The Rasputin File (28 page)

Thus 16 December came to a close, a special day in the life of that mystical person.

On the same day five years later he would be killed.

One can imagine Alix’s astonishment and fury when she received his telegram and later learned the details from Anya about how yesterday’s friends had attempted to take his life and deprive her and the heir of the help of the man of God.

Meanwhile, Hermogen pressed on. He gave a thundering speech against the
Khlysty
at a meeting of the Synod. First, he assailed Russian literature — all those works by the fashionable writers of the day describing
Khlyst
practices. The
Khlyst
theme had by then also found its way into vulgar literature, where the writers Artsybashev and Kamensky had described scenes of
Khlyst
‘rejoicing’ and ‘group sinning’. And Hermogen denounced the temptation posed by those writings, too. Then, finally, he turned to his main point, a denunciation of Grigory Rasputin, ‘charging him with
Khlyst
tendencies’. The Synod listened to him in fear. The hierarchs could guess how furious the tsarina would be. So it was only a minority who dared to support him. The majority, however, followed the chief procurator in expressing its dissatisfaction with the pastor’s interference in ‘things that were not of his concern’.

But Hermogen did not relent. More than that, he even dared to say in
private conversation that Grigory had committed adultery with the tsarina.

And she found out about it all from Vyrubova. For her now, Hermogen and Iliodor were simply liars who for personal advantage had pretended to be friends and admirers of Father Grigory. And who had dared to accuse him, a friend of the royal family — Our Friend. And, most monstrous of all, they had dared, knowing her, to accuse her, as well! One may guess what she said to Nicky! And one may imagine his rage, the rage of the tsar!

Another Prediction Of The Death Of The Tsars

And the thunder crashed.

The File, from the testimony of Victor Yatskevich, director of the chancery of the chief procurator of the Most Holy Synod: ‘During the Yuletide meeting [an unprecedented event in the life of the Synod] Hermogen received an order to return to his eparchy. He did not obey the order and, as I heard, asked by telegram for an audience with the tsar, indicating that he had an important matter to discuss, but was turned down.’

That is how Iliodor describes it, too. He came to Petersburg to assist Hermogen. The monk wrote the telegram to the tsar at Hermogen’s dictation in the latter’s quarters at the Yaroslav Monastery.

Hermogen was sitting next to me, and bitterly, bitterly sobbing, and I painstakingly wrote out, ‘Tsar Father! I have devoted my whole life to the service of the Church and the Throne. I have served zealously, sparing no effort. The sun of my life has long passed midday and my hair has turned white. And now in my declining years, like a criminal, I am being driven out of the capital in disgrace by you, the Sovereign. I am ready to go wherever it may please you, but before I do, grant me an audience, and I will reveal a secret to you.’

A prompt reply to the telegram was received from Nicholas through the Synod: the tsar had no wish to know any secret. ‘Upon reading the answer, Hermogen started crying. And then he suddenly said, “They will kill the tsar, they will kill the tsar, they will surely kill him.”’

Unlike the majority of such predictions, these words of Hermogen’s were published before the 1917 revolution, before the royal family perished.

Hoping to avoid a scandal, Sabler tried to moderate the tsar’s rage. But, as he sadly informed Prime Minister Kokovtsev, the sympathies of Tsarskoe Selo were with Rasputin, on whom, in the tsar’s words, ‘they had fallen
like robbers in the forest after first drawing their victim into a trap.’

The denouement arrived. The Synod officially retired Hermogen
in absentia
to residence at the Zhirovets Monastery. The monk Iliodor was ordered into exile at Florischev Pustyn near the town of Gorbatov and forbidden to show himself in Tsaritsyn and Petersburg.

And then an unprecedented thing happened. Hermogen and Iliodor refused to budge from Petersburg. In open defiance of the tsar. Moreover, they dared to begin speaking publicly. The mutinous pastors agreed to newspaper interviews, where they vilified Rasputin, the Synod, and Chief Procurator Sabler.

It was then that Iliodor brought his main, secret weapon into play.

The Secret Weapon

And soon afterwards Vyrubova received from Grigory’s former friend a warning about the possible onset of a war: ‘Sister in Christ! How long, then, will you stand by Grigory? …If you do not abandon him, a tremendous scandal shall break out all over Russia. And then what a calamity there will be! Heed me. Fear God. Repent. Iliodor.’

