To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin

CHAPTER ONE: MANHUNT

1 The Ochrana, A. T. Vassilyev (Harrup, 1930), p.47.

2 The statement of Fyodor Antonov Korshynov, yardkeeper, to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps, 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

3 Statement of Maria Grigorievna Rasputina to General Popov of the Detached Gendarme Corps, 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

4 Statement of Anna Nikolaevna Rasputina to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps, 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

5 Statement of Ivan Manasevich Manuilov to investigator G. P. Girchich of the Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 191-4, GARF, Moscow.

6 Statement of Akim Ivanovich Zhuk to investigator I.V. Brykin of the Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 31-6, GARF, Moscow.

7 Telegram to Tsar Nicholas II from Okhrana, 17 December 1916, Fond 111, Schedule 1, Case 2981a, Page 1, GARF, Moscow.

8 Dmitri Pavlovich was the only son of the Tsar’s great-uncle Grand Duke Paul, who, after the death of Dmitri’s mother, had made a morganatic marriage and gone into exile, leaving Dmitri and his sister to be brought up by Grand Duchess Elizaveta and Grand Duke Sergei.

9 Statement of Yulia Dehn to investigator F. P. Simpson of the Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 364-7, GARF, Moscow.

10 To General Voikov, Palace Superintendent, December 1916, from Head of Interior Ministry, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

11 The bridge is just as long nowadays but is no longer wide. It was two carriage-widths before and is now essentially a footbridge.

12 Statement number 1740 of Police Inspector Asonov, Station no.4, 17 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

13 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.235.

14 Yusupov, ibid.

15 Statement of Ivan Nefedev to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps, 17 December 1916 and statement of Mounya Golovina to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps, 17 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

16 The Murder of Rasputin, V.M. Purishkevich, translated from the original Russian by Bella Costello, ed. Michael Shaw (Ardis Publishers, Ann Arbor, 1985), p.4.

17 Purishkevich, ibid., editor’s introduction.

18 Purishkevich, ibid.

19 The full text is quoted in The Ochrana, A.T. Vassilyev (Harrap, 1930). Vassilyev was the last Director of the Department of Police.

20 Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare was an officer of the SIS, which was founded in 1909, and at this time (1916) operated under the name MI1c. It had stations throughout Europe and around the world. The Petrograd MI1c Station, run by Hoare, is referred to here and throughout this book as the British Intelligence Mission. SIS operates today under the name MI6.

21 Report ‘The Death of Rasputin’, from Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 1 January 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1, (16), CUL.

22 The news was in the 6.00p.m. edition.

23 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford) (Heinemann, 1919), p.21.

24 Report on Vera Koralli by Major-General Globachev, Fond 111, Schedule 1, Case 2981 (b), List 12, GARF, Moscow.

25 Samuel Hoare claims that Makarov ‘in the early morning… was rung up by an unknown voice that said ‘Rasputin has been murdered. Look for his body in the Islands.’ The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p.151.

26 Diary of the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, 17 December 1916, Fond 670, GARF, Moscow.

27 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.186.

28 The existence of this mysterious woman may be fiction. Yusupov included the story in Lost Splendour along with a similar one about threats to Pavlovich which is not independently verified. Golovina is supposed to have heard a group of people at Rasputin’s flat swearing revenge.

29 Yusupov, 1953, ibid., p.239; a similar account of the evening is in Yusupov, 1927, ibid., p.203.

30 Dissolution of an Empire, Meriel Buchanan (John Murray, 1932), p.49.

31 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare, (Heinemann, 1930), p.139. Hoare has a story about Yusupov being at the party with Dmitri Pavlovich and being carried shoulder high, but it is not a first-hand account and Hoare isunreliable.

32 Sir Samuel Hoare, 1930, ibid.

CHAPTER TWO: FINGER OF SUSPICION

1 Statement of Prince Felix Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston, to General Popov of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

2 Rasputin i evrei, Aaron Simanovich (National Reklama, 1923), p.45.

3 Quoted in Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.476.

4 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.241.

