Maria Rasputin
Encyclopedia
Maria Rasputina, born Matryona Grigorievna Rasputina (March 27, 1898 – September 27, 1977), was the daughter of the Russian
mystic
Grigori Rasputin
and his wife Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina. People did not call her Maria, only her mother and her father.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917
, she wrote several memoirs about her father's life, association with Tsar Nicholas II
and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and murder.
n village of Pokrovskoye
, but came to St. Petersburg as a teenager, where her first name was changed from Matryona to Maria to better fit with her social aspirations. Rasputin had brought Maria and her younger sister Varvara to live with him and attend Steblin-Kamensky private preparatory school in St. Petersburg in 1913 with the hope of turning them into "little ladies." Maria was Rasputin's favorite child.
The writer Vera Zhukovskaya later described sixteen-year-old Maria as having a wide face with a square chin and "bright-colored lips" that she frequently licked in a movement Zhukovskaya thought was predatory. Her strong body seemed about to burst out of its cashmere dress and smelled of sweat. Society ladies kissed the tall teenager and called her by her pet names "Mara" and "Marochka" during one gathering at her father's modest apartment. Zhukovskaya thought it was odd 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 in times when she was in need herself. Rasputin said she should never leave home with empty pockets, but should always have something in them to give to the poor.
In April 1918, as the Tsar and Tsarina were traveling to their final exile at Ekaterinburg, Alexandra looked out the window of the train at Pokrovskoye and saw Rasputin's family and friends staring back at them from the window of Rasputin's house.
to a Georgian
officer surnamed Pankhadze. Pankhadze had avoided being sent to the war front thanks to Rasputin's intervention and was doing his military service with the reserve battalions in St. Petersburg.
After Rasputin's murder, Rasputin's followers persuaded her to marry Boris Soloviev, the charismatic son of Nikolai Soloviev, the Treasurer of the Holy Synod
and one of her father's admirers. Boris Soloviev quickly emerged as Rasputin's successor after the murder. Soloviev, who had studied hypnotism, attended meetings at which Rasputin's followers attempted to communicate with the dead through prayer meetings and séance
s. 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. Soloviev 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. Nonetheless, she married Soloviev on October 5, 1917. They returned to Siberia and lived for several weeks in Rasputin's house at Pokrovskoye. Later, Soloviev took jewels from the Tsar and Tsarina to help arrange for their escape, but kept the funds for himself. Later, after the Bolsheviks took power, Soloviev turned in the officers who had come to Ekaterinburg to plan the escape of the Romanovs. Soloviev lost the money he had obtained from the jewels during the civil war that followed. There were also several reports of young people in Russia passing themselves off as Romanov escapees following the Revolution. Soloviev defrauded prominent Russian families by asking for money for a Romanov impostor to escape to China. Soloviev also found young women willing to masquerade as one of the grand duchesses for the benefit of the families he had defrauded.
in Romania where Maria was a cabaret
dancer. They later emigrated to Paris
, where Soloviev worked in an automobile factory and died of tuberculosis
in 1926. Maria found work as a governess
to support their two young daughters. After Felix Yussupov published his memoir detailing the death of her father, Maria sued Yussupov 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. Maria's claim was dismissed. The French court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over a political killing that took place in Russia.
Maria published the first of three memoirs about Rasputin in 1932. It was entitled Rasputin, My Father. She also later co-authored a cookbook, which includes recipes for jellied fish heads and her father's favorite, cod soup. She also worked as a cabaret
dancer in Bucharest
, Romania
and then found work as a circus performer for Ringling Brothers Circus
. During the 1930s she toured Europe and America as a lion tamer
, billing herself as "the daughter of the famous mad monk whose feats in Russia astonished the world." She was mauled by a bear in Peru, Indiana
, but stayed with the circus until it reached Miami, Florida
, where she quit and began work as a riveter
in a defense shipyard during World War II
. She settled permanently in the United States in 1937 and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. She was married to a man named Gregory Bernadsky in 1940.
