The Rasputin File (61 page)

On 26 September Khvostov became director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On 28 September Beletsky was appointed head of the Department of Police and Khvostov’s deputy.

Alexander Volzhin was appointed chief procurator to replace the dismissed Samarin. A lazy sybarite, he was a baron from an old noble family, and, it seemed to Alix, hardly capable of holding his own views. But the main thing was that he was a distant relation of Khvostov. That, for her, was proof enough of his future devotion. For when she believed in someone, she believed recklessly.

The palace coup had been carried through. The most important Ministry of Internal Affairs, the secret police, and the leadership of the church had all passed under the control of ‘ours’. It was a victory. Alix’s victory.

Less than a year and a half remained before the revolution.

And Rasputin had left Pokrovskoe. On 28 September the agents reported, ‘Grigory Efimovich Rasputin arrived in Petrograd.’

He arrived a completely different man. All who saw him would notice it.

As the singer Belling described him, ‘When Rasputin entered the parlour, I gasped. What regal bearing…how much personal dignity in his bows and how delicately he shook hands — a completely new man.’

There was great self-importance in the peasant now. The commanderin-chief himself had been defeated. And all his foes had been swept away by ‘Mama’. All had learned of his power. And his son had been promised a place in the tsarina’s infirmary instead of at the front. He was victorious everywhere.

The File, from the testimony of Molchanov: ‘He was in an exceptionally joyful state of mind as a result of the fact that the grand duke had been removed, and Samarin and Scherbatov dismissed, and Khvostov, of whom Rasputin said that he was a good person and close to him, appointed in their place.’

The Good People’s Plan

What Rasputin did not realize was that while he was on his way back from Pokrovskoe, the ‘good person close to him’ was already discussing with two other ‘good people’ a plan to turn him into an obedient marionette.

From Beletsky’s testimony: ‘Immediately after the release of the ukase about Khvostov and then about me, information regarding Rasputin’s departure from Pokrovskoe was passed on … And an arrangement was worked out among Andronikov, Khvostov, and myself regarding our relations with Rasputin.’

But none of those who took part in ‘working out the arrangement’ understood anything about the peasant or his situation. As Beletsky would relate during his interrogation in 1917, they had not comprehended ‘the true dimensions of that colossal figure’. For the two bureaucrats and the fatuous Andronikov, Rasputin remained a semi-literate peasant, a picturesque folly of the royal couple, who were bound to him by their son’s illness. And in their deliberations, Beletsky, Khvostov, and Andronikov quite simply decided to exploit the dark peasant for their own very broad purposes. The arrangement that they had worked out was uncomplicated: to start giving Rasputin money for his drinking bouts, thereby simply making him their paid agent. And then through him to exert pressure on Tsarskoe Selo in the required direction. At the same time, all three had each devised secret plans that were concealed from the others in the hope of carrying them out with Rasputin’s assistance. Plans that would set all three against one another and then destroy them. For they did not grasp that they were dealing not with a peasant but with the alter ego of the Russian tsarina.

The Gentlemen Humiliated

As soon as Rasputin arrived in Petrograd, ‘a dinner was arranged the very next day at Andronikov’s apartment, and our meeting with him took place,’ Beletsky recalled. And like the singer Belling, they were stunned. ‘Not only I, who at the time had not yet studied him sufficiently, and Khvostov, who had not seen him for a long period of time, but even Andronikov and Chervinskaya were struck by a certain change in him: there was greater aplomb in him and confidence in himself. From his very first words Rasputin gave us to understand that he was a bit dissatisfied with the fact that our appointments had taken place in his absence, and he emphasized this to the prince, considering him at fault.’

They had not understood his taunts. We have seen Alix’s letters. Rasputin was up to date the whole time with the intrigue to appoint Khvostov and Beletsky. He was simply playing with them now, forcing the proud bureaucrats to humiliate and justify themselves.

And justify themselves they did. Andronikov, according to Beletsky,
‘quite skilfully countered the reproach … by expressing … gratitude for supporting our appointments. He gave Rasputin to understand that … we especially appreciated it, and … that his advice and support at the palace had immediately put us on the right track and saved us from mistakes.’