5 Statement of Anna Nikolaevna Rasputina, to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

6 Ibid.

7 Statement of Maria Vasilyevna Zhyravleva, to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

8 Statement of Fyodor Antonov Korshynov, to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

9 Statement of Flor Efimov Efimov, to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

10 Statement of Stepan Fedoseev Vlasuk to Lt-Col. Popel of the Detached Gendarme Corps dated 18 December 1916, Fond 102, Schedule 314, Case 35, GARF, Moscow.

11 The Forgotten Hospital, Michael Harmer (Springwood Books, 1982), p.117.

12 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.212.

13 Department of Police Report, 17 December 1916, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (47), CUL. Also reproduced in Appendix III of The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919).

14 Ibid.

15 Appendix II ‘Memorandum privately circulated on December 31, 1916’ in Stopford, 1919, ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Telegram from Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 31 December 1916, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (47), CUL.

18 Ibid.

19 Report on Vera Koralli by Major-General Globachev, Fond 111, Schedule 1, Case 2891 (b), List 12, GARF, Moscow.

20 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), p.44.

21 Ibid.

22 Report ‘The Death of Rasputin’, from Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 1 January 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (16), CUL.

CHAPTER THREE: BODY OF EVIDENCE

1 A Collection of Historical Materials, Grigori Rasputin, Vol. 4 (Moscow, 1997), p.236/7.

2 Ibid.

3 The Times, Thursday 4 January 1917, p.7 col. f. (‘From our own correspondent,’ Petrograd 3 January 1917.) It is obvious from his earliest bulletin, which didn’t reach London, that he had seen the Police Report that Stopford and Buchanan saw at the embassy on the Sunday afternoon, as had other journalists.

4 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.193ff.

5 Ibid., p.191.

6 Thirteen years at the Russian Court, Pierre Gilliard (Hutchinson, 1921), p.47.

7 Telegram from Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 1 January 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (48), CUL.

8 Report No.2, Death of Rasputin, Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 2 January 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (50), CUL.

9 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p.156.

10 Report No.3. Further details obtained from the Examining Magistrates and other reliable sources, Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 5 February 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (20), CUL.

11 Tsaritsa i Rasputin, I. Kovyl-Boybyl (Petrograd, 1917), interview between Kossorotov and Kovyl-Boybyl, a Petrograd journalist.

12 See note 10 above.

13 Report of the Autopsy on the body of Grigori Rasputin by Professor Kossorotov, 20 December 1916 (Museum of Political History, St Petersburg). Also reproduced in Raspoutine est innocent, Alain Roullier (France Europe Editions Livres, 1998), p.514ff.

14 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p.156ff.

15 The Times, 3 January 1917, p.8, col.d.

16 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p.67ff.

17 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), p.83.

18 Like her mother, a woman of many accomplishments. ‘Among her close friends were the Churchills, Maurice Baring, Arthur Rubinstein, J.M. Barrie, Rose Macaulay, Greta Garbo, Noël Coward, Jean Cocteau, Vita and Eddy Sackville-West and Hilaire Belloc (who was so fond of her that he wrote silly poems lauding her virtues).’ The Maugham-Duff Letters, Loren R. Rothschild, the letters of W. Somerset Maugham to Lady Juliet Duff (Rasselas Press, 1982).

19 See note 17 above.

20 My Mission to Russia, Vol. II, Rt Hon. Sir George Buchanan (Cassell & Co, 1923), p.43.

21 Ibid.

22 Rt Hon. Sir George Buchanan, ibid., p.50ff. Also, The Buchanan Collection, GB 0159 Bu, University of Nottingham Library.

