I won’t open my mouth for at least half an hour,” I decided in pursuit.

— Please, eat, Grigory Efimovich.

We moved to the dining room. Rasputin sat down first, in the middle of the table. My wife was seated next to him, to the right. Then there was M—I. Further, already at the short end of the table, the author of these lines. To my right is an anti-nicotine sister of mercy (or a nun? - I didn’t make out); then another daughter, G-oh, G-a herself, opposite Rasputin, Princess T., and the other two ladies. Rasputin pulled towards him a dish that turned out to be right in front of his device: Siberian pike sprinkled with rye flour. He began to eat fish with his fingers. The rest were served soup.

Rasputin drank all the time, pouring Madeira for himself from a bottle that was not passed on to other guests. He drank persistently, licking his lips, with the antics of an old alcoholic. After the fourth or fifth “double” glass, some “action” began: he pours, heats up half, puts it down - and immediately M—I or the nun grabs the glass and drains it to the bottom, in turn, like sentries. They drank with obvious effort and even disgust: apparently, so that the "old man" would get less.

The conversation was slow. Mrs. posed various - insignificant - questions, and Rasputin reluctantly answered. The more he drank (his hops were unusually quick), the more talkative he became. And immediately I noticed that my "sphinx" was pressing on him like an unbearable weight. At first, he only fidgeted in his chair and cast a nervous look at me: if I smile, if I somehow let my individuality catch on. Then, he began to answer questions from third parties, ingratiatingly turning in my direction, looking for my reactions. But there were no reactions: a wooden pole was sitting, carefully eating ... and - a glazed porcelain doll. Rasputin twitched uneasily - he apparently suffered physically. He started winking at me, talking to me, addressing the ladies... Have you ever seen a child who, almost crying, picks at a tightly locked piggy bank and for whom nothing else exists in the world? - there is nothing but this piggy bank - and until this piggy bank opens?

After tormenting him as long as possible, I suddenly broke into the conversation and said, completely out of the blue, completely out of touch with what the ladies were discussing, and almost rudely breaking the thread of their platitudes:

"Yes!... you are a clever man, Grigory Yefimovich!"

I took the most elementary tone: the tone of a swindler, who encourages an accomplice in fooling the public.

Rasputin jumped up in his chair, rubbed his hands, clapped his hands over his head and literally neighed:

- Ehe-he-hee! .. And what, brother, ehe-he-hee!

All his anguish immediately vanished. He labeled me and classified me. In a further conversation - I noticed that he never once said to me either “you” or “you” - he interpreted me like that: at the same time, they say, turuses, breed.

Strictly speaking, he was a very elementary peasant, and his cunning was sewn with white thread.

“Here it is…what…brother…yes!” (He was already half drunk)... ehhehhe... strictly needed... strictly...

He turned to the princess:

“Well, are you wearing my dirty shirt?”

She opened her bodice in confusion and revealed the purple silk.

- That's it, wear it, don't take it off ... You'll have better.

He looked at me insolently; on his face, almost not hidden, a smile of triumph was outlined. He held out his left hand to the princess, smeared with fat. She kissed. G-a herself also smacked on the fly.

- Give me a piece of paper ... I want to write a piece of paper to him ...

- A piece of paper! .. a piece of paper! .. - the ladies rustled: M—I took off and after three seconds gave a pen and a square of white paper, apparently prepared in advance.

He looked at me for a long time, closing his right eye, then his left eye in turn. Wrinkled swollen but also began to scratch.

There was a cross on the top of the paper. Then in illiterate handwriting:

"Your wisdom is above the light."

- Show! Show! - G-a rushed to me.

At this time my wife said:

And me a piece of paper.

He looked at her reluctantly and said wearily:

- I feel better now...

(“Intuitive,” I thought; I was already talking to her at home; I lost the first impression ... the only one that is important to him).

Rasputin scrawled a cross and the words:

“Mother is like the sun from her all.”

My paper has already gone around the whole table. Each lady repeated with reverence and almost horror, three times: “Your wisdom is higher than the sun!” The nun poured me a glass of wine from a bottle of Rasputin. One of those present said firmly:

- A.A., with this piece of paper you will go far ... for God's sake, just don't lose it ... Do you know? .. do you know? ..

Her face convulsed and she froze with wide eyes.

At that moment, a crazy thought came to my mind. Who am I? - journalist? What am I doing? - questionnaire. So I will lead this questionnaire to the bottom. Excuse me, my wisdom is above the light: isn't it a trump card?

Rasputin makes and butchers ministers? Is this true? How does this happen? What twists and turns? Make experience...

- Risk? — none. Let them suggest: there will be material for memoirs. First, I'll be a living witness. Secondly, advertising is hellish for me.

All this flashed through my head at once: like lightning.

I took a glass, got up, and clinked glasses with Rasputin.

And went...

- How far can you go? My wisdom?

The ladies are numb. I stood up and continued:

- But do they really give a move to the wise in our country? .. Who are our ministers? .. Who is in charge of international politics?

I will not repeat my philippics against Sazonov. Frankly, I could not even remember all those vulgar malice that I began to pour. Demagogically in the lowest sense; rudely, stupidly, falsely, pressing heavily on the “patriotic” pedal. Great state. Divine Monarch!! Who brings him down? — Sazonov. Who is the fool? — Sazonov. Who could do this, and that, and the third? — Sazonov.

I carried this nonsense - even in the tearoom of the Russian people, it would be awkward - for about ten minutes.

Rasputin drank and listened to me little.

Mrs. suddenly could not stand it and interrupted me:

— Grigory Efimovich! Why, here he is, our Minister of Foreign Affairs!!!

The princess crossed herself. The nun ran for a new bottle and poured Madeira into a huge glass of mineral water for me, whispering:

- To your health, father, eat Madeira.

One of the unknown ladies, almost with a groan of despair, said:

- God! If only Grigory Efimovich wanted to tell the sovereign!

"Grigory Yefimovich," the other picked up in a hurried whisper. “The empress, the empress, I must say ... they, the poor, don’t know anything ...

My wife looked at me questioningly.

Rasputin wiped his wet moustache with his hand, stared at me with salty eyes (just think that some kind of “magnetism” was attributed to these faded pupils of a habitual alcoholic! ..) and began to mutter, trying to think something, hiccuping:

"That's it... yes... that's right... strictness is needed... the old man (Goremykin) is weak...

I remember the end of the dinner less. Another lady came and the conversation began to turn to mystical topics. It was difficult for me to follow the train of thought of these obsessed, calling to each other, like sparrows, in one understandable jargon. It was about the renunciation of their pride, about the church of believers united in one impulse.

Regarding the renunciation of pride, the conclusions suggested themselves: a secular lady should wear a dirty shirt; the more vile and vile what Rasputin prescribes to her, the more willingly she will obey ... to the end, to the point of sexual psychopathy.

The united church, apparently, also descended into Khlystism, but in a somewhat more complicated way.

Already weakened by the wine, Rasputin repeatedly pressed on the liturgical proclamation:

“Let us love one another, but confess with one mind…”

And the ladies echoed him, almost in ecstasy:

“You won’t love and you won’t confess…

- Confession does not happen without love ...

“One must love, this is true communion ...

Let me not insist on these abominations. It was stuffy, disgusting, unbearable. Zeal. All the sacraments of the Orthodox Church, one after another, boiled down to the fact that the lady must ... be guilty, I won’t say anything more.

We went out into the living room. Mrs. and the princess kept me in a corner and asked me about Bosnia, about Wilhelm, about the revolution. I tried to answer in such a way that no one was against wool.

Suddenly, from the next room, my wife jumped out: dryly and excitedly, she snapped:

Darling she told me.

- He, that is, Rasputin, led me into the hall, took me by the waist and began to lead me in a circle. Everything is faster and faster. He's inside and I'm running around in circles. The head began to spin, he embraced and kissed.

"Here, you son of a bitch!"

Sazonov's portfolio turned out to be expensive for the price ...

Two days later, a phone call. My wife came up - I was right there. From the very first answer, I noticed that the conversation was not banal ... she continued.

— Hello... Ah... yes!... I don't know...

Then backhand:

- I'll ask my husband.

— It was M—I who called. “They will talk to you.” Then Rasputin. “Cook me a Siberian pike, I’ll come to you for dinner.”

That is how the matter ended.
-----
A year later, on the 17th of September, for the first time we again went to G-oh, to congratulate on Love.

