Grigory Rasputin memoirs of his contemporaries. Analysis of the reasons for negative opinions about Grigory Rasputin by a number of his famous contemporaries. Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

5. Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

Rasputin, G. E. Life of an Experienced Wanderer. - May 1907.

G. E. Rasputin. My thoughts and reflections. - Petrograd, 1915. .

The books are a literary record of his conversations, since the surviving notes of Rasputin testify to his illiteracy.

The eldest daughter writes about her father:

... my father was, to put it mildly, not fully trained in reading and writing. He began taking his first writing and reading lessons in St. Petersburg.

In total there are 100 canonical prophecies of Rasputin. The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House:

As long as I live, the dynasty will live.

Some authors believe that Rasputin is mentioned in Alexandra Feodorovna’s letters to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin’s surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in the letters is designated by the words “Friend”, or “He” in capital letters, although this has no documentary evidence. The letters were published in the USSR by 1927, and in the Berlin publishing house “Slovo” in 1922. The correspondence was preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation - Novoromanovsky Archive.

6. Assassination attempt on Khionia Guseva

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye. He was stabbed in the stomach and seriously wounded by Khionia Guseva, who came from Tsaritsyn. . Rasputin testified that he suspected Iliodor of organizing the assassination attempt, but could not provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by ship to Tyumen for treatment. Rasputin remained in the Tyumen hospital until August 17, 1914. The investigation into the assassination attempt lasted about a year. Guseva was declared mentally ill in July 1915 and released from criminal liability, being placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk. On March 27, 1917, on the personal orders of A.F. Kerensky, Guseva was released.

7. Estimates of Rasputin’s influence

M. A. Taube, who was a comrade of the Minister of Public Education in 1911-1915, cites the following episode in his memoirs. One day a man came to the ministry with a letter from Rasputin and a request to appoint him as an inspector of public schools in his native province. The minister (L.A. Kasso) ordered this petitioner to be lowered from the stairs. According to Taube, this incident proved how exaggerated all the rumors and gossip about Rasputin's behind-the-scenes influence were.

According to the recollections of courtiers, Rasputin was not close to the royal family and generally rarely visited the royal palace. Thus, according to the memoirs of the palace commandant V.N. Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gherardi, when asked how often Rasputin’s visits to the palace were, answered: “once a month, and sometimes once every two months.” In the memoirs of the maid of honor A.A. Vyrubova, it is said that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the king received him much less often. Another maid of honor, S. K. Buxhoeveden, recalled:

“I lived in the Alexander Palace from 1913 to 1917, and my room was connected by a corridor with the chambers of the Imperial children. I never saw Rasputin during all this time, although I was constantly in the company of the Grand Duchesses. Monsieur Gilliard, who also lived there for several years, also never saw him.”

During all the time he spent at court, Gilliard recalls his only meeting with Rasputin: “One day, getting ready to go out, I met him in the hallway. I managed to look at him while he was taking off his fur coat. He was a tall man, with a gaunt face, with very sharp gray-blue eyes from under unkempt eyebrows. He had long hair and a big man’s beard.” Nicholas II himself in 1911 told V.N. Kokovtsov about Rasputin that:

...personally, he almost doesn’t know “this little guy” and has seen him briefly, it seems, no more than two or three times, and at that at very long distances.

At the same time, the image of Rasputin was widely used in revolutionary and German propaganda. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II, there were many rumors in the St. Petersburg world about Rasputin and his influence on the government. It was said that he himself absolutely subjugated the Tsar and Tsarina and ruled the country, either Alexandra Feodorovna seized power with the help of Rasputin, or the country was ruled by a “triumvirate” of Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the Tsarina.

The publication of reports about Rasputin in print could only be partially limited. By law, articles about the imperial family were subject to preliminary censorship by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Court. Any articles in which the name Rasputin was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were prohibited, but articles in which only Rasputin appeared were impossible to prohibit.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov made a speech critical of the government and the “court party,” in which the name of Rasputin was mentioned. Miliukov took the information he provided about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt dated October 16, 1916 and Neue Freie Press dated June 25, regarding which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V. M. Purishkevich gave a speech at a meeting of the Duma in which great importance was attached to Rasputin. The image of Rasputin was also used by German propaganda. In March 1916, German Zeppelins scattered a cartoon over the Russian trenches depicting Wilhelm leaning on the German people and Nikolai Romanov leaning on Rasputin's penis.

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the empress was Rasputin’s mistress were spread among officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became the chairman of the Provisional Government.

V.I. Lenin wrote:

The first revolution and the counter-revolutionary era that followed it (1907-1914) revealed the whole essence of the tsarist monarchy, brought it to the “last line”, revealed all its rottenness, vileness, all the cynicism and depravity of the tsar’s gang with the monstrous Rasputin at its head, all the atrocity of the family The Romanovs - these pogromists who flooded Russia with the blood of Jews, workers, revolutionaries...

8. Rasputin's entourage

Rasputin's inner circle at one time or another included:

Vyrubova, Anna Alexandrovna

Manasevich-Manuilov, Ivan Fedorovich

Aron Simanovich

Andronikov, Mikhail Mikhailovich

Dmitry Rubinstein

9. Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

Vladimir Kokovtsov wrote with surprise in his memoirs:

... oddly enough, the question of Rasputin involuntarily became the central issue of the near future and did not leave the scene for almost the entire time of my chairmanship of the Council of Ministers, leading me to resignation a little over two years later.

