The mysterious Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, a peasant who claimed powers of

healing and prediction, had the ear of Russian Tsarina Aleksandra. The
aristocracy could not stand a peasant in such a high position. Peasants could not
stand the rumors that the tsarina was sleeping with such a scoundrel. Rasputin
was seen as "the dark force" that was ruining Mother Russia.

To save the monarchy, several members of the aristocracy attempted to murder

the holy man. On the night of December 16-17, 1916, they tried to kill Rasputin.
The plan was simple. Yet on that fateful night, the conspirators found that
Rasputin would be very difficult to kill.

Ads
Science Discovers God?
y-jesus.com
Do New Scientific Discoveries Point to a Creator of the Universe?
Learn Russian for free
www.busuu.com
Learn Russian online and Completely for free!
Bantuan kerja rumah
brainly.my
80% soalan mendapat jawapan dalam 10 minit
Political Events
Black History
The History of Jesus
American History Timeline
Jerusalem History
The Mad Monk

Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Aleksandra (the emperor and empress of Russia) had
tried for years to give birth to an heir. After four girls were born, the royal couple
was desperate. They called in many mystics and holy men. Finally, in 1904,
Aleksandra gave birth to a baby boy, Aleksei Nikolayevich. Unfortunately, the
boy who had been the answer to their prayers was afflicted with "the Royal
disease," hemophilia. Every time Aleksei began to bleed, it would not stop. The
royal couple became frantic to find a cure for their son. Again, mystics, holy men
and healers were brought in. Nothing helped until 1908, when Rasputin was
called upon to come aid the young tsarevich during one of his bleeding episodes.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was a peasant (muzhik), born in the Siberian town of
Pokrovskoye on January 10, probably in the year 1869. Rasputin underwent a
religious transformation around the age of 18 and spent three months in the
Verkhoturye Monastery. When he returned to Pokrovskoye he was a changed
man. Though he married Proskovia Fyodorovna and had three children with her
(two girls and a boy), he began to wander as a strannik ("pilgrim" or "wanderer").
During his wanderings, Rasputin traveled to Greece and Jerusalem. Though he
often traveled back to Pokrovskoye, he found himself in Petrograd (St.
Petersburg) in 1903. By then he was proclaiming himself a starets, a holy man,
who had healing powers and could predict the future.

Ads
Tsar to Lenin
tsartolenin.com
The Definitive Documentary of the Russian Revolution - Out now on DVD
Start Download
www.snapmyscreen.com
1.Click Here to Download 2.Get Your Free Software 3.Enjoy!
When Rasputin was summoned to the royal palace in 1908, he proved he had a
healing power. Unlike his predecessors, Rasputin was able to help the boy. How
did he do it? That is still greatly disputed. Some people believe Rasputin used
hypnotism; others say Rasputin didn't know how to hypnotize. Part of Rasputin's
continued mystique is the remaining question as to whether or not he really had
the powers he claimed to have.

Having proven to Aleksandra his holy powers, Rasputin did not remain just the
healer for Aleksei; Rasputin soon became the confidante and personal advisor of
Aleksandra. To the aristocrats, having a peasant advising the tsarina, who in turn
held a great deal of influence over the tsar, was unacceptable. In addition,
Rasputin was a lover of alcohol and sex - both of which he consumed in excess.
Though Rasputin appeared a pious and saintly holy man in front of the royal
couple, others saw him as a dirty, sex-craved peasant who was ruining Russia
and the monarchy. It didn't help that Rasputin was having sex with women in
high society in exchange for granting political favors. Nor that many in Russia
believed Rasputin and the tsarina were lovers and wanted to make a separate
peace with the Germans (Russia and Germany were enemies during World War I).

Everyone was talking about the need to get rid of Rasputin. Attempting to
enlighten the royal couple about the danger they were in, many influential
people approached both Nicholas and Aleksandra with the truth about Rasputin
and with the rumors that were circulating. To everyone's great dismay, they both
refused to listen. So who was going to kill Rasputin before the monarchy was In
the morning on December 17, Rasputin's daughters woke to find that their father

had not returned from his late night rendezvous with the Little One. Rasputin's
niece, who had also been living him, called Maria Golovina to say that her uncle
had not yet returned. Maria called Felix but was told he was still sleeping. Felix
later returned the phone call to say that he hadn't seen Rasputin at all the
previous night. Everyone in the Rasputin household knew this was a lie and it
worried them greatly.
History Events
The police officer who had talked to Felix and Purishkevich had told his superior,
who in turn told his superior, about the events seen and heard at the Yusupov
palace. Felix realized that there was a lot of blood outside, shot one of his dogs
and placed its corpse on top of the blood. He claimed that a member of his party
had thought it was a funny joke to shoot the dog. That didn't fool the policemen.
There was too much blood for a dog and there was more than one shot heard.
Plus, Purishkevich had told the policeman that they had killed Rasputin.

The tsarina was informed and an investigation was opened immediately. It was
obvious early on to the police and to everyone else who the murderers were.
There just wasn't a body yet.

On December 19, police began looking for a body near the Great Petrovsky
Bridge on the Malaya Nevka River, near where a bloody boot had been found the
day before. There was a hole in the ice but they couldn't find the body. Looking a
little farther downstream, they came upon the corpse floating in another hole in
the ice.
When they pulled him out, they found Rasputin's hands were frozen in a raised
position, making everyone believe that he had still been alive under the water
and had tried to untie the rope around his hands.Rasputin's body was taken by
car to the Academy of Military Medicine where an autopsy was conducted. The
autopsy results showed:12
Alcohol but not poison was found
Three bullet wounds (first bullet entered the chest on the left, hitting Rasputin's
stomach and liver; the second bullet entered the back on the right, hitting the
kidneys; the third bullet entered the head, hitting the brain)
A small amount of water was found in the lungs
The body was buried at the Feodorov Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo on December
22. A small funeral was held.

What Happened Next?

While the murderers were under house arrest, many people went to visit or wrote
them letters in order to congratulate them. The murderers were hoping for a trial
because that would insure that they become heroes. Trying to prevent just that,

the tsar stopped the inquiry and ordered that there be no trial. Though it was
their good friend and confidante that had been murdered, it was their relations
that had been the murderers.

Prince Felix was exiled. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich was sent to Persia to fight
in the war. Both survived the revolution and the war.

Though Rasputin's relations with the tsar and tsarina had weakened the
monarchy, the killing of Rasputin came too late to reverse the damage. If
anything, the murder of a peasant by aristocrats sealed the fate of the Russian
monarchy. Within three months, Tsar Nicholas would abdicate and about a year
later the entire Romanov family would also be murdered.

Questions Remain

The murder of Rasputin still leaves many questions to be answered. I

recommend the book, The Rasputin File, for information on these important
questions. To fool Rasputin into thinking Irina was upstairs, were there also
women involved in the conspiracy? Were the pastries really poisoned? Why didn't
Rasputin get impatient about waiting so long for Irina? Was it really Purishkevich
who fired the last two shots or was it Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich?completely
destroyed?