The Rasputin File (71 page)

At the end of 1915 Protopopov was again undergoing treatment at Badmaev’s clinic. It was then that Badmaev learned from his friend Rasputin of the search for new ministers. And Badmaev, who had been trying his whole life to play a part in grand politics, this time did not let his chance slip away. Protopopov was the darling of the Duma. Here was the one the tsar needed. His patient would reconcile parliament and the government. Gentle and well brought up, he could not fail to be liked in Tsarskoe Selo. That ailing, weak-willed person would serve the tsarina uncomplainingly. And he would not forget his physician, either. An ‘audition’ took place — Protopopov’s introduction to Rasputin.

From Protopopov’s testimony before the Extraordinary Commission: ‘Badmaev advised Rasputin to take me into the government … Badmaev wanted to make me Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and he had faith in the degree of Rasputin’s influence over the tsar and tsarina. “If he wants it, he will obtain it.”’

Protopopov’s clandestine meetings with the peasant began after that. And it was then that their mutual friend, the pretty Sheila Lunts, first made her appearance. A woman who had visited Rasputin with very little success. But whom Protopopov started visiting with a great deal of it.

The File, from the testimony of Sheila Lunts: ‘He impressed me as a gentle, intelligent, and enchanting person …At the time I was pining for my husband, and Protopopov would come by in the evenings to chat with me.’

And sometimes Rasputin would also come by ‘to chat’ with Protopopov.

The File, from the testimony of Filippov: ‘Protopopov went to see her with exceptional frequency for meetings with her personally, and later on in the presence of Rasputin, who would be invited there … Protopopov started behaving in an extraordinarily secretive way once he had obtained Rasputin’s promise to help him get the post of minister of internal affairs.’

Rasputinism

The road to power now ran through private restaurants and the apartments of tarts. The tsar, being at General Staff Headquarters, had ceded the disposition of power to the tsarina, the tsarina had entrusted it to the crafty peasant, and the peasant had entrusted it to crafty rascals. And the semifeudal
country’s crafty financiers bought the power from the rascals. At the same time, all those crafty people were struggling and scheming against each other, drawing each other into cunning traps, and slinging mud. They all practised to perfection the art of mutual extermination, although without realizing that it was rocking the common boat, the very one they were in themselves. And which even so was just barely afloat. As is clear today in Russia at the beginning of a new millennium.

Only then it all ended in catastrophe.

Treated Affectionately By The Tsar

Let us return to June 1916 when Protopopov, after his return from Sweden and his discussions with Warburg, was first received by the sovereign.

Despite the tsar’s dissatisfaction with his having met Warburg, Protopopov nevertheless ‘was treated affectionately by the tsar’.

The File, from Vyrubova’s testimony: This was typical of the sovereign, who would sometimes take an unaccountable liking to people on his first meeting with them.’

I think that the Friend was dissembling, as usual. Nicholas had been predisposed to like Protopopov. For the meeting with Warburg had been Protopopov’s first commission for the tsarina. He, yesterday’s fighter for war until victory, had brought back proposals for a separate peace. And it wasn’t his fault that Nicholas had not dared to oppose those around him or the Duma and had remained loyal to his allies.

But during their meeting the tsar had understood: Rasputin was right, this favourite of the Duma was ready to carry out any commission for the tsars’. That is why Nicholas was so indulgent with the gentle Protopopov, who was so different from his previous loud-mouthed ministers. And at the end of the audience, he said something personal to him, something heartfelt. Protopopov recalled how through a door he had seen Alexei playing, and the sovereign suddenly remarked, “You cannot imagine what a comfort that boy is to me and how reluctant I am to let him go”.’

Thus, a place was assumed near the throne by Protopopov, whom Rasputin would call Kalinin’ or General Kalinin.’

From Badmaev’s testimony: The nickname Kalinin’ was given to Protopopov by Rasputin.’

And when Badmaev in surprise corrected Rasputin, the peasant said, It doesn’t matter! Everybody at the sovereign’s laughs when I call him Kalinin.’

