There were many interesting and bright personalities among the Russian emigrants of the first wave. But one woman attracted special attention, although she herself did not always want it. She herself called herself Maria, although her parents called her Matryona. She was the daughter of the famous royal favorite Grigory Rasputin, and the shadow of her father's ambiguous and loud glory accompanied her from childhood until the last days of her more than difficult life.


“I am the daughter of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin. Baptized by Matryona, my family called me Maria. Father - Marochka. Now I am 48 years old. Almost the same as my father was when he was taken away from home by a terrible man - Felix Yusupov. I remember everything and never tried to forget anything that happened to me or my family (no matter how the enemies counted on it). I do not cling to memories, as do those who tend to savor their misfortunes. I just live by them. I love my father very much. Just as much as the others hate him. I can't force others to love him. I do not aspire to this, as my father did not aspire. Like him, I just want understanding. But I'm afraid - and this is excessive when it comes to Rasputin., - these are the words from the book “Rasputin. Why?” written by his daughter Matryona. The very one whose hand had once written his last letter under the dictation of his father.


By the mid-1930s, only Martron survived from the whole family. Sister Varya died in 1925 in Moscow from typhus. Brother Mitya was sent into exile in 1930 as a "malicious element". Paraskeva Feodorovna's mother and Feoktist's wife went to Salekhard with him. Paraskeva Fyodorovna disappeared on the way. Dmitry himself, his wife and daughter Lisa contracted dysentery and died in 1933, Dmitry was the last, almost on the day of his father's death, December 16.


Matrena in October 1917, just a few days before the October uprising, married a Russian officer Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov. They had two daughters - Tatyana and Maria. Even before the birth of the second family emigrated to Romania, then the Czech Republic, Germany. France…


Boris Nikolayevich opened a restaurant in Paris, but went bankrupt because his compatriot emigrants came to dine without money. In 1926, Boris Nikolaevich died of tuberculosis, and Matryona had to earn a living for herself and her two children herself.

Remembering that she once studied at the dance school of the ballerina of the Imperial Theaters Deviller in Berlin, she became a cabaret actress.


Her number was noticed by the manager of one of the English circuses and offered: “If you enter a cage with lions, I’ll take it to work.” Came in, what to do. She changed her name - on the posters of that time she was recommended as "Marie Rasputin, the daughter of a mad monk." Her formidable "Rasputin" look could make any predator jump into a burning ring.



She was a success - entrepreneurs from America soon drew attention to her, invited the Ringling brothers, Barnum and Bailey to perform at the circus, then at the Gardner circus. Once, during a performance, a polar bear attacked her. The tamer career had to be abandoned. A mystical coincidence - once in the Yusupov Palace, her father, mortally wounded, collapsed on the skin of a polar bear - all the newspapers discussed.

To the 97th anniversary of the assassination of the Tsar's Friend...

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-New was born on January 9 (21), 1869 in the village of Pokrovsky in the family of a peasant Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin (12/24/1841-autumn 1916) and Anna Vasilievna, nee Parshukova (1839 / 40-01/30/1906). It was an ordinary, unremarkable family among several dozen other families in the settlement of Pokrovskaya. It must be said that the ancestors of Grigory Efimovich settled here from the middle of the 17th century. and were already indigenous Siberians. By that time, Gregory was already the fifth child in this family. After the marriage of his parents, which took place on January 21, 1862, the following were born in succession:

Evdokia (11.02.1863-26.06.1863)
Evdokia (??.08.1864-until 1887)
Glyceria (05/08/1866-until 1887)
Andrei (08/14/1867-December 1867)
Grigory (01/09/1869-12/17/1916)
Andrei (11/25/1871-until 1887)
Tikhon (06/16/1874-06/17/1874)
Agrippina (06/16/1874-06/21/1874)
Feodosia (05/25/1875-after 1900)
Anna (?-?)
another baby (?-?)


Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin. 1914

As you can see, out of nine children born, only two survived to adolescence - Grigory himself and his sister Theodosia. The latter married a peasant, Daniil Pavlovich Orlov, from the village of Kosmakov. There were children in this marriage, whose godfather was Grigory Efimovich.


G. E. Rasputin with his sister Theodosia

Grigory Efimovich himself married at the age of eighteen a peasant woman Paraskeva Fedorovna Dubrovina (10/25/1865-1930). The wedding was on February 2, 1887, and a year and a half later they had their first child. In total, Grigory Efimovich and Paraskeva Feodorovna had seven children:

Mikhail (09/29/1888-04/16/1893)
Anna (01/29/1892-05/03/1896)
George (25.05.1894-13.09.1894)
Dmitry (10/25/1895-12/16/1933)
Matryona (aka Maria) (03/26/1898-09/27/1977)
Varvara (28.11.1900-1925)
Paraskeva (10/11/1903-12/20/1903)


Grigory with his wife Paraskeva Fedorovna


Children: Matryona, Varvara (in the arms of her father) and Dmitry

After approaching Gr. Rasputin with the Royal Family, daughters Matryona and Varvara moved first to Kazan, and then to St. Petersburg, where they studied at school. The son, Dmitry, remained on the farm in Pokrovsky.