- Why are you, A. A., completely forgotten me? she said sweetly.

“For your part, L. V. When we were last with you, Rasputin kissed Irina ... If I had been in the room, I would have killed him ...

She calmly looked at me.

- What are you, what are you! Is it possible to kill him? They have already tried it in Siberia... it didn't work out... the angels of God are guarding it.

- I'm surprised, L.V. He got drunk in front of you and in front of me like a pig ... and you consider him a saint.

“But how? .. It’s easy to be a saint in a monastery ... And he, dear, deigns to be dirty to us sinners, so that everyone can see what it is, dirt ... in a vicious environment - a saint. This is true holiness...

For a long time she repeated this learned lesson.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (New; January 9 (21), 1869 - December 17 (30), 1916) - a peasant in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. He gained worldwide fame due to the fact that he was a family friend of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. In the 1900s, among certain circles of St. Petersburg society, he had a reputation as a "tsar's friend", "elder", seer and healer.

The negative image of Rasputin was used in revolutionary, later in Soviet propaganda, there are still many rumors about Rasputin and his influence on the fate of the Russian Empire.

• 1 Biography
  • 1.1 Ancestors and etymology of the surname
  • 1.2 Birth
  • 1.3 Early life
  • 1.4 Petersburg period
  • 1.5
    • 1.5.1
    • 1.5.2
    • 1.5.3
    • 1.5.4
  • 1.6
  • 1.7 Political Views
  • 1.8
  • 1.9 Assassination attempt on Khionia Guseva
  • 1.10 Murder
    • 1.10.1
  • 1.11 Funeral
• 2 The fate of the Rasputin family
• 3
  • 3.1 From the memories of witnesses
• 4 Estimates of Rasputin's influence
• 7
  • 7.1
  • 7.2
  • 7.3
  • 7.4 In music
  • 7.5 Rasputin in poetry
  • 7.6

Biography

Ancestors and etymology of the surname

The ancestor of the Rasputin family was "Izosim Fedorov son." The census book of the peasants of the village of Pokrovsky for 1662 says that he and his wife and three sons - Semyon, Nason and Yevsey - came to Pokrovskaya Sloboda twenty years earlier from the Yarensky district and "came to arable land." Son Nason later received the nickname "Rosputa". From him came all the Rosputins, who became Rasputins at the beginning of the 19th century. According to the household census of 1858, more than thirty peasants were listed in Pokrovsky, who bore the surname "Rasputins", including Yefim, Grigory's father. The surname comes from the words "crossroads", "crossroads", "crossroads".

Birth

Born on January 9 (21), 1869 in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province, in the family of a coachman Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and Anna Vasilievna (nee Parshukova).

Information about Rasputin's date of birth is extremely contradictory. Sources report various birth dates between 1864 and 1872. TSB (3rd edition) reports that he was born in 1864-1865. Rasputin himself in his mature years did not add clarity, reporting conflicting information about the date of birth. According to biographers, he was inclined to exaggerate his true age in order to better match the image of the "old man".

In the metric book of the Pokrovskaya Sloboda, in the first part “On those born”, it is written: “The son Grigory was born to Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilievna of the Orthodox faith.” He was baptized on January 10th. The godparents were Uncle Matthew Yakovlevich Rasputin and the maiden Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received the name according to the existing tradition of naming the child by the name of the saint on whose day he was born or baptized. The day of the baptism of Grigory Rasputin is January 10, the day of the celebration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

Beginning of life

In his youth, Rasputin was ill a lot. After a pilgrimage to the Verkhoturye Monastery, he turned to religion. In 1893, Rasputin traveled to the holy places of Russia, visited Mount Athos in Greece, then in Jerusalem. He met and made contacts with many representatives of the clergy, monks, wanderers.

In 1890 he married Praskovya Fyodorovna Dubrovina, the same peasant pilgrim who bore him three children: Matryona, Varvara and Dimitri.

In 1900 he went on a new journey to Kyiv. On the way back, he lived in Kazan for a long time, where he met Father Mikhail, who was related to the Kazan Theological Academy.

Petersburg period

In 1903 he came to St. Petersburg to the rector of the theological academy, Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky). There is a version that the Mother of God prompted Rasputin to come to Petersburg, entrusting him with the mission of saving Tsarevich Alexei. At the same time, the inspector of the St. Petersburg Academy, Archimandrite Feofan (Bystrov), met Rasputin, introducing him also to Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganov).

By 1904, Rasputin had acquired the glory of an "old man", "holy fool" and "God's man" from a part of the high society, which "fixed the position of a" saint "in the eyes of the St. Petersburg world." Father Feofan told about the "wanderer" to the daughters of the Montenegrin prince (later king) Nikolay Negosh - Militsa and Anastasia. The sisters told the empress about the new religious celebrity. Several years passed before he began to clearly stand out among the crowd of "God's people."

On November 1 (Tuesday), 1905, the first personal meeting between Rasputin and the emperor took place. This event was honored with an entry in the diary of Nicholas II. The references to Rasputin do not end there.

At 4 o'clock we went to Sergievka. We drank tea with Milica and Stana. We got acquainted with the man of God - Grigory from the Tobolsk province.

From the diary of Nicholas II

Rasputin gained influence on the imperial family, and above all on Alexandra Feodorovna, by helping her son, heir to the throne, Alexei, fight hemophilia, a disease that medicine was powerless to face.

In December 1906, Rasputin petitioned for highest name about changing his surname to Rasputin-New, referring to the fact that many of his fellow villagers have the same surname, because of which there may be misunderstandings. The request was granted.

Rasputin and the Orthodox Church

Later biographers of Rasputin (O. Platonov, A. Bokhanov) are inclined to see in the official investigations conducted by the church authorities in connection with the activities of Rasputin, some broader political meaning.

The first accusation of "Khlystism", 1903

In 1903, his first persecution by the church began: the Tobolsk consistory received a report from the local priest Pyotr Ostroumov that Rasputin behaved strangely with women who came to him "from St. Petersburg itself", about their "passions, from which he saves them ... in the bath" ... that in his youth Rasputin "from his life in the factories of the Perm province made acquaintance with the teachings of the Khlyst heresy." An investigator was sent to Pokrovskoye, but he did not find anything discrediting, and the case was archived.

The first case of Rasputin's "Khlystism", 1907

On September 6, 1907, following a denunciation of 1903, the Tobolsk consistory opened a case against Rasputin, who was accused of spreading false teachings similar to Khlyst's and forming a society of followers of his false teachings.

The initial investigation was conducted by priest Nikodim Glukhovetsky. On the basis of the collected facts, Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, a member of the Tobolsk Consistory, prepared a report to Bishop Anthony with a review of the case under consideration by a specialist in sects D. M. Berezkin, an inspector of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary.

D. M. Beryozkin, in his review of the conduct of the case, noted that the investigation was carried out by “persons little versed in Khlystism”, that only Rasputin’s residential two-story house was searched, although it is known that the place where zeal takes place “never fits in residential premises ... but always settles in the backyards - in baths, in sheds, in cellars ... and even in dungeons ... The paintings and icons found in the house are not described, meanwhile, they usually contain the key to heresy ... ". After that, Bishop Anthony of Tobolsk decided to carry out an additional investigation into the case, entrusting it to an experienced anti-sectarian missionary.

As a result, the case "fell apart", and was approved as completed by Anthony (Karzhavin) on May 7, 1908.

Subsequently, the chairman of the State Duma, Rodzianko, who took the case from the Synod, said that it soon disappeared, but, according to E. Radzinsky, “The case of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory on the Khlystism of Grigory Rasputin” was eventually found in the Tyumen archive.

The first "Case of Khlystism", despite the fact that it justifies Rasputin, causes an ambiguous assessment among researchers.

According to E. Radzinsky, the unspoken initiator of the case was Princess Milica Chernogorskaya, who, thanks to her power at court, had strong ties in the Synod, and the initiator of the hasty closure of the case due to pressure "from above" was General Olga Lokhtina, one of Rasputin's St. Petersburg admirers. The same fact of Lokhtina's patronage as Radzinsky's scientific discovery is cited by IV Smyslov. Radzinsky connects the relations between Princess Militsa and Anastasia that soon deteriorated with Tsarina precisely with her attempt to initiate this case (citation “... together they were indignant at the “black women” who dared to organize a shameful investigation against the “Man of God””).

