Death of Rasputin. Grigory Rasputin was still a genius. Rasputin and the Romanovs

On January 1, 1917, the body of Grigory Rasputin, a family friend and advisor to Emperor Nicholas II, was discovered under the ice of the frozen Neva. Rasputin was shot three times, badly mutilated and gouged out his right eye.

Whoever was not suspected of mysterious death a man who was sometimes called a prophet, then a sorcerer, who was hated by both the adherents of the tsarist regime and the Bolsheviks. His death remains a mystery even today, despite the fact that Prince Felix Yusupov took the blame for the murder on himself.

1. Strange call in the morning before death

On the morning of December 29, 1916, Rasputin received a strange phone call... He said that his daughter Maria was calling him, but clearly did not recognize the voice on the other end of the line. The meaning of the message was very clear: the days of Rasputin were numbered. It was a death threat, although not the first that Rasputin received. At this stage in his life, Rasputin received daily death threats, mostly by mail or by telephone. But it was this particular threat that somehow upset him greatly. Several sources described Rasputin as "nervous" and "agitated" that day. No one knows who actually called, and the only thing historians know for sure is that it was not Felix Yusupov who claimed responsibility for Rasputin's death.

2. Cyanide doesn’t care

Yusupov's plan was to poison Rasputin. He persuaded Rasputin to come to his home for a visit, where he treated him to cakes and wine, which were poisoned with cyanide by one of his accomplices, Dr. Stanislav Lazovert. The plan was to feed Rasputin the poisoned food and watch him die. There is no doubt that Rasputin went to Yusupov's house. The last person to see him was his daughter, Maria, whom he said goodbye to at 23:00 on December 29. Everything that happened after that is a mystery.

Yusupov claims that he fed Rasputin with poisoned cakes and wine, and that enough cyanide got into his body to kill the elephant. But it seemed that he didn’t care about any poison. However, the autopsy results state that "no traces of poison" were found in Rasputin's body. Nobody knows exactly what happened. Yusupov's story seems to imply that Rasputin did have supernatural powers, but there are, of course, other explanations.

After many years, experts did not agree on whether Rasputin was poisoned, or whether the story about the poisoned cakes was pure water fiction.

3. A shot is not a guarantee of death

Frustrated that his poison hadn't worked, Yusupov pulled out his pistol and shot Rasputin in the chest. “Doctor Lazovert said that a bullet struck him in the heart,” Yusupov wrote in his memoirs. "There was no doubt: Rasputin was dead." Then, according to the prince, the conspirators went home to Rasputin, and one of the men changed into the clothes of the "Tsar's favorite" in order to convince the neighbors that Rasputin got home safely. Then they returned and got together to dispose of Rasputin's body.

“Then something terrible happened,” wrote Yusupov. “All of a sudden Rasputin jumped to his feet, and foam came out of his mouth.” Yusupov and other conspirators started shooting at Rasputin, and Vladimir Purishkevich finally "finished off" him with a shot in the head. However, even when they tied the body up and threw it into the river, Yusupov insisted that Rasputin's body continued to move. “Now I understand who Rasputin was,” wrote Yusupov. It was the reincarnation of Satan himself. "

4. An autopsy revealed ...

Yusupov's story is, of course, fascinating, but it does not correspond to reality. The autopsy report of Rasputin, carried out by Professor Dmitry Kosorotov, contradicts the testimony of the main suspect. In his memoirs, Yusupov claims that he shot Rasputin in the heart, and this was confirmed by Dr. Lazovert. However, upon autopsy, Kosorotov found three bullet wounds, and none of them was even near the heart. Instead, the bullets went through his stomach, liver, kidney, and skull. Likewise, Yusupov claimed that Rasputin was knocked down by a shot from Purishkevich in the back of the head. The bullet in Rasputin's skull, however, entered from the side of the face point-blank when Rasputin was lying on the ground.

5. Could Rasputin drown

Yusupov claims to have seen Rasputin move even after he was shot in the head. Therefore, the conspirators tied Rasputin's hands and feet, wrapping his body in a piece of heavy canvas, drove to the top of the bridge and threw him into the water. Legend has it that Rasputin was still alive when he was thrown into the river. However, when his body was found, Rasputin's hands were untied and raised above his head. As his daughter Maria later said, Rasputin freed his hands under water, but still drowned. During the trial, a witness argued that the autopsy revealed the presence of air in Rasputin's lungs and that he was still alive when he was thrown into the water.

6. Disfigured corpse

Whoever killed Rasputin didn't just shoot him. They brutally and terribly mutilated his corpse. The autopsy report of Kosorotov described that there was a gaping wound on the left side of the torso, inflicted by some sharp object. The right eye dropped out of the socket and hung over the face. At the corner of his right eye, the skin was torn. The right ear has been torn off and partially severed from the head. There was a blunt wound on the neck. The victim's face and body showed signs of being hit by some flexible but rigid object. The genitals were crushed. According to Kosorotov, the wounds appear to have been inflicted after Rasputin's death. This was not the result of a fight, but rather a cruel desecration of a dead body, which is not mentioned anywhere in Yusupov's confession.