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian varnak, a tramp, smart and trained himself in the well-known manner of a simpleton and a holy fool and plays his role according to a memorized recipe. In appearance, he lacked only a prisoner's coat and an ace of diamonds on his back. In terms of habits, this is a person capable of anything. He, of course, does not believe in his antics, but he has developed firmly memorized techniques with which he deceives both those who sincerely believe all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, having in fact only intended to achieve through it benefits that are not provided in any other way.

Rasputin's secretary Aron Simanovich writes in his book:

How did contemporaries imagine Rasputin? Like a drunken, dirty man who infiltrated the royal family, appointed and fired ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the St. Petersburg scandalous chronicle. In addition, there are wild orgies in the “Villa Rode”, lustful dances among aristocratic fans, high-ranking henchmen and drunken gypsies, and at the same time an incomprehensible power over the king and his family, hypnotic power and faith in his special purpose. That was all.

The investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, writes in his book of judicial investigation:

The head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, Pokhvisnev, who held this position in 1913-1917, shows: “According to the established procedure, all telegrams sent to the Sovereign and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all telegrams that went to Their Majesties from Rasputin, I was known at one time. There were a lot of them. It is, of course, impossible to remember their contents consistently. In all honesty, I can say that the enormous influence of Rasputin with the Sovereign and the Empress was clearly established by the contents of the telegrams.

The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF) contains 1,796 telegrams from Nicholas II to the family, Rasputin, and ministers for 1904, August 1915 - March 1917, delivered from the Tsar’s headquarters in Mogilev.

However, it is important to know the fate of investigator Sokolov, who did not listen to Henry Ford’s entreaties to stay with him in the USA just in case and unexpectedly died in France at the age of forty years in November 1924 (found dead in the yard of his house). The circumstances surrounding the publication of his book are unclear. The manuscript of the book and the investigation materials fell into the hands of the “benefactor” of the investigator, Prince Nikolai Orlov, who already in 1925 published a manuscript under the title “The Murder of the Royal Family. From the notes of forensic investigator N.A. Sokolov.”

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin in 1914 as follows:

Father John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: “Rasputin,” he said: “Look, it will be your name.”

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), an elder of the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage, spoke very harshly about Rasputin: “Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven...”

10. Murder and funeral of Rasputin

Killed by conspirators (F.F. Yusupov, V.M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and British intelligence officer Oswald Reiner) on the night of December 17, 1916. They tried to poison Rasputin (potassium cyanide was added to his cakes) and shoot him (11 shots were fired at him). However, he came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb over the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the killers, who heard a dog barking. They caught Rasputin, tied his hands and feet with ropes, took him by car to a pre-selected place near Kamenny Island and threw him from the bridge into the Neva polynya in such a way that his body ended up under the ice.

The emperor and empress entrusted the forensic medical examination to the famous professor of the Military Medical Academy D. P. Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not been preserved; the cause of death can only be speculated.

Before the February Revolution of 1917, attempts were made to canonize Rasputin.

Rasputin's funeral service was conducted by Bishop Isidor (Kolokolov), who was well acquainted with him. In his memoirs, A.I. Spiridovich recalls that the funeral mass (which he had no right to do) was celebrated by Bishop Isidore.

They said later that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached about the funeral service, rejected this request. In those days, a legend was spread that the Empress was present at the autopsy and funeral service, which reached the English Embassy. It was a typical piece of gossip directed against the Empress.

At first they wanted to bury the murdered man in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovskoye, but due to the danger of possible unrest in connection with sending the body halfway across the country, they buried him in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the Church of Seraphim of Sarov, which was being built by Anna Vyrubova.

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin lasted just over two months and was hastily terminated by Kerensky on March 4, 1917. Three months passed between Rasputin's death and the desecration of his grave.

The burial was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. For several days the coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage. Rasputin's body was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler of the Polytechnic Institute. . An official act on the burning of Rasputin's corpse was drawn up. At the site of the burning, two inscriptions are inscribed on a birch tree, one of which is in German: “Hier ist der Hund begraben” (“A dog is buried here”) and then “The corpse of Rasputin Grigory was burned here on the night of March 10-11, 1917.” .

“We had tea with Militsa and Stana. We met a man of God - Gregory from the Tobolsk province." (November 1, 1905). ...After lunch we had the joy of seeing Gregory upon his return from Jerusalem and Athos (June 4, 1911).”

(From the diary of Nicholas II).

“In moments of doubt and mental anxiety, I love to talk with him (Rasputin - comp.) and after such a conversation my soul always feels light and calm.”

(Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich).

“Count Fredericks (Minister of the Imperial Court - comp.) once, in an intimate conversation, in my presence, when the question touched on the topic of the day, said: “You know that I love the Sovereign like a son, and therefore could not resist asking His Majesty, what, finally, is Rasputin, about whom everyone talks so much?

His Majesty answered me completely calmly and simply - “indeed, they say too much and, as usual, a lot of unnecessary things, as they do about anyone who is not from the usual environment and is occasionally received by us. This is just a simple Russian person, very religious and believing...

The Empress likes him for his sincerity; she believes in his devotion and in the power of his prayers for our family and Alexei... but this is our completely private matter... it’s amazing how people like to interfere in everything that doesn’t concern them at all... who is he bothering? "

(From the memoirs of adjutant Mordvinov’s wing).