O. A. Platonov, seeking to prove the falseness of the accusations against Rasputin, believes that the case appeared “out of nowhere”, and the case was “organized” by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (husband of Anastasia Chernogorskaya), who before Rasputin occupied the place of the closest friend and adviser to the royal family. Especially O. A. Platonov highlights the prince's belonging to Freemasonry. A. N. Varlamov does not agree with Platonov’s version of the intervention of Nikolai Nikolayevich, who does not see that motive.

According to A. A. Amalrik, Rasputin was saved in this case by his friends, Archimandrite Feofan (Bystrov), Bishop Germogen (Dolganev) and Tsar Nicholas II, who ordered the case to be hushed up.

Historian A. N. Bokhanov claims that the “Rasputin case” is one of the first cases of “black PR” not only in Russia, but also in world history. The Rasputin theme is "the clearest indicator of the hardest spiritual and psychological split in the country, a split that became the detonator of the revolutionary explosion of 1917."

O. A. Platonov in his book details the contents of this case, considering a number of testimonies against Rasputin to be hostile and / or fabricated: surveys of village residents (priests, peasants), surveys of St. Petersburg women who, after 1905, began to visit Pokrovskoye. A. N. Varlamov nevertheless considers these testimonies to be sufficiently reliable, and analyzes them in the corresponding chapter of his book. A. N. Varlamov identifies three charges against Rasputin in the case:

1. Rasputin acted as an impostor doctor and was engaged in healing human souls without a diploma; he himself did not want to become a monk (“He said that he did not like monastic life, that monks did not observe morality and that it was better to be saved in the world,” Matryona testified during the investigation), but he also dared others; as a result, two girls of Dubrovina died, who, according to fellow villagers, died due to “Grigory’s bullying” (according to Rasputin’s testimony, they died of consumption);
2. Rasputin's craving for women's kisses, in particular, the episode of the violent kiss of the 28-year-old prosphora Evdokia Korneeva, about which the investigation arranged a confrontation between Rasputin and Korneeva; “the accused denied this testimony partly completely, and partly making excuses in a memorized manner (“6 years ago”)”;
3. testimony of the priest of the Intercession Church, Father Fyodor Chemagin: “I went (accidentally) to the accused and saw how the latter returned wet from the bathhouse, and after him all the women who lived with him came from there - also wet and steamy. The accused confessed, in private conversations, to the witness in his weakness to caress and kiss the "ladies", confessed that he was with them in the bathhouse, that he stands absent-mindedly in the church. Rasputin "objected that he went to the bathhouse long before the women, and having become very ill, he lay in the dressing room, and a really steam room came out of there - shortly before (the arrival there) of the women."

The appendix to the report of Metropolitan Yuvenaly (Poyarkov) at the bishops' council held in the autumn of 2004 states the following: “The case of G. Rasputin's accusation of Khlystism, stored in the Tobolsk branch of the State Archive of the Tyumen Region, has not been thoroughly investigated, although lengthy excerpts from it are given in the book of O. A. Platonov. In an effort to “rehabilitate” G. Rasputin, O. A. Platonov, who, by the way, is not a specialist in the history of Russian sectarianism, characterizes this case as “fabricated”. Meanwhile, even the extracts he cited, including the testimony of the priests of the settlement of Pokrovskaya, testify that the question of G. Rasputin's proximity to sectarianism is much more complicated than it seems to the author, and in any case still needs a special and competent analysis.

Secret Police Surveillance, Jerusalem - 1911

In 1909, the police were going to expel Rasputin from St. Petersburg, but Rasputin got ahead of her and left for his homeland in the village of Pokrovskoye for a while.

In 1910, his daughters moved to St. Petersburg to Rasputin, whom he arranged to study at the gymnasium. At the direction of Prime Minister Stolypin, Rasputin was put under surveillance for several days.

At the beginning of 1911, Bishop Feofan invited the Holy Synod to officially express displeasure to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in connection with Rasputin's behavior, and a member of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), reported to Nicholas II about Rasputin's negative influence.

On December 16, 1911, Rasputin had a skirmish with Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor. Bishop Germogen, acting in alliance with hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov), invited Rasputin to his courtyard, on Vasilyevsky Island, in the presence of Iliodor, "convicted" him, hitting him with a cross several times. An argument ensued between them, and then a fight.

In 1911, Rasputin voluntarily left the capital and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

On January 23, 1912, by order of the Minister of the Interior, Makarov, Rasputin was again placed under surveillance, which continued until his death.

The second case of Rasputin's "Khlystism" in 1912

In January 1912, the Duma declared its attitude towards Rasputin, and in February 1912, Nicholas II ordered V.K. to him the Case of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory, which contained the beginning of the Investigative Proceedings on the accusation of Rasputin of belonging to the Khlyst sect. On February 26, 1912, at an audience, Rodzianko suggested that the tsar expel the peasant forever. Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) openly wrote, [source unspecified 754 days] that Rasputin is a whip and participates in zeal.

The new (replaced Eusebius (Grozdov)) Tobolsk Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) personally took up this matter, studied the materials, requested information from the clergy of the Intercession Church, and repeatedly talked with Rasputin himself. Based on the results of this new investigation, the conclusion of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory was prepared and approved on November 29, 1912, and sent to many high-ranking officials and some deputies of the State Duma. In conclusion, Rasputin-New is called "a Christian, a spiritually minded person who seeks the truth of Christ." There were no more official accusations against Rasputin. But this did not mean at all that everyone believed in the results of the new investigation.

Rasputin's opponents believe that Bishop Alexy "helped" him in this way for selfish purposes: the disgraced bishop, exiled to Tobolsk from the Pskov see as a result of the discovery of a sectarian St. John's monastery in the Pskov province, stayed at the Tobolsk see only until October 1913, that is, only a year and a half, after which he was appointed Exarch of Georgia and elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Kartal and Kakheti with the title of member of the Holy Synod. This is seen as the influence of Rasputin.

However, researchers believe that the elevation of Bishop Alexy in 1913 took place only due to his devotion to the reigning house, which is especially evident from his sermon delivered on the occasion of the 1905 manifesto. Moreover, the period in which Bishop Alexy was appointed Exarch of Georgia was a period of revolutionary ferment in Georgia.

According to Archbishop Anthony Karzhavin, it should also be noted that Rasputin's opponents often forget about a different elevation: Bishop Anthony of Tobolsk (Karzhavin), who brought the first case against Rasputin about "Khlystism", was moved in 1910 from cold Siberia to the Tver cathedra and to Pascha was elevated to the rank of archbishop. But, according to Karzhavin, they remember that this transfer took place precisely due to the fact that the first file was sent to the archives of the Synod.

Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

• Rasputin, G. E. The life of an experienced wanderer. - May 1907.
• G. E. Rasputin. My thoughts and reflections. - Petrograd, 1915.

In his prophecies, Rasputin speaks of "God's punishment", "bitter water", "tears of the sun", "poisonous rains" "until the end of our century." The deserts will advance, and the land will be inhabited by monsters that will not be people or animals. Thanks to "human alchemy", flying frogs, kite butterflies, crawling bees, huge mice and no less huge ants, as well as the monster "kobak" will appear. Two princes from the West and the East will challenge the right to world domination. They will have a battle in the land of four demons, but the western prince Grayug will defeat his eastern enemy Blizzard, but he himself will fall. After these misfortunes, people will again turn to God and enter the "earthly paradise."

The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House: "As long as I live, the dynasty will live."

Some authors believe that there are mentions of Rasputin in the letters of Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin's surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in the letters is indicated by the words "Friend", or "He" with capital letters, although this has no documentary evidence. The letters were published in the USSR by 1927, and by the Berlin publishing house "Slovo" in 1922. The correspondence was preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation - the Novoromanovsky archive.

Political Views

In 1912, Rasputin dissuaded the emperor from intervening in the Balkan War, which delayed the start of World War I by 2 years. In 1915, anticipating the February Revolution, Rasputin demanded an improvement in the supply of bread to the capital. In 1916, Rasputin spoke out strongly in favor of Russia withdrawing from the war, making peace with Germany, giving up rights to Poland and the Baltic states, and also against the Russo-British alliance.

Anti-Rasputin press campaign

In 1910, the writer Mikhail Novoselov published several critical articles about Rasputin in Moskovskie Vedomosti (No. 49 - "The spiritual guest performer Grigory Rasputin", No. 72 - "Something else about Grigory Rasputin").

