Here is a reprint 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 latter’s maid of honor Russian empress, and her memories.
Vyrubova’s “Diary” was published in 1927–1928. on the pages of the magazine “Past Days” - supplements to the evening edition of the Leningrad “Red Newspaper”. O. Broshniovskaya and Z. Davydov were named as those who prepared this publication (the latter is mistakenly 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 “Revolution and Civil War in descriptions of the White Guards,” published by Gosizdat in the twenties.
Around the name of Anna Vyrubova for a long time There were many legends and speculations. The same can be said about her notes. If Vyrubova’s memoirs, entitled “Pages from My Life” by the author, 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 matter (including stylization) was carried out by A. N. Tolstoy, while the “factual” side was developed by P. E. Shchegolev, who, as is known, among other things, was the editor of the seven-volume publication “The Fall of the Tsar” regime."
The book “Her Majesty's Maid of Honor” was compiled and commented by S. Karachevtsev. Publishing “The Diary” and Vyrubova’s memoirs under the same cover, he subjected them to significant cuts (this is especially true for the “Diary”). However, a book that compares these works as a whole will, without a doubt, be of interest to today’s reader, who will be able to draw their own conclusions from this comparison.
It must be said that speculation was accompanied by further fate Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova. Back in 1926, the magazine “Prozhektor” reported the death in exile of a former maid of honor, “a personal friend of Alexandra Fedorovna,” “one of the most ardent fans of Grigory Rasputin.” In the recently released (1990) Soviet encyclopedic dictionary It is carefully said that Vyrubova died “after 1929.” Meanwhile, as it became known, under his maiden name(Taneeva) Her Majesty's former lady-in-waiting 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 Alexandrovna led a secluded life, secluded in a quiet forest corner of the Lake District, for which, however, there were quite good reasons. Firstly, fulfilling the vow she made before leaving her homeland, she became a nun; secondly, many emigrants did not want to communicate with a person whose name was compromised by just being mentioned next to the name of Grigory Rasputin.
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 her memoirs. But she never decided to publish them. They were released in Finnish after her death. We think that over time this book will come to our readers.
A. Kochetov
The chariot of time rushes faster than an express train these days, the years lived go back into history, become overgrown with past, and drown in oblivion. However, the inquisitive human mind cannot reconcile with this, urging us to extract from the darkness of the past at least individual fragments of past experience, at least a faint echo of a day that has passed away. Hence the constant and great interest in historical reading, which increased even more in our country after the revolution; she opened numerous archives and made accessible corners of the past that were previously forbidden. The general reader has always been much more attracted to getting acquainted with “what was” than with “what was not” (“the invention of the writer”).
In the tragic story of the collapse of a powerful empire, the personality of the maid of honor Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, née Taneyeva, 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 queen, it was clearly evident that Vyrubova was one of the main figures in that intimate court circle, where all the threads of political intrigue, painful attacks, adventurous plans, and so on were crossed. 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 a prominent position as Secretary of State and Chief Administrator of His Imperial Majesty's Chancellery for 20 years. The same post was occupied 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. The mother's great-grandfather was Count Kutaisov, a friend of Emperor Paul I.
Despite my father's high position, our family life was simple and modest. Besides his service, his entire life interest was concentrated in 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 homework, my mother worked, and my father, sitting at the piano, studied composition.
We spent 6 months of the year on the family estate “Rozhdestveno” near Moscow. The neighbors were relatives - the princes Golitsyn and Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich. WITH early childhood we children adored Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (the elder sister of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna), who spoiled and caressed us, giving us dresses and toys. We often went to Ilyinskoye, and they came to us - on long lines - with their retinue, drink tea on the balcony and walk in the ancient park. One day, having arrived from Moscow, the Grand Duchess invited us to tea, when suddenly they 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 dates back to the beginning of her reign, when she was in the prime of her youth and beauty: tall, slender, with a regal bearing, golden hair and huge, sad eyes - she looked like a real queen. From the very first time, the Empress showed confidence in my father, appointing him vice-chairman of the Labor Aid, which she founded in Russia. At this time, in the winter we lived in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Palace, and in the summer at the dacha in Peterhof.
Returning with a report from the young Empress, my father shared his impressions with us. During the first report, he dropped the papers from the table; the Empress, quickly bending down, handed them to the greatly embarrassed father. The Empress's extraordinary shyness amazed him. “But,” he said, “her mind is masculine - une téte d’homme.” 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 serious issues of her new institution; rocking a cradle with a newborn with one hand Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna, she was the other one signing business papers. One day, during one of the reports, an extraordinary whistle was heard in the next room.
A close friend, beloved maid of honor of the murdered Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Anna Vyrubova incredibly quickly managed to win the trust of the sovereigns and easily enter the royal chambers. She, like no one else, knew all the secrets of the court, all pain points each of the members ruling family. Participation in royal orgies, criminal connection with Rasputin, conspiracy, espionage - that’s just small part sins attributed to her by her contemporaries. Who really was Their Majesties' favorite? What role did it play in the life of the Romanovs, and perhaps in the fate of the state?
- Offering to my queen, my hope to the Mother of God... to the offended Patroness, see my misfortune, see my sorrow. Help me, as I am weak...
After praying, the doctor stood up from his knees and looked out the window. Parisian autumn was fading. It started raining. Three days later he is expected at a meeting of the Society of Russian Doctors, and after that he promised to visit the ill Merezhkovsky.
“Monsieur Manukhin, you have a letter from Russia,” the maid placed a plump envelope in front of the doctor: “Dear Ivan,” wrote an old friend and colleague, “I hasten to inquire how your health is?” I am sending you the magazine “Years Past.” I am sure that one of the publications published in this issue will arouse considerable interest in you...”
The doctor put on his pince-nez and began leafing through the magazine he had sent. What kind of article should this be? I didn't have to guess for long. On the third page, in large print, was the headline: “Her Majesty’s Maid of Honor. The intimate diary of Anna Vyrubova."
Ivan Ivanovich Manukhin remembered well how in 1917, at the invitation of the Provisional Government, he set foot on the land of the Trubetskoy Bastion Peter and Paul Fortress. His duties included observing and also compiling medical reports about the physical and mental health of prisoners. One chilly March day, the doctor heard the grinding of wrought-iron gates and the rude shouts of the convoy. A plump prisoner with an exhausted face entered the yard, leaning on crutches.