“Our servants, when Rasputin happened to spend the night with us or came to our dacha, said that Rasputin does not sleep at night, but prays.

When we lived in the Kharkov province at the dacha, there was such a case that the children saw him in the forest, immersed in deep prayer. This message from the children interested our neighbor, the general, who could not hear the name Rasputin without disgust. She was not too lazy to follow the children into the forest, and indeed, although an hour had already passed, she saw Rasputin, immersed in prayer.”

(From the memoirs of journalist, candidate of rights G.P. Sazonov).

“Once Rasputin was invited to visit a famous general, but when this gentleman realized that his cordiality would not achieve any benefits, he turned away from his former friend.

Rasputin had to move into a cramped, modest apartment, where he lived on voluntary donations from his admirers. The old man’s home was very modest, he ate rather meagerly, and wine was brought to him as a gift only in the last year of his life.”

Although Rasputin was constantly accused of debauchery, wrote A. Vyrubova, it seems strange that when the investigative commission began to operate after the revolution, there was not a single woman in Petrograd or in Russia who would make accusations against him: information was drawn from records of the “guards” who were assigned to him.”

Investigator of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission A.F. Romanov revealed the secrets of the appearance of some “evidence”: “Among various kinds of papers selected during the search, a photograph was found in which, in the setting of a finished lunch or dinner - a table with leftover food, unfinished glasses - Rasputin is depicted and some priest with some laughing women. Behind them are balalaeshniks. The impression of revelry in a separate office.

Upon closer examination of this photograph, it was discovered that two male figures were etched on it: one between Rasputin and the sister of mercy standing next to him, and the other between the priest and the lady standing next to him. Later it turned out that the photograph was taken in the Empress infirmary after breakfast on the occasion of the opening. It seems that Colonel L. and another gentleman took Rasputin and a nurse by the arm, and the other a priest and a lady, brought them to the dining room, trying to make them laugh, and in this form they were photographed by a photographer invited in advance. Then the initiators etched their images...”

Another investigator of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission V.M. Rudnev exposed another myth: about Rasputin’s supposedly huge fortune. It turned out that after his death there was not a penny of money left, and the children were forced to apply for the Highest allowance.

Rudnev writes: “Rasputin, constantly receiving money from petitioners for satisfying their petitions, widely distributed this money to the needy and, in general, to people of the poor classes who approached him with any requests, even of a non-material nature.”

Nevertheless, the situation around the Royal Family and Rasputin was saturated with so many lies that people of high spiritual life fell into its network.

In 1910, the Empress’s confessor, Bishop Theophan, “reported to the Empress that in confession so-and-so had revealed to him something bad about Gregory’s behavior. What was it like for the deeply religious Empress to hear from her confessor what was revealed to him in confession!

/.../ The queen knew the canonical decree on the strictest punishment of confessors who dare to violate the secret of confession, including the reduction of such confessors to a primitive state. By this act of yours; unacceptable for a confessor, he decisively pushed away his hitherto devoted spiritual daughter, the Queen...”

(Hegumen Seraphim, Orthodox Tsar-Martyr.

Russian type. on a spiritual mission. Beijing. 1920).

In addition, subsequently the woman who told Vl. Feofan said something bad about Rasputin, she retracted her words.”

(From comments to the book of Abbot Seraphim (Kuznetsov) “Orthodox Tsar-Martyr”, compiled by S. Fomin).

“I have never had, and have no doubts about the moral purity and impeccability of these relations (between the Royal Family and Rasputin - comp.). I officially declare this as the former confessor of the Empress. All her relationships were developed and supported solely by the fact that Grigory Efimovich literally saved the life of his beloved son, the Heir to the Tsarevich, from death with his prayers, while modern scientific medicine was powerless to help.

And if other rumors are spread among the revolutionary crowd, then this is a lie that speaks only about the crowd itself and about those; who distributes it; but not at all about Alexandra Feodorovna...”

(From the testimony of the confessor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Bishop Feofan (Bistrov) to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government).

“All the books are full of stories about Rasputin’s influence on state affairs, and they claim that Rasputin was constantly with Their Majesties. Probably, if I began to refute this, no one would believe it. I will only draw attention to the fact that his every step, from the time Their Majesties met at the Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna until his murder in Yusupov’s house, was recorded by the police.

Their Majesties had three types of security: the Palace Police, the Convoy and the Introductory Regiment. The Palace Commandant was in charge of all this. The last one until 1917 was General Voeikov. No one could be received by Their Majesties or even approach the Palace without the knowledge of the Palace Police. Each of them, as well as all the soldiers of the combined regiment at the main posts, kept an accurate record of the persons passing and passing. In addition, they were obliged to report by telephone to the officer on duty of the Consolidated Regiment about each person who entered the Palace.

Every step of Their Majesties was recorded... The police, secret and overt, went out everywhere, with their notes, watching every step of the Empress. As soon as she stopped somewhere, or talked with friends, these unfortunate people were immediately surrounded by the police, asking their name and the reason for their conversation with the Empress...

If I say that Rasputin came two or three times a year to see Their Majesties, and recently they perhaps saw him four or five times a year, then you can check from the exact records of these police books whether I am telling the truth.

