Photograph of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin from The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial. Tsar Nicholas of Russia and his wife were introduced to Rasputin in 1907. According to Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, Rasputin, 'wheedled them, dazzled them, dominated them.'
Gregory Rasputin, the charlatan who was the evil genius of the Russian Court and was assassinated in December, 1916.
". . . the mysterious happenings which recently led to the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior, Alexis Khvostov : they throw a melancholy light on the inner workings of the regime.When Alexis Khvostov received the portfolio of the Interior last October, his appointment was not only suggested to the Emperor but actually forced on him by Rasputin and Madame Vyrubova. . . .But before long there was a personal feud between the new minister and his assistant, the crafty Director of the Police Department, Bieletzky. . . . Khvostov thus gradually found himself at loggerheads with the whole gang which had raised him to power. . . .[The monk Heliodorus] had written a book full of scandalous revelations about his relations with the Court and Grishka [Rasputin]. . . .[Khvostov sent] one of his personal agents, Boris Rievsky, a doubtful journalist who had already served several sentences. While the latter was endeavouring to reach Norway through Finland, his wife, left behind in Petrograd and awaiting her revenge for his ill-treatment, denounced the whole plot to Rasputin, who immediately called in the help of his friend, Bieletzky. . . .[Detained at the Finnish border,] Rievsky confessed that he had been commissioned by Khvostov to arrange the murder of Rasputin with Helidorus. . . . Next morning Khvostov was no longer a minister."
Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, in the entry for February 9, 1916 from his memoirs, recounts the rise and fall of Minister of the Interior Alexis Khvostov. Unmentioned in Paléologue's account is the Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas, a German by birth, who was suspected of German sympathies if not treachery. Madame Anna Vyrubova was her intimate friend. Rasputin recommended officials and officers for advancement, both directly to the Empress and through Vyrubova. The Empress in turn pressed these recommendations on her husband, following up in her correspondence if her the Tsar did not act expeditiously enough on the advice of 'our friend.' Nicholas and his wife isolated themselves from the public and from life in the capital. After assuming command of the Army in the summer of 1915 in the wake of Russia's Great Retreat, Nicholas became increasingly autocrat, a position again encouraged by his wife. The plots against Rasputin struck at the heart of the royal family.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 169-171, publisher: George H. Doran Company
1916-02-09, 1916, February, Rasputin, Heliodorus, Khvostov
