Grigori Rasputin
Григорий Ефимович Распутин
“God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die.”
On 21 January, 1869, in the small, cold peasant village of Pokrovskoye in Siberia, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born the son of a local farmer and courier. Little information exists regarding his childhood in the village, aside from scattered records of various petty crimes not uncommon to boys of that age (many other accusations exist, but there is little hard evidence to them. A story regarding him, as a boy, correctly identifying a horse thief, is likewise difficult to prove). It can be assumed he grew up working the land with his family, and was, like most of the Russian peasantry of the time, illiterate when he reached adulthood and left home, wandering between the local villages in search of liquor and carnal pleasure.
Rasputin with his three children
Rasputin would eventually meet Praskovya Dubrovina during his travels, and after a short courtship the two were married in 1886, subsequently moving back to Pokrovskoye to set about raising their family. Although the couple would soon have their first child, in around 1900 Rasputin would set off on a religious pilgrimage, leaving the village behind to wander the vastness of the Russian Empire alone. The reasons for this sudden change are unknown, although rumors abound that it may have been due to him being involved in a horse theft or that he had had a religious vision.
Rasputin with Archbishop Theofan and Makary, an elder who had a profound influence on him
Eventually, Rasputin ended up at the St. Nicholas Monastery in Verkhoturye, where he met an elder known as Makary, who exerted a great influence on him. This is what is generally credited with Rasputin’s adoption of a new lifestyle as a wandering holy man, a strannik. When he returned home he was a remarkably different man, disheveled and refusing the change his clothing, leaving the village at random for months or even years at a time to wander, and he began to gather a following. Accusations began to arise, including that he was leading a group of Khlysty, a sect considered heretical by the Orthodox Church that was rumored to partake in ritual orgies among other practices.
Despite the rumors, Rasputin continued to wander and gain an ever larger following, notably for his perceived healing abilities. Eventually, he was able to secure credentials from the local Bishop of the Orthodox Church in Kazan, subsequently making his way to the capitol, St. Petersburg, in 1903.
There he met with the Archimandrite Theofan, a prominent priest in the Imperial capitol, and it was through him that Rasputin would begin to enter in the highest circles of power within the Empire. Theofan was instantly taken with Rasputin, and recruited him into his circle of priests, and thereby allowing Rasputin to begin performing religious services for the city’s aristocracy, which was at the time enamored with mysticism and faith healers. Traveling back and forth between St. Petersburg and Pokrovskoye over the coming years, he made the acquaintance of several senior aristocrats, including cousins of the Tsar, which would open the door to the Imperial Palace itself.
Tsarevich Alexei with Andrei Derevenko, his near constant companion due to his frail condition
Now the time has come to diverge and introduce the the Imperial Family. The Romanov Dynasty had been on the Russian throne for about three centuries by the dawn of the twentieth century, but the legacy of the current Tsar, Nicholas II, was in doubt. The only male heir, the Tsarevich Alexei, was afflicted with hemophilia, a disorder of the blood that prevented clotting, leading to the possibility that even minor wounds could be fatal. The young heir was always accompanied by Andrei Derevenko, a sailor appointed to remain at his side to prevent injury from befalling him, but his outgoing personality ensured that this was not always possible. Both the Tsar and Tsarina felt helpless to prevent the painful and dangerous episodes, and the Tsarina in particular had been consulting with mystics for some time, and as a result it was only to be expected when Rasputin, with his reputation as a healer, entered the scene that he would eventually find his way to the Palace.
Rasputin among his many admirers in 1914
“We have got to know a man of God, Gregory, from Tobolsk Province”
After several failed mystics had been ejected from the Palace, Rasputin would first meet the Tsar in late 1905, which led to subsequent meetings, finally meeting the children in October of 1906 (there is some speculation regarding exactly when Rasputin was first brought to heal Alexei, but it likely occurred here, rather than earlier). This would lead to an ever increasing closeness with the Imperial family. Soon the wandering preacher was coming to the Palace almost daily, meeting with the young Tsarevich before bed to regale him with traditional Russian stories, along with his sisters.
Rasputin with the Empress and the Imperial children, 1908
It is reported that during this time, Rasputin was able to stop the bleeding of Alexei, supposedly simply through his influence (historians speculate that this is actually due to Rasputin ejecting the doctors, who were giving the Tsarevich aspirin, which was in reality worsening his symptoms, being a blood thinner). When a particularly bad incident took place in 1912, with the Tsarevich developing a major hemorrhage after a jarring carriage ride, Rasputin was contacted at once.
The child appeared to be dying, his piteous cries audible throughout the palace, and leaving the Tsar and Tsarina distraught. The boy was delirious, and speaking openly of wanting to die rather then continue in such pain, as the doctors continued to desperately attempt to treat him. The response from Rasputin, who was at the time at home in Siberia, came thus:
“God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much.”
The Tsarina took these words to heart, and even though the improvement was not immediate, it did occur. The Tsarevich stopped bleeding two days later, possibly due to the doctors being prevented from providing aspirin as well as the calming effect the telegram had on the frantic Tsarina. The result of this was that Alexandra came to look upon Rasputin with absolute trust, and as a result his power grew exponentially. His list of enemies grew in proportion as well, to include even Prime Minister Pyotor Stolypin and the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana.
