Three times he was within an inch of being murdered. Once, an outraged peasant girl from his native Siberia stabbed him – the wound did not prove fatal. Next the monk Heliodor seemed to have him at his mercy in the Petrograd cell of the Metropolitan of Kiev – Rasputin’s great strength and the arrival of help saved his life. Again, only ten months ago in a reserved room of one of the best Petrograd restaurants, the Bear, certain officers of the Chevalier Gardes would have killed him, if his familiars of the secret police had not appeared in time. The papers said nothing of these things. Indeed, to mention his name brought a fine of three thousand roubles. Day and night, the secret police were near him. Because he withdrew them, Khvostov, the Minister of the Interior, was dismissed. Only from time to time the mujik’s uncontrollable appetite for debauch left him defenceless before his enemies. There is in Moscow a former officer of the Guards, now relegated to the Gendarmes, who boasts that the achievement of his career was the beating he gave Rasputin during some wild orgy. There are others who have seen him madly drunk in the streets and public places. Of one of these incidents there is a photograph, and a photograph that is said to have been shown to the Emperor. True to his nickname, it was at an orgy that Rasputin met his death.
On December 29th, the Duma session was abruptly closed twenty-four hours before the appointed time. On November 14th the debates had begun with Milyukov’s fierce attack upon the ‘Dark Forces’that had become the synonym for Rasputin’s activities, an attack in which for the first time a Member dared to mention Rasputin by name. They ended with another onslaught, less personal, less sensational, but hardly less effective. ‘The atmosphere is charged with electricity,’ so ran Milyukov’s peroration, ‘no one knows where or when the blow will fall (applause).’The following morning the blow, the effects of which cannot be gauged, had already fallen.
On Saturday afternoon I was at the Restriction of the Enemy Supplies Committee. Several times during the sitting individual members left the room and returned with whispered messages to their neighbours. At the time I paid no attention to these interruptions of business. When the Committee broke up, I went with the chairman and the secretary to another room for the purpose of discussing various points connected with the publication of the Russian Black List. Before we could go far with our discussion, a well-known official of the Ministry of Commerce entered with the news that Rasputin had been murdered that morning by the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Yusupov. Professor Struve, Chairman of the Committee, at once sent out for an evening paper. In a few minutes the Bourse Gazette was brought in with the news actually published in it. The Bourse Gazette is always a paper of headlines. In this case, the first heavy type was devoted to the peace proposals, the second to the fight in Romania. Then came a headline, ‘Death of Gregory Rasputin in Petrograd.’ In the body of the paper there was little more than a single line, and that on the second page. The announcement ran as follows: ‘A six o’clock this morning Gregory Rasputin Novikh died after a party in one of the most aristocratic houses in the centre of Petrograd.’
To one who had only been in Russia a few months the news was almost overwhelming. To Russian public men like Professor Struve, a publicist whose name has for a generation been in the forefront of Russian political and economic life, it seemed almost incredible. As I had no wish to appear to meddle in Russian internal affairs, I did not attempt to discuss the situation nor, needless to say, could I continue our prosaic conversation about the Black List.
Since Saturday, I have made it my business to discover as many details as I can about the murder, and I have been in touch with various people representing different classes and sections of opinion.
The result of my inquiries is as follows: Rasputin has not been seen since the evening of Friday, the 29th December, when he left his flat in company with an officer in a motor car. Prince Yusupov had a party on the same evening that was attended by one or two of the Grand Dukes. On the evening following Rasputin’s disappearance, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich had another party in his rooms in the Palace of the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna, the upper floors of which are used by the Anglo-Russian Hospital. The party seems to have been of a most riotous description and did not break up until 7.30 on Sunday morning.
The details of the story vary. Some people say that Rasputin was got into a room and told to kill himself. I have heard it said that he did kill himself. I have also heard it stated that he fired the revolver that was given him at 2 o’clock in the morning in self-defence. The generally accepted story, however, is that he was shot. A motor is supposed to have taken the body to the Islands, where it was thrown into the sea or one of the rivers. This story is generally supported in Petrograd.
There seems also general agreement that he was killed either by the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich or by Prince Yusupov. Many people say that lots were drawn as to who should kill him and that the lot fell upon the Grand Duke Dmitri, but that Prince Yusupov undertook the duty.
The Grand Duke Dmitri was brought up by the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna in the palace in which he is now living on the Nevsky Prospekt. He has had a gay career, and not long ago was in disgrace for some escapade.
Prince Yusupov, who is also Count Sumarokov-Elston, is the Count Elston who had so great a success in London society a year or two before the war. It will be remembered that during one season he was regarded as the greatest catch in London. This view of his eligibility was certainly correct, as he is one of the richest men in Russia. He has since married the Grand Duchess Irene, who a fortnight ago signed the protest of Princess Vassilshchikova to the Empress against the ‘Dark Forces.’
Whether it was the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich or Prince Yusupov who actually did the deed, it seems certain that it was planned and carried out by some of the best known people in Petrograd society. I am informed that the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Yusupov were together all the afternoon of December 31st, and that, when asked, they make no secret of the fact that Rasputin has been killed. Perhaps the fact that Rasputin had recently been meddling more than usually in the domestic affairs of the Imperial family hastened the event.
There have often been rumours of Rasputin’s death. As recently as March, the Times, for instance, published a telegram from Bucharest announcing his murder. It will, therefore, be suggested that this is another rumour, and that after a few weeks of retirement he will reappear.
What then is the evidence that differentiates this case from the groundless rumours of the past?
It should be stated at once that the story is officially denied. The denial, however, is half-hearted, and given with conflicting details. The official answer was at first that nothing had happened. It now seems to have been modified to the extent of admitting that something has happened, that Rasputin has been wounded, but that he is going on well.
I am informed that an inquiry at his flat in the English Prospekt brought the answer that on Friday evening, the 29th December, he left in a motor with an unknown officer and has not since been seen. In the meanwhile, interested people seem to be purposely spreading fantastic and impossible rumours with the object of discrediting the whole story. The fact that no one has seen Rasputin’s body goes to support all these official denials and contradictions.