PicoBlog

During the early years of Atlantis Magazine, I visited Patte Barham several times at her house, the Gillette Mansion, in Los Angeles. Greg had known her for a long time through his work on his Felix book, and he connected Patte and me as I was interested in the Hawaiian Royal Family and the Gillette Mansion was said to be built in replica of the Iolani Palace. It also had an Orthodox Chapel. So, there were two points of interest, and I was excited to meet with her.

Patte, who passed away in November 2016 aged approximately 99 – one never asks a lady her age! – was an absolute treasure. I remember her vast collection of wigs, and the tuna-and-lime-Jello sandwiches we had for lunch one day. Another day, she took me to brunch at the Los Angeles Country Club, founded in part by her father, Frank Barham, associate of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, after whom the Los Angeles street called Barham Boulevard was named. As befitted a daughter of a founder, she asked for a screen to be placed around our table so that we could talk privately; she was also quite irritated with the staff that day as the last time she had dined there, there had not been anyone working there familiar with the Heimlich maneuver when her husband began to choke. She performed the maneuver on him herself, and being just over 80 at the time, she injured herself and was quite bruised. Things were never boring in Patte Barham’s company.

In the end, I spent several weekends helping her sort through her Russian and Rasputin memorabilia on her long, long dining room table in her huge front room. Patte needed someone to edge into packed closets, crawl into large shelving units and lift and carry for her – and that person was me. There were boxes everywhere, loaded with items she had collected through the years, reflecting her many and varied interests. Among this collection, we located several boxes holding items left to her by Maria Rasputin, who had been a great friend of Patte’s at the time they were working on Maria’s memoirs together.

I remember particularly a large, brown-and-black box camera. I can’t remember the manufacturer or model, but Maria told Patte either that the camera had been Rasputin’s, or that Rasputin had given it to his daughters. Patte couldn’t recall which it was. But either way, I was holding in my hands something that had once been in Rasputin’s hands, and I had one of those moments that you have when you feel connected to some thread running through history. It was pretty electric. I saw some neat things that day, and Patte gave me some duplicate photos that she had, but I will always remember holding that camera.

One of the things that I asked Patte was what had happened to Varvara Rasputina, Maria’s sister, and Rasputin’s “other” daughter. I can recall Patte sighing and saying that it was very sad, but Maria had never known for sure what had happened to any of her family. All she knew was that Maria stopped hearing from Varvara in the mid-20s, and as Varvara had been the one to write to her, passing news back and forth with the rest of the family, Maria was cut off from everyone at that time. Perhaps because of her experiences at the end there in Russia, Maria seems to have believed that Varvara may have been poisoned by the authorities, and indeed, she wrote in her book My Father that “…My sister Varvara, held at Moscow by the Soviet government, was mysteriously poisoned just at the moment when, having succeeded in getting in touch with us in Berlin, she hoped to be able to fly from Russia.”1

Of course, Maria died in September 1977 – long before the Iron Curtain fell, and at a time when it was not possible to easily find contacts from a distance who could – or would be willing to – find out what had happened to Varvara. We can, however, start to piece together what became of Varvara, although she died very young, living far from her family, and with no one particularly close to her who would seek out her mother or Maria.

Following Rasputin’s murder and the Revolution of 1917, Varvara was able to complete her gymnasium education, and found a job away from St. Petersburg and closer to home in Tymen. She became a case worker in the forensic investigation department of the People's Court of the 4th precinct of Tyumen. Today we know that the children of murder victims often seek out careers in law enforcement or forensic investigation; I wonder if Varvara is an example of this phenomenon.

Varvara rented rooms in Tyumen as well, at 14 Yalutorovsky Street, which was owned by the Davydov family. Varvara was friends with a daughter of the family, Anna Feodorovna. There’s some confusion as to how the girls knew each other. There’s some suggestion that they were in school together at some point, though whether at home in Siberia or in St Petersburg, I don’t know. It’s also possible that Varvara simply hit it off with Anna after moving in as a lodger. They became fast friends, and went about together as young women do, engaging in an active social life.

