Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich

Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, the son of nobleman, was born in Bessarabia on 12th August, 1870. He graduated from Odessa University with a degree in philosophy.

Purishkevich developed right-wing political opinions and in 1905 he was one of the founders of the Union of the Russian People. The movement was established in response to the activities of Father Georgi Gapon and the Assembly of Russian Workers and was counter-revolutionary, nationalist, monarchist and anti-semitic. Purishkevich's group was also accused of participation in numerous pogroms.

Purishkevich was elected to the Russian Duma. It has been argued by Richard Cullen, the author of Rasputin (2010): "Purishkevich entered public life between 1902 and 1904 as a member of a special commission in the Ministry of the Interior. He was a reactionary monarchist and served in the Duma because the Tsar had been forced to establish it and Purishkevich, along with other monarchist members, wished to limit its powers. Thus, his purpose was not to represent society, but to champion autocracy. He was elected to the Second Duma, but it was not until the Third and Fourth Dumas (1907-17) that he was able to develop fully his particular political style. Whenever possible Purishkevich sought to disrupt the Duma's proceedings, to abuse opponents in the moderate and left parties, and even hurl insults at the Duma's president."

In 1908 he founded his own right-wing organization known as Union of Archangel Michael. During this period Purishkevich became a main leader of the radical monarchist right and became well-known for his extremist views. During the First World War he left politics to take charge of a medical aid train on the Eastern Front.

In September, 1915, Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the Russian Army fighting on the Eastern Front. As he spent most of his time at GHQ, Alexandra Fedorovna now took responsibility for domestic policy. Rasputin served as her adviser and over the next few months she dismissed ministers and their deputies in rapid succession. Alexander Kerensky complained that: "The Tsarina's blind faith in Rasputin led her to seek his counsel not only in personal matters but also on questions of state policy. General Alekseyev, held in high esteem by Nicholas II, tried to talk to the Tsarina about Rasputin, but only succeeded in making an implacable enemy of her. General Alexseyev told me later about his profound concern on learning that a secret map of military operations had found its way into the Tsarina's hands. But like many others, he was powerless to take any action."

Rumours began to circulate that Grigory Rasputin and Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna were leaders of a pro-German court group and were seeking a separate peace with the Central Powers in order to help the survival of the autocracy in Russia. Michael Rodzianko, the President of theDuma, toldNicholas II: "I must tell Your Majesty that this cannot continue much longer. No one opens your eyes to the true role which this man (Rasputin) is playing. His presence in Your Majesty's Court undermines confidence in the Supreme Power and may have an evil effect on the fate of the dynasty and turn the hearts of the people from their Emperor". Rasputin was also suspected of financial corruption and right-wing politicians believed that he was undermining the popularity of the regime.

On 19th November 1916, Purishkevich made a speech in the Duma where he attacked the influence Grigory Rasputin was having on Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna. "Evil comes from those dark forces and influences that have forced the accession to high posts of people incapable to occupy them... from the influences that are headed by Rasputin. I have not been able to sleep the last few nights, I give you my world. I have been lying with my eyes wide open imagining the series of telegrams, notes, and reports that the illiterate peasant has written first to one minister and then to another... Over the years of the war I have assumed that our domestic quarrels should be forgotten. Now I have violated that prohibition in order to place at the feet of the throne the thoughts of the Russian masses and the bitter taste of resentment from the Russian front that have been produced by the Tsar's ministers who have been turned into marionettes, marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna - the evil genius of Russia and the Tsaritsa who has remained German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people."

On 21st November 1916, Purishkevich wrote to Prince Felix Yusupov: "I'm terribly busy working on a plan to eliminate Rasputin. That is simply essential now, since otherwise everything will be finished... You too must take part in it. Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov knows all about it and is helping. It will take place in the middle of December, when Dmitri comes back... Not a word to anyone about what I've written." Yusupov replied: "Many thanks for your mad letter. I could not understand half of it, but I can see that you are preparing for some wild action.... My chief objection is that you have decided upon everything without consulting me... I can see by your letter that you are wildly enthusiastic, and ready to climb up walls... Don't you dare do anything without me, or I shall not come at all!"