Matryona and Varvara in St. Petersburg

After the revolution, the fate of those children who remain in Russia will be rather sad.

Varvara will never marry anyone, and after all the ordeals she will die in Moscow in 1925 from typhus and tuberculosis.


Barbara after the revolution

Dmitry on February 21, 1918 marries Feoktista Ivanovna Pecherkina (1897/98-09/05/1933). Until 1930, he lived with his wife and mother in Pokrovsky, and then the order came and they were dispossessed of kulaks and sent into exile in Obdorsk (Salekhard). On the way, the widow of Grigory Efimovich dies, three years later Feoktista Ivanovna dies of tuberculosis, and after her, three months later, Dmitry himself dies of dysentery. After that, there are no direct descendants of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin in Russia.


Family of Grigory Rasputin in 1927.
From left to right: son Dmitry Grigorievich, widow Paraskeva Fedorovna,
Elizaveta Ivanovna Pecherkina (worker in the house and relative of Dmitry's wife),
wife of Dmitry Feoktista Ivanovna

The fate of Matryona was different. The people's blogger of Russia recently told about this story sadalskij DAUGHTER OF RASPUTIN. It remains to add only a few touches.

In September 1917, she marries Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov (1893-1926), the son of a close friend of G. E. Rasputin, an official of the Holy Synod Nikolai Vasilyevich Solovyov (1863-1916). In 1920, their daughter Tatyana (1920-2009) was born, and two years later, already in exile, the second daughter, Maria (03/13/1922-04/19/1976).


The first husband of the daughter of Gr. Rasputin Matryona Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov

After the death of her husband, Matryona toured the world with a circus, until in the late 1930s. does not permanently move to the United States.


Matryona performs at the circus

Here she marries for the second time, for a Russian emigrant, a certain Grigory Grigorievich Bernadsky, whom she knew back in Russia. The marriage lasted from February 1940 to 1945.


Matryona Rasputina with her second husband Grigory Bernadsky in 1940


Matrena (right) with her friend Pat Barham (left) and famous
American actress Phyllis Diller (center). 1970s

Two granddaughters Gr. Rasputin completely settled abroad and both got married.


In Verkhoturye in 1909.
From left to right: Hieromonk Ioanniky (Malkov), Bishop Feofan (Bystrov),
monk Macarius (Polikarpov), Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-New

Tatyana Borisovna (presumably her last name in marriage was Frerjean) gave birth to three children: Serge (b. 07/29/1939), Michel (b. 08/06/1942) and Laurens (b. 11/30/1943). Her last daughter - Laurence Io-Soloviev - repeatedly visited Russia, including the village of Pokrovskoye. Serge has children: Valerie (b. 1963) and Alexandra (b. 1968); Basil was born to Valerie in 1992. Michel had a son, Jean-Francois (1968-1985). Laurence herself has two children: Maude (b. 1967) and Carol (b. 1966).


Matryona Rasputin-Soloviev with her daughters Tatyana and Maria in 1928


Great granddaughter Gr. Rasputin Laurence Io-Soloviev

Maria Borisovna married the Dutch diplomat Gideon Walrave Boissevain (1897-1985), from whom she gave birth to a son, Serge (07/10/1947-01/03/2011) and had two granddaughters: Katya (b. 1970) and Embre (b. 1978). Interestingly, being in Greece with her husband in the late 1940s. Maria met and became friends with the daughter of Felix Yusupov, Irina (1915-1983), and their children, Serge and Ksenia (b. 1942), played children's games together.


Maria Borisovna Solovieva (married Boissevain)


Portrait of G. E. Rasputin by the artist Theodora Krarup.
Finished four days before the assassination - December 13, 1916

Group about Grigory Efimovich Rasputin VKontakte.

