The publisher would like to thank Yale University for providing the photographs.

Frontispiece photo – Anna Vyrubova, 1909–1910

© RIPOL Classic Group of Companies LLC, edition, 2016

The sixth year has passed since the beginning of the Russian Troubles. Much has been experienced during this terrible time, and much of what was secret becomes clear.

Through the fog of mutual accusations, irritation and anger, voluntary and involuntary untruths, the truth breaks into the light of God. The doors of archives open, the secrets of relationships become accessible, memories emerge, and people’s conscience begins to speak.

And as one after another the curtains fall from the past, those evil fictions and fairy tales on which the Russian revolution, conceived in malice, grew up, collapse with them. As if waking up from a heavy sleep, Russian people rub their eyes and begin to realize what they have lost.

And higher and higher the pure image of the royal sufferers rises above the silent crowd. Their blood, their suffering and death fall as a heavy reproach on the conscience of all of us, who failed to protect and protect them, and with them to protect Russia.

Submissive to the will of the Eternal, they bore reproach with evangelical meekness, keeping in their souls unshakable loyalty to Russia, love for the people and faith in their revival. They have long forgiven all those who slandered them and betrayed them, but we do not have the right to do this. We must hold everyone accountable and nail all those responsible to the stake of shame. For it is impossible to draw beneficial lessons from the past for future generations until this past is exhausted to the bottom...

There is no need to talk about the significance of the memories of Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, née Taneyeva: it is self-evident. Of all the outsiders, A. A. Taneyeva over the past twelve years stood closest to the royal family and knew it better than many. Taneyeva was all this time like an intermediary between Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the outside world. She knew almost everything that the empress knew: people, deeds, and thoughts. She experienced both the happy days of greatness and the first, most bitter moments of humiliation with the royal family. She did not interrupt relations with her almost until the very end, finding ways to maintain correspondence in incredibly difficult conditions. For her closeness to the royal family, she was subjected to severe persecution both from the Provisional Government and from the Bolsheviks. Slander did not spare her either. The name Vyrubova still, in the eyes of a certain part of Russian society, remains the embodiment of something reprehensible, some kind of intrigue and endless secrets of the court.

We do not intend to either justify or discredit A. A. Taneyeva and do not take responsibility for the objectivity of the facts and impressions she presented. Let us remember, however, that her actions were the subject of the most thorough investigation, carried out by people deeply prejudiced against her. This investigation was directed by the Provisional Government, for which the discovery of a crime in an environment close to the royal family, or at least what is commonly called a scandal, was a vital necessity, since the alleged “crime” of the old regime was the entire justification for the unrest. And this unraveling, having turned the most intimate details of life inside out and subjecting the woman to terrible moral torture, not to mention physical suffering, did not reveal anything behind her and ended up declaring her not guilty of anything. Moreover, V. M. Rudnev, the investigator who carried out the investigation of the “irresponsible” influences at court, the conductor of which Taneyeva was considered, gave her in his memoirs a description completely opposite to what idle rumor painted. He defines her as a deeply religious woman, full of kindness and “purely Christian forgiveness”, “the purest and most sincere admirer of Rasputin, whom until the last days of his life she considered a holy man, unmercenary and miracle worker.” “All her explanations during interrogations,” says the investigator, “when checked on the basis of authentic documents, always found complete confirmation and breathed truth and sincerity.”

Without touching upon this assessment on the merits, it should be noted that the facts established by the investigator cleared A. A. Taneyeva of at least those moral charges that rumor had brought against her.

Not everyone, perhaps, will find in the memoirs of A. A. Taneyeva what they expect from them. And indeed, in many ways these memories are too compressed, sometimes too detailed. Perhaps there is something unsaid in them, or rather, inaccurately perceived and assessed by the author, for example, the degree of influence of Rasputin on the way of thinking of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who, unfortunately, trusted his insight and understanding of people. They do not contain sufficiently detailed information about the content of conversations with him, and about the advice that he sometimes gave on practical issues of life, and this is all the more unfortunate since his advice, judging by the letters of the empress, was not at all of the nature that they were credited with. There are no details about many people who, through A.A. Taneyeva, tried to penetrate the empress’s circle of attention and enlist her support. And in general, the role of this environment seems insufficiently clarified in the memories.

However, one should not forget that memories are not research, and one cannot make demands on them for the completeness of the impression, and real life is always simpler than fantasy. The job of criticism is to point out the gaps, if there are any, and expect that the author will not fail to fill them with what is preserved in his memory. The sincerity of A. A. Taneyeva’s memories is a guarantee of this.

However, even the most severe critic will have to admit that these memoirs are a document of great historical significance and familiarity with them is mandatory for everyone who wants to give themselves a clear account of the events that preceded the turmoil.

For the first time, from a source whose knowledge is beyond any doubt, we learn about the mood that prevailed among the royal family, and we receive the key to understanding the views of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which found expression in her correspondence with the sovereign. For the first time, we receive accurate information about the relationship of the sovereign and his family to many events in political and social life and about their internal experiences in the difficult moments of the declaration of war, the assumption of supreme command by the sovereign, and in the first weeks of the revolution.

