Diary cutting real. The incredible fate of Anna Vyrubova - the maid of honor of the last Empress (6 photos)

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

Frontispiece photograph by Anna Vyrubova, 1909–1910

© RIPOL Classic Group of Companies LLC, edition, 2016

Preface to the first edition 1
pages of my life. The memoirs of A. A. Vyrubova, nee Taneeva, were published in exile in the journal Russian Chronicle, Paris, 1922.

The sixth year from the beginning of the Russian turmoil expires. Much has been experienced during this terrible time, and much of what was secret is becoming clear.

Through the mist of mutual accusations, irritation and malice, voluntary and involuntary untruth, the truth breaks into the light of God. The doors of archives open, the secrets of relationships become available, memories emerge, people's conscience begins to speak.

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

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

Submissive to the will of the Eternal, with evangelical meekness, they bore reproach, keeping in their souls unshakable loyalty to Russia, love for the people and faith in its revival. They have long forgiven all those who slandered them and betrayed them, but we have no right to do so. We are obliged to call everyone to account and nail all the guilty to the pillar of shame. For it is impossible to draw beneficial lessons from the past for future generations until this past is exhausted to the bottom ...

There is no need to talk about the significance of the memoirs of Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, nee Taneeva: it is self-evident. Of all the strangers A. A. Taneeva 2
After the divorce, she returned to her maiden name. (Hereinafter, the notes of the 1st edition.)

For the past twelve years, she was closest to the royal family and knew her better than many. All this time, Taneeva was, as it were, an intermediary between Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the outside world. She knew almost everything that the empress knew: people, deeds, and thoughts.

She experienced with the royal family both the happy days of greatness, and the first, most bitter moments of humiliation. She did not break off relations with her almost to the very end, finding ways to maintain correspondence under incredibly difficult conditions for that. For her closeness to the royal family, she was subjected to severe persecution by both the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks. The slander did not spare her either. Vyrubova's name is still in the eyes of a certain part of Russian society the embodiment of something reprehensible, some kind of intrigue and endless secrets of the court.

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

Without touching on this assessment in essence, it should be noted that the facts established by the investigator removed from A. A. Taneeva at least those charges of a moral order that the rumor raised against her.

Not everyone, perhaps, will find in the memoirs of A. A. Taneeva what is expected of them. Indeed, in many ways these memoirs are too compressed, sometimes too detailed. Perhaps they contain something unsaid, or rather, inaccurately perceived and regarded by the author, for example, the degree of Rasputin's influence on the way of thinking of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who, unfortunately, trusted his insight and understanding of people. They do not contain enough detailed information about the content of conversations with him, and about the advice that he sometimes gave on practical issues of life, and this is all the more pity because his advice, judging by the letters of the empress, was not at all of the character that they were assigned. There are no details about many people who, through A. A. Taneeva, tried to penetrate the circle of attention of the empress and enlist her support. In general, the role of this environment seems to be insufficiently elucidated in the memoirs.

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

However, even the strictest critic will have to admit that these memoirs are a document of great historical significance and acquaintance with them is indispensable for anyone who wants to give himself a clear account of the events that preceded the turmoil.

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

The memoirs of A. A. Taneeva suggest that one of the main, if not the main, reason for hostility towards Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, hostility that arose in certain strata of society, and from there, embellished with rumor and gossip, passed into the masses, was purely external the fact is the isolation of her life, due primarily to the illness of the heir and causing jealousy on the part of those who considered themselves entitled to stand close to the royal family. We see how this mood grew, causing the empress to withdraw more and more into herself, who sought solace in a religious upsurge. She strove, at least in the form of a simple popular faith, to find a solution to the painful contradictions of life. We also see what a pure, loving and devoted heart to Russia beat in that one, who was considered an arrogant, cold and even alien to Russia queen. And if this impression was so stubbornly held, then, one wonders, does not the blame primarily lie with those who did not manage or did not want to get closer and easier to approach her, understand and protect her yearning soul from slander and gossip ?!

We see from the memoirs of A. A. Taneeva more clearly than from all other sources, all the horror of the betrayal that surrounded the royal house, we see how in a moment of trouble fell away from the sovereign and his family, one by one, all those who seemed to be obliged to be the first lay down their heads for their defense: in vain did the empress and the grand duchesses expect that adjutant wing, whom they considered their closest friend; refused to come to Tsarskoye Selo at the call of the sovereign, his confessor; entourage and servants, with the exception of a few faithful, hastened to leave them at the first sign of collapse; and many other painful and shameful things we learn from these reminiscences.