Click to listen

The secret of the descendants of Rasputin. . The editors of the newspaper "Tyumenskaya Oblast Segodnya" for the first time publishes information about the fate of the youngest daughter of Grigory Rasputin Varvara with unique photographs By the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, interest in the fate of the royal family received a new sound in facts, previously unknown historical details and materials. Such is the fate of this publication, which was provided to the editors by Marina Smirnova, director of the Rasputin Museum in the village of Pokrovsky, the owner of the rarest human talent to penetrate deeply into history, carrying out a huge research work. The family of a man-legend Russia. February 1917. Three years of the First World War. Defeats at the fronts, famine and confusion in the rear... The emperor was deposed by a conspiracy of generals. Chaos began in the country, which would later be called the bourgeois revolution. The casemates of Petropavlovka are overcrowded. And for the first time, a simple village peasant is judged on a par with the powerful of this world. The man is already dead. The guy who wrote all the newspapers of the world. Russian peasant, our countryman - Grigory Rasputin. This was the first person from Russia, whose name thundered throughout the world. Almost a hundred years have passed since his death, and the world is still wondering: who is he? False prophet or man of God? Saint or the incarnation of the devil, the Antichrist himself? A simple Russian peasant came out of the Siberian wilderness and became an incomprehensible mystery. A man-legend ... Roughly in this vein they write about him to this day. Being engaged in the biography of this man all my conscious life (post-student), having already written three books and a large number of scientific articles about him, as well as opening a museum in his homeland in the village of Pokrovsky, today I would like to talk not even about him, but about his descendants . Their fates are bizarre and ordinary at the same time. I must say right away that seven children were born in the family of Grigory Rasputin, of which only three survived: Matrona, Varvara and son Dmitry, the rest died in infancy. Only the monotony of diagnoses in the column "Cause of death" of registers of births is striking: from fever and diarrhea. Dmitry was born in 1895, Matrona - in 1898, Varvara - in 1900. Dmitry was a peasant. During the First World War, he served in the 143rd ambulance train of Her Imperial Majesty Alexandra Feodorovna as an orderly. According to archival documents, it was possible to establish that in 1930, when the distribution order came to dispossess 500 families in the Yarkovsky district, he was exiled as a fist to the city of Salekhard, along with his wife Feoktista Ivanovna and mother Paraskeva Fedorovna. Having put on a cart, "we were taken from Siberia to Siberia," as Vladimir Vysotsky sang. Rasputin's widow did not reach the place of exile, she died on the way, and Dmitry and his wife until the end of 1933 lived at the place of exile in barrack No. 14 of the special settlement in the city of Salekhard. In 1933 he died of dysentery. The eldest daughter Matrona with the Czecho-Slovak corps emigrated through the Far East with her husband, officer Boris Solovyov, to Europe, and then to the United States of America, where she worked as a tamer of wild animals in the world-famous Gardner Circus. Her first child (daughter Tatyana) was born to her in the Far East, during the move, but the second (also a daughter) was already in exile. And it is only along this line that the direct descendants of our famous countryman have been preserved. The youngest and most beloved In 2005, the great-granddaughter of Grigory Rasputin, Laurence Io Solovieff, came to the museum. She lives on the outskirts of Paris, knows not only French, but also English and German. In Russian, unfortunately, not a word. She brought a lot of rare, never published photographs and documents, which today are on display at the Pokrovsky Museum. And finally, after many years of searching, we have established the fate of Rasputin's youngest daughter, Varvara. Even Matrona, according to Laurence, until the end of her life suffered from the fact that she knew nothing about the fate of her younger sister, who remained in Russia. During the revolution, Varvara was 17 years old. She and Matrona have already graduated from high school. But the post-revolutionary fate was still unknown. The last mention of Var in the "List of citizens and members of their families living in the Pokrovskaya volost" dates back to 1922. The funds of the Department of Justice of the Tyumen Provincial Council of the RKK preserved lists of employees of the Tyumen Provincial Department of Justice for 1919-1922. It was in them that we found her personal data. Rasputina Varvara Grigorievna. Position: clerk of the judicial-investigative department of the people's court of the 4th district of the Tyumen district. Address of residence: Tyumen, st. Yalutorovskaya. 14. Age - 20 years old. Profession: clerk. Non-partisan, education: 5 classes of gymnasium. Number of family members: 3 people. Maintenance salary per month - 1560 rubles. Children of Lieutenant Schmidt Why are we talking about Rasputin's children in such detail? Last year, 19 so-called "children of Lieutenant Schmidt" came to our museum, declaring themselves illegitimate (and sometimes legitimate) children, nephews, relatives of Grigory Rasputin. Russia has always had no shortage of impostors, although it is difficult to recognize the "prophet in his own country." Imposture is an extremely interesting topic. It was dictated, probably, by the Russian mentality and an irrepressible desire to break out "from rags to riches." And also an indispensable desire to try on someone else's fate. To be involved in something bigger than your own, often inexpressive life. The impostors not only show up in the museum with stories about their kinship with Rasputin, but also write from almost all corners of the country. “Hello, curators of the Grigory Rasputin Museum! For a long time we did not dare to write you a letter. For quite a long time, assumptions were made in our family about a family relationship with the Rasputin family. Studying the biography of Rasputin, our confidence in this became complete and final, namely, that our grandfather, who, by a curious "coincidence" is also called Grigory Efimovich, is the grandson of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin. The striking external resemblance and similarity of character traits allows us to draw such a conclusion. But the fact is that we do not have official documents confirming the family relationship.” Such a letter came from Simferopol. And here is a closer address, from Tyumen: “My father is a brother to the father of Grigory Rasputin. We want to meet with you, there are many of Rasputin's relatives here….” Such correspondence is no longer surprising. They write, they call, they come. Here is how a real descendant of Rasputin, his great-granddaughter, comments on this: “As for the so-called relatives of Grigory Efimovich: are they his descendants? Very good! Why not? What will change from this?! What they want? Money? The official and legitimate descendant is me. It didn't make me richer! I am not demanding anything now, I am giving (conferences, radio broadcasts, interviews for magazines). I declare that He is He, and I don’t shout that it’s me to rehabilitate him, I don’t put myself forward (I don’t need to defend myself, I didn’t do anything wrong), I don’t need recognition (I really am his direct descendant). You can also say that I consider both of you, Marina and Volodya, contrary to medical expertise, to be my Siberian family.” We were glad to inform Laurence that we had learned about the fate of her grandmother's sister, Rasputin's youngest daughter Varvara. New Details Fortunately, not