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.
Maria claimed to be psychic
in 1968 and said Betty Ford
had come to her in a dream and smiled. At one point, she said she recognized Anna Anderson
as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
. A friend called her "Little Mother" because Maria fretted over whether handbags were in reach of strangers in restaurants, open suitcases in hotel rooms, and whether a reporter who was interviewing her had been given a comfortable enough chair. At one point, she had two pet dogs, whom she called Youssou and Pov after Felix Yussupov.
During the last years of her life, she lived near the Hollywood Freeway
in Los Angeles
, California
while receiving her Social Security
benefits.
Maria is buried in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery
.
ambassador to Greece
and later became friends with Yussupov's daughter, Irina Yusupova
, during the 1950s. Maria told her four grandchildren that their infamous great-grandfather was a "simple man with a big heart and strong spiritual power, who loved Russia, God, and the Tsar," her granddaughter Laurence Huot-Solovieff, the daughter of Maria's daughter Tatyana, recalled in 2005. Maria's descendants live today near Paris
. A fictionalized account of Maria's life recently appeared in the 2006 novel Rasputin's Daughter, by Robert Alexander.
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son Alexei...
and his wife Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina. People did not call her Maria, only her mother and her father.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, she wrote several memoirs about her father's life, association with Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and murder.
Early life
Maria was born in the SiberiaSiberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n village of Pokrovskoye
Pokrovskoye, Tyumen Oblast
Pokrovskoye is a village in Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is the birthplace of Grigori Rasputin. Following the 1917 abdication and subsequent exile of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, they were sent by train into Siberia, to which they passed through the modern-looking village of Pokrovskoye...
, but came to St. Petersburg as a teenager, where her first name was changed from Matryona to Maria to better fit with her social aspirations. Rasputin had brought Maria and her younger sister Varvara to live with him and attend Steblin-Kamensky private preparatory school in St. Petersburg in 1913 with the hope of turning them into "little ladies." Maria was Rasputin's favorite child.
The writer Vera Zhukovskaya later described sixteen-year-old Maria as having a wide face with a square chin and "bright-colored lips" that she frequently licked in a movement Zhukovskaya thought was predatory. Her strong body seemed about to burst out of its cashmere dress and smelled of sweat. Society ladies kissed the tall teenager and called her by her pet names "Mara" and "Marochka" during one gathering at her father's modest apartment. Zhukovskaya thought it was odd 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 in times when she was in need herself. Rasputin said she should never leave home with empty pockets, but should always have something in them to give to the poor.
Death of Rasputin
Rasputin's daughters were living with him in a small apartment in St. Petersburg in December 1916 when he was lured to his death at a party at the home of Felix Yussupov, whom Rasputin called "The Little One." They reported their father's movements to police investigators the following day and identified boots pulled out of the river as belonging to their father.In April 1918, as the Tsar and Tsarina were traveling to their final exile at Ekaterinburg, Alexandra looked out the window of the train at Pokrovskoye and saw Rasputin's family and friends staring back at them from the window of Rasputin's house.
Life following the Revolution
Maria was briefly engaged during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
to a Georgian
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
officer surnamed Pankhadze. Pankhadze had avoided being sent to the war front thanks to Rasputin's intervention and was doing his military service with the reserve battalions in St. Petersburg.