But there is a special feature in the memoirs of A. A. Taneeva that distinguishes them from other impressions of the first times of troubles. Along with the heavy pictures of collapse, betrayal and betrayal, how many pure and bright phenomena she noted. In the midst of the seemingly endless brutality of a people led astray, how much compassion and kindness erupts, how much heroic self-sacrifice, how much attachment to the old, persecuted past. All these touching people, sheltering an unfortunate, hunted woman from persecution or trying to protect her from frenzied soldiers and sailors, all these wounded, remembering goodness and kindness - in them is the justification of Russia, in them is her bright future! The old, the good, the good perished or fell silent, crushed down by the enormity of malice and passions that fell upon him, but She is alive - this infinitely touching soul of Orthodox compassionate Russia. Under the rough crust of prejudices, under the dirt and pus that gushed out of the cracks of history, the tender and compassionate heart of the people continues to live. It is the best guarantee that not everything is lost and perished, that the day will come when Russia will rise from the ashes, from the ruins and dirt, cleanse itself with repentance, shake off the foreign yoke from its soul and once again show to the astonished world selfless devotion to its primordial ideals. And the dead righteous-tsar will then become the first shrine of Russia.

Pages of my life

Dedicated to the beloved Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

If I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil, because You are with me.

Psalm 22

Reproached - bless, persecuted - endure, blasphemy - console yourself, slandered - rejoice!

(Words of St. Seraphim of Sarov)

Here is our journey with you...

Anna Vyrubova, 1912–1913

Chapter 1

Coming with prayer and a feeling of deep reverence to the story of my sacred friendship with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, I want to briefly say who I am and how I, brought up in a close family circle, could approach my empress.

My father, Secretary of State Alexander Sergeevich Taneyev, held the prominent post of Chief Executive of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery for twenty years. By a strange coincidence, the same post was held by his father and grandfather under the emperors Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III.

My grandfather was General Tolstoy, adjutant wing of Emperor Alexander II, and my great-grandfather was the famous Field Marshal Kutuzov. The great-grandfather of the mother is Count Kutaisov, a friend of Emperor Paul I.

Despite the high position of my father, our family life was simple and modest. In addition to official duties, all his vital interest was focused on his family and his favorite music - he occupied a prominent place among Russian composers. I remember quiet evenings at home: my brother, sister and I, seated at a round table, prepared our lessons, my mother worked, while my father, sitting at the piano, studied composition. I thank God for a happy childhood, in which I drew strength for the difficult experiences of recent years.

We spent six months of the year at the Rozhdestveno family estate near Moscow. This estate belonged to our family for two hundred years. Neighbors were our relatives, the princes Golitsyn, and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. From early childhood, we children adored the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (the elder sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), who pampered and caressed us, giving us dresses and toys. Often we went to see them in Ilyinskoye, and they came to us - in long lines with a retinue - to drink tea on the balcony and walk in the old park. Once, having arrived from Moscow, the Grand Duchess invited us to tea, after which we looked for toys hidden by her in a large corner living room, when suddenly it was reported that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had arrived. The Grand Duchess, leaving her little guests, ran to meet her sister.

My first impression of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna refers to the beginning of her reign, when she was in the prime of her youth and beauty: tall, slender, with a regal posture, golden hair and huge sad eyes - she looked like a real Queen. From the very beginning, the empress showed confidence in my father by appointing him vice-chairman of the Labor Assistance Committee, which she founded in Russia. At this time, in winter, we lived in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Palace, in the summer, at a dacha in Peterhof.

Returning from the young empress after the reports, my father shared his impressions with us. So, he said that at the first report he dropped the papers from the table and the empress, quickly bending down, handed them to him, greatly embarrassed. The extraordinary shyness of the empress struck him, "but," he said, "she has a masculine mind." First of all, she was a mother: holding the six-month-old Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna in her arms, the empress discussed with my father the serious questions of her new institution; Rocking the cradle with the newborn Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna with one hand, she signed business papers with the other. Once, during one of the reports, an unusual whistle was heard in the next room. "What bird is this?" the father asked. “It is the sovereign calling me,” the empress answered, blushing greatly, and ran away, quickly saying goodbye. Subsequently, how often did I hear this whistle when the sovereign called the empress, the children, or me; how much charm was in him, as in the whole being of the sovereign ...