Varvara’s work was intense and involved long hours in damp, unheated basement rooms, working with records that could be quite old and musty. She developed a cough that eventually turned into something that she feared was tuberculosis. She decided that her treatment options would be better if she joined her sister in Paris, and as she would have to go to Moscow to obtain permission to leave the country, along with the necessary passport, Anna helped to arrange a living situation in Moscow by introducing Varvara to a friend there called Mara Vidkun. It would be fair to say that Varvara never became as close friends with Mara as she had with Anna, but it also seems possible that Mara was simply not sensitive to some of Varvara’s difficulties.

Varvara traveled to Moscow by crowded train, and somehow on the way or shortly after her arrival, she contracted typhus. Despite her illness, she made her application for a passport to leave Russia, but while she waited, she had to make a living. A Mr. Vidkun – a relative of Mara’s, and probably her father – arranged for Varvara to take a class in typing so that she could qualify for a secretarial position in the office where he worked. But this class was some distance away and Varvara had no money to spend on a tram, so she walked for an hour each way every day. All of this exhausted her further, and she began to fail.

Varvara wrote her last letter to Maria in February 1924. This is its full text in my translation:

“Dear dear Marochka,

How are you, my sun? I did not write to you for so long because I had no money, and you can't buy a stamp without money. Every day, life here is getting worse and worse. You can think of the future and cherish the dream that you will live well, but again and again you are mistaken. And it’s all thanks to your friends: Mine, such as Vidkun and other people, they are all liars, and nothing more. All they do is promise. And after everything that we have been before, I am learning typing. The distance I have to go to the class is terrible, a whole hour and a quarter walking, as there is no money for the tram. Recently, I went to a Jew asking for the work position that he promised me. But I think that the promise will remain a promise and nothing more. But maybe it could have been worse - maybe this is my sick imagination, but he said he was going to take care of me, but then he found out that I am not going to give him anything in return, and suddenly everything is lost, and the promise goes away.

Lord, how difficult it all is, and my soul is torn to pieces. Why was I born? But I am reassured by the fact that there are so many unemployed, and all are just as honest, and will not degrade themselves for the sake of a job. You certainly must be questioning why I want to work as a typist.

I will explain it to you: Vidkun told me that his office is expanding and that they will need typists, and so he arranged for me to take classes so that I could learn and be ready. In this office, where I learn, they bought three typewriters, and they teach me for free. You see what kind of mercy they did because the law is ridiculous.2 And now, of course, as the class is ending, they are dodging my request to know about the job.

Well, God is with them. And they know perfectly well that I don’t have money for the tram. I asked to borrow the money, but they say they don’t have any, yet Mara goes out and buys not one, but two hats. And she does not ever travel by tram, only by cab. Well, God can be with them as they choke on their greed. God will help us orphans. Mara did some embroidery work and earned three rubles in gold. Of course, she gave everything to her parents, that is, to the owners of everything here, only for God's sake, Marochka, do not be sad about me and do not worry. After all, everything will soon be arranged and then all will be well.

How is Boris Nikolaievich's3 health? I so want to see you, my joy. I asked Olga Vladimirovna,4 and she told me this: it’s better that we go than that they come here. It’s a little bit of joy, and there is little of that, if not invented. She even said that to Munya in a letter, I don’t know if she received it?

How are your lovely children? It seems to me that you left Maria somewhere?5 You don’t write to me about her. Did you leave her as a baby in Germany? Forgive me, I don’t mean to hurt you with this question, but you know your happiness well – you are my happiness, you are the one closest to me.

How could Aronson6 promise you so much, but not do anything? How is Turovich? What happened with that letter? All this is very interesting to me. While I am here, I make sure to be close to no-one. I have no close people – only the one bastard. Forgive me for my rude expression.

