In an attempt to salvage the tsaritsa’s reputation, several noblemen began plotting to kill Rasputin. Prince Felix Yussoupov, an aristocrat and husband to one of Nikolai’s nieces, took a main role in the plot. The Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, Nikolai’s cousin, and Vladimir Purishkevich, a member of the Duma, were also closely involved. A lieutenant in the army and a prominent doctor rounded out the conspiracy. The date of the murder was set for 16 December 1916, according to the Julian calendar (29 December, by the Gregorian calendar), the only night of the month that both Grand Duke Dmitri and Purishkevich had free on their schedules.

      Just past midnight, when the imperial guards left him alone, Rasputin was summoned to the Yussoupovsky Palace in Petrograd, near where the Moika Canal meets the Neva River, to meet with Yussoupov. He was told that Yussoupov’s wife, Irina, was ill and wanted to meet him. Knowing Rasputin’s appetite for vile behavior and sexual liaisons, Irina refused to be present, but the conspirators only needed to get him into the house. Yussoupov had met him many times earlier, and told Rasputin that he did not want to attract attention to their friendship, so he had instructed him to come in through a back stairway to the basement, so no one would see. Once there, while they were supposedly waiting for Irina, Yussoupov offered food to Rasputin, and gave him pastries and wine, both laced with cyanide. At first, Rasputin refused, then changed his mind, and ate a few pastries. Complaining of a dry throat, he then guzzled the wine. Between the food and the drink, Rasputin ingested enough cyanide to kill several men, but it seemed to have no ill effect on him. After roughly two hours had gone by since Rasputin’s arrival, Yussoupov went to consult with the others, to make sure the cyanide had been administered properly. Ready to be done with the matter, he retrieved a revolver. When he went back downstairs, Rasputin was up and looking around the room. Yussoupov suggested that Rasputin should turn toward a crucifix on the wall and pray as he raised the gun and fired.

      It was an hour later, as the conspirators were getting ready to dispose of the body, that Yussoupov went back to the scene of the crime, to make sure the victim was actually dead. Though Rasputin certainly seemed dead, as Yussoupov looked in, he seemed to wake up, and began to chase after his would-be murderer. He ran up the stairs and out through the courtyard, reportedly yelling that he would tell everything to the tsaritsa. Purishkevich ran after him with a revolver, and caught him in the back with the third shot. When Rasputin fell, he continued crawling away, but Purishkevich shot him squarely in the back of the head, kicking him in the head when he continued jerking. The body was pulled back to the house, where Yussoupov began bludgeoning it with a dumbbell handle, and, according to some accounts, stabbing, mutilating, and severing parts of the body. Finally, they tied his hands and legs with rope, wrapped him in cloth, and, while Yussoupov stayed behind to clean himself up, the others dumped the body through a hole in the ice on the canal into the icy waters of the Neva.


Bridge over the Moika Canal, near the Neva River
Photo by Tyler Whetstone, 2002
      The next morning brought the arrest of the conspirators, since bloody evidence was found in abundance inside the palace. Grand Duke Dmitri and Yussoupov were pardoned from execution and send into exile in Siberia. Rasputin’s body was found in another hole in the ice, unwrapped, with his bindings broken. An autopsy ruled drowning to be the official cause of death. His body still showed no signs of being affected by the cyanide.

Last updated 20 April 2004
Website and original content by Tyler Steven Whetstone, 2004