The Rasputin File (54 page)

The writer Vasily Rozanov was a dominant mind of his time. Unlike the now forgotten Teffi, Rozanov’s works are even today seminal works for Russian intellectuals. Once in love with the writings of Dostoevsky, Rozanov, then twenty-four, married Apollinaria Suslova, Dostoevsky’s tormenting mistress and prototype of the heroines of his novels, who was twice Rozanov’s age. And Rozanov himself, a mystic who had visited the
Khlysty
and was morbidly interested in the secrets of
Khlyst
‘rejoicing’, was himself not unlike a Dostoevsky character. So his passionate interest in the invitation is understandable, although its enigma would be clarified for Teffi only when another well-known writer of the day, the journalist Alexander Izmailov, came by to see her.

‘You actually didn’t understand whom he was talking about?’ Izmailov asked. ‘You really don’t know whom one can’t talk about over the telephone? About Rasputin!’ For it ‘was enough to mention his name for the police to listen in’. That’s who the semi-literate Father Grigory was then!

Izmailov explained it all to her:

There’s a publisher named F. in Petersburg whom Rasputin visits quite a bit … He’s a friend of his … And M—ch, who is well known in literary circles, also goes there. This same M[anasevich] suggested that F[ilippov] invite some of the writers who would be interested in taking a look at Rasputin … The group won’t be large, but the list has been put together carefully … so there won’t be any unpleasant stories afterwards … M[anasevich] ran by this morning to show me the list of the people who’ve been invited.

And even though they were all quite terrified of getting into a ‘story’ (an acquaintance of Izmailov’s, a prominent public figure, had been photographed in Rasputin’s company and ‘regarded himself as discredited for ever’), their interest in Rasputin intensified. For ‘all Petersburg’ was talking about him. Several days earlier Teffi had dined with friends. And in the dining room on the mirror above the fireplace was the sign, ‘No talking about Rasputin’. As a result, Teffi had talked all evening ‘about Rasputin with a certain maid of honour named E.’. The maid of honour said that the first time she saw Rasputin, he said to her, ‘You shall come to me!’ And she ‘felt her heart beat’. And had not to that day forgotten his peremptory tone. ‘As if my fate was an open book to him,’ the maid of honour recalled with horror.

So Manasevich had worked it all out correctly. Around 10:00 p.m. the invited famous writers (who, by the way, were contributors to the largest newspapers) gathered at Filippov’s apartment.

The File, from Filippov’s testimony: ‘I decided…to arrange a reception with ten or so journalists who were interested in Rasputin — representatives of the most diverse tendencies: Rozanov from the
New
Times, Teffi from the
Russian Word
, Izmailov from the
Stock Exchange News
, and so on.’

For Filippov, the soirée planned by Manasevich appeared to be a no-lose situation. He had many times observed how privately acquainting Rasputin with ill-wishers invariably ended in victory for the peasant. And so it happened this time! ‘Rasputin charmed everyone present, even those who had been predisposed against him,’ Filippov testified. And he who had witnessed those seductive sessions many times described Rasputin’s usual strategy.

Rasputin did not join in the conversation immediately but as was his custom carefully studied those present, and only then began with well-aimed retorts, for the most part in the form of aphorisms. Particularly effective were his replies to the well-known religious mysticism of Rozanov and Teffi …In the middle of dinner, finally dissolving under the influence of the wine, Rasputin offered to give an impromptu talk on what love is … Rasputin was dressed in a white silk shirt girded at the waist … with a small cord, and he improvised standing up in a slight sing-song with his eyes gazing upwards. At the same time, the picturesqueness of his expressions… close to the style of the ‘Song of Songs’ was such that Teffi started to write them down, and she kept that fragment with Rasputin’s autograph as a memento. Rasputin was informal with Teffi, as if divining her ageing but still passionate nature.

And Teffi described that evening, too. ‘There were about six people in the smoke-filled room … Manasevich stood by the doorway…as did a couple of others … Rasputin was … quite tall, dry, sinewy, with a face as if extruded into his long fleshy nose, and… sharp, close-set eyes … His eyes gleamed so brightly it was impossible to make out their colour.’