I had a letter from home. Mitya is building a place next to Elizabeth Kitovna, that’s where he was given a space. It will be a two-room house, and that’s enough for them because they don’t have any children yet. And I’m very happy about that – though of course there still may be some. I’m happy because poor Mother can go and stay with them – and you know that she doesn’t love children.

Tenka married Dubrovsky – do you remember Salome's legless nephew? Our brother was at the wedding and seemed to have a good time. I envy Mitya a little bit, because he does not beg, as I do. I know you eat your own piece of bread, but I know it is not sweet to you. When the children are all scattered somewhere God only knows, we know that this life will not spoil them, and I am glad that they are abroad. You see how I talked on for a bit, but the truth is that typing is not so tiring as handwriting, and so I can write a lot. God bless you with all blessings, I kiss sweet and dear Tanya, Maria and you, my joy. Hello to Bor. Varvara.”

Varvara did not write again. We can assume that her position did not improve very much, and eventually, she succumbed to either the tuberculosis or a recurrence of typhus, which was going around the city at that time. Anna Davydova traveled to Moscow for Varvara’s funeral, and described her lying in her coffin, almost completely bald, with her head shaved closely due to fever. Varvara was buried where all ordinary Soviet Citizens were at that time – in Novodevichy Cemetery. Her grave was marked with a small stone bought by Anna, which read: Our Dear Varya.

Anna returned home to Tyumen and lived out her life in the Soviet Union with a few secret possessions: Photographs of Varvara Rasputina. Anna carefully scratched out most of Varvara’s face on each photo, so that she would not be recognizable should anyone in authority even come calling. After Anna’s death, these photos were given to the Rasputin Museum in Pokrovskoye.

Following the ruling in 1927 that burial in Novodevichiy Cemetery would be reserved for people with a high public profile, the headstones of all private citizens were removed. I don’t know if their bodies were also moved. So far, the location of Varvara’s one-time grave is unknown.

Sources:

Beyond the footnotes below, I have used:

Various articles in Tyumen Today (online edition).

Online excerpts alleged to be from Smirnov V.L., Smirnova M.Y. Things Unknown About Rasputin. Tyumen: Word Publishing House, 2006 (Russian language book).

Novodevichy Cemetery records online.

Personal interviews/time spent with the late Patte Barham, Los Angeles, California.

1.Rasputina, Maria G. My Father Cassell & Company Limited, London: 1934 pg. 118.

2.I’m not sure what “law” Varvara is referencing, but in 1922, Rasputin’s widow Praskovia, and their children remaining in Russia, Varvara, and Dmitri, were designated as “malicious elements” and deprived of their voting rights among other penalties. I have to wonder if there was some sort of educational block put upon them too, which could have meant that Varvara was unable to register as a paying student. Info found on the Russian genealogical site genii.com.

3.Boris Nikolaievich Soloviev, Maria Rasputina’s husband. Neither of them was particularly crazy about the other, and they married because of the encouragement of Rasputin and his supporters. In 1924, the pair lived in Paris with their two small daughters, Tatiana and Maria, and Boris worked as a night-porter, a car washer, and in a soap factory. His health was failing and he died in 1926 of tuberculosis.

4. “Olga Vladimirovna” may have been O.V. Lokhtina, a devotee of Rasputin following a spiritual cure, who had been living with the Golovinas (mother and daughter Munya or Mounia) following Rasputin’s murder, but who had been identified as a beggar in St. Petersburg in 1923.

5.Varvara might be confused here. The younger Soloviev daughter, also Maria like her mother, had been born in Baden, Austria, where it appears Boris Soloviev left his wife and daughters for a short time, but at the time Varvara wrote her last letter to Maria, the whole Soloviev family lived together in Paris, and had for some time.

6.Aronson may have been the same Aronson who was Grigory Rasputin’s lawyer at the end of his life, but we don’t know what he – if it is him – promised Maria. I have not been able to identify Turovich, Elizabeth Kitovna, Tenka, Salome or her legless nephew Dubrovsky, but it seems possible that they were neighbors or friends of the family from Pokrovskoye or Tyumen

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