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Rasputin

Rasputin, the Monk

by Jennifer Brainard

Brought

Who

Down

Dynasty

An unwashed sexually promiscuous peasant helped

to bring down the empire of the Tsars in Russia. In
the years before the Russian Revolution, Rasputin,
who styled himself a holy man, became the confidant
of the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. His growing
influence separated the Tsar from his people - his
notorious affairs with aristocratic women, and rumors
that he was having an affair with the Tsarina herself,
convinced many that he was a disgrace to the court,
and must go.
Rasputin was an unusual man who appears to have
had genuine healing talents. He came to the attention
to Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandria when
he successfully healed the favorite hunting dog of a
member of the royal family. They were interested in
his reputation as a healer, because of the illness of
their son Alexis. After having 5 daughters, Nicholas and his wife had finally
had a much beloved son and heir to the throne. Unfortunately, the young
Tsarevich suffered from hemophilia, a painful malady which usually resulted in
death at a young age at that time. When they heard of Rasputin the Tsarina
called him in to heal the apparently dying Alexis. After Rasputin laid his hands
on the boy, he began to improve and finally recovered. His influence with the
royal family remained strong after that. In fact his growing influence, and the
envy this caused, led to his death.
Rasputin appears to have had some premonitions of his death. There are
reports that when the Tsar departed for the front after being home for a brief
time, he, as usual, asked for the monk's blessing. Rasputin is reported to have
said, "This time it is you who must bless me." He seems to have put his affairs
in order. There is also a letter from Rasputin in which he predicts disaster for
Russia and for himself: ".My hour will soon come. I have no fear but you must
know that the hour will be bitter. I will suffer a great martyrdom. I will forgive

my torturers and will inherit the kingdom." And in an interview on the day of his
death, he told an acquaintance "Little mother, I feel my end is near. They'll kill
me and then the throne won't last 3 months."
He was advised by a friend that there was a plot against his life, and that he
shouldn't go out that night. In spite of all this he went to the house of his
murderer, Prince Yusupov. Yusupov and his co-conspirators put Cyanide into
cream cakes, enough, Yusupov later said, to kill Rasputin many times over.
Although Rasputin declined the cakes, not caring for sweets, at last he was
persuaded to eat two. There was no visible effect on him. Yusupov suggested
wine, and poured poisoned wine for him. Again, he was reluctant, but was
persuaded. Yusupov was horrified that the poison seemed to have no effect
on him and began to feel desperate. Two hours later, Rasputin seemed tired
but was still very much alive. He then got his revolver and shot him in the
heart. He appeared lifeless and Yusupov could find no pulse. He said that as
he looked at the corpse, first one eye opened, and then the next. Rasputin
leaped to his feet and attacked Yusupov, attempting to strangle him, all the
while foaming at the mouth. Rasputin then left the house and was moving
across the courtyard, saying that he was going to tell the Tsarina, when his coconspirator Purishkevich shot at him, finally striking him in the back. Rasputin
stopped and Purishkevich fired again, sending him to the ground. He then
kicked the corpse in the temple, leaving a grave wound.
The corpse was brought into the house, and Yusupov lost control, repeatedly
beating Rasputin about the head with a blackjack. There is some suggestion
that the body was sexually abused as well. They drove the body to a nearby
bridge and dumped the body in the water. The body was eventually found 226
meters downstream where it had traveled under the ice. The autopsy revealed
that he had water in his lungs, which meant that he was still alive when he
went into the water. A photograph from the autopsy suggests that he was still
trying to free himself from his bonds.
Poisoned, shot, clubbed, drowned - the man who would not die. Was Rasputin
a superhuman with protection from angels or evil forces? A recent book by
Edvard Radzinsky, using previously unavailable sources from Russia,
including autopsy photographs, suggests that Rasputin was not harder to kill
than any other mortal, but that the assassins were merely incompetent.
Yusupov may have embellished the details later (after the revolution) to cover
his bungling attempt at assassination.

