Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: She came in with the others. It was a typical
Speaker 1: day for Resputant. Petitioners were lined up outside his door.
Speaker 1: They filed in with requests for prayer, for favors, for
Speaker 1: help with something in their lives that was out of reach.
Speaker 1: Maybe they wanted healing for themselves or for a wounded
Speaker 1: son who had come back from the front, and she
Speaker 1: came in with them. In fact, there's no sign that
Speaker 1: Resputant thought she was any different from the rest. That
Speaker 1: is until she stepped up to Grigory. Something in her
Speaker 1: hand caught the light, and he asked her to show
Speaker 1: it to him. As she approached. Out from under her coat,
Speaker 1: she drew a revolver with a ferocious light in her eyes.
Speaker 1: She raised it between them and wavered. After a moment,
Speaker 1: she broke down. The point of a gun fell to
Speaker 1: the floor, and she offered it to Resputant. She had
Speaker 1: come to kill him, she said, and the secret police
Speaker 1: who were guarding Resputin hadn't see that she was carrying
Speaker 1: a weapon to her meeting with him. She could have
Speaker 1: taken his life then and there, but instead she put
Speaker 1: the gun in his hands, and as she did, she
Speaker 1: told him it was when she saw his eyes that
Speaker 1: she realized her mistake. She simply couldn't go through with it.
Speaker 1: What clearer sign could there be that Resputin was God's
Speaker 1: chosen man. He had already survived Guseva's knife attack, the
Speaker 1: plot formed against him by his craven bureaucrats had failed,
Speaker 1: and he had foiled and survived other attempts to This
Speaker 1: became just one of many. But even as attempt after
Speaker 1: attempt came to nothing, resputants paranoia grew. Yes, the attacks
Speaker 1: were foiled, but they kept on coming, and they made
Speaker 1: one thing clear to Grigory. Russians, top to bottom, rich
Speaker 1: to poor, noble to peasant, were blaming him for Russia's problems.
Speaker 1: There were enemies abroad, but for Grigory Resputin there were
Speaker 1: just as many enemies at home. He had taken every
Speaker 1: opportunity to lift himself into a position of influence, and
Speaker 1: now he found out just how much that made him
Speaker 1: a target. Sure, I called his reaction paranoia, but then
Speaker 1: is it paranoia if the threats are real? Gregory couldn't
Speaker 1: help but see the knife in the dark cutting through
Speaker 1: him and through Mother Russia as well. In fact, at
Speaker 1: some point in his final days he penned a letter
Speaker 1: to his daughter Maria that revealed just how dark his
Speaker 1: fears had become. And when that letter was finally found
Speaker 1: and read by Maria, it's clear that at least in
Speaker 1: this Gregory was not blind to what the future held.
Speaker 1: Here's Douglas Smith to read Resputant's words, My dear, A
Speaker 1: disaster is threatening us. A great misfortune is drawing near.
Speaker 1: The face of our lady has darkened, and the spirit
Speaker 1: is disturbed. In the calm of the night, there will
Speaker 1: be cries and blood. In the great darkness of these griefs,
Speaker 1: I can now distinguish nothing. My hour will soon strike.
Speaker 1: I am not afraid, but I know it will be bitter.
Speaker 1: I shall suffer, and it will be pardoned to men.
Speaker 1: I shall inherit the kingdom, but you will be saved.
Speaker 1: The road of your sufferings is known to God. Men
Speaker 1: without number will perish, many martyrs will die, Brothers will
Speaker 1: be slain by their brothers. The earth will tremble, Famine
Speaker 1: and pestilence will reign. Signs will appear to men. Pray
Speaker 1: for your salvation and through the grace of the Savior,
Speaker 1: and have her who intercedes with him, you will be
Speaker 1: consoled Gregory. Before comfort, however, would come catastrophe. It was
Speaker 1: almost as if Grigory Recipute knew that it wasn't a
Speaker 1: matter of whether his enemies would finally end his life,
Speaker 1: but when they would become the icy hand of death
Speaker 1: and drag him to his final end. This is unobscured.
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Mackey. It was the autumn of nineteen six.
Speaker 1: Alexandra had noticed the change. Gone was the wide eyed,
Speaker 1: zealous holy man. Gone was the triumph and joy in
Speaker 1: his strong voice and his excitement at the ascent into
Speaker 1: the Tsar's palace. Gone even was the man who had
Speaker 1: bragged about overthrowing his enemies and elevated his allies just
Speaker 1: the year before. Gregory resputant, was weary, cautious, and withdrawn.
Speaker 1: Alexandra wrote to the Czar. She said Grigory was wary
Speaker 1: of going out. He was a fraid for his life.
Speaker 1: When the Empress sent her friends and advisers to speak
Speaker 1: with Grigory and comfort him, he only greeted them with
Speaker 1: screaming fits. But Alexandra's faith was still strong. She believed
Speaker 1: that God was working to keep her advisors safe, and
Speaker 1: it was sunny weather, she wrote. Surely he should take
Speaker 1: the advice he had given to so many others over
Speaker 1: the years, go out into nature, walk the wild places
Speaker 1: of earth, meet God there and feel restored. But that Grigory,
Speaker 1: he was nowhere to be found. With each passing day,
Speaker 1: Rasputin of Petrograd left his old self further in the past.
