On the eve of the February Revolution, only one terrorist act was committed - the murder of Rasputin. Much in this story still remains incomprehensible and mysterious.
The rise of the "elder"
Grigory Rasputin met the family of Nicholas II in the fall of 1905. Gradually, he gained confidence and became an indispensable person for the crowned family.
The point is not only that the "elder" was treating the heir to the throne, Alexei Nikolaevich, for hemophilia. Rasputin was admitted to the treatment of the Tsarevich only two years after the first meeting with him. By this time, he was already enjoying serious influence.
The mysticism of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, self-doubt of Nicholas II - all this contributed to the rise of the "elder". But the main thing is that the imperial family, which was in conflict with the intelligentsia and the State Duma, wanted to hear the true "voice of the people." And Rasputin became such a "voice".
In society, with rare exceptions, Rasputin was hated. Moreover, the campaign against him was launched not by the liberals, but by extreme right-wing politicians, church hierarchs and publicists. They believed that the Siberian peasant who had gained access to the court was compromising the monarchy.
“Ever since the winter of 1913-1914 in high society there was only talk about the influence of dark forces,” recalled Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the State Duma.
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And during the First World War, the emperor's relations with the public completely went wrong. Accordingly, Rasputin's positions were strengthened. Through the empress, he began to influence the appointment of ministers and other important dignitaries, which caused a storm of indignation.
In addition, Rasputin was initially opposed to the war with Germany. Therefore, the patriotic public accused him of seeking the conclusion of a separate peace and, in general, is a German spy.
And the ministers, and the Duma deputies, and even the closest relatives tried to persuade the tsar to remove Rasputin from the court. Their persuasion led nowhere. By the end of 1916, the idea of physically eliminating the "elder", one might say, was in the air.
Dagger for three rubles
Even in the summer of 1914, Rasputin tried to kill Khioniy Gusev, a fan of Hieromonk Iliodor, a friend and then a bitter enemy of the "elder".
Guseva followed Rasputin to his historical homeland - to the village of Pokrovskoye. At a flea market for three rubles, the "terrorist" bought a dagger. “Once I hit him in the stomach with this dagger, after which Rasputin ran away from me,” she said during the investigation. - I rushed after him to deliver a fatal blow, but he grabbed the shaft lying on the ground and hit me on the head with it, which made me immediately fall to the ground. Rasputin was seriously wounded, but survived. True, he did not have fewer enemies.
In the fall of 1915 - not without the assistance of the "elder" - Aleksey Khvostov was appointed minister of the interior. The newly minted minister was aiming higher - at prime ministers. However, Rasputin objected. Then Khvostov decided to eliminate the "elder". A variety of plans were developed: to push under a train, to kill in a car, to strangle in a dark alley, to add poison.
As a result, Khvostov decided to contact Iliodor, who was then living in Norway. The minister sent his trusted journalist Rzhevsky to Iliodor.
But the head of the police, Stepan Beletsky, who was intriguing against Khvostov, intercepted Rzhevsky. The journalist "split up", Khvostov was dismissed in disgrace, and the assassination plan, of course, collapsed.
What the Minister of Internal Affairs did not succeed was succeeded by the high society conspirators. On the night of December 17, they killed Rasputin.
Family business
Investigating any murder, we rely on evidence and testimony. In this case, from the evidence we have only the conclusion of the forensic examination. The problem is that it contradicts the "testimony". And yet - let's try to figure it out.
The "classic" version of the murder is based on the diary of Vladimir Purishkevich and the memoirs of Prince Felix Yusupov.
The young prince came to the conclusion that Rasputin was ruling and destroying Russia. And the tsar at this time is weakening "from the narcotic potions with which he was drunk daily at the instigation of Rasputin." Of course, this must be prevented.
In general, Felix is a high-society loafer, a burner of life, a typical representative of the "golden youth". He was always far from politics. Why suddenly thought about the fate of the Motherland came to him?
The answer is simple - family environment. His father - Felix Yusupov Sr. - was the Moscow governor-general. And he fought so actively against German dominance in industry and trade that in May 1915 an anti-German pogrom took place in Moscow. Muscovites pounded the Germans, and at the same time the neutral Swedes and even the allied French.
The elder Yusupov's anti-German activity was not appreciated - he was kicked out of his post. All he could do was curse the German party at court, which, by everyone's confidence, acted through Rasputin.