After that, the prince ‘at once invited us to the table, and began to regale him in earnest, showing special attention and respect for him’. How the shrewd peasant must have laughed at those gentlemen. He had immediately put them in their places.

After which he continued to scoff. During the dinner, they learned to their amazement, as Beletsky would write, that ‘Rasputin, as it turned out, had been aware of our appointments, and had not had anything against us.’ And no sooner had they calmed down, and no sooner ‘had he congratulated us… wishing us success in our duties’, than he suddenly started reproaching Khvostov with the fact ‘that when he had come to see him in Nizhny Novgorod, Khvostov had not even given him anything to eat, whereas at the time he, Rasputin, had had only three roubles in his pocket’.

Thereby giving the proud Khvostov a chance to humble himself, too. And so he did. ‘Khvostov answered that he hadn’t known … and that Rasputin should have said something at once about his material circumstances, and that, of course, that would not happen now … And he added that Rasputin could now rest easy about his security.’ Manasevich-Manuilov, who was present for the affair, added a poignant detail of his own: when the fish soup was served, Khvostov told Rasputin ‘that he would not eat until the latter had given his blessing, and after he had given it, Khvostov kissed his hand’.

It was then Beletsky’s turn to abase himself. ‘Rasputin had already reproached me at that point for the former spying on him, and he informed me that the tsar himself had told him about it.’ And the new director of the Department of Police justified himself and feebly reminded Rasputin that ‘on the other hand, there had been no attempts on his life under me, since I had also kept an eye on Iliodor, who had devised the attempt on his life under General Dzhunkovsky.’ Beletsky believed that he had deftly ‘turned his attention to Dzhunkovsky and distracted Rasputin from talking about me’.

Not at all. Throwing them from the fire into cold water, the peasant had overwhelmed them and he realized that they were ready to serve. And he became apparently quite well disposed towards them. Then he went after Dzhunkovsky. ‘Recalling the insult Dzhunkovsky had done to him with the complaint about his behaviour in Moscow, he angrily ended with the words, “I shall not forgive him for that.”‘ Continuing to frighten the two
bureaucrats with his fury, he ‘railed against Samarin’ and forced them to betray the ‘worthiest person’ in their circle.

‘None of us defended Samarin; quite the contrary,’ Beletsky gloomily recalled. Finally, they made their grand gesture. Andronikov ‘called Rasputin into his study’ and handed him fifteen hundred roubles.

How naive they were, to attempt with a pitiful fifteen hundred roubles to buy someone through whose hands hundreds of thousands were passing at the time! And he took them in again: ‘he visibly showed his satisfaction.’ After which he received tribute from Khvostov and Beletsky, as well. ‘We had decided to do it in secret from the prince … and when we were alone with him, we personally gave him three thousand in an envelope for his favourable disposition towards us. He crumpled up the envelope and stuck it in his pocket and left after giving everyone a kiss.’ He carelessly crumpled three thousand roubles, showing that for him it was small change. In 1917, after he had come to understand everything, Beletsky would sadly write in his deposition, ‘Not knowing the peculiarities of his nature, we tried to buy his confidence with crumbs.’ At the time, however, they came to the happy conclusion that they had bought the peasant off.

The peasant, however, continued to put them through their paces. He knew that Khvostov and Beletsky had not only concealed their acquaintance with him from the Duma; they had also hidden it from their friends and even from their wives. And a torrent of phone calls rained down on their apartments. Rasputin informed them of the petitions of people whom he was protecting and demanded their assistance. And when, in self-defence, they stopped coming to the phone themselves, he would, to their horror, talk about the petitions with their wives. And he would not only talk. Beletsky recalled how Rasputin first sent to his wife some ‘lady with a request to find work for her, and then, two days later, another four sisters of mercy with petitions from the provinces’. And soon afterwards Beletsky’s wife ‘demanded that she be spared both lady petitioners with letters from Rasputin and his telephone conversations’. And Khvostov and Beletsky humbly pleaded with Andronikov to take on himself the task of daily dealings with the bothersome peasant. And ‘in defence of family life and our position’, Andronikov agreed.