Mutual love for music and conversations on this topic brought the Empress closer to our family. I have already mentioned my father's musical talent. It goes without saying that we were given a musical education from an early age. Father took us to all concerts, to the opera, to rehearsals, and during the performance he often forced us to follow the score; the whole musical world has been with us - artists, bandmasters, Russians and foreigners. I remember how one day P. I. Tchaikovsky came to have breakfast and went into our nursery.

We girls were educated at home and passed the exam for the title of teacher in the district. Sometimes, through our father, we sent our drawings and works to the empress, who praised us, but at the same time told her father that she was amazed: Russian young ladies do not know either housekeeping or needlework and are not interested in anything other than officers. Brought up in England and Germany, the empress did not like the empty atmosphere of St. Petersburg society, and she kept hoping to instill in high society a taste for work. To this end, she founded a needlework society, whose members, ladies and young ladies, were obliged to work for the poor at least three things a year. At first, everyone set to work, but soon our ladies cooled off, like everything else, and no one could work even this meager. The idea didn't catch on. Despite this, the Empress continued to open houses of industriousness throughout Russia for the unemployed and established houses of charity for fallen girls, taking all this to heart.

Life at court at that time was cheerful and carefree. At the age of seventeen, I was introduced to the Empress in Peterhof, in her palace. Terribly shy at first, I soon settled in and had a lot of fun. That first winter I managed to attend thirty-two balls, not counting other amusements. Probably, overwork affected my health - and in the summer, falling ill with typhoid fever, I was dying for three months. I got inflammation of the lungs, kidneys and brain, my tongue was taken away, and I lost my hearing. Once in a dream, during long, painful nights, I saw John of Kronstadt, who said that soon I would be better. As a child, Fr. John of Kronstadt visited us three times and left a deep impression in my soul with his blessed presence, and now it seemed to me that he could help more than the doctors and sisters who looked after me. I somehow managed to explain my request – to call Fr. John, - and the father immediately sent him a telegram, which he, however, did not immediately receive, since he was in his homeland.

Half-forgotten, I felt that Fr. John is coming to us, and was not surprised when he entered my room. He served a prayer service, placing the stole on my head. At the end of the prayer service, he took a glass of water, blessed it and poured it over me, to the horror of the sister and the doctor, who rushed to dry me. I immediately fell asleep, and the next day the fever subsided, my hearing returned, and I began to recover. The Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna visited me three times, and the Empress sent wonderful flowers, which were placed in my hands while I was unconscious.

In September I left with my parents for Baden and then for Naples. Here we lived in the same hotel with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, who were very amused when they saw me in a wig. In general, the Grand Duke had a gloomy look and told his mother that he was upset by the wedding of his brother, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich. I soon recovered completely, and in the winter of 1903 I traveled a lot and had fun. In January, she received a code - that is, she was appointed a city maid of honor, but she was on duty under the empress only at balls and exits. This made it possible to see and officially get to know the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and soon we became friends with a close, inseparable friendship that lasted all subsequent years.

I would like to draw a portrait of the Empress Empress - the way she was in these bright days, until grief and trials befell our dear homeland. Tall, with golden thick hair that reached her knees, she, like a girl, constantly blushed with shyness; her eyes, huge and deep, animated with conversation and laughed. At home, she was given the nickname Zippu, and the Sun (Sunny) - the name that the sovereign always called her. From the very first days of our acquaintance, I became attached to the empress with all my heart: love and affection for her remained for the rest of my life.

The winter of 1903 was very cheerful. I especially remember this year the famous balls at the court in costumes of the time of Alexei Mikhailovich; the first ball was in the Hermitage, the second - in the concert hall of the Winter Palace and the third - at Count Sheremetev's. My sister and I were among the twenty couples who danced Russian. We rehearsed the dance several times in the hall of the Hermitage, and the empress came to these rehearsals. On the day of the ball, the empress was strikingly beautiful in a gold brocade dress, and this time, as she told me, she forgot her shyness, walked around the hall, talking and examining the costumes.

During the summer, I got sick. We lived in Peterhof, and this was the first time that the Empress visited us. She arrived in a small chaise, driving herself. Cheerful and affectionate, in a white dress and a big hat, she came upstairs to the room where I was lying. She seemed to take pleasure in arriving without warning. Shortly thereafter we left for the village. In our absence, the empress came again and to the dumbfounded courier who opened the door for her, handed over a bottle of holy water from Sarov, instructing us to send it to us.