In 1912, Novoselov published in his publishing house the pamphlet "Grigory Rasputin and mystical debauchery", which accused Rasputin of being a whip and criticized the highest church hierarchy. The brochure was banned and confiscated at the printing house. The newspaper "Voice of Moscow" was fined for publishing excerpts from it. After that, the State Duma followed up with a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the legality of punishing the editors of Golos Moskvy and Novoye Vremya. In the same 1912, Rasputin's acquaintance, the former hieromonk Iliodor, began to distribute several letters of scandalous content from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses to Rasputin.

Copies printed on a hectograph went around St. Petersburg. Most researchers consider these letters to be forgeries. Later, Iliodor, on the advice of Gorky, wrote a libelous book "Holy Devil" about Rasputin, which was published in 1917 during the revolution.

In 1913-1914, the Masonic Supreme Council of the VVNR attempted an agitation campaign about the role of Rasputin at court. Somewhat later, the Council made an attempt to publish a pamphlet directed against Rasputin, and when this attempt failed (the pamphlet was censored), the Council took steps to distribute this pamphlet in a typed typewriter.

Assassination attempt on Khionia Guseva

In 1914, an anti-Rasputin conspiracy matured, headed by Nikolai Nikolayevich and Rodzianko.

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an assassination attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovsky. He was stabbed in the stomach and seriously wounded by Khionia Guseva, who had come from Tsaritsyn. Rasputin testified that he suspected Iliodor of organizing the assassination attempt, but could not provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by ship to Tyumen for treatment. Rasputin remained in the Tyumen hospital until August 17, 1914. The investigation into the assassination attempt lasted about a year. Guseva was declared mentally ill in July 1915 and freed from criminal liability by being placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk. On March 27, 1917, on the personal instructions of A.F. Kerensky, Guseva was released.

Murder

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 17, 1916 (December 30, according to a new style) in the Yusupov Palace on the Moika. Conspirators: F. F. Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, British intelligence officer MI-6 Oswald Reiner.

Information about the murder is contradictory, it was confused both by the killers themselves and by pressure on the investigation by the Russian imperial and British authorities. Yusupov changed his testimony several times: in the police of St. Petersburg on December 18, 1916, in exile in the Crimea in 1917, in a book in 1927, given under oath in 1934 and in 1965. Initially, Purishkevich's memoirs were published, then Yusupov echoed his version. However, they radically differed from the testimony of the investigation. Starting from naming the wrong color of the clothes that Rasputin was wearing according to the killers and in which he was found, and to how many and where the bullets were fired. So, for example, forensic experts found three wounds, each of which is fatal: in the head, in the liver and kidney. (According to British researchers who studied the photograph, the headshot was from a British Webley .455 revolver.) After being shot in the liver, a person can live no more than 20 minutes and unable, as the killers said, to run down the street in half an hour or an hour. Also, there was no shot in the heart, which the killers unanimously claimed.

Rasputin was first lured into the cellar, treated to red wine and a pie poisoned with potassium cyanide. Yusupov went upstairs and, returning, shot him in the back, causing him to fall. The conspirators went out into the street. Yusupov, who returned for a cloak, checked the body, suddenly Rasputin woke up and tried to strangle the killer. The conspirators who ran in at that moment began to shoot at Rasputin. Approaching, they were surprised that he was still alive, and began to beat him. According to the killers, the poisoned and shot Rasputin came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb over the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the killers, who heard the rising barking of a dog. Then he was tied with ropes hand and foot (according to Purishkevich, first wrapped in a blue cloth), taken by car to a pre-selected place near Kamenny Island and thrown off the bridge into the Neva hole in such a way that the body was under the ice. However, according to the materials of the investigation, the discovered corpse was dressed in a fur coat, there was neither fabric nor ropes.

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin, which was led by the director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev, progressed quite quickly. Already the first interrogations of Rasputin's family members and servants showed that on the night of the murder, Rasputin went to visit Prince Yusupov. Policeman Vlasyuk, who was on duty on the night of December 16-17 on a street not far from the Yusupov Palace, testified that he had heard several shots at night. During a search in the courtyard of the Yusupovs' house, traces of blood were found.

On the afternoon of December 17, a passer-by noticed bloodstains on the parapet of the Petrovsky Bridge. After divers explored the Neva, the body of Rasputin was found in this place. The forensic medical examination was entrusted to the well-known professor of the Military Medical Academy D.P. Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not been preserved; the cause of death can only be hypothesized.

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, many of which were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was shattered, flattened due to bruising of the corpse during the fall from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding due to a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost point-blank, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with crushing of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was very profuse. The corpse also had a gunshot wound in the back, in the region of the spine, with crushing of the right kidney, and another wound point-blank, in the forehead, probably already dying or dead. The chest organs were intact and were examined superficially, but there were no signs of death from drowning. The lungs were not swollen and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water already dead.

The conclusion of the forensic expert Professor D.N. Kosorotova

No poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. Possible explanations for this are that the cyanide in the brownies was neutralized by sugar or high temperature when cooking in the oven. His daughter reports that after the assassination attempt, Gusev Rasputin suffered from high acidity and avoided sweet foods. He was reportedly poisoned with a dose capable of killing 5 people. Some modern researchers suggest that there was no poison - this is a lie to confuse the investigation.

There are a number of nuances in determining the involvement of O. Reiner. At that time, two British MI6 intelligence officers who could have committed the murder were serving in St. Petersburg: Yusupov's friend from University College (Oxford) Oswald Rayner and Captain Stephen Alley, who was born in the Yusupov Palace. The former was suspected, and Tsar Nicholas II explicitly mentioned that the killer was Yusupov's college friend. In 1919, Reiner was awarded the Order of the British Empire, he destroyed his papers before his death in 1961. Compton's driver's journal records that he brought Oswald to Yusupov (and to another officer, Captain John Scale) a week before the murder, and the last time - on the day of the murder. Compton also directly hinted at Rayner, saying that the killer is a lawyer and was born in the same city with him. There is a letter from Alley written to Scale on January 7, 1917, eight days after the assassination: "Although not everything went according to plan, our goal was achieved ... Rayner covers his tracks and will undoubtedly contact you ... ". According to modern British researchers, the order for the three British agents (Reiner, Alley and Scale) to eliminate Rasputin came from Mansfield Smith-Cumming (the first director of MI6).

The investigation lasted two and a half months until the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on March 2, 1917. On that day, Kerensky became Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 4, 1917, he ordered the investigation to be hastily terminated, while investigator A.T. Vasiliev was arrested and transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission until September, and later emigrated.

English conspiracy version

In 2004, the BBC aired the documentary Who Killed Rasputin?, which brought new attention to the murder investigation. According to the version shown in the film, the "fame" and the plan of this murder belongs to Great Britain, the Russian conspirators were only performers, a control shot in the forehead was fired from a revolver of British officers Webley.455.

According to the researchers who published the books, Rasputin was killed with the active participation of the British intelligence service Mi-6, the killers confused the investigation in order to hide the British trail. The motive for the conspiracy was the following: Great Britain was afraid of Rasputin's influence on the Russian Empress, which threatened to conclude a separate peace with Germany. To eliminate the threat, a conspiracy brewing in Russia against Rasputin was used.

Funeral

Rasputin was buried by Bishop Isidore (Kolokolov), who knew him well. In his memoirs, A. I. Spiridovich recalls that Bishop Isidore served the funeral mass (which he had no right to do).

It was said later that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached about the funeral, rejected this request. In those days, a legend was started that the Empress was present at the autopsy and the funeral service, which also reached the English Embassy. It was a typical gossip directed against the Empress.

At first they wanted to bury the dead man in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovsky. But because of the danger of possible unrest in connection with sending the body across half the country, they buried it in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the temple of Seraphim of Sarov built by Anna Vyrubova.

M. V. Rodzianko writes that during the festivities rumors spread in the Duma about Rasputin's return to St. Petersburg. In January 1917, Mikhail Vladimirovich received a paper with many signatures from Tsaritsyn with the message that Rasputin was visiting V.K. Sabler, that the Tsaritsyn people knew about Rasputin's arrival in the capital.

After the February Revolution, Rasputin's grave was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. For several days the coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage. Rasputin's body was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler of the Polytechnic Institute. An official act was drawn up on the burning of the corpse of Rasputin.