The memoirs of A. A. Taneyeva suggest that one of the main, if not the main, reason for hostility towards Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, hostility that arose in certain layers of society, and from there, embellished by rumor and gossip, spread to the masses, was purely external fact is the isolation of her life, due primarily to the illness of the heir and causing jealousy on the part of those who considered themselves entitled to stand close to the royal family. We see how this mood grew, causing the empress to withdraw more and more into herself, seeking peace in religious uplift. She sought, at least in the forms of simple folk faith, to find a solution to the painful contradictions of life. We also see what a pure, loving and devoted heart beat in the one who was considered an arrogant, cold and even alien queen to Russia. And if this impression persisted so stubbornly, then, one wonders, doesn’t the blame lie primarily with those who were unable or unwilling to approach her closer and more easily, to understand and protect her yearning soul from slander and gossip?!

We see from the memoirs of A. A. Taneyeva, more clearly than from all other sources, all the horror of the betrayal that surrounded the royal house, we see how in a moment of trouble, one after another, all those who seemed obliged to the first fell away from the sovereign and his family lay down their heads for their protection: the empress and the grand duchesses waited in vain for that aide-de-camp whom they considered their closest friend; his confessor refused to come to Tsarskoe Selo at the call of the sovereign; confidants and servants, with the exception of a few faithful ones, hastened to leave them at the first signs of collapse; and we learn many other difficult and shameful things from these memories.

History has carried the name of Anna Vyrubova through the years. The memory of her was preserved not only because she was close to the imperial family (Anna was the maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), but also because her life was an example of selfless service to the fatherland and helping the suffering. This woman went through terrible torment, managed to avoid execution, gave all her funds to charity, and at the end of her days devoted herself entirely to religious service.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Anna Alexandrovna (left)

The story of Anna Vyrubova is incredible; it seems that so many trials cannot befall one person. In her youth, she completed courses for nurses and, together with the Empress, helped the wounded in the hospital at the beginning of the First World War. They, like everyone else, did hard work, helped the wounded, and were on duty during operations.

Portrait of Anna Vyrubova

After the execution of the imperial family, Vyrubova had a difficult time: the Bolsheviks put her in custody. For confinement, they chose cells with prostitutes or repeat offenders, where she had a very hard time. Anna also got it from the soldiers, they were ready to profit from her jewelry (even though the maid of honor only had a chain with a cross and a few simple rings), they mocked and beat her in every possible way. Anna went to prison five times and each time she managed to miraculously free herself.

Anna Vyrubova walking in a wheelchair with Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, 1915-1916.

Death seemed to follow Anna Vyrubova on her heels: at the last conclusion she was sentenced to death. The torturers wanted to humiliate the woman as much as possible and sent her on foot to the place of execution, accompanied by only one guard. How the woman, exhausted from fatigue, managed to escape from this soldier is still difficult to understand. Lost in the crowd, she, as if by the will of Providence, met someone she knew, the man gave her money in gratitude for her bright heart and disappeared. With this money, Anna was able to hire a cab and get to her friends, so that after many months she could hide in attics from her pursuers.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, her daughters Olga, Tatiana and Anna Alexandrovna (left) - sisters of mercy

Anna's real calling has always been charity: back in 1915, she opened a hospital for the rehabilitation of war wounded. The money for this was found due to an accident: having had a train accident, Anna received severe injuries and remained disabled. She donated the entire amount (80 thousand rubles!) of the paid insurance policy for the construction of the hospital, and the emperor donated another 20 thousand. After spending six months bedridden, Anna realized very well how important it is to give disabled people the opportunity to feel needed again, to learn a craft that would help them occupy their free time and generate a minimum income.

Anna Vyrubova

Having escaped from prison, Anna wandered for a long time until she decided to become a nun. She took monastic vows on Valaam and lived a calm, blissful life. She passed away in 1964 and was buried in Helsinki.
Alexandra Feodorovna highly valued the services of her maid of honor, calling her in her letters “her dear martyr.”

Anna Taneyeva was the great-great-great-granddaughter of the great Russian commander Kutuzov. Her father, Alexander Sergeevich, for 20 years held the important state post of Secretary of State and Chief Manager of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery - a position that was practically inherited in the Taneyev family. In January 1904, young Anna Taneyeva was “granted a code,” that is, she received a court appointment to the position of maid of honor to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The maid of honor with a monogram was a brooch in the form of the empress's monogram or two intertwined initials of the current and dowager empress. The picturesque composition was crowned with a stylized imperial crown. For many young aristocrats, receiving a maid of honor was the fulfillment of their dream of court service. Note that the tradition of handing over the maid of honor cipher by the ruling and dowager empresses was strictly observed until the beginning of the 20th century - Alexandra Feodorovna renounced this right, which deeply offended the Russian aristocracy and completely undermined her reputation at court. By the way, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, until the beginning of 1917, conscientiously fulfilled this duty, which her daughter-in-law so frivolously refused.