CHAPTER FOUR: THE SPIES WHO CAME INTO THE COLD

1 Memoirs of a British Agent, R. H. Bruce Lockhart (Putnam, 1932), p.308ff.

2 Ibid.

3 He was a Foundation Scholar and Staffordshire County Scholar.

4 Letter from Oswald Rayner in Finland to parents, 19 February 1907 (Papers of Joyce Frankel, sister of Oswald Rayner).

5 Ibid., 19 February 1907.

6 Ibid., 18 April 1907.

7 Entry 186, Register of Births, Registration District of Paddington in the County of London, John Felix Hamilton Rayner, born 1 February 1924.

8 Letter to O. T. Rayner from C. F. Mobley-Bell (editor of the Times), 19 September 1910, Letter Book 55, No.814, Times Newspapers Ltd Archives, London; Letter to O. T. Rayner from C. F. Mobley-Bell, 22 September 1910, Letter Book 55, No.837, Times Newspapers Ltd Archives, London.

9 Memorandum on Censorship by Lt-Col. H. Vere Benet, 25 February 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (29), CUL.

10 College Register, Evening Classes No.3, 1877–1895, Archive of King’s College, London.

11 www.steamindex.com has the origins of the firm.

12 Matriculation Record of Stephen Alley, Ref R8/5/15/1, academic year 1894/5, Glasgow University Archive.

13 Memorandum – Biographical Details of Stephen Alley (The Alley Papers).

14 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p3ff.

15 Sir Samuel Hoare, ibid., p.29.

16 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.11ff.

17 The Mystery of Lord Kitchener’s Death, Donald MacCormick (Putman, 1959), p.91ff.

18 Source Records of the Great War, Vols I-VII, Charles F. Horne (editor), (National Alumni, 1923).

19 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), p.45.

20 Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), ibid., 28 August 1915, p.56.

21 Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), ibid., Letter to Lady Ripon, 5 September 1915.

22 Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), ibid., Letter to Lady Sarah Wilson at the Allied Forces Hospital, Boulogne, 22 August 1915.

23 My Mission to Russia, Vol. I, Rt Hon. Sir George Buchanan, p.250.

24 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.186.

25 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), Letter to Lady Juliet Duff, 17 October 1915.

26 My Mission to Russia, Vol. I, Rt Hon. Sir George Buchanan, p.250.

27 Petrograd, the City of Trouble, Meriel Buchanan (Collins, 1919), p.78.

28 Telegram from the Tsarina to the Tsar, 3 November 1915, Fond 640, GARF, Moscow.

CHAPTER FIVE: DARK FORCES

1 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.74ff.

2 Petrograd, the City of Trouble, Meriel Buchanan (Collins, 1919), p.67.

3 The Story of ST25, Sir Paul Dukes (Cassell & Co, 1938), p.16ff.

4 Rasputin: The Man Behind the Myth, Maria Rasputin & Patte Barham, p.10ff.

5 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.25ff.

6 Marriage of Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and Anna Vasilievna, 21 January 1862, Register of the Church of the Mother of God, Pokrovskoe, Fond 205, GATO.

7 Birth Registers, Church of the Mother of God, Pokrovskoe, Fond 205, GATO.

8 Ibid.

9 Pokrovskoe Censuses, Fond 177, State Archive of the Province of Tyumen GATO.

10 See note 4 above.

11 File of the Tobolsk Ecclesiastical Consistory – Charge made against Grigori Rasputin concerning the spreading of false teachings similar to those of the Khlysti, Fond 156, Tobolsk Branch of the State Archive of the Province of Tyumen (TFGATO).

12 Investigation of the assassination attempt on Grigori Rasputin in 1914, Fond 164, Tobolsk Branch of the State Archive of the Province of Tyumen (TFGATO).

13 Fond 164, GARF, Moscow.

14 Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1461, Schedule 1, Case 567, GARF, Moscow.

15 See note 9 above.

16 Rasputin i evrei, Aaron Simanovich (National Reklama, 1923), p.20.

17 Ibid.

18 See note 4 above.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, GARF, Moscow.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 See note 4 above.

26 Ibid.

27 Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, Pierre Gilliard (Hutchinson, 1921), p.79.

