Right-Wing Salons of St Petersburg–Petrograd and Grigori Rasputin: The Problem of Relations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of relations between the leaders and members of right-wing salons and circles in the capital of the Russian Empire and Grigori Rasputin, a peasant who was then close to the royal family. In the pre-revolutionary years, conservative right-wing salons and circles continued to play a certain role in the political system of the country. Some of them appeared in the late 19th century (the salons of Prince V. Meshchersky, General E. Bogdanovich, and Countess S. Ignatieva), while others became active during the First World War (the salons of Prince M. Andronikov, Metropolitan Pitirim (Oknov) of Petrograd and Ladoga, the circle of N. Burdukov). Many of those associations tried to use Rasputin for their own purposes. They invited the “starets” to the salon meetings, held “spiritual conversations” with him, etc. Based on a set of historical sources (diaries, letters, memoirs, etc.), the author of the article has reconstructed the development of relations between the leaders and members of right-wing salons and circles of St Petersburg–Petrograd and Grigori Rasputin. The author concludes that their communication with Rasputin was mainly aimed at enlisting his support in exerting political influence on the Emperor. According to these sources, the “starets” was distrustful of the leaders of salons and circles and did not want to participate in their political games. The article chronologically retraces the evolution of those relations and concludes that the attitudes gradually changed towards greater distrust and sometimes towards open hostility (as was the case of the Petrograd right-wing monarchic salon of Prince M. Andronikov). It is emphasised that no real facts of influence on Tsarist policy through Rasputin were recorded in the sources. At the same time, allegations that Rasputin gave the Emperor various instructions at the suggestion of the leaders of right-wing salons and circles were published in numerous articles and news items of the liberal pre-revolutionary periodicals. In the author’s opinion, in doing so, not only did the periodicals prepare the psychological ground for the murder of Rasputin, but they also discredited the monarchical idea itself.

Keywords

• russian empire
• salon
• circle
• the right wing
• monarchists
• first world war