Speaker 1: Gone were the years when he would travel from monastery
Speaker 1: to monastery, meeting with monks and religious teachers. He closed
Speaker 1: in the walls around himself. He even stopped going to church,
Speaker 1: and he drank. One friend would even remember that. It
Speaker 1: was only after spending enough time with a bottle of
Speaker 1: Madeira wine that Rasputant would begin to open up. His
Speaker 1: fear would come pouring forth. One night between the two
Speaker 1: years of rage and despair, he sobbed out the truth
Speaker 1: he had lost the man he had always wanted to be.
Speaker 1: He called himself a devil, a demon. I am sinful,
Speaker 1: he said, where before I was holy, as they say
Speaker 1: in Vino veritas. In those moments of honesty, Grigory knew
Speaker 1: what kind of man he really was. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: only over rest sputant that storm clouds were gathering a darkness,
Speaker 1: an electric tension in the air spread over Russia throughout
Speaker 1: nineteen six. Faith in the Tsar was dying, and for
Speaker 1: good reason. It started near the warfront, where battle lines
Speaker 1: were drawn, but it spread eastward into the Empire from there.
Speaker 1: Here's Dr Joshua Sandborn to explain. If you're in the
Speaker 1: front line or near the front line, you're experiencing a
Speaker 1: lot of personal insecurity in terms of violence. You're starting
Speaker 1: to see a breakdown of social order in many of
Speaker 1: these places, led in many cases by by deserting or
Speaker 1: off duty soldiers. But even far away from the front,
Speaker 1: one of the key things that happens over the course
Speaker 1: of the war is a worsening standard of living driven
Speaker 1: by rapid inflation. This is a problem that ours government
Speaker 1: can't get around. Since the war began, the price of
Speaker 1: everyday items like milk, potatoes, bread, butter, and fish had
Speaker 1: been going up by four or five times their previous price.
Speaker 1: In some cases, corrupt officials, bad coordination, and decrepit railroads
Speaker 1: meant that the bodies of the wounded were being carried
Speaker 1: back to distant hospitals, and the food for both the
Speaker 1: army and the nation were often trapped on their way
Speaker 1: from point A to point B. You're starting to see breadlines,
Speaker 1: the discussion of the need for rationing, and you're starting
Speaker 1: to see the supply situation deteriorate in terms of trains
Speaker 1: being able to to ship what they need to on time.
Speaker 1: All of these things are are beginning to deteriorate, and
Speaker 1: social relations are also becoming more and more poisonous. Ethno
Speaker 1: politics has done its role there. That's wide sort of
Speaker 1: influx of refugees and the difficulties of dealing with them
Speaker 1: has helped poison the social relationships. The President of the
Speaker 1: Doom wrote in some cases that rotting carcasses changed course
Speaker 1: halfway through their journey. Instead of going to the markets
Speaker 1: where they could be butchered and sold to feed hungry families,
Speaker 1: they were diverted to soap factories, or, if they were
Speaker 1: too far gone, directly to the rubbish heap. Meat that
Speaker 1: was supposed to go to the front for the army,
Speaker 1: it was piled high in mounds. There was nowhere to
Speaker 1: store it, and it wasn't allowed to be sold. Soon enough,
Speaker 1: the mounds began to stink, a poisonous fume and an
Speaker 1: insult to every Russian in the cities, where food was
Speaker 1: growing more scarce by the day. Who Rasputin thinks should
Speaker 1: be the minister of you know, of whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: minister of interior. Let's say that doesn't have a huge
Speaker 1: bearing on people's lives. You know, they're seeing things just
Speaker 1: just collapsing. And it's not the result of a particular
Speaker 1: minister or anything. It's the whole structure. It's it's autocracy
Speaker 1: itself that has led them into this problem. One bitter
Speaker 1: irony is that the starvation of the Russian people had
Speaker 1: weighed heavy on Rasputant's mind for years. Even as he
Speaker 1: was bungling the appointment of government ministers, he was begging
Speaker 1: the Czar to move his Russian soldiers like the pieces
Speaker 1: on a chessboard. It seems that in this case, at
Speaker 1: least Grigory saw where the problems were. With so many
Speaker 1: people lining up at his door every day to spill
Speaker 1: their problems on his desk, how could he miss it
Speaker 1: When it came to food. The cities were in crisis
Speaker 1: by now, though few people in the Imperial government wanted
Speaker 1: to hear what resputant had to say about anything moving troops,
Speaker 1: moving food, moving money. After all, what did this holy
Speaker 1: man drunk every night and whispering in the Czarina's ear
Speaker 1: know about any of that. But it wasn't just the
Speaker 1: looming specter of starvation that had the Czar's subjects stirring
Speaker 1: with anger. It was also the work they were forced
Speaker 1: to do. Strikes in the munitions factories had begun at
Speaker 1: the end of nineteen fifteen. And then there's what happened
Speaker 1: further south, in the Central Asian steps that would later
Speaker 1: become Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. There was open bloodshed because in
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen SI team the Czar's military planners
Speaker 1: needed more workers at the front line, a lot more.