28 Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, GARF, Moscow.

29 Ibid.

30 The Life and Times of Grigori Rasputin, Alex De Jonge (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), p.51ff.

31 Ibid.

32 Dissolution of an Empire, Meriel Buchanan (John Murray, 1932), p.87.

33 Ibid.

34 Statement of Olga Lokhtina to investigator T.D. Rudnev, Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 100-4, 109-12, GARF, Moscow.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Diary of Tsar Nicholas II, 16 October 1906, Fond 601, GARF, Moscow.

38 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.91.

39 Statement of Grigori Sazonov to investigator F. P. Simpson, Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 298-300, GARF, Moscow.

40 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.134.

41 Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, Pierre Gilliard (Hutchinson, 1921), p.65.

42 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.206.

43 Statement of Alexei Khvostov to investigator F. P. Simpson, Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folio 302-10, GARF, Moscow.

44 The Life and Times of Grigori Rasputin, Alex De Jonge (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), p.204.

45 Ibid., p.205.

46 Ibid.

47 Articles and Correspondence on Russia & Romania, J.D. Scale DSO, OBE (Scale Papers).

48 The Life and Times of Grigori Rasputin, Alex De Jonge (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), p.226.

49 Memoirs of a British Agent, R. H. Bruce Lockhart (Putnam, 1932), p.60.

50 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.154.

51 Memoirs of a British Agent, R. H. Bruce Lockhart (Putnam, 1932), p.129.

52 Statement of Alexei Filippov to investigator F. P. Simpson, Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 327-42, GARF, Moscow.

53 The Life and Times of Grigori Rasputin, Alex De Jonge (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), p.237.

54 Memoirs of a British Agent, R. H. Bruce Lockhart (Putnam, 1932), p.128ff.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

CHAPTER SIX: ON THE BRINK

1 Source Records of the Great War, Vol. IV, p.185ff.

2 The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), Monday 5 June 1916, Tuesday 6 June 1916.

3 The War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, Vol. I, David Lloyd George (Odhams, 1938), p.418ff.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid., Letter marked ‘Secret’, From H. H. Asquith to David Lloyd George.

6 Telegram from the Tsarina to the Tsar, 17 April 1915, Fond 640, GARF, Moscow. Edvard Radzinski also draws attention to documents burnt by the Tsarina in February 1917 that were believed to be compromising in terms of contact with Germany; Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.405ff.

7 Edvard Radzinski, ibid., p.408.

8 Ibid., p.409.

9 This section draws on The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family, Ron Chernow (Random House Inc., New York, 1993), and Jacob Schiff: a study in American Jewish Leadership, Naomi W. Cohen (Brandeis University Press, 1999). The British (S.G. Warburg) bank did not start up until 1935.

10 Money from the American Warburgs saved the Hamburg bank from collapse post-war. See Chernow, ibid.

11 Chernow, ibid. The ‘financial talks in London’ must have been the trip accompanied by Scale.

12 Kuhn, Loeb collaborated with Cassel, Rockefeller & J. P. Morgan. See Cohen, 1999, ibid.

13 Cohen, ibid.

14 www.britannica.com; Jack P. Morgan.

15 The diary of Alexei Raivid, Soviet Consul in Berlin, 1927, 6 July 1927: conversation with Baron Hochen Esten, Fond 612, Schedule 1, Case 27, pp.4-6, GARF, Moscow.

CHAPTER SEVEN: WAR GAMES

1 Entry 358, Register of Births in the Registration District of Merthyr Tydfil in the County of Glamorgan, John Dymoke Scale, 27 December 1882.

2 The Ordeal of a Diplomat, K.D. Nabokov (Duckworth, 1921). As chargé d’affaires in London between 1917 and the end of the war, he was the senior Russian representative in London – the Ambassador having been sent home and no replacement supplied. Some of his papers on India were later published by Trotsky in pamphlet form.

