Plot ot Kill Rasputin III

IMAGES COURTESY: TO KILL RASPUTIN

Prior to the suppression of my articles I was called upon by an agent of the British Government and to him I told some of the facts in my possession concerning Rasputin.

Rasputin’s influence over the Tsarina had been suppressed by the Russian Government. He alleged that Rasputin ‘is strongly pro-German and has such influence over the Tsarina as to obtain her influence against the Allies…

More compelling evidence still comes from the papers of Station Chief Sir William Wiseman, which indicate that not only had New York SIS had direct contact with Iliodor, but they later actively considered sending him back to Russia on a propaganda mission.

‘…he is now engaged in a conspiracy to bring about a separate peace, with the Russian Government to apply for a loan of three million roubles from the English government, with the threat that in case the money is not forthcoming a separate peace will be signed this winter.

Before the case could reach the point of judgement, the magazine settled out of court.

Whether Iliodor’s motives were guided by his fear and hatred of Rasputin, or the sizeable sum of money being offered for his story is very much open to Oswald Rayner, circa conjecture. The essential 1916; he had known Felix threads of his story were Yusupov since their days certainly taken seriously by the at Oxford University SIS station in New York, headed

by Sir William Wiseman. We were not simply second hand reworkings know too that one of Wiseman’s officers, of information Thwaites had gained from Captain Norman Thwaites, made several his network of sources. After the case had reports to C in London and to the British been settled, Iliodor told the New York Intelligence Mission in Petrograd, conTimes that cerning Iliodor’s claims. There is also good reason to believe that these reports

Matters had now, undoubtedly, come to a critical head so far as Britain was concerned. To Lloyd George, the prospect of a peace deal between Russia and Germany, and the horrendous consequences it would bring for Britain and France on the Western Front, was looming large with each passing day. In his War Memoirs Lloyd George was later to recall that; ‘Such news as came through to us during the autumn of 1916 from Russia showed what a fatal blunder the abandonment of the mission was proving. All the omens were pointing to a breakdown of the Russian military effort and to a separate peace with Germany. The King of Sweden (who was pro-German in sympathy) had

Intelligence officer Captain John Scale, a lynchpin in the plot to kill Rasputin 48

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remarked to the British Ambassador at Stockholm, on hearing this news, that there would be peace between Russia and Germany within two months! Sir George Buchanan….. mentioned in a private letter to Lord Charles Beresford on 17 October the prevalence of rumours of a separate peace, which Stürmer had officially denied, and reported the growth of a pro-German sentiment in official circles’.

After university Rayner had become Private Secretary to Cabinet Minister Sir Herbert Samuel. It was through him that he was to meet and become acquainted with Lloyd George. The meetings with Yusupov continued until the day before Rasputin’s murder on 16 December.

Evidence from Rayner’s family suggests that he was at the scene of the murder the following day. Furthermore, new forensic and ballistics evidence presented by Senior Home Office Forensic Pathologist Professor Derrick Pounder in February 2005, concludes that the wound which caused Rasputin’s death, a point blank range revolver shot to his forehead, was caused by a .455 inch unjacketed round from a British officer’s Webley revolver.

In his letter Sir George identified Stürmer (now at the Foreign Office), Protopopov and Rasputin as the leading Germanophiles. To further compound Lloyd George’s suspicions, yet another intelligence report landed on his desk SECRET NOTES FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE ‘There is talk in various circles in Switzerland about supposed private conversations between Germany and Russia. It is impossible to get proof of this, but it is said that these conversations are taking place between the Crown Princess Cecilia and the Empress of Russia with Rataieff, Chief of the Russian Secret Police, in Switzerland as an intermediary. The last speech of Bethmann Hollweg seems to corroborate this. Its tone is courteous towards Russia and the assurance that Germany does

not want to interfere with Russian internal politics, as well as the complete absence of a statement concerning Poland looks as if Germany wanted to leave this question open in order to eventually settle it with Russia’.

It was not long after the receipt of this report that three British intelligence officers, Captain John Scale, Captain Stephen Alley and Lieutenant Oswald Rayner began regular meetings with Prince Felix Yusupov at his Petrograd palace. Rayner had known Yusupov from their pre-war days at Oxford University where they had read Modern Languages.

A week after the murder, Captain Stephen Alley was to write, ‘…our objective has clearly been achieved.

Reaction to the demise of ‘Dark Forces’ has been well received by all, although a few awkward questions have already been asked about wider involvement. Rayner is attending to loose ends’.

Fortunately for Alley, Rayner and Scale it would be another nine decades before any more awkward questions about British involvement in Rasputin’s assassination were to be asked. © Andrew Cook

TO KILL RASPUTIN Why does the story of a peasant from a distant Siberian village becoming the all-powerful favourite of the last Russian Tsar excite us more than almost any other episode in Russian history? Why are there more lies and concealment than truth in the story of his murder?

Was this extraordinary man an evil demon who brought down the Royal family, or somebody who could have been its saviour? To Kill Rasputin finally provides the answers to the many mysteries surrounding this pivotal moment in Russian history

To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin’ is published by Tempus in hardback

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Available from Eye Spy Ref: ES/1130 UK: £22.00 USA: $45.00 WORLD £24.00

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM EYE SPY BY

Andrew Cook ACE OF SPIES: THE TRUE STORY OF SIDNEY REILLY Ref S1131 £14.99 $28.00

M: MI5’s FIRST SPYMASTER Ref ES1132 £25.00 $40.00

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