only "children of Lieutenant Schmidt" go to the museum. Sometimes people come whose ancestors really knew Rasputin's children. Such a joyful meeting for us took place quite by accident with Vladimir Shimansky. Here is his letter: “Dear Marina Yurievna! Two months ago we met in your museum and I promised to send you photographs of Varia Rasputina. So far, only one damaged photo has been found. My grandmother was afraid to keep these photos and partially damaged the faces so that they could not be recognized. They were friends with Varvara and she lived with her grandmother until she was 25. Grandmother helped her go to Moscow, and when Varya died, she went to Moscow and buried her at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Relatives told some details of Varya's life, if you are interested, you can contact me and I will tell you about them. I remember exactly that there were two more photos of Varya. I asked relatives to find them. As soon as we find it, I will send it to you. So far I am sending three photographs - Varya Rasputina (injured), my grandmother (Anna Fedorovna Davydova) and cadet Alexei, who was somehow connected with Varya. Good luck! Vladimir Shimansky. During a personal meeting, the author of these lines told us: Varvara, working in the justice department of the city of Tyumen, which was located in a damp basement, fell ill with consumption. Not fully cured, in the hope of emigration, she went to Moscow, caught typhus on the way, and died upon arrival in the capital. Grandmother Vladimir Shimansky Anna Fedorovna Davydova, a very close friend of Varvara, despite the hard times, went to the funeral. She recalls that in the coffin Varya lay completely shaved, without hair (typhus). On her grave was written: "Our Varya." Thus, an end has been put in the search for a difficult fate and the death of the youngest daughter of Grigory Rasputin, whom he loved so much. In 1919, the Soviet authorities handed over the management of the cemetery to the Khamovniki District Council. It was during this period that the most ordinary Muscovites were buried there, which is why Varya was buried there. But already in 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree: “The Novodevichy Cemetery was allocated for the burial of persons with a public position,” as a result of which ordinary burials were demolished. For this reason, today's cemetery management could not provide any assistance in finding Varvara's grave. But you never know such unfortunate circumstances in the history of our country ... The last letter of Varii, finally, a letter dated February 1924 falls into our hands. Varvara wrote it shortly before her death to her sister Matryona in Paris (spelling preserved): “Dear dear Marochka. How do you live, my sun didn’t write to you for so long because I didn’t have money, and you can’t even buy a stamp without money. In general, every day life is getting worse and worse, you think and cherish the dream that you will live well, but again a mistake. And all thanks to our friends: like Vitkun and similar people, they are all lies, and nothing more, they only promise. After all, horror, I go to practice on a typewriter. Such a distance is terrible, a whole hour and a quarter, because there is no money for the tram. Now I went to a Jew to ask for a place, he promised me. But I think that the promises will remain a promise, even worse - maybe it's my sick imagination: he is going to court me, but he will see that I do not reciprocate, and again everything is gone. Lord, how hard it all is, the soul is torn apart, why was I born? But I calm down with the fact that there are a lot of us unemployed, and all of them are only honest, who, for the sake of a place, do not want to humiliate their dignity. Of course, you have a question for what I work on a typewriter. But I'll explain to you: the Vitkuny gave me the opportunity to study, since they open an office, they need typists, they wanted me to join them, but only so that I would be prepared. In this store where I study, they bought three typewriters and they teach me for free. You see what kindness they have done because it's really funny. Now, of course, when the matter comes to an end, they evade, well, God bless them, they know very well what to do, that I don’t have money for the tram, I asked, so they don’t, and Mara goes to buy herself not one hat, of course, but two . Yes, even in bad weather they don’t go by tram, but always by cabs. Well, God be with them, maybe they will choke on their greed. God help orphans. She had embroidery, earned three rubles in gold, of course, she gave everything to her old people, that is, to the owners, just for God's sake, don't be sad about me and don't worry. After all, everything will work out and be fine. It's even worse for you, you have children, I'm alone. How is Boris Nikolayevich's health? Yes, I so want to see you, my joy. I asked Olga Vladimirovna, she told me this: we will go sooner than they will arrive, and why come. There is little joy even here, let them not invent it. She even said this and Muna in a letter I don't know if she received it? How are your lovely children? It seems to me that you gave Mary away somewhere, you don’t write anything to me about her, or you left her, baby in Germany, I’m sorry, maybe this will hurt you, but you know perfectly well your happiness is my happiness, your grief is mine grief, because you are the only one close to me. And how can your Aranson promise a lot, but did nothing, like Turovich, what were the results of that letter? All this is very interesting to me. And here I was convinced that I have no close people, everything is just a bastard, sorry for my rude expression. She had a letter from ours. Mitya begins to line up against Elizabeth Kitovna, where he was assigned a place. There will be a two-room house, and that’s enough for them, because they don’t have children, of course, maybe they will, but not yet, I’m very glad about this, otherwise the poor mother has to mess with them, and mother doesn’t like children. Yes, you know, Tenka married Dubrovsky, maybe you remember the legless Salome, her nephew. Ours of course were at the wedding, it seems it was good. I kind of envy Mitya, because he does not beg like we do. Although you eat your piece of bread, it is not sweet. When the children are all scattered somewhere God knows, only this life will not spoil them, I am glad that they are abroad. You see how I’ve been talking, it’s true that you don’t get so tired typing on a typewriter and you can write a lot, but you can’t write so much on your hands. So far, all the best, God bless you, kiss sweet and dear Tanechka, Maria and you, my joy. Hi Bor. Barbara." (The full text of the letter is published for the first time.) Unknown Facts in a New Book The museum is preparing to publish a new book "Grigory Rasputin - the prophet of the Russian Apocalypse", which will include new details, photographs and unknown facts about the fate of an outstanding representative of the Siberian peasantry. There is a lot of talk about the famous house of Rasputin (which, by the way, he did not build, but bought under an agreement concluded with the Tyumen notary Albychev on December 12, 1906, for 1,700 rubles). So, the new book will contain an inventory of the "Tobolsk Treasury Chamber on the hereditary property left after the death of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin." The official list of inheritance, which we will publish in this book, provides a complete list of Rasputin's property: kerosene lamps, clothes, dishes, utensils, the number of livestock and livestock, furniture, curtains, bedding, watches, icons, etc., which, we hope it will allow us to stop talking about things called Rasputin. Marina SMIRNOV, Director of the Rasputin Museum, p. Pokrovskoye In the continuation of the topic, read also the material Grigory Rasputin-New: the secret mission "Tobolsk-Verkhoturye"

