Maria Rasputin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Grigorievna and the family name is Rasputina.
Maria Rasputina
Матрёна Распутина
Maria Rasputina, right, with her father and Lili Dehn in March 1911
Born
Matryona Grigorievna Rasputina

March 27, 1898
Pokrovskoye, Russian Empire
DiedSeptember 27, 1977(1977-09-27) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesMara, Matrena, Marochka, Maria Rasputina
Occupation(s)Writer, cabaret dancer, circus performer, riveter
Spouses
Boris Soloviev
​
​
(m. 1917; div. 1926)​
Gregory Bernadsky
​
​
(m. 1940; div. 1946)​
ChildrenTatyana Soloviev, Maria Solovieff
Parents

Maria Rasputin (born Matryona Grigorievna Rasputina,

slander
and the misinterpretation of facts by his enemies.

Early life

Rasputin with his children

Matryona (or Maria) Rasputin was born in the

St. Petersburg, where her first name was changed to Maria to better fit with her social aspirations.[4] Rasputin had brought Maria and her younger sister Varvara (Barbara) to live with him in the capital with the hope of turning them into "little ladies."[5] After being refused at the Smolny Institute,[6]
they attended Steblin-Kamensky private preparatory school in October 1913.

Father

Entrance of Gorochovaia 64. Rasputin's apartment, No. 20, was on the third floor with a view in the courtyard,[7] with the Tsarskoe train station nearby. He lived in this 5-room apartment from May 1914 with a housemaid, her niece and his two daughters.

What little is known about Rasputin's childhood was passed down by Maria.[8] Maria expressed her ideas about their surname; Rasputin. According to her, he was never a monk, but a

Khlysti's ideas.[10]

Maria records that Rasputin was never the same after the attack by Khioniya Guseva on 12 July [O.S. 29 June] 1914.[11][12] Maria and her mother accompanied their father to the hospital in Tyumen. Seven weeks later, Rasputin left the hospital and returned to St Petersburg. According to Maria, her father started to drink dessert wines.[13]

Maria was briefly engaged during

Petrograd.[14] Maria liked to visit the opera and the Ciniselli Circus
.

On 17 December 1916, Rasputin was lured to the Moika Palace for a house warming party organized by Felix Yusupov, whom Rasputin called "The Little One".[15] Yusupov had visited Rasputin regularly in the past few weeks or months.[16] The following day, the two sisters reported their father missing to Anna Vyrubova. Traces of blood were detected on the parapet of the Bolshoy Petrovsky bridge, as well as one of Rasputin's galoshes, stuck between the bridge pile. Maria and her sister affirmed the boot belonged to their father.[17]

Maria asserts that after the attack by Guseva, her father developed

hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar.[18] She and her father's former secretary, Simanovich, doubted he was poisoned at all.[19][20] It is Maria who mentioned the homosexual advances of Felix Yusupov towards her father. According to her, he was murdered when this was denied. Fuhrmann does not believe Yusupov found Rasputin attractive.[21]

It is not clear whether Rasputin's two daughters were present at Rasputin's burial in Vyrubova's garden, next to the Alexander Palace and the surrounding park, although Maria claimed she was.[22][23] The two sisters were invited in the Alexandra Palace to play with the four grand duchesses, quite often referred to as OTMA; meanwhile, Maria and her sister had moved into a smaller apartment, owned by her French teacher. They each received an allowance of 50,000 rubles. In April 1917, their mother returned to Pokrovskoye. The next day, the two sisters were locked up in the Tauride Palace and questioned. Boris Soloviev succeeded in gaining their release.

Life following the Revolution

Maria Rasputin being interviewed by a journalist from the Spanish magazine Estampa in 1930

Rasputin had persuaded Maria to marry Boris Soloviev, the charismatic son of Nikolai Soloviev, the Treasurer of the

hypnotism, attended meetings at which Rasputin's followers attempted to communicate with the dead through prayer meetings and séances.[26] Maria also attended the meetings, but later wrote in her diary that she could not understand why her father kept telling her to "love Boris" when the group spoke to him at the séances. She said she did not like Boris at all.[27] Boris was no more enthusiastic about Maria. In his own diary, he wrote that his wife was not even useful for sexual relations, because there were so many women who had bodies he found more attractive than hers.[28] In September 1917, Boris received jewels from the Tsarina to help arrange for their escape,[29] but according to Radzinsky, he kept the funds for himself. Nonetheless, she married Boris on October 5, 1917, in the chapel of the Tauride Palace. After the fall of the Russian Provisional Government the situation got worse. In spring 1918, the couple fled to her mother.[30] They lived in Pokrovskoye,[27] Tyumen, and Tobolsk
.

Boris and her brother Dmitry turned in the officers who had come to

Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
.)

Exile

Maria Rasputin promoting Circus Busch in 1928
Maria Rasputina with pony act in Paris (1932)[33][34]

Boris and Maria escaped to Vladivostok, where they lived for almost a year. Boris was arrested by the White Army and sent to Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai. Maria was questioned by Nikolai Sokolov about the Romanov jewels, which had disappeared.[35]

The

Baden, Austria
.

Maria took dancing lessons in Berlin and stayed with Aron Simanovich, her father's former "bookkeeper". They settled in Montmartre, Paris, where Boris worked in a soap factory, as night porter, car-washer and for the Waterman Pen Company; they lived at Avenue Jean Jaurès. He died of tuberculosis in July 1926 in Hôpital Cochin. Maria was offered a job as a cabaret dancer because of her name.[36] She took more dancing lessons to support their two young daughters and invited her sister Varvara to come to Paris, but she died in Moscow. After

Felix Yusupov published his memoir (in 1928) detailing the death of her father, Maria sued Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia in a Paris court for damages of $800,000. She condemned both men as murderers and said any decent person would be disgusted by the ferocity of Rasputin's killing.[37] Maria's claim was dismissed. The French court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over a political killing that took place in Russia.[38][39][40]
Maria published the first of three memoirs about Rasputin in 1929: The Real Rasputin.