7. Strange desire of Yusupov to take the blame

Yusupov and other conspirators went to great lengths to hide the death of Rasputin. They faked his return home, threw his body into the river, and Yusupov repeatedly told the police that the cause of the shots coming from his house was a drunken visitor shooting at a dog. However, according to police reports, the conspirators immediately confessed. The officer who was sent to Yusupov's house after the news of the shooting said that Purishkevich opened the door for him and said: "Listen to me, Rasputin is dead, and if you love the Tsar and your homeland, you will be silent and will not tell anyone." When police found bloodstains in Yusupov's backyard, he initially denied the murder, but then began to try to capitalize on the situation. As a result, he even wrote a memoir detailing how he killed Rasputin.

8. British spy who could have killed Rasputin

One bullet in Rasputin's body, according to the autopsy, was of a different caliber. He was shot by three people (or at least three pistols). The bullet holes in the stomach and kidney could have been made from the barrels of Yusupov and Purishkevich, but they fired in the head with a 455 Webley revolver, which both did not have. However, a British friend of Yusupov named Oswald Reiner almost always carried a 455 Webley with him.

And although Yusupov denied that Reiner was at his home, many believe that it was he who shot Rasputin in the head, and on the orders of British intelligence. The British were interested in assassinating Rasputin as he tried to bring peace between Russia and Germany. Therefore, it is quite possible that if Rasputin had not died, the Germans would have won the war.

9. MI6 archives claim otherwise

The British government, more than 100 years later, still denies it has anything to do with Rasputin's death. The British insist that Reiner killed Rasputin is "an outrageous and absurd accusation." Rainer was not on the list of active agents at the time of Rasputin's death, and countless historians who looked through all available MI6 records could not find the slightest trace of evidence of involvement in the murder of the British.

10. The burning corpse that sat down

Of course, Yusupov did everything to present Rasputin as a real demonic monster that was impossible to kill. But still, one fact that took place in 1917 can make anyone believe in this version (at least anyone who is superficially familiar with anatomy).

So, the body of Rasputin was removed from the grave by soldiers and set on fire. This was done because the new authorities feared that his grave would become a place of worship for the tsarist regime. A crowd of people came out to watch the prophet's corpse burn, and almost everyone insisted that they saw the decomposing corpse suddenly set in flames.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The words of Rasputin are known: "Without me everything will collapse"

A hundred years ago, on December 30, 1916 (on the night of December 16-17, old style), Grigory Rasputin was killed in the Yusupov family palace on the Moika in Petrograd.

A high-quality investigation of one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century was prevented at first by the political component and the high position of the participants, and then by the revolutionary chaos.

Few of the characters in Russian history are known in the world as the Siberian "old man" and the favorite of the last imperial couple.

Glory is thickly tinged with scandal. Rasputin is famous as a sex machine and lover of Alexandra Feodorovna. The first view is exaggerated, while the second is completely wrong.

At home, the assessments of the "elder" by his contemporaries and descendants vary from a saint to a reptile, as he called him.

In Petrograd, people kissed on the streets and glorified Yusupov, Purishkevich and Grand Duke Dmitry as heroes. In the Kazan Cathedral, a sea of candles was lit near the icon of St. Dmitry. But far from the capital, where the peasants knew only that a peasant like them became powerful at the court of the king, the murder was treated differently by Robert Massey, an American historian

An uneducated man of dubious behavior has been with the tsars since 1905, but the hysterical excitement about the "dark forces around the throne" flared up only with the outbreak of the First World War. According to a number of historians, it is not accidental.

Being a peasant by origin and psychology, Rasputin treated any war as a matter, unnecessary and harmful for a peasant. His enormous influence on the empress greatly hampered the supporters of the Entente and the struggle to a victorious end.

"God willing, there will be no war, and I will take care of that," Rasputin told an Italian journalist in the spring of 1914.

"Most likely, they took care of him himself," comments modern researcher Edward Radzinsky.

A lot has been written about the fantastic career of the Tobolsk mystic peasant, his healing abilities and extravagant behavior, which have not yet received a scientific explanation.

Grigory Rasputin - holy devil

Meanwhile, many secrets envelop and last hours his life.

Bait

To begin with, how and why Rasputin ended up in the Yusupovs' mansion.

According to the participants in the murder, Felix Yusupov and the right-wing State Duma deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, at about 1 am Yusupov drove for Rasputin in a "motor" and took him to his wife Irina, whom the "elder" had long wanted to meet.

In fact, Irina at that time was in the Crimean estate of the Yusupovs.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Felix and Irina Yusupov owned four palaces, 37 estates and Rembrandt originals

Felix suggested that the guest first go to the room equipped in the basement in gothic style, where he fed him with poisoned cakes, and Rasputin did not die in any way, asked when he would see Irina, tried to go upstairs, then go to the gypsies.

The rest of the participants at this time imitated a party upstairs, endlessly playing a record with the American song "Yankee Doodle" on the gramophone.

A version that presents Felix in a favorable light as a defender of his wife's honor, but hardly plausible.

Rasputin was by no means stupid.

Of course, many men and women in secular Petersburg crawled before him in the most indecent manner. But Felix Yusupov belonged to the highest nobility and was one of the richest people in the world, and Irina was generally the niece of the emperor.