The following winter, the Japanese war began. This terrible event, which brought so much grief and deeply shook the country, affected our family life by reducing the number of balls, there were no receptions at the court, and our mother forced us to take a course of sisters of mercy. We went to practice in the Elizabethan community. At the initiative of the empress, a linen warehouse for the wounded was opened in the halls of the Winter Palace. My mother was in charge of the homework distribution department, and we helped her all day long. The empress came to the warehouse almost daily: after going around a long row of halls where ladies worked at countless tables, she sat down to work somewhere.

The Empress was then in anticipation of an heir. I remember her tall figure in a dark velvet dress trimmed with fur that concealed her fullness and a long pearl necklace. Behind her chair stood the black Jimmy in a white turban and an embroidered dress; This moor was one of the four Abyssinians who were on duty at the doors of their Majesties' chambers. Their duty was only to open doors. The appearance of Jimmy in the warehouse produced a general excitement, as it foreshadowed the arrival of the empress. (These Abyssinians were a remnant of the court staff from the time of Catherine the Great.)

An heir was born the following summer. The empress later told me that of all her children, these were the easiest births. Her Majesty barely had time to climb the winding stairs from her small study to her bedroom before the baby was born. How much joy there was, despite the severity of the war; it seems that there was nothing that the sovereign would not have done in memory of this dear day. But almost from the very beginning, the parents noticed that Alexei Nikolaevich had inherited a terrible disease, hemophilia, from which many in the empress's family suffered; the woman does not suffer from this disease, but it can be passed from mother to son. The whole life of the little Tsarevich, a handsome, affectionate child, was one continuous suffering, but his parents suffered doubly, especially the empress, who knew no more peace. Her health had deteriorated greatly after all the experiences of the war, and she began to have severe heart attacks. She suffered endlessly, realizing that she was the unwitting culprit of her son's illness. Her uncle, the son of Queen Victoria, Prince Leopold, was ill with the same disease, her little brother died from it, and all the sons of her sister, the Princess of Prussia, suffered from childhood hemorrhages.

Naturally, everything that was available to medicine was done for Alexei Nikolaevich. The empress fed him with the help of a nurse (since she herself did not have enough milk), like all her children. The children were first accompanied by an English nanny and three Russian nannies, her assistants. With the advent of the heir, the empress parted with the Englishwoman and appointed him a second nanny, M. I. Vishnyakova. The Empress bathed the heir herself every day and devoted so much time to the nursery that they began to say at court: “The Empress is not a queen, but only a mother.” Of course, at first they did not know and did not understand the seriousness of the situation. A person always hopes for the best: Their Majesties hid the illness of Alexei Nikolaevich from everyone except the closest relatives and friends, turning a blind eye to the growing unpopularity of the empress. She suffered endlessly and was sick, and they said that she was cold, proud and unfriendly: she remained that way in the eyes of the courtiers and Petersburg society even when they learned about her grief.

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

Portrait of Anna Vyrubova

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

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

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

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

Charity has always been Anna's real vocation: back in 1915, she opened a hospital for the rehabilitation of the wounded in the war. The money for this was found due to an accident: having got into an accident on a train, Anna received severe injuries, she herself remained an invalid. She gave the entire amount (80 thousand rubles!) of the paid insurance policy for the construction of a hospital, and the emperor donated another 20 thousand. After spending half a year chained to a bed, Anna realized very well how important it is to give disabled people the opportunity to feel needed again, to learn a trade that would help them occupy their free time and bring a minimal income.

Anna Vyrubova

Having escaped from prison, Anna wandered for a long time until she decided to become a nun. She took the tonsure on Valaam and lived a calm and blessed life. She passed away in 1964 and was buried in Helsinki.
Alexandra Feodorovna highly appreciated the merits of the maid of honor, calling her in her letters "her dear martyr."

Anna Vyrubova

maid of honor of her majesty

"Diary" and memories of Anna Vyrubova

Before you is a reprint reproduction of a book published in 1928 by the Riga publishing house Orient. The book consists of two parts - the so-called "Diary" of Anna Vyrubova, the maid of honor of the last Russian Empress, and her memoirs.