Speaker 1: They wanted a million men building bridges and cutting roads
Speaker 1: for the army. The projects were a massive amount of work,
Speaker 1: so they decided to force it on the subjugated peoples
Speaker 1: of the Empire. But if you think drafting a million
Speaker 1: men into forced labor at the drop of a hat
Speaker 1: sounds like a recipe for rebellion, then you've been paying attention,
Speaker 1: especially once you know that all the wealthiest Russian settlers
Speaker 1: and the imperial governors of those provinces all bribed themselves
Speaker 1: free of the draft. Soon enough, the imperial administrators found
Speaker 1: the telegraph lines cut, the railways destroyed, and the Russian
Speaker 1: garrisons under siege. Suddenly, rather than pulling men out of
Speaker 1: the Central Asian planes to serve the Russian army, the
Speaker 1: Czar was sending soldiers in, and it was a blood bath.
Speaker 1: Kurgis fighters destroyed Russian towns and killed Russian settlers. The
Speaker 1: Russian army rolled through the countryside, burning buildings and butchering
Speaker 1: people who had been the Czar's subjects. Just before, the
Speaker 1: Russian general in command wrote that in the wake of
Speaker 1: his army he saw hundreds of unarmed and innocent Kyrgyz slaughtered.
Speaker 1: That had become another war of ethnic destruction under the
Speaker 1: Emperor's hands. By the end of nineteen sixteen, the Empire
Speaker 1: was at war anywhere and everywhere, and it was falling
Speaker 1: to pieces. They had joined the court of Ivan the Terrible,
Speaker 1: and something about that era had followed the yusupa family
Speaker 1: down through the years. In those early days, they had
Speaker 1: been warlord's, amassing wealth and hereditary power. They worked their
Speaker 1: way into the royal courts, they converted to Orthodoxy, and
Speaker 1: generation after generation they served the czar well. So well,
Speaker 1: in fact, that in the opening decades of the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: as Nicholas and Alexandra took power and the currents of
Speaker 1: history channeled them to their meeting of fate, the heir
Speaker 1: of the Yusupa family was set to receive the largest
Speaker 1: fortune in all of Russia, which is to say, perhaps
Speaker 1: the largest fortune in the entire world. In fact, the
Speaker 1: stories about the family of Felix Yusupov were so extravagant
Speaker 1: and so numerous that they were almost unbelievable. Some said
Speaker 1: that the Yusupov hunting lodge, built in the fifteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: was still connected by an underground tunnel to the Kremlin
Speaker 1: in the heart of Moscow. They said that if you
Speaker 1: wandered the underground vaults, you would not see only hordes
Speaker 1: of medieval wealth, tapestries and ornate furniture glowing in the
Speaker 1: low light, but that you might even stumble onto skeletons
Speaker 1: still dangling from chains along the walls. And that was
Speaker 1: the story of just one Yusupov house. But they had
Speaker 1: three palaces in Moscow alone. They had thirty seven estates
Speaker 1: scattered across the Romanov Empire. Their lands included iron mines,
Speaker 1: coal fields, oil deposits, and a string of factories that
Speaker 1: made their family indispensable players in the world of the czars.
Speaker 1: And that was the world that Felix was born into.
Speaker 1: As Douglas Smith describes, Prince Felix use Soup was a
Speaker 1: member of one of the great aristocratic families of Russia. Uh,
Speaker 1: centuries of extreme wealth and power and prestige. Um, one
Speaker 1: of the truly one of the richest, most powerful families
Speaker 1: in Russia. He was doated on, he was spoiled, um,
Speaker 1: he was indulged. Uh. He was you know, sort of
Speaker 1: the worst, I would say, examples of the of debauched
Speaker 1: aristocracy in the early part of the twenty century. Nothing
Speaker 1: was expected of him. It was a life of glamor
Speaker 1: of Champagne. He was a notorious boy about society if
Speaker 1: you will, at the time, who really had no purpose
Speaker 1: in life. Felix used to pav shared the preoccupations of
Speaker 1: the Russian elite. Along with his older brother, he gained
Speaker 1: a deep interest in spiritualism and the occult. For a while,
Speaker 1: they held seances in their home. They hoped to speak
Speaker 1: to the dead, to hear voices from a world beyond
Speaker 1: their own. Questions of afterlife seemed to terrify Felix, and
Speaker 1: he spent much of his time worrying about his weaknesses,
Speaker 1: the things he might lose. He and his brother even
Speaker 1: promised each other, like many spiritualist friends, that the first
Speaker 1: to die would travel back from the afterlife to appear
Speaker 1: to the other. But it wasn't just his life that
Speaker 1: Felix was worried about losing. It was also the way
Speaker 1: his position allowed him to dominate others. In fact, it
Speaker 1: seems he cared quite a lot about holding onto his
Speaker 1: prestige and power. Even as a child, Felix loved to
Speaker 1: flaunt his position to entertain himself. He would even scoop
Speaker 1: together his mother's jewels and deck himself in her finery.
Speaker 1: Then he would order the family's vast household staff to
Speaker 1: gather around him and treat him like a monarch. If
Speaker 1: nothing else, he felt born to rule. Details like that
Speaker 1: create an eerie echo of Czar Nicholas, and there are
Speaker 1: others too. Felix's father was also a military man who
Speaker 1: loved being a soldier. He tried to be a kind
Speaker 1: patriarch and there but lacked tact and subtlety. Felix was
Speaker 1: never his favorite son, but eventually Felix was his only son.