It is unlikely that the "elder" could believe that she would easily yield to him, while her husband would take on the role of a pimp. And for a simple acquaintance, the time was clearly inappropriate.

Not sex, but politics?

Meanwhile, a night visit to Yusupov had been agreed in advance and was very important for Rasputin.

Late in the evening of December 16, his friend and political ally, Interior Minister Alexander Protopopov, stopped by.

According to Rasputin's daughter Matryona, he told her father that they wanted to kill him, offered to cancel all meetings and not leave the house for several days. Rasputin replied: "late", and when asked to at least say where he was going for the night looking, he replied that it was not his secret.

Why the "elder", despite the warning, went to see Yusupov, we will never know for sure. But definitely not for gratuitous Madeira and gramophone music.

The murder of Grigory Rasputin is one of the darkest pages of our history, despite the fact that several historical figures admitted to it Yuri Kamensky, a writer

Was it a matter of politics?

At the end of 1916, Petrograd was breathing intrigue.

According to historians, among the aristocracy, military and Duma members, at least three independent conspiracies were ripening with the aim of dethroning Nicholas II and elevating the 12-year-old heir Alexei to the throne under the regency of the emperor's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

At the same time, rumors spread about the plans of Alexandra Feodorovna and Protopopov to disperse the Duma, introduce a state of emergency and conclude a separate peace. The question was who would hit first.

Felix Yusupov could well have lured Rasputin to himself with a promise to arrange negotiations with some persons important for the "empress's party".

In the spirit of Hitchcock

Further events in the version of Yusupov and Purishkevich resemble a horror film.

Rasputin allegedly drowned several petit fours (small cakes) stuffed with potassium cyanide in the basement, but the poison did not take him. Obviously, demon!

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Vladimir Purishkevich invented the euphemism " dark forces around the throne. "

Then he still felt a pain in his stomach and guessed everything. Yusupov had to shoot, Rasputin fell down dead. To be sure, the killer hit him in the temple several times with a brush, and only took a breath, as the bloody monster stood up, like the Terminator!

Yusupov fled in horror, Rasputin left the house without hindrance, crossed the courtyard and almost reached the safety gate, but Purishkevich, who jumped out after him, knocked him down with four revolver shots in his back.

According to Purishkevich, he fired twice almost without interruption, missed, then carefully aimed and even bit himself for concentration on the left hand, after which he hit Rasputin in the back and then in the back of the head.

Poison and bullets

People who knew Rasputin well, unanimously asserted that he had never eaten anything sweet, believing that it was harmful to his special abilities.

The police officers Vlasyuk and Efimov, who were on duty nearby, wrote in reports that they heard sounds similar to shots: one, and after 3-5 seconds two or three more, almost merged with each other.

The autopsy report, drawn up by highly qualified pathologist Professor Kosorotov, states that the cause of death was a shot in the stomach, causing profuse bleeding. Then the dead or dying man received two more gunshot wounds, in the back and in the forehead: all three almost point-blank.

Purishkevich claimed that he fired from a considerable distance, aimed for a long time and was behind Rasputin, so that he could not hit him in the forehead. But it was very reminiscent of a control shot in the head.

The professor did not find traces of beating with a flail on the body, but did find a minor cut wound on the back, inflicted either with a knife, or, more precisely, with an officer's spur, if someone kicked the corpse.

The detective continues

Having come running to suspicious sounds, policeman Vlasyuk did not see Purishkevich in the courtyard, but he met Yusupov and his butler Buzhinsky, who said that no one had fired - perhaps a tire burst somewhere.

"After that they left, and I, having looked around the yard and not finding anything suspicious, went to my post," the policeman wrote in the report.

At night in the city it was darker than now, but still Vlasyuk could not fail to notice the corpse on the white snow.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Nicholas II loved Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich like a son

About 20 minutes later Buzhinsky approached the policeman who was at his post and invited him to the owner. In the office of Prince Vlasyuk I saw Yusupov and a stranger in quasi-military uniform.

He introduced himself as a member of the Duma Purishkevich, asked the policeman if he was Russian, if he believed in God and honored the tsar, and then said that Rasputin had just been killed here, and Vlasyuk should be silent about this if he loved his homeland.

Why the conspirators needed to inform themselves is another mystery. Perhaps, counting on the fact that the policeman will immediately run to report, and in the meantime it will be possible to take out the corpse by car.

But Vlasyuk once again carefully examined the courtyard, saw nothing suspicious, decided that Purishkevich had drunk too much, and did not move from his place until six in the morning. So when the main evidence was drowned in the Neva ice hole, it is not known for sure.

Cornflowers and ears

Rasputin always wore long shirts outside.

Yusupov claimed that on the night of the murder, the "elder" was wearing a white shirt, embroidered with cornflowers. Purishkevich is like cream, embroidered with silk. And in the protocol of the examination of the body, signed by the prosecutor of the court chamber Zavadsky, it appears: a blue shirt, embroidered with golden ears.

Perhaps Rasputin never took off his fur coat in the mansion?