3 Nabokov, ibid.

4 Articles & Correspondence on Russia and Roumania 1915–1917, J.D. Scale DSO, OBE (The Scale Papers).

5 Typed letter from Capt. J.D. Scale (Petrograd) to London headed ‘Dear Cox’, 7 November 1916, initialled (The Scale Papers).

6 Muriel Harding-Newman, Scale’s eldest daughter, referred to his friendship with Felix Yusupov in her interview with the author. She recalls that he was often a guest at the Yusupov Palace (interview 28 May 2003, Easter Ross, Scotland). According to Betty Aikenhead, his younger daughter, Scale last saw Yusupov in 1948, a year before he died (interview 9 February 2004, Toronto, Canada).

7 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.29ff.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.47.

11 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.95.

12 Telegram from the Tsarina to the Tsar, 7 September 1916, Fond 640, GARF, Moscow.

13 Letter from David Lloyd George to H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister, ‘Confidential’, 26 September 1916, The Lloyd George Papers, LG/E/223/5, House of Lords Record Office.

14 Telegrams from the Tsarina to the Tsar, 18 and 24 September 1916, Fond 640, GARF, Moscow.

15 Sworn Statement of Sergei Trufanov, Sergei Trufanov v. The Metropolitan Magazine Company, Supreme Court, New York County, sworn 17 October 1916 (reproduced in full in Appendix 1).

16 New York Times, 27 December 1916, p.4.

17 William Wiseman Papers, Group 666, f.260, Russia, [1917] 1, Sterling Library, Yale University.

18 War Memoirs of David Lloyd George,Vol. I, David Lloyd George, p.464.

19 From Switzerland, notes from a reliable source, ‘Secret’, 3 October 1916, The Lloyd George Papers, LG/E/3/27/2, House of Lords Record Office. Theodor Bethmann-Holweg was the German Premier.

20 Statement of Anna Vyrubova to investigator F. P. Simpson of the Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 347-63, GARF, Moscow.

CHAPTER EIGHT: CARDS ON THE TABLE

1 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.185.

2 Author’s interview with Betty Aikenhead, 9 February 2004, Toronto, Canada.

3 Author’s interview with Muriel Harding-Newman, 28 May 2003, Easter Ross, Scotland.

4 Rasputin, the Saint who sinned, Brian Moynahan (Random House, 1997), p.320; Statement of Ioann Aronovich Simanovich (son of Rasputin’s secretary Aron Simanovich) to investigator V.M. Rudnev of the Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, Folios 182-3, GARF, Moscow.

5 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.60ff.

6 Ibid.

7 In Rasputin,Yusupov does not name this person but simply says he is too old to take action; in Lost Splendour he identifies Rodzyanko.

8 See note 5 above.

9 Stopford’s diary (which, unlike Yusupov’s account, was written within days or hours of the events) has Dmitri Pavlovich in Petrograd quite specifically on 6/19 and 7/20 December, on which latter day Pavlovich and Stopford had lunch together privately in the Sergei Palace, and Stopford had supper there at midnight. If both accounts are correct, Pavlovich (presumably briefly in town to celebrate the Tsar’s name-day on 6/19 December) was to spend only about thirty-six hours back at the Stavka.

10 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.199.

11 This is one of many contradictory aspects of Yusupov’s story. Yusupov had twice visited the Golovinas when Rasputin was there, and their house was right next door to that of his in-laws. Admittedly these were both large mansions, but it would seem he was taking rather a risk that his own parents would soon know all about it. According to Yusupov, when Rasputin suggested mentioning Felix’s name to Vyrubova they both agreed that this wouldn’t be a good idea at all as it would get back to his family. Yusupov says that he knew Vyrubova would be suspicious.

12 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.112.

13 Yusupov, ibid., p.115.

14 Letter from Princess Irina Yusupova to Prince Felix Yusupov, 25 November 1916, Fond 1290, Russian State Archive of Early Acts, (RGADA), Moscow.