On April 30, 1907, the 22-year-old maid of honor of Empress Taneyeva got married. As a spouse, the choice fell on naval officer Alexander Vyrubov. A week before the wedding, the Empress asks her friend, the Montenegrin Princess Milica, the wife of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich (grandson of Nicholas I), to introduce her maid of honor to the healer and seer Grigory Rasputin, who was then gaining popularity. Together with her sister Anastasia, with whom her Montenegrin friend was inseparable, Milica wanted to use the “elder” as an instrument of influence on Nicholas II to fulfill personal desires and help her native country. The first acquaintance with Rasputin makes a very strong impression on the girl, which will later develop into real worship: “Thin, with a pale, haggard face; His eyes, unusually penetrating, immediately struck me.”

The Empress called Vyrubova “big baby”

The wedding of the maid of honor Taneyeva takes place in Tsarskoye Selo, and the entire royal family comes to the wedding. The family life of the young couple is not immediately established: perhaps because, according to rumors, on the first wedding night the groom got very drunk, and the bride was so scared that she tried by any means to avoid intimacy. According to Vyrubova’s memoirs, her husband’s experiences after the disaster in Tsushima left their mark on the unsuccessful marriage. Soon (probably not without the help of Alexandra Fedorovna) the husband leaves for treatment in Switzerland, and a year later Vyrubova asks him for a divorce. Thus, the 23-year-old maid of honor becomes the closest friend of the 36-year-old empress, her faithful adviser. Now it was she who would become the source of Alexandra Feodorovna’s acquaintance with all the city rumors and gossip: the empress was afraid to go out into the world and preferred to lead a solitary life in Tsarskoe Selo, where the lonely Vyrubova would settle.

With the outbreak of World War I, Vyrubova, together with the imperial family, began working as a nurse in the infirmary set up in Tsarskoe Selo. Vera Gedroits, the most famous female doctor in Russia, operates on the wounded in this hospital. Being in voluntary isolation, Alexandra Fedorovna receives almost all the news from the capital from her faithful friend, who often gives her not the best advice. The officers, the hospital patients, are accustomed to constant visits from the Empress, and therefore allegedly no longer show proper attitude towards her - Vyrubova advises visiting the infirmary less often in order to teach disrespectful subjects a lesson.

At the age of 18, Vyrubova suffered from typhus, but was saved

On January 2, 1915, Vyrubova set off by train from Tsarskoe Selo to Petrograd, however, before reaching only 6 miles to the capital, the train met with an accident. The Empress's adviser is discovered under the rubble with virtually no chance of survival. In her memoirs, Vyrubova carefully describes all the details of the terrible disaster that happened to her: for 4 hours she lay alone without help. The doctor arrived and said: “She’s dying, don’t touch her.” Then Vera Gedroits arrives and confirms the fatal diagnosis. However, after the identity and status of the victim becomes publicly known, she is urgently taken to Tsarskoe Selo, where the empress and her daughters are already waiting on the platform. Despite all the doctors’ assurances that nothing could help the unfortunate woman, Rasputin, who urgently arrived at the request of the Empress, prophetically announced that Vyrubova “will live, but will remain crippled.”

After the abdication, the imperial family lives under arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, Vyrubova remains with them. However, on March 21, they are visited by the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, who arrests the empress’s friend on suspicion of an anti-government conspiracy, despite all persuasion and complaints. The guard soldiers are quite surprised that the famous Vyrubova is not a depraved social diva at all, but a disabled person on crutches, looking much older than her 32 years.

The investigation denied rumors about her connection with Rasputin

After spending several days in a pre-trial detention cell, Vyrubova finds herself in the most terrible prison for political criminals - in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where, in addition to the empress's friend, other enemies of the new government are also imprisoned, with whose names all the most terrible crimes of the previous regime were associated: the leader of the right-wing party " Union of the Russian People" Alexander Dubrovin, former Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Prime Ministers Boris Sturmer and Ivan Goremykin, Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Protopopov. Tsarist officials are kept in appalling conditions. When Vyrubova is brought to her cell, the soldiers take the straw bag and pillow from the bed, tear off the gold chain on which the cross hangs, and take away the icons and jewelry: “The cross and several icons fell into my lap. I screamed in pain; then one of the soldiers hit me with his fist, and, spitting in my face, they left, slamming the iron door behind them.” From Vyrubova’s memoirs, it becomes clear how inhumane the attitude towards the prisoners was: from the dampness and constant cold, she begins to develop pleurisy, her temperature rises, and she finds herself practically exhausted. There is a huge puddle on the floor in the middle of her cell; sometimes she falls out of her bed there in delirium and wakes up completely wet. The prison doctor, according to Vyrubova’s memoirs, mocks the prisoners: “I was literally starving. Twice a day they brought half a bowl of some kind of mud, like soup, into which the soldiers often spat and put glass. He often smelled like rotten fish, so I covered my nose, swallowing a little, just so as not to die of hunger; I poured out the rest.” However, after several months, a thorough investigative check is finally carried out, and on July 24, Vyrubova is released due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

Vyrubova lives quietly in Petrograd for a month, until on August 25 she is declared an extremely dangerous counter-revolutionary and deported to the Finnish fortress of Sveaborg. The convoy departs for its destination on the yacht Polar Star, which used to be the property of the royal family. Vyrubova often visited it: “It was impossible to recognize the wonderful dining room of Their Majesties in the spit-stained, dirty and smoke-filled cabin. At the same tables sat about a hundred “rulers”—dirty, brutal sailors.” By the way, their hatred of each other was mutual - the majority associated the figure of Vyrubova with the most sinister crimes of the tsarist government. Leon Trotsky unexpectedly comes to her aid and orders the immediate release of the “prisoner of Kerensky” (not without the patronage of Vyrubova’s mother, Nadezhda Taneyeva). On October 3, Vyrubova is brought to a reception in Smolny, where she is met by Lev Kamenev and his wife Olga, Trotsky’s sister. Here she is even fed dinner and then released.