The prince was now supposed to ‘pass on …any petitions originating with Rasputin, and receive any petitioners sent by him’. Moreover, ‘it was proposed that we put our own person in Rasputin’s apartment in order to know his interior life in its details and gradually remove any undesirable elements.’ There was a noble purpose: to separate the elder from these elements. And a not so noble one: to attach their own person to the elder.

At first, their ‘own person’ — that is, an informer for Khvostov and Beletsky — was Andronikov’s friend Chervinskaya. ‘After initiating Madame Chervinskaya into our plan and obtaining her consent, Khvostov and I became convinced … that Rasputin really was close to her [and] valued her advice and heeded her opinion … in view of which Vyrubova would be kindly disposed towards her.’

They understood Vyrubova no better than they had understood Rasputin. That highly intelligent woman (whom they regarded as dim-witted) instantly understood everything.

From Vyrubova’s testimony: ‘Chervinskaya came to see me just once. She made a strange and unpleasant impression on me, as if she had come in order to worm something out of me.’ Vyrubova stopped receiving her after that.

Khvostov and Beletsky then explained to Rasputin that their ‘wives were unwell’, so they ‘could receive neither him nor his petitioners at home. But he should send them all to Prince Andronikov and view his home as he would’ their own. They now invited Rasputin to dinners at the prince’s, ‘in order to have an opportunity to influence him without being shy about it’.

Those leaders of the country’s chief ministry and of the secret police who were supposed to know everything still did not know the main thing. The person they were so pitifully trying to buy off and whom they had so dangerously humiliated, was a member of the secret cabinet that, for all intents and purposes, was at the time governing both the country and themselves!

The Ladies’ Cabinet Of Ministers

The File, from the testimony of Mollov, the deputy minister of internal affairs: ‘About two days after the dismissal of Scherbatov and the appointment of Khvostov, Rasputin arrived in Petrograd and, as Colonel Globachyov reported to me, started going to Tsarskoe Selo every day by automobile.’

The peasant had all that time been regularly visiting the tsarina and her Friend. In Tsarskoe Selo, Rasputin returned as it were to his former activities. As before, he was the chief doctor. For example, on 9 October 1915, Alix wrote to her husband, ‘Our Friend is with her [Anya], & we shall probably go there in the evening — he puts her out by saying she will probably never really walk again.’ And on 2 November 1915, she wrote, ‘I
am only rather anxious at Baby’s arm, so asked our Friend to think about it.’

But that was not his main worry now. And it was not what their daily deliberations were concerned about, either. After the fall of the former ministers, a new ‘cabinet of three’ was actively at work in Tsarskoe Selo: the peasant and Anya, with the tsarina, as prime minister, at its head.

That whole year before the revolution Alix burned with incredible energy. On the eve of the revolution that had toppled the French throne, Marie Antoinette had turned into a similar dynamo of energy and had ruled the ministers. A war with Austria was under way at the time, and Marie Antoinette, the daughter of an Austrian empress, was called an ‘Austrian’ and a ‘spy’. And now a war with Germany was under way, and Alix, the daughter of a German duke, was being called a spy and a ‘German’.

That is why she liked it so much that Khvostov, that fighter of German spies, was now working at her side. That is why she dreamed of going to Headquarters with her daughters to see her husband and Baby. She wanted to show herself to the troops and dispel the vile rumours. And Our Friend set about his main task: to demand what she desired.

On 9 October 1915, she wrote to the tsar, ‘our Friend always wanted me also to see troops, since last year till now he speaks of it — that it would also bring them luck…We arrive 15th morning at 9 … What intense joy to meet again, I do miss you both so dreadfully!’

She showed herself to the troops, and then, full of memories of the love of the people, she returned to Tsarskoe Selo to govern. She was careful to see that only ‘our’ ministers appeared in the newly renovated government. And when Nicky nominated Alexander Fyodorovich Trepov, whom she did not want, to be minister of transport, Our Friend, who did not even know Trepov, was at once ‘grieved’. ‘He does not know Trepov,’ she wrote to the tsar on 1 November, ‘many [meaning, she herselfand consequently Anya] are against him as being a very weak and not energetic man. Our Friend is very grieved at his nomination … and he is sad you did not ask his advice. I too regret the nomination…he is not a sympathetic man — I know him rather well.’