- Who is this woman? - Ivan Ivanovich asked the assistant.
- The same Vyrubova. Close lady of the empress. A cunning, slutty woman. She went not far from the queen and the king. What, really, doctor, don’t you know? All of Russia is gossiping about palace outrages.
Dr. Serebrennikov was appointed as the attending physician of the maid of honor. Only later did Ivan Manukhin find out that, despite the severe injuries that Anna received during one of her travels railway, she was kept in terrible conditions. The soldiers guarding the prisoner treated her with particular cruelty: they beat her, spat in the slop intended for Vyrubova, and gossiped about her many intimate adventures. Serebrennikov encouraged bullying. In front of the convoy, he stripped Anna naked and, shouting that she had become stupid from debauchery, whipped her on the cheeks. The maid of honor contracted pneumonia from the dampness in the cell. Hungry and feverish, Vyrubova lost consciousness almost every morning. Because she dared to get sick, she was deprived of walks and rare visits with loved ones. The interrogations lasted four hours. Her Majesty's close associates were accused of espionage, interaction with dark forces, and participation in orgies with Rasputin and royalty. Over time, the investigative commission replaced the hot-tempered and scandalous Serebrennikov with another doctor. It was Ivan Manukhin. When he first examined Anna, there was no living space on her body.
The doctor remembered this now, sitting in his Parisian apartment and greedily swallowing the words printed on the pages of the “Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting” opened before him. Strange, but until now Ivan Ivanovich had not heard anything about this document.
From the Diary:
“My father, Alexander Sergeevich Taneyev, held a prominent position as Secretary of State and Chief Administrator 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 and Alexander III. My family and I spent six months a year on our family estate near Moscow. The neighbors were relatives - the princes Golitsyn and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. From early childhood, we children adored Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (elder sister of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). One day, having arrived from Moscow, the Grand Duchess invited us to tea, when suddenly they reported that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had arrived.”...
“The origins of Anna Taneyeva (Vyrubova) alone determined her future fate,” the editor of the diary wrote in the preface. “She was among those who “wrote history.” As a 19-year-old girl, in January 1903, Anna Taneyeva (Vyrubova) received a code - i.e. was appointed city maid of honor, temporarily replacing the ill maid of honor Sofya Dzhambakur-Orbeliani. Cunning and smart, Anna quickly gained the trust of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and she, despite general discontent, appointed Anna Taneeva (Vyrubova) as her full-time maid of honor.”
The doctor remembered: rumor did not spare either the empress or her new close associate. Even in the Imperial military medical academy, where Ivan Manukhin studied, they gossiped about how the court nobility disliked the young Taneyeva. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was blamed for her ignorance of etiquette: “Only bearers of certain surnames can be brought near the court. All others, even representatives of the family nobility, have no rights.” “She has the right only because she is my friend,” Alexandra Fedorovna snapped, defending Taneyeva. “Now I know that at least one person serves me for me, but not for reward.” From that time on, Anna Vyrubova followed the queen everywhere.
From the Diary:
“How, in essence, everything is terrible! I was drawn into their lives! If I had a daughter, I would give her my notebooks to read in order to save her from the possibility or desire to get close to the kings. It’s such a horror, it’s as if you’re being buried alive. All desires, all feelings, all joys - all this no longer belongs to you.”
Doctor Manukhin could not believe his eyes. She couldn't write this! The “Diary” published in this newspaper did not even remotely resemble Anna Alexandrovna’s official memoirs, published in 1923 in Paris, either in style or tone.
When Taneyeva turned 22, Empress Alexandra helped her friend find what she thought was a worthy match - naval lieutenant Alexander Vasilyevich Vyrubov. Vyrubov was one of those who took part in the attempt to break through the blockaded harbor of Port Arthur. The battleship Petropavlovsk, on which Vyrubov and his comrades were, hit a mine and sank in a matter of seconds. Of the 750 crew members, only 83 managed to escape. Among the survivors was future husband Anna Taneyeva. In April 1907, the marriage of maid of honor Anna Alexandrovna and Alexander Vasilyevich took place. Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna were present at the wedding. They blessed the young people with an icon. New gossip was born on the sidelines of the royal palace and beyond: “Have you heard? Empress Alexandra Feodorovna sobbed as if she were giving her own daughter in marriage. Why would you? From now on, Anna Alexandrovna could not be a maid of honor, since only unmarried girls could apply for this position.
From the Diary:
“I don’t need affection from him, it’s disgusting to me. Everyone says: “The Pope (Nicholas II. - Author’s note) comes to you for a reason. After his caresses, I cannot move for two days. Nobody knows how wild and smelly it is. I think if he had not been a king... not a single woman would have given herself to him for love. When he visits me, he says: “I loved one, I truly caressed one - my canary” (that’s what he calls Kshesinskaya). What about others? They kick like bitches."
Anna Vyrubova could not write this “Diary”! He was completely imbued with rudeness and cynicism that was unusual for her. Or has he, Ivan Manukhin, gone crazy? Or did I make a mistake about it? “She was also in Nikolai’s bed,” the doctor remembered the words of the prison assistant.
A year after the Vyrubovs’ wedding, rumors spread that life for Anna and Alexander Vasilyevich was not going well and they broke up. How did the Diary explain this? Doctor Manukhin began frantically flipping through the pages again until he got to the right place.
From the Diary:
“He (Orlov. - Author's note) was a widower, I was an adult girl. What happiness overwhelmed us, but the first days of happiness had not yet passed when Mom (Empress Alexandra Fedorovna - author's note) saw him on the mountain and fell in love with him. She took my dear one from me. And when Nightingale (Orlov - Author's note) was with Mom, she invited me to marry Vyrubov. My house became a meeting place for Mother and Nightingale. When Nightingale forgot his glove here, my husband, knowing about my secret love, beat me severely.”
Doctor Manukhin thought: Vyrubova does not write about any secret love in her official memoirs. He did not hear a word or a hint about Orlov from her during personal meetings. But the doctor remembered all their conversations in the cell almost by heart.