Speaker 1: His parents had had doated on his older brother, who
Speaker 1: was killed in a duel, and then all of their
Speaker 1: attention and devotion, especially from his mother, Princess Zaida, were
Speaker 1: showered upon Felix. In nineteen fourteen, the chords binding Felix
Speaker 1: to the house of the Romanovs were drawn even tighter
Speaker 1: when his mother arranged his marriage. His new bride she
Speaker 1: was the niece of the Czar. But now the blood
Speaker 1: and treasure of the Czar's world were pouring away, not
Speaker 1: just as the war sapped the empire strength and exposed
Speaker 1: its flaws, but at home too. The Russian people had
Speaker 1: been demanding a different world. Step by halting step, Nicholas
Speaker 1: had given ground to them. Strikes, revolutions, parliaments, and manifestos
Speaker 1: all were signs that the world Felix loved, with himself
Speaker 1: on top, was changing. In his own lifetime and in
Speaker 1: the war years, things were spinning even more out of
Speaker 1: the aristocracy's control, and the voices of the czar subjects
Speaker 1: were growing louder. The household staff of the Empire were
Speaker 1: talking back and making their feelings known, as Joshua Sanborn says,
Speaker 1: above all this feeling that the rich are doing okay
Speaker 1: in this war, and the rest of us are bearing
Speaker 1: this burden, and look at how badly they're managing it.
Speaker 1: This is becoming more and more dominant among all sectors
Speaker 1: of society. Felix used upon thought, he knew who was
Speaker 1: to blame for all of this. He thought it was
Speaker 1: clear who was behind the concessions that Nicholas had made
Speaker 1: to the people's demands, and who it was that weakened
Speaker 1: the Empire's power year over year. The peasant from Siberia,
Speaker 1: Like many of the avid readers and rumor mongers of
Speaker 1: Russian high society, Felix and his family had closely followed
Speaker 1: the stories published about Grigory and his connection to the Romanovs.
Speaker 1: As we heard in the last episode, Felix and his
Speaker 1: mother weren't shy about trading their theories on how Rasputin
Speaker 1: manipulated the royal family. Every new salacious story about the
Speaker 1: Empress and her adviser would have hammered those fears and
Speaker 1: suspicions deeper, but it wasn't all just second hand, because
Speaker 1: as a wanderer of the high society salons, Felix Yusupov
Speaker 1: had his own encounters with Grigory Rasputin, and when he did,
Speaker 1: the gulf between the two men could not have been
Speaker 1: any wider. In fact, in the things he wrote about Grigory,
Speaker 1: you can almost hear the sneer behind Felix's words. When
Speaker 1: they first met, Felix said he saw Grigory had a low,
Speaker 1: common face. The peasants features were, course, he said, and
Speaker 1: his eyes were small, shifty, and sunken under heavy brows.
Speaker 1: Rasputant's hair was untidy, his beard was shaggy, and his
Speaker 1: clothes were common and plain. The thing that irritated Felix
Speaker 1: the most, though, was Grigory Rasputants self assurance. Simply put
Speaker 1: the man looked like a peasant. He was a peasant,
Speaker 1: and so Felix thought that he should act like one,
Speaker 1: he should bow and scrape to the rightful rulers of
Speaker 1: the world. But Grigory did not. In fact, Felix said
Speaker 1: that just being looked at by Resputant was like being
Speaker 1: pierced with needles, and Felix never forgot that, and he
Speaker 1: never forgave that either, But for a while Felix kept
Speaker 1: those feelings hidden. His aristocratic friends fell in with Rasputin.
Speaker 1: Some of the women in his circle even became the
Speaker 1: radical followers of the holy Man when they met with him.
Speaker 1: Felix even tagged along from time to time, But when
Speaker 1: the rumors began, they found a willing ear with Felix Yusupov.
Speaker 1: For a while, the pampered prince kept his distance. He
Speaker 1: swallowed whole the stories he heard about Alexandra, and as
Speaker 1: the days turned dark, his fear, suspicion, and resentment only grew.
Speaker 1: When Felix's father was dismissed from his post as Governor
Speaker 1: General of Moscow, Felix knew who was to blame, and
Speaker 1: soon enough he found his thoughts turning again and again
Speaker 1: to the peasant and to his belief that this coarse
Speaker 1: and shifty must be a German spy undermining the Empire.
Speaker 1: He started meeting with other men who felt the same,
Speaker 1: people who had spoken out against the role that Rasputant
Speaker 1: played in the royal household. But he was disappointed with
Speaker 1: everyone he found to be all bark and no bite.
Speaker 1: With each passing day that attempts to kill Rasputin came
Speaker 1: to nothing. Felix Yusupov, air to Russia's largest fortune, became
Speaker 1: more and more convinced he needed to do the job himself,
Speaker 1: until he decides that he is going to do save
Speaker 1: Russia by killing Raspute and putting together a plot to
Speaker 1: do him in. And this becomes, if you will, his
Speaker 1: e day fixed, This becomes his raised on Tetra, and
Speaker 1: he devotes all of his energies and times to figuring
Speaker 1: out how he's going to do away with Rispute. And
Speaker 1: if there's one thing that a wealthy family of aristocrats
Speaker 1: had learned over the centuries while serving the Oars, it
Speaker 1: was how to slide up to someone in a position
Speaker 1: of power and win their friendship, even the real purpose
Speaker 1: was to stab them in the back. Their first meeting
Speaker 1: was a shock. Felix had hated Resputant at their earliest encounter,
Speaker 1: but he had described him then as muscular, thin and
Speaker 1: twitching with nervous energy under his peasants attire. Now, in
Speaker 1: the fall of nineteen sixteen, Felix found himself face to
Speaker 1: face with a slumping man, puffy with drink, who was
Speaker 1: wrapped in luxury, and when Grigory started talking, Felix says
Speaker 1: he found it all incoherent. There was a discourse on
Speaker 1: brotherly love. To Felix, it seemed that even Grigory didn't
Speaker 1: understand what he was saying. When a phone call came
Speaker 1: from the Imperial Palace, Grigory rushed off, but not before
Speaker 1: he said he wanted to meet together once more. It
Speaker 1: was just what Felix wanted to hear, so they started
Speaker 1: to meet regularly. It was the first step in Felix's plan.