The poor decisions that were made by the Tsar during the time of Rasputin's
influence and the hatred that his presence inspired in the people probably
contributed significantly to the fall of the Tsar in the last days of the dynasty.
People lost confidence in their ruler at a time of grave crisis. Russia was
fighting in World War I and losing badly. There were severe shortages of food
and supplies at home. As public confidence lapsed, the revolutionary ideas
fermenting in Russia for 50 years began to come to the surface. Finally,
shortly after Rasputin's death, the Russian Revolution swept away Nicholas
and his family forever.
Russia
copyright 1998-2008 HistoryWiz

Prominent Russians: Grigory Rasputin

January 10, 1869 December 16, 1916

Image from www.williammichaelian.com

Grigory Rasputin, a wondering peasant who eventually exerted a powerful influence over Nicholas II and Aleksandra,
the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia, is one of the most mysterious and dark individuals of Russian history.
Grigory Rasputin was born 10 January 1869 in the small and remote Siberian village of Pokrovskoe. Even as a young
man he astonished people; there was talk about him having visions and the ability to heal. According to one legend,
one day Rasputin was lying in bed sick when a group of peasants walked in to find out who had stolen a horse.
Grigory rose from his bed and pointed at the thief among them. The insulted peasant denied it, and Grigory was
beaten. That night, two wary peasants followed the suspect and saw him leading the horse out of his shed and into

the forest. Rasputin gained a reputation as a visionary, although some were scared of the boy and thought he was
possessed by the devil. It was a time and place where all possible magic and heeling powers were a way of life.
Grigory himself thought that he was taken over by a higher force. He was also a drunk, got into fights and harassed
women. He got married when he was around twenty and had four children.
A visit to a monastery in Verhoturye changed him; it was his first encounter with a ritual form of religion. He ended up
staying there for months. Rasputin then left his home to become a strannik, a pilgrim or wonderer. His journey took
him as far as Greece and Jerusalem. He sometimes walked for days without eating or stopping; he didnt wash or
even touch his body for months and wore shackles to increase the hardship of his journey. It is believed that during
his travels he may have encountered a secret sect called the hlysty. They organized a particular kind of worship in
which there were no priests; in one part of the service they sang and prayed and became almost drunk by spinning;
in the other part they indulged in flagellation and orgiastic sex. This type of worship, they thought, would bring them
closer to God. Driving out sin with sin was the concept that Rasputin later adopted. After his travels of more than two
years he returned to his village of Pokrovskoe. The locals saw a change in him; he was perceived by some to have a
luminescent religious essence and was even called a staryets, a wondering holy man, by others.

Image from gerasputin.narod.ru

Even before his arrival in St. Petersburg in 1903, the city was agog with mysticism and aristocrats were obsessed
with anything occult. Rasputin met Bishop Theophan, who was at first shocked by Rasputins dirty look and strong
smell, but he was nonetheless mesmerized by the holy man and shortly introduced him to the Montenegrin
princesses, Militsa and Anastasia, who also fell under his spell. He was then introduced by the sisters to Nicholas II
and Aleksandra (the Tsar and Tsarina). Aleksandra was impressed by him straight away and he became a regular
visitor to the palace; she spent hours talking to him about religion. Rasputin would tell her that she and the Tsar
needed to be closer to their people, that they should see him more often and trust him, because he would not betray
them, to him they were equal to God, and he would always tell them the truth, not like the ministers, who dont care
about people and their tears. These kinds of words touched Aleksandra deeply; she absolutely believed that he was
sent to the royal family by God, to protect the dynasty. To her, Rasputin was the answer to their hopes and prayers.
The Tsar and Tsarina shared with him their concerns and worries, most importantly, over their son Alekseys (the only
male heir to the throne) health. He suffered from hemophilia. Rasputin was the only one who was able to actually
help their son, how he did it will always remain a mystery, but Aleksey got better. The palace governor wrote in his
memoirs: From the first time that Rasputin appeared at the heirs bed, he got better. Everybody at court remembers
the episode in Spala, when no doctor could help the suffering and moaning child, but as soon as a telegram was sent
to Rasputin, and they received an answer that the boy would not die, his pain eased straight away. Everyone who
met Rasputin remarked on his eyes and how hypnotic they were. Elena Dzhanumova wrote in her diary: What eyes
he has! You cannot endure his gaze for long. There is something difficult in him, it is like you can feel the physical
pressure, even though his eyes sometimes glow with kindness, but how cruel can they be and how frightful in
anger