The editors of the newspaper "Tyumenskaya Oblast Segodnya" for the first time publishes information about the fate of the youngest daughter of Grigory Rasputin Varvara with unique photographs

By the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, interest in the fate of the royal family received a new sound in facts that were previously unknown in historical details and materials. Such is the fate of this publication, which was provided to the editors by Marina Smirnova, director of the Rasputin Museum in the village of Pokrovsky, the owner of the rarest human talent to penetrate deeply into history, carrying out a huge research work.

The family of the legendary man

Russia. February 1917. Three years of the First World War. Defeats at the fronts, famine and confusion in the rear... The emperor was deposed by a conspiracy of generals. Chaos began in the country, which would later be called the bourgeois revolution. The casemates of Petropavlovka are overcrowded. And for the first time, a simple village peasant is judged on a par with the powerful of this world. The man is already dead. The guy who wrote all the newspapers of the world. Russian peasant, our countryman - Grigory Rasputin.

This was the first person from Russia, whose name thundered throughout the world. Almost a hundred years have passed since his death, and the world is still wondering: who is he? False prophet or man of God? Saint or the incarnation of the devil, the Antichrist himself?

A simple Russian peasant came out of the Siberian wilderness and became an incomprehensible mystery. A man-legend ... Roughly in this vein they write about him to this day. Being engaged in the biography of this man all my conscious life (post-student), having already written three books and a large number of scientific articles about him, as well as opening a museum in his homeland in the village of Pokrovsky, today I would like to talk not even about him, but about his descendants . Their fates are bizarre and ordinary at the same time.

I must say right away that seven children were born in the family of Grigory Rasputin, of which only three survived: Matrona, Varvara and son Dmitry, the rest died in infancy. Only the monotony of diagnoses in the column "Cause of death" of registers of births is striking: from fever and diarrhea.

Dmitry was born in 1895, Matrona - in 1898, Varvara - in 1900.

Dmitry was a peasant. During the First World War, he served in the 143rd ambulance train of Her Imperial Majesty Alexandra Feodorovna as an orderly. According to archival documents, it was possible to establish that in 1930, when the distribution order came to dispossess 500 families in the Yarkovsky district, he was exiled as a fist to the city of Salekhard, along with his wife Feoktista Ivanovna and mother Paraskeva Fedorovna. Having put on a cart, "we were taken from Siberia to Siberia," as Vladimir Vysotsky sang. Rasputin's widow did not reach the place of exile, she died on the way, and Dmitry and his wife until the end of 1933 lived at the place of exile in barrack No. 14 of the special settlement in the city of Salekhard.

In 1933 he died of dysentery.

The eldest daughter Matrona with the Czecho-Slovak corps emigrated through the Far East with her husband, officer Boris Solovyov, to Europe, and then to the United States of America, where she worked as a tamer of wild animals in the world-famous Gardner Circus. Her first child (daughter Tatyana) was born to her in the Far East, during the move, but the second (also a daughter) was already in exile. And it is only along this line that the direct descendants of our famous countryman have been preserved.

The youngest and most beloved

In 2005, the great-granddaughter of Grigory Rasputin Laurence Io Solovieff visited the museum. She lives on the outskirts of Paris, knows not only French, but also English and German. In Russian, unfortunately, not a word. She brought a lot of rare, never published photographs and documents, which today are on display at the Pokrovsky Museum.
And finally, after many years of searching, we have established the fate of Rasputin's youngest daughter, Varvara. Even Matrona, according to Laurence, until the end of her life suffered from the fact that she knew nothing about the fate of her younger sister, who remained in Russia.