Three months after Rasputin's death, his grave was desecrated. At the place of burning, two inscriptions are inscribed on a birch, one of which is in German: “Hier ist der Hund begraben” (“A dog is buried here”) and further “The corpse of Rasputin Grigory was burned here on the night of March 10-11, 1917” .

The fate of the Rasputin family

Rasputin's daughter Matryona emigrated to France after the revolution, and later moved to the United States.

The remaining members of the Rasputin family were subjected to repression by the Soviet authorities. In 1922, his widow Praskovya Fedorovna, son Dmitry and daughter Varvara were disenfranchised as "malicious elements." Even earlier, in 1920, the house and the entire peasant economy of Dmitry Grigorievich were nationalized. In the 1930s, all three were arrested by the NKVD, and their trace was lost in the special settlements of the Tyumen North.

Allegations of immorality

In 1914, Rasputin settled in an apartment at 64 Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg.

Various gloomy rumors quickly began to spread around St. Petersburg about this apartment, they say, Rasputin turned it into a brothel and uses it to conduct his "orgies". Some said that Rasputin kept a permanent "harem" there, while others - collected from time to time. There was a rumor that the apartment on Gorokhovaya was used for witchcraft, etc.

From the memories of witnesses

… One day Aunt Agn. Fed. Hartmann (my mother's sister) asked me if I would like to see Rasputin closer. …….. Having received the address on Pushkinskaya St., on the appointed day and hour, I appeared at the apartment of Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina, my aunt's friend. Entering the small dining room, I found everyone already assembled. At the oval table served for tea, there were 6-7 young interesting ladies. I knew two of them by sight (we met in the halls of the Winter Palace, where Alexandra Fedorovna organized the sewing of linen for the wounded). They were all in the same circle and were talking animatedly among themselves in an undertone. After making a general bow in English, I sat next to the hostess at the samovar and talked to her.

Suddenly, there was a general sigh - Ah! I looked up and saw in the door, located on the opposite side from where I entered, a powerful figure - the first impression - a gypsy. A tall, powerful figure was clad in a white Russian shirt with embroidery on the collar and clasp, a twisted belt with tassels, black loose-fitting trousers and Russian boots. But there was nothing Russian in it. Thick black hair, a large black beard, a swarthy face with predatory nostrils of the nose and some kind of ironically mocking smile on the lips - the face, of course, is spectacular, but somehow unpleasant. The first thing that attracted attention was his eyes: black, red-hot, they burned, piercing through, and his gaze at you was felt simply physically, it was impossible to remain calm. It seems to me that he really had a hypnotic power that subjugated himself when he wanted it. …

Here everyone was familiar to him, vied with each other trying to please, to attract attention. He cheekily sat down at the table, addressed each by name and “you”, spoke catchily, sometimes vulgarly and rudely, called to him, sat him on his knees, felt, stroked, patted on soft places and all the “happy” ones were thrilled with pleasure. ! It was disgusting and insulting to look at this for women who were humiliated, who had lost both their feminine dignity and family honor. I felt the blood rush to my face, I wanted to scream, bang my fist, do something. I sat almost opposite the “distinguished guest”, he perfectly felt my condition and, mockingly laughing, each time after the next attack he stubbornly stuck his eyes into me. I was a new, unknown object to him. …

Brashly addressing one of those present, he said: “Do you see? Who made the shirt? Sasha! (meaning Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). No decent man would ever betray the secrets of a woman's feelings. My eyes grew dark from tension, and Rasputin's gaze unbearably drilled and drilled. I moved closer to the hostess, trying to hide behind the samovar. Maria Alexandrovna looked at me anxiously. …

“Mashenka,” a voice rang out, “do you want some jam? Come to me." Masha hastily jumps up and hurries to the place of conscription. Rasputin crosses his legs, takes a spoonful of jam and knocks it over on the toe of his boot. “Lick” - an imperative voice sounds, she kneels down and, bowing her head, licks off the jam ... I could not stand it anymore. Squeezing the mistress's hand, she jumped up and ran out into the hallway. I don’t remember how I put on my hat, how I ran along the Nevsky. I came to my senses at the Admiralty, I had to go home to Petrogradskaya. Half the night she roared and asked me never to ask me about what I saw, and I myself neither with my mother nor with my aunt remembered this hour, I did not see Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina either. Since then, I could not calmly hear the name of Rasputin and lost all respect for our "secular" ladies. Once, while visiting De-Lazari, I came up to the phone call and heard the voice of this scoundrel. But she immediately said that I know who is speaking, and therefore I don’t want to talk ...

Grigorova-Rudykovskaya, Tatyana Leonidovna

The Provisional Government conducted a special investigation into the Rasputin case. According to one of the participants in this investigation, V. M. Rudnev, seconded by order of Kerensky to the "Extraordinary Investigation Commission to officials”and the then associate prosecutor of the Yekaterinoslav District Court:

... the richest material for elucidating his personality from this side turned out to be in the data of that very covert observation of him, which was conducted by the security department; at the same time, it turned out that Rasputin's amorous adventures do not go beyond the framework of nightly orgies with girls of easy virtue and chansonnet singers, and also sometimes with some of his petitioners.

Matryon's daughter in her book Rasputin. Why?" wrote:

... that for all his impregnation with life, the father never abused his power and ability to influence women in the carnal sense. However, one must understand that this part of the relationship was of particular interest to the ill-wishers of the father. I note that they received some real food for their stories.

From the testimony of Prince M. M. Andronikov to the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry:

... Then he would go to the phone and call all kinds of ladies. I had to do bonne mine mauvais jeu - because all these ladies were of an extremely dubious quality ...

Estimates of Rasputin's influence

Mikhail Taube, who was Deputy Minister of Public Education in 1911-1915, cites the following episode in his memoirs. Once a man came to the ministry with a letter from Rasputin and a request to appoint him an inspector of public schools in his native province. The minister (Lev Kasso) ordered this petitioner to be lowered down the stairs. According to Taube, this case proved how exaggerated were all the rumors and gossip about the behind-the-scenes influence of Rasputin.

According to the memoirs of the courtiers, Rasputin was not close to the royal family and generally rarely visited the royal palace. So, according to the memoirs of the palace commandant Vladimir Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gherardi, when asked how often Rasputin visits the palace, answered: “once a month, and sometimes once every two months.” In the memoirs of the maid of honor Anna Vyrubova, it is said that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the tsar received him even less often. Another lady-in-waiting, Sophia Buxhowden, recalled:

“I lived in the Alexander Palace from 1913 to 1917, and my room was connected by a corridor with the chambers of the Imperial children. I never saw Rasputin during all this time, although I was constantly in the company of the Grand Duchesses. Monsieur Gilliard, who also lived there for several years, also never saw him.”

Gilliard, for all the time he spent at court, recalls the only meeting with Rasputin: “Once, when I was about to leave, I met him in the hall. I had time to examine him while he took off his fur coat. He was a tall man with an emaciated face, with a very sharp gray-blue eyes from under the disheveled eyebrows. He had long hair and a big man's beard." Nicholas II himself in 1911 told V.N. Kokovtsov about Rasputin that:

... personally almost does not know "this peasant" and saw him briefly, it seems, no more than two or three times, and, moreover, at very long distances of time.

From the memoirs of the director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev (he served in the "okhrana" of St. Petersburg since 1906 and headed the police in 1916-1917):

Many times I had the opportunity to meet with Rasputin and talk with him on various topics.<…>Mind and natural ingenuity gave him the opportunity to soberly and penetratingly judge a person who had only once met him. This was also known to the queen, so she sometimes asked his opinion about this or that candidate for a high position in the government. But from such harmless questions to the appointment of ministers by Rasputin is a very big step, and neither the tsar nor the tsarina, undoubtedly, never took this step.<…>Nevertheless, people believed that everything depended on a piece of paper with a few words written by Rasputin's hand ... I never believed in this, and although I sometimes investigated these rumors, I never found convincing evidence of their veracity. The cases I relate are not, as one might think, my sentimental fabrications; they are evidenced by the reports of agents who worked for years as servants in Rasputin's house and, therefore, knew his daily life in the smallest details. <…>Rasputin did not climb into the front ranks of the political arena, he was pushed there by other people seeking to shake the foundation of the Russian throne and empire ... These harbingers of the revolution sought to make a scarecrow out of Rasputin in order to carry out their plans. Therefore, they spread the most ridiculous rumors, which created the impression that only through the mediation of the Siberian peasant can one achieve a high position and influence.

