The Rasputin File (13 page)

Moscow occupied a special place in the life of Nicholas and Alexandra Their capital was Petersburg, that city-mirage built on the Finnish marshes under the direction of French and Italian architects, with its avenues of a precision and straightness repugnant to the Russian soul, and its angel atop a column in front of the Winter Palace symbolically prostrating itself before a Catholic cross. It was the capital of Westernism, the embodiment of the new Russian aristocracy’s reaching out to Europe. But the symbol of national identity remained Moscow, the ancient capital of the Muscovite tsars and the first Romanovs. The city of countless churches and impossibly tangled streets so amiable to the Russian soul. And sister Ella and her husband were the custodians of that ‘Tsargrad’.

It was in Moscow that Nicky and Alix’s best-loved legend of the ancient Muscovite tsars of the people came to life, the legend of a kingdom in which not splendid grandees but people of the holy life, elders, and holy fools (a phenomenon of which we shall have much to say), were the tsars’ principal advisers.

And when Nicky and Alix began in 1903, in anticipation of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty, to give their celebrated ‘historical’ balls, the Moscow of the times of the first Romanovs was brought back in the halls of the Winter Palace. The courtiers were clad in the shimmering gold of the boyar dress of the days of the kingdom of Muscovy and Nicholas himself appeared in the garb of his beloved tsar, Alexis Mikhailovich.

And although the religious Ella, who had made the ideas of Orthodoxy her own, could not help but be alarmed by Alix’s friendship with the mysticism-crazed Montenegrin princesses, she understood the loneliness of her sister in cold Petersburg and reconciled herself to the friendship. But the appearance of Philippe forced Ella to join forces with the rest of the Romanovs. Ella knew her sister’s character. She knew that to attack Philippe directly would be to strengthen his position. And Ella patiently explained
to her younger sister that the Russian tsars had no need of foreign wizards. They had patrons in heaven who were far more powerful. Those patrons were (as Simeon the New Theologian had written) the saints who had gone to heaven. There, in the other world, they became the defenders of the tsars and the people. They realized their great purpose both individually and in concert, forming a Guardian Assembly or Golden Chain. And their protection had often been enjoyed by the Muscovite tsars now sleeping their eternal sleep in the Kremlin Cathedral.

This mystical idea made an impression. But on hearing Ella’s words repeated by the tsarina, the intelligent Militsa took up the baton. And soon afterwards a conversation took place between Philippe and the tsarina. For the first time he clearly explained to Alix the reason for her failed pregnancy. It had once more been the result of her weakness of faith No sooner had she started to doubt and called the obstetrician, than the miracle ended. A miracle can occur only in the presence of absolute faith. Only faith is capable of moving the mountain. Alix was still not ready for such faith. Therefore he had been unable to help her. And then, to Alix’s joy, Philippe began to speak of the same thing that Ella, who so disliked him, had spoken of: Alix must ask for the aid of a Russian saint. She must ask him to intercede with God for the birth of an heir. And Philippe repeated a name that Alix had already heard from Militsa, and before that from Ella. It was the name of a great saint from Sarov who had not yet been canonized by the dilatory official Church. Serafim of Sarov, an elder who had died in 1833 at the Sarov cloister.

The Royal Saint

Like Rasputin, Prokhor Moshnin (such was the worldly name of Serafim of Sarov) had left home as a wanderer and gone to worship at numerous monasteries. In his native village, Serafim walked about surrounded by virgins — by ‘brides of Christ’. As a result, rumours had begun circulating, and there was an inquiry, and the mystery of his holiness became a subject of police investigation.

And then he lived a long time in silence and abstinence, seeking nourishment in the ‘word of God’, which is ‘angelic bread, and by it the soul is nourished’.

Serafim had much to say about the sanctity of royal power. And he often cited the words of King David’s commander Abishai: ‘If all of us should be killed, then at least you, lord, would live. But if you were no more, then what would become of Israel?’ The tsarina also learned of a prophecy
written down by Serafim’s admirer Motovilov in 1879. In it Serafim foretold their future rule and their names, Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. He also predicted his own canonization during their reign.