Fearing re-arrest, Vyrubova hid with friends for another year, finding refuge in “the basements and closets of the poor people whom she had once rescued from poverty.” At the end of 1920, the devoted friend of the former empress managed to illegally enter Finland, where she would live for another 40 years, taking monastic vows under the name Maria Taneyeva in the Smolensk monastery of the Valaam Monastery.

It is difficult to find a more odious name in Russian history than Grigory Rasputin. The memories of his contemporaries about him are contradictory (where one voice out of a hundred is, if not in justification, then defense based on facts and actions known to them personally), films and books of pickles and other “history experts” showing the fiend of hell
Recently the film “Grigory Rasputin” was shown, based on the “Memoirs” of Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva), the maid of honor of the Empress.
It shows a humanized appearance, where through the eyes of an investigator from the Provisional Government the life of this man unfolds with all the pros and cons. Naturally, I wanted to know how well the above corresponds
reality from the "Memoirs" of a contemporary and his defender.

“The doctors said that they did not understand at all how this happened (stopping bleeding in an heir with hemophelia). But this is a fact. By understanding the state of mind of the parents, one can understand their attitude towards Rasputin.
As for money, Rasputin... never received from it.
In general, money did not play a role in his life: if they gave it to him, he immediately
distributed. After his death, the family was left in complete poverty.
In 1913, I remember, the Minister of Finance Kokovtsev offered him 200,000 rubles so that he would leave St. Petersburg and not return.
He replied that if “Dad” and “Mom” want, he will, of course, leave, but why?
buy it. I know many cases when he helped during illnesses, but I also remember that he did not like when he was asked to pray for sick babies, saying:
“You will beg for life, but will you take upon yourself the sins that a child will commit in life?”
("Memoirs" M 1991, pp. 189-190)

What wisdom in the words of an illiterate man!
(once there was a documentary where Hitler was shown in reverse scrolling, right down to a sick baby, and the hand was not raised to kill this monster in its infancy)

Without wasting time on retyping, I present below the contents of “Memoirs” from the Internet.

FROM THE INTERNET
........................

Reflections on Rasputin

Anna Vyrubova

Personally, I have no experience that Rasputin supposedly had a special erotic attractive power. Yes, it is true that many women went to ask him for advice in their love affairs, mistaking him for a talisman that brought happiness, but usually Rasputin urged them to stop their love affairs.

I remember one girl named Lena, who was one of the most zealous listeners of Rasputin’s spiritual interpretations. Once Rasputin had a reason to advise the girl to stop her close acquaintance with a certain student. Lena took the advice as an unreasonable interference in her personal life, and she was so outraged by this that she assured Bishop Feofan that Rasputin was molesting her. The incident was the reason for the first bad gossip about Rasputin. After this, church circles began to look at him suspiciously.

During the first year of his stay in St. Petersburg, Rasputin was received with great interest everywhere. Once, being in the family of an engineer, I remember him sitting surrounded by seven bishops, educated and learned men, and answering deep religious and mystical questions affecting the Gospel. He, a completely uneducated Siberian monk, gave answers that deeply surprised others.

In the first two years of Rasputin’s stay in the capital, many, like me, approached him sincerely and openly, who had an interest in spiritual issues and wanted guidance and support in spiritual improvement. Later it became a habit to go to him when trying to gain the favor of the Court circle. Rasputin was considered a force that was supposedly hidden behind the Throne.

There was always the opinion that the Royal Couple made a grave mistake in that they did not take care of sending Rasputin to a monastery, from where, if necessary, they could have received help from him.

Rasputin could actually stop the bouts of hemorrhage!

I remember one meeting with Professor Fedorov already at the beginning of the revolution. He treated the Heir since his birth. We recalled cases when the medical methods used still could not stop the hemorrhage, and Rasputin, making only the sign of the cross over the sick Heir, stopped the bleeding. “Parents of a sick child must be understood,” Rasputin had a habit of saying.

When visiting St. Petersburg, Rasputin lived in a small courtyard house on Gorokhovaya Street. Very different people visited him every day - journalists, Jews, the poor, the sick - and he gradually began to be a kind of mediator of requests between them and the Royal Couple. When he visited the Palace, his pockets were full of all kinds of requests, which he accepted. This irritated the Empress and, most especially, the Sovereign. They expected to hear from him either predictions or descriptions of mysterious phenomena. As a reward for his labors and delivery of requests to the place, some gave Rasputin money, which he never kept with himself, but immediately distributed to the poor. When Rasputin was killed, not a penny of money was found on him.