Exhausted, black from beatings, Vyrubova openly told him about her life:
— When in 1903 I temporarily replaced the former, ill maid of honor, the royal people invited me to a joint vacation. There were children with us. Together with the Empress, we walked, picked blueberries, mushrooms, and explored the paths. It was then that we became very friendly with Alexandra Fedorovna. When we said goodbye, she told me that she was grateful to God that she had a friend. I also became attached to her and loved her with all my heart. In 1907 I married Vyrubov. This marriage brought me nothing but grief. Probably, all the horrors of what he experienced when the Petropavlovsk sank were reflected in the state of my husband’s nerves. Soon after the wedding, I learned about my husband’s sexual impotence; he showed signs of severe mental illness. I carefully hid my husband's problems from others, especially from my mother. We broke up after one day, in a fit of rage, Vyrubov undressed me, threw me on the floor and began beating me. My husband was declared abnormal and placed in medical institution in Switzerland.
And here’s how Pierre Gilliard, the mentor of the children of Nicholas I and Alexandra Fedorovna, spoke about Anna Alexandrovna’s husband: “Vyrubova’s husband was a scoundrel and a drunkard. His young wife hated him and they separated.”
And again the beehive began to hum, the poison of court gossip spread again by the “rabble” spread. “Empress Alexandra Feodorovna invited her friend to settle as close as possible to the royalty.” "Despite family drama(wasn’t the marriage a cover for royal pleasures?), Vyrubova agreed to go on another voyage with the empress and slept with the empress in the same cabin.” “The Empress visits her false maid of honor every day and has determined a monetary allowance for her friend.”
Only the lazy did not talk about the lesbian inclinations of Alexandra Fedorovna and Anna Vyrubova. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's Chamberlain Zinotti and Nicholas I's valet Radzig actively added firewood to the fire of gossip. The latter drew attention to the fact that “Nicholas goes to his office in the evening to study, and they (the Empress and Vyrubova - Author’s note) go to the bedroom.”
“I did not and do not have any doubts about the purity and impeccability of this relationship. I officially declare this as the empress’s former confessor,” said Father Feofan.
“I know who started the gossip. Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. It is beneficial for Stolypin, who does not want to lose his influence, to expose the Empress, and most importantly, her entourage, in a bad light, Count A.A. wrote in his diary. Bobrinsky, well aware of the actions of Stolypin. “In fact, they say that the lesbian relationship between Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Anna Vyrubova is greatly exaggerated.”
Going over in his memory fragments of conversations he had once heard, Doctor Ivan Manukhin again and again reanimated Anna Alexandrovna’s direct speech:
— After I received a divorce, I did not have an official position. I lived with the queen as an unofficial lady-in-waiting and was her personal friend. For the first two years, the Empress escorted me to her office through the servants' room, as if it were contraband, so that I would not meet her regular ladies-in-waiting and would not arouse their envy. We whiled away the time reading, doing handicrafts, and talking. The secrecy of these meetings gave rise to even more gossip.
“After a failed marriage with Vyrubov, Anna Alexandrovna found solace in religion,” recalled Pierre Gilliard. “She was sentimental and prone to mysticism. Without much intelligence or insight, she relied solely on emotions. Vyrubova acted not in selfish interests, but out of sincere devotion to the imperial family, out of a desire to help her.”
There was talk in the world that Rasputin “infected” Vyrubova with a passion for debauchery. Anna, in turn, tied the queen even more tightly to herself. Close to “Mama” in soul and body, Anna Alexandrovna could inspire her with any thought, move her to any action. Elder Rasputin allegedly took advantage of this. By manipulating Vyrubova, he controlled the empress herself, and therefore the sovereign himself.
Former ladies-in-waiting and courtiers willingly shared information with others about how the false maid of honor “kissed the elder, and he patted her on the thighs, pressed her to himself, licked and pinched her, as if calming a playful horse.”
It also did not escape the gaze of the courtiers that now Rasputin, Vyrubova-Taneeva and Empress Alexandra began to meet in Anna Alexandrovna’s house.
From the Diary:
“I told Mom: “He’s extraordinary.” Everything is open to him. He will help Little (Tsarevich Alexei - Author's note). We need to call him. And Mom said: “Anya, let him come.” This... God's will be done!”
If you believe not the Diary, but the memoirs published by Vyrubova herself, everything was different:
“The web was woven by those courtiers who tried to receive benefits from Their Majesties - through me or in another way. When they didn’t succeed, envy and anger were born, followed by idle talk. When the persecution of Rasputin began, society began to be outraged by his imaginary influence, everyone disowned me and shouted that I introduced him to Their Majesties. It was easy to place the blame on a defenseless woman who did not dare and could not express displeasure. They are, the mighty of the world This, they hid behind this woman, closing their eyes and ears to the fact that it was not me, but the Grand Dukes and their wives who brought the Siberian wanderer to the palace. A month before my wedding, Her Majesty asked Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna to introduce me to Rasputin. Grigory Efimovich entered, thin, with a pale, haggard face. The Grand Duchess told me: “Ask him to pray for something in particular.” I asked him to pray so that I could devote my whole life to serving Their Majesties. “So it will be,” he replied, and I went home. A month later I wrote to the Grand Duchess, asking Rasputin to find out about my wedding. She replied that Rasputin said: I will get married, but there will be no happiness in my life.”
From the Diary:
“Then, when he (Rasputin - author’s note) came and began to quietly stroke my hand, I felt a trembling. “And you, Annushka, don’t shy away from me. That’s when we met, but our roads have long been intertwined.”
— For the sake of historical truth, I must say: Rasputin was a simple wanderer, of which there are many in Rus'. Their Majesties belonged to the category of people who believed in the power of the prayers of such “wanderers.” Rasputin visited Their Majesties once or twice a year. They used it as a reason to destroy all previous foundations. He became a symbol of hatred for everyone: poor and rich, wise and foolish. But the aristocracy and the Grand Dukes shouted loudest. “They were cutting down the branch on which they themselves were sitting,” the lady-in-waiting of Their Majesties told the doctor and later wrote in her official memoirs.
After the revolution, Anna Alexandrovna was repeatedly arrested and interrogated. In the summer of 1917, the Medical Commission of the Provisional Government, headed by Ivan Ivanovich Manukhin, established that Anna Vyrubova had never had an intimate relationship with any man. Due to the lack of evidence of a crime, the empress's favorite lady-in-waiting was released. Afraid of being arrested again, she wandered around friends’ apartments for a long time. In 1920, together with her mother, Anna Vyrubova illegally moved to Finland, where she took monastic vows at the Smolensk Skete of the Valaam Monastery. In 1923 she published a book of memoirs in Russian (the book was published in Paris). The authenticity of the "Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting", published in the magazine "Past Years" in 1927-1928 and sent to Dr. Manukhin in Paris, has been questioned by many critics and scientists. Presumably, “Diary...” was a social order new government, made by writer Alexei Tolstoy and historian Pavel Shchegolev. Vyrubova herself publicly denied her involvement in the “Diary...”. Their Majesties' Lady-in-Waiting died at the age of 80 in Helsinki. With her death, the debate about the role of Anna Taneyeva (Vyrubova) in Russian history did not stop.