Eventually, Yusupov, Purishkevich, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert and Lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin, an officer in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, developed a conspiracy to kill Grigory Rasputin. Yusupov later admitted in Lost Splendor (1953) that on 29th December, 1916, Rasputin was invited to his home: "The bell rang, announcing the arrival of Dmitrii Pavlovich Romanov and my other friends. I showed them into the dining room and they stood for a little while, silently examining the spot where Rasputin was to meet his end. I took from the ebony cabinet a box containing the poison and laid it on the table. Dr Lazovert put on rubber gloves and ground the cyanide of potassium crystals to powder. Then, lifting the top of each cake, he sprinkled the inside with a dose of poison, which, according to him, was sufficient to kill several men instantly. There was an impressive silence. We all followed the doctor's movements with emotion. There remained the glasses into which cyanide was to be poured. It was decided to do this at the last moment so that the poison should not evaporate and lose its potency. We had to give the impression of having just finished supper for I had warned Rasputin that when we had guests we took our meals in the basement and that I sometimes stayed there alone to read or work while my friends went upstairs to smoke in my study."

Purishkevich supported this story in his book, The Murder of Rusputin (1918): "We sat down at the round tea table and Yusupov invited us to drink a glass of tea and to try the cakes before they had been doctored. The quarter of an hour which we spent at the table seemed like an eternity to me.... Once we finished our tea, we tried to give the table the appearance of having been suddenly left by a large group frightened by the arrival of an unexpected guest. We poured a little tea into each of the cups, left bits of cake and pirozhki on the plates, and scattered some crumbs among several of the crumpled table napkins.... Once we had given the table the necessary appearance, we got to work on the two plates of petits fours. Yusupov gave Dr Lazovert several pieces of the potassium cyanide and he put on the gloves which Yusupov had procured and began to grate poison into a plate with a knife. Then picking out all the cakes with pink cream (there were only two varieties, pink and chocolate), he lifted off the top halves and put a good quantity of poison in each one, and then replaced the tops to make them look right. When the pink cakes were ready, we placed them on the plates with the brown chocolate ones. Then, we cut up two of the pink ones and, making them look as if they had been bitten into, we put these on different plates around the table."

Prince Felix Yusupov added: "It was agreed that when I went to fetch Rasputin, Dmitrii, Purishkevich and Sukhotin would go upstairs and play the gramophone, choosing lively tunes. I wanted to keep Rasputin in a good humour and remove any distrust that might be lurking in his mind." Stanislaus de Lazovert now went to fetch Rasputin in the car. "At midnight the associates of the Prince concealed themselves while I entered the car and drove to the home of the monk. He admitted me in person. Rasputin was in a gay mood. We drove rapidly to the home of the Prince and descended to the library, lighted only by a blazing log in the huge chimney-place. A small table was spread with cakes and rare wines - three kinds of the wine were poisoned and so were the cakes. The monk threw himself into a chair, his humour expanding with the warmth of the room. He told of his successes, his plots, of the imminent success of the German arms and that the Kaiser would soon be seen in Petrograd. At a proper moment he was offered the wine and the cakes. He drank the wine and devoured the cakes. Hours slipped by, but there was no sign that the poison had taken effect. The monk was even merrier than before. We were seized with an insane dread that this man was inviolable, that he was superhuman, that he couldn't be killed. It was a frightful sensation. He glared at us with his black, black eyes as though he read our minds and would fool us."

Purishkevich later recalled that Felix Yusupov joined them upstairs and exclaimed: "It is impossible. Just imagine, he drank two glasses filled with poison, ate several pink cakes and, as you can see, nothing has happened, absolutely nothing, and that was at least fifteen minutes ago! I cannot think what we can do... He is now sitting gloomily on the divan and the only effect that I can see of the poison is that he is constantly belching and that he dribbles a bit. Gentlemen, what do you advise that I do?" Eventually it was decided that Yusupov should go down and shoot Rasputin.