Speaker 1: He would become Grigory's favorite disciple. He would learn how
Speaker 1: Gregory thought, what he liked, and what his intentions really
Speaker 1: were for the Empire. If there were any diabolical con
Speaker 1: games that Gregory was running in the shadows, Felix wanted
Speaker 1: to ferret them out. Those were the threads he would
Speaker 1: use to weave a net around rest Sputin and drag
Speaker 1: him in. For months, he bent all of his wiles
Speaker 1: and all of his wealth towards the plan. Rest Sputant's
Speaker 1: daughter Maria, remembered that Felix started to visit their house
Speaker 1: almost every single day. They would send everyone out and
Speaker 1: close themselves up together to talk and Felix would beg
Speaker 1: for prayers of healing and words of advice. He even
Speaker 1: ingratiated himself to the rest Mutants girls. Maria said that
Speaker 1: he became a close friend, and that made everything that
Speaker 1: came next hurt even more, because it was all just
Speaker 1: laying the groundwork for that coming December. Even as Felix
Speaker 1: became convinced that Gregory himself didn't have some sort of
Speaker 1: master plan for the throne, he held even more firmly
Speaker 1: to his conviction that Gregory needed to be killed. In
Speaker 1: Felix's eyes, rest Sputant was a greedy and uncultured peasant,
Speaker 1: but he had risen too high for his position to
Speaker 1: be an accident. He must be a puppet for some
Speaker 1: secret masterminds who were exploiting him from a distance to
Speaker 1: bring about the downfall of Russia. So in a way,
Speaker 1: become full circle. This was at the height of Resputants power.
Speaker 1: It was the time when the Empress paid the most
Speaker 1: attention to what Gregory advised about running the empire. He
Speaker 1: finally lived up to the rumors about meddling in imperial affairs.
Speaker 1: But even then, when a sharp eyed Felix wormed his
Speaker 1: way into Rasputant's confidence to uncover the truth about his schemes.
Speaker 1: He didn't find some evil genius. He simply uncovered a
Speaker 1: selfish man who had improvised his way to the very
Speaker 1: pinnacle of world power by seizing each new opportunity as
Speaker 1: it came and abandoning the best parts of himself along
Speaker 1: the way. Now that Grigory had it all, the only
Speaker 1: thing he could do with power was wielded according to
Speaker 1: his paranoia. To protect his fragile position on weighty matters.
Speaker 1: He was mostly ignored by everyone other than Nicholas and Alexandra,
Speaker 1: the rulers whose empire was slipping from their grasp. The
Speaker 1: fact that there was no grand plan, no grand conspiracy,
Speaker 1: was too much for Felix to believe. For so long
Speaker 1: Russian aristocrats had imagined that the problem with Nicholas was Alexandra,
Speaker 1: and then that the problem with Alexandra was Resputin. It
Speaker 1: wasn't hard for someone to simply bump the issue one
Speaker 1: step back. The problem with Resputin must be some undiscovered cabal,
Speaker 1: the real enemies of Russia, whoever they may be. Felix
Speaker 1: still believed that the best way to stop them was
Speaker 1: to take the tool out of their hand. So he
Speaker 1: put together a team. A wounded army officer who had
Speaker 1: been reassigned to Petrograd, a monarchist politician Vladimir Pershkevitch who
Speaker 1: had a history of organizing Eliador's terrorist fighters, decorated military
Speaker 1: doctor likewise sent home carrying wounds from the war that
Speaker 1: they blamed on Resputin Oh and one other man, Grand
Speaker 1: Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch, the Czar's cousin and one of Felix's
Speaker 1: oldest friends, also helped that as a grand Duke, Dmitri
Speaker 1: would be immune from prosecution, a member of the imperial family,
Speaker 1: a wealthy noble, too army officers, and a member of
Speaker 1: the Duma. To Yusupov, this team felt like the perfect
Speaker 1: representatives of every part of society that matters. Together, they
Speaker 1: would kill the upstart peasant, save the Czar, and bring
Speaker 1: order back to the empire. Felix did all of this
Speaker 1: under the watchful eye of one other person, his mother.
Speaker 1: Even with a team like that, they decided to commit
Speaker 1: their killing in secret. An assault on Gregory's apartment would
Speaker 1: be too noisy. There was too much secret surveillance, There
Speaker 1: too many observers who could report events to the Czarina,
Speaker 1: and no one wanted Alexandra setting her sights on them.
Speaker 1: Better to pick a secluded spot late into the night,
Speaker 1: the kind of place where Gregory may have wandered in
Speaker 1: one of his revelries and lost his police tail. Felix
Speaker 1: had just the spot in mind too. In fact, an
Speaker 1: old seller in his palace was being renovated. It had
Speaker 1: to stairway, one that went up into the residence and
Speaker 1: one that opened directly onto the courtyard. They could arrive
Speaker 1: there and slip underground before anyone had time to notice them.