It is difficult to find a more odious name in Russian history than Grigory Rasputin. The memories of his contemporaries about him are contradictory (where one voice out of a hundred is, if not in justification, then defense based on facts and actions known to them personally), films and books of pickles and other “history experts” showing the fiend of hell
Recently the film “Grigory Rasputin” was shown, based on the “Memoirs” of Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva), the maid of honor of the Empress.
It shows a humanized appearance, where through the eyes of an investigator from the Provisional Government the life of this man unfolds with all the pros and cons. Naturally, I wanted to know how well the above corresponds
reality from the "Memoirs" of a contemporary and his defender.
“The doctors said that they absolutely do not understand how this happens (stopping bleeding in an heir with hemophelia). But it 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 it.
In general, money did not play a role in his life: if they gave it to him, he immediately
distributed. After his death, the family was left in complete poverty.
In 1913, I remember, the Minister of Finance Kokovtsev offered him 200,000 rubles so that he would leave St. Petersburg and not return.
He replied that if “Dad” and “Mom” want, he will, of course, leave, but why?
buy it. I know many cases when he helped during illnesses, but I also remember that he did not like when he was asked to pray for sick babies, saying:
“You will beg for life, but will you take upon yourself the sins that a child will commit in life?”
("Memoirs" M 1991, pp. 189-190)
What wisdom in the words of an illiterate man!
(once there was a documentary where Hitler was shown in reverse scrolling, right down to a sick baby, and the hand was not raised to kill this monster in its infancy)
Without wasting time on retyping, I present below the contents of “Memoirs” from the Internet.
FROM THE INTERNET
........................
Reflections on Rasputin
Anna Vyrubova
Personally, I have no experience that Rasputin supposedly had a special erotic attractive power. Yes, it’s true, many women went to ask him for advice in their love affairs, mistaking 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 took the advice as an unreasonable interference in her personal life, and she was so outraged by this that she assured Bishop Feofan that Rasputin was molesting her. The incident was the reason for the first bad gossip about Rasputin. After this, church circles began to look at him suspiciously.
During the first year of his stay in St. Petersburg, Rasputin was received with great interest everywhere. Once, being in the family of an 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, like me, approached him sincerely and openly, who had an interest in spiritual issues and wanted guidance and support in spiritual improvement. Later it became a habit to go to him when trying to gain the favor of the Court circle. Rasputin was considered a force that was supposedly hidden behind the Throne.
There was always the opinion that the Royal Couple made a grave mistake in that they did not take care of sending Rasputin to a monastery, from where, if necessary, they could have received help from him.
Rasputin could actually stop the bouts of hemorrhage!
I remember one meeting with Professor Fedorov already at the beginning of the revolution. He treated the Heir since his birth. We recalled cases when used medical methods Still, they could not stop the bleeding, and Rasputin, making only the sign of the cross over the sick Heir, stopped the bleeding. “Parents of a sick child must be understood,” Rasputin had a habit of saying.
When visiting St. 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 mediator 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, most especially, the Sovereign. They expected to hear from him either predictions or descriptions of mysterious phenomena. As a reward for his labors and delivery of requests to the place, some gave Rasputin money, which he never kept with himself, but immediately distributed to the poor. When Rasputin was killed, not a penny of money was found on 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 took him to taverns, getting him drunk, or held drinking parties in his small apartment - in other words, they did everything possible to expose Rasputin in a bad light to everyone's attention and thus indirectly harm the Tsar and To the Empress.
Rasputin's name was soon blackened. Their Majesties still refused to believe the scandalous stories about Rasputin and said that he suffered for the truth, like a martyr. Only envy and ill will dictate misleading statements.
In addition to Their Majesties, the highest spiritual circle also showed interest in Rasputin at the beginning of the year. One of the members of this circle spoke about the deep impression Rasputin made on them at one of the evenings. Rasputin turned to one in their group, saying: “Why don’t you admit your sins?” The man turned pale and turned his face away.
The Emperor and Empress first met with Rasputin in the house of the Grand Dukes Peter and Nikolai Nikolaevich; their families considered Rasputin a prophet who gave them instructions in spiritual life.
The second serious mistake made by Their Majesties - the main reason for gossip - was the secret conduct of Rasputin into 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 police and soldiers, no one could pass secretly.
In Livadia, the Empress heard that Rasputin had arrived in Yalta, and often sent me with crews to fetch him. Having driven away from the main gate, near which stood six or seven policemen, soldiers or Cossacks, I had to give them instructions to lead Rasputin through a small entrance from the garden, straight into the personal wing of the Emperor and Empress. Naturally, all the security noticed his arrival. Sometimes the Family members the next day, at breakfast, did not want to shake my hand, because, in their opinion, I was main reason arrival of Rasputin.
For the first two years of friendship between the Empress and me, the Empress tried to secretly take me into her work room through the maids’ rooms, unnoticed by her ladies-in-waiting, so as not to arouse their envy of me. We spent our time reading or doing handicrafts, but the manner in which I was shown to her gave rise to unpleasant and completely unfounded gossip.
If Rasputin had been received from the very beginning through the Palace main entrance and introduced 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 Empress’s entourage, and it was for this reason that people believed in them.
Rasputin was very thin, he had a piercing gaze. On my forehead, at the edge of my hair, there was a large bump from hitting my 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 one-year pilgrimage trip 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 near the shrine with holy relics.
The Grand Duchesses loved Rasputin and called him by name “Our Friend.” Under the influence of Rasputin, the Grand Duchesses assumed that they would never marry if they had to give up their Orthodox faith. Also, the little Heir was attached to Rasputin.
Walking to the Empress’s room, a little later after the news of Rasputin’s murder, I heard Alexei sobbing, hiding his head in the window curtain: “Who will help me now if “Our Friend” is dead?”