According to Yusupov's account: "Rasputin stood before me motionless, his head bent and his eyes on the crucifix. I slowly raised the crucifix. I slowly raised the revolver. Where should I aim, at the temple or at the heart? A shudder swept over me; my arm grew rigid, I aimed at his heart and pulled the trigger. Rasputin gave a wild scream and crumpled up on the bearskin. For a moment I was appalled to discover how easy it was to kill a man. A flick of a finger and what had been a living, breathing man only a second before, now lay on the floor like a broken doll."

Stanislaus de Lazovert agrees with this account except that he was uncertain who fired the shot: "With a frightful scream Rasputin whirled and fell, face down, on the floor. The others came bounding over to him and stood over his prostrate, writhing body. We left the room to let him die alone, and to plan for his removal and obliteration. Suddenly we heard a strange and unearthly sound behind the huge door that led into the library. The door was slowly pushed open, and there was Rasputin on his hands and knees, the bloody froth gushing from his mouth, his terrible eyes bulging from their sockets. With an amazing strength he sprang toward the door that led into the gardens, wrenched it open and passed out." Lazovert added that it was Purishkevich who fired the next shot: "As he seemed to be disappearing in the darkness, Purishkevich, who had been standing by, reached over and picked up an American-made automatic revolver and fired two shots swiftly into his retreating figure. We heard him fall with a groan, and later when we approached the body he was very still and cold and - dead."

Felix Yusupov later recalled: "On hearing the shot my friends rushed in. Rasputin lay on his back. His features twitched in nervous spasms; his hands were clenched, his eyes closed. A bloodstain was spreading on his silk blouse. A few minutes later all movement ceased. We bent over his body to examine it. The doctor declared that the bullet had struck him in the region of the heart. There was no possibility of doubt: Rasputin was dead. We turned off the light and went up to my room, after locking the basement door."

The Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov drove the men to Varshavsky Rail Terminal where they burned Rasputin's clothes. "It was very late and the grand duke evidently feared that great speed would attract the suspicion of the police." They also collected weights and chains and returned to Yuspov's home. At 4.50 a.m. Dimitri drove the men and Rasputin's body to Petrovskii Bridge. that crossed towards Krestovsky Island. According to Purishkevich: "We dragged Rasputin's corpse into the grand duke's car." Purishkevich claimed he drove very slowly: "It was very late and the grand duke evidently feared that great speed would attract the suspicion of the police." Stanislaus de Lazovert takes up the story when they arrived at Petrovskii: "We bundled him up in a sheet and carried him to the river's edge. Ice had formed, but we broke it and threw him in. The next day search was made for Rasputin, but no trace was found."

Rasputin's body was found on 19th December by a river policeman who was walking on the ice. He noticed a fur coat trapped beneath, approximately 65 metres from the bridge. The ice was cut open and Rasputin's frozen body discovered. The post mortem was held the following day. Major-General Popel carried out the investigation of the murder. By this time Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert and Lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin had fled from the city. He did interview Purishkevich, Felix Yusupov and Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, but he decided not to charge them with murder.

Tsar Nicholas II ordered the three men to be expelled from Petrograd. He rejected a petition to allow the conspirators to stay in the city. He replied that "no one had the right to commit murder." Sophie Buxhoeveden later commented: "Though patriotic feeling was supposed to have been the motive of the murder, it was the first indirect blow at the Emperor's authority, the first spark of insurrection. In short, it was the application of lynch law, the taking of law and judgment forcibly into private hands."

Purishkevich was distressed by the events of the Russian Revolution. In October, 1917 he organized the "Committee for the Motherland's Salvation". The following month he was arrested by the Red Guards after the discovery of a letter sent by him to General Alexey Kaledin in which he urged the Cossack leader to come and restore order in Petrograd. He was found guilty by the Revolutionary Tribunal and was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Purishkevich was released in May 1918 on the condition of a promise to refrain from any political activity. He moved to the area of Russia controlled by the White Army, where he published the monarchist journal Blagovest.

Vladimir Purishkevich died from typhus in Novorossiysk on 1st February, 1920.

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Primary Sources

(1) Richard Cullen, Rasputin: The Role of Britain's Secret Service in his Torture and Murder (2010)

Purishkevich came from a wealthy landowning family in Bessarabia. His family's origins were apparently Moldavian, but the family had attained noble status some three generations before his birth. His grandfather had been an archpriest in the Moldavian church, and his father had served as president of the Akkerman District Committee.

