Andrew Cook - To Kill Rasputin

Late in 1915 he entered the Corps des Pages, the Junior Guards, for a year’s training. This was not so much because, despite his antimilitarism, he was unable any longer to resist expectation that he do the right thing; by his own admission it was because he had no social life, since everyone he knew was in uniform.

By the autumn of 1916 he was preparing for his final examinations. His military training was not arduous, and he got plenty of leave – as did Dmitri Pavlovich, stationed at the Stavka with the Tsar. Irina and the baby remained in the warmer climate of the Crimea while Yusupov spent every spare moment supervising the preparation of their new private suite of apartments at the Yusupov Palace. A few rooms within it were to be set aside for him personally, as a kind of bachelor pied-à-terre for use whenever the rest of the family was out of town.

Four thousand miles away in New York City, Rasputin’s former intimate, Bishop Iliodor, had resurfaced to find himself at the centre of a storm that would have far-reaching repercussions. The chain of events began within a day or two of his arrival on 18 June, when he met with H.J. Wigham, the president of Metropolitan magazine, at his Manhattan office. As a result, a deal was agreed whereby Iliodor would be interviewed by a Russian-speaking journalist named Tobenkin (Iliodor himself spoke no English), who worked for Metropolitan magazine. The interview would centre on a number of new revelations principally concerning Rasputin, the Tsarina and moves to conclude a peace treaty between Russia and Germany. The source of the story, according to Iliodor, was letters, documents and information that he had brought with him from Russia. The contents of the interview would then be used for a series of five articles appearing under Iliodor’s name. It was agreed that he would receive a full and final payment of $5,000 by 1 August 1916.

The interview duly took place in early September and resulted in an initial article entitled ‘Rasputin: The Holy Devil of Russia’. Trailed in the September edition as being scheduled to appear in November, it was billed as ‘The Biggest Magazine Story of the Year!’ Several days afterwards, Iliodor received two unexpected visitors at his home in the Bronx – Archbishop Evdokin and one Mikhail Ustinov, the Russian Consul-General. They told him that they had read in the Metropolitan magazine that he was to write a number of articles about Rasputin and the Tsarina. They urged him not to go ahead with the publication deal and offered him $25,000 if he withdrew them and further agreed not to publish them elsewhere either. Should he not agree, he was told in no uncertain terms that the Russian Consulate would use its influence to prevent publication.

Back in Petrograd, there was a flurry of activity behind the scenes, as the Tsarina began urging her husband, at Rasputin’s behest, to appoint Protopopov to the all-powerful post of Minister for the Interior. On 7 September she wrote:

My own sweetheart… Grigori begs you earnestly to name Protopopov [as Interior Minister]. I believe in Our Friend’s wisdom and guidance… His love for you and Russia is so intense and God has sent Him to be to yr. help and guide and prays so hard for you.

From his reply two days later, it is clear that even the Tsar was somewhat doubtful about the wisdom of appointing such an erratic and questionable character as Protopopov, saying that he ‘must think about that question… one should be careful, especially where high positions are concerned’. 12

Whatever his doubts, Nicholas does not seem to have held out long, for on 18 September, to the absolute astonishment of virtually everyone, Protopopov’s appointment as Interior Minister was announced. David Lloyd George made clear to Prime Minister Asquith, in a ‘confidential’ memo, that:

Germanophile influences have been considerably strengthened by recent changes. Our friends have disappeared one by one and there is no man now of any influence in the Russian Bureaucracy who can be said to be favourable towards this country. 13

In Petrograd, the Tsarina and Rasputin congratulated themselves over Protopopov’s appointment. On the same day as the announcement was made, Alexandra sent the first in a series of telegrams to the Tsar, begging him to halt the latest offensive, which he initially appears to have done. However, acting completely in character, he quickly changed his mind, having come under pressure from military aides at the Stavka. With equal predictability, Alexandra rushed off another missive on 24 September, telling her errant husband that, ‘Our Friend is much put out… says that you were inspired from above to give that order and God would bless it – Now he says again useless losses’. Nicholas countered that changed circumstances had prompted him to reverse the order, to which Alexandra obliviously retorted, ‘Oh, give your order again to Brussilov – stop this useless slaughter… Our generals don’t count the lives – they are hardened to losses and that is a sin… spare those lives’. 14

On the other side of the Atlantic, the proprietors of Metropolitan magazine formally announced the cancellation of Iliodor’s articles on 3 October. This was obviously a decision the publishers did not take lightly, as the November edition had already gone to press. The printers had to be instructed to physically remove the article. From a practical point of view, there was nothing that could be done about the front cover, which featured a colour illustration of a sinister Rasputin looming over a helpless Tsarina. Readers were left to puzzle about the contents of the article, which had obviously hit a raw nerve so far as the Russian authorities were concerned.

The veil was finally lifted when officers of the magazine were summoned to appear before the New York Supreme Court on 2 November as defendants in an action brought by an enraged Iliodor. He told the court that he had formerly ‘been a confidential friend and advisor of Rasputin’ and that his account of Rasputin’s influence over the Tsarina had been suppressed by the Russian government. He alleged that Rasputin

is strongly pro-German and has such influence over the Tsarina as to obtain her influence against the Allies… he is now engaged in a conspiracy to bring about a separate peace, with the Russian Government to apply for a loan of three million roubles from the English government, with the threat that in case the money is not forthcoming a separate peace will be signed this winter. 15

Before the case could reach the point of judgement, the magazine settled out of court. Whether Iliodor’s motives were guided by his fear and hatred of Rasputin or the sizeable sum of money being offered for his story is very much open to conjecture. The essential threads of his story were certainly taken seriously by the SIS station in New York, headed by Sir William Wiseman. We know too that one of Wiseman’s officers, Captain Norman Thwaites, made several reports to C in London, and to the British Intelligence Mission in Petrograd, concerning Iliodor’s claims. There is also good reason to believe that these reports were not simply second-hand reworkings of information Thwaites had gained from his network of sources. After the case had been settled, Iliodor told the New York Times that:

Prior to the suppression of my articles I was called upon by an agent of the British Government and to him I told some of the facts in my possession concerning Rasputin. 16

More compelling evidence still comes from the papers of Station Chief Sir William Wiseman, which indicate that not only had New York SIS had direct contact with Iliodor, but they later actively considered sending him back to Russia on a propaganda mission. 17

Matters had now, undoubtedly, come to a critical head so far as Britain was concerned. To Lloyd George, the prospect of a peace deal between Russia and Germany, and the horrendous consequences it would bring for Britain and France on the Western Front, was looming large with each passing day.