Rasputin's Daughter (31 page)

Anna Vyrubova, Alexandra’s closest friend, was arrested and interrogated at length by the Thirteenth Section. When questioned about a possible sexual relationship with Rasputin, she swore under oath that these rumors were nothing but lies and she was in fact a virgin. A small cadre of physicians examined her and, much to the surprise of the Thirteenth Section, immediately confirmed her claim. Eventually freed, Madame Vyrubova was later rearrested by the Bolsheviks, only to escape and disappear into hiding. Several years after Lenin seized power, she managed to flee across the ice floes to Finland, where she took her vows. She lived in seclusion until her death in Helsinki in 1964.

Rasputin’s most notorious and fanatical devotee, Madame Lokhtina, was arrested by the Thirteenth, interrogated, and released. Dressed in torn filthy clothing, she was last seen in 1923 at a train station poking at people with her staff and begging for food.

Alexander Protopopov, Russia ’s last Minister of Internal Affairs, was imprisoned and shot, his body dumped in an unknown grave.

The great Russian poet Alexander Blok was indeed drafted and brought in by the Extraordinary Commission to transcribe the Thirteenth Section’s interrogations of those who knew Rasputin. While he welcomed the overthrow of Nicholas II, he was soon greatly disillusioned by the Bolsheviks. His epic poem The Twelve was published within a year of the Revolution, and while many consider it one of his greatest works, it also proved to be among his very last. His spirit and health shattered by what he saw around him, he died in 1921, at age forty-one, of complications from hunger and syphilis.

Grigori Rasputin’s ever-devoted wife, Praskovia, mentally retarded son, Dmitri, and youngest daughter, Varvara, were all driven from their Siberian village by the Bolsheviks. Praskovia is believed to have died soon thereafter of unknown causes. Dmitri was later captured by Stalin’s henchmen and thrown into the brutal Salehard Camp, one of the many gulags of Siberia, where he died of scurvy in 1937. Rasputin’s treasured younger daughter, Varvara, disappeared completely, though it is rumored she died unnoticed in Leningrad in the early 1960s. Edvokia Pechyorkin-Dunya-who served Rasputin as both housekeeper and mistress, vanished into the flames of the Revolution.

As for the real Maria Rasputin, she fled to Siberia after the Revolution, where she impetuously married Boris Soloviev, an officer with a shadowy reputation. They escaped from Russia during the civil war-the only members of the Rasputin family to do so-and eventually found their way to Paris. Soon after her marriage, Maria gave birth to one daughter and then another, and when her husband died in 1926, Maria danced and sang in a cabaret to support her little family. Later she found work as a lion tamer in both London and Los Angeles, and the crowds flocked to see the daughter of the “Mad Monk” perform her magic over nature’s wild beasts. While on tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus in Peru, Indiana, she was mauled by a bear, which forced her to quit the circus and take a job as a riveter in a Miami shipyard.

Finding peace far from Siberia, Maria lived out her old age in a bungalow tucked in the shadows of the Hollywood Freeway, where she lived on Social Security and the occasional babysitting job. While she never published any poetry, she wrote several memoirs and co-authored a cookbook, which includes recipes for both Jellied Fish Heads and her father’s favorite, Cod Soup.

Maria died in 1977. The Rasputin descendants continue to live in the environs of Paris.

1894

Nicholas II succeeds Alexander III

1914

War breaks out against Germany

St. Petersburg is renamed Petrograd

1915

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich is removed as Comannder in Chief

Nicholas II appoints himself Commander in Chief, leaves for the front

Alexandra’s power and role in the government grow rapidly

1916

Rasputin murdered by Yusupov and others December 16

1917

February: Massive demonstrations break out over food shortages

Riots turn into revolution and mutiny

Nicholas II abdicates February 28

The Provisional Government attempts to restore order

March 4: The Provisional Government forms:

The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Illegal Acts by Ministers and Other Responsible Persons of the Tsarist Regime

The Thirteenth Section, charged with investigating the Dark Forces (all who knew Rasputin are incarcerated and interrogated)

August: The former imperial family is exiled to Siberia

October: Second Revolution breaks out as Lenin and Bolsheviks seize power

1918

Nicholas, Alexandra, and children are secretly executed July 16

1919

The report of the Thirteenth Section, nearly 500 pages long, vanishes

Maria Rasputin escapes from Russia

1920

Russian Civil War ends

1977

Maria Rasputin dies in Hollywood, California

1995

The entire report of the Thirteenth Section is auctioned at Sotheby’s in Paris

ahmeen | amen

arzhin |.71 meters

banya | Russian sauna

batushka | the dear father

bistro | quickly

bit-po-semo | so be it

bizmyen | permission to kiss the tsaritsa’s hand

bog | God

bogoroditsa | the Virgin

bozhe moi | my God

bozh’i-liudi | God’s people

chai’naya | teahouse

da | yes

derevenschina | naïve country girl, yokel

devochka | young girl

devushka | girl

doche | daughter

dochenka maya | my little daughter

dorogaya maya | my dear

Dukhobory | a religious sect known as pacifist “spirit wrestlers”

durachok | cute little fool

durak | fool

dyadka | uncle, fellow, bodyguard

dyavol | the devil

fortochka | small transom window

garderob-sheek | coatroom attendant

gospodi | good heavens

gospodin | mister

grupa seksa | group sex

izba | peasant’s log hut

kammerfurier | court log

Kazanskaya | The Virgin of Kazan, one of Russia ’s most revered icons

Khlysty | a religious sect known as “the Whips”

kiot | large icon case

konyechno | of course

kosovorotka | Russian shirt, fastened alongside the collar

kroogli durak | round idiot, complete fool

kto tam? | who is there?

leemoan | lemon

liodi | common people

malenkaya maya | my little one

milaya maya | my dear one

ministir | minister

molodets | excellent, a smart one

Molokans | a religious sect known as “the milk drinkers”

muzhik | peasant

nyet | no

narod | the masses

ochen | very

pelmeni | Siberian meat dumplings

pirog | a pie

podstakanik | metal holder for tea glass

pravoslavni | Russian Orthodoxy

proshchaitye | farewell

prospekt | prospect, boulevard

prostitutka | prostitute

radeniye | rejoicing

radi boga | for the sake of God

rasputitsa | a season of horribly muddy roads

rasputiye | a crossroad

rasputnik | a debauched person

reeba bez vodii | a fish without water

revolutsiya | revolution

russkiye | Russian

sevodnya soopa nyetoo | today there is no soup

sermyaga | peasant clothing of heavy cloth

Skoptsy | a religious sect known as “the castrators”

slava bogu | thanks be to God

spasibo | thank you

starushka | a sweet, old woman

strannik | a (wandering) pilgrim

starets | a religious elder, a man of God

starii xhren | an old piece of horseradish

Subbotniki | a religious sect whose beliefs fall between Christianity and Judaism

svalnyi grekh | group sinning

takzhe | also

tapochki | slippers

telega | a cart without springs

vershok | 4.4 centimeters

v’koosno | tasty

vranye | fibs, the art of creative lying

xhama | rogues

Xhristos | Christ

Xhristovshchina | the Christ faith

xhorosho | good/fine

ya spala kak ubeetaya | I slept like the dead

ya tebya lubloo | I love you

ya Vas slushaiyoo | I am listening to you

zakuska | appetizer