Speaker 1: In preparation, Felix set about making the room comfortable. His
Speaker 1: workmen put down carpets and hung curtains over the gray stone.
Speaker 1: Porcelain vases and oak chairs were arranged between other curios,
Speaker 1: ivory bowls, A cabinet of inlaid ebony and tiny bronze columns.
Speaker 1: A little Italian cross carved of rock, crystal and silver
Speaker 1: was put on display. The red stone mantel piece was
Speaker 1: decorated with gold and ivory. It looked like a room
Speaker 1: used every day to entertain important guests. Its fireplace was
Speaker 1: ready for the welcoming glow of flames. It was all
Speaker 1: a picture of elegance. The stage was set. Now they
Speaker 1: just needed Grigory to arrive for his last supper. First,
Speaker 1: there was the lure. Felix knew what Grigory liked, so
Speaker 1: he offered up his wife. That is to say, he
Speaker 1: dangled and invitation toward Resputin. The two had never spent
Speaker 1: time together. Would Grigory like to come by some evening
Speaker 1: and meet the Mrs Gregory was never going to pass
Speaker 1: up on that. Then there was the hook. With the
Speaker 1: help of two servants, Felix arranged the furniture and set
Speaker 1: out tea, biscuits, and cakes, and then brought out some
Speaker 1: of his own wine from the cellars. Once he was
Speaker 1: satisfied with the food and drink, Felix went to church.
Speaker 1: He would later say that as he knelt in prayer,
Speaker 1: he felt a sense of divine lightness. He was happy
Speaker 1: he was about to murder a man in cold blood.
Speaker 1: The mild evening faded into darkness. A fire was set
Speaker 1: in the hearth, and around eleven the team tropped down
Speaker 1: the stairs into the cellar, where they gathered around Felix.
Speaker 1: It felt cozy and quiet, It felt ready. They still
Speaker 1: had another hour to wait, so they brewed tea and
Speaker 1: sampled cakes. The conversation was muted. They set the room
Speaker 1: in deliberate disarray. It should look as if Felix's wife
Speaker 1: and a group of her friends had retreated just seconds before.
Speaker 1: When they had finished, Felix opened the ebony cabinet and
Speaker 1: pulled out a small box. He lifted the lid to
Speaker 1: reveal a small pile of crystals and handed it to
Speaker 1: the doctor. Putting on gloves, the doctor crushed them into
Speaker 1: a fine powder with a knife. He then carried it
Speaker 1: to the table. He split every pink cake and dusted
Speaker 1: the inside with a layer of powder. The group watched
Speaker 1: him work. When he was finished, he turned to them
Speaker 1: and told them that each cake now held enough cyanide
Speaker 1: to kill several men. He carefully stripped off his gloves
Speaker 1: and threw them in the fire as they burned. The
Speaker 1: men retreated into the house to escape the smoke, and
Speaker 1: Felix left to fetch Rasputin to break the nervous tension.
Speaker 1: As they waited, the men turned on a gramophone. Perishkevich
Speaker 1: checked his revolver at a quarter to one. In clouds
Speaker 1: of cigar smoke, Perishkevich and the czar's cousin Dmitri, walked
Speaker 1: back down the stairs. They opened a second bottle of cyanide,
Speaker 1: dissolved into a solution, and poured it into wine glasses.
Speaker 1: Over at Resputant's apartment, Felix knocked on the door and
Speaker 1: Grigory let him inside. As he fetched his hat and
Speaker 1: coat from behind a curtain, the Resputants made recognized the
Speaker 1: visitor as Felix, the family friend. It was only as
Speaker 1: the two men headed out into the night that a
Speaker 1: prick of conscience hit Felix. He said, a feeling of
Speaker 1: guilt swept over him, and then shame. He had been
Speaker 1: cultivating this man's trust for months, and now he would
Speaker 1: use it to take his life. But it didn't stop him.
Speaker 1: They climbed into the car together. The doctor, now dressed
Speaker 1: in the uniform of a chauffeur, pulled out into the street.
Speaker 1: Felix checked behind them to be sure that they weren't followed,
Speaker 1: but Rasputin had dismissed his Okrana secret service detail the
Speaker 1: night before he was with friends. They made their way
Speaker 1: back to the use of off palace and the room
Speaker 1: that waited for them. Now this is the right point
Speaker 1: to say. There are only a few people who saw
Speaker 1: what happened next. Two of them are Felix Yusupov and
Speaker 1: his accomplice Vladimir Perishkevitch. And as Douglas Smith says, we
Speaker 1: believe FeelA his account at our own peril, You sup
Speaker 1: As memoirs are a network of lies, the tissue of
Speaker 1: have truths and and an attempt to bade himself in glory,
Speaker 1: if you will, for a truly horrible deed. Like the
Speaker 1: only moment I think in his memoirs when he's ever
Speaker 1: really being honest is when you Supa frights that that
Speaker 1: killing Rasputin was quote unquote a cowardly crime, for that
Speaker 1: is what it was. The police reports taken from other
Speaker 1: eyewitnesses are slim. Most of what we know comes from
Speaker 1: the men who did the deed. It makes every moment,
Speaker 1: every little detail, as suspect as it can possibly be.