In 1916, the Tsar personally saw him only twice. But Their Majesties made a mistake by surrounding Grigory Efimovich’s visits with secrecy. This sparked conversation. Every person likes to have some intimacy and sometimes wants to be left alone with his thoughts or prayers, to close the doors of his room.

Their Majesties had the same attitude towards Rasputin, who was for them the personification of hopes and prayers. They forgot about earthly things for an hour, listening to stories about his wanderings and so on. They escorted him through some side passage along a small staircase and received him not in a large reception room, but in Her Majesty’s office, having first passed through at least ten police and security posts with notes.

This hour-long conversation caused a stir among the courtiers for a year.”

“The strongest anger against Rasputin arose in the last two or three years of his life. His apartment in Petrograd, where he spent most of his time, was crowded with all kinds of poor people and various petitioners who, imagining that he had enormous power and influence at the Court, came to him with their needs.

Grigory Efimovich, running from one to another, with an illiterate hand wrote notes on pieces of paper to various influential persons, always with almost the same content: “dear, dear, accept”; or: “darling, dear, listen.” The unfortunate ones did not know that they could least of all count on success by asking through him, since everyone had a negative attitude towards him.

One of the most difficult assignments of the Empress - mostly due to Alexei Nikolaevich's illness - was to go to Grigory Efimovich's apartment, always full of petitioners and often crooks, who immediately surrounded me and did not believe that I could not help them in anything. I can, since I was considered almost omnipotent.

All these petitions that came through Grigory Efimovich, and which he brought in his pockets to Their Majesties in recent years, only angered them; they put them in a common package addressed to Count Rostovtsev, who examined them and gave them legal action.

But, of course, this created a lot of talk, and I remember how well-meaning people asked Their Majesties to give Grigory Efimovich a cell in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra or another monastery, in order to protect him there from the crowd, newspaper reporters and all sorts of crooks who would subsequently denigrate Their Majesties took advantage of his simplicity, took him with them and got him drunk; but Their Majesties did not pay attention to these councils at that time.”

(From the memoirs of A.A. Vyrubova “Pages from my life”).

“I saw only the moral side of this man, who for some reason was called immoral. And I was not alone in my assessment of the character of the Siberian peasant. I know for sure that many women in my circle who had affairs on the side, as well as ladies from the demimonde, precisely thanks to the influence of Rasputin, got out of the mud into which they plunged.

I remember that one day, walking along Morskaya with an officer, a colleague of my husband, Captain 1st Rank Den, I met Rasputin. He looked at me sternly, and when I returned home, I found a note in which the elder told me to come to him. Partly out of curiosity, I obeyed. When I saw Grigory Efimovich, he demanded an explanation from me.

What should I explain? - I asked.

You know as well as I do. What is it, do you want to be like these dissolute society ladies? Why don't you go out with your husband?

To women who sought his advice, he invariably repeated:

If you decide to do something bad, come to me and tell me everything, as if in spirit.

About Rasputin I can only tell you what I saw in him. If I were a Rasputinian or a victim of base passion, I would not live happily with my husband, and Captain 1st Rank of the Imperial Russian Navy Den would not allow me to meet with Rasputin if he behaved inappropriately in Tsarskoe Selo. His duty as a husband would trump his loyalty to the Imperial Family.

Knowing the religious beliefs of the Empress and the characteristics inherent in both classes, the revolutionaries found in Rasputin a suitable weapon for the destruction of the Empire.”

(From the memoirs of Julia Den “The True Queen”).

Taking into account that the question of the belonging of the peasant of the Pokrovskaya settlement Grigory Rasputin-Novy to the Khlysty sect was carefully considered by His Eminence, Most Reverend Alexy, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia according to the investigative case, based on the personal observation of the peasant Grigory Novy and on the basis of information received about him from people who know him well, that based on such personal observations of this case, His Eminence considers the peasant Grigory Rasputin-Novy to be an Orthodox Christian, a person who is spiritually inclined and seeking the truth of Christ - the case of the peasant of the Pokrovskaya settlement Grigory Rasputin-Novy will be discontinued and considered completed . This definition of the Consistory was approved by His Eminence Alexy on November 29.”

The few works attributed to Rasputin testify not only to the theological ignorance of the Siberian “elder”, but also to his adherence to the spiritual sentiments characteristic of sectarians of mystical and charismatic persuasion.

Secondly, the materials of the unfinished consistory investigation into the case of G. Rasputin’s membership in the “Khlysty” sect leave open the question of his direct connections with the sectarians and the degree of ideological influence of sectarian ideology on him.

At the same time, the hypnotic abilities of Grigory Rasputin, which were repeatedly noted by contemporaries, which at the end of the St. Petersburg period of his life he improved under the guidance of a professional hypnotist, may indicate not the grace-filled talent of G. Rasputin, but the influence of the pseudo-prayerful, ecstatic religiosity of mystical sects on him.

Thirdly, G. Rasputin’s immorality, expressed in rampant drunkenness and debauchery, was repeatedly and irrefutably attested to by numerous and very authoritative contemporaries.