Image from www.ic-xc-nika.ru

Nicholas also trusted Rasputin. He became his advisor whose one word was enough to place an unknown person as
a minister at court. But Nicholas sometimes decided government questions of a higher scale by himself. Rasputin
was strongly against the First World War (1914 - 1918) and tried to convince the Tsar to make peace with Germany,
but Nicholas held his ground and took Russia to war, which was a disaster for his country, with more than four million
Russians loosing their lives.
Rasputin lived in an apartment on Gorohovaya Street. There, peasants and aristocrats came to visit him. Peasants
and the citys poor worshiped Rasputin and believed in his holiness and sometimes asked for help and money, and
aristocrats, knowing his influence at court, visited him only to gain his favor and use it for their career growth or just
because it was fashionable. He also seduced women with his charm, preached and entertained. It was rumored that
he organized his own sect performing religious sex rituals. Many reports of Rasputins unholy behavior reached
Nicholas. But he dismissed these reports of Rasputins outings to bathhouses, beatings and violent sex with society
women and prostitutes. He laughed them off by saying the holy are always slandered. Even Bishop Theophan tried
to tell Nicholas to distance himself from Rasputin, but for this he was relieved of his post and banished.
In December 1916 Rasputin sent a letter to Nicholas about his own death: I
feel that I shall leave life before January 1st. I wish to make known to the Russian

Image from monar.ru

people, to Papa (the Tsar), to the Russian Mother (the Tsarina) and to the Children what they must understand. If I
am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, the Tsar of Russia, will
have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles,
and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood for twenty-five years and they will leave
Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will
be no peace in the country. The Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that
Grigory has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then none of your
children will remain alive for more than two years. And if they do, they will beg for death as they will see the defeat of
Russia, see the Antichrist coming, plague, poverty, destroyed churches, and desecrated sanctuaries where everyone
is dead. The Russian Tsar, you will be killed by the Russian people and the people will be cursed and will serve as
the devils weapon killing each other everywhere. Three times for 25 years they will destroy the Russian people and
the orthodox faith and the Russian land will die. I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be
strong, and think of your blessed family.
Rasputin was mostly hated among the nobles, especially Nicholass family members. He appeared to them as a
drunk, a dirty man who infiltrated his way into the royal family, who appointed and dismissed ministers, and for over
ten years was the central figure in Petersburgs scandal news and at the same time ruled over the Tsar in some
strange way. Prince Felix Yusupov (husband of the Tsars niece Irina) wanted him dead and wasnt alone. The Tsars
cousin, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, and Vladimir Purishkevich, a member of parliament wished to get rid of
Rasputin and his demonic influence. The three invited Rasputin to the Yusupov Palace on December 30, 1916 to
meet the Tsars niece. While waiting for her to appear, Rasputin was offered wine and his favorite cakes laced with a
tremendous amount of cyanide. Hours went by and the poison did not affect Rasputin. Dismay and fear came over
Yusupov who reached for his gun and shot Rasputin. Everyone was sure that it was the end of him, but miraculously
he staggered out of the palace. Vladimir Purishkevich ran after Rasputin and shot him again in the back, but it was
only when they threw his body into the Neva River that he died. Just ten weeks after his death, the Romanov dynasty
was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Less than two years later, Nicholas and his entire family were
executed.

The topic of Rasputin to this day comes up in literature, cinema and even music. Seventies pop group Boney M had a
hit single Rasputin with the memorable lyrics Rah, rah, Rasputin, lover of the Russian Queen. More recently in
Foxs animated film, Anastasia, Rasputin is portrayed as the traitor monk who casts a curse on the Romanov family.
Rasputin aroused different feelings in the people who surrounded him. Some felt fear, others deep veneration, and
still others hatred - and even now the attitude towards him is ambiguous. Hes either a holy miracle worker or a
charlatan.
For more information on Russia's arguably most charismatic figure check RT's documentary .
Written by Maria Aprelenko, RT
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