Simpler and nastier

According to Yusupov and Purishkevich, the "elder" died as extraordinarily as he lived. However, an analysis of the available facts suggests that the version is fictitious.

Image copyright AFP Image caption In the palace on the Moika, the drama is illustrated with the help of wax figures, but there is reason to doubt that the picture corresponds to real events

There were no poisoned cakes, a chilling resurrection from the dead and desperate shooting in the yard.

Most likely, the conspirators pounced on Rasputin as soon as he stepped over the threshold, and finished off with shots at point-blank range.

Everything happened not in the open air, but in the house, which is why the policemen were not quite sure whether they had heard the shooting or not.

There are also more exotic versions. Some authors, on the basis of rumors and circumstantial data, argue that Rasputin was killed not in a mansion on the Moika, but somewhere else, others - that there were not five killers, as is commonly thought, but more.

Named, in particular, the former Minister of the Interior Alexei Khvostov, the mistress of the Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, the ballerina and silent film star Vera Karalli and the British resident Oswald Rainer.

Ambassador George Buchanan reported to the Foreign Office that Nicholas II asked him whether a British subject was involved in the murder of Rasputin or not.

Shot or drowned?

Another well-known legend is that the "old man" was so tenacious that even after poison and two injuries incompatible with life, he only lost consciousness, and finally died, choking.

And the autopsy report says: "No traces of death from drowning were found. Rasputin was thrown into the water, already dead."

Why fantasize?

One of the motives of Yusupov and Purishkevich is obvious: I wanted to look not as treacherous killers who five of them dealt with an unarmed guest, but as heroes who overcame almost evil spirits.

My deep and ardent prayers surround you all for the patriotic act of your dear son Elizaveta Fedorovna, sister of the Empress, telegram from the mother of Felix Yusupov

But there could be another reason.

There were five conspirators in Yusupov's palace: Yusupov, Purishkevich, Doctor Stanislav Lazovert, who worked as the chief physician of the sanitary train organized by Purishkevich, Lieutenant Sergei Sukhotin, who met Yusupov while after being wounded in a hospital patronized by his mother, Princess Zinaida, and two Prince Dmitry Pavlovich.

Lazovert was probably called in to correctly state death. In addition, he was driving a car in which Rasputin's body was taken to the river.

Yusupov and Purishkevich did not say anything about the role of Dmitry Pavlovich and Sukhotin, and they themselves, unlike talkative accomplices, remained silent until death.

Bushkov assumes that the first and fatal shot was made by Dmitry Pavlovich, and Yusupov and Purishkevich took the blame, so as not to compromise the person of the reigning house.

There was nothing heroic about the murder of Rasputin. It was a heinous crime prepared in advance Olga Alexandrovna, sister of Nicholas II

Twelve members of the imperial house signed a petition for Dmitry Pavlovich. The tsar imposed a resolution: "No one is given the right to engage in murder, I know that the conscience does not give rest to many, for he is not the only one involved. I am surprised at your appeal to me."

Dmitry Pavlovich, allegedly at the request of his father, swore on the icon that he did not kill Rasputin. But, firstly, there are no witnesses to this, and secondly, perjury has happened in history.

Sukhotin's acquaintance, Prince Pyotr Isheev, put forward a different version in his memoirs "Fragments of the Past" published in 1959 in New York.

“It is generally believed that Rasputin was killed by Purishkevich. In fact, Sukhotin killed him. But in order not to let him down, they decided to keep it secret, and Purishkevich took the shots, otherwise Sukhotin would not have been well. If the Grand Duke was exiled to Turkey , what would have done with a simple lieutenant ?? ", - he wrote.

Fate, and in some cases the new government, turned out to be rather lenient towards all the participants in the murder.

Felix Yusupov lived in Paris until he was 80. Although most of his fortune, estimated at a billion pre-revolutionary rubles (about 16.5 billion modern dollars), was in real estate and disappeared, he did not live in poverty in emigration. Wrote (or composed?) The book "The End of Rasputin".

In 1932, he sued 25 thousand British pounds from the Hollywood studio MGM, which released a motion picture, which claimed that his wife was Rasputin's mistress. It was after this incident, first in the United States and then in other countries, that the custom arose to prefix books and films with a notification that all the events depicted were fiction, and any resemblance to real persons was accidental.

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich's participation in the murder of Rasputin actually saved his life. If he had met the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, he would certainly have shared the fate of his father and the majority of the Romanovs. From the Caucasian front, he left through Iran to Mesopotamia and asked to volunteer in the British army to continue the fight for the Entente cause. Subsequently, he lived in the United States and Switzerland, was married to a wealthy American woman, and died in 1942.

Rasputin was not the monster he is portrayed to be. But he broke down, did not reject the camarilla that surged upon him, scoundrels, political adventurers and embezzlers who were pressing like devilry on Homa Bruta. The tragedy of an outstanding personality who found himself in the wrong place and did not find the strength to leave Alexander Bushkov, historian, writer

Vladimir Purishkevich was arrested in Petrograd, but in April 1918 he was released on the personal orders of Dzerzhinsky. The former Duma brawler went to the hetman Kiev, then to the White Don. Shortly before the evacuation in February 1920, he died of typhus.