The most expressive evidence of this kind can be found in the memoirs of Metropolitans Eulogius (Georgievsky; +1945), Veniamin (Fedchenkov; +1961) and Protopresbyter Georgy Shavelsky (+1951), they are also reflected in the diaries of Metropolitan Arseny (Stadnitsky; + 1937) . The same attitude towards G. Rasputin was shared by the holy martyrs Metropolitan Vladimir (Epiphany; +1918) and Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganev; +1918), the venerable martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (+1918), the martyr Mikhail Novoselov (+1938), as well as Archbishop Feofan ( Bystrov). (On the relationship between the Royal Family and G. Rasputin, see Appendix No. 5 “The Royal Family and G. E. Rasputin”).

Among the accusers of G. Rasputin were also many outstanding government figures, such as Chief Prosecutor A.D. Samarin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. Stolypin and V.N. Kokovtsev, Minister of Internal Affairs A.A. Makarov and the Minister of the Court, Count V.B. Fredericks, as well as the highly professional heads of the Russian special services, the heads of the St. Petersburg security department, Generals A.V., who relied on impartial and objective information from the agents. Gerasimov and K.I. Globachev.

In his addresses at diocesan meetings to the clergy and parish councils of the city of Moscow, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II repeatedly touched upon this topic. In particular, he pointed out: “Recently, quite a lot of colored, beautifully published, so to speak, “icons” of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the notorious Grigory Rasputin and other dark historical figures have appeared. They compiled prayers, troparions, magnifications, akathists and services Some group of pseudo-zealots of Orthodoxy and autocracy is trying to arbitrarily, “through the back door,” to canonize tyrants and adventurers, to accustom people of little faith to their veneration.

It is unknown whether these people act consciously or unconsciously. To be clear, these are provocateurs and enemies of the Church who are trying to discredit the Church and undermine its moral authority. If we recognize Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Grigory Rasputin as saints and be consistent and logical, then we must decanonize the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, the Venerable Martyr Cornelius, the Abbot of Pskov-Pechersk and many others martyred by Ivan the Terrible. You can't worship murderers and their victims together. This is madness. Which normal believer would want to remain in the Church, which equally reveres murderers and martyrs, libertines and saints?..” (From the Address of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' to the clergy and parish councils of churches in Moscow at the Diocesan meeting on December 15, 2001 . // Quoted from "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich: Terrible or Saint". M., Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2003. P. 3 "4.).

“This is not an internal church discussion,” says another Address of His Holiness the Patriarch. “The intentions of the organizers are becoming more and more obvious - to introduce division into the church environment. To contrast the elders with the hierarchy, the white clergy with monasticism, to arbitrarily rewrite Russian church history, in favor of today’s ideological predilections to carry out an audit of the council of Russian saints that has evolved over centuries.

There is no doubt that all this speaks of serious damage to church consciousness, the dangerous consequences of which are obvious to every pastor" (From the Address of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' to the clergy and parish councils of churches in Moscow at the Diocesan Assembly on March 25, 2003. // Quote . based on "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich: Terrible or Saint". M., Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2003. P. 45.).

Our common task and responsibility is to prevent the church ship from being shaken.

Yuvenaly Poyarkov, metropolitan

Grishka Rasputin in the memoirs of contemporaries

More and more often one hears about “the martyr for Christ and for the Tsar, the man of God Gregory, the prayer book for Holy Rus' and her bright youth.” It seems that someone is strenuously trying to introduce into the host of saints a person who is absolutely not involved in this host. For those who impartially read the memoirs of contemporaries about G.E. Rasputin, the myths about his holiness look simply ridiculous. You can brush aside the negative facts about the “elder,” but then you will have to be consistent and accuse respectable people of lying, many of whom, not mythically, but in reality, are saints glorified by our Church.

Here are some memories of Rasputin: “At a reception with the Sovereign, the Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko showed the Emperor the original letters to Rodzianko of women who were in one way or another seduced by Rasputin... a letter about the abominations and behavior of Rasputin during his visits home from one of the locals priests, spoke about the persecution of hierarchs who opposed Rasputin, drew the Tsar’s attention to the famous photograph of “Friend” in a cassock and with a pectoral priest’s cross on a gold chain (I wonder how this “saint” dared to put on a priestly cross without taking the priestly rank?) , pointed to Rasputin’s Khlystyism.”

It is known, by the way, that real saints recognized themselves as unworthy of high priestly service, and none of them ever thought about putting on priestly robes without permission.

There is also a lot of controversy about Rasputin’s Khlystyism. “The famous missionary V.M. Skvortsov was also involved in Rasputin. After the revolution, being a professor of theology in Sarajevo, Skvortsov “convinced and decisively” told an emigrant friend: “Rasputin was undoubtedly a whip, from his youth. And he retained his sectarian skills until the end of his life."

“One of the greatest experts on the Russian schism, Alexei Prugavin... hesitated, but was forced to admit that Rasputin belonged to the sect. Mikhail Novoselov (a right-wing publisher and philologist professor) was also confident in Rasputin’s Khlystism, who tried to publish a brochure on this topic, “Grigory Rasputin and mystical debauchery." (The holy martyr Elizaveta Fedorovna really hoped for this book. - Author.) The manuscript of the book was confiscated from the printing house in 1912."

In addition, “Rasputin’s own daughter, Matrona, already on the verge of death admitted that her father was a whip, and described his zeal in all its “glory”.”