During the revolution, Varvara was 17 years old. She and Matrona have already graduated from high school. But the post-revolutionary fate was still unknown. The last mention of Var in the "List of citizens and members of their families living in the Pokrovskaya volost" dates back to 1922. The funds of the Department of Justice of the Tyumen Provincial Council of the RKK preserved lists of employees of the Tyumen Provincial Department of Justice for 1919-1922. It was in them that we found her personal data. Rasputina Varvara Grigorievna. Position: clerk of the judicial-investigative department of the people's court of the 4th district of the Tyumen district. Address of residence: Tyumen, st. Yalutorovskaya. 14. Age - 20 years old. Profession: clerk. Non-partisan, education: 5 classes of gymnasium. Number of family members: 3 people. Maintenance salary per month - 1560 rubles.

Children of Lieutenant Schmidt

Why are we talking about Rasputin's children in such detail? Last year, 19 so-called "children of Lieutenant Schmidt" came to our museum, declaring themselves illegitimate (and sometimes legitimate) children, nephews, relatives of Grigory Rasputin.

Russia has always had no shortage of impostors, although it is difficult to recognize the "prophet in his own country." Imposture is an extremely interesting topic. It was dictated, probably, by the Russian mentality and an irrepressible desire to break out "from rags to riches." And also an indispensable desire to try on someone else's fate. To be involved in something bigger than your own, often inexpressive life. The impostors not only show up in the museum with stories about their kinship with Rasputin, but also write from almost all corners of the country. “Hello, curators of the Grigory Rasputin Museum! For a long time we did not dare to write you a letter. For quite a long time, assumptions were made in our family about a family relationship with the Rasputin family. Studying the biography of Rasputin, our confidence in this became complete and final, namely, that our grandfather, who, by a curious "coincidence" is also called Grigory Efimovich, is the grandson of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin. The striking external resemblance and similarity of character traits allows us to draw such a conclusion. But the fact is that we do not have official documents confirming the family relationship.” Such a letter came from Simferopol. And here is a closer address, from Tyumen: “My father is a brother to the father of Grigory Rasputin. We want to meet with you, there are many of Rasputin's relatives here….” Such correspondence is no longer surprising. They write, they call, they come.

Here is how a real descendant of Rasputin, his great-granddaughter, comments on this: “As for the so-called relatives of Grigory Efimovich: are they his descendants? Very good! Why not? What will change from this?! What they want? Money? The official and legitimate descendant is me. It didn't make me richer! I am not demanding anything now, I am giving (conferences, radio broadcasts, interviews for magazines). I declare that He is He, and I don’t shout that it’s me to rehabilitate him, I don’t put myself forward (I don’t need to defend myself, I didn’t do anything wrong), I don’t need recognition (I really am his direct descendant). You can also say that I consider both of you, Marina and Volodya, contrary to medical expertise, to be my Siberian family.”

We were glad to inform Laurence that we had learned about the fate of her grandmother's sister, Rasputin's youngest daughter Varvara.

New details

Fortunately, not only "children of Lieutenant Schmidt" go to the museum. Sometimes people come whose ancestors really knew Rasputin's children. Such a joyful meeting for us took place quite by accident with Vladimir Shimansky. Here is his letter:

“Dear Marina Yurievna! Two months ago we met in your museum and I promised to send you photographs of Varia Rasputina. So far, only one damaged photo has been found. My grandmother was afraid to keep these photos and partially damaged the faces so that they could not be recognized. They were friends with Varvara and she lived with her grandmother until she was 25. Grandmother helped her go to Moscow, and when Varya died, she went to Moscow and buried her at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Relatives told some details of Varya's life, if you are interested, you can contact me and I will tell you about them. I remember exactly that there were two more photos of Varya. I asked relatives to find them. When we find it, I will send it to you.
So far I am sending three photographs - Varya Rasputina (injured), my grandmother (Anna Fedorovna Davydova) and cadet Alexei, who was somehow connected with Varya.
Good luck! Vladimir Shimansky.

During a personal meeting, the author of these lines told us: Varvara, working in the justice department of the city of Tyumen, which was located in a damp basement, fell ill with consumption. Not fully cured, in the hope of emigration, she went to Moscow, caught typhus on the way, and died upon arrival in the capital.

Grandmother Vladimir Shimansky Anna Fedorovna Davydova, a very close friend of Varvara, despite the hard times, went to the funeral. She recalls that in the coffin Varya lay completely shaved, without hair (typhus). On her grave was written: "Our Varya." Thus, an end has been put in the search for a difficult fate and the death of the youngest daughter of Grigory Rasputin, whom he loved so much.

In 1919, the Soviet authorities handed over the management of the cemetery to the Khamovniki District Council. It was during this period that the most ordinary Muscovites were buried there, which is why Varya was buried there. But already in 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree: “The Novodevichy Cemetery was allocated for the burial of persons with a public position,” as a result of which ordinary burials were demolished. For this reason, today's cemetery management could not provide any assistance in finding Varvara's grave. But you never know such unfortunate circumstances in the history of our country ...