Later, and especially during the war, those who wanted to denigrate the Throne went to Rasputin. There were always journalists and officers around him, who took him to taverns, getting him drunk, or held drinking parties in his small apartment - in other words, they did everything possible to expose Rasputin in a bad light to everyone's attention and thus indirectly harm the Tsar and To the Empress.

Rasputin's name was soon blackened. Their Majesties still refused to believe the scandalous stories about Rasputin and said that he suffered for the truth, like a martyr. Only envy and ill will dictate misleading statements.

In addition to Their Majesties, the highest spiritual circle also showed interest in Rasputin at the beginning of the year. One of the members of this circle spoke about the deep impression Rasputin made on them at one of the evenings. Rasputin turned to one in their group, saying: “Why don’t you admit your sins?” The man turned pale and turned his face away.

The Emperor and Empress first met with Rasputin in the house of the Grand Dukes Peter and Nikolai Nikolaevich; their families considered Rasputin a prophet who gave them instructions in spiritual life.

The second serious mistake made by Their Majesties - the main reason for gossip - was the secret conduct of Rasputin into the Palace. This was done at the request of the Empress almost always. The action was completely unreasonable and useless, literally, the same as that, directly into the Palace, the entrance of which was guarded around the clock by police and soldiers, no one could pass secretly.

In Livadia, the Empress heard that Rasputin had arrived in Yalta, and often sent me with crews to fetch him. Having driven away from the main gate, near which stood six or seven policemen, soldiers or Cossacks, I had to give them instructions to lead Rasputin through a small entrance from the garden, straight into the personal wing of the Emperor and Empress. Naturally, all the security noticed his arrival. Sometimes the Family members the next day at breakfast did not want to shake my hand, since, in their opinion, I was the main reason for Rasputin’s arrival.

For the first two years of friendship between the Empress and me, the Empress tried to secretly lead me into her workroom through the maids’ rooms, unnoticed by her ladies-in-waiting, so as not to arouse their envy of me. We spent our time reading or doing handicrafts, but the manner in which I was shown to her gave rise to unpleasant and completely unfounded gossip.

If Rasputin had been received from the very beginning through the Palace main entrance and introduced by the adjutant, like anyone asking for an audience, false rumors would hardly have arisen, in any case, they would hardly have been believed.

Gossip got its start in the Palace, among the Empress’s entourage, and it was for this reason that people believed in them.

Rasputin was very thin, he had a piercing gaze. On my forehead, at the edge of my hair, there was a large bump from hitting my head on the floor during prayer. When the first gossip and talk about him began to circulate, he collected money from his friends and went on a year-long pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

After my flight from Russia, while in the Valaam Monastery, I met an old monk there. He told me that he met Rasputin in Jerusalem and saw him among the pilgrims near the shrine with holy relics.

The Grand Duchesses loved Rasputin and called him by name “Our Friend.” Under Rasputin's influence, the Grand Duchesses assumed that they would never marry if they had to renounce their Orthodox faith. Also, the little Heir was attached to Rasputin.

Walking to the Empress’s room, a little later after the news of Rasputin’s murder, I heard Alexei sobbing, hiding his head in the window curtain: “Who will help me now if “Our Friend” is dead?”

For the first time during the war, the Tsar's attitude towards Rasputin changed and became much colder. The occasion was a telegram that Rasputin sent to Their Majesties from Siberia, where he was recovering from a wound inflicted on him by a certain woman. The Sovereign and Empress, in the telegram I sent, asked Rasputin to pray for a victorious war for Russia. The answer was unexpected: “Keep peace by any means, since war means destruction for Russia.” Having received Rasputin’s telegram, the Emperor lost his composure and tore it up. The Empress, despite this, did not stop respecting and trusting Rasputin.

The third serious mistake that the Royal Couple made, especially the Empress, was the opinion that Rasputin had the gift of seeing who was a good person and who was a bad person. No one could shake Their faith. “Our friend” said that the mentioned person was bad or vice versa and that was enough. One person told me that he saw a faint smile on the Tsar’s lips when the news of Rasputin’s murder arrived. Still, I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the statement, since I later met the Emperor, who was deeply shocked by what happened.

One of Rasputin's relatives told me that he predicted that Felix Yusupov would kill him.

In Russia, German agents were everywhere - in factories, on the streets, even in bread lines. Rumors began to spread that the Emperor wanted to conclude a separate peace with Germany and that the Empress and Rasputin were behind the intention. If Rasputin had such influence over the Tsar as claimed, then why didn’t the Tsar suspend the mobilization? The Empress was against the war, as was said before. It is also clear from the foregoing that during the war she, perhaps more than any other civilian, tried to influence the war to a decisive victory.

Rumors that a separate peace was being prepared with Germany even reached the British embassy.

All slander and rumors directed against the Royal Family, about the expected conclusion of peace with Germany, were brought to the attention of foreign embassies. Most of the allies guessed to leave them at their own discretion; the only one who turned out to be a victim of both German and revolutionary gossip was the English ambassador Sir George Buchanan. He entered into communication between the revolutionaries and the Government.

The assassination of Rasputin on December 16, 1916 was the starting shot of the revolution. Many believed that Felix Yusupov and Dmitry Pavlovich saved Russia with their heroic act. But what happened was completely different.