Speaker 1: But this is the way they told the story. The
Speaker 1: car pulled up into the courtyard and Felix usher Grigory
Speaker 1: down the stairs and welcomed him to the seller. They
Speaker 1: could hear the sound of Yankee Doodle playing from the
Speaker 1: gramophone upstairs, Felix explained that his wife was entertaining friends,
Speaker 1: but she would join them soon. In the meantime, they
Speaker 1: should have a cup of tea, and they made themselves comfortable.
Speaker 1: The doctor, who had walked around to another entrance, joined
Speaker 1: the men around the gramophone. Quietly, they moved to the
Speaker 1: top of the spiral stairway that led to the basement.
Speaker 1: They listened intently and waited. Felix offered Grigory wine and tea,
Speaker 1: but he refused both. They fell into conversation along their
Speaker 1: usual lines, but the more time stretched on, the more
Speaker 1: nervous Felix felt. Did Grigory suspect him? Had he done
Speaker 1: something to give himself away? But after a few more minutes,
Speaker 1: Grigory finally relented and asked for some tea. It was
Speaker 1: what Felix had been waiting for. Once Rasputin was drinking,
Speaker 1: Felix offered him biscuits and then cake. Soon Rasputin was
Speaker 1: downing the cakes quickly, one after another. He expected that
Speaker 1: a single bite would kill him, but Rasputin went on
Speaker 1: talking calmly. Horror began to dawn on Felix. He turned
Speaker 1: to the wine. In his nervousness, he poured for Grigory
Speaker 1: into clean glasses, not the crystal that perish Bitch and
Speaker 1: Dmitri had laced with their cyanide solution. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: he opened a second bottle that Yusupov was able to
Speaker 1: drop Resputant's glass on the ground and replace it in
Speaker 1: Resputant's hand with a poisoned cup. This one was a
Speaker 1: Madeira wine. He was Resputant's favorite. He sipped it slowly,
Speaker 1: enjoying every taste. When he was done, he got up
Speaker 1: and started walking around the room. The man at the
Speaker 1: top of the stairs had heard the corks pop. Minutes
Speaker 1: passed and turned two hours. I can only imagine the
Speaker 1: looks they gave each other as they waited to be
Speaker 1: called down to help Felix dispose of a body. But
Speaker 1: their worry could only be matched by Felix, who continued
Speaker 1: to talk with Grigory, telling him that his wife's friends
Speaker 1: must be leaving soon and he would go upstairs to check.
Speaker 1: Leaving Rasputin in the cellar. Felix huddled with the others
Speaker 1: upstairs around the gramophone. He hissed out an account of
Speaker 1: what had happened. Rasputin had eaten the cakes he drank
Speaker 1: the wine, and yet somehow he was still alive. Their
Speaker 1: plan had held, but they were determined that Grigory would
Speaker 1: not leave the house alive. Felix grabbed a revolver and
Speaker 1: descended the stairs again. It was two thirty in the morning.
Speaker 1: Back in the cellar, Felix found Gregory with his head drooping.
Speaker 1: Another glass of wine got him back to his feet,
Speaker 1: and for a moment the two men talked about going
Speaker 1: out on the town. Maybe they should go see the
Speaker 1: dancing girls respute and said. Felix shook his head and
Speaker 1: walked over to the Italian crucifix. It's beautiful, he said.
Speaker 1: Gregory walked over to him and agreed. They were standing
Speaker 1: only a foot apart, and that's when Felix raised the gun,
Speaker 1: pointed it at Gregory's chest and fired. Resputant cried out
Speaker 1: and then fell down. The sound of the gun shot
Speaker 1: brought the rest of the men flooding into the room.
Speaker 1: They gathered around him while he twitched on the carpet
Speaker 1: until he lay still. The doctor leaned over and declared
Speaker 1: him dead. The shot had killed him. They rolled him
Speaker 1: off the carpet and on to bare stone. The army
Speaker 1: officer took Resputant's hat and coat and put them on.
Speaker 1: He would leave the use of off palace looking like
Speaker 1: Gregory to anyone watching. The doctor and Dmitri went with him.
Speaker 1: Now it was just two of the conspirators left in
Speaker 1: the palace, and Perishkevitch made his way upstairs. Just as
Speaker 1: Felix was about to follow, he noticed something. Resputants left
Speaker 1: eyelid began to quiver. Felix froze, and then slowly walked
Speaker 1: back and leaned over Grigory's face. That's when Resputant's eyes
Speaker 1: flew open. He moaned something between a growl and a scream,
Speaker 1: and then rose up from the stone floor, clawing and
Speaker 1: grasping at the air. His hands caught Felix. The two
Speaker 1: men struggled until Felix freed himself and ran for the stairs,
Speaker 1: calling for Poorshkevitch, but he could hear that Resputin was
Speaker 1: moving behind him. When they got back to the cellar,
Speaker 1: guns drawn, it was just in time to see that
Speaker 1: Resputant had reached the door that led to the courtyard.
Speaker 1: Roaring like an animal, he disappeared up the stairs. The
Speaker 1: killers gave chase when they burst out the door, they
Speaker 1: saw powdery snow falling all around them and ahead. Rasputant,
Speaker 1: stumbling into a run, headed away into the darkness. He
Speaker 1: was nearly at the palace gates and the street beyond.