Purishkevich entered public life between 1902 and 1904 as a member of a special commission in the Ministry of the Interior. He was a reactionary monarchist and served in the Duma because the Tsar had been forced to establish it and Purishkevich, along with other monarchist members, wished to limit its powers. Thus, his purpose was not to represent society, but to champion autocracy. He was elected to the Second Duma, but it was not until the Third and Fourth Dumas (1907 -17) that he was able to develop fully his particular political style. Whenever possible Purishkevich sought to disrupt the Duma's proceedings, to abuse opponents in the moderate and left parties, and even hurl insults at the Duma's president. Nor did he restrict himself to verbal abuse: he would also show his disdain for this representative body by his non-verbal communication, once appearing with a flower protruding from his trouser flies. There is also substantial evidence that Purishkevich was an active member of a number of ultra-reactionary groups, including the Black Hundreds, which financed pogroms against the Jews.

Purishkevich dedicated himself to the war effort. Primarily engaged on the Romanian and southern fronts, he was involved in obtaining medical and other supplies for the army. At the time of Rasputin's murder he was running a hospital train back and forth to the front. He escaped arrest as he left Petrograd on the morning after the murder.

(2) Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, speech at the Duma (19th November, 1916)

Evil comes from those "dark forces" and influences that have forced the accession to high posts of people incapable to occupy them... from the influences that are headed by Grishka Rasputin. I have not been able to sleep the last few nights, I give you my world. I have been lying with my eyes wide open imagining the series of telegrams, notes, and reports that the illiterate peasant has written first to one minister and then to another... There have been instances where the non-fulfilment of his demands has resulted in those gentlemen, although strong and powerful, being removed from office. Over the years of the war I have assumed that our domestic quarrels should be forgotten. Now I have violated that prohibition in order to place at the feet of the throne the thoughts of the Russian masses and the bitter taste of resentment from the Russian front that have been produced by the Tsar's ministers who have been turned into marionettes, marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna - the evil genius of Russia and the Tsaritsa who has remained German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people.

(3) Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, The Murder of Rusputin (1918)

According to the plan we had worked out, we were to have driven not to the main entrance of the Yusupov Palace, but to the small one to which Yusupov intended to bring Rasputin as well. To do so, we had first to enter the courtyard, which was separated from the street by an iron grill fence with two pairs of iron gates. According to our agreement these should have been open at this hour.

As we drove up to the palace, however, we saw that both pairs of gates were closed. Concluding that it was still too early, we maintained our speed and drove on past the palace. Then, slowing down, we circled around the Mariinskii Theatre square and returned to the Moika by way of Prachechnyi Lane. Again the gates turned out to be closed. I was beside myself.

"Let's go to the main entrance!" I shouted to Lazovert. "I will go in through the front door and when they open the iron gates you can drive in and park the car over there by that small entrance."

I rang. A soldier opened the door to me and, without taking off my overcoat, but looking around to see who else was in the foyer... I turned to the door on the left and went into the apartment occupied by Yusupov. I entered and saw all three of them sitting in the office.

"Ah!" they exclaimed in unison. "Vous voila. We have been waiting for you for five minutes already. It's after midnight."

"You could have been waiting much longer", I said, "if I had not had the sense to come in the main entrance." And, turning to Yusupov, I said, "The iron gates to your side entrance are still not open."

"Impossible," he exclaimed. "I will see about it right away," and with these words he went out....

We sat down at the round tea table and Yusupov invited us to drink a glass of tea and to try the cakes before they had been doctored. The quarter of an hour which we spent at the table seemed like an eternity to me. There was no need for any special hurry because Rasputin had warned Yusupov earlier that his various spies would not be leaving his apartment until after midnight and if Yusupov were to arrive at Rasputin's before half past twelve, he might run into Cerberus guarding the "venerable old man".

Once we finished our tea, we tried to give the table the appearance of having been suddenly left by a large group frightened by the arrival of an unexpected guest. We poured a little tea into each of the cups, left bits of cake and pirozhki on the plates, and scattered some crumbs among several of the crumpled table napkins...