‘The host and I have arranged it,’ Rozanov informed Teffi,’ you are to sit next to him … he’s fond of ladies. Don’t fail to touch on erotic topics, draw him out, he’ll be interesting there.’

Teffi sat in the corner to Rasputin’s right, with Rozanov and Izmailov to his left.

Teffi has described ‘Rasputin’s informality’, or more accurately, his customary advances.

Rasputin drank a lot. ‘Why aren’t you drinking anything? Drink something, God will forgive you,’ and urging me, he rapidly touched my shoulder like a hypnotist. ‘You have sad eyes,
he
torments you a lot … Oh, but we are all fond of women’s tears. I know all about it. What’s that ring on your finger? Stick it quietly under the table, I’ll blow on it and warm it up. Why did you take it off yourself? I would have done it for you.’ But I knew perfectly well [what was going on] and took it off myself. ‘When you come to see me, I’ll tell you a great deal you didn’t know.’ And again he rapidly and furtively touched my shoulder.

Next was a recitation of Rasputin’s poetry. ‘That turned out to be a poem in prose in the style of the “Song of Songs” …I remember the phrase, “Beautiful are her lofty peaks. But my love is higher and more beautiful than they, for love is God.”’

After which the peasant gave the famous writer his autograph. ‘He licked
the pencil for a long time. He wrote in an uncouth scrawl, “God is love, you love, God forgives, Grigory.” And then the host anxiously came over to Rasputin. “A phone call from Tsarskoe!”‘ And Teffi was astonished to realize that those in Tsarskoe Selo had known where he was! While Rasputin was gone, Rozanov started giving Teffi instructions. ‘The main thing is to get him to talk about his
Khlyst
“rejoicings”.’

That is what they had all come for. Rozanov, like all those present and like Rasputin’s friend Filippov, knew that the peasant belonged to the secret sect. And they were looking forward to that story, but…’But Rasputin did not return to the table. The host said he had been urgently called to Tsarskoe Selo.’

The Solution Of The Intrigue

The scandal burst the very next day. It turned out that the alarm had been sounded in Tsarskoe Selo regarding the soirée. And the next day Filippov was stunned to find his apartment searched. The File, from Filippov’s testimony:

Colonel Ivanov, who was carrying out the duties of the head of the security branch, told me in confidence in response to my indignation that the person at fault in it was Rasputin, who had alleged that during his presence the literary people had been copying down what he was saying…Intelligence had also reached their agents that I had at my disposal documents compromising to the empress, and that Rasputin was going to be murdered at my apartment.

At the same time a scared Izmailov ran to Teffi and told her that “F[ilippov] came by today and said that he … had been interrogated as to just which literary people had dined at his place, and what Rasputin had said there. They threatened to banish him from Petrograd. But the most offensive and amazing thing was that Filippov saw on the interrogator’s desk the same sheet in Manasevich’s handwriting. We need to be very careful. Even if they don’t interrogate us, they will certainly follow us.’

Yes, it was Manasevich! Having decided to take his place by Rasputin, he had carried out a purge of the team surrounding Father Grigory. Simanovich, who took care of finances, knew his place. But Filippov, who played the role of counsellor and who really did have immense influence on Rasputin, apparently worried him. And ‘Bond’, in the finest traditions of the Department of Police, had engaged in his customary duplicitous game. He himself had suggested that Filippov organize a literary soirée, and
he himself had told Tsarskoe Selo about the soirée, attributing the initiative to Filippov. And he had passed on to the security branch ‘the same sheet’ — the list of literary invitees. The list had frightened Alix. All the people on it were well-known ‘leftist writers’. Which is why there had been a call from Tsarskoe Selo interrupting the meeting. And Manasevich had, of course, provided the information about the ‘documents compromising to the empress’ that were supposedly in Filippov’s apartment. And at the same time, he had told Rasputin about the malign intentions of the literary people, who had been recording the conversation in order to ridicule him. Even though they had agreed not to ‘write anything down’. Manasevich could be pretty confident here. He had no doubt that they would break their promise and write.

And one of the soirée’s participants, the well-known writer Anatoly Kamensky, did in fact finish a play about Rasputin.