For the first time during the war, the Tsar's attitude towards Rasputin changed and became much colder. The occasion 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 the telegram I sent, asked Rasputin to pray for a victorious war for Russia. The answer was unexpected: “Keep peace by any means, since war means destruction for Russia.” Having received Rasputin’s telegram, the Emperor lost his composure and tore it up. The Empress, despite this, did not stop respecting and trusting Rasputin.
The third serious mistake that the Royal Couple made, especially the Empress, was the opinion that Rasputin had the gift of seeing who was a good person and who was a bad person. No one could shake Their faith. “Our friend” said that the mentioned person was bad or vice versa and that was enough. One person told me that he saw a faint smile on the Tsar’s lips when the news of Rasputin’s murder arrived. Still, I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the statement, since I later met the Emperor, who was deeply shocked by what 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 bread lines. Rumors began to spread that the Emperor wanted to conclude a separate peace with Germany and that the Empress and Rasputin were behind the intention. If Rasputin had such influence over the Tsar as claimed, then why didn’t the Tsar suspend the mobilization? The Empress was against the war, as was said before. It is also clear from the foregoing that during the war she, perhaps more than any other civilian, tried to influence 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 at their own discretion, the only one who turned out to be a victim of both German and revolutionary gossip was the English ambassador Sir George Buchanan. He entered into communication 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 act. But what happened was completely different.
The revolution began, the events of February 1917 caused complete devastation in Russia. The abdication of the Emperor from the throne was completely unfounded. The Emperor was oppressed to such an extent that he wanted to step aside. It was threatened that if he did not renounce the Crown, his entire Family would be killed. He told me this later when we met.
“Murder is not allowed to anyone,” the Sovereign wrote on the petition that members of the Imperial family left with Him, asking that Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Felix Yusupov not be punished.
When I remember all the events of that time, it seems to me as if the Court and 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, and confusion to which Their Majesties ultimately fell victim.
Rasputin was killed on the night of December 16-17, 1916. On December 16, the Empress sent me to Grigory Efimovich to take him the icon brought from Novgorod. I didn't particularly like going to his apartment, knowing that my trip would be once again falsely interpreted 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 meet 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 standing guard 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, which drove away from the house shortly after the shots were fired.
There were terrible days. On the morning of the 19th, Protopopov let it be known that Rasputin’s body had been found. First, Rasputin’s galoshes were found near an ice hole on Krestovsky Island, and then divers stumbled upon his body: his arms and legs were entangled in a rope; right hand he probably released it when he was thrown into the water; the 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 spur, Grigory Efimovich was probably still alive when he was thrown into the hole, since his lungs were full of water.
When people in the capital learned about Rasputin’s murder, everyone went crazy with joy; There were no limits to the jubilation of the society; they congratulated each other. During these demonstrations regarding the murder of Rasputin, Protopopov asked Her Majesty's advice by telephone on where to bury him. Subsequently, he hoped to send the body to Siberia, but did not advise doing so now, pointing out the possibility of unrest along the way. They decided to bury him temporarily in Tsarskoye Selo and transfer him home in the spring.
The funeral was held in the Chesme almshouse, and at 9 o’clock in the morning on the same day (December 21, I think) one sister of mercy brought Rasputin’s coffin on a motor. He was buried near the park on the land where I intended to build a shelter for the disabled. Their Majesties and the Duchesses arrived, along with me and two or three strangers. The coffin had already been lowered into the grave when we arrived. The confessor of Their Majesties served a short requiem service and they 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 the cemetery. Immediately after the short funeral service we left.
Rasputin's daughters, who were all alone at the funeral service, placed the icon that the Empress had brought from Novgorod on the chest of the murdered man.
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 Tsar and Empress.
Rasputin was not a monk, not a priest, but a simple “wanderer,” of which there are many in Rus'. Their Majesties belonged to the category of people who believed in the power of the prayers of such wanderers. The Emperor, like his ancestor, Alexander I, was always mystical; The Empress was equally mystical.
A month before my wedding, Her Majesty asked Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna to introduce me to Rasputin. Grigory Efimovich entered, thin, with a pale, haggard face, wearing a black Siberian jacket; 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 so that I could spend my whole life serving Their Majesties. “So it will be,” 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 a reason to destroy all previous foundations. He seemed to personify in himself what had become hateful to Russian society, which had lost all balance. He became a symbol of their hatred.
And everyone was caught in this bait: the wise and the foolish, the poor and the rich. But the aristocracy and the Grand Dukes shouted loudest of all, and chopped off 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 it beginning to recover from its serious illness.
But the sooner everyone searches their conscience and realizes their guilt before God, the Tsar and Russia, the sooner the Lord will stretch out His strong hand and save us from difficult trials.
Her Majesty trusted Rasputin, but twice she sent me with others to his homeland to see how he lived in his village of Pokrovskoye. His wife met us - she was 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 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 had lunch; there was a huge icon of Kazan Mother of God, which was considered miraculous. In the evening, the whole family and “brothers” (as the four other male fishermen were called) gathered in front of her, and they all sang prayers and canons together.
The peasants treated Rasputin's guests with curiosity, but they were indifferent to him, and the priests were hostile. It was the Dormition Fast, and this time they did not eat milk or dairy products anywhere; Grigory Efimovich never ate meat or dairy.
There is a photograph that shows Rasputin sitting as an oracle among the aristocratic ladies of his “harem” and seems to confirm the enormous influence that he supposedly had in Court circles. But I think that no woman, even if she wanted, could be carried away by him; neither I nor anyone who knew him closely had heard of such a thing, although he was constantly accused of debauchery.
When the commission of inquiry began to operate after the revolution, there was not a single woman in Petrograd or in Russia who would make accusations against him; the information was drawn from the notes of the “guards” who were assigned to him.
Despite the fact that he was an illiterate man, he knew everything Holy Bible, and his conversations were distinguished by originality, so that, I repeat, they attracted many educated and well-read people, which were, undoubtedly, Bishops Theophan and Hermogenes, Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna and others.
I remember that once in church a postal official approached him and asked him to pray for a sick woman. “Don’t ask me,” he replied, but pray to St. Ksenia." The official cried out in fear and surprise: “How could you know that my wife’s name is Ksenia?” I could cite hundreds of similar cases, but perhaps they can be explained one way or another, but what is much more surprising is that everything he said about the future came true...