Vyrubova already knew what scandal the monk’s epistle was referring to. She had already heard about it: Iliodor had promised to publish a lampoon against Father Grigory which would include letters to Rasputin from the tsarina and the grand duchesses.

Vyrubova invited Iliodor to come and see her.

Iliodor arrived at Anya’s little house in Tsarskoe Selo. Waiting for him there was the entire little circle of the elder’s admirers: Vyrubova herself, her sister Sana, and her sister’s husband Alexander Pistolkors. The monk has described in his book the danger he felt. In the drawing room sat ‘Pistolkors…brave and cruel… [who], according to him, had during the [1905] revolution hanged by his own hands eighty-five Latvians in the Baltic region’. True, the monk does not also describe himself, a huge fellow with fists the size of large stones. The conversation was opened by Pistolkors. ‘Father Iliodor! What is this scandal you are threatening in your letter to Anyushka? And who is it that intends to make that scandal? Is it not you? It can be done; after all, the French revolution came about when the queen was slanderously accused of stealing some diamonds.’

Pistolkors was alluding to 1785 and the famous matter of the ‘queen’s necklace’. An episode in which there had also figured letters from a queen — forged letters from Marie Antoinette. Pistolkors meant to say that the letters that Iliodor was threatening to publish were also fabricated. And he was
reminding the monk how a similar falsehood had ended in France. It had destroyed the reputation of Marie Antoinette and brought the revolution closer, and with it the death of the queen, as well as of many who had originally conspired in the affair.

But this time the queen’s letters were genuine.

The conversation failed to produce the desired result. Iliodor had apparently gone in the hope that Vyrubova would ask for the letters and that he could then trade them for his and Hermogen’s right to remain in their former places. But Vyrubova could not have proposed such a thing, even if she had wanted to, since the tsarina would not have allowed her to yield to blackmail. And after hearing the monk out, Vyrubova remained silent. And that silence was a threatening one. Iliodor understood: there would be no trade. But he was not frightened. For behind him stood powerful people.

Meanwhile, the letters to Rasputin from the tsarina and the grand duchesses were being disseminated throughout Petersburg.

Only from the File has it at last become clear to whom the tsarina was obliged for that dissemination.

The Tibetan Physician Again

The File, the testimony of Badmaev: ‘I treated the holy fool Mitya Kozelsky for a pulmonary catarrh for about two years … Mitya impressed me as an intelligent religious peasant.’

When the scandal broke, Badmaev, that dangerous man, immediately grasped how much might be derived from the situation. And at the height of the scandal he made friends through Mitya with Iliodor and Hermogen.

At the time Hermogen and Iliodor had still made no move to leave the capital. Alix was in a rage. The minister of internal affairs was ordered to convey the obstreperous pastors to their places of exile under a political police escort. But the minister, A. A. Makarov, realized that this should not be attempted. The pastors’ arrest would immediately turn them into heroes in the eyes of society. And the approaching session of the Duma already promised a great scandal. But Alix did not want to think about society. She wanted justice. As Marie Antoinette had once wanted it.

Badmaev understood that his hour had come to rescue the hapless minister Makarov. And to spare Grigory future shocks. And everyone would be grateful to him.

It was then that Iliodor suddenly vanished. To the joy and relief of the minister of internal affairs. Now the monk could be searched for and reports about the search be sent to the tsarina.

What really happened was that Badmaev had suggested to Iliodor that he hide out at his dacha. And, as Badmaev testified in the File, ‘Iliodor came to me at night.’ At the same time Badmaev ‘provided Hermogen with a medical document certifying that he was suffering from an intestinal catarrh and that he would unavoidably have to remain in Petersburg for a while’. Both rebellious pastors now had complete faith in Badmaev. And he succeeded in reading what Petersburg had been whispering about.

From Badmaev’s testimony in the File: ‘Hermogen read me a manuscript of Iliodor’s called “Grishka”.’ And he added the following: ‘On the basis of letters from the tsarina personally given to Iliodor by Rasputin, they were convinced that Rasputin was sleeping with the tsarina.’

And Badmaev went into action.