After Rasputin's murder, Rasputin's followers persuaded her to marry Boris Soloviev, the charismatic son of Nikolai Soloviev, the Treasurer of the Holy Synod
Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod...
and one of her father's admirers. Boris Soloviev quickly emerged as Rasputin's successor after the murder. Soloviev, who had studied hypnotism, attended meetings at which Rasputin's followers attempted to communicate with the dead through prayer meetings and séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
s. 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. Soloviev 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. Nonetheless, she married Soloviev on October 5, 1917. They returned to Siberia and lived for several weeks in Rasputin's house at Pokrovskoye. Later, Soloviev took jewels from the Tsar and Tsarina to help arrange for their escape, but kept the funds for himself. Later, after the Bolsheviks took power, Soloviev turned in the officers who had come to Ekaterinburg to plan the escape of the Romanovs. Soloviev lost the money he had obtained from the jewels during the civil war that followed. There were also several reports of young people in Russia passing themselves off as Romanov escapees following the Revolution. Soloviev defrauded prominent Russian families by asking for money for a Romanov impostor to escape to China. Soloviev also found young women willing to masquerade as one of the grand duchesses for the benefit of the families he had defrauded.
Exile
Soloviev and Maria escaped first to BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in Romania where Maria was a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
dancer. They later emigrated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where Soloviev worked in an automobile factory and died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1926. Maria found work as a governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
to support their two young daughters. After Felix Yussupov published his memoir detailing the death of her father, Maria sued Yussupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...
in a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
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. Maria's claim was dismissed. The French court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over a political killing that took place in Russia.
Maria published the first of three memoirs about Rasputin in 1932. It was entitled Rasputin, My Father. She also later co-authored a cookbook, which includes recipes for jellied fish heads and her father's favorite, cod soup. She also worked as a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
dancer in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and then found work as a circus performer for Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Brothers Circus
The Ringling Brothers Circus was a circus founded in the United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling Brothers: Albert , August , Otto , Alfred T. , Charles , John , and Henry...
. During the 1930s she toured Europe and America as a lion tamer
Lion taming
Lion taming is the practice of taming lions, either for protection, whereby the practice was probably created, or, more commonly, entertainment, particularly in the circus. The term is also often used for the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and pumas...
, billing herself as "the daughter of the famous mad monk whose feats in Russia astonished the world." She was mauled by a bear in Peru, Indiana
Peru, Indiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 12,994 people, 5,410 households, and 3,397 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,815.5 people per square mile . There were 5,943 housing units at an average density of 1,287.7 per square mile...
, but stayed with the circus until it reached Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where she quit and began work as a riveter
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...
in a defense shipyard during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She settled permanently in the United States in 1937 and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. She was married to a man named Gregory Bernadsky in 1940.
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.
Maria claimed to be psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
in 1968 and said Betty Ford
Betty Ford
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
had come to her in a dream and smiled. At one point, she said she recognized Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson
Anna Anderson was the best known of several impostors who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia...
as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna....
. A friend called her "Little Mother" because Maria fretted over whether handbags were in reach of strangers in restaurants, open suitcases in hotel rooms, and whether a reporter who was interviewing her had been given a comfortable enough chair. At one point, she had two pet dogs, whom she called Youssou and Pov after Felix Yussupov.
During the last years of her life, she lived near the Hollywood Freeway
Hollywood Freeway
The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route over the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
while receiving her Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
benefits.
Maria is buried in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery
Angelus Rosedale Cemetery
Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery is a cemetery at 1831 West Washington Boulevard Los Angeles, California, in the historic West Adams District a short distance southwest of Downtown....
.
Legacy
One of Maria's two daughters married the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
ambassador to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and later became friends with Yussupov's daughter, Irina Yusupova
Irina Yusupova
Princess Irina Felixovna Yusupova , nicknamed "Bébé", was born in Petrograd, Russia, the only child of Prince Felix Yusupov and Princess Irina of Russia.-Parents:...
, during the 1950s. Maria told her four grandchildren that their infamous great-grandfather was a "simple man with a big heart and strong spiritual power, who loved Russia, God, and the Tsar," her granddaughter Laurence Huot-Solovieff, the daughter of Maria's daughter Tatyana, recalled in 2005. Maria's descendants live today near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. A fictionalized account of Maria's life recently appeared in the 2006 novel Rasputin's Daughter, by Robert Alexander.