In 1929, she worked at Busch Circus, where she had to dance to "the tragedy of my father's life and death, and be brought face-to-face on the stage with actors who were impersonating him and his murderers. Every time I have to confront my father on the stage a pang of poignant memory shoots through my heart, and I could break down and weep."

U.S. citizen. In 1947 her younger daughter Maria married in Paris to Gideon Walrave Boissevain (1897–1985), minister plenipotentiary in Greece, Chile, Israel, then Dutch ambassador to Cuba.[50]

She began work as a

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California shipyard during World War II.[36][citation needed] Maria worked in defense plants until 1955 when she was forced to retire because of her age. After that, she supported herself by working in hospitals, giving Russian lessons, and babysitting for friends.[51]

In 1968, Maria claimed to be psychic and said Pat Nixon had come to her in a dream.[36] At one point, she said she recognized Anna Anderson as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, a claim she would later recant.[52] Maria had two pet dogs, whom she called Youssou and Pov after Felix Yussupov.[53]

During the last years of her life, she lived in

Russian-American community. Maria is buried in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
.

Legacy

Maria told her grandchildren that her father taught her to be generous, even in times when she was in need herself. Rasputin said she should never leave home with empty pockets, but should always have something to give to the poor.[54] Her granddaughter Laurence Huot-Solovieff, the daughter of Maria's daughter Tatyana, recalled in 2005[54] that according to Maria, their infamous great-grandfather was a "simple man with a big heart and strong spiritual power, who loved Russia, God, and the Tsar."

See also

Notes

  1. ^ van der Meiden, p. 84.
  2. ^ Fuhrmann, p. x
  3. ^ Douglas Smith (2016) Rasputin, pp. 170, 182.
  4. ISBN 978-0-14-303865-8
    , pp. 297–98
  5. ISBN 0-385-48909-9
    , p. 201.
  6. ^ Fuhrmann, p. 134.
  7. ^ Петербургские квартиры Распутина. Petersburg-mystic-history.info. Retrieved on 15 July 2014.
  8. ^ Rasputin.
  9. ^ Rasputin, p. 33.
  10. ^ Moynahan, p. 37.
  11. ISBN 5-8159-0180-6
    (in Russian)
  12. ^ Rasputin, p. 12.
  13. ^ Rasputin, p. 88.
  14. ^ Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, p. 385
  15. ^ Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, pp. 452–54
  16. ^ Maria Rasputin, p. 13
  17. ^ Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, pp. 452–54
  18. ^ Rasputin, pp. 12, 71, 111.
  19. ^ A. Simanotwitsch (1928) Rasputin. Der allmächtige Bauer. p. 37
  20. ^ Radzinsky (2000), p. 477.
  21. ^ Fuhrmann, p. 204.
  22. ^ Rasputin, p. 16
  23. ^ Fuhrmann, p. 222
  24. ^ "Russian culture". December 19, 2013.
  25. ^ Moe, p. 628.
  26. ISBN 0-440-16358-7
    , p. 487
  27. ^ a b Massie, p. 487
  28. ISBN 0-385-42371-3
    , p. 230
  29. ^ Moe, pp. 628–29.
  30. ^ Fuhrmann, p. 233.
  31. ^ Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, pp. 493–94
  32. ISBN 1-85592-518-4
    p. 47
  33. ^ Colmarer neueste Nachrichten, 20 October 1932
  34. ^ Débuts au cirque de Melle Raspoutine : [photographie de presse] / Agence Meurisse
  35. ^ Astanina, Alla; RBTH, special to (April 18, 2015). "Nikolai Sokolov: The man who revealed the story of the Romanov killings". rbth.com.
  36. ^ a b c Barry, Rey (1968). "Kind Rasputin". The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia, US). Retrieved February 18, 2007.
  37. ISBN 0-8065-1971-1
    , p. 232
  38. ^ King, p. 233
  39. ^ Fuhrmann, p. 236
  40. ^ Moe, p. 630.
  41. ^ "MME. RASPUTIN'S CIRCUS ORDEAL". Advertiser. February 19, 1929. p. 18 – via Trove.
  42. ^ "Rasputin, Maria - Author, Russia *27.03.1898-+ - as dancer in the..." Getty Images.
  43. ^ "Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  44. ^ "Bert Nelson & Maria Rasputin HW Peru 1935".
  45. ^ Massie, p. 526
  46. ^ "сайт-архив эмигрантской прессы". Librarium.fr.
  47. ISBN 9781476600796
    – via Google Books.
  48. ^ "Reading Eagle - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  49. ^ Time magazine (March 4, 1940). "Milestones, Mar. 4, 1940". Time magazine. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  50. ^ "Inventaris Archief van de Familie Boissevain en Aanverwante Families". archief.amsterdam.
  51. ^ Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975–1981). "People's Almanac Series". Famous Family History Grigori Rasputin Children. Retrieved February 18, 2007.
  52. ^ "Freeware Hall of Fame & Anastasia". freewarehof.org.
  53. ^ King, p. 277
  54. ^ a b Stolyarova, Galina (2005). "Rasputin's Notoriety Dismays Relative". The St. Petersburg Times(St. Petersburg, Russia). Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2007.

References

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