Grigory Rasputin

ON

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: Григо́рий Ефи́мович Распу́тин; January 21, 1869 – December 30, 1916) was a Russian mystic, self-proclaimed holy man and philosopher who became close to the family of Tsar Nicholas II and became a politically influential figure in the late imperial period. Birth January 9, 1869 Pokrovskoye (Russian Empire) Death December 30, 1916 (age 47) Saint Petersburg (Russian Empire) Citizenship Russian Empire Spouse Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina Child(ren) Maria Rasputin Occupation mystic, occultist, politician, peasant, monk Religion Khlysts Cause of death drowning, gunshot wound

BIOGRAPHY

Born into a commoner family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye, Rasputin underwent a religious conversion experience after a pilgrimage to a monastery in 1897. After traveling to Petrograd around 1903–1905, Rasputin endeared himself to some of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and society. He became a fixture in society and eventually met with the Tsar in November 1905. In late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer to the Tsar and his wife's son Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia and was the sole heir to the throne. At court, he was a divisive figure, viewed by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a charlatan. The height of their power came in 1915, when the Tsar left the capital to inspect and monitor the troops fighting in World War I, leading to a rise in the power of Empress Alexandra and Rasputin. However, as Russia's defeat in the war approached, their popularity declined, until on 30 December 1916 Rasputin was assassinated by a group of conservative nobles who opposed his influence over Alexandra and the Tsar. There is much uncertainty about Rasputin's life and the degree of influence he exerted over the Tsar and Alexandra. The accounts are often based on questionable memories, rumour and legend. While his influence and position may have been exaggerated, he had become a byword for power, debauchery and luxury, to the point that some writers have claimed that his presence played a significant role in increasing the unpopularity of the imperial house.

INFLUENCE IN THE RUSSIAN COURT

By 1905, his already well-known reputation as a mystic had brought him into the inner circle of the Russian Imperial Court, where it was said that Rasputin had saved the life of Alexei Romanov, the Tsar's son, who was a hemophiliac. In light of this event, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna devoted blind attention and unbridled trust to him, calling him "God's messenger". With this protection, Rasputin began to influence the Court and especially the Russian Imperial family, placing men like him at the top of the hierarchy of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church. However, his behavior, considered dissolute, licentious and debauched (with alleged orgies and involvement with women of high society) justified denunciations made by politicians, among whom were Pyotr Stolypin and Vladimir Kokovtsov. Tsar Nicholas II then distanced himself from Rasputin, but Tsarina Alexandra maintained her absolute trust in the decadent monk.

DEATH

Prediction: According to the biographer and dean of the French Academy, Henri Troyat, this Orthodox elder (Staretz) had somehow predicted his own death. In a letter to his secretary, Aron Simanovitch, in 1916, he wrote a letter to the Tsar: "I have a presentiment that I will cease to live before January 1st. (...) If I am killed by common murderers, particularly by my brothers, the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, will have nothing to fear for your children (...) But if I am killed by Russian nobles, your hands will be stained with my blood for twenty-five years. (...) If you hear the sound of the bell announcing that Gregory has been killed, know that, if it was one of yours who caused my death, none of your children will live more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people." The prophecy was indeed confirmed. Two years after his assassination, plotted by the nobleman Yussupov, the imperial family was brutally murdered in 1918.

DEATH

According to Pavel Milyukov, by May 1914 Rasputin had become an influential factor in Russian politics. On 27 June 1914, Rasputin arrived from the capital at Pokrovskoye at about 3:00 pm on Sunday. On 12 July 1914, Rasputin left his house in response to a telegram he had received. Returning to his home, he was suddenly attacked by Khionia Guseva. This woman, who had her face hidden by a black scarf, approached him and pulled out a dagger, stabbing him in the stomach, just above the navel. Rasputin claimed that he ran down the street with his hands on his stomach. Guseva claimed that she chased him, but Rasputin picked up a stick from the ground and attacked her. Covered in blood, Rasputin was taken to his home, and shortly before midnight a doctor from a nearby village arrived and operated on him by candlelight. Rasputin was transported by steamer on Thursday to Tyumen, accompanied by his wife and daughter. The Tsar sent his own doctor, and after a laparotomy and more than six weeks in hospital, where he had to walk around in a gown, unable to wear ordinary clothes, Rasputin recovered. On 17 August 1914, he left the hospital; by mid-September he was back in Petrograd. His daughter Maria recorded that Rasputin believed that Iliodor and Vladimir Dzhunkovsky had organized the attack, and that he had developed a different personality and taken to drinking. After the attack, Iliodor, dressed as a woman, fled with the help of Maxim Gorky all the way around the Gulf of Bothnia to Oslo. Guseva, a religious fanatic who had been his supporter in previous years, "denied Iliodor's participation, declaring that she had tried to kill Rasputin because he was spreading temptation among the innocent." On 12 October 1914, the investigator declared Iliodor guilty of inciting the murder, but the local prosecutor decided to suspend any action against him for undisclosed reasons. Guseva was locked up in a mental hospital in Tomsk and a trial was avoided.

