Gregory Efimovich Rasputin was a mystic court figure, whose influence over the royal family of Russia helped to destroy the family's reputation. He acquired a wide reputation as a holy man and faith healer. Even today he remains quite a mysterious figure. No one really knows whether he was really a miracle worker or just a good manipulator. Many witnesses felt that when he was alive he possessed some power over the young Tsarevich Alexei, who was stricken with hemophilia. This was enough to get him close with Alexandra, who felt that if he could help her son, he must have been sent by God. By 1911 Rasputin had so much influence that he was appointing people to high government offices. Many began to fear that the influence he was exerting would soon be the demise of them all. In 1916 a group of these aristocrats, who feared his influence, assassinated him.
Rasputin was far from being born into an aristocratic family. He was born sometime around 1869 from solid peasant stock in Pokrovskoe, a village in the Tyumen district of Siberia. The exact date of his birth is not known because peasants generally kept no record of these things. The name Rasputin comes from the noun "rasputa" which means an immoral good-for-nothing person. He was skinny and unattractive in his youth, but even then it is said by many that his eyes possessed some sort of strange hypnotic charm. Rasputin led a very sinful life in his youth. When he was young he would take the money he was given to get grain and would use it to get drunk. He was constantly drunk, and this drunkenness led to theft. Rasputin was also a womanizer from quite an early age. Rasputin married at the age of 20, when it was time to "bring two more working hands into the household." (Radinsky, pg 29). His wife Praskovia was four years older than he, and was chosen for her strength, as was the norm in villages at this time. She bore Rasputin five children. Three boys and two girls. No one knows exactly when Rasputin had his transformation that turned him to Christ. He himself writes, "Until I was twenty-eight, I lived, as people say, "in the world"." He then recounts that twenty-eight was the boundary, the moment when the transformation took place. (Radinsky, pg.29). It has been said that Rasputin worked as a coachman. One day he was hired to bring a priest to the Verkhoturye Monastery. During the ride the two men talked about God. This talk fascinated him and he decided to set off on his own spiritual journey. He began traveling to monasteries close to his home village, and then began to wander even further. It was during this time that Rasputin began to see his visions. He returned to his village as a new person. He stopped drinking, smoking, eating meat and sweets. Rasputin was now a pilgrim spending sometimes over a year away from home traveling to Moscow churches and Kiev monasteries. Peasants in villages along the way would give him shelter and food. One of Rasputin's pilgrimages took him to a particular monastery where he was introduced to the Khlysty sect. The sect practiced flagellation in their rituals and promoted their doctrine, "which maintained that all other forms of worship were without value." (De Jonge, pg. 34). The sect also believed in using sin to drive out sin. It is not really clear whether or not Rasputin was attracted to the sect. Many sources say that he was attracted to it and did in fact become a part of it, while others say that he was repulsed by it. By the time Rasputin was in his early thirties he had traveled to the Holy land and back. Over quite a short period of time Rasputin began to develop a reputation all over Siberia as being a saintly man and a healer. He had the ability to calm people in pain and distress.
On the recommendation of the local priests in Kazan, Rasputin made his first visit to St. Petersburg in 1902. On this first visit he attracted the attention of many of the religious leaders of the country. Two years later Rasputin moved to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg was not in a good state at this time. The monarchy was not widely liked among the people, adding to the crumbling of the political infrastructure of the country. Rasputin tried unsuccessfully to change his womanizing ways in his first few months of living in St. Petersburg. He soon had a few followers and had managed to gain the respect of Archbishop Theophane and other influential churchmen. Rasputin also developed a close relationship with Anna Vyrubova, who was Empress Alexandra's closest friend. Anna was completely devoted to Rasputin. It has been said that after Anna was in a train accident, Rasputin awoke her from her coma and, although she was crippled for the rest of her life, Rasputin had saved her.
The year before Rasputin moved to St. Petersburg, Alexei was diagnosed with hemophilia. The disease was inherited from his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, which explains why the Empress Alexandra blamed herself. The degree of Alexei's illness was kept secret from the Russian people so they would not feel that the life of the heir was in danger. The Empress had many doctors and so called "healers" try to heal the young Alexei but all of these attempts ended in failure. In 1905, on the recommendation of Anna and the Grand Duchess Militsa, the Emperor and Empress had their first meeting with Rasputin.
Rasputin maintained a very respectful manner with the Imperial family. He managed to bring hope to Nicholas and Alexandra, because he appeared to be the only person capable of putting a stop to Alexei's bleeding. It is not known how he did this. Some believed that he really did have healing powers while others claim that Rasputin hypnotized Alexei and thereby caused the bleeding to stop. Alexandra soon felt that Rasputin was the only person that could save her son's life. The Imperial family tried to conceal the visits of Rasputin, however they initially forgot that all visitors to the palace were well documented by the palace guards. Also it did not help that Rasputin was not being discreet, he flaunted the gifts and letters from the family. The Russian people soon began to believe that Rasputin had control over the royal family. They still did not know the extent of the heir's illness so they could not understand how a dirty man dressed in peasant clothing was getting so close to their ruler. Rasputin's number of enemies was growing. The clergy were in fear that a man such as Rasputin was gaining too much power. Rumors that the Empress was having an affair with Rasputin even began to surface.
In 1915 Tsar Nicholas took complete control of the Russian army who were in the midst of fighting WWI. When Nicholas headed off to the front lines he entrusted his wife with much of the Imperial work. Many soon began to believe that Rasputin had now taken control of Russia because of his influence over Alexandra. This was causing quite a stir among the people of St. Petersburg who already did not favor the Imperial family. While it is true that Rasputin probably had some influence over Alexandra he could not have had complete control because all decisions still had to go through Nicholas in the end. But the people of Petersburg did not know this. Tensions were now stirring even more and a Revolution seemed to be brewing.
By 1916 a plot to kill Rasputin was being formed. By December of that year a group of aristocrats had decided that Rasputin's influence over the government was becoming too strong and that in order to save the monarchy and Russia he had to be killed. The group devised its final plan. They would lure Rasputin to Yussupov Palace, telling him that Prince Felix Yussupov's (a cousin of the Tsar's) wife urgently needed to see him. And so it was. Rasputin was led to the cellar of the palace and fed cakes and wine that were laced with poison, but the poison had no effect on him. Yussupov then shot Rasputin, who collapsed to the floor; then Yussupov ran to let everyone know that Rasputin was dead. They sent him back to make sure. When Yussupov returned, Rasputin regained consciousness. Yussupov ran to get help. When Yussupov returned to the cellar with Duke Dmitri, Rasputin was gone. They ran out into the courtyard and found Rasputin crawling to the gate. They shot him again, bound him, and threw him into the Neva River.
The story of Rasputin tells us a lot about St. Petersburg, and all of Russia, at that time. For one thing, the Tsar appeared to be a ruler in complete power. But, if we consider Rasputin, we can see that this is not so. Both the ordinary people of St. Petersburg and the aristocrats were afraid of Rasputin and the power he was gaining, and when Nicholas did not listen to them, several aristocrats took matters into their own hands and killed Rasputin. After Rasputin's death things still did not get any better for the people; they had at this point completely lost their faith in Nicholas. A short time later Nicholas was forced to abdicate. Thus the 300 year reign of a family was brought to an end because the people felt that the job was not being done the way it should be--a true demonstration of the power of the people.
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Jackson, George. Rasputin Gregory Efimovich (1872-1916). 4 April. 2002
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