In general, on the list of Rasputin’s enemies there are many people who were known for their love of Orthodoxy and the Fatherland. These people warned everyone that G.E. Rasputin was not at all the old wanderer he pretended to be. These people included: Archimandrite Feofan (Bystrov), who was the confessor of the royal family (until he began to openly express his negative attitude towards Rasputin); Bishop of Saratov Hermogenes (Dolganov, removed from the pulpit for denouncing Rasputin and exiled to a monastery; new martyr), sister of the Empress, Holy Martyr Elizaveta Feodorovna; St. Righteous John of Kronstadt; Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvensky); Hieromartyr Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev (transferred from the capital city to Kyiv, again because he did not hide his attitude towards Rasputin); Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) of St. Petersburg; Reverend Alexey (Sokolov), elder of Zossimov; Blessed Pashenka of Sarov. A significant episode is connected with the latter: “During these years, many came to Sarov and Diveevo. Rasputin came with his retinue - young ladies-in-waiting. He himself did not dare to enter Praskovya Ivanovna and stood on the porch, and when the ladies-in-waiting entered, Praskovya Ivanovna rushed after them with with a stick, swearing: “You deserve a stallion.” They just clicked their heels.”

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), the elder of the Seven Lake Hermitage, who shone with his ascetic life and undoubtedly had the gift of foresight, spoke very sharply about Rasputin. The book by Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev) “The Thorny Path to Heaven” describes such a case. “I come to the reclusive Alexei, who is in noticeable excitement: “Imagine what Father Gabriel said to the Grand Duchess (March Elizabeth Feodorovna. - Author).” She asked him about Rasputin. And what did he say?! “Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven...”

It is interesting to note that fans of G.E. They say that Rasputin was recognized by the righteous John of Kronstadt. Matrona, the daughter of Rasputin, writes that the righteous John of Kronstadt felt “a fiery prayer and a spark of God in his father,” and later called him a “true old man.”

But, for some reason, in the diaries of Fr. John does not encounter such memories. However, other people have memories of their meeting.

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, in the newspaper “Petersburg Courier” for July 2, 1914, describes this meeting as follows: “Fr. John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: “Rasputin” , said: “Look, it will be your name.” Based on this evidence, it is very difficult to conclude that Father John felt “a spark of God and a fiery prayer” from Rasputin. Another interesting piece of evidence, in our opinion, somewhat clarifies the actual relationship between Father John of Kronstadt and G.E. Rasputin. Righteous Father John had a disciple, Archpriest Roman Medved (by the way, glorified among the holy new martyrs), who did nothing without his blessing. The holy confessor Father Roman had a very negative attitude towards Rasputin and “warned Bishop Sergius (Starogorodsky) and Archimandrite Feofan (Bistrov) against rapprochement with this man.” It seems that a person who constantly consulted with Father John certainly asked the saint about Rasputin. And if Fr. John considered G.E. Rasputin to be a true spiritual elder, then, most likely, the judgments about this man of such a close spiritual son and novice as confessor Fr. Roman would not have been so categorical.

Rasputin himself probably had a very high opinion of his concepts in spiritual life. He doesn’t call his book anything, but “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer.” Well, since he is an experienced wanderer, he allows himself such statements about a real righteous man, whom all of Russia revered: “Rasputin... spoke of Father John of Kronstadt... that the latter is a saint, but inexperienced and without reasoning, like a child... "So subsequently the influence of Father John at court began to decrease." The concept of the “holy elder” about sin and the greatest of the church sacraments - the Holy Eucharist - was very interesting. V.A. Zhukovskaya recalls the words of the “elder” himself. "I'll prove everything to you as it is. Understand? You can sin until you are thirty, but then you need to turn to God, and once you learn to give your thoughts to God, you can sin again (he made an indecent gesture), only somewhere then there will be a special one - but intercede and save me Yourself, my Savior, understand? Anything is possible, don’t trust the priests, they are stupid, they don’t know the whole secret, I will prove the whole truth to you. Sin is given for this purpose, to repent, and repentance brings joy to the soul and strength to the body, do you understand? Do you know what's coming in the first week?" "Why?" I asked.<...>“You need to understand sin. Here are the priests - they don’t understand... sin. And sin itself is the most important thing in life” (emphasis on). "Why is it important?" – I asked again, perplexed. Rasputin narrowed his eyes: “You know, sin is only for those who seek it, and if you walk through it and keep your thoughts with God, you have no sin in anything, you understand? And without sin there is no life, because there is no repentance, and there is no repentance - there is no joy. Do you want me to show you sin? Say what comes in the first week, and come to me after communion, when you have heaven in your soul. So I’ll show you sin. You can’t stand on your feet!<...>I also told you: go away and come to me clean. Why didn't you take communion and come?" "Well, what would have happened?" I asked. He narrowed his eyes: "I wish I could have taken you, that's what! Wow, it’s good to get clean!” – he gritted his teeth. There's not even anything to say here. Calling a person after communion (“when you have heaven in your soul”) to mortal sin is simply some kind of demonic possession. How, I wonder, will the “elder’s” admirers comment on this testimony? Most likely, they will do what they usually do and say that this archival evidence is slander of the enemies of the Fatherland.