Among the
Khlysty
nicknames were used to conceal real names. And the
tsarina, who was fond of secrets and accustomed to hiding her inner life from the court, quickly made Rasputin’s nicknames a part of the code used in her letters, which the court was so anxious to intercept. The railway minister was called ‘Steely’, Stürmer was referred to as the ‘Old Chap’, Khvostov was the ‘Tail’ and ‘Fat Belly’, Bishop Varnava was the ‘Gopher’, the tsar and tsarina were ‘Papa and Mama’, and so on.

The Warburg business was the beginning of Protopopov’s advancement.

And as he himself testified, ‘Rasputin told me I would not be chairman of the Council of Ministers at once but would first receive the post of minister of internal affairs.’ He was supposed to become the second prime minister and the first minister of internal affairs to be advanced by the peasant. The long-awaited alliance of which Nicholas had dreamed at the beginning of his reign, that of the peasantry and the autocracy, had become a reality.

Why Had The ‘Old Chap’ Become So Bold?

Rasputin had by then already come to the realization that Stürmer had his own plans. More to the point, they were not the same ones that his predecessors Kokovtsev and Khvostov had had. They all kept to the same scheme: first use Rasputin, conclude an alliance with him, and then push him out of the way. The intelligent and intuitive Rasputin immediately sensed that the ‘Old Chap’ was playing his own game and avoiding meetings with him and ‘Mama’. And avoiding them with Manasevich, too.

Manasevich was used to serving two masters; that is, he punctually sent Stürmer in envelopes marked ‘secret’ whatever information he had gleaned from Rasputin about what was happening in Tsarskoe Selo. Yet whenever they met, the prime minister would imperiously disregard him. And soon afterwards Stürmer simply reassigned him from his office to the command of the Department of Police. And Metropolitan Pitirim, according to Manasevich, ‘was also disgruntled; he felt Stürmer was becoming more abrupt with him on the phone’.

Rasputin reacted to the prime minister’s behaviour in his own way. As Manasevich testified, during his meetings with him the peasant would shout at the empire’s highest official, ‘Don’t you dare go against Mama’s wishes! Make sure I don’t turn my back on you! Then you’ll be done for!’ When Manasevich would try to bring him to reason (thereby provoking him even more), Rasputin would distinctly explain, ‘The Old Chap does not defer
to Mama. He’s started to hop about on his own and will soon break his neck. The wishes of Mama, the true prime minister, are law!’

By August the peasant realized that the prime minister had become dangerous. In August a powerful blow was struck against Rasputin: Manasevich was arrested.

Manasevich needed money. His constant card playing and his expensive mistress required a great deal of it. And in August 1916 the deputy director of the Moscow Union Bank informed the new director of the Department of Police, General E. Klimovich, that Manasevich had demanded 25,000 roubles from him, promising that with Rasputin’s help his bank’s transactions would not be audited.

And instead of informing Tsarskoe Selo, Klimovich at once set wheels in motion.

On Klimovich’s advice, the banknote numbers were copied out, and Manasevich, the person closest to Rasputin, was arrested red-handed right on the street. The peasant realized that Klimovich would never have dared to do such a thing without Stürmer’s support. And it was in fact learned in Tsarskoe Selo that Stürmer had said after Manasevich’s arrest, ‘Finally, that scoundrel and blackmailer is behind bars.’

Manasevich’s bank accounts were sequestrated. It emerged that at the end of 1915 and the beginning of 1916 alone the enormous sum of 260,000 roubles had appeared in one of Manasevich’s accounts at the Credit Lyonnais. Rasputin hurried to Mama’. But there was nothing Alix could say. To speak out in defence of a Jew proven guilty of taking such bribes was not something she dared to do. Manasevich languished in jail.

Yet why had Stürmer suddenly become so bold, losing his fear of the dangerous peasant? Perhaps the old fox, having at his disposal the full extent of the information obtained by the secret police, knew that he would soon be free of Rasputin?

Rasputin’s father had recently died, but Grigory did not go to his funeral. He sent his son to the requiem mass that was celebrated forty days after the burial, since he himself had to remain behind at the tsars’ request’. According to the agents, Rasputin spoke of his father’s death with appealing sorrow’, although the agents recalled in their reports how mercilessly he had beaten his father. They were city people and did not understand: he beat his father just as his father had once beaten his grandfather.

But Rasputin loved his father, just as his father had once loved his grandfather.