One of Rasputin's enemies, Iliodor, launched two attempts on his life. He succeeded in the first when a certain Gusev woman wounded him in the stomach with a knife in Pokrovskoye. This was in 1914, a few weeks before the start of the war.
The second attempt was made 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 individuals like Khvostov looked at Rasputin as an instrument for the fulfillment of their cherished desires, imagining through him to receive certain favors. If he failed, they became his enemies.
This was the case with the Grand Dukes, Bishops Hermogenes, Theophan and others. 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 a written proposal to the Empress - to buy this book for 60,000 rubles, threatening otherwise to publish it in America. The Empress was indignant at this proposal, declaring that Iliodor should write what he wanted and wrote on the 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.
This 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 in front of the Emperor, begged him not to do this, saying that the enemies of Russia were just waiting for Russia to get involved in this war, and that inevitable misfortune would befall Russia.
The last time the Emperor saw Rasputin was in my house, in Tsarskoe Selo, where, by order of Their Majesties, I summoned him. This was about a month before his murder. Here I was convinced once again what an empty fiction was the notorious conversation about the desire for a separate peace, about which slanderers spread rumors, pointing out that this was the desire of either the Empress or Rasputin.
The Emperor arrived concerned and, sitting down, said: “Well, Gregory, pray well; It seems to me that nature itself is going against us now.” Grigory Efimovich approved of Him, saying that the main thing is that there is no need to make peace, since the country that shows more steadfastness and patience will win.
Then Grigory Efimovich pointed out that we need to think about how to provide for all the orphans and disabled people after the war, so that “no one is left offended: after all, everyone gave You everything that was most dear to them.”
When Their Majesties stood up to bid farewell to him, the Tsar said, as always: “Gregory, cross us all.” “Today you bless me,” answered Grigory Efimovich, which the Emperor did.
Whether Rasputin felt that he was seeing Them for the last time, I don’t know; I cannot say that he had a presentiment of the events, although what he said came true. I personally describe only what I heard and how I saw him.
Rasputin associated his death with great disasters for Their Majesties. In recent months, he expected that he would soon be killed.
I testify to the suffering that I experienced that in all the years I personally did not see or hear anything obscene about him, but, on the contrary, much of what was said during these conversations helped me bear the cross of reproach and slander that the Lord placed on me.
Rasputin was 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 subject to arrest and trial, and then execution.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Rudnev, who carried out the investigation under the Provisional Government, was one of the few who tried to unravel the case of “dark forces” and expose Rasputin in the real light, but it was difficult for him: Rasputin was killed, and Russian society was mentally upset, so few people judged sensibly and calmly. Rudnev was the only one who had the civil courage to take the point of view of a sane person for the sake of truth, without being infected by the herd opinion of Russian society in 1917.
The material was compiled by Lyudmila Hukhtiniemi based on the memoirs of Anna Alexandrovna Taneyeva (nun Maria)
"Anna Vyrubova - maid of honor of the Empress." Edited by Irmeli Viheruuri. Aftermath. 1987 Helsinki. Transfer from Finnish language L.Huhtiniemi.
A.A. Vyrubova. Pages of my life. Good. Moscow. 2000.
From the Internet
An example of the strictest life was one of Rasputin’s closest admirers, the queen’s friend Anna Vyrubova.
Vyrubova was fanatically devoted to Gregory, and until the end of his days he appeared to her as a holy man, unmercenary and miracle worker.
Vyrubova had no personal life at all, devoting herself entirely to serving her neighbors and the suffering. She took care of orphans and worked as a nurse.
Outwardly attractive, of noble origin, accepted as one of 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 newspaper men spread these rumors and slander throughout Russia.
“Stories” that became household names were savored in the social salons at court and in the tabloid press, in State Duma and on the streets.
Imagine the disappointment of the gossipers when later a special medical commission of the Provisional Government established that Anna Vyrubova was virgin and innocent, and all the crimes attributed to her turned out to be fiction...
At the beginning of the 20th century, Anna Taneyeva-Vyrubova, like Grigory Rasputin, found herself at the very center of a Masonic smear campaign to discredit the Russian monarchy, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Tsar Nicholas II. And after the revolution of 1917, haters of the Tsarist power finally formed the slanderous myth about the “rotten monarchy,” “the debauchery of Rasputin” and his “selfish and loving friend” Vyrubova, who allegedly also had a passion for power.
Writer Igor Evsin about the fate of the righteous nun Anna (Anna Alexandrovna Taneyeva-Vyrubova).
However, today it is documented that special commissions conducted several official medical examinations Taneyeva-Vyrubova, who stated the same thing: Anna Alexandrovna is a virgin. And already during her lifetime it became clear that the statement about her intimate relations with Rasputin was slander.
As for self-interest and the imaginary millions accumulated by Vyrubova, the following must be said. Having fled from Soviet power to Finland, she was denied Finnish citizenship due to lack of sufficient means of subsistence. And having received citizenship, she lived very modestly in Finland, almost becoming a beggar.
She did not have any accumulated millions, allegedly received for her petitions for certain people before Tsar Nicholas II. This means that she did not have any self-interested influence on Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna.
This is how the comrade of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Prince N.D., characterized Anna Alexandrovna. Zhevakhov: “Having entered the fold of Orthodoxy, the Empress was imbued with not only the letter, but also the spirit of it, and, being a believing Protestant, accustomed to treating religion with respect, she fulfilled its demands differently than the people around her, who only loved to “talk about God.” ", but did not recognize any obligations imposed by religion. The only exception was Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, who had an unfortunate life personal life which early introduced her to those inhuman sufferings that forced her to seek help only from God.”
Let us note that Zhevakhov is talking here about the suffering that Taneyeva-Vyrubova endured after a terrible train accident. This catastrophe practically killed her and only the prayers of Elder Grigory Rasputin resurrected Anna Alexandrovna to life. Elder Gregory then performed a miracle that shocked all eyewitnesses. However, Vyrubova remained permanently disabled and was forced to endure severe pain.
“The life of A.A. Vyrubova,” Prince Zhevakhov further writes, “was truly the life of a martyr, and you need to know at least one page of this life in order to understand the psychology of her deep faith in God and why only in communication with God A.A. Vyrubova found the meaning and content of her deeply unhappy life. And when I hear condemnations of A. A. Vyrubova from those who, without knowing her, repeat vile slander created not even by her personal enemies, but by the enemies of Russia and Christianity, the best representative of which was A. A. Vyrubova, then I am surprised not so much human malice as human thoughtlessness...