The fate of Sergei Sukhotin is no less surprising. In November 18, the Bolsheviks wanted to shoot him along with other "counter-revolutionaries", but replaced capital measure imprisonment in the Taganskaya prison in Moscow.

Two years and three months later, he was transferred to unconvoy maintenance as a member of the prison orchestra of folk instruments, and in June 1921 he was released and appointed to a good position as commandant of the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Yasnaya Polyana.

In 1925, Sukhotin was allowed to go to France for treatment, where Felix Yusupov took care of him. Probably, there was a medical indication, since about a year later he died in a hospital in Orly, but by the standards of that time, they treated him amazingly humanely.

Stanislav Lazovert appeared in New York in November 1918, where he published short recollections of the murder of Rasputin, which differed from the version of Yusupov-Purishkevich in only one moment: "the elder", in his words, was a homosexual (the only known statement of this kind). Then he lived in France, maintained relations with Yusupov, died in 1936. Opposite his house in the prestigious 8th arrondissement of Paris, someone opened a dance hall and named it Rasputine.

A fulfilled prophecy

The words of Rasputin are known: "Without me everything will collapse."

In a letter to Nicholas II, sent to Headquarters, the "elder" predicted that by the end of 1916 he would be killed, and if his brother-man did it, then nothing else, and if the "boyars" - the end of the dynasty and Russia.

Understand as you want, but that's how it happened.

Rasputin was offered poisoned wine and food. When the poison did not work, they shot at him several times. Then the body of the "elder", showing no signs of life, was thrown into the icy depths of the Neva.

Later, a legend was born among the people that the "prophet" was thrown into the water while still alive. He allegedly tried to get out of the ice pool for several minutes, but he drowned. The myth looked unusually attractive and is so firmly rooted in the minds of people that even many objective researchers national history took it for the truth.

By the way, the question is, as a result of which he died " god's man”, In those years was by no means idle. Immediately after the assassination of Rasputin, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife declared the murdered a martyr who accepted suffering to save Russia. The question arose about canonizing him. But according to the position existing in the Orthodox Church, a drowned man could under no circumstances be canonized. What was the real cause of Rasputin's death? New documentary evidence makes it possible to quite accurately answer this question.

How the legend was created

The source of it, in our opinion, was, first of all, the rumors that literally flooded Petrograd in January 1917. The former French envoy to Russia M. Paleologue wrote about this in his memoirs. “The murder of Grigory Rasputin is the only subject of conversation in the endless tails of women who, in the rain and wind, were waiting at the doors of butcher's and grocery stores for the distribution of meat, tea, sugar, etc.

They tell each other that Rasputin was thrown into the Neva alive, and they approve of this with the proverb: "Death of a dog to a dog." Another popular version: Rasputin was still breathing when he was thrown under the ice into the Neva ... This is very important, because, thus, he will never be a saint ... "

Probably, the conductors of the rumors were those who wanted to show that Rasputin was not a man, but the devil himself, whose physical destruction is a blessing for Russia. He was hounded, but he survived. They shot at him, but the "elder" did not die. And only the cold-scalding water managed to put the last point.

It is curious, but competent enough people were sure that Rasputin had drowned. Thus, the lady-in-waiting A. Vyrubova writes in her diary: "Despite numerous gunshot wounds and a huge lacerated wound in his left side, made with a knife or a spur, Grigory Efimovich was still alive when he was thrown into the hole, since his lungs were full of water!"

Irkutsk Governor-General S. Beletsky also noted that the "prophet" fell into the water alive. “Protopopov (the last Minister of Internal Affairs of Tsarist Russia - author's note) told me that Rasputin's body was thrown into the wormwood while still alive. This was shown by an autopsy ... ”The testimonies of Vyrubova and Beletsky would later appear in many publications about Rasputin and will be cited by researchers as reliable facts.

It turned out to be impossible to verify their truth in our time: the original protocol of the official autopsy of Rasputin's body, kept in the archives of the Military Medical Academy in the 30s of the XX century, disappeared without a trace.

But, as it turned out, a report on this was published! It was published immediately after the February Revolution by the daily political, social and literary newspaper Russkaya Volya. The author of the material is Dmitry Petrovich Kosorotov, Professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Military Medical Academy, who was one of the the best specialists on forensic medicine of that time. Without a doubt, the results of the autopsy he carried out on Rasputin's body were extremely objective.

Autopsy of Rasputin's body

Kosorotov submitted to the editorial office of the newspaper Russkaya Volya a written account of his autopsy. Due to the fact that such ancient information is available only to a few, we present the publication almost in full.

“On December 19, I was warned and invited by a letter from a judicial investigator to an autopsy of Rasputin's body, scheduled for the morning of December 21 in the chapel of the Chesme almshouse.

On the morning of the 20th, I made the necessary orders to the minister regarding instruments, preparations, and so on. On the same day, according to the old custom, we, classmates of the Military Medical Academy, celebrated the 37th anniversary of the end of the course. There were not many of us gathered for lunch in a modest restaurant. It was about 7 pm when I was asked to phone. They spoke to me from the Anatomical Institute and informed me that the assistant prosecutor had arrived, as well as the investigator, who urgently called me for an autopsy. I explained that I was having dinner and could not appear; if anyone wants to see me, then I ask you to come to my restaurant. Soon the assistant prosecutor and the investigator came there in a car. My minister was right there, next to the driver, and we went to the autopsy.

