The Rasputin File (56 page)

The defeats at the front forced the commander-in-chief to continue more actively a favourite practice of Russian rulers: finding the people guilty of the failure. The best candidate for punishment was the war minister, Sukhomlinov. Not only was he disliked by the grand duke; the Duma also hated him for his devotion to the ‘tsars’. And the old minister was not merely held responsible for the shortage of cannon, shells, bullets, and uniforms; he was also a focus of the popular campaign of spy-hunting.

First, Sergei Myasoedov, the counter-intelligence chief and a man close to Sukhomlinov, was on the basis of a suspect denunciation charged with spying and executed. After which the shadow fell on the minister.

Prince Andronikov and Chervinskaya started hurrying among the salons. ‘I was sure Sukhomlinov was surrounded by a whole group of spies,’ Andronikov later explained to the Extraordinary Commission. Something similar was repeated by both the Duma opposition and the grand dukes. Andronikov used Rasputin, too. His voice was added to the popular chorus, and he threw his own stone at the minister. Manasevich egged him on: for
once, Rasputin stood with everyone else. And the tsar yielded to the commander-in-chief’s demands and in June handed over Sukhomlinov. The old minister was removed from office, arrested, and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The peasant did not fully understand what had happened. The innocent Sukhomlinov, accused of state treason, was the tsar’s first important sacrifice to public opinion and to the commander-in-chief. After it, new sacrifices would surely follow. But if the peasant did not grasp the implications, the tsarina did.

On 24 June she wrote to Nicky, Now others can think that public opinion is enough to clear out our Friend.’

‘Our Friend’s Enemies Are Ours’

The sad situation at the front demanded new decisions that would unite society. The commander-in-chief spoke constantly to the tsar about this. And persuaded the tsar to take a popular step — to nominate new ministers who would force the Duma to support the government. He explained that ‘a person with the German last name of Sabler cannot be chief procurator of the Most Holy Synod at a time of national hatred of Germans! Moreover, he is hated by the Duma.’ Nicholas knew that the Duma hated Sabler for his loyalty to Our Friend. But he understood that in everything else the commander-in-chief was right. It was decided to appoint Alexander Samarin, from an old aristocratic family and the head of the nobility in patriarchal Moscow, as the new chief procurator. The tsar agreed as well to changing the minister of internal affairs. It was decided to remove the Rasputin loyalist Maklakov. And to nominate the liberal Prince Scherbatov from a distinguished noble family — he was respected by both the opposition and the court. General Alexei Polivanov, who had once been close to Guchkov and was now close to the commander-in-chief, and who would also have to be approved by the Duma, was nominated minister of war.

But there was also a trap here. When the future ministers were summoned to Headquarters, they declared that they could not work productively so long as Grigory Rasputin remained in Petrograd.

The File, from the testimony of R. G. Mollov, appointed deputy minister of internal affairs under Scherbatov: ‘When I was offered the post of Deputy Minister of internal affairs, I immediately asked Prince Scherbatov, “What is the situation with Rasputin?” Scherbatov reassured me by saying that when he had accepted the post of minister of internal affairs, the sovereign had given him and the new chief procurator, Samarin, his word that Rasputin would never return from Siberia.’

The File, from the testimony of Yatskevich: ‘Samarin … set the condition of “the removal of all extraneous influences from church life”. The sovereign gave him a polite but evasive answer.’ That is the truth: the most well-bred of monarchs was polite with them. And nothing more. And Prince Scherbatov had fobbed off the wished-for as the actual. Tsars do not make promises to their subjects. Nicholas was merely availing himself of an of t-tried device: sending the peasant home for a while.

Nicholas returned to Tsarskoe Selo at the beginning of June. He told Alix nothing about the new ministers. Especially since the decision had not yet been made. But it was not for nothing that Rasputin had as allies Andronikov and Manasevich, both of whom had worked for the Synod. First Our Friend, and then Alix and the Friend, learned that Sabler was to be removed. They decided to ask Nicky to leave Sabler in place until Our Friend could find a suitable candidate.

