“I just work as Rasputin”

Rasputin often recalled that attempt upon his life. He sincerely believed till the end of his days that “if that noseless bitch hadn’t stabbed me” there would be no First World War. Rasputin was known as a staunch opponent to the war on Germany.

With a peasant's common sense Rasputin believed that strong nations should make friends, not war, be they republics or monarchies. And he mentioned not without some pride that two years earlier he had persuaded Nicholas II not to get involved in the First Balkan war. That's possible. The last emperor was a person susceptible to outside influence, especially from his spouse. His hesitation to proclaim universal mobilization is well-known. But on the day, when elated crowds saluted the royal couple under the balcony of the Winter Palace while others were furiously smashing German shops and the German Embassy on St. Isaac square, Rasputin lied in bed in a Tyumen hospital. Perhaps it was there that he wrote a letter to the tsar — at least there are no grounds to doubt its authenticity: “...You, tsar and father of Russian people, do not let the mad people triumph and ruin themselves and our people. Suppose they defeat Germany, but what about Russia? If you think carefully there has been no bitterer sufferer from time immemorial: the great nation is drowning in blood, great is the perdition and the sadness is infinite, Grigory.”

Now even the most inveterate of skeptics do not doubt Rasputin's ability to alleviate the pains of the heir to the throne who suffered from hemophilia-related complications. And if all Russia had gotten about this disease the fate of the empire could indeed be different — people of Russia are very sympathetic to those who suffer.

But what could be done when even the tsar's sister accidentally got word of Alexei's disease only on the eve of WWI? This is the a fact and so Rasputin's mystery is destined to remain unresolved for ages. Someone wittingly dubbed Rasputin Tyumen’s first oil well; the only difference is that it is journalists rather than industrialists or geologists who pump money out of it, courtesy of numerous news stories. And hardly anybody can to separate the myth of Rasputin from his real traits.

It was these myths that brought a former Syzran townswoman, the 33-year-old Khioniya Guseva, to Pokrovskoe. Afterwards in the sensational novel titled Wicked Force (or At the End of the Rope in the version distorted by Soviet censorship) its author would write that Khioniya had passed through the dark abyss of brothels, having contracted syphilis there. This apparently disagrees with the medical data that Khioniya was a virgin, when she attempted on Rasputin's life and with her own testimony that she lost her nose at the age of 12? And given her vagrancy, she could contract syphilis anywhere. She became an assassin quite consciously, because she sought to avenge all the innocent women and girls disgraced by Rasputin, as she had heard from many. Khioniya was a loyal follower of the notorious monk priest Iliodorus, once a sidekick and then a fierce enemy of Rasputin. But this is a different story; in March 1917 Khioniya who was in prison at the time was released by a personal decree of Kerensky. After that all traces of her disappear... 

Today little in Pokrovskoe hints at that half-forgotten chapter of the country’s history. The old church was utterly ruined in Khrushchev's times, the school that Rasputin built on his own money was burnt down by his fellow villagers in 1918 on the allegation of being a den of devils... And only sturdy Siberian houses can still be found in abundance along the streets. Until recently there had been among them a wonderfully preserved house of Rasputin. And it would still be standing if...

If not for that same novel Wicked Force. I can agree with those who describe it as a libelous novel. The leadership of the late Soviet period — the novel was published in 1979 — were quick to recognize themselves in its characters. And they commanded Rasputin's house to be dismantled one log after another literally overnight with very little of its contents saved. 

Incidentally, the Romanovs, on their way from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, passed through Pokrovskoe. As they waited for new horses, they exchanged parting glances with Rasputin’s daughter Matryona, who was looking through the second-floor window... Today a modest stone with a quote from tsar's dairy carved out thereon recalls that silent meeting. By a sad quirk of fate, at about the same time in 1918, the corpse of an old priest thrown off the barge with his arms tied behind his back with barbed wire was fished out of the river at Pokrovskoe. Everybody recognized in the dead body the esrtwhile friend and then the bitter enemy of Rasputin, bishop Hermogenes...

Nothing but a window molding remained from Rasputin's house; in the same year 1979 some dazzling and featureless landmark with Olympic symbols was swiftly erected at its site. Now the molding is displayed in a museum established more than 20 years ago by Tyumen residents Vladimir and Marina Smirnov, one of the first private museums in Russia.

Yet the very first exhibit in this museum was not this authentic molding, but a genuine Viennese chair, the last piece of furniture of a set presented by Rasputin to one of his fellow villagers at his wedding party. On one occasion, quite a long time ago, some wrestlers arrived in Tyumen for a tournament and one of them sat down on that chair just for fun. He was the only one who became a champion! Since that time the chair has been venerated, especially by men. They say the chair charges the person sitting on it with Rasputin's energy and strength...

Also very interesting in this museum accommodated in a durable ancient mansion is the selection of all kind of trademarks devoted to the Siberian sage... A local peasant named Viktor who amazingly resembles Rasputin by his looks is also a very lively and eye-catching participant of the exhibit. “I just work as Rasputin here,” he humbly admits...