Serafim was declared the royal family’s patron. And in spite of the Synod’s resistance, Alix forced Nicky to fulfil the prediction: Serafim of Sarov was canonized. And on 16 July 1903, the imperial train arrived at the Arzamas Station, and the entire Romanov family proceeded on foot to Sarov Pustyn and the Diveev Monastery where Serafim of Sarov had lived and prayed. On 18 July 1903, after a solemn mass, the tsar, the clergy, and the grand dukes took outside the coffin containing the holy relics of the Venerated Serafim and carried it around the church. Thus did the tsarina help bring to pass yet another of Serafim’s prophecies transcribed by Motovilov: ‘What joy there will be! The tsar and all his family will come to us.’

True, there remained another of Serafim’s prophecies of which they were then unaware, the one ‘about terrible future insurrections that will exceed all imagination … about rivers of Russian blood’ that would flow during their reign.

The unreal world of miracles and prophecies was increasingly becoming Alix’s real world. In Sarov they spent whole evenings by the spring and the rock where Serafim had lifted his voice in prayer. At night she and Nicky would bathe in the waters of the spring, putting their trust in the saint’s help and praying for an heir. Her wait had begun. Serafim, now in the golden chain next to the throne of God, would intercede on their behalf, and she would give birth to a son.

She was becoming more and more a tsarina from a Kremlin eyrie of the times of the kingdom of Muscovy.

Adieu To ‘Our First Friend’

Soon afterwards Our Friend was required to return to Paris. Nikolai Nikolaevich had evidently found it difficult to tolerate the ostracism to which the Romanov family was subjecting him and the Montenegrin sisters. And he explained to Philippe the necessity of his departure.

In the meantime, Alix’s faith had triumphed. All that she had asked for in her prayers to Saint Serafim had come to pass. From her journal: ‘The Heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was born on Friday 30 July 1904 at 1.15 in the afternoon.’ He was named for their favourite tsar, Alexis Mikhailovich Romanov.

So she could once again think that she had not believed in Philippe in
vain. Everything was as Our Friend had prophesied. She had given life to a beautiful baby, a grey-eyed fairy-tale prince born to rule and arouse admiration.

Thus ended the dress rehearsal for Rasputin’s appearance at the palace. And in the court and among the great Romanov family the conclusion was formulated: poor, kind Nicky lacked will, and Alix ruled in everything. He regarded the world through her eyes.

Philippe did not return. As he had predicted, although rather sooner — in 1905, he departed this world. And once again Alix was convinced that she had been right to believe in him. That is why she never forgot him. Many, many years later, during the war, she would write to her husband, ‘our first Friend gave me that Image with the bell to warn me against those, that are not right & it will keep them fr. approaching’ (16 June 1915).

And now all that remained was for Philippe to carry out his promise — ‘to return in form of another’. How much she needed him in that new form. For the most terrible thing had happened. The long-awaited prince was suffering from a fatal disease inherited from Alix’s family: haemophilia. His fragile blood vessels were unable to withstand the pressure of his blood. The same thing that was taking place outside the palace’s windows, in fact. The empire’s vessels were worn and fragile, too. The autocratic realm was haemorrhaging.

A Bloody Prologue To His Coming

First there was the shameful, bloody war with Japan. Nicholas was pushed into the war. The military explained that land could be quietly occupied in Manchuria, and that little Japan would not dare to retaliate. And if it did, then there would be a small war and a great victory. The war turned into a large war of great defeats. ‘It’s painful and distressing,’ Nicholas wrote in his diary. But that was only the beginning. The boy’s disease and next the terrible year of 1905. The defeats in the war. And then another trial was sent, something unprecedented in Russia in the entire three-hundred-year reign of the Romanov dynasty — a revolution.

The terrible year began with bloodshed — with the massacre of a workers’ demonstration on its way to the Winter Palace. The tsar and his family were in Tsarskoe Selo, and in their absence, the frightened Vladimir Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s uncle, who was in command of the Petersburg
garrison, gave the order to shoot. On 9 January, the tsar wrote in his diary, ‘A terrible day … Many were killed and wounded … My God, how painful it is …how dreadful.’ The revolutionaries answered with terror. In Moscow, less than a month later, Ella’s husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was blown apart by a bomb. And Nicholas was haunted by this vision: the bare-headed Ella covered in blood and crawling on her hands and knees among her husband’s remains. And then terrifying days and chaos in the country. A rail strike that cut off Petersburg and Moscow from the interior, and rallies with calls for armed rebellion.