The revolution began, the events of February 1917 caused complete devastation in Russia. The abdication of the Emperor from the throne was completely unfounded. The Emperor was oppressed to such an extent that he wanted to step aside. It was threatened that if he did not renounce the Crown, his entire Family would be killed. He told me this later when we met.

“Murder is not allowed to anyone,” the Sovereign wrote on the petition that members of the Imperial family left with Him, asking that Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Felix Yusupov not be punished.

When I remember all the events of that time, it seems to me as if the Court and high society were like a big madhouse, everything was so confusing and strange. The only impartial study of history on the basis of surviving historical documents will be able to clarify the lies, slander, betrayal, and confusion to which Their Majesties ultimately fell victim.

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 16-17, 1916. On December 16, the Empress sent me to Grigory Efimovich to take him the icon brought from Novgorod. I didn’t particularly like going to his apartment, knowing that my trip would once again be falsely interpreted by slanderers. I stayed for about 15 minutes, hearing from him that he was going to go to Felix Yusupov late in the evening to meet his wife Irina Alexandrovna.

On the morning of December 17, one of Rasputin’s daughters, who studied in Petrograd and lived with their father, called me, saying that their father had not returned home, having left late with Felix Yusupov. An hour or two later, the Palace received a call from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Protopopov, who reported that at night a policeman standing guard at the Yusupovs’ house, having heard a shot in the house, called. A drunken Purishkevich ran out to him and told him that Rasputin had been killed. The same policeman saw a military motor without lights, which drove away from the house shortly after the shots were fired.

There were terrible days. On the morning of the 19th, Protopopov let it be known that Rasputin’s body had been found. First, Rasputin’s galoshes were found near an ice hole on Krestovsky Island, and then divers stumbled upon his body: his arms and legs were entangled in a rope; he probably freed his right hand when they threw him into the water; the fingers were crossed. The body was transported to the Chesme almshouse, where an autopsy was performed.

Despite numerous gunshot wounds and a huge wound on his left side, made with a knife or spur, Grigory Efimovich was probably still alive when he was thrown into the hole, since his lungs were full of water.

When people in the capital learned about Rasputin’s murder, everyone went crazy with joy; There were no limits to the jubilation of the society; they congratulated each other. During these demonstrations regarding the murder of Rasputin, Protopopov asked Her Majesty's advice by telephone on where to bury him. Subsequently, he hoped to send the body to Siberia, but did not advise doing so now, pointing out the possibility of unrest along the way. They decided to bury him temporarily in Tsarskoye Selo and transfer him home in the spring.

The funeral service was held in the Chesme almshouse, and at 9 o’clock in the morning on the same day (December 21, I think) one sister of mercy brought Rasputin’s coffin on a motor. He was buried near the park on the land where I intended to build a shelter for the disabled. Their Majesties and the Duchesses arrived, along with me and two or three strangers. The coffin had already been lowered into the grave when we arrived. The confessor of Their Majesties served a short requiem service and they began to fill up the grave. It was a foggy, cold morning and the whole situation was terribly difficult: they were not even buried in the cemetery. Immediately after the short funeral service we left.

Rasputin's daughters, who were all alone at the funeral service, placed the icon that the Empress had brought from Novgorod on the chest of the murdered man.

Here is the truth about Rasputin’s funeral, about which so much has been said and written. The Empress did not cry for hours over his body, and none of his fans were on duty at the coffin.

For the sake of historical truth, I must say how and why Rasputin had some influence in the life of the Tsar and Empress.

Rasputin was not a monk, not a priest, but a simple “wanderer,” of which there are many in Rus'. Their Majesties belonged to the category of people who believed in the power of the prayers of such wanderers. The Emperor, like his ancestor, Alexander I, was always mystical; The Empress was equally mystical.

A month before my wedding, Her Majesty asked Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna to introduce me to Rasputin. Grigory Efimovich entered, thin, with a pale, haggard face, wearing a black Siberian jacket; His eyes, unusually penetrating, immediately struck me and reminded me of the eyes of Fr. John of Kronstadt.

“Ask him to pray for something in particular,” the Grand Duchess said in French. I asked him to pray so that I could spend my whole life serving Their Majesties. “So it will be,” he replied, and I went home. A month later I wrote to the Grand Duchess, asking her to ask Rasputin about my wedding. She answered me that Rasputin said that I would get married, but there would be no happiness in my life. I didn’t pay much attention to this letter.

Rasputin was used as a reason to destroy all previous foundations. He seemed to personify in himself what had become hateful to Russian society, which had lost all balance. He became a symbol of their hatred.

And everyone was caught in this bait: the wise and the foolish, the poor and the rich. But the aristocracy and the Grand Dukes shouted loudest of all, and chopped off the branch on which they themselves sat. Russia, like France in the 18th century, went through a period of complete madness, and only now, through suffering and tears, is it beginning to recover from its serious illness.

But the sooner everyone searches their conscience and realizes their guilt before God, the Tsar and Russia, the sooner the Lord will stretch out His strong hand and save us from difficult trials.