The Empress became acquainted with the spiritual appearance of A. A. Vyrubova when she learned with what courage she endured her suffering, hiding it even from her parents. When I saw her lonely struggle with human malice and vice, a spiritual connection arose between Her and A. A. Vyrubova, which became stronger, the more A. A. Vyrubova stood out against the general background of smug, prim, not believing in anything nobility
Infinitely kind, childishly trusting, pure, knowing neither cunning nor guile, striking with her extreme sincerity, meekness and humility, not suspecting intent anywhere, considering herself obligated to meet every request halfway, A. A. Vyrubova, like the Empress , divided her time between the Church and deeds of love for one’s neighbor, far from the thought that she could become a victim of the deception and malice of bad people.”
In fact, Prince Zhevakhov told us about the life of a righteous woman, a servant of God.
At one time, Investigator Nikolai Rudnev headed one of the departments of the emergency commission established by the Provisional Government of Kerensky. The department was called “Investigation of the Activities of Dark Forces” and investigated, among others, the cases of Grigory Rasputin and Anna Vyrubova. Rudnev conducted the investigation honestly and impartially and came to the conclusion that the materials against Rasputin were slander. And regarding Anna Vyrubova, he wrote the following:
“Having heard a lot about Vyrubova’s exceptional influence at the Court and about her relationship with Rasputin, information about which was published in our press and circulated in society, I went to interrogate Vyrubova at the Peter and Paul Fortress, frankly speaking, hostile to her. This unfriendly feeling did not leave me in the office of the Peter and Paul Fortress, until Vyrubova appeared under the escort of two soldiers. When Mrs. Vyrubova entered, I was immediately struck by the special expression in her eyes: the expression was full of unearthly meekness. This first favorable impression was completely confirmed in my further conversations with her.
My assumptions about the moral qualities of Mrs. Vyrubova, drawn from long conversations with her in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the prison quarters and, finally, in the Winter Palace, where she appeared on my summons, were fully confirmed by her manifestation of purely Christian forgiveness towards those from whom she had to endure a lot within the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress. And here it is necessary to note that I learned about these abuses of Ms. Vyrubova by the serf guards not from her, but from Ms. Taneyeva.
Only after this did Mrs. Vyrubova confirm everything that her mother had said, declaring with amazing calmness and gentleness: “They are not to blame, they don’t know what they are doing.” To tell the truth, these sad episodes of mockery of Vyrubova’s personality by the prison guards, expressed in the form of SPITING IN THE FACE, REMOVING HER CLOTHES AND UNDERWEAR, ACCOMPANIED BY BEATING THE FACE AND OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY OF A SICK WOMAN WHO WAS BARELY WALKING ON CRUTCHES, AND THREATS TAKE A LIFE " CONCUBINE OF THE GOVERNMENT AND GREGORY" prompted the investigative commission to transfer Ms. Vyrubova to a detention facility at the former Provincial Gendarmerie Department."
Here we see the real Christian feat of the martyr Anna. A feat that repeats the feat of Christ Himself.
However, Anna Taneyeva-Vyrubova is still being judged based on her alleged book of memoirs, “Her Majesty’s Maid of Honor Anna Vyrubova.” However, although there really for the most part The original text is present, the editorial edit led to its reduction by half! Moreover, it includes fictitious paragraphs that Anna Alexandrovna never wrote. Thus, with Jesuitical sophistication, the work of discrediting the righteous martyr continues. The publishers tried their best to distort Vyrubova’s moral character and create the reader’s impression of her as a person of limited intelligence.
The forged diary “The Diary of Anna Vyrubova” included in the book is especially aimed at this. In essence, this is a continuation of the devil’s work to discredit both Anna Alexandrovna herself and Grigory Rasputin and the holy Royal Family.
This vile fake was written by the famous Soviet writer A.N. Tolstoy and historian P. E. Shchegolev, former member Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government. Alas, alas and alas - the texts of the book “Her Majesty’s Maid of Honor Anna Vyrubova” and the fake diary contained in it are still reprinted in various reputable publications and passed off as originals.
However, archival documentary evidence about Vyrubova-Taneeva creates a true image of the righteous woman. Based on them, the modern historian Oleg Platonov writes: “An example of the strictest life was one of Rasputin’s closest admirers, the Tsarina’s friend Anna Vyrubova.
She dedicated her life to serving the royal family and Rasputin. She had no personal life. healthy, beautiful woman completely submitted to the strictest monastic requirements. In fact, she turned her life into a monastic service, and at this time slanderers in the left-wing press published the most vile details about her allegedly depraved intimate life.
A slandered admirer of a slandered elder. Writer Igor Evsin about the fate of the righteous nun Maria (Anna Alexandrovna Taneyeva-Vyrubova).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Anna Taneyeva-Vyrubova, like Grigory Rasputin, found herself at the very center of a Masonic smear campaign to discredit the Russian monarchy, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Tsar Nicholas II.
And after the revolution of 1917, haters of the Tsarist power finally formed the slanderous myth about the “rotten monarchy,” “the debauchery of Rasputin” and his “selfish and loving friend” Vyrubova, who allegedly also had a passion for power.
However, today it is documented that special commissions conducted several official medical examinations of Taneyeva-Vyrubova, which stated the same thing: Anna Alexandrovna is a virgin.
And already during her lifetime it became clear that the statement about her intimate relations with Rasputin was slander.
As for self-interest and the imaginary millions accumulated by Vyrubova, the following must be said.
Having fled from Soviet power to Finland, she was denied Finnish citizenship due to lack of sufficient means of subsistence. And having received citizenship, she lived very modestly in Finland, almost becoming a beggar.
She did not have any accumulated millions, allegedly received for her petitions for certain people before Tsar Nicholas II.
This means that she did not have any self-interested influence on Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna.
This is how the comrade of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Prince N.D., characterized Anna Alexandrovna. Zhevakhov: “Having entered the fold of Orthodoxy, the Empress was imbued with not only the letter, but also the spirit of it, and, being a believing Protestant, accustomed to treating religion with respect, she fulfilled its demands differently than the people around her, who only loved to “talk about God.” ", but did not recognize any obligations imposed by religion.
The only exception was Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova, whose unhappy personal life early introduced her to those inhuman sufferings that forced her to seek help only from God.”