Felix's mother - Zinaida Yusupova - was a longtime, since pre-war times, ill-wisher of the "elder". Like her friend, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the Empress's sister.
In addition, Felix married a princess of the imperial blood, Irina Alexandrovna. Her parents - Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna - also actively fought against Rasputin. "Uncle Misha", the chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzianko, a relative of Zinaida Yusupova, also fought with him.
Most likely, the relatives suggested to Felix that Rasputin should be killed. Yusupov, who did not understand politics, turned to the Duma deputies Vladimir Purishkevich and Vasily Maklakov for help. These deputies maintained close contacts with the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, the uncle of Irina Yusupova. This grand duke was famous for his liberal convictions and, of course, his hatred of Rasputin. Apparently, it was Nikolai Mikhailovich who sent Yusupov to his fellow deputies.
Falling in love with Felix
Maklakov refused to participate in the murder. But he supplied Felix with a “rubber weight”. Just in case. Emotional and impetuous Purishkevich immediately agreed to help Yusupov. And he attracted his friend - Dr. Stanislav Lazovert. And Yusupov attracted his friends - Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Lieutenant Sergei Sukhotin. So the five conspirators were formed.
Felix renewed his acquaintance with Rasputin, whom he had met once in 1909. Felix says so. But there is other evidence as well. That Yusupov met with Rasputin for several years. The "old man" treated him for homosexuality. And this evidence is more like the truth.
Conversations with the "elder" finally strengthened the prince in the idea that it was necessary to put an end to Rasputin. The "elder", they say, was preparing a coup d'etat. He was going to declare Alexandra Feodorovna regent with a minor heir, and exile Nicholas II to Livadia. “It will be good for him there. Tired, sick, let him rest."
Perhaps Rasputin was really talking about something like that on a drunken case, or maybe Felix invented all this to justify the murder. One way or another, on the night of December 16-17, Yusupov lured Rasputin to his palace at 94 Moika Embankment. The "elder" - as the prince assured - was seduced by the beautiful Irina Yusupova, whom Felix promised to introduce him to.
But Yusupov describes in detail how he and Rasputin spent more than two hours in the palace, talking face to face. And the "elder" never inquired about Irina. On the contrary, he offered Felix to go to the gypsies. Strange behavior for a man who came to "feast" on a beautiful wife.
Apparently, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich was right, who believed that Rasputin was not interested in Irina, but in young Yusupov himself. "It remains to assume," wrote the Grand Duke, "something completely incredible, namely, love, carnal passion for Felix, which darkened this man-lecher and brought him to the grave."
He's still alive
For the “elder”, cakes and Madeira poisoned with cyanide poison were prepared. While Felix treated Rasputin in the basement apartments, the rest of the conspirators waited in the upper rooms. The poison did not work.
The prince went up to the accomplices, took the revolver from Dmitry Pavlovich, went down and fired at Rasputin. “Hearing the shot, friends came running,” Yusupov recalls. Friends bent over the body. “Lazovert stated that the bullet passed in the region of the heart. There was no doubt: Rasputin was dead."
Further - according to Felix - Sukhotin, Lazovert and Dmitry Pavlovich left in a car, pretending that they were taking Rasputin home. Sukhotin, dressed in his fur coat, pretended to be the "old man".
Yusupov stayed with Purishkevich. Felix went down to the basement. And suddenly Rasputin came to life. He attacked Yusupov, but he escaped with an "inhuman effort". Rasputin ran out into the yard.
The prince rushed upstairs to call Purishkevich.
“Let's run! Hurry! Down! I shouted. "He's still alive!"
Purishkevich rushed to catch up with Rasputin and fired twice on the run - both times he missed. “Rasputin was already running up to the gate,” writes Purishkevich in his diary, “then I stopped, bit my left hand with all my might to force myself to concentrate, and hit him in the back with a shot. He stopped, then I, already carefully aiming, standing in the same place, fired a fourth shot, which seemed to hit him in the head, for he fell facedown in the snow in a sheaf and twitched his head. I ran up to him and kicked him with all my might in the temple."
Yusupov's servants brought the body of the "elder" into the house. Then Felix began to beat the already dead Rasputin with a "rubber weight" - the one that was given to him by Deputy Maklakov.