DEATH

Most of Rasputin's enemies had by now disappeared. Stolypin had been killed, Kokovtsov had fallen from power, Theofan had been exiled, Hermogen had been [illegally] banished, and Iliodor had gone into hiding. The First World War changed the course of Rasputin's activities. He was already hated by the people and the nobles, who accused him of being a spy for Germany. He escaped several attempts to kill him, but ended up falling victim to a plot by parliamentarians and aristocrats of the great Russian lineage, including Yusupov. Rasputin was also known for a supposed and curious death: he was first poisoned at a dinner party, but his chronic ulcer caused him to expel all the poison. When two workmen noticed blood on the railing of the Petrovsky Bridge and a boot was found on the ice below, the river police began searching the area for Rasputin's body. His body was found under the ice of the river on January 1 [O.S. December 19], approximately 200 meters downstream from the bridge. An autopsy was performed by Dr. Dmitry Kosorotov, the city's senior autopsy surgeon. The report Kosorotov later wrote was lost, but it later stated that Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three bullet wounds—one of which had been sustained at close range, and to the forehead—a slice wound to his left side, and numerous other wounds, many of which Kosorotov felt had been sustained postmortem. Kosorotov found a single bullet in Rasputin's body, but stated that it was badly deformed and of a type often used for tracking. He found no evidence that Rasputin had been poisoned.

DEATH

According to Douglas Smith and Joseph Fuhrmann, Kosorotov found no water in Rasputin's lungs, and reports that Rasputin had been thrown into the water alive were incorrect. Contrary to some later reports that claimed Rasputin's penis had been amputated, Kosorotov found his genitals intact. Rasputin was buried on 2 January [O.S. 21 December] in a small church that Anna Vyrubova had built in Tsarskoye Selo. The funeral was attended only by the royal family and a few of their intimates. Rasputin's wife, mistress, and children were not invited, although his daughters met with the royal family at Vyrubova's house later that day. His body was exhumed and burned by soldiers shortly after the Tsar abdicated the throne in March 1917, so as to prevent his burial site from becoming a shrine or rallying point for supporters of the old regime.

MI6 INVOLVEMENT

Some historians have argued that British intelligence was involved in the assassination. This involvement stemmed from the belief that Rasputin could influence the Tsar to accept peace with the Central Powers. Some writers—including Oleg Shishkin, Andrew Cook, Richard Cullen, and Michael Smith—have suggested that agents of the British Secret Intelligence Service (BSIS) were involved in Rasputin's assassination. According to this theory, the British agents were concerned that Rasputin was urging the Tsar to make a separate peace with Germany and withdraw from the war, and that this would allow Germany to transfer large numbers of troops to the Western Front. The theory suggests, in other words, that British agents played an active role in Rasputin's assassination in order to keep Russia in the war and force Germany to continue defending the Eastern Front. Although there are several variants of this theory, in general they suggest that British intelligence agents under the command of Samuel Hoare, and in particular Oswald Rayner—who attended Oxford University with Yusopov—were directly involved in the planning and execution of the assassination, or that Rayner personally shot Rasputin. However, historians do not seriously consider this theory. According to historian Douglas Smith, "there is no convincing evidence that places any British agents at the scene of the crime". Historian Keith Jeffrey has stated that if British intelligence agents were involved in Rasputin's assassination, "I would have expected to find some trace of it" in the MI6 files, but that no such evidence exists.