Let us note that Zhevakhov is talking here about the suffering that Taneyeva-Vyrubova endured after a terrible train accident.
This catastrophe practically killed her and only the prayers of Elder Grigory Rasputin resurrected Anna Alexandrovna to life.
Elder Gregory then performed a miracle that shocked all eyewitnesses.
However, Vyrubova remained permanently disabled and was forced to endure severe pain.
“The life of A.A. Vyrubova,” Prince Zhevakhov further writes, “was truly the life of a martyr, and you need to know at least one page of this life in order to understand the psychology of her deep faith in God and why only in communication with God A.A. Vyrubova found the meaning and content of her deeply unhappy life. And when I hear condemnations of A. A. Vyrubova from those who, without knowing her, repeat vile slander created not even by her personal enemies, but by the enemies of Russia and Christianity, the best representative of which was A. A. Vyrubova, then I am surprised not so much human malice as human thoughtlessness...
The Empress became acquainted with the spiritual appearance of A. A. Vyrubova when she learned with what courage she endured her suffering, hiding it even from her parents. When I saw her lonely struggle with human malice and vice, a spiritual connection arose between Her and A. A. Vyrubova, which became stronger, the more A. A. Vyrubova stood out against the general background of smug, prim, not believing in anything nobility Infinitely kind, childishly trusting, pure, knowing neither cunning nor guile, striking with her extreme sincerity, meekness and humility, not suspecting intent anywhere, considering herself obligated to meet every request halfway, A. A. Vyrubova, like the Empress , divided her time between the Church and deeds of love for one’s neighbor, far from the thought that she could become a victim of the deception and malice of bad people.”
In fact, Prince Zhevakhov told us about the life of a righteous woman, a servant of God.
At one time, Investigator Nikolai Rudnev headed one of the departments of the emergency commission established by the Provisional Government of Kerensky.
The department was called “Investigation of the Activities of Dark Forces” and investigated, among others, the cases of Grigory Rasputin and Anna Vyrubova. Rudnev conducted the investigation honestly and impartially and came to the conclusion that the materials against Rasputin were slander.
And regarding Anna Vyrubova, he wrote the following:
“Having heard a lot about Vyrubova’s exceptional influence at the Court and about her relationship with Rasputin, information about which was published in our press and circulated in society, I went to interrogate Vyrubova at the Peter and Paul Fortress, frankly speaking, hostile to her.
This unfriendly feeling did not leave me in the office of the Peter and Paul Fortress, until Vyrubova appeared under the escort of two soldiers.
When Mrs. Vyrubova entered, I was immediately struck by the special expression in her eyes: the expression was full of unearthly meekness.
This first favorable impression was completely confirmed in my further conversations with her.
My assumptions about the moral qualities of Mrs. Vyrubova, drawn from long conversations with her in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the prison quarters and, finally, in the Winter Palace, where she appeared on my summons, were fully confirmed by her manifestation of purely Christian forgiveness towards those from whom she had to endure a lot within the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
And here it is necessary to note that I learned about these abuses of Ms. Vyrubova by the serf guards not from her, but from Ms. Taneyeva.
Only after this did Mrs. Vyrubova confirm everything that her mother had said, declaring with amazing calmness and gentleness: “They are not to blame, they don’t know what they are doing.”
To tell the truth, these sad episodes of mockery of Vyrubova’s personality by the prison guards, expressed in the form of SPITING IN THE FACE, REMOVING HER CLOTHES AND UNDERWEAR, ACCOMPANIED BY BEATING THE FACE AND OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY OF A SICK WOMAN WHO WAS BARELY WALKING ON CRUTCHES, AND THREATS TAKE A LIFE " CONCUBINE OF THE GOVERNMENT AND GREGORY" prompted the investigative commission to transfer Ms. Vyrubova to a detention facility at the former Provincial Gendarmerie Department."
Here we see the real Christian feat of the martyr Anna. A feat that repeats the feat of Christ Himself.
"Her Majesty's Maid of Honor Anna Vyrubova."
However, although most of the original text is present there, the editorial changes led to its reduction by half!
Moreover, it includes fictitious paragraphs that Anna Alexandrovna never wrote. Thus, with Jesuitical sophistication, the work of discrediting the righteous martyr continues.
The publishers tried their best to distort Vyrubova’s moral character and create the reader’s impression of her as a person of limited intelligence.
The forged diary “The Diary of Anna Vyrubova” included in the book is especially aimed at this.
In essence, this is a continuation of the devil’s work to discredit both Anna Alexandrovna herself and Grigory Rasputin and the holy Royal Family.
This vile fake was written by the famous Soviet writer A.N. Tolstoy and historian P.E. Shchegolev, former member of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government.
Alas, alas and alas - the texts of the book “Her Majesty’s Maid of Honor Anna Vyrubova” and the fake diary contained in it are still reprinted in various reputable publications and passed off as originals.
However, archival documentary evidence about Vyrubova-Taneeva creates a true image of the righteous woman.
Based on them, modern historian Oleg Platonov writes:
“An example of the strictest life was one of Rasputin’s closest admirers, the Tsarina’s friend Anna Vyrubova. She dedicated her life to serving the royal family and Rasputin. She had no personal life. A healthy, beautiful woman was completely subject to the strictest monastic requirements. In fact, she turned her life into a monastic ministry, while slanderers in the left-wing press published the most vile details about her allegedly depraved intimate life. How great was the disappointment of these vulgar people when medical commission The Provisional Government established that Vyrubova had never been in an intimate relationship with any man. But she was credited with...dozens of love affairs, including with the Tsar. And with Rasputin. After a happy escape from Russia, where she was threatened with imminent death, Vyrubova became a nun, observing the strictest rules and leading a lonely life. She died as a nun in Finland in 1964.”
The ascetic was buried at the Ilyinsky cemetery in Helsinki. Parishioners of the Helsinki Church of the Intercession consider her a righteous woman and say: “Come to the Orthodox Ilinskoye cemetery to her grave, stand and pray. And you will feel how easy it is to pray here, how quiet and peaceful your soul becomes.”
In Russia, nun Anna (Taneeva-Vyrubova) is also considered a righteous martyr. Some priests even bless you to prayerfully turn to her for help in any need.
Let us also cry out in simplicity of heart - Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of the Royal Martyrs, Martyr Gregory and Martyr Anna, save and have mercy on us sinners.
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