Vari's last letter

And finally, a letter dated February 1924 falls into our hands. Varvara writes it shortly before her death to her sister Matryona in Paris (spelling preserved):
“Dear dear Marochka. How do you live, my sun didn’t write to you for so long because I didn’t have money, and you can’t even buy a stamp without money. In general, every day life is getting worse and worse, you think and cherish the dream that you will live well, but again a mistake. And all thanks to our friends: like Vitkun and similar people, they are all lies, and nothing more, they only promise. After all, horror, I go to practice on a typewriter. Such a distance is terrible, a whole hour and a quarter, because there is no money for the tram. Now I went to a Jew to ask for a place, he promised me. But I think that the promises will remain a promise, even worse - maybe it's my sick imagination: he is going to court me, but he will see that I do not reciprocate, and again everything is gone. Lord, how hard it all is, the soul is torn apart, why was I born? But I calm down with the fact that there are a lot of us unemployed, and all of them are only honest, who, for the sake of a place, do not want to humiliate their dignity. Of course, you have a question for what I work on a typewriter.

But I'll explain to you: the Vitkuny gave me the opportunity to study, since they open an office, they need typists, they wanted me to join them, but only so that I would be prepared. In this store where I study, they bought three typewriters and they teach me for free. You see what kindness they have done because it's really funny. Now, of course, when the matter comes to an end, they evade, well, God bless them, they know very well what to do, that I don’t have money for the tram, I asked, so they don’t, and Mara goes to buy herself not one hat, of course, but two . Yes, even in bad weather they don’t go by tram, but always by cabs. Well, God be with them, maybe they will choke on their greed. God help orphans. She had embroidery, earned three rubles in gold, of course, she gave everything to her old people, that is, to the owners, just for God's sake, don't be sad about me and don't worry. After all, everything will work out and be fine. It's even worse for you, you have children, I'm alone.

How is Boris Nikolayevich's health? Yes, I so want to see you, my joy. I asked Olga Vladimirovna, she told me this: we will go sooner than they will arrive, and why come. There is little joy even here, let them not invent it. She even said this and Muna in a letter I don't know if she received it? How are your lovely children? It seems to me that you gave Mary away somewhere, you don’t write anything to me about her, or you left her, baby in Germany, I’m sorry, maybe this will hurt you, but you know perfectly well your happiness is my happiness, your grief is mine grief, because you are the only one close to me. And how can your Aranson promise a lot, but did nothing, like Turovich, what were the results of that letter? All this is very interesting to me. And here I was convinced that I have no close people, everything is just a bastard, sorry for my rude expression. She had a letter from ours. Mitya begins to line up against Elizabeth Kitovna, where he was assigned a place. There will be a two-room house, and that’s enough for them, because they don’t have children, of course, maybe they will, but not yet, I’m very glad about this, otherwise the poor mother has to mess with them, and mother doesn’t like children. Yes, you know, Tenka married Dubrovsky, maybe you remember the legless Salome, her nephew. Ours of course were at the wedding, it seems it was good. I kind of envy Mitya, because he does not beg like we do. Although you eat your piece of bread, it is not sweet. When the children are all scattered somewhere God knows, only this life will not spoil them, I am glad that they are abroad. You see how I’ve been talking, it’s true that you don’t get so tired typing on a typewriter and you can write a lot, but you can’t write so much on your hands. So far, all the best, God bless you, kiss sweet and dear Tanechka, Maria and you, my joy. Hi Bor. Barbara." (The full text of the letter is published for the first time.)

Unknown facts in the new book

The museum is preparing for the publication of a new book "Grigory Rasputin - the prophet of the Russian Apocalypse", which will include new details, photographs and unknown facts of the fate of an outstanding representative of the Siberian peasantry. There is a lot of talk about the famous house of Rasputin (which, by the way, he did not build, but bought under an agreement concluded with the Tyumen notary Albychev on December 12, 1906, for 1,700 rubles). So, the new book will contain an inventory of the "Tobolsk Treasury Chamber on the hereditary property left after the death of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin."

The official list of inheritance, which we will publish in this book, provides a complete list of Rasputin's property: kerosene lamps, clothes, dishes, utensils, the number of livestock and livestock, furniture, curtains, bedding, watches, icons, etc., which, we hope it will allow us to close the conversations about things called Rasputin.

Marina Smirnova, Director of the Rasputin Museum, p. Pokrovskoe

Continuing the theme

Of the entire family of Grigory Rasputin, only she survived. Here she is in the picture - in the arms of her father. On the left is sister Varvara, on the right is brother Dmitry. Varya died in Moscow from...

Of the entire family of Grigory Rasputin, only she survived.

Here she is in the picture - in the arms of her father. On the left is sister Varvara, on the right is brother Dmitry.

Varya died in Moscow of typhus in 1925, Mitya died in exile in Salekhard. In 1930 he was exiled there together with his mother Paraskeva Fedorovna and his wife Feoktista. Mother did not reach the exile, she died on the way.

Dmitry died of dysentery on December 16, 1933, the anniversary of his father's death, outliving his wife and little daughter Lisa by three months.

Barbara Rasputin. Post-revolutionary photo, saved by a friend. Damaged intentionally, for fear of reprisals from the Soviet authorities.

Rasputin family. In the center is the widow of Grigory Rasputin Paraskeva Feodorovna, on the left is his son Dmitry, on the right is his wife Feoktista Ivanovna. In the background - Ekaterina Ivanovna Pecherkina (worker in the house).