How she waited for the new man of God to arrive. But they remained alone, with only their prayers and their faith in God. And instead of a man of God nearby, there were their constant guests: the new prime minister, Sergei Witte, and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich.

This was the Montenegrin princesses’ finest hour. The ‘dread uncle’ Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich — would become dictator. At the time, it seemed the only way to put down the revolution. The romance of Stana with Nikolai Nikolaevich was in full swing. And if he should become a dictator who triumphed over revolution … In the imaginings of the elated Montenegrins, there was even the possibility of a crown, which the short, weak Nicholas would himself pass on to the country’s saviour. But Nikolai Nikolaevich let them down. Becoming dictator was not something he was prepared to do. The army was far away fighting the Japanese. And to put down the rebellion by force — well, they didn’t have the force. And so he collaborated with Prime Minister Sergei Witte to persuade Nicholas to agree to a constitution.

At the time the royal family was staying in Peterhof, cut off from the capital by the railway strike, and at court people were already saying that there was a ship lying offshore on which the royal family was going to flee to England.

The Appearance Of A Miracle-Worker

It was then that the Montenegrins feverishly sought a Russian miracle-worker. And Militsa brought Feofan to the palace.

From Feofan’s testimony in the File: ‘The first time I was invited …to the former emperor’s home, it was for a discussion of church matters. Later on, I was invited both for theological discussions and for “communion” with the emperor’s wife, the frequently ill empress Alexandra Fyodorovna.’

But the straightforward ascetic Feofan could not replace the cunning Philippe. And Ioann of Kronstadt was summoned to Militsa’s palace ever more frequently. Father Ioann, archpriest of Kronstadt Cathedral, was a the time famous throughout Russia. He had been highly esteemed by Nicholas’s father. He was at Alexander III’s bedside at the time of his death And Ioann of Kronstadt’s life had touched congregations both inside the church and beyond. He was endowed with a Christian’s greatest power the gift of healing prayer. People who had reached a point of suffering beyond which the power of science was of no avail came to him for help And he healed them, people of the most varied creeds: Orthodox Christians Jews, Moslems. The entire 20 December 1883 issue of the
New Times
, tha most respectable of Petersburg newspapers, was filled with expressions of gratitude from those he had helped. The grandmother of Father Alexander Mehn, a celebrated Orthodox cleric, was not only healed by him; Ioann predicted that in her Jewish family a grandson would be born who would become an Orthodox priest. He healed Rasputin’s future admirer, the young Vyrubova, as well as Zinaida Yusupova, the mother of Rasputin’ future murderer.

The Coming Of The Redeemer

But Ioann was too severe, too burdened by his responsibilities to hi congregation. And then Militsa decided to introduce to the tsarina and Nicky someone who could not fail to make an impression on them Someone she had long cultivated for that meeting. Father Grigory, the wanderer from Siberia. Although she apparently had a foreboding about it So, before introducing him, she made Rasputin swear not to meet with the ‘tsars’ (as he called Alix and Nicky) on his own. As before, he would have to remain under her auspices. He would become the new Philippe whom Alix and Nicky would meet at her home. ‘According to Militsa Nikolaevna Rasputin promised not to try to meet the royal family by himself,’ Feofan testified in the File.

Militsa was sure of the peasant’s success. Ever since she had seen those hypnotic eyes! It was no accident that Ioann of Kronstadt had taken a liking to Father Grigory. And Feofan, whom the tsarina held in such regard revered him, too. And Metropolitan Sergius himself enjoyed talking to him That was the kind of recommendations he had! And how it had all come together — the prophet, the healer, the man of the people, and the mystical emissary from Holy Rus.

It was the middle of October 1905, the most terrible time in that terrible
year. Nicholas decided to sign the manifesto granting the first Russian constitution, thus bringing down the three-hundred-year autocracy of his ancestors. And close by him in those days were the Montenegrins and Nikolasha (Nikolai Nikolaevich).