Her Majesty trusted Rasputin, but twice she sent me with others to his homeland to see how he lived in his village of Pokrovskoye. We were met by his wife - a pretty elderly woman, three children, two middle-aged working girls and a fisherman grandfather. All three nights, we guests slept in a fairly large room upstairs, on mattresses that were spread on the floor. In the corner there were several large icons, in front of which lamps glowed. Downstairs, in a long dark room with a large table and benches along the walls, they had lunch; there was a huge icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which was considered miraculous. In the evening, the whole family and “brothers” (as the four other male fishermen were called) gathered in front of her, and they all sang prayers and canons together.

The peasants treated Rasputin's guests with curiosity, but they were indifferent to him, and the priests were hostile. It was the Dormition Fast, and this time they did not eat milk or dairy products anywhere; Grigory Efimovich never ate meat or dairy.

There is a photograph that shows Rasputin sitting as an oracle among the aristocratic ladies of his “harem” and seems to confirm the enormous influence that he supposedly had in Court circles. But I think that no woman, even if she wanted, could be carried away by him; neither I nor anyone who knew him closely had heard of such a thing, although he was constantly accused of debauchery.

When the commission of inquiry began to operate after the revolution, there was not a single woman in Petrograd or in Russia who would make accusations against him; the information was drawn from the notes of the “guards” who were assigned to him.

Despite the fact that he was an illiterate person, he knew all the Holy Scriptures, and his conversations were distinguished by their originality, so that, I repeat, they attracted many educated and well-read people, which were, undoubtedly, Bishops Theophan and Hermogenes, Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna and others .

I remember that once in church a postal official approached him and asked him to pray for a sick woman. “Don’t ask me,” he replied, but pray to St. Ksenia." The official cried out in fear and surprise: “How could you know that my wife’s name is Ksenia?” I could cite hundreds of similar cases, but perhaps they can be explained one way or another, but what is much more surprising is that everything he said about the future came true...

One of Rasputin's enemies, Iliodor, launched two attempts on his life. He succeeded in the first when a certain Gusev woman wounded him in the stomach with a knife in Pokrovskoye. This was in 1914, a few weeks before the start of the war.

The second attempt was made by Minister Khvostov with the same Iliodor, but the latter sent his wife to Petrograd with all the documents and betrayed the plot. All these individuals like Khvostov looked at Rasputin as an instrument for the fulfillment of their cherished desires, imagining through him to receive certain favors. If he failed, they became his enemies.

This was the case with the Grand Dukes, Bishops Hermogenes, Theophan and others. Monk Iliodor, who at the end of all his adventures took off his cassock, got married and lived abroad, wrote one of the dirtiest books about the Royal Family. Before publishing it, he wrote a written proposal to the Empress - to buy this book for 60,000 rubles, threatening otherwise to publish it in America. The Empress was indignant at this proposal, declaring that Iliodor should write what he wanted and wrote on the paper: “Reject.”

A judicial investigation by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government proved that he was not involved in politics. Their Majesties always had conversations with him on abstract topics and about the health of the Heir.

I remember only one case when Grigory Efimovich really influenced foreign policy.

This was in 1912, when Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and his wife tried to persuade the Sovereign to take part in the Balkan War. Rasputin, almost on his knees in front of the Emperor, begged him not to do this, saying that the enemies of Russia were just waiting for Russia to get involved in this war, and that inevitable misfortune would befall Russia.

The last time the Emperor saw Rasputin was in my house, in Tsarskoe Selo, where, by order of Their Majesties, I summoned him. This was about a month before his murder. Here I was convinced once again what an empty fiction was the notorious conversation about the desire for a separate peace, about which slanderers spread rumors, pointing out that this was the desire of either the Empress or Rasputin.

The Emperor arrived concerned and, sitting down, said: “Well, Gregory, pray well; It seems to me that nature itself is going against us now.” Grigory Efimovich approved of Him, saying that the main thing is that there is no need to make peace, since the country that shows more steadfastness and patience will win.

Then Grigory Efimovich pointed out that we need to think about how to provide for all the orphans and disabled people after the war, so that “no one is left offended: after all, everyone gave You everything that was most dear to them.”

When Their Majesties stood up to bid farewell to him, the Tsar said, as always: “Gregory, cross us all.” “Today you bless me,” answered Grigory Efimovich, which the Emperor did.

Whether Rasputin felt that he was seeing Them for the last time, I don’t know; I cannot say that he had a presentiment of the events, although what he said came true. I personally describe only what I heard and how I saw him.

Rasputin associated his death with great disasters for Their Majesties. In recent months, he expected that he would soon be killed.

I testify to the suffering that I experienced that in all the years I personally did not see or hear anything obscene about him, but, on the contrary, much of what was said during these conversations helped me bear the cross of reproach and slander that the Lord placed on me.

Rasputin was and is considered a villain without evidence of his atrocities. He was killed without trial, despite the fact that the biggest criminals in all states are subject to arrest and trial, and then execution.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Rudnev, who carried out the investigation under the Provisional Government, was one of the few who tried to unravel the case of “dark forces” and expose Rasputin in the real light, but it was difficult for him: Rasputin was killed, and Russian society was mentally upset, so few people judged sensibly and calmly. Rudnev was the only one who had the civil courage to take the point of view of a sane person for the sake of truth, without being infected by the herd opinion of Russian society in 1917.

