Andrew Cook - To Kill Rasputin

Yusupov resolved to go and see both of them. Maklakov was intrigued, but claimed a prior engagement. He did, however, encourage him with the gift of a truncheon.

Purishkevich was keen, although he pointed out at once that Rasputin was well guarded and it would be hard to get close to him. Yusupov explained that that aspect of the affair had already been sorted out. Purishkevich then suggested they also enlist the help of Dr Lazovert – the medical doctor of his military detachment, who would be a useful driver. Now they were five: Dmitri, Yusupov and Sukhotin the original conspirators, and Purishkevich and Lazovert the second rank.

Certain decisions were taken. The problem of gunshot noise and wounds was addressed. Rasputin would be poisoned by cyanide of potassium because ‘poison was the surest means of killing him without leaving any trace of murder’. He would be lured to the basement dining room in Prince Yusupov’s private apartment, which ‘lent itself admirably to the accomplishment of our scheme’. It was at a distance from the rest of the palace, nobody could approach without being heard, the walls were thick and the windows high and small. And there was no way out.

The date of 16 December was chosen, as this was the date by which Princess Irina was expected back from the Crimea. Rasputin had always wanted to meet her. (It was also the day before Yusupov expected to go to the Crimea – he told different stories at different times – and the day before Purishkevich was to receive the entire Duma on his hospital train, but apparently neither would require cocoa and an early night).

Irina’s real position in all this – she rather fades out of it in her husband’s account – was that she didn’t like it one bit, but if it was going to take place she had better be there. (Indeed, as a Romanov, she would be further back-up against police intrusion.) Her letter to Yusupov on 25 November makes her feelings clear:

…Thanks for your insane letter. I didn’t understand half of it. I see that you’re planning to do something wild. Please be careful and don’t stick your nose into all that dirty business. The dirtiest thing is that you have decided to do it all without me. I don’t see how I can take part in it now, since it’s all arranged. Who is ‘M.Gol.’? I just realised what that means and who they are while writing this! In a word, be careful. I see from your letter that you’re in a state of wild enthusiasm and ready to climb a wall… I’ll be in Petrograd on the 12th or 13th, so don’t dare to do anything without me, or else I won’t come at all. Love and kisses. May the Lord protect you. 14

Yusupov would invite Rasputin to the Moika on the promise of meeting Irina. ‘You will serve as the lure’, 15he wrote back to her on 27 November. And Rasputin would cheerfully deceive his minders that night, as he did not want to make things awkward for his new friend Yusupov. He would know that if the Tsarina heard, from the Okhrana, that Yusupov was visiting Rasputin, then Yusupov’s parents would sooner or later find out and be angry.

All went according to plan, but for one thing: Princess Irina, overwhelmed by trepidation or horror at the last moment, stayed in the Crimea. Yusupov kept this from Rasputin. He had agreed to come, and did not suspect anything was amiss. He told Yusupov to collect him from Gorokhovaya Street after midnight, when the minders had been dismissed, and to come in by the back door.

Purishkevich’s account of Yusupov’s approach to him, and of the night of the murder, is presented as a diary. He recounts his triumphant denunciation of ‘Dark Forces’ in the Duma on 19 November and the many congratulations he received then and on the following day. One of them, from Prince Yusupov, whom he did not know, he found particularly intriguing, and when the Prince visited him the next day in uniform (‘evidently he is fulfilling his military obligation as an officer’) Purishkevich

was very much taken with both his external appearance, which radiated inexpressible elegance and breeding, and particularly with his inner self-possession. This is obviously a man of great will and character – rare qualities among Russians, especially those in aristocratic circles. 16

He goes on to describe a meeting between himself, Sukhotin (‘slow-moving but forceful’) and Dmitri (‘a tall, stately and handsome man’). In this company, Purishkevich, with his gleaming bald pate, thick black beard and black-rimmed pebble glasses, must have felt conspicuously out of his element.

According to him, Yusupov said Irina was in the Crimea and had no intention of returning, but Rasputin was being enticed to Yusupov’s palace on the promise of her presence. They must now decide how to kill him, how to avoid suspicion, and how to get rid of the body. They all decided on poisoning: ‘Yusupov’s palace, which stands on the Moika Canal directly across from the police station, ruled out the use of a revolver.’ Getting rid of the body was more difficult. They needed a driver and didn’t want to use the servants. Hence ‘Dr S Lazovert, an old [ sic ] doctor who had served with me for two years in my military unit’ was to be roped in. Purishkevich made the first mention of time constraints. ‘I intended to leave for Iasi on the Romanian front in the middle of December, once I had procured all the necessary supplies for my work in our army zone there.’

On the evening of 24 November, he and Lazovert, Yusupov, Dmitri Pavlovich and Sukhotin met at precisely ten o’clock in the library coach of his hospital train, which was parked in the freight section of the Warsaw Station.

At this point Prince Yusupov showed us some potassium cyanide which he had obtained from V. Maklakov. Some of this was in the form of crystals and some in a solution contained in a small phial which he continued to shake during the whole time he was in the coach.

Our conversation lasted almost two hours and together we worked out the following plan: on the appointed day, or rather night, we would all meet at Yusupov’s at precisely midnight. At 12.30, having completed all the necessary preparations in Yusupov’s dining room in the lower storey of the palace, we would go up to his study. At approximately one o’clock Yusupov would leave in my car to pick up Rasputin at Gorokhovaya. Dr Lazovert would be his chauffeur.

From then on, the plan was neither economical nor elegant. In the hands of men as undisciplined, intemperate and unpunctual as these, it bristled with opportunities for error and misunderstanding.

Lazovert was to drive Purishkevich’s car into the courtyard of number 92 Moika and park close to the side door, so that Yusupov could take Rasputin straight into his wing of the palace and show him directly downstairs to his private dining room.

Lazovert would then take off the chauffeur’s uniform he would be wearing and climb the staircase to Yusupov’s study, where Dmitri Pavlovich, Purishkevich and Sukhotin awaited, ready to rush downstairs if things went wrong.

Within ten or fifteen minutes of arriving, Rasputin would have drunk poisoned Madeira and died. Prince Yusupov would report to the others, who would follow him downstairs and bundle up his clothes. Sukhotin, wearing Rasputin’s overcoat, and Dmitri Pavlovich, with a bundle of other clothes, would then leave in the car. The car would be driven, as before, by Lazovert dressed as a chauffeur. He would take them to the hospital train where Mrs Lazovert and Mrs Purishkevich (who had not so far as we know been consulted on this point) would burn the clothes. Presumably this was intended to delay identification, were the body to be found. However, it never quite makes sense. Rasputin wore a selection of smocks hand-embroidered by the Tsarina, but it later transpires that only his outer clothing was ever meant to be burned.