By emergency order, the autopsy was performed during the same night and lasted for about four hours.

During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, of which many were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was crushed and flattened due to the contusion of the corpse when it fell from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost at point-blank range, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with the fragmentation of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was profuse. There was also a gunshot wound on the corpse in the back, in the spine, with the fragmentation of the right kidney, and also a point-blank wound in the forehead (probably already dying or dead). The pectoral organs were intact and superficially examined; but there was no sign of drowning death. The lungs were not distended, and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water, already dead. I will mention, by the way, that the examination of the corpse was carried out in a very uncomfortable environment, with kerosene lamps, and to inspect the cavities of the chest and abdomen had to bring the lamp into the cavity itself. "

In a conversation with our employee, Mr. Kosorotov shared his personal impressions from the examination of the corpse.

“I often had to,” he says, “perform various difficult and unpleasant autopsies. I am a man with strong nerves and, as they say, I have seen views. But rarely did I have to experience such unpleasant moments as on this terrible night. The corpse made an unpleasant impression on me. This goat's expression, this huge wound on the head was hard even for my tried eye. I was particularly impressed by this haste in performing the autopsy. A young woman came there and insisted that everything be finished as soon as possible. The investigating authorities also asked me about the same, but I found it necessary to do my job methodically and conscientiously. In my opinion, Gr. Rasputin was killed by a shot from a revolver. One bullet was removed, while others were fired at close range and the bullets went right through, so it is impossible to give an opinion on how many people were shooting.

We drank tea after the autopsy to take a little break from this heavy sight, and I clearly remember the puzzled glances that were thrown at each other by the representatives of the investigating authorities. Gr. Rasputin was of a strong build: he was only 45 years old, and I remember how we, in a conversation with each other, sharing our impressions, said that he would have lived the same length. There is no doubt that Rasputin was killed while drunk: the corpse smelled of brandy. His brains were of normal size and did not bear traces of any pathological changes. I considered it my duty not to make all this information public before the trial; but at the moment the preliminary investigation into the murder of Rasputin-Novykh has been terminated by the new minister, AF Kerensky, and therefore I can speak about him. "

Moment of truth

Thus, Kosorotov claims that Grigory Rasputin received three bullet wounds: in the kidneys, liver and brain. In addition, the entire right side of the head was crushed and flattened.

However, as we remember, Vyrubova writes in her diary about a huge lacerated wound in her left side and full of water lungs. The question arises: maybe the data of the forensic medical examination are erroneous or falsified?

To establish the truth, the author, having obtained special permission from the chief curator of the St. Petersburg Museum political history Svetlana Andreevna Khodakovskaya, carefully examined the album from inv. No. 11354, located in the archives of this institution. It contains photographs from the investigation into the murder of Rasputin. 12 photographs show the place of death of the "elder", and the remaining eight - his naked corpse, taken out of the water. This album was sent to the museum by mail by a certain V. I. Afonin back in the 50s of the last century. However, then he did not interest anyone. Only almost forty years later, historians presented it to museum visitors as a sensation.

It turned out that the wounds inflicted on Rasputin with firearms completely coincide with the description given by Professor Kosorotov. The shots in the stomach and forehead were fired at close range. Traces of pistol soot are clearly visible in the photographs. A shot in the back was fired from a considerable distance (there are no traces of soot). On the back, in the area of the right kidney, there is also a small puncture wound inflicted by some sharp object.

Hence the conclusion: the written statement about the autopsy of Rasputin, provided to the newspaper Russkaya Volya, is genuine.

But what about Vyrubova's testimony? Obviously, the maid of honor of Her Majesty was using some unreliable facts or just widespread rumors. She herself did not see the naked corpse of Rasputin. Beletsky also knew that Rasputin had been thrown into the wormwood alive, by hearsay.

Kosorotov writes that when the body of the "elder" was opened, "... there were no traces of death from drowning." And this reliably testified that the "holy man" was dead even before the immersion in the Neva. Thus, the main obstacle to canonization ceased to exist. And it seemed that nothing would prevent Rasputin from becoming officially recognized Orthodox Church saints, but - did not happen. The February Revolution stood on the way to his holiness.

By the way, the data of the forensic medical examination, as it turned out, do not fit in with the testimony of Purishkevich. It is possible that official version the murder of Rasputin, as outlined by his performers, is a fake!

If eyewitnesses of the events knew that Rasputin received a bullet in the forehead, the ridiculous version of drowning would hardly have been born, the reader might think. After all, everyone understands that such a wound is incompatible with life. However, one should not rush to conclusions. Such examples are known to medical practice. A phenomenal case occurred in 1968 in San Francisco. The 57-year-old employee was attacked by gangsters on his way to his hotel. The criminals fired several shots at him and fled.

When the victim regained consciousness, he called a taxi, which took him to the hotel. The hotel administration immediately referred the man to the surgical department of the hospital.