Vyrubova's "Diary" was published in 1927–1928. on the pages of the magazine "Past Days" - supplements to the evening issue of the Leningrad "Red Newspaper". O. Broshnovskaya and Z. Davydov were named as those who prepared this publication (the latter is erroneously given a female surname in this book). As for Vyrubova’s memoirs, they were not published in our country, only small excerpts from them were published in one of the collections of the series “Revolution and Civil War in the Descriptions of the White Guards”, published by the State Publishing House in the twenties.

There were many legends and conjectures around the name of Anna Vyrubova for a long time. The same can be said about her notes. If Vyrubova's memoirs, titled by the author of Pages from My Life, actually belong to her pen, then the Diary is nothing more than a literary hoax. The authors of this socially ordered hoax were the writer Alexei Tolstoy and the historian P. E. Shchegolev. It should be noted that this was done with the greatest professionalism. It is natural to assume that the “literary” part of the case (including stylization) was carried out by A.N. Tolstoy, while the “actual” side was developed by P.E. regime".

The book "The maid of honor of Her Majesty" was compiled and commented by S. Karachevtsev. By publishing the Diary and Vyrubova's memoirs under the same cover, he subjected them to significant cuts (this is especially true of the Diary). However, a book that compares these works as a whole will no doubt be of interest to today's reader, who will be able to draw his own conclusions from this comparison.

It must be said that the further fate of Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova was also accompanied by speculation. Back in 1926, the Searchlight magazine reported the death in exile of a former lady-in-waiting, "a personal friend of Alexandra Fedorovna", "one of the most ardent admirers of Grigory Rasputin." The recently published Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary (1990) cautiously states that Vyrubova died "after 1929." Meanwhile, as it became known, under her maiden name (Taneeva), the former maid of honor of Her Majesty lived in Finland for more than four decades and died in 1964 at the age of eighty; she was buried in Helsinki at the local Orthodox cemetery. In Finland, Anna Aleksandrovna led a secluded life, secluded in a quiet forest corner of the Lake District, for which, however, there were quite good reasons. First, in fulfilling her vow before leaving her homeland, she became a nun; secondly, many emigrants did not want to communicate with a person whose name was compromised by the mere mention next to the name of Grigory Rasputin.

The detailed details of the last decades of the life of A. A. Vyrubova-Taneeva were found out by Hieromonk Arseny from the New Valaam Monastery, which is four hundred kilometers northeast of the capital of Finland.

For many years, the former maid of honor worked on memoirs. But she did not dare to publish them. They were released in Finnish after her death. We think that over time this book will come to our reader.

A. Kochetov

The chariot of time rushes in our days faster than the express train, The lived years go back into history, overgrow with past, drown in oblivion. However, the inquisitive human mind cannot reconcile itself with this, prompting us to extract from the darkness of the past at least separate fragments of past experience, at least a faint echo of the day that has ceased to sound. Hence the constant and great interest in historical reading, which grew even more in our country after the revolution; it has opened numerous archives and made available parts of the past that were previously forbidden. The general reader has always been much more attracted to familiarize himself with "what was" than with "what was not" ("the fiction of the writer").

In the tragic story of the collapse of a powerful empire, the personality of the maid of honor Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, nee Taneeva, is inextricably linked with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, with Rasputin, with all the nightmare that shrouded the court atmosphere of Tsarskoye Selo under the last tsar. Already from the published correspondence of the tsarina it was clear that Vyrubova was one of the main figures of that intimate court circle, where all the threads of political intrigues, painful fits, adventurous plans, and so on intersected. Therefore, the memoirs of the maid of honor Vyrubova are of vital interest to all circles.

About her family and how she came to court, Vyrubova writes in her memoirs:

My father, Alexander Sergeevich Taneyev, held the prominent post of Secretary of State and Chief Executive of His Imperial Majesty's Chancellery for 20 years. The same post was held by his grandfather and father under Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III.

My grandfather, General Tolstoy, was the aide-de-camp of Emperor Alexander II, and his great-grandfather was the famous Field Marshal Kutuzov. Mother's great-grandfather was Count Kutaisov, a friend of Emperor Paul I.

Despite the high position of my father, our family life was simple and modest. In addition to the service, all his vital interest was concentrated in the family and his favorite music - he occupies a prominent place among Russian composers. I remember quiet evenings at home: my brother, sister and I, seated at a round table, prepared our lessons, my mother worked, while my father, sitting at the piano, studied composition.