15 Letter from Prince Felix Yusupov to Princess Irina Yusupova, 27 November 1916, Fond 411, State Historical Museum (GIM), Moscow.

16 The Murder of Rasputin, V.M. Purishkevich, translated from the original Russian by Bella Costello, ed. Michael Shaw (Ardis Publishers, Ann Arbor, 1985), annex: correspondence between Maklakov and Paris publisher of 1923.

17 A pood weighs about 36lbs, i. e., well over 16 kilos.

18 See note 16 above.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

CHAPTER NINE: A ROOM IN THE BASEMENT

1 Police Department Report, 17 December 1917, CUL.

2 The author of the memorandum is unknown, although Stopford is the most likely. His book, published in 1919, did not appear under his own name, and if he was the author of the memorandum, he would not want his name to link the two publications.

3 ‘The True and Authentic Story of the Murder of Grigori Rasputin, As Recounted to Me on 6th June 1917, At Yalta by the Perpetrator’, The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), p.83.

4 Report of the Autopsy of Grigori Rasputin, Professor Kossorotov, 20 December 1916, Museum of Political History, St Petersburg.

5 Rasputin, The Man Behind the Myth, Maria Rasputina & Patte Barham, p.231ff. According to Barham, a servant of Yusupov’s was one of the sources for what happened in the basement dining room. In an interview with the author on 21 February 2005, Maria Rasputina’s granddaughter, Laurence Huot-Soloviev, expressed the view that Barham had somewhat embellished her grandmother’s account.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., and My Father, Maria Rasputina (Cassell & Co, 1934), p.111.

8 Ibid.

9 See note 4 above.

10 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.477.

11 Ibid., p.482.

12 Ibid., p.480.

13 See note 4 above.

14 Ibid.

15 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.482.

16 Professor Derrick Pounder, Senior Home Office Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee, was commissioned by the author in February 2005 to carry out a review of the ballistics evidence and concluded the forehead wound was caused by an unjacketed bullet. The Browning pistol fires only jacketed bullets.

17 A revised edition, Rasputin: The History of the Crime, was published by Yauza, Moscow, in 2004.

18 Ibid., chapter 18.

19 A Watchman Makes His Rounds, Sir Samuel Hoare (unpublished 1959 memoir of Hoare’s time in Russia), p.72, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (34), CUL.

20 The Fourth Seal, Sir Samuel Hoare (Heinemann, 1930), p.156.

CHAPTER TEN: ONCE UPON A TIME

1 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.62.

2 Ibid., p.63.

3 Ibid., p.65.

4 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.133.

5 Ibid., p.134.

6 Ibid., p.138ff.

7 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.80ff.

8 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.134/135.

9 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.62/63.

10 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.135.

11 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.65.

12 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.148.

13 Ibid., p.149.

14 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.70–74.

15 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.149.

16 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.70–74.

17 Ibid.

18 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.150.

19 Dnevnik, V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.75. For Yusupov’s June 1917 account see The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Anon. (the Hon. Albert Stopford), (Heinemann, 1919), p.83.

20 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.153.

21 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.79.

22 Ibid., p.81.

23 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.157/158.

24 Irina Yusupov v MGM 1933, Fanny Holtzman Papers, Series A, Sub-series 1, Box 16, Folders 5-10, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio; Felix Yusupov v CBS 1965, Series A, Sub-series 1, Box 15, Folders 5-12, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio. See also The Times Law Reports, Friday 17 August 1934, Vol. 1, p.581ff.

25 ‘The Assassination of Rasputin’, Source Records of the Great War, Stanislaus Lazovert, Vol.V, ed. Charles F. Horne (National Alumni, 1923), p.86.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid., p.87.

28 Lost Splendour, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1953), p.228.

29 ‘The Assassination of Rasputin’, Stanislaus Lazovert, p.88.

30 Dnevnik,V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.80ff.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: END OF THE ROAD

1 Report of Autopsy on the Body of Grigori Rasputin by Professor Kossorotov, 20 December 1916, Museum of Political History, St Petersburg.