‘An echo of that evening … was Anatoly Kamensky’s play… which encountered extraordinary difficulties with the censorship in Yavorskaya’s staging…The literary people present at the soirée had given me their word not to publish comments about the meeting, which is why… Rasputin attacked the production of Kamensky’s play so fiercely … The latter had, in Rasputin’s words, “violated his oath”,’ Filippov testified in the File.

In a yellowed 1915 issue of the newspaper
Footlights and Life
I found a report about the play and an event that had caused an uproar in Petrograd. ‘A production of A. Kamensky’s
Maybe Tomorrow
was set for 8 December 1915, in Petrograd at the Yarovskaya Theatre. At 8:00 p.m., when the theatre was already crowded with people, the management announced that the performance could not take place: it had been officially forbidden.’ The play was, of course, allowed once Kamensky had revised it and turned its hero, the Russian peasant Rasputin, into a Swede!

After that episode, the frightened Filippov began to distance himself from Rasputin. And Rasputin himself began to mistrust Filippov. Now Manasevich-Manuilov became his adviser and the chief member of his team. And Manasevich-Manuilov was already anticipating the governmental changes that promised so much.

But everything in fact turned out quite differently.

11

A PYRRHIC VICTORY

‘He Curiously Enough Said The Same As Me’

The war continued. And at the same time another war was going on — the one between Alix and the commander-in-chief (Nikolasha or N., as she variously called Nikolai Nikolaevich in her letters).

‘4 April 1915 … Though Nikolasha is so highly placed, yet you are above him. The same thing shocked our Friend, as me too, that Nikolasha words his telegrams, answers to governors, etc. in your style — his ought to be more simple and humble.’

In April the tsar and the commander-in-chief were supposed to inspect the troops stationed in conquered Galicia and Poland. At court a rumour persisted that the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich had decided to become king of Galicia and Poland. Alix was scared that during their trip the ‘dread uncle’ would incline Nicky to agree to it. And Our Friend at once expressed the view that the tsar should not make the journey. Or if he did, that he should go by himself.

6 April 1915 …But the idea of L[vov] and P[eremyshl] already now, makes me anxious, is it not too soon, as all the spirits are not much for Russia — in the country, yes, but not at L[ithuania] I fear. — Well, I shall ask our Friend to quite particularly pray for you there — but, forgive my saying so — it’s not for N. to accompany you — you must be the chief one, the first time you go … really don’t take him, as the hate against him must be great there — & to see you alone will rejoice those hearts that go out to you in love … Au fond, our Friend wld. have found it better you had gone after the war to the conquered country, I only just mention this like that.

7 April 1915 … How interesting all you are going to do. When A[nya] told Him in secret, because I want His special prayers for you, he curiously
enough said the same as me; that on the whole it [the trip] does not please Him ‘God will help … but better after the war.’ — Does not like N. going with you, finds everywhere better alone — & to this end I fully agree. Well now all is settled, I hope it will be a success … God bless & guard this voyage of yours.

But the tsar did make the trip with the commander-in-chief. Nicholas did not know then that the Germans were preparing a decisive counterattack, and that he would never see those cities again.

But Our Friend was now not only performing the duties of the tsarina’s wise parrot. A metamorphosis had gradually taken place. From a diviner of her desires, from a conventional character in her letters by whom she entreated her husband, he had imperceptibly begun to turn into a true adviser. The seer produced in her imagination had gradually acquired reality. The peasant was becoming autonomous. He had begun to dictate his own thoughts to her. His peasant mind prompted decisions that derived from his favourite populist idea of ‘living by one’s conscience’, an idea whose simplicity of realization was for her a source of delighted wonder.

‘10 April 1915 … Gr[igory] is rather disturbed about the “meat” stories, the merchants won’t lessen the price tho’ the government wished it, & there has been a sort of meatstrike one says. One of the ministers he thought, ought to send for a few of the chief merchants & explain it to them, that it is wrong at such a grave moment, during war to heighten the pri[c]es, & make them feel ashamed of themselves.’

And the merchants were summoned and suitably shamed. But for some reason they failed to heed those calls to their consciences, and the prices continued to rise.

The First Wizard In The Court