G.E. Rasputin even cast out the demon of fornication, probably having forgotten the 26th rule of the Council of Laodicea (364), which reads: “Those who have not been ordained by a bishop should not cast spells either in churches or in houses...”. For the sake of truth, it is worth saying that sometimes he found a way out and cast a spell on the prodigal demon “neither in churches nor in houses,” but in a bathhouse. There is evidence of this not from detractors of the “holy elder,” but from direct participants in such “expulsions,” reminiscent of the bacchanalia of adherents of the phallic cult, admirers of the elder. From a survey by priest Yuryevsky in 1913 of participants in Rasputin’s trips to the bathhouse in his village: “First came his (Rasputin. - Author) prayer, after which there was a threefold repetition of the phrase “Devil of fornication, get out!”... After which Rasputin commits with a woman... (I won’t specify, and it’s clear. - Author). The power of copulation was such that the woman no longer felt the usual state of lust. She felt that the demon of fornication had left her." We remind you once again that these are testimonies not of enemies, but of Rasputin’s admirers, who are ready to justify anything in him. This is what General Lokhtina does when she gives evidence to the emergency commission. “For a saint, everything is sacred. What, Father Gregory, is it like everyone else, or what? It’s people who commit sin, and by doing the same he only sanctifies and brings down the grace of God on you.”

I would also like to draw attention to Rasputin’s love for the Passion-Bearer Tsar, about which some “historians” write so much. It is best to give the floor to Grigory Efimovich himself. His words were also preserved in the memories of his contemporaries. Many books contain Rasputin's prediction that the royal family will have to suffer after his death. And they love to quote the words “while I am alive, they are alive.” Let us quote the entire prophetic phrase as Rasputin himself pronounced it in a conversation with Prugavin. “It looks like you don’t know anything: was it I who didn’t do anything to the king? Yes, I think there is no one in all of Russia who has done him as much harm as I have, and he still loves me.” He suddenly fell silent and peered suspiciously at Prugavin: “Don’t think about what I said,” and he grinned slyly, “you just can’t understand what’s going on here. But just remember: as long as I’m alive, they’re alive too.” , and if they kill me, well, then you’ll find out what will happen, you’ll see,” he added mysteriously.”

Alexy Makhetov, priest

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the empress was Rasputin’s mistress were spread among officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became the chairman of the Provisional Government.

After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the Provisional Government organized an emergency commission of inquiry, which was supposed to look for crimes of tsarist officials and, among other things, investigate the activities of Rasputin. The commission carried out 88 surveys and interrogated 59 people, prepared “stenographic reports,” the chief editor of which was the poet A. A. Blok, who published his observations and notes in the form of a book entitled “The Last Days of Imperial Power.” The commission has not finished its work. Some of the interrogation protocols of senior officials were published in the USSR by 1927. From the testimony of A.D. Protopopov to the extraordinary investigative commission on March 21, 1917:

Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

The investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, writes in his book of judicial investigation:

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin in 1914 as follows:

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), the elder of the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage, spoke very harshly about Rasputin: “Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven...”

Attempts to canonize Rasputin

Religious veneration of Grigory Rasputin began around 1990 and originated from the so-called. The Mother of God Center (which changed its name over the following years).

Some extremely radical monarchist Orthodox circles have also, since the 1990s, expressed thoughts about canonizing Rasputin as a holy martyr. The supporters of these ideas were:

1. Editor of the Orthodox newspaper "Blagovest" Anton Evgenievich Zhogolev.
2. Zhanna Bichevskaya.
3. Konstantin Dushenov is the editor-in-chief of Rus Orthodox.
4. Church of St. John the Evangelist and others.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church for the canonization of saints

and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II:

Despite this, over the past ten years, religious admirers of Grigory Rasputin have issued at least two akathists to him, and also painted about a dozen icons.

• By a strange coincidence, Rasputin met Tsar Nicholas II in the same year (1905) as Papus (who came to Russia in 1905). Rasputin, like Papus, had a strong religious influence on the tsar: Papus initiated the tsar into Martinism, treated his family and allegedly predicted his death... this is what they say about Rasputin. Both died at the end of 1916, with a difference of only about two months.

Rasputin in culture and art

According to S. Fomin's research, during March-November 1917, theaters were filled with dubious productions, and more than ten libelous films about Grigory Rasputin were released. The first such film was the two-part “sensational drama” “Dark Forces - Grigory Rasputin and His Companions” (produced by the joint-stock company G. Libken). The film was delivered in record time, within a few days: on March 5, the Early Morning newspaper announced it, and on March 12 (! - 10 days after the abdication!) it was released on cinema screens. It is noteworthy that this first libelous film was a failure as a whole and was successful only in small outlying cinemas, where the audience was simpler... The appearance of these films led to a protest from a more educated public because of their pornography and wild eroticism. In order to protect public morality, it was even proposed to introduce film censorship (and this in the first days of the revolution!), temporarily entrusting it to the police. A group of filmmakers petitioned the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky to ban the demonstration of the film “Dark Forces - Grigory Rasputin” and to stop the flow of film dirt and pornography. Of course, this did not stop the further spread of the Rasputin film across the country. Those who “overthrew the autocracy” were in power, and they needed to justify this overthrow. And further S. Fomin writes: “After October 1917, the Bolsheviks approached the matter more fundamentally. Of course, the film waste paper about Rasputin received a second wind, but much broader and deeper steps were taken. Falsified by P. E. Shchegolev and others were released. multi-volume Protocols of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry created by the Provisional Government, forged from beginning to end by the same P. Shchegolev with the “red count” A. Tolstoy “The Diaries” of A. Vyrubova. In the same row is the widely demonstrated play by A. Tolstoy “The Conspiracy of the Empress” ... It was only around 1930 that this campaign began to decline - the new generation entering adulthood in the USSR was already sufficiently “processed.”