A policeman who was nearby heard a shot and came running to find out what was the matter. Purishkevich confessed for some reason that he had killed Rasputin. And the policeman - as if nothing had happened - left.
Here Dmitry Pavlovich, Sukhotin and Lazovert arrived. Rasputin's body was loaded into a car and everyone, except for Yusupov, drove away and threw the corpse from the Petrovsky Bridge into Malaya Nevka.
Shot in the forehead
This is the version of Yusupov-Purishkevich. To be honest, there are a lot of questions.
With the question why the poison did not work, it is more or less clear. Shortly before his death, Dr. Lazovert admitted that he could not break the Hippocratic oath and instead of poison he added harmless powder.
More difficult with shots. In the conclusion of the forensic medical expert Professor Kosorotov it is said: “The death followed from profuse bleeding as a result of a gunshot wound in the stomach. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost point-blank, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with the latter being crushed in the right half. The bleeding was profuse. On the corpse there was also a gunshot wound in the back, in the spine, with the fragmentation of the right kidney, and also a point-blank wound, in the forehead, probably already dying or dead. The chest organs were intact and superficially examined, but there were no signs of death from drowning. The lungs were not distended, and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water, already dead."
So, the last - "control" - shot was not fired from behind, as Purishkevich and Yusupov claim, but from the front - in the forehead. This is clear even without examination - it is enough to look at the photograph of Rasputin's body recovered from the river.
It is clear that Purishkevich and Yusupov are lying and posing as murderers, covering up someone else. Whom? There is an endless field for imagination.
Perhaps Purishkevich and Yusupov were screening out Dmitry Pavlovich, who actually fired the control shot. It is clear that the great prince, the cousin of the emperor, somehow should not be a murderer.
On December 19, Yusupov told the details of the case to Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich. It follows from this story that Dmitry Pavlovich, Sukhotin and Lazovert did not drive anywhere in any car and were in the palace at the time of the "final" murder of Rasputin. It is logical to assume that the conspirators came up with the departure later in order to create an alibi for Dmitry. It is not for nothing that Purishkevich, in his diary intended for publication, emphasizes that he killed the "elder" and not Dmitry Pavlovich at all.
By the way, Dmitry Pavlovich never said anything about the murder of Rasputin. And when Yusupov in exile began to chat to the right and to the left, the Grand Duke stopped all relations with him - Felix broke the agreement to keep the details of the case secret.
English version
In recent years, the version has become popular - almost universally recognized - that the murder of Rasputin was prepared and organized by British intelligence. And Yusupov, Purishkevich and other conspirators are only performers, puppets in the hands of the insidious British.
It turns out that the British organized everything, and the "elder" was shot by Oswald Reiner, an agent of British intelligence and Yusupov's Oxford schoolmate.
Of course, the British had good reasons for removing Rasputin. After all, everyone believed that the "old man" was about to achieve the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. This cast doubt on the victory of the Entente in the war and did not suit England in any way.
Yusupov and Purishkevich also had reasons to remain silent about Reiner. They saw the murder of Rasputin as a "patriotic act," and the participation of an English intelligence officer made the act not too patriotic.
British scientists even carried out an examination and found that Rasputin was shot with a 455 Webley revolver - the standard weapon of the British army during the First World War. True, it remains a mystery on what this examination was based? Rasputin's body was destroyed long ago. There is only a photograph of the murdered "elder". But is it possible to conduct an examination and establish the brand of a weapon from one photograph?
In addition, you involuntarily expect professionalism from British intelligence. And here they do not smell. Shot in the stomach, shot in the back, shot in the forehead. Obvious, downright blatant amateurism. Which led to the fact that the crime was solved literally the next day.
And why did the professional intelligence agent Reiner involve a bunch of people in the operation, including the most talkative Duma deputy Purishkevich? Rasputin could have been eliminated in some simpler way.
Some historians claim that Reiner lured Rasputin to the Yusupov Palace in order to torture him and find out everything about the negotiations between Russia and Germany. But this version is not based at all on any facts.
However, it is also impossible to deny the participation of British intelligence in this matter. It is likely that Reiner actually fired the "control" shot. But the organization of the murder was clearly engaged in amateurs - Yusupov and Purishkevich.
Gleb STASHKOV