Rasputin 5

The Next Morning

In the morning on December 17, Rasputin’s daughters woke to find that their father had not returned from his late night rendezvous with the Little One. Rasputin’s niece, who had also been living him, called Maria Golovina to say that her uncle had not yet returned. Maria called Felix but was told he was still sleeping. Felix later returned the phone call to say that he hadn’t seen Rasputin at all the previous night. Everyone in the Rasputin household knew this was a lie and it worried them greatly.

The police officer who had talked to Felix and Purishkevich had told his superior, who in turn told his superior, about the events seen and heard at the Yusupov palace. Felix realized that there was a lot of blood outside, shot one of his dogs and placed its corpse on top of the blood. He claimed that a member of his party had thought it was a funny joke to shoot the dog. That didn’t fool the policemen. There was too much blood for a dog and there was more than one shot heard. Plus, Purishkevich had told the policeman that they had killed Rasputin.

The tsarina was informed and an investigation was opened immediately. It was obvious early on to the police and to everyone else who the murderers were. There just wasn’t a body yet.

On December 19, police began looking for a body near the Great Petrovsky Bridge on the Malaya Nevka River, near where a bloody boot had been found the day before. There was a hole in the ice but they couldn’t find the body. Looking a little farther downstream, they came upon the corpse floating in another hole in the ice.

When they pulled him out, they found Rasputin’s hands were frozen in a raised position, making everyone believe that he had still been alive under the water and had tried to untie the rope around his hands.

Rasputin’s body was taken by car to the Academy of Military Medicine where an autopsy was conducted. The autopsy results showed:12

•Alcohol but not poison was found
•Three bullet wounds (first bullet entered the chest on the left, hitting Rasputin’s stomach and liver; the second bullet entered the back on the right, hitting the kidneys; the third bullet entered the head, hitting the brain)
•A small amount of water was found in the lungs

The body was buried at the Feodorov Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo on December 22. A small funeral was held.

What Happened Next?

While the murderers were under house arrest, many people went to visit or wrote them letters in order to congratulate them. The murderers were hoping for a trial because that would insure that they become heroes. Trying to prevent just that, the tsar stopped the inquiry and ordered that there be no trial. Though it was their good friend and confidante that had been murdered, it was their relations that had been the murderers.

Prince Felix was exiled. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich was sent to Persia to fight in the war. Both survived the revolution and the war.

Though Rasputin’s relations with the tsar and tsarina had weakened the monarchy, the killing of Rasputin came too late to reverse the damage. If anything, the murder of a peasant by aristocrats sealed the fate of the Russian monarchy. Within three months, Tsar Nicholas would abdicate and about a year later the entire Romanov family would also be murdered.

Questions Remain

The murder of Rasputin still leaves many questions to be answered. I recommend the book, The Rasputin File, for information on these important questions. To fool Rasputin into thinking Irina was upstairs, were there also women involved in the conspiracy? Were the pastries really poisoned? Why didn’t Rasputin get impatient about waiting so long for Irina? Was it really Purishkevich who fired the last two shots or was it Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich?

I have taken the chance and posted two today so i can catch up with the story, otherwise i will be here forever! 😀