“Almost all memoirs about Grigory Efimovich Rasputin suffer from an amazing, unacceptable flaw for memories: most memoirists have not seen Grigory Efimovich or have seen him briefly, from afar. But all the “memories”, both those who were sympathetic to the Royal Family and those who expressed hostility towards Her, spoke equally badly about Rasputin, repeating the same thing: a drunkard, a libertine, a whip. What did they know about him? What, other than rumors, could the Duma masons Pavel Milyukov and Alexander Kerensky, the poetess Zinaida Gippius, the poet Alexander Blok and the English Ambassador Buchanan say about him, if all of them, like Buchanan, repeat in their memoirs: “I never sought a meeting with him, because I didn’t consider it necessary to enter into a personal relationship with him.” And, without seeing Rasputin in person, they all diligently retell rumors.
General Sukhomlinov saw him only once at the Sevastopol station in 1912: “Walking along the platform back and forth, he tried to pierce me with his gaze, but did not make any impression on me” (47, p. 286). But this did not stop the general from retelling in his memoirs everything he heard about Rasputin, including the fiction that the elder was to blame for his resignation. Archpriest G. Shavelsky saw Rasputin “twice and then from afar: once on the platform of the Tsarskoye Selo station, another time in 1913 at the Romanov celebrations in Kostroma” (48, p. 101). Shavelsky could not remember anything reprehensible about his meetings, but he remembered all the fables about Rasputin and the Tsar’s children, which the teacher of the Grand Duchesses, Sofya Ivanovna Tyutcheva, a mentally ill woman, retold to him when “coming for advice,” for which she was removed from the children. General V.N. Voeikov and tutor P. Gilliard, who sincerely loved the Royal Family, also could not boast of knowing Rasputin.

Gilliard recalls only one single meeting: “One day, getting ready to go out, I met him in the hallway. I managed to look at him while he was taking off his fur coat. He was a tall man, with a gaunt face, with very sharp gray-blue eyes from under unkempt eyebrows. He had long hair and a big man’s beard.” But could “a few moments” be the basis for repeating the same thing: “a drunkard, a whip, a libertine, ruling the country”?

The book under the name of Gilliard, published in 1921 in Vienna, has the ambiguous title “Emperor Nicholas II and his family. According to the personal recollections of P. Gilliard, former mentor of the Heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich,” What does “according to personal recollections” mean? Has someone retold Gilliard's memories? And where is the guarantee that the one who wrote from Gilliard’s memoirs could not insert something of himself into them, as happened in numerous reprints of the memoirs of Anna Aleksandrovna Taneyeva (Vyrubova) - tendentious insertions by unknown editors and a lot of abbreviations of the most important parts of the memoirs.

The palace commandant, General V.N. Voeikov, spoke with Rasputin once, “having a specific goal - to form a personal opinion about him” (19, p. 76). Voeikov’s review of Father Gregory is unfavorable, although Voeikov did not see anything bad during the conversation with him: “He seemed to me to be a shrewd man, trying to portray himself as something other than what he really was, but possessing some kind of inner strength!” Voeikov was struck by the discrepancy between the Rasputin he saw and the Rasputin whom society rumored to represent, but here’s what’s amazing: Voeikov chose to believe the rumors rather than his own eyes.
The famous publicist Menshikov behaved in exactly the same way, having seen with his own eyes a handsome, sensible peasant, but after his pleasant personal impressions, he diligently recounted in an essay about him everything vile that he had heard about from acquaintances and friends (50).

Fortunately, there are other people among memoirists. General P.G. Kurlov published the book “The Death of Imperial Russia” in Berlin in 1923. The General never belonged to the circle of Grigory Efimovich, and the elder’s haters cannot accuse him of bias, in addition, he is a professional policeman, director of the Police Department, chief The Main Prison Directorate, comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the experience of communicating with people of criminal thinking and behavior, and it was this image of Rasputin that was imposed on society, Kurlov had enormous, and he had no reason to stand up for Rasputin and the Royal Family after 1911, after all, with the murder of P.A. Stolypin, his own destiny and career collapsed.

Kurlov describes Rasputin as he himself saw him: “I was in the ministerial office, where the courier on duty brought Rasputin. A thin man with a wedge-shaped dark brown beard and piercing, intelligent eyes approached the minister. He sat down with P.A. Stolypin near the large table and began to prove that it was in vain to suspect him of anything, since he was the most meek and harmless person... After that, I expressed to the minister my impression: in my opinion, Rasputin represented he looked like a Russian cunning man, as they say, on his own, and did not seem like a charlatan to me. “For the first time I talked with Rasputin in the winter of 1912 at one of my acquaintances... The external impression of Rasputin was the same as what I made when, unknown to him, I saw him in the minister’s office... Rasputin treated me with great distrust, knowing that I was an employee of the late minister, whom he, not without reason, could consider his enemy... This time I was struck by Rasputin's serious acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and theological issues. He behaved with restraint and not only did not show a shadow of boasting, but did not say a single word about his relationship with the Royal Family. Likewise, I did not notice any signs of hypnotic power in him and, leaving after this conversation, I could not help but say to myself that most of the rumors circulating about his influence on others belonged to the realm of gossip “for which Petersburg is always so susceptible.”