2 My Father, Maria Rasputina (Cassell & Co, 1934), p.111.

3 The Yusupov Palace, Galina Sveshnikova, p.75.

4 Report by Professor Derrick Pounder, Senior Home Office Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee, August 2004, commissioned by the author.

5 Dnevnik, V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.21.

6 See note 1 above.

7 Statement by Stepan Beletski to Provisional Government Extraordinary Commission 1917, Fond 1467, Schedule 1, Case 567, GARF, Moscow.

8 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.163.

9 Dnevnik, V.M. Purishkevich (National Reklama, 1923), p.70ff.

10 Report The Opinion of the Specialists, 18-30 June 1993, by V.V. Zharov, Igor Panov and Valery Vasilevsky of the Moscow Forensic Medical Analysis Bureau (unpublished review of the 1916 autopsy undertaken by Professor Kossorotov).

11 Interview of Vladimir Zharov by Richard Cullen and Ilya Gavrilov, Who Killed Rasputin?, Timewatch, broadcast BBC 2, Friday 1 October 2004, 8.00p.m.

12 See note 1 above.

13 This conclusion, articulated by Richard Cullen in the BBC Timewatch episode Who Killed Rasputin? (see broadcast details in note 11 above), is the most plausible explanation.

14 Report by Professor Derrick Pounder, Senior Home Office Pathologist and Head of Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee, February 2005, commissioned by the author.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 See note 10 above.

20 On Rayner’s death in 1961, Rose Jones gave a brief account of his life to the Nuneaton Observer (10 March 1961). The story was featured under the headline ‘Was in Palace When Rasputin was Killed’.

21 Diary of William J. Compton, 1916; also, General Index of Personnel from World War 1, William John Compton #9440, Red Cross Archive, London.

22 Scale recalls the events surrounding the Romanian oil fields operation in a letter to General C. Ismay dated 19 September 1940 (Scale Papers).

23 Letter from Capt. Stephen Alley to Capt. J.D. Scale, 7 January 1917 (Alley Papers).

24 To the Chief of the Public Security Department, Petrograd, 22 February 1917, Fond 102, Schedule 357, Case 115, GARF, Moscow.

25 See note 7 above.

26 Rasputin: A History of the Crime, Oleg Shishkin, chapter 21ff.

27 ‘Britain “helped Rasputin’s killers”’ by Phil Tomaselli, BBC History Magazine, April 2003, p.6.

28 Interview with Mark Lane, grandson of William Compton, 5 February 2005.

29 Entry 148, Register of Births in the Registration District of Upton-on-Severn, in the Sub-district of Kempsey in the County of Worcester, William John Compton, 27 January 1881.

30 Entry 330, Register of Deaths in the Registration District of Abingdon in the County of Berkshire, 6 March 1961, Oswald Rayner, Barrister at Law (retired).

31 Interview with Gordon Rayner, nephew of Oswald Rayner, 13 March 2004, Birmingham;interview with Myra Whelch and Michael Winwood, first cousins of Oswald Rayner, 6 November 2004, Birmingham.

32 Rasputin, Prince Yusupov (Jonathan Cape, 1927), p.180ff.

CHAPTER TWELVE: AFTERMATH

1 Rasputin, the Last Word, Edvard Radzinski (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), p.492ff

2 Ibid., p.495

3 Ibid.

4 See note 31, chapter 11 notes.

5 Ransome is best known today for his bestselling children’s book Swallows and Amazons. His MI5 file, # PF R.301 Vols 1 & 2, was released to the National Archive in February 2005, TNA KV2/1903–1904.

6 Augustus Agar won the VC for sinking the Soviet cruiser Oleg in June 1919. He was commanding a skimmer motor launch torpedo boat (CMB 4) that had been pioneered by SIS. For a full account of this mission see Baltic Episode, Augustus Agar, 1963.

