Andrew Cook - To Kill Rasputin

In the middle of the room stood the table at which Rasputin was to drink his last cup of tea.

My two servants… helped me to arrange the furniture. I asked them to prepare tea for six, to buy biscuits and cakes and to bring wine from the cellar. I told them that I was expecting some friends at eleven that evening, and that they could wait in the servants’ hall until I rang for them. 4

He spent much of the evening praying at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. When he came back, he was delighted by the effect his efforts had produced:

Comfortably furnished and well lighted, this underground room had lost its grim look. On the table the samovar smoked, surrounded by plates filled with the cakes and dainties that Rasputin liked so much. An array of bottles and glasses stood on a sideboard. Ancient lanterns of coloured glass lighted the room from the ceiling; the heavy red damask portières were lowered. On the granite hearth, a log fire crackled and scattered sparks on the flag-stones. One felt isolated from the rest of the world and it seemed as though, no matter what happened, the events of that night would remain forever buried in the silence of those thick walls. 5

It must have been a comforting thought.

A bell rang; Dmitri Pavlovich and the others had arrived. Once they were in the basement dining room, Yusupov took ‘a box containing poison’ from a cupboard and the cakes from the table. Three were iced with chocolate and three with almond icing. Dr Lazovert put on rubber gloves and took out potassium cyanide crystals. He crushed the crystals and ‘sprinkled’them under the chocolate icing.

They would put potassium cyanide crystals into the glasses later, in case the poison evaporated. Dr Lazovert ‘assured us that the dose was many times stronger than would be required to cause death’. They disarranged the room. Lazovert and Yusupov left; the others would go upstairs later. Dr Lazovert changed into chauffeur’s uniform and went to start the car, while Yusupov put on a fur coat and hat.

Arriving at Gorokhovaya Street, Yusupov had a brief exchange with the yard man and went up the back stairs in pitch darkness. Rasputin led him in, through the kitchen. Yusupov felt someone was watching him ‘from the adjoining room’. After that night, Yusupov was the only living witness of what followed:

We went into his bedroom, which was partly lit by a lamp in the corner, in front of the ikons. Rasputin applied a match to a candle. I noticed that the bed was disarranged – he had evidently just been resting. His fur coat and beaver hat were in readiness. On the floor were a pair of snow boots.

He was dressed in a white silk blouse embroidered with corn-flowers and girded with a thick raspberry-coloured cord with large tassels, wide trousers of black velvet, and long boots, brand new. Even his hair and beard were carefully combed and smoothed. As he drew nearer to me I felt a strong smell of cheap soap. He had obviously paid special attention to his toilet that day; I had never before seen him so clean and tidy. 6

Rasputin began to talk about going on to the gypsies. He was worried in case Yusupov’s mother would be there;he knew she disliked him. And then he said

And what d’you think? Protopopov drove round here this evening and made me promise that I’d stay at home during these next few days. ‘They want to kill you,’ he said. ‘Evil-minded people are plotting against you.’

Dismissing this warning, he decided to go with Yusupov anyway. Before he left he opened a chest full of money in bundles wrapped in newspaper. He talked about his daughter’s wedding. He blew out the candle and they left.

After a momentary qualm, Yusupov regained his courage as they headed for the Yusupov Palace.

They drew up at the side entrance and Yusupov took Rasputin through the little door. At once Rasputin heard an American song playing on the gramophone above and asked whether a party was going on. Yusupov told him that Irina was entertaining friends and would join them soon. He took him down to the dining room.

The visitor refused tea and coffee. They sat at the table discussing mutual friends – the Golovinas and Vyrubova. After a while, Yusupov gave him tea and biscuits. Later, the cakes. Rasputin didn’t want any of those; they were too sweet, he said.

Finally, he ate the whole plateful. They had no effect at all.

Yusupov urged him to try some Crimean wine. At first he gave him wine from a clean glass, and only later, after he had switched to Madeira, did he trick him into drinking from a glass that had crystals in the bottom.

…he drank slowly, taking small sips at a time, just as if he had been a connoisseur.

His face did not change;but from time to time he put his hand to his throat as if he found slight difficulty in swallowing.

Three glasses of Madeira later, Rasputin was still waiting for Irina’s party to finish and they sat facing each other in silence. Yusupov thought his victim just might have caught on.

A mute and deadly conflict seemed to be taking place between us. I was aghast. Another moment and I should have gone under. I felt that confronted by those satanic eyes, I was beginning to lose my self-control. A strange feeling of numbness took possession of me. My head reeled… I saw nothing… I do not know how long this lasted…

Yusupov pulled himself together and offered Rasputin a cup of tea;Rasputin accepted, saying he was thirsty. Then he asked Yusupov to play his guitar and sing, which he did… and another song, and another. Soon ‘The hands of the clock pointed to half past two’. And there was a lot of noise from upstairs. Yusupov went up to investigate.

Meanwhile, the others had been eavesdropping (we revert to Purishkevich’s point of view). No sooner had Lazovert the ‘chauffeur’ crept upstairs to remove his uniform than the whole party, under cover of the gramophone music, crept out and down towards the dog-leg landing and listened for noises from the basement dining room. As Purishkevich described it,

We stood bunched together: I was first on the staircase, the brass knuckles in my hand; behind me was the Grand Duke; behind him Lt Sukhotin; and last was Dr Lazovert.

They stood on the stairs for about half an hour, putting the needle back and furiously rewinding ‘Yankee Doodle’ so that it boomed faster through the great brass horn whenever it threatened to slow down. From below, they heard nothing but a quiet murmur of conversation. Then they heard the door below opening, and scampered back to the study like mice.

Yusupov came in and told them that Rasputin would not eat or drink. What should he do? Dmitri Pavlovich told him to go back downstairs at once, in case Rasputin came up after him, saw the assembled company, and got suspicious – ‘and then we would either have to let him go in peace or finish him off noisily – this could be fraught with consequences’. Felix returned to the basement. The others returned to their previous positions on the stairs. Half an hour later they heard a cork popping and the tinkle of glasses. (Through the solid walls, the curtains and the door with its thick portière , that is.) Then silence. Dmitri thought they would not have long to wait. They returned to the study.

Fifteen minutes passed and Yusupov came upstairs, pale-faced. Rasputin had eaten all the cakes and drunk two glasses of poisoned wine and ‘nothing has happened, absolutely nothing’ – Rasputin was belching and dribbling, but that was about it. And he was worried about why Irina didn’t come. Yusupov had told him she would be down in ten minutes.

Again they told him to go downstairs and wait five more minutes for the poison to take effect. When he had gone, Purishkevich noticed that Lazovert, who had proved brave and imperturbable when in the battle zone and under fire, was having a crise de nerfs . He was ‘beet-red from apoplexy’, and went missing. After an unspecified time, he returned, ‘pale and haggard’, and said he had felt ill, had gone down to the car, and had fallen face forward into the snow. The cold had revived him.