We spent 6 months a year at the Rozhdestveno family estate near Moscow. Neighbors were relatives - the princes Golitsyn and the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. From early childhood, we, children, adored the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (the elder sister of the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), who pampered and caressed us, giving us dresses and toys. Often we went to Ilyinskoye, and they came to us - on long lines - with a retinue, to drink tea on the balcony and walk in the old park. Once, having arrived from Moscow, the Grand Duchess invited us to tea, when suddenly it was reported that the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had arrived. The Grand Duchess, leaving her little guests, ran to meet her sister.

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

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

The Empress called Vyrubova "big baby"

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

With the outbreak of the First World War, Vyrubova, together with the imperial family, began to work as a nurse in the infirmary arranged in Tsarskoye Selo. The wounded in this hospital are operated by Vera Gedroits, the most famous female doctor in Russia. Being in voluntary isolation, Alexandra Fedorovna receives almost all the news from the capital from her faithful friend, who often gives her not the best advice. Officers - hospital patients are accustomed to the constant visits of the empress, and therefore allegedly no longer show proper attitude towards her - Vyrubova advises to visit the infirmary less often in order to teach disrespectful subjects a lesson.

At the age of 18, Vyrubova contracted typhus, but escaped.

On January 2, 1915, Vyrubova went by train from Tsarskoe Selo to Petrograd, however, before reaching the capital only 6 miles, the train got into an accident. The adviser to the Empress is found under the rubble with little or no chance of survival. In her memoirs, Vyrubova carefully describes all the details of the terrible catastrophe that happened to her: for 4 hours she lay alone without help. The arriving doctor says: "She is dying, you should not touch her." Then Vera Gedroits arrives and confirms the fatal diagnosis. However, after the identity and status of the victim becomes public knowledge, she is urgently taken to Tsarskoye Selo, where the Empress and her daughters are already waiting on the platform. Despite all the assurances of the doctors that nothing would help the unfortunate woman, Rasputin, who urgently arrived at the request of the Empress, prophetically announces that Vyrubova "will live, but will remain a cripple."

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

The investigation denied rumors about her connection with Rasputin

After spending several days in a pre-trial detention cell, Vyrubova finds herself in the most terrible prison for political criminals - in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where, in addition to the empress's friend, other enemies of the new government, whose names were associated with all the worst crimes of the former regime, are also imprisoned: the leader of the right-wing party " Union of the Russian People” Alexander Dubrovin, former Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Prime Ministers Boris Shtyurmer and Ivan Goremykin, Interior Minister Alexander Protopopov. Tsarist officials are kept in appalling conditions. When Vyrubova is brought into the cell, the soldiers take the straw bag and pillow from the bed, tear off the gold chain on which the cross hangs, take away the icons and jewelry: “The cross and several icons fell on my knees. I cried out in pain; then one of the soldiers hit me with his fist, and, spitting in my face, they left, slamming the iron door behind them. From Vyrubova's memoirs, it becomes clear how inhuman the attitude towards the prisoners was: from dampness and constant cold, she gets pleurisy, her temperature rises, she finds herself practically without strength. There is a huge puddle on the floor in the middle of her cell, sometimes she falls into it from her bunk in delirium and wakes up soaked through. The prison doctor, according to Vyrubova's memoirs, mocks the prisoners: “I was literally starving. Twice a day they brought half a bowl of some kind of bourda, like soup, into which the soldiers often spat, they put glass. It often stank of rotten fish, so I plugged my nose, swallowing some to keep from starving; poured out the rest." However, a few months later, a thorough investigative check was finally carried out, and on July 24 Vyrubova was released due to the lack of corpus delicti.

For a month, Vyrubova lives quietly in Petrograd, until on August 25 she is declared an extremely dangerous counter-revolutionary and sent to the Finnish fortress of Sveaborg. The convoy leaves for its destination on the Polar Star yacht, which used to be the property of the royal family - Vyrubova often visited it: “It was impossible to recognize the wonderful dining room of Their Majesties in the spat, filthy and smoky cabin. At the same tables sat about a hundred "rulers" - dirty, brutalized sailors. By the way, their hatred for each other was mutual - the majority associated the figure of Vyrubova with the most sinister crimes of the tsarist government. Leon Trotsky unexpectedly comes to her aid, who orders the immediate release of the "prisoner of Kerensky" (not without the protection of Vyrubova's mother, Nadezhda Taneeva). On October 3, Vyrubova was brought to a reception at Smolny, where Lev Kamenev and his wife Olga, Trotsky's sister, met her. Here they even feed her dinner, after which they let her go.