Nicky was not inclined to explain to her that a candidate had already been found. Instead he talked to her about how summer was coming on. And how Grigory usually went home. And how in order to reduce the number of silly rumours about him, it would be a good thing for him to go back to Pokrovskoe now. So that in the autumn, when the situation at the front was better, he could come back. ‘The empress told me that it really was necessary for Rasputin to leave, and she added that the sovereign wished it, too,’ Yulia Dehn testified in the File.

Before leaving for Headquarters, the tsar summoned Sabler. But he did not have the resolve to tell him. The File, from the testimony of Yatskevich:

Sabler … was received by the sovereign with his latest report and, as always, treated affectionately … In answer to his question as to when he should give his next one, the sovereign said, ‘I shall write to you, I shall write.’ And then the conversation was broken off, since the heir had come into the study, as he always seemed to do whenever it was necessary to show someone the door. Sabler happily returned to his dacha, and around 8:00 received a note about his retirement: the sovereign wrote ‘that circumstances obliged him’, etc.

Thus was Samarin appointed. And the tsar had not been impolite.

The Wanderer Collects His Knapsack

Petrograd was soon afterwards filled with rumours of Grishka’s departure. And Manasevich and Andronikov expected that Rasputin would rush to the tsarina. But the peasant, to their astonishment, very calmly got ready to leave. More than that, he talked about how happy he was that he had at last been given permission to leave the capital. And he repeated something he had often told his devotees and that Zhukovskaya had written down:

What a joy is freedom. In the daytime you would chop down trees, and what trees we have! They have never seen the like here. And at night you would build a bonfire on the snow and we would all dance around it … you would throw off your shirt and go about naked in the frost, but the frost was no match for you! Here in your cities it’s just a heap of storm clouds, and not life! … The only reason I keep my strength is because I know that as soon as there’s some kind of commotion, then my knapsack’s on my back and my stick’s in my hand and I’m off.

Neither Manasevich nor Andronikov grasped that departure was in fact his strongest action. That they could not manage without him — not Alix, not the tsar, not the boy. And that they would always call him back. They would live in triviality for a while but they would call him back. They would give in.

Rasputin learned of the changes in the government on the day of his departure. It had turned out amusingly: one thing had been prepared, and something altogether different had resulted. He called Vyrubova to tell her. Anya limped off to the tsarina in horror. Now the peasant could rest easy. For he knew that Mama’ would not leave the tsar in peace.

On the evening of 15 June Rasputin set out for the village of Pokrovskoe.

The Tsarina’s Attack

Alix by then was already writing her first letter. She would now overwhelm Nicky with desperate letters. And in them He would demand, advise, and prophesy — Our Friend, who had no suspicion he was doing any such thing.

15 June 1915 …Town is so full of gossip, as tho’ all the ministers were being changed … & our Friend, to whom A[nya] went to bid goodbye, was most anxious to know what was true. (As though also Samarin instead
of Sabler … certainly Samarin wld. go against our Friend…—he is so terribly Moscovite & narrowminded.) Well, A[nya] answered that I knew nothing. He gave over this message for you, that you are to pay less attention to what people will say to you, not let yourself be influenced by them but use yr. own instinct … He regrets you did not speak to Him more about all you think & were intending to do & speak about with yr. ministers & the changes you were thinking of making. He prays so hard for you and Russia & can help more when you speak to Him frankly. — I suffer hideously being away from you. 20 years we shared all together, & now grave things are passing, I do not know your thoughts nor decisions, & it’s such pain.

Nicky tried to assuage her anger, and wrote that everyone spoke of Samarin ‘as a pure and devout man’, etc. But she was implacable. 16 June. Just received yr. precious letter … Yes, Lovy, about Samarin I am much more than sad, simply in despair, just one of Ella’s not good, very bigoted clique [this about her beloved sister!]…now we shall have stories against our Friend beginning & all will go badly… that means Ella’s influence & worries fr. morn to night, & he against us, once against Gr[igory] … My heart feels like lead.’