The ‘cunning Chinaman’ laid out the whole intrigue in the File. First he approached the government and offered to save the situation. He promised to persuade Iliodor and Hermogen ‘to set off for their places of exile without excesses’. And at the same time he extracted a promise from Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov ‘that Hermogen’s departure into exile would take place in dignity, without guards, in a special car’. Makarov, pleased, agreed at once. ‘And I took Hermogen to the station in my own motor car,’ Badmaev testified in the File. After which a grateful Hermogen wrote to Iliodor, ‘Go to Florischev Pustyn, and pay attention to what Pyotr Alexeevich tells you — he won’t do anything bad to you.’ And Iliodor, for whom Badmaev had arranged a separate compartment, also agreed to go into exile quietly, to Makarov’s delight. The government was now in Badmaev’s debt.

But he wanted the tsarina in his debt, too. And before Iliodor’s departure, Badmaev asked him for the originals of the tsarina’s and grand duchesses’ letters. As he explained to Iliodor, ‘I intend to petition for your return from exile, and I ask you to forward the original letters to me … so that I may be convinced of the justice of your words’ (that is regarding the tsarina’s relations with Rasputin). ‘Iliodor agreed, and told me to send someone to Florischev Pustyn to get them.’ And two weeks later Badmaev’s messenger arrived. But apparently having changed his mind, Iliodor ‘substituted copies’ in full view of the messenger.

But even though Badmaev did not have the originals, he did have Iliodor’s manuscript and copies of the tsarina’s and grand duchesses’ letters. He could now make his play.

At the time Badmaev had also begun to make friends with Rasputin. Since there was now a pretext: he had done him a great service by sending both his mutinous enemies into exile. But he would have to be very cautious about meeting Rasputin. For he had discovered something new from his patients: security agents were now following Rasputin relentlessly.

A Chronicle Of His Life

It had come to pass at the beginning of 1912. What Stolypin had been unsuccessful in doing was done by the new minister of internal affairs, Makarov. ‘A second surveillance of Rasputin was established at the order of Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov on 23 January 1912.’

The tsar had been forced to go along with it. After Rasputin’s experience with Hermogen and Iliodor, it really had become necessary to protect him. And they explained to the peasant that his enemies might simply lie in wait for him, and beat, maim or even kill him! That was why they were guarding him. ‘Thrash, maim, and kill’ were things the peasant understood very well.

Rasputin was given the code name ‘Russian’ in the agents’ reports, thus underlining his image as a simple
Russian
peasant, an image so dear to the ‘tsars’ ‘hearts.

Thus was begun a remarkable chronicle of his life. Now we shall know everything about him. Literally every step of his is reflected in the reports of the external surveillance agents who hurried after him.

The Department of Police summarized the daily reports of its agents. ‘On this visit to Petersburg, he is living on Kiroch Street in the apartment occupied by the publisher of the magazine
The Russian Economist
, Georgy Petrovich Sazonov, and his wife, Maria Alexandrovna, with whom Rasputin is apparently involved in amorous relations.’ He had only to emerge from his building and agents would doggedly follow the unprepossessing bearded fellow in the peasant coat. ‘24 January 1912. The Russian (who lives at 12 Kiroch Street) went to the store at 10:15,’ an agent reported. ‘After four or five minutes he emerged carrying what appeared to be a bottle of wine. Then he set off in the direction of the Moika quay …At 4:00 p.m. the surveillance was transferred to the second shift.’ And that shift followed him no less doggedly.

‘There is an almost daily visit by Rasputin to the apartment of the Golovins, Munya and her mother,’ an agent reports. He usually arrived at the Golovins’ between two and three o’clock. Zinaida Manshtedt and Yulia Dehn would at that time gather there, as well. ‘He spent the entire afternoon in the company of the named women.’

The Golovins’ home was typical of the old Petersburg impoverished aristocracy.

‘I liked to visit that rather dark, mysterious old home. I liked the coolness of its large rooms and its prim, old-fashioned furniture,’ Zhukovskaya recalled. ‘Munya …in her unvarying grey knitted cardigan. Light-coloured locks from her carelessly done hair fell onto her prominent forehead. As always, she greeted me with a welcoming smile…Her attitude towards Rasputin was not worship before holiness but a kind of blind faith.’ She asked herself, ‘How could a prim family like the Golovins, raised according to the strict rules of an earlier narrow morality, not merely reconcile themselves to Rasputin’s unbridled behaviour but even pretend not to notice, or in fact not notice, anything of what went on around him?’ And as the grand dukes also asked themselves, thinking about the royal family.