Once we had given the table the necessary appearance, we got to work on the two plates of petits fours. Yusupov gave Dr Lazovert several pieces of the potassium cyanide and he put on the gloves which Yusupov had procured and began to grate poison into a plate with a knife. Then picking out all the cakes with pink cream (there were only two varieties, pink and chocolate), he lifted off the top halves and put a good quantity of poison in each one, and then replaced the tops to make them look right. When the pink cakes were ready, we placed them on the plates with the brown chocolate ones. Then, we cut up two of the pink ones and, making them look as if they had been bitten into, we put these on different plates around the table.

Lazovert then threw the gloves on the fire and we got up from the table, leaving several chairs in disorder as well, and decided to go upstairs. But, just then, I remember it clearly, the chimney began to smoke. Thick smoke filled the room and we had to spend at least another ten minutes in clearing the air. Finally everything was in order.

We vent up to the drawing room. Yusupov took two phials of potassium cyanide in solution from his desk and gave one to Dmitrii Pavlovich and one to me. Twenty minutes after Yusupov had left to pick up Rasputin we were to pour these into two of the four glasses sitting behind the bottles on the table in the dining room below.

(4) Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, The Murder of Rusputin (1918)

Yusupov entered noiselessly. He was distraught and pale. "No," he said, "it is impossible. Just imagine, he drank two glasses filled with poison, ate several pink cakes and, as you can see, nothing has happened, absolutely nothing, and that was at least fifteen minutes ago! I cannot think what we can do... He is now sitting gloomily on the divan and the only effect that I can see of the poison is that he is constantly belching and that he dribbles a bit. Gentlemen, what do you advise that I do?"

"Go back," we said. "The poison is bound to take effect finally, but if it nevertheless turns out to he useless, come back here after five minutes and we will decide how to finish him off. Time is running out It is already very late and the morning could find us here with Rasputin's corpse in your Palace."

(5) Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, The Murder of Rusputin (1918)

I stood over Rasputin watching him intently. He was not yet dead. He was breathing in agony. He had covered both his eves and half of his long spongy nose with his right hand. His left arm was stretched along his body, and every now and then, his chest rose high and his body twitched convulsively. We left the dining room, turning out the light and leaving the door slightly ajar.

(6) Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, The Murder of Rusputin (1918)

These were my recollections as I sat in the rear of the car, with the lifeless corpse of the "venerable old man", which we were taking to its eternal resting place, lying at my feet. I looked out of the window. To judge by the surrounding houses and the endless fences, we had already left the city. There were very few lights. The road deteriorated and we hit bumps and holes which made the body lying at our feet bounce around (despite the soldier sitting on it). I felt a nervous tremor run through me at each bump as my knees touched the repulsive, soft corpse which, despite the cold, had not yet completely stiffened. At last the bridge from which we were to fling Rasputin's body into the hole in the ice appeared in the distance. Demitrii Pavlovich slowed down, drove onto the left side of the bridge and stopped by the guard rail....

I opened the car doors quietly and, as quickly as possible, jumped out and went over to the railing. The soldier and Dr Lazovert followed me and then Lieutenant S., who had been sitting by the grand duke, joined us and together we swung Rasputin's corpse and flung it forcefully into the ice hole just by the bridge. (Dmitrii Pavlovich stood guard in front of the car.) Since we had forgotten to fasten the weights on the corpse with a chain, we hastily threw these, one after another, after it. Likewise, we stuffed the chains into the dead man's coat and threw it into the same hole. Next, Dr Lazovert searched in the dark car and found one of Rasputin's boots, which he also flung off the bridge. All of this took no more than two or three minutes. Then Dr Lazovert, Lieutenant S. and the soldier got into the back of the car, and I got in next to Dmitrii Pavlovich. We turned on the headlights again and crossed the bridge.

How we failed to be noticed on the bridge is still amazing to me to this day. For, as we passed the sentry-box, we noticed a guard next to it. But he was sleeping so deeply that he had apparently not woken up even when... we had inadvertently not only lit up his sentry-box, but had even turned the lights on him.