Fearing a second arrest, Vyrubova hid with her friends for another year, finding refuge in "the basements and closets of the poor, who she had once rescued from poverty." At the end of 1920, a devoted friend of the former empress managed to illegally enter Finland, where she would live for another 40 years, taking tonsure under the name Maria Taneeva in the Smolensk Skete of the Valaam Monastery.

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

“Doctors said that they did not understand at all how this happened (stopping bleeding in an heir with hemophilia). But this is a fact. Having understood the state of mind of the parents, one can understand their attitude towards Rasputin.
As for money, Rasputin ... never received from them.
In general, money did not play a role in his life: if they gave him, he immediately
handed out. His family was left in complete poverty after his death.
In 1913, I remember, Minister of Finance Kokovtsev offered him 200,000 rubles so that he would leave St. Petersburg and not return.
He replied that if "Papa" and "Mama" want, he will, of course, leave, but why
to buy it. I know many cases when he helped during illnesses, but I also remember that he did not like being asked to pray for sick babies, saying:
"you will beg for life, but will you accept the sins that the child will do in life"
("Memoirs" M 1991, pp. 189-190)

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

Without wasting time on reprinting, I quote further from the Internet the contents of "Memoirs"

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

Reflections on Rasputin

Anna Vyrubova

Personally, I have no experience that Rasputin allegedly had a special erotic attraction. Yes, it’s true, many women went to ask him for advice in their love affairs, taking him for a talisman that brings happiness, but usually Rasputin urged them to stop their love affairs.

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

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

In the first two years of Rasputin's stay in the capital, many genuinely and openly approached him, like me, who was interested in spiritual issues, wanted guidance and support in spiritual improvement. Later, it became a habit to go to him when trying to win the favor of the Court Circle. Rasputin was considered a force that was supposedly lurking behind the Throne.

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

Rasputin really could stop the bouts of hemorrhage!

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

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

Later, and especially during the war, those who wanted to denigrate the Throne went to Rasputin. There were always journalists and officers around him who drove him to taverns, drinking him, or organized drinking parties in his small apartment - in other words, they did everything possible to put Rasputin in a bad light to everyone's attention and in this way indirectly harm the Emperor and Empress.

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

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

The Sovereign and Empress met Rasputin for the first time at the home of the Grand Dukes Peter and Nikolai Nikolaevich; their families considered Rasputin a prophet who gave them guidance in the spiritual life.

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

In Livadia, the Empress, hearing that Rasputin had arrived in Yalta, often sent me with carriages to fetch him. Having driven away from the main gate, near which there were six or seven policemen, soldiers or Cossacks, I had to instruct them to lead Rasputin through a small entrance from the side of the garden, straight into the personal wing of the Sovereign and Empress. Naturally, all the guards noticed his arrival. Sometimes members of the Family did not want to shake hands with me at breakfast the next day, because, in their opinion, I was the main reason for Rasputin's arrival.

During the first two years of friendship between the Empress and me, the Empress also tried to secretly lead me to her working room through the rooms of the servants, not noticed by her ladies-in-waiting, so as not to arouse their envy of me. We spent our time reading or needlework, but the manner in which I was escorted to her gave rise to unpleasant and completely unreasonable gossip.

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

Gossip got its start in the Palace, among the entourage of the Empress and, precisely for this reason, they believed in them.

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

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

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

Walking into the Empress's room, a little after the news of the murder of Rasputin, I heard Alexei sobbing, hiding his head in the window blind: "Who will help me now, if "Our Friend" is dead?"

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

The third serious mistake that the Royal Couple made, especially the Empress, was the opinion that Rasputin had a gift to see who was a good person and who was a bad person. No one could shake their faith. "Our friend" said that said bad person or vice versa and that was enough. One person told me that he saw a faint smile on the lips of the Sovereign when the news came of the murder of Rasputin. Still, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the statement, since I later met the Sovereign, who was deeply shocked by what had happened.

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

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

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

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

The assassination of Rasputin on December 16, 1916 was the starting shot of the revolution. Many believed that Felix Yusupov and Dmitry Pavlovich saved Russia with their heroic deed. But it happened quite differently.