Speaker 1: Poorashkevitch raised his revolver and fired two shots. When he
Speaker 1: could see that both missed, he took off running. The
Speaker 1: wounded man was too slow. As he reached him, Perishkevitch
Speaker 1: fired again. This time the bullet hit Rasputan in the
Speaker 1: back and dropped him to the ground. In a moment,
Speaker 1: Parishkevitch was on him. He flipped Grigory over, pointed the
Speaker 1: gun at his head, and pulled the trigger. Poorishkevitch found
Speaker 1: Felix in the bathroom. He was in hysterics, hunched over
Speaker 1: the sink, spit hanging from his lips. It took a
Speaker 1: few minutes for him to recover. By then, the Yusupa
Speaker 1: family servants had dragged Gregory's body back down the stairs
Speaker 1: into the cellar. Perashkevitch would later say that when Felix
Speaker 1: went down to see the body again, he flew into
Speaker 1: a frenzy and attacked Rasputant's head and face with a
Speaker 1: rubber club. It took members of the household staff to
Speaker 1: restrain Felix and drag him away. Felix was escorted to
Speaker 1: his bed, where he collapsed. The rest was up to Perishkevitch.
Speaker 1: He ordered the servants to wrap Grigory's body in a
Speaker 1: blue cloth and bound it with a cord while he
Speaker 1: waited for the other conspirators to finish burning resputants clothes
Speaker 1: and then circle back around. When they finally pulled up
Speaker 1: to the door, still exulting from Grigory's death, they saw
Speaker 1: the look on Perishkevitch's face and realized that things had
Speaker 1: gone terribly wrong while they were away, so they moved quickly.
Speaker 1: The four of them dragged rasputants corpse into the car
Speaker 1: to the waiting chains that were meant to weigh the
Speaker 1: body down. But as they piled in and were pulling
Speaker 1: away from the Yusupov Palace, Paraskevich looked back and noticed
Speaker 1: that Rasputants, galoshes and his heavy coat were still in
Speaker 1: the car. The other men explained they had followed the plan.
Speaker 1: They took Resputants closed to the hospital train at Warsaw station,
Speaker 1: where it would look like he was to ride out
Speaker 1: of town, and there the train stove was already blazing,
Speaker 1: lit by Parishkevitch's wife. The only problem had been that
Speaker 1: the clothes didn't fit. Rather than destroying the evidence, they
Speaker 1: had just carried it all back out again, and now
Speaker 1: they were carrying them alongside Rasputant's body. The car crawled
Speaker 1: through the streets. They were afraid of driving too fast
Speaker 1: and attracting attention, but eventually they cleared the city to
Speaker 1: the northwest and made it to their destination, the Bullshoy
Speaker 1: Petrovsky Bridge. Beneath them, a branch of the Nevka River
Speaker 1: flowed nearly invisible through a large hole in the ice.
Speaker 1: In a rush, the four men jumped out of the car.
Speaker 1: They dragged rasputants body to the guardrail, lifted him over
Speaker 1: the edge, and let him go. The body of the
Speaker 1: Siberian holy Man fell into the dark water and vanished.
Speaker 1: Only then did the killers realize they had forgotten to
Speaker 1: attach the weights and chains to his bundled body. They
Speaker 1: scrambled to grab them from the car. Hurriedly, they threw
Speaker 1: the chains down into the dark hole after him. They
Speaker 1: hoped that somehow it would catch him and drag him down.
Speaker 1: One chain they wrapped around his coat. Like everything else
Speaker 1: about their plan, it was poorly thought through and carelessly
Speaker 1: carried out. In the mad scramble, one of them spotted
Speaker 1: a boot still sitting in the car's back seat. In
Speaker 1: a rush to flee the scene, they flung it over
Speaker 1: the side, Confident that they had saved the Czar and
Speaker 1: pulled the parasite from the body of Holy Russia. The
Speaker 1: killers left back into the car, slammed the doors, and
Speaker 1: sped away into the darkness. Grigory Resputant was gone. That's
Speaker 1: it for this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around after
Speaker 1: this short sponsor break for a preview of what's in
Speaker 1: store for next week. People started coming to their apartment.
Speaker 1: They started to line up at the door as usual,
Speaker 1: bringing their pain, their needs, their desires, but there was
Speaker 1: no sign of Grigory to meet them. So Maria put
Speaker 1: in the call to her friends of the Empress, and
Speaker 1: they promptly relayed the message to Alexandra. Grigory it seemed
Speaker 1: was missing. After that, Maria called the woman who had
Speaker 1: introduced Resputant and Felix use of POV. Together, they tried
Speaker 1: to get in touch with Felix. After a few tries,
Speaker 1: they had him on the phone, but as Maria watched
Speaker 1: them talk, she saw something come over the woman's face.
Speaker 1: By the time they ended the call, Maria could tell
Speaker 1: she was deeply upset. Felix had sworn that he had
Speaker 1: not seen Gregory the night before. He had not picked
Speaker 1: him up, much less hosted him at the use of
Speaker 1: haf Palace. That was all he had to say, and
Speaker 1: then he hung up. The two looked at each other.
Speaker 1: One thing was clear, Felix was lying, and with Grigory missing,
Speaker 1: they began to suspect why. Unobscured was aided by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Josh Thaine in partnership with I Heart Radio, with research
Speaker 1: by Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and original music
Speaker 1: by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians, source
Speaker 1: materials and links to our other shows over at grimm
Speaker 1: and mild dot com, slash Unobscured, and as always, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Three Pas