The article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between Palace commandant Vladimir Voeykov (chief of the tsar’s security) and the unofficial entourage of Tsar Nickolas II, including such figures as Gregory Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova, and Mikhail Andronikov in the period between 1914 and 1917. The author of the article defines the nature of interaction between the representatives of non-departmental influences and the Palace commandant. At the same time the historiographic myth that Voeykov belonged to the ‘court camarilla’ is refuted. The political significance of the position of the chief of the tsar’s security as the person closest to the tsar is substantiated. In theory it allowed non-departmental influences to use the Palace commandant as a mechanism for conveying certain ideas or requests. On the basis of both published and unpublished sources, it is proved that the palace commandant was not the conductor of influence of the camarilla, but he also also opposed the attempts of ‘irresponsible influences’ at court in every possible way. The established facts of satisfaction of certain requests of the unofficial supplicants by Voeykov had a personal non-political character and it didn’t affect the commandant’s official powers. The relationship between Voeykov and church officials close to Rasputin, such as Metropolitan Pitirim (Oknov) and Bishop Barnabas (Nakropin) is considered to be specific. Voeikov's external politeness in relation to the hierarchs was combined with the general’s certain distance from the people associated with the representatives of the ‘dark forces’. In the conditions of the growing internal political crisis, the skillful maneuvering of the Palace commandant between the representatives of both the official and unofficial entourage of Nicholas II for a long time helped to maintain fragile balance in the spectrum of political forces during World War I.
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