7 Entry 263, Register of Deaths in the Registration District of Battle in the county of East Sussex, John Dymoke Scale, 22 April 1949.

8 En Exil, Prince Yusupov (Plon, 1954), p.76.

9 Irina Yusupov v MGM, see note 24 in chapter 10 notes.

10 Ibid.

11 En Exil, Prince Yusupov (Plon, 1954), p.102ff.

12 Ibid.

13 Little if anything has been known about Sukhotin. In Yusupov’s book his Christian name is never mentioned. In the course of researching this book, the military service file for Sergei Sukhotin was found, and reveals he joined the 4th Life Guards in 1911 after graduating from the Naval Corps in 1906. Sukhotin was also a distant relative of the composer Tchaikovsky, whose great-niece Galina von Meck recalls that he was sentenced to ten years in a Soviet labour camp in 1919 (see I Remember Them, Galina von Meck, p.183ff). Fond 400, Schedule 9, Case 34159, Pages 644-646, Russian State Military History Archive (RGVIA), Moscow.

14 This seems unlikely, as although Rasputin was not fatally poisoned, he certainly showed symptoms of having consumed a non-fatal dose, i. E. hyper-salivation, irritated throat etc. (see notes 15/16, chapter 10). The story of Lazovert’s death-bed confession is at best anecdotal and is more than likely motivated by his son wishing to dissociate him from the murder.

15 If Britain Had Fallen, Norman Longmate, p.117ff.

16 Ibid.

17 TNA KV 2/1684–1685.

18 Memorandum ‘British Intelligence Mission’ by Lt-Col. Sir Samuel Hoare to C, 29 January 1917, Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Templewood Papers, Part II, File 1 (52), CUL. This document remains closed and will be reviewed again by the Cabinet Office in 2011.

19 Alley refers to these meetings in his notes for January/February 1918 (Alley Papers).

20 Typed aide memoire (Alley Papers).

21 Hoare was clearly unaware of what was going on, which is reflected in his communications with C, particularly one telegram dated 2 January 1917 where he effectively asks C if he knows any more than himself; Papers of the British Intelligence Mission, Petrograd, Part II, File I (50), CUL.

22 House of Commons Debates 1920 (Hansard), Vol. 133, col. 1008-13, 1048;Vol. 134, col. 542;Vol. 135, col. 518-24.

23 MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations, Stephen Dorril (Fourth Estate, 2000), p.611.

24 Ibid.

25 In 1956, according to Foreign Office Minister of State Anthony Nutting, Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden declared that he wanted Egyptian President Nasser murdered. Eden apparently approached MI6, not through the then ‘C’ Sir John Sinclair, but via Joint Intelligence Committee Chairman Patrick Dean and MI6’s Middle East specialist George Young. The Perfect English Spy: Sir Dick White and the Secret War, Tom Bower (Heinemann, 1995), p.195; Through the Looking Glass, Anthony Verrier (Jonathan Cape, 1983), p.143 & 159.

26 In Dorril, p.611, SOE Operational Head Sir Colin Gubbins is quoted as telling a minister that there is ‘really no need for him to know about such things’ as assassination.

27 Professor John Lewis Gaddis, senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, as quoted in Dorril, p.xiii.

28 Alex Danchev, Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, as quoted in Dorril, p.xiv.

29 Alley’s second cousin, Michael Alley, expressed the view within the family that he ‘got into trouble in Murmansk’ (interview with author, 15 March 2005). Alley’s papers certainly give strong indications that he was involved in a special assignment in Murmansk at this time, which may ultimately have resulted in failure. This is an area the author intends to research further in due course.

30 See note 31, chapter 11 notes.

31 See note 20, chapter 11 notes.

32 Certificate of Decree Nisi Absolute (Divorce), No.18 of 1940, High Court of Justice, Principal Registry of the Family Division.

33 Entry 330, Register Deaths in the Registration District of Abingdon in the County of Berkshire, Oswald Theodore Rayner, 6 March 1961.