The Crime Book

ASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL PLOTS 315

cake while he waited. However,

the food and drink had been

laced with cyanide – and the

only guests in the house were

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich,

politician V. M. Purishkevich,

and Dr Stanislas de Lazovert.

All wanted to end Rasputin’s

influence over the Romanovs.

Yusupov left Rasputin in the

room, but the mystic was still alive

when he returned. The poisoning

had failed. Yusupov excused

himself again and went upstairs,

where the Grand Duke handed

him a revolver. Yusupov returned

to the cellar and shot the mystic

through the chest. Rasputin fell to

the floor. Exuberant, Felix raced

upstairs and announced that

Rasputin was dead.

The joyous men descended into

the cellar only to find Rasputin

gone. They tracked him into the

courtyard where he was limping

towards the gate. Purishkevich

took aim with the revolver and fired

four times, hitting Rasputin

through the kidney. When he fell

into the snow, one of the

conspirators shot him through the

head. The four men battered

Rasputin’s body, then tied him up

and dumped him into a hole in the

half-frozen river.

Prophecy fulfilled

The next day, Rasputin’s daughter,

Maria, contacted the tsarina to

inform her that her father had

disappeared after going to Moika

Palace to treat Irina’s headache.

Alexandra, however, knew that

Irina was not even in the city. An

investigation was quickly launched

to find the missing mystic.

During a search of Moika

Palace, police found traces of blood

near the back door, which Yusupov

claimed belonged to a dog. More

blood was discovered on a parapet

by Bolshoy Petrovsky bridge, along

with one of Rasputin’s galoshes. On

18 December, a Uhlenhuth test –

used to determine the species of a

blood sample – revealed the blood

on the back steps to be human.

Yusupov and Grand Duke Pavlovich

were placed under house arrest.

Rasputin’s body was found on

19 December. The autopsy showed

that he had died instantly when the

The conspirators

dump Rasputin into

the icy Nevka River

Rasputin consumes

cyanide-laced wine

and cake in the Moika

Oalace cellar

Rasputin survives the

poisoning and remains in

the cellar

Rasputin is shot in the

head and kidneys by

Purishkevich

Rasputin survives,

and escapes into

the courtyard

Rasputin’s hands and feet

are bound with chains

and rope

The conspirators beat

Rasputin

Rasputin is shot in the

chest by Yusupov

Rasputin falls into the

snow. The conspirators

fear he is still alive

third bullet penetrated the frontal

lobe of his brain. However, his

body showed no evidence of the

supposed cyanide poisoning.

A week later, Nicholas II sent

Yusupov and Pavlovich into exile

without trial. While they succeeded

in murdering Rasputin, they failed

to save the Romanovs. In 1917,

Nicholas was forced to abdicate,

and the Bolsheviks seized power

that October. The Romanovs were

held in a house in St Petersburg

until 17 July 1918, when they were

shot by a firing squad. Rasputin’s

dark prophecy had come to pass. ■

Without Rasputin,

there could have been

no Lenin.

Alexander Kerensky

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