During an X-ray examination, doctors found that the wounded had five (!) Pistol bullets in the head: one in the right hemisphere of the brain, the other at the base of the skull, the third in the upper jaw, and the fourth in the soft tissues oral cavity, the fifth is stuck near the carotid artery.

The medical history recorded that all five bullets were in areas where vital centers are located. The patient's condition is satisfactory.

During these hours, on the night of December 16-17, according to the old style, Grigory Rasputin was killed in St. Petersburg. Many copies have been broken around this name by both contemporaries and historians. But we cannot overlook only one fact - the death of Rasputin and the abdication of Nicholas II, and the further death of him and his family in time turn out to be mystically connected, moreover, this is what Rasputin himself predicted to the emperor and empress: "As long as I live, with you nothing will happen to everyone and the dynasty. If there is no me, in six months you will be gone either. "

Therefore, the death of Rasputin in our history is the most important episode in which it would be necessary to put a fat point.

And a certain lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin. Both Purishkevich and Yusupov, who were bursting with their own importance, wrote memoirs in which they each appropriated the laurels of Rasputin's killers for himself, and Yusupov practically repeated what Purishkevich had written. In addition, the then French ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paleologue, wrote well about the murder and Rasputin, whose book I recommend to everyone.

Yusupov graduated from Oxford and was, shall we say, gay. This fact is indisputable, moreover, Rasputin himself undertook to cure him of demonic behavior. From the Protocol of the investigation into the case of FF Yusupov "Grishka treated him like this: he laid the victim on the threshold of the room and flogged with a belt until our Dorian Gray begged for mercy." From there, Rasputin's words to the prince reached us: "We will completely correct you, only you still need to go to the gypsies, there you will see pretty women, and the disease will completely disappear." The historian NM Romanov, who knew the secrets of the high society, wrote: “I am convinced that there were some physical outpourings of friendship in the form of kisses, mutual groping, and perhaps ... even more cynical. How great was Felix's fleshly perversion, I still little understand, although rumors about his lusts were widespread. " In 1914 he married the niece of Nicholas II and "reformed".

Here is what Yusupov and Purishkevich wrote about direct murder:

Aim. The fight. Shot. Recoil in the elbow. Past.
- What the hell! I do not recognize myself ...
Rasputin was already at the gate overlooking the street.
Shot - again by. Or is he really conspired?
Purishkevich painfully bit his left hand to concentrate. The thunder of the shot is exactly in the back. Rasputin raised his hands over him and stopped, looking at the sky, showered with diamonds.
- Calm down, - said Purishkevich, not to him, but to himself. Another shot - exactly in the head. Rasputin spun around in the snow, shook his head sharply, as if he had got out of the water after swimming, and at the same time he sank lower and lower.
Finally he collapsed heavily into the snow, but still continued to jerk his head. Purishkevich, running up to him, cracked Grishka into the temple with the toe of his boot. Rasputin scraped the frozen crust, making attempts to crawl to the gate, and gnashing his teeth terribly. Purishkevich did not leave him until he died

In addition, there were cyanide-poisoned cakes and wine that did not work.

And now I ask everyone to look at the photograph of the dead Rasputin.

There is a gaping hole in the forehead from a control shot to the head, after which there could be no crawling anymore. No cyanide was found in the stomach or blood. This convincingly proves that Purishkevich and Yusupov were lying. Here is the testimony of the examination

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, of which many were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was crushed, flattened as a result of the contusion of the corpse when it fell from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost at point-blank range, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with the fragmentation of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was profuse. The corpse also had a gunshot wound in the back, in the spine, with fragmentation of the right kidney, and another point-blank wound, in the forehead, probably already dying or dead... The breasts were intact and superficially examined, but there were no signs of drowning death. The lungs were not distended, and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water, already dead. "

- Conclusion of the forensic expert professor D.N. Kosorotova

The investigation by the Empress was organized in the most thorough way and quite quickly a completely unexpected English trace appeared in the case. Tsar Nicholas II directly mentioned that the killer was Yusupov's school friend. However, the February revolution put an end to the investigation, and then Kerensky ordered the corpse of Rasputin to be dug up and burned. But in 2004 in the UK, the truth about the English roots of Rasputin's assassination surfaced. How did a simple Russian peasant interfere with the British? The fact is that he was a categorical opponent of the war with Germany. Using his influence on the empress and the emperor, Rasputin could tell the king not to fight or, after that, make peace. And after all, surprisingly, Rasputin was heavily stabbed with a knife on June 29, 1914, and less than a month later the war had already begun. And here is the full story about the English version as presented by Nikolai Starikov under the cut