Meanwhile, the offensive against Rasputin continued with another blow. The wife of the banker Rubinstein came to see Vyrubova in Tsarskoe Selo.
And fell on her knees before her. It turned out that Rubinstein, one of the wealthiest men in Russia, had been arrested at his home on the terrible charge of espionage. Rubinstein had bought up securities of the Anchor Insurance Company and had sold them at a profit to a Swedish insurance company. But among the securities, the plans of some ‘Ukrainian sugar factories’ insured by Anchor had been found. That was enough. A second member of Rasputin’s ‘Brain Trust’ was behind bars. Alix and Our Friend knew that a new prime minister and a new minister of internal affairs needed to be found at once.

The Tsarina’s Secret Banker?

Now in her letters to Nicky Alix constantly asked that Protopopov be appointed the new minister of internal affairs. Or, more accurately, it was not she who asked but Our Friend.

‘7 Sept. 1916. My own sweetheart … Grigory begs you earnestly to name Protopopov there. You know him & had such a good impression of him — happens to be of the Duma … & so will know how to be with them … I don’t know him, but I believe in our Friend’s wisdom & guidance … His love for you & Russia is so intense & God has sent Him to be yr. help & guide & prays so hard for you.’

But Nicky was dubious. ‘9 September …I must think about that question…Our Friend’s opinions about people are sometimes quite odd, as you yourself know. One should therefore be careful, especially where appointments to high positions are concerned.’

At the time Rubinstein was still in jail. He had been interrogated by the investigators of the Special Commission for Crimes on the home front. And soon afterwards rumours began circulating in society that Rubinstein was the tsarina’s secret banker and had been introduced to her by Rasputin. And that through him she had covertly passed on money to her German relatives who had been impoverished in the war.

There are no documents to prove that. But unlike in the arrest of Manasevich, Alix did not remain neutral regarding that of the banker. And to her calls to the tsar for a new minister were added her demands concerning the ill-fated Rubinstein. It was not long before Nicholas gave in to her pressure. And on 18 September Protopopov was, to the utter astonishment of the Duma, appointed to the office of director of the ministry of internal affairs. And in anticipation of Nicky’s meeting with his new minister, Alix sent her husband an outline for the conversation. In the name of Our Friend, naturally.

‘27 Sept…. Keep my little list before you — our Friend begged for you to speak of all these things to Protopopov.’

And the second item in her list of speaking points was about Rubinstein. She wrote, ‘Rubinstein to send away’ (that is, to secure his release from jail and, more importantly, from investigation). She was very worried about the banker’s fate.

An Apotheosis

It was with good reason that the singer Belling wrote about Rasputin’s ‘regal bearing’. No favourite had achieved such power since the times of the eighteenth-century Russian empresses. And the great Romanov family, the court and the ministers did everything on the sly, relying on conspiracy. They did not dare to proceed openly. General Klimovich, who had impudently arrested Manasevich, was immediately removed from his post. And Stürmer, who had presumed to oppose Rasputin — his days were numbered. ‘Ours’ — the shadow cabinet consisting of the tsarina, Anya, and Rasputin, together with the new minister of internal affairs and the secret police under his control — intended to rule Russia. As before, the symbol of loyalty for the tsarina was Our Friend. All enmity towards him was punished. In her letter of 15 September, the tsarina asked Nicky to replace the Petrograd governor Obolensky, who together with his sister, a maid of honour, had had the temerity to speak out against Rasputin. And who was at once accused of taking bribes.

The Petrograd governor, Prince Alexander Obolensky, a scion of one of the oldest Russian families and a major general in his Majesty’s retinue, thereupon debased himself in the most direct sense — he wept before the peasant.

28 Sept….Sweety, fancy only, Obolensky asked to see our Friend & sent a splendid motor for him … Received him very nervously at first & then spoke more & more till at the end of the hour began to cry — then Gr. went away as He saw it was the moment the Soul was completely touched … he will always ask our Friend’s advice about everything… Then showed all the 20 letters our Friend had these years sent with petitions all tidily tied up — & said he had fulfilled when he could…I cld. not get over the idea that he, that proud man, had come around … Our Fr. says its very much in the
spiritual sense
that a man, a soul like [Obolensky] shld. have quite come to him.