Rasputin convalescing in hospital after the assassination attempt of 1914
Despite the increasing wild rumors swirling around St. Petersburg of rape and even that he was molesting the daughters of the Tsar, the Emperor would not attempt to remove the so called “Holy Devil” from court. This came to a head on 12 July of 1914, when a woman attempted to assassinate Rasputin on the streets of his Siberian hometown of Pokrovskoye. The woman, a follower of one of the growing number of priests that had supported Rasputin but had since turned on him, had come to believe that Rasputin was an Antichrist set upon the destruction of the Russian Empire.
Rasputin survived the stabbing after intensive hospital treatment, and the event led to the priest being defrocked and banished from the capitol by the Tsar. Reports circulated in the papers of his death, and when the truth of his survival came out some attributed it further to his supposedly unnatural powers. While this was ongoing, the First World War began, with the Russian Empire entering into the conflict to support Serbia, an event which would set in motion the downfall of Rasputin, as well as the Russian Empire itself.
Rasputin with Makary in what is possibly the last photograph of him, taken in the late summer of 1916
With the Empire at war, the Tsar found himself leading an army that is faltering. The defeat at the hands of the Germans at Tannenberg in August of 1914 served as an early check on Russia’s prospects, and the situation would not improve significantly from then on. Rasputin, still in hospital when the war began, had attempted to dissuade the Tsar via telegram from joining the conflict, to no avail.
Rasputin, shaken by the assassination attempt and now surrounded by the stresses of the war, began to fall into bad habits that he had earlier shed. He became known for his wild parties in St. Petersburg, and frequented brothels. When the Tsar left for the front, Rasputin remained in the capitol with the Tsarina, leading to an unprecedented amount of power being vested in Rasputin’s hands. Rasputin leveraged this influence on the Tsarina to remove his enemies from government, filling their positions with his supporters. As the war continued to progress poorly, many more calls came against what was perceived as a weak sovereign being controlled by the dirty peasant from Siberia.
Prince Felix Yusupov
As the situation deteriorated, a conspiracy began to form against Rasputin. Desperate to save the monarchy, a group of Russian conservatives began to form around Prince Felix Yusupov, with a plan to kill Rasputin. Yusupov was one of the wealthiest men in Russia at the time, and had married the niece of the Tsar in 1913. He resided in a palace in Petrograd (as St. Petersburg had been renamed as part of a nationwide purge of German influence), and with his compatriots invited Rasputin to a housewarming (posing as his wife) to celebrate recent renovations on 29 December, 1916. Rasputin, for his part, had begun to sense that something was afoot, and had become increasingly reclusive over the previous weeks.
The room in the Moika Palace where Rasputin was assassinated
Upon his arrival, Rasputin was ushered into a basement room of the palace, where a small table had been set, as a gramophone played the American tune “Yankee Doodle”. He was then plied with wine laced with cyanide, along with cakes similarly poisoned, as conversation was maintained. The poison had no discernable effect, and Yusupov excused himself to speak with his coconspirators, and returned shortly afterward, armed with a handgun.
All pretense dropped, Yusupov proceeded to shoot Rasputin in the abdomen, hitting his stomach and liver. The holy man dropped with a scream, and the conspirators vacated the room to discuss their next moves. One of the conspirators then donned Rasputin’s coat and was driven back to his apartment, and shortly afterward Yusupov returned to the basement to confirm that the man was indeed dead. To his shock, Rasputin rose and attacked the Prince, crawling up the stairs when Yusupov fled. In the courtyard above one of the conspirators shot him again, leaving him to collapse into the snow, a bullet having damaged his spine and likely paralyzing him. Another shot was made to the forehead as a coup de gras.
Rasputin’s corpse after being recovered from the Neva River
A local police officer responded to the gunshots, but was unable to enter the palace due to the social rank of the Yusupovs, and the conspirators set about disposing of the body. Rasputin was wrapped in cloth and loaded into a car, and then driven to the Petrovsky Bridge over the Neva River, where the body was thrown into the frozen river. On 1 January, 1917 police recovered the body from beneath the ice, with rumors spreading that he had been alive when he went into the icy water, although the autopsy refuted these claims.
Images of Tsar Nicholas II and his predecessors torn down after the Russian Revolution
Rasputin was buried at Tsarskoye Selo, the same suburb of Petrograd that was home to multiple Imperial residences. There it would remain only for three months, as in March of 1917 revolution tore the Empire asunder. The Tsar and his family was deposed, and the new Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky ordered the military to exhume the corps of Rasputin and destroy it, taking it to the Peter the Great Institute of Polytechnics and cremating it in the boiler furnace. The ashes were then buried in an undisclosed location.
Grigori Rasputin remains a figure shrouded in myth and legend, and by the twenty-first century his fame has eclipsed even that of the Tsar himself in popular memory, in large part due to the legends as well as popular culture often featuring him as a sorcerer or similar. Regardless, his ability to charm and influence people, his supposed ability to heal the ailing Tsarevich, and the manner of his death have continued to fascinate. His influence on the destruction of the Russian monarchy and the resulting communist revolution continues to be felt today (even if at times the role of others, including the Tsar himself, is forgotten), and his memory remains controversial.
