larger than life legendary debaucherous
mesmerizing master of the occult and
illiterate pig a monk a healer a
scoundrel I think I could go on for a
few minutes in that vein and only
scratch the surface of the descriptions
that abound about the most famous figure
of late Imperial Russia Rasputin
[Music]
i'm indy neidell welcome to a great war
bio special about Rasputin grigori
rasputin z' life is difficult to
document as his tale has been warped by
popular culture rumors and the
destruction of documents regarding his
life by the Bolsheviks still a
significant amount of truth can be
established by what remains and that's
what I'll try to do today he was born in
a small village of pokrovskoye
January 21st 1869 his father was a
well-off peasant but Grigory was never
educated as there was no school in the
region and the majority of the village
was illiterate Grigory apparently
underwent some sort of religious
epiphany as a young man and possibly
became associated with the Christian
religious sect this was a form of
Orthodox Christianity that rejected the
abstinent life of the priest and the
veneration of the saint instead they
believed one could experience the
divinity of God through ecstatic rituals
like orgies
Rasputin's daughter later said that he
investigated the cult but he rejected
its values it's kind of open to debate
he did marry at age 19
fresco via fyodorovna with whom he had
four children he eventually left his
family to travel to places like Greece
or Jerusalem where he visited holy sites
he himself was neither a monk nor a
priest but he had a reputation as a
religious wanderer who offered his
teaching for hospitality returning home
only to help with the harvest in the hub
city of Kazan he attracted attention
from the clergy and aristocracy who were
fascinated by his interpretations of
Scripture it is debated exactly when
Rasputin met the czarina Alexandra
he was already professing his abilities
as a holy healer when he arrived in st.
Petersburg in 1903 I understand that
Montenegrin princess melissa introduced
him to the royal couple tsar nicholas
first mentions him in his diary November
1st 1905 simply calling him a man of God
the czarina was very religious she
believed in the power of prayer and
made for a cure for her son Alexei who
suffered from hemophilia willing to try
virtually anything to heal the heir to
the throne she allowed Rasputin to see
him and the result was fairly miraculous
because the current bleeding spell came
to an end this was likely because
Rasputin stopped the palace doctor from
giving Alex a aspirin which acts as a
blood thinner and was only making him
worse but whatever it was the czarina
thought he was truly a miracle-working
healer after this Rasputin quickly
climbed the social ladder in the capital
and began associating with many members
of the royal family he also gained a
reputation for sexual depravity and
scandalous behavior to such a degree
that the Prime Minister even asked the
Tsar why he would associate with such a
character
Alexei suffered an accident while on
vacation 1912 that led to more
hemorrhaging and it appeared he would
die
Alexandra cable grass Putin begging for
help his reply was 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 yet another miracle followed as the
Prince recovered and Rasputin became
Alexandra's trusted companion
Rasputin's magnetic personality was his
main attribute he was incredibly
persuasive and when he entered a room
all eyes were on him he was consequently
able to calm the Tsar and Tsarina
in times of crisis also because of his
humble origins the Romanovs held the
belief that the rest of the Russian
peasantry was as violently royalist as
Rasputin this was a mistake
Rasputin quickly became a very
controversial figure aristocrats were
against him because he had more access
to the royal family than they the
Orthodox Church accused him of spreading
false doctrine rumors even spread that
he was the lover of the czarina herself
and Rasputin's was hated by both sides
of the political spectrum to the left
he was a Czarist and an enemy of
democracy while to the right he was a
pacifist and traitor to Russia he had at
the wars beginning spoken out against
should taking any part in it
prophesizing if russia goes to war it
will be the end of the monarchy the
Romanovs and of russian institutions by
the summer of 1915 his hold over the
royal couple was deep and he often
advised them most of his influence over
events in russia though came after the
tsar dismissed Grand Duke Nikolai and
took personal control of the army in
September 1915 it suggested that this
actually happened because Rasputin
persuaded the czarina to persuade the
Tsar to dismiss Nikolai
who hated Rasputin and saw him for what
he was with the departure of the Tsar
for the front
Rasputin's influence over royal Affairs
grew dramatically this arena soon had to
deal with a mass political revolt from
the Council of Ministers because of
labor strikes and social unrest in the
cities The ministers pleaded for a new
ministry of competent officials that had
the support of the people
Alexandra saw this as total disrespect
and asked her husband to stand his
ground he did and surprised the
ministers by dissolving the Duma and
returning to autocratic rule several
ministers were dismissed Alexandra had
arranged those dismissals but they were
recommended by Rasputin who used the
chaos to have opponents and critics
removed from power indeed over the
following months several ministers were
replaced by men loyal to rest butan with
him ensconced as the power behind the
throne good government sort of stopped
happening because without his patronage
you couldn't remain in office very long
and many of those that were loyal to him
and the czarina were pretty incompetent
Prime Minister Boris stürmer was one of
those I'll talk about him in the regular
episodes but he sometimes refused even
to act without consulting Rasputin or
Alexandra and his German name the Czar's
family ties to the Kaiser and the fact
that Alexandra was born German stoked a
wave of anti German hatred for the
Royals
the constant changing of Ministers had
also broken down most government
organization and there were food
shortages
and rampant inflation and rasputin's pal
proto Popov the deeply unpopular
Minister of the Interior wished to turn
all the public discontent into a
revolution for the purposes of putting
it down to get Russia out of the war by
the end of 1916 there were even several
coup plots to remove the Tsar from power
none of these got off the ground because
of poor organisation our cold feet but
one plot did succeed the murder of
Rasputin by Prince Felix Yusupov though
the facts surrounding his death are
still disputed today Yusupov originally
claimed his motive for the killing was
patriotism for the monarchy that
Rasputin was destroying but later said
it was his distaste for rasputin's
debauchery whatever the case he posed as
his own wife and invited Rasputin to his
house the room for the murder was as
soundproofed as possible and yusupov's
memoirs say that he offered Rasputin
cakes laced with cyanide
but Rasputin didn't eat them so Felix
shot him piercing his liver and stomach
but that didn't kill Rasputin who wisely
made tracks he made it out of the palace
but was shot in the spine in the
courtyard killing him
one of yusupov's co-conspirators then
shot him through the head actually some
sources say it was the Grand Duke Dmitri
who did the whole killing beginning to
end
anyhow not being experts in murder they
then made blunder after blunder they
wrapped his body in broad cloth and
dumped it off a bridge through a gap in
the ice into the Malayan emka river they
didn't weigh him down though so he
didn't sink and anyhow one of his boots
fell off and was stuck in the struts of
the bridge also policemen had heard the
gunfire but they couldn't really
investigate because of yusupov's rank
long story short Rasputin's body was
soon found but if the murder was carried
out to protect or improve the image of
the Tsar it backfired
once Rasputin was gone more and more
people realized that he hadn't been the
problem the problem was perhaps the Tsar
himself
well Rasputin had done well for himself
no question considering his origin
but his legacy was to divide the Russian
aristocracy from the royal family and to
make the Czarist regime appear to the
people to be corrupt and decadent and by
the time of his death it was only a
matter of time before public resentment
for the monarchy which Rasputin and the
czarina had done much to foster spilled
out like so much gasoline waiting to be
ignited thanks to Rory Kirk B and
Cameron John act and Bartlet for the
research on this episode if you want to
find out how the Tsar took over the army
you can click right here for that
episode do not forget to subscribe see
you next time