With a control shot in the forehead, Grigory Rasputin was killed by British spy Oswald Reiner. It was his name that Yusupov, Romanov and Purishkevich were hiding, who became a blind instrument in the hands of the British secret service. On October 1, 2004, the BBC 2 program "Timewatch" aired a film about the assassination of Rasputin. Retired Scotland Yard employee Richard Cullen and historian Andrew Cook reliably reconstructed the picture of the murder based on photographs of the corpse, autopsy reports, documents and memoirs of that time. And when they did it, it immediately became clear that the existing version of the murder of Grigory Rasputin was deliberately falsified. Yes, Yusupov and Purishkevich both shot at Rasputin.
However, it was the English agent who fired the third, control shot in the forehead of Grigory Rasputin.
Oswald Reiner, the figure in this case is by no means new: he is repeatedly mentioned in the memoirs of Felix Yusupov. The day after the murder, the prince writes, he dined with Reiner, who "knew about the conspiracy and came to find out the news." And the memoirs of Yusupov themselves, published in 1927, were written in collaboration with Reiner. If you look at the title page, you will see that it was translated into English ... Reiner. Thus, the co-author of the "true" memoirs of Felix Yusupov was the British intelligence itself! Is it worth then to be surprised at the "strange" inconsistencies and surprising forgetfulness of the prince? Reiner and his leaders did not need the truth at all. After all, he was a lieutenant in British intelligence, the Secret Intelligence Bureau, as it was then called. In addition to him, according to the authors of the film, senior officers of the British intelligence service were involved in the murder: Captains John Scale and Stephen Allie.

How did the valiant British, after so many years, learn about the old operation of their own special services? By chance. Collecting materials about another knight the queen of England, Sydney Reilly (we will talk about him in detail a little later), Andrew Cook interviewed the 91-year-old daughter of John Scale, who lives in Scotland. She showed him many other documents that testified that her father was not only aware of, but also involved in the removal of Rasputin.

Among the documents was a list of agents in Petrograd, where Reiner's name appeared. Interested in this, the British historian tracked down Oswald Reiner's nephew. He said that his uncle before his death told that he was in Yusupov's palace on the night of the murder. He also had a ring made from a bullet he said was fired at Rasputin. This was further confirmation of Reiner's involvement in the conspiracy. Scale's daughter and Reiner's nephew lived in different parts of the UK and did not even know about each other's existence. However, their stories coincided in the smallest detail. After that, Richard Cullen and Andrew Cook realized that they had managed to uncover a long-standing secret of the British secret service.

In early 2004, they spent several weeks in St. Petersburg to thoroughly study the circumstances of Rasputin's murder on the spot. Kalyon, as a forensic scientist, focused on the official medical records of Rasputin's death and posthumous photographs of the body and scene of the crime. In this he was assisted by the famous St. Petersburg forensic expert Vladimir Zharov, who ten years ago undertook his own investigation of the crime, but was never able to make it public.

The behavior of the British Ambassador, George Buchanan, is also indicative. At a New Year's reception, he spoke to the Russian emperor: "... Since I heard that His Majesty suspects a young Englishman, a school friend of Prince Felix Yusupov, of complicity in the murder of Rasputin, I took the opportunity to convince him that such suspicions are absolutely groundless."
Let's think about it. A British official is trying to convince Tsar Nicholas that it was not an English bullet that hit Rasputin in the forehead, based on rumors!
Taking this step, Buchanan betrays himself with his head. When the ambassador is still making statements using the expression “I heard”. After all, this is not just an Englishman talking to the Russian autocrat, it is a representative of the British monarch speaking. You never know what rumors are circulating in the Russian capital, the ambassador cannot, has no right to react to them.

Were Yusupov and any of the other killers British agents? Probably not. But there are many facts of the life of Rasputin's killers, where in one way or another the English line intersects with the line of their fate. It is enough to trace the fate of the main characters involved in the "Rasputin" affairs, and this strange fact will become absolutely obvious.

Therefore, the death of Rasputin in our history is the most important episode in which it would be necessary to put a fat point.

Much has been written about the murder of Rasputin by his killers themselves, none of whom were punished. It is common knowledge that there were five killers. Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov, State Duma deputy Vadim Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, as well as Dr. Stanislav Sergeevich Lazorvert (photo from LJ http://baronet65.livejournal.com)

And a certain lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin. Both Purishkevich and Yusupov, who were bursting with their own importance, wrote memoirs in which they each appropriated the laurels of Rasputin's killers for himself, and Yusupov practically repeated what Purishkevich had written. In addition, the then French ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paleologue, wrote well about the murder and Rasputin, whose book I recommend to everyone.

Here is what Yusupov and Purishkevich wrote about direct murder:

In addition, there were cyanide-poisoned cakes and wine that did not work.

And now I ask everyone to look at the photograph of the dead Rasputin.

- Conclusion of the forensic expert professor D.N. Kosorotova

How did the valiant British, after so many years, learn about the old operation of their own special services? By chance. Collecting materials about another knight of the Queen of England, Sidney Reilly (we will talk about him in detail a little later), Andrew Cook interviewed the 91-year-old daughter of John Scale, who lives in Scotland. She showed him many other documents that testified that her father was not only aware of, but also involved in the removal of Rasputin.

After Rasputin's death, events developed at a breakneck pace.
The Revolution-Decay-Decay plan started working in full force... In less than a year after the control "union" shot in the elder's forehead, Lenin and Trotsky will sit in Smolny!

The authorities in revolutionary Russia were changing, but for the murderers of Rasputin, those who objectively helped pull the trigger of the Russian revolution, everything went equally well. And vice versa, those who tried to prevent them, to save the country, almost all died or were seriously injured.