A. Ya. Avrekh believed that in 1915 the tsarina and Rasputin, having blessed the departure of Nicholas II to Headquarters as the supreme commander, carried out something like a “coup d'état” and appropriated a significant part of the power: as an example, A. Ya. Avrekh brings their meddling in affairs southwestern front during the offensive organized by A. A. Brusilov. A. Ya. Avrekh believed that the queen significantly influenced the king, and Rasputin influenced the queen.

A. N. Bokhanov, on the contrary, believes that the whole “raspuniad” is the fruit of political manipulations, “black PR”. However, as Bokhanov says, it is well known that information pressure works only when not only there are intentions and opportunities for certain groups to establish a desirable stereotype in the public mind, but society itself is prepared to accept and assimilate it. Therefore, just to say, as is sometimes done, that the replicated stories about Rasputin are a complete lie, even if this is true, does not clarify the essence: why were fabrications about him taken for granted? This basic question remains unanswered to this day.

At the same time, the image of Rasputin was widely used in revolutionary and German propaganda. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II, many rumors circulated in Petersburg society about Rasputin and his influence on power. It was said that he himself absolutely subjugated the tsar and tsarina and rules the country, either Alexandra Feodorovna seized power with the help of Rasputin, or the country was ruled by a “triumvirate” of Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the tsarina.

The publication of reports about Rasputin in the press could be limited only partially. According to the law, articles about the imperial family were subject to preliminary censorship by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Court. Any articles in which Rasputin's name was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were banned, but articles in which only Rasputin appeared could not be banned.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov made a speech critical of the government and the "court party", in which Rasputin's name was also mentioned. Milyukov took the information he gave about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt of October 16, 1916 and Neue Freye Press of June 25, regarding which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V. M. Purishkevich delivered a speech at a meeting of the Duma, in which great importance was attached to Rasputin. The image of Rasputin was also used by German propaganda. In March 1916, German zeppelins scattered over the Russian trenches a caricature depicting Wilhelm leaning on the German people, and Nikolai Romanov leaning on Rasputin's genitals.

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the Empress was Rasputin's mistress were spread among the officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became chairman of the Provisional Government.

After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the Provisional Government organized an emergency investigative commission, which was supposed to search for the crimes of tsarist officials, including investigating the activities of Rasputin. The commission made 88 surveys and interrogated 59 persons, prepared "shorthand reports", the editor-in-chief of which was the poet A. A. Blok, who published his observations and notes in the form of a book called "The Last Days of Imperial Power."

The commission has not finished its work. Some of the protocols of interrogations of senior officials were published in the USSR by 1927. From the testimony of A. D. Protopopov to the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry on March 21, 1917:

CHAIRMAN. Do you know the significance of Rasputin in the affairs of Tsarskoye Selo under the Emperor? - PROTOPOPOV. Rasputin was a close person, and, as with a close person, he was consulted.

V. I. Lenin wrote:

The first revolution and the counter-revolutionary epoch following it (1907-1914) revealed the whole essence of the tsarist monarchy, brought it to the “last line”, revealed all its rottenness, vileness, all the cynicism and depravity of the royal gang with the monstrous Rasputin at its head, all the atrocities of the family The Romanovs - those pogromists who flooded Russia with the blood of Jews, workers, revolutionaries ...

Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia in 1911-1914 Vladimir Kokovtsov wrote in his memoirs with surprise:

... oddly enough, the question of Rasputin involuntarily became the central issue of the near future and did not leave the scene for almost the entire time of my chairmanship in the Council of Ministers, bringing me to resignation with a little over two years.

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian varnak, a vagabond, smart and trained himself in a certain way of a simpleton and holy fool, and plays his role according to a learned recipe.

In appearance, he lacked only a prisoner's coat and an ace of diamonds on his back.

By manners - this is a man capable of anything. Of course, he does not believe in his antics, but he has developed for himself firmly learned methods by which he deceives both those who sincerely believe in all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, meaning in fact only to achieve through it of those benefits that are not given in any other way.

Rasputin's secretary Aron Simanovich writes in his book:

How did contemporaries imagine Rasputin? Like a drunken, dirty peasant who penetrated the royal family, appointed and dismissed ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the Petersburg scandalous chronicle. In addition, there are wild orgies in Villa Rode, lustful dances among aristocratic admirers, high-ranking henchmen and drunken gypsies, and at the same time incomprehensible power over the king and his family, hypnotic power and faith in one's special purpose. That was it.

Confessor of the royal family, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev:

Rasputin is "a completely God-fearing and believing person, harmless and even rather useful for the Royal Family ... He talks with Them about God, about faith."

Doctor, life physician of the family of Nicholas II Evgeny Botkin:

If there had been no Rasputin, then the opponents of the royal family and the organizers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, not for Vyrubova, from me, from whoever you want.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, the investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, writes in his book-forensic investigation:

The head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, Pokhvisnev, who held this position in 1913-1917, shows: “According to the established procedure, all telegrams addressed to the Sovereign and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all the telegrams that went to the name of Their Majesties from Rasputin were known to me at one time. There were a lot of them. It is, of course, impossible to recall their contents in sequence. In all conscience, I can say that Rasputin's enormous influence with the Sovereign and the Empress was established with complete clarity by the content of the telegrams.

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes in 1914 the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin as follows:

Father John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: "Rasputin", he said: "Look, by your last name it will be for you."

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), an elder of the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage, spoke very sharply about Rasputin: "Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven ...".

Attempts to canonize Rasputin

See also: Issue of canonization of Ivan the Terrible

Religious veneration of Grigory Rasputin began around 1990 and went from the so-called. The Mother of God Center (which changed its name over the next years).

Some extremely radical-monarchist Orthodox circles have also, since the 1990s, expressed thoughts about the canonization of Rasputin as a holy martyr.

The proponents of these ideas were:

1. editor of the Orthodox newspaper "Blagovest" Anton Evgenievich Zhogolev
2. writer of Orthodox-patriotic, historical genre Oleg Platonov
3. singer Zhanna Bichevskaya
4. editor-in-chief of the Rus Pravoslavnaya newspaper Konstantin Dushenov
5. "Church of John the Evangelist", etc.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church for the canonization of saints and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II: “There is no reason to raise the question of the canonization of Grigory Rasputin, whose dubious morality and promiscuity cast a shadow on the August surname of the future royal martyrs of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.”

Despite this, over the past ten years, religious admirers of Grigory Rasputin have issued at least two akathists to him, and also painted about a dozen icons.

Rasputin in culture and art

According to S. Fomin's research, during March-November 1917 the theaters were filled with "doubtful" performances, and more than ten "libelous" films about Grigory Rasputin were released. The first such film was a two-part "sensational drama" "Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates"(production of the joint-stock company G. Liebken). The picture was delivered in record time, within a few days: on March 5, the newspaper "Early morning" announced it, and already on March 12 (10 days after the renunciation) she came out on the screens of cinemas. It is noteworthy that this first "libelous" film as a whole failed and was successful only in the outskirts of small cinemas, where the audience was simpler ... The appearance of these films led to the protest of a more educated public because of their pornography and wild erotica. In order to protect public morality, it was even proposed to introduce film censorship (and this was in the first days of the revolution!), Temporarily entrusting it to the police. A group of filmmakers petitioned the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky to ban the demonstration of the tape "Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin", stop the flow movies and pornography. Of course, this did not stop the further spread of the kinorasputiniada across the country. Those who "overthrew the autocracy" were in power, and they needed to justify this overthrow. And then S. Fomin writes: “After October 1917, the Bolsheviks approached the matter more fundamentally. Of course, the film waste paper about Rasputin received a second wind, but much broader and deeper steps were taken. The multi-volume Protocols of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission created by the Provisional Government, falsified by P. E. Shchegolev and others, were published; from beginning to end forged by the same P. Shchegolev with the "red count" A. Tolstoy "Diaries" by A. Vyrubova. In the same row is the widely demonstrated play by A. Tolstoy "The Conspiracy of the Empress." ... Only by about 1930, this campaign began to wane - the new generation entering adulthood in the USSR was already sufficiently "processed".

Rasputin and his historical meaning had a great influence on both Russian and Western culture. Germans and Americans are to some extent attracted to his figure as a kind of "Russian bear", or "Russian peasant".
In with. Pokrovskoye (now - Yarkovsky district of the Tyumen region) operates a private museum of G.E. Rasputin.

