Revenge: A History of the British Secret Intelligence Service was published in London this fall. The author, Michael Smith, a former military intelligence officer, begins the book with the circumstances of the creation of the famous MI6 in 1909 and, in some detail, with documents, tells about one of her operations in 1916 - the murder of Grigory Rasputin.
Mitka will not serve
Everyone knows Rasputin's tremendous influence on the Tsar, and especially on the Tsarina. I will give just one example. In 1915, a new army conscription was announced. On Gorokhovaya, 10, where the Rasputin family lived, they brought a summons from the military presence. The son of Grigory Efimovich, Dmitry, was taken into the army. And my father was against it. And he made sure that the call was canceled … throughout the empire.
Hold on to me and you will be saved
The reason for Rasputin's exceptional closeness to the royal family is no secret to anyone. The heir, the Tsarevich, was sick with an incurable disease of hemophilia (incoagulability of blood). The doctors could do little to help him. And Rasputin knew how to calm the boy, relieve pain and even, they said, stopped the bleeding. In modern terms, the elder was a strong psychic. The queen believed that God himself had sent this Siberian peasant to the royal family, that he was bringing God's grace and salvation with him. Well, Grigory Efimovich himself has repeatedly said that while he is alive, nothing bad will happen to the royal family. But if he is killed, and if any of the great princes takes part in this black affair, then the whole dynasty will perish.
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There was no need to get involved in this war
Rasputin believed that Russia was not ready for a big war and that Russian blood should not be shed in the name of the interests of England and France. At the end of the summer of 1914, when the World War began, Rasputin was not in St. Petersburg. He lay in his native village Pokrovskoye with a serious wound. One half-crazy fan stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rasputin said that if he had been next to the tsar then, he would not have allowed Russia to enter the war.
And at the end of 1916, rumors spread in St. Petersburg that the tsarina, under pressure from Rasputin, was looking for ways to conclude a separate peace with Germany. These rumors did not correspond to reality, but cost Grigory Efimovich his life.
The man turns the king and queen as he wants
Rasputin communicated with the royal family for about eight years. The powers that be, and many representatives of the Romanov dynasty have already understood how dangerous this illiterate man from the Tobolsk province is for the throne. Even P. A. Stolypin collected dirt on Rasputin and tried to open the eyes of Nicholas II to the “holy elder”. But the tsar abruptly cut off his prime minister and demanded not to interfere in his family affairs (!).
Some grand dukes, and the empress mother herself, more than once tried to influence the sovereign. They said that because of Rasputin the prestige of the royal power was falling, that the elder rudely intervened even in the affairs of the church: But the king remained deaf to all arguments.
On November 19, 1916, the monarchist deputy V. M. Purishkevich made a speech in the Duma. Addressing the government lodge, he said: “If you are truly loyal, if the glory of Russia, its powerful future, which is closely associated with the bright name of the tsar, means something for you, then you are the support, you are the ministers. Go to Headquarters and throw yourself at the king's feet. Have the courage to tell him that the masses threaten with their indignation. The revolution is threatening, and the dark peasant should no longer rule Russia."
The speech made a strong impression on the society. Prince Felix Yusupov invited Purishkevich to participate in a conspiracy against Rasputin. The tsar's cousin, 26-year-old Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, was also involved in the case.
English version
Yusupov hated Rasputin and at the same time wanted to understand what the secret of his power and influence on people was. The prince began to visit at 10 Gorokhovaya Street, and seemed to be a close friend of the elder. And he came to the conclusion that he "possesses supernatural powers" that "can be found only once in a hundred years."
What happened on the tragic night of December 17 at the Yusupov Palace, we do not know exactly. True, Yusupov left extensive memories, where he described in detail what had happened. The diary entries of V. M. Purishkevich. But those were the testimonies of the direct participants in the murder, one must trust their versions with great caution. More reliable are the materials of the official investigation, which lasted for about two months. But there is very little information about what actually happened then with Rasputin.
But the History contains new materials about the murder of the elder, sometimes unexpected. If you follow the English version, the picture is as follows. The British intelligence resident in Petrograd, Major Cadbert Thornhill, told his superior, Commander Mansfield Cumming, in London that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was either conducting or going to negotiate a separate peace with Germany through her German relatives. And she does this under the pressure of Rasputin.
London understood that as soon as Russia pulled out of the war, 70 German divisions would quickly find themselves on the Western Front, which would entail corresponding consequences for the Entente. The head of MI6, Cumming, urgently sends Captain Oswald Reiner to Petrograd with the task of "knocking out" the information British intelligence needed from Rasputin, and then eliminating him.
Rayner studied at Oxford at the same time as Felix Yusupov and was even friends with him. So it was not difficult for the captain to enter the narrow aristocratic circle of the prince, where they were just thinking about what to do with Rasputin. Perhaps, if this English intelligence officer had not been in Petrograd with a clear assignment from his superiors, the intention to destroy the elder would have remained at the level of conversations in high society drawing rooms.
With the advent of Captain Reiner, the conspiracy immediately took on a practical orientation. A detailed plan was developed to eliminate Rasputin. This turned out to be a difficult matter: the elder was guarded by two police at once, the city and the courtier. Grigory Efimovich felt that the hunt had begun for him, and even stopped leaving the house in the evenings. Yusupov, however, continued to trust.
On the night of December 17, Rasputin left his apartment through the back door and got into the prince's car that was waiting for him. He used to tell him that his wife Irina (niece of Nicholas II) wants to get to know him. And Rasputin was always greedy for female beauty and gladly accepted the invitation.
Trap in the Yusupov Palace
In the palace on the Moika, Rasputin was drunk. And then Captain Rainer began to torture him. I fiddled with him for a long time, but it seems that I did not learn anything interesting for my service. Then they shot at Rasputin. The fatal shot, as the examination showed, was made from an English Wembley revolver, which belonged to Rayner.
The rest is known. The corpse (or another half-dead person) was taken to Petrovsky Island and thrown from the bridge under the ice. In two days, the police will find the body. V. M. Purishkevich immediately left on his ambulance train for the army. On the way, he burned the victim's fur coat and hat in a locomotive furnace. Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich told the police that they had not even seen Rasputin that evening and at night. The police knew nothing about Captain Reiner. And he calmly left for London to report to his superiors about the operation.
Why was it destroyed?
The news of the murder of Rasputin instantly spread throughout Petrograd. On Nevsky, strangers hugged each other in joy. It seemed to everyone that the influence of the "dark forces" would now disappear, and things in Russia would go smoothly. Meanwhile, the Russian monarchy had just over two months to live. But then very few people foresaw it.
The world war continued. Berlin tried to conduct secret negotiations with Russia on a separate peace. The king, however, declared that he would remain faithful to his allied duty. And what kind of peace negotiations can we talk about when part of the western provinces is occupied by the enemy?
The murder of Rasputin once again showed that crisis situations at the level of the supreme power (and at any other level) cannot be overcome by such methods. Tsarist Russia continued to slide towards ruin.
Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 7. Vasily Mitsurov, candidate of historical sciences