The revolution began, the events of February 1917 caused Russia complete devastation. The abdication of the Sovereign from the throne was completely unreasonable. The sovereign was oppressed to such an extent that he wanted to step aside. It was threatened that if he did not give up the Crown, his entire Family would be killed. This he told me later at our meeting.

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

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

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

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

There were terrible days. On the morning of the 19th, Protopopov signaled that Rasputin's body had been found. At first, Rasputin's galosh was found near the ice-hole on Krestovsky Island, and then the divers stumbled upon his body: his arms and legs were tangled with a rope; he probably freed his right hand when he was thrown into the water; fingers were crossed. The body was transported to the Chesme almshouse, where an autopsy was performed.

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

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

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

Rasputin's daughters, who were all alone at the funeral, placed on the chest of the slain icon, which the Empress had brought from Novgorod.

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

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

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

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

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

Rasputin was used as an excuse to destroy all the old foundations. He, as it were, personified in himself that which became hated by Russian society, which had lost all balance. He became a symbol of their hatred.

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

But the sooner everyone digs into his conscience and recognizes his guilt before God, the Tsar and Russia, the sooner the Lord will stretch out His strong hand and deliver us from severe trials.

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

The peasants treated Rasputin's guests with curiosity, but they were indifferent to him, and the priests were hostile. There was an Assumption fast, milk and dairy this time were not eaten anywhere; Grigory Efimovich never ate meat or dairy.

There is a photograph that represents Rasputin sitting in the form of an oracle among the aristocratic ladies of his "harem" and, as it were, confirms the enormous influence that he supposedly had in court circles. But I think that no woman, even if she wanted to, could be carried away by him; neither I nor anyone who knew him intimately heard of one, although he was constantly accused of depravity.

When the Commission of Inquiry began to function after the revolution, there was not a single woman in Petrograd or in Russia who would come forward with accusations against him; information was drawn from the records of the "guards" who were assigned to him.

Despite the fact that he was an illiterate man, he knew all the Holy Scriptures, and his conversations were distinguished by originality, so that, I repeat, they attracted many educated and well-read people, such as, no doubt, Bishops Feofan and Hermogenes, Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna and others .

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

One of Rasputin's enemies, Iliodor, launched two assassination attempts on him. He succeeded first when a certain woman Gusev stabbed him in the stomach in Pokrovsky. This was in 1914, a few weeks before the start of the war.

The second assassination attempt was arranged by Minister Khvostov with the same Iliodor, but the latter sent his wife to Petrograd with all the documents and betrayed the plot. All these personalities like Khvostov looked at Rasputin as a tool for the realization of their cherished desires, imagining to receive certain favors through him. In case of failure, they became his enemies.

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

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

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

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

The last time the Sovereign saw Rasputin was at my house, in Tsarskoye Selo, where, on the orders of Their Majesties, I summoned him. This was about a month before his assassination. Here I was convinced once again what an empty fiction was the notorious talk about the desire for a separate peace, about which the slanderers spread the rumor, pointing out that this was the desire of either the Empress or Rasputin.

The sovereign arrived preoccupied and, sitting down, said: “Well, Gregory, pray well; It seems to me that nature itself is going against us now.” Grigory Efimovich approved him, saying that the main thing was not to conclude peace, since that country would win, which would show more stamina and patience.

Then Grigory Efimovich pointed out that it was necessary to think about how to provide for all orphans and disabled people after the war, so that "no one would be left offended: after all, everyone gave You everything that he had most dear."

When Their Majesties got up to say goodbye to him, the Sovereign said, as always: "Gregory, cross us all." “Today you bless me,” Grigory Efimovich answered, which the Emperor did.

Whether Rasputin felt that he was seeing Them for the last time, I do not know; I cannot assert that he foresaw the events, although what he said came true. I personally describe only what I heard and how I saw him.

With his death, Rasputin associated great disasters for Their Majesties. In recent months, he had expected to be killed soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the Internet

An example of the strictest life was one of the closest admirers of Rasputin, a friend of the tsarina, Anna Vyrubova.

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

Vyrubova did not have a personal life at all, devoting herself entirely to the service of her neighbors and the suffering. She took care of orphans, worked as a nurse.

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

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

"History", which became a household name, was savored in secular salons at the court and in the tabloid press, in the State Duma and on the streets.

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