List of literature about Rasputin

• Avrekh A. Ya. Tsarism on the eve of the overthrow.- M., 1989. - ISBN 5-02-009443-9
• Amalrik A. Rasputin
• Varlamov A. N. Grigory Rasputin-New. ZhZL series. - M: Young Guard, 2007. 851 pages - ISBN 978-5-235-02956-9
• Vasiliev A. T. Protection: Russian secret police. In the book: "Protection". Memoirs of leaders of political investigation. - M.: New Literary Review, 2004. Volume 2.
• Watala E. Rasputin. Without myths and legends. M., 2000
• Bokhanov A. N. The truth about Grigory Rasputin. - M: Russian Publishing Center, 2011. 608 p., 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4249-0002-0
• Bokhanov A. N. Grigory Rasputin. Adventurer or holy elder? M.: Veche, 2012. - 288 p. - (Mystery man). 2000 copies, ISBN 978-5-9533-6425-6
• Bokhanov A.N. Grigory Rasputin. Myths and Reality.- M: Russian Publishing Center, 2014.>
• Gatiyatulina Yu. R. Museum of Grigory Rasputin // Revival of the historical center of Tyumen. Tyumen in the past, present and future. Abstracts of reports and messages of the scientific-practical conference. - Tyumen, 2001. S. 24-26. - ISBN 5-88131-176-0
• E. F. Dzhanumova. My meetings with (Grigory) Rasputin
• N. N. Evreinov. Rasputin's secret. L .: "Past", 1924 (M: "Book Chamber", 1990 reprint: ISBN 5-7000-0219-1)
• V. A. Zhukovskaya. My memories of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin 1914-1916.
• Iliodor (Trufanov S.) Holy hell. Notes on Rasputin. With a preface by S. P. Melgunov. Printing house t-va Ryabushinsky. - M., 1917 XV, 188 p.
• Zhevakhov N. Memoirs. Volume I. September 1915 - March 1917]
• Kokovtsov V. N. From my past. Memoirs 1903-1919 Volumes I and II. Paris, 1933. Chapter II
• Miller L. The royal family is a victim of dark power. Melbourne, 1988. ("Lodya": reprint) ISBN 5-8233-0011-5
• Nikulin L. God's adjutant. Chronicle novel. - M., 1927 "Worker" No. 98 - "Worker" No. 146
• The fall of the tsarist regime. Verbatim records of interrogations and testimony given in 1917 at the Extraordinary Investigation Commission of the Provisional Government. - M.-L., 1926-1927. At 7 t.
• Pikul V. Evil spirits ("At the last line")
• O. Platonov. Life for the Tsar (The Truth about Grigory Rasputin)
• Polishchuk V.V., Polishchuk O.A. Tyumen of Grigory Rasputin-New // Slovtsovsky Readings-2006: Proceedings of the XVIII All-Russian Scientific Regional Studies Conference. - Tyumen, 2006. S. 97-99. - ISBN 5-88081-558-7
• Purishkevich V. M. Diary for 1916 (The Death of Rasputin) // “The Life of the Prodigal Elder Grishka Rasputin”. - M., 1990. - ISBN 5-268-01401-3
• Purishkevich V. M. Diary (in the book "The Last Days of Rasputin"). - M.: "Zakharov", 2005
• Radzinsky E. Rasputin: Life and death. - 2004. 576 s - ISBN 5-264-00589-3
• Rasputin M. Rasputin. Why? Memories of a daughter. - M.: "Zakharov", 2001, 2005.
• Rasputin theme on the pages of publications of our days (1988-1995): index of literature. - Tyumen, 1996. 60 p.
• Fulop-Miller, René Holy demon, Rasputin and women- Leipzig, 1927 (German) René Fülöp-Miller „Der heilige Teufel“ – Rasputin und die Frauen, Leipzig, 1927 ). Reissued in 1992. M.: Respublika, 352 pages - ISBN 5-250-02061-5
• Ruud Ch. A., Stepanov S. A. Fontanka, 16: Political investigation under the tsars.- M .: Thought, 1993. Chapter 14. "Dark forces" around the throne
• Holy Devil: Collection. - M., 1990. 320 s - ISBN 5-7000-0235-3
• Simanovich A. Rasputin and the Jews. Memoirs of the personal secretary Grigory Rasputin. - Riga, 1924. - ISBN 5-265-02276-7
• Spiridovich A. I. Spiridovitch Alexandre (Général). Raspoutine 1863-1916. D'après les documents russes et les archives de l'auteur.- Paris. payot. 1935
• A. Tereshchuk. Grigory Rasputin. biography
• Fomin S. The murder of Rasputin: the creation of a myth
• Chernyshov A. Who was "on the watch" on the night of the murder of Rasputin in the courtyard of the Yusupov Palace? //Lukic. 2003. Part 2. S. 214-219
• Chernyshov A. V. In search of the grave of Grigory Rasputin. (Regarding one publication) //Religion and Church in Siberia. - Issue. 7. S. 36-42
• Chernyshov A.V. Choice of the path. (Strokes to the religious and philosophical portrait of G. E. Rasputin) // Religion and Church in Siberia. - Issue. 9. S.64-85
• Chernyshov A.V. Something about the Rasputinia and the publishing situation of our days (1990-1991) // Religion and Church in Siberia. Collection of scientific articles and documentary materials. - Tyumen, 1991. Issue 2. pp. 47-56
• Shishkin O. A. Kill Rasputin. M., 2000
• Yusupov F. F. Memoirs (The End of Rasputin) Published in the collection "The Life of the Prodigal Elder Grishka Rasputin". - M., 1990. - ISBN 5-268-01401-3
• Yusupov F.F. The End of Rasputin (in the book "The Last Days of Rasputin") - M .: "Zakharov", 2005
• Shavelsky G. I. Memoirs of the last protopresbyter of the Russian army and navy. - New York: ed. them. Chekhov, 1954
• Etkind A. Whip. Sects, literature and revolution. Department of Slavic Studies, University of Helsinki, New Literary Review. - M., 1998. - 688 s (Review of the book - Alexander Ulanov A. Etkind. Whip. A bitter experience of culture. "Znamya" 1998, No. 10)
• Harold Shukman. Rasputin. - 1997. - 113 p. ISBN 978-0-7509-1529-8.

Documentaries about Rasputin

• Historical chronicles. 1915. Grigory Rasputin
• The Last of the Kings: The Shadow of Rasputin (Last of the Czars. The Shadow of Rasputin), dir. Teresa Cherf; Mark Anderson, 1996, Discovery Communications, 51 min. (released on DVD in 2007)
• Who killed Rasputin? (Who Killed Rasputin?), dir. Michael Wadding, 2004, BBC, 50 min. (released on DVD in 2006)

Rasputin in theater and cinema

It is not known for certain whether there were any newsreel footage of Rasputin. Not a single tape has survived to this day, on which Rasputin himself would be captured.

The very first silent feature short films about Grigory Rasputin began to appear in March 1917. All of them, without exception, demonized the personality of Rasputin, exposing him and the Imperial Family in the most unattractive light. The first such film, titled "A Drama from the Life of Grigory Rasputin", was released by the Russian film magnate A. O. Drankov, who simply made a film montage of his 1916 film "Washed in Blood", based on the short story "Konovalov" by M. Gorky. Most of the other films were made in 1917 by the then largest film company, the G. Liebken Joint-Stock Company. In total, more than a dozen of them were released, and there is no need to talk about any of their artistic value, since even then they caused protests in the press because of their "pornographic and wild eroticism":

• Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates (2 episodes), dir. S. Veselovsky; in the role of Rasputin - S. Gladkov
• Holy devil (Rasputin in hell)
• People of sin and blood (Tsarskoye Selo sinners)
• The love affairs of Grishka Rasputin
• Funeral of Rasputin
• Mysterious murder in Petrograd on December 16
• Trading House Romanov, Rasputin, Sukhomlinov, Myasoedov, Protopopov & Co.
• Royal guardsmen

etc. (Fomin S. V. Grigory Rasputin: investigation. vol. I. Punishment with the truth; M., Forum publishing house, 2007, pp. 16-19)

However, already in 1917, the image of Rasputin continued to appear on the movie screen. According to IMDB, the first person to embody the image of an old man on the screen was actor Edward Connelly (in the film The Fall of the Romanovs). In the same year, the film "Rasputin, the Black Monk" was released, where Montagu Love played Rasputin. In 1926, another film about Rasputin was released - “Brandstifter Europas, Die” (in the role of Rasputin - Max Newfield), and in 1928 - three at once: “Red Dance” (in the role of Rasputin - Dimitrius Alexis), “Rasputin is a saint sinner" and "Rasputin" - the first two films where Rasputin was played by Russian actors - Nikolai Malikov and Grigory Khmara, respectively.