The material was compiled by Lyudmila Hukhtiniemi based on the memoirs of Anna Alexandrovna Taneyeva (nun Maria)

"Anna Vyrubova - maid of honor of the Empress." Edited by Irmeli Viheruuri. Aftermath. 1987 Helsinki. Translation from Finnish by L. Huhtiniemi.

A.A. Vyrubova. Pages of my life. Good. Moscow. 2000.

From the Internet

An example of the strictest life was one of Rasputin’s closest admirers, the queen’s friend Anna Vyrubova.

Vyrubova was fanatically devoted to Gregory, and until the end of his days he appeared to her as a holy man, unmercenary and miracle worker.

Vyrubova had no personal life at all, devoting herself entirely to serving her neighbors and the suffering. She took care of orphans and worked as a nurse.

Outwardly attractive, of noble origin, accepted as one of the royal family, she turned out to be completely defenseless against newspaper slander.

For many years, numerous love affairs and the most vile debauchery were attributed to her. And the newspaper men spread these rumors and slander throughout Russia.

The “stories” that became household names were savored in the social salons at court and in the tabloid press, in the State Duma and on the streets.

Imagine the disappointment of the gossipers when later a special medical commission of the Provisional Government established that Anna Vyrubova was virgin and innocent, and all the crimes attributed to her turned out to be fiction...

Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova(born Taneyeva; July 16, Russian Empire - July 20, Helsinki, Finland) - daughter of the chief administrator of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery A.S. Taneyev, great-great-great-granddaughter of Field Marshal Kutuzov, maid of honor, closest and most devoted friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She was considered one of the most ardent fans of Grigory Rasputin.

Life

Anna Vyrubova on a walk in a wheelchair with V.Kn. Olga Nikolaevna, 1915-1916 (photo from the Beinecke Library)

Taneyeva spent her childhood in Moscow and on the family estate Rozhdestveno near Moscow.

In 1902, she passed the exam at the St. Petersburg educational district for the title of home teacher.

In January 1904, Anna Taneyeva “received a code” - she was appointed city maid of honor, whose duties were to be on duty at balls and appearances under Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

After this, becoming a close friend of the empress, she was close to the imperial family for many years, accompanied them on many journeys and trips, and was present at closed family events.

Taneyeva was well acquainted with Grigory Rasputin. At her dacha in Tsarskoe Selo, he repeatedly met with members of the imperial family.

In 1907, Anna Taneyeva married naval officer Alexander Vyrubov in Tsarskoe Selo, but the marriage was short-lived and broke up the following year.

With the outbreak of World War I, Vyrubova began working in the hospital as a nurse along with the Empress and her daughters. She also participated in many other events aimed at helping the front and disabled soldiers.

On January 2 (15), 1915, while leaving Tsarskoe Selo for Petrograd, Anna Vyrubova was involved in a train accident, receiving injuries of such severity (including head injuries) that doctors expected an imminent death. However, Vyrubova survived, although she remained crippled for life: after that she could only move in a wheelchair or on crutches; in later years - with a stick. Afterwards, her attending physician Vera Gedroits, with whom she had a tense relationship, began to be blamed for her disability.

Using monetary compensation for the injury, she organized a military hospital in Tsarskoe Selo.

After the February Revolution, she was arrested by the Provisional Government and, despite her disability, was kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress for several months in difficult conditions on suspicion of espionage and treason, after which “due to the lack of evidence of a crime” she was released.

At the end of August 1917, the Provisional Government decided to deport her abroad; a message about this appeared in the newspapers indicating the day and hour of her departure. In Finland, at the Rihimäkki station, a huge crowd of soldiers took her off the train and she was taken through Helsingfors to the imperial yacht Polar Star, which headed to Sveaborg. A whole month was spent on efforts, and at the end of September N.I. Taneyeva (Vyrubova’s mother) achieved the release of her daughter through Trotsky. A. A. Vyrubova was returned from Sveaborg, taken to Smolny and released again. However, the threat of an imminent new arrest still weighed on her.

Memoirs and “diary” of Vyrubova

In exile, Anna Taneyeva wrote an autobiographical book, “Pages of My Life.”

In the 1920s, the so-called “The Diary of Vyrubova,” but its falsity was almost immediately exposed even by Soviet critics and scientists. Since the “Diary” began to be reprinted abroad, Vyrubova herself had to publicly refute its authenticity. (A number of forged letters written during Soviet times were also attributed to her.)

The most likely authors of the “Diary” are considered to be the Soviet writer A. N. Tolstoy and history professor P. E. Shchegolev (who jointly wrote the play “The Conspiracy of the Empress” with a very similar plot and leitmotifs during the same period). In the book of the head of the Federal Archive Service of Russia, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.P. Kozlov, it is written about this:

The entire set of elements of “covering up” the falsification, the richest factual material suggests that the forger’s pen was in the hands of a professional historian, who was not only well versed in the facts and historical sources of the turn of two centuries, but also possessed the appropriate professional skills. Already the first critical speeches hinted at the name of the famous literary critic and historian, archaeographer and bibliographer P. E. Shchegolev. It is difficult to doubt this even now, although documentary evidence of this guess has not yet been found.