And she let loose on poor Nicky an impassioned monologue:

16 June …I always remember what our Friend says & how often we do not enough heed His words. He was so much against yr. going to the Headquarters, because people get round you there & make you do things, wh. would have been better not done — here the atmosphere in your own house is a healthier one & you would see things more rightly — if only you would come back quicker…you see, I have absolutely no faith in N — know him to be far fr. clever & having gone against a Man of God’s, his work can’t be blessed, nor his advice be good… When Gr[igory] heard in town yesterday before He left, that Samarin was named…—He was in utter despair…now the Moscou set will be like a spider’s net around us, our Friend’s enemies are ours, & Schtcherbatov will make one with them, I feel sure. I beg your pardon for writing all this, but I am so wretched ever since I heard it & can’t get calm — I see now why Gr[igory] did not wish you to go there — here I might have helped you. People are afraid of my influence … because they know I have a strong will & sooner see through them & help you being firm. I should have left nothing untried to dissuade you, had you been here … & you would have remembered our Friend’s words. When He says not to do a thing & one does not listen, one sees one’s fault always afterwards…

I entreat you, at the first talk with S[amarin] & when you see him, to
speak very firmly…for Russia’s sake — Russia will not be blessed if her Sovereign lets a man of God’s sent to help him — be persecuted, I am sure.

Tell him severely… that you forbid any intrigues against our Friend or talks about Him…otherwise you will not keep him…

Do not laugh at me, if you know the tears I have cried today…

Our first Friend [Philippe] gave me that Image with the bell to warn me against those, that are not right & it will keep them fr. approaching, I shall feel it & thus guard you from them — Even the family feel this & therefore try & get at you alone.

And then she gave explicit expression to her desire to participate in the government. ‘It’s none of my doing, God wishes your poor wify to be your help, Gr[igory] always says so & Mr. Ph[ilippe] too — &I might warn you in time if I knew things.’

She would now write the same thing endlessly. The drip erodes the stone. Until it breaks it.

Abraham Does Not Wish To Sacrifice His Son

Rasputin arrived in Tyumen on 19 June. But from there, too, the agents continued to supply Dzhunkovsky with information about all Our Friend’s movements. In Tyumen the Dark One stayed at the monastery with his friend the monastery prior, Martemian’ (an ordained monk who through Rasputin’s efforts had just recently been appointed abbot of the Tobolsk Monastery). After dinner, according to Martemian, the ‘Dark One’ ‘drank two fourths [sic.] of the monastery’s wine by himself’. Rasputin arrived in Pokrovskoe on 21 June escorted by the agents Terekhov and Svistunov, who followed him everywhere and who were for the most part lodged at his house, where they read him books and newspapers.

In Tyumen Rasputin had learned definitely that his only son was being drafted into the army. He had sent a desperate telegram to Anya, in which he had written of Abraham, who had been threatened with the loss of his son Isaac. Alix immediately wrote to Nicky: 20 June … Beloved one … his only son ought not to be taken…will you say, please.’

But Nicky said nothing. It seemed to her that this, too, was another machination of the commander-in-chief, who had taken control of Nicky’s will.

25 June 1915 … I loathe yr. being at the Headquarters and many others too … Ah my Nicky, things are not as they ought to be, & therefore N.
keeps you near, to have a hold over you with his … bad counsels… Remember our Friend begged you not to remain long…I here, incapable of helping, have rarely gone through such a time of wretchedness — feeling & realising things are not done as they should be, — & helpless to be of use — it’s bitterly hard; & … Nikolasha knows my will, & fears my influence (guided by Grigory) upon you; its all so clear.

The day before she had written, ‘Sweetheart needs pushing always & to be reminded that he is the Emperor & can do whatsoever pleases him — you never profit of this — you must show you have a way & will of yr. own, & are not lead by N. & his staff, who direct yr. movements.’

She knew how awful this last sentence was for him. And of course she had hit the mark.

The Disastrous Report

On 5 June 1915, the report of Colonel Martynov, the head of the Moscow security branch, regarding the scandal in March at the Yar was at last delivered to Dzhunkovsky’s desk. And now, with Rasputin far away from the capital, Dzhunkovsky and the commander-in-chief decided the time had come.

The circumstances were propitious. Dzhunkovsky had been summoned to the tsar to report on the disorders that had been taking place in Moscow. As the French ambassador Paléologue wrote, ‘On the famous Red Square … a mob cursed the royal persons, demanding that the empress be sent to a nunnery, the emperor abdicate the throne in favour of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, and Rasputin be hanged.’