In 1925, A. N. Tolstoy's play The Empress's Conspiracy was written and immediately staged in Moscow (published in Berlin in 1925), which shows in detail the murder of Rasputin. In the future, the play was staged by some Soviet theaters. At the Moscow theater I. V. Gogol in the role of Rasputin was Boris Chirkov. And on Belarusian television in the mid-60s, based on Tolstoy's play, a television play "The Collapse" was filmed, in which Roman Filippov (Rasputin) and Rostislav Yankovsky (Prince Felix Yusupov) played.

In 1932, the German "Rasputin - a demon with a woman" (in the role of Rasputin - the famous German actor Konrad Weidt) and the Oscar-nominated "Rasputin and the Empress", in which the title role went to Lionel Barrymore, were released. Rasputin was released in 1938, starring Harry Baur.

Once again cinema returned to Rasputin in the 1950s, which was marked by productions with the same name Rasputin, released in 1954 and 1958 (for television) with Pierre Brasseur and Nartsms Ibanes Menta in the roles of Rasputin, respectively. In 1967, the cult horror film "Rasputin the Mad Monk" was released with the famous actor Christopher Lee as Grigory Rasputin. Despite many errors from a historical point of view, the image he created in the film is considered one of the best film incarnations of Rasputin.

The 1960s also saw the release of Rasputin's Night (1960, with Edmund Pardom as Rasputin), Rasputin (1966 TV show starring Herbert Stass) and I Killed Rasputin (1967), where the role was played by Gert Fröbe, known for his role as Goldfinger, the villain from the James Bond film of the same name.

In the 70s, Rasputin appeared in the following films: Why the Russians Revolutionized (1970, Rasputin - Wes Carter), the television show Rasputin as part of the Play of the Month cycle (1971, Rasputin - Robert Stevens), Nikolai and Alexandra (1971, Rasputin - Tom Baker), TV series "Fall of Eagles" (1974, Rasputin - Michael Aldridge) and TV show "A Cárné összeesküvése" (1977, Rasputin - Nandor Tomanek)

In 1981, the most famous Russian film about Rasputin was released - "Agony" Elema Klimov, where the image was successfully embodied by Alexei Petrenko. In 1984, Rasputin - Orgien am Zarenhof was released with Alexander Conte as Rasputin.

In 1992, stage director Gennady Egorov staged the play "Grishka Rasputin" based on the play of the same name by Konstantin Skvortsov at the St. Petersburg Drama Theater "Patriot" ROSTO in the genre of political farce.

In the 90s, the image of Rasputin, like many others, began to deform. In the parody sketch of the Red Dwarf show - Melting, released in 1991, Rasputin was played by Stephen Micalef, and in 1996 two films about Rasputin were released - The Successor (1996) with Igor Solovyov as Rasputin and "Rasputin", where he was played by Alan Rickman (and young Rasputin by Tamas Toth). In 1997, the cartoon "Anastasia" was released, where Rasputin was voiced by the famous actor Christopher Lloyd and Jim Cummings (singing).

The films "Rasputin: The Devil in the Flesh" (2002, for television, Rasputin - Oleg Fedorov and "Killing Rasputin" (2003, Rasputin - Ruben Thomas), as well as "Hellboy: Hero from Hell", where the main villain is the resurrected Rasputin, have already been released, played by Karel Roden.In 2007, the film "CONSPIRACY", directed by Stanislav Libin, where the role of Rasputin is played by Ivan Okhlobystin.

In 2011, the Franco-Russian film Rasputin was filmed, in which the role of Gregory was played by Gerard Depardieu. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, it was this work that gave the actor the right to receive Russian citizenship.

In 2014, the Mars Media studio filmed an 8-episode TV movie "Grigory R." (dir. Andrey Malyukov), in which the role of Rasputin was played by Vladimir Mashkov.

In music

• disco group Boney M In 1978, she released the album "Night flight to Venus", one of the hits of which was the song "Rasputin". The lyrics of the song were written by Frank Farian and contain Western clichés about Rasputin - "the greatest Russian love machine" (Eng. Russia's greatest love machine ), "lover of the Russian queen" (Eng. Lover of the Russian Queen). The music used the motifs of the popular Turku "Kyatibim", the song mimics Erta Kitt's performance of Turku (Kitt's exclamation "Oh! those Turks" Boney M copied as "Oh! those Russians"). On the road Boney M in the USSR, this song was not performed at the insistence of the host, although later it was nevertheless included in the release of the group's Soviet record. The death of one of the members of the group, Bobby Farrell, occurred exactly on the 94th anniversary on the night of the murder of Grigory Rasputin, in St. Petersburg.
• Alexander Malinin's song "Grigory Rasputin" (1992).
• The song of Zhanna Bichevskaya and Gennady Ponomarev “The Spiritual Wanderer” (“Elder Grigory”) (c. 2000) from the music album “We are Russians” is aimed at exalting “holiness” and canonizing Rasputin, where there are lines “ Russian elder with a staff in his hand, miracle worker with a staff in his hand».
• The thrash band Corrosion of Metal in the album "Sadism", released in 1993, has the song "Dead Rasputin".
• The German power metal band Metalium in 2002 recorded their own song "Rasputin" (album "Hero Nation - Chapter Three"), presenting their view of the events around Grigory Rasputin, without the clichés prevailing in pop culture
• Finnish folk/viking metal band Turisas released the single "Rasputin" in 2007 with a cover version of the group's song "Boney M". A music video was also filmed for the song "Rasputin".
• In 2002, Valery Leontiev performed the Russian version of Boney M Rasputin's song " New Year"(" Ras, Let's open the doors wide open, and let's go to a round dance with all Russia ... ")

Rasputin in poetry

Nikolai Klyuev compared himself with him more than once, and in his poems there are frequent references to Grigory Efimovich. “They follow me,” wrote Klyuev, “millions of charming Grishkas.” According to the memoirs of the poet Rurik Ivnev, the poet Sergei Yesenin performed the then fashionable ditties "Grishka Rasputin and the Tsaritsa."

The poetess Zinaida Gippius wrote in her diary dated November 24, 1915: “Grisha himself rules, drinks and the maid of honor fucks. And Fedorovna, out of habit. Z. Gippius was not included in the inner circle of the imperial family, she simply passed on rumors. There was a proverb among the people: “The Tsar-father is with Yegori, and the queen-mother is with Gregory.”

Commercial use of Rasputin's name

Commercial use of the name Grigory Rasputin in some trademarks began in the West in the 1980s. Currently known:

• Vodka Rasputin. Produced in various types by Dethleffen in Flexburg (Germany).
• Beer "Old Rasputin". Produced by North Coast Brewing Co. (California, USA)
• Rasputin beer. Produced by Brouwerij de Moler (Netherlands)
• Rasputin black and Rasputin white cigarettes (USA)
• In Brooklyn, New York, there is a restaurant and a nightclub "Rasputin"
• There is a Rasputin International Food store in Ensio, California, which is very popular.
• In San Francisco (USA) there is a music store "Rasputin"
• In Toronto (Canada) there is a famous vodka bar Rasputin http://rasputinvodkabar.com/
• In Rostock (Germany) there is a Rasputin supermarket http://rasputin-online.de/?id=0&lang=ru
• There is a Rasputin club in Andernach (Germany) http://www.rasputinclub.de/
• In Dusseldorf (Germany) there is a large Russian-language disco "Rasputin".
• In Pattaya (Thailand) there is a restaurant of Russian cuisine Rasputin.
• In Moscow there is a men's club "Rasputin"
• The men's erotic magazine "Rasputin" is also published in Moscow, which is published once a month in Russian and English.

In St. Petersburg there are also:

• Since the mid-2000s, the interactive show “The Horrors of Petersburg” has been operating in the Neptune shopping and entertainment complex in St. Petersburg, the main character of which is Grigory Rasputin. The show's advertising slogan is "Rasputin is not joking!"
• Beauty salon "Rasputin's House" and the hairdressing school of the same name
• Hostel Rasputin