The frozen body of G. Rasputin, found in the Malaya Nevka near the Bolshoi Petrovsky Bridge.

On the night of December 17, 1916, Rasputin was killed in the Yusupov Palace on the Moika. A note was found in his old sheepskin coat (Matryona wrote, according to her father):


“I feel like I will be gone before the first of January. I want to tell the Russian people, Dad, Mom and children what they should do. If I am killed by ordinary murderers and my fellow peasants, then, Tsar of Russia, you will not have to be afraid for your children. They will reign for many more centuries. But if the nobles destroy me, if they shed my blood, then their hands will be stained with my blood for twenty-five years and they will leave Russia. Brother will rise on brother. They will hate and kill each other, and there will be no peace in Russia for twenty-five years. King of the Russian land, if you hear the ringing of a bell that tells you that Gregory has been killed, know that one of yours arranged my death, and none of you, none of your children will live more than two years. They will be killed...

I will be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray! Pray! Stay strong. Think of your blessed family!"

, The Russian Empire

Maria Rasputina(nee Matryona Grigoryevna Rasputina; March 27, 1898 - September 27, 1977) - the daughter of the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin and Praskovya Dubrovina.

The writer Vera Zhukovskaya later described sixteen-year-old Maria as having a broad face with a square chin and "bright lips". Her strong body seemed about to burst from the cashmere dress and she smelled of sweat. Secular ladies called her affectionately Mara and Marochka. Zhukovskaya thought it was strange to see Rasputin's daughter receiving so much attention from princesses and countesses.

Maria later told her grandchildren that her father taught her to be generous even when she herself was in need. Rasputin said that she should never leave the house with empty pockets, and there should always be something in them to give to the poor.

Death of Rasputin

Rasputin's daughters lived with him in a small apartment in St. Petersburg in December 1916, when he was lured and killed at a party at the house of Felix Yusupov, whom Rasputin refers to as "Little". The next day they reported the disappearance of their father to the operatives and found galoshes that floated out of the river, which belonged to their father.

In April 1918, the tsar and tsarina were going to their last exile in Yekaterinburg, Alexandra Fyodorovna looked out the window of the train to Pokrovskoye and saw Rasputin's family and friends looking at them from the window of Rasputin's house. According to Radzinsky, but if you look at the geographical map, this is impossible. Since the village is far from the railway.

Exile

Boris Nikolayevich Solovyov (Rasputina's husband) and Maria fled first to Bucharest, Romania, where Maria was a cabaret dancer. They later emigrated to Paris, where Solovyov worked at an automobile factory and died of tuberculosis in 1926. Maria worked as a governess to support her two young daughters. After Felix Yusupov published his memoirs, in which he detailed the murder of her father, Maria sued Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich in a Paris court for damages in the amount of 800,000. She denounced them as murderers, stating: "any decent person is disgusted by the brutal murder of Rasputin". The claim was rejected. A French court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over a political assassination that took place in Russia.

Maria published the first of her three memoirs of Rasputin in 1932. In addition, later, she co-wrote a cookbook that includes recipes for aspic fish head and her father's favorite cod soup. After working as a cabaret dancer, Maria found work as a circus performer with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

In the 1930s, she toured Europe and America as a lion tamer, advertising herself as "the daughter of a famous mad monk whose exploits in Russia astonished the world." She was in Peru, Indiana, and stayed with the circus until she reached Miami, Florida, where she left the circus profession and took a job as a riveter in a defense shipyard during World War II. She settled permanently in the United States in 1937 and became a US citizen in 1945. In 1940 she married a man named Grigory Bernadsky.

Maria worked in the US defense industry until 1955, after which she was forced to retire due to age. She then worked in hospitals, babysitting friends and giving Russian lessons.

In the last years of her life, she lived near the Hollywood Highway in Los Angeles, California, while receiving Social Security benefits. Mary is buried in Angel Rosedale Cemetery.

Heritage

Married to Boris Solovyov, she had two daughters. The eldest, Tatyana (1920 - 2009), was born in the Far East. Another daughter, Maria (1922 - 1976), was born in Baden, Austria. Maria in 1947 married the Dutch ambassador to Cuba, Gideon Walrave Boissewein (1897 - 1985). Tatyana Borisovna Frerjea (presumably her surname in marriage was Frerjean) gave birth to three children: Serge (b. 07/29/1939), Michel (b. 08/06/1942) and Laurens (b. 11/30/1943). Her last daughter - Laurence Io-Soloviev - repeatedly visited Russia, including the village of Pokrovskoye. Serge has children: Valerie (b. 1963) and Alexandra (b. 1968); Basil was born to Valerie in 1992. Michel had a son - Jean-Francois (1968-1985). Laurence herself has two children: Maude (b. 1967) and Carol (b. 1966). Maria Borisovna gave birth to a son, Serge (07/10/1947–01/03/2011) and had two granddaughters: Katya (b. 1970) and Embre (b. 1978). Interestingly, being in Greece with her husband in the late 1940s. Maria met and became friends with Felix Yusupov's daughter Irina (1915–1983), and their children Serge and Xenia (b. 1942) played children's games together.