Tobolsk Governorate
Matryona (or Maria) Rasputin was born in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk Governorate, on 26 March 1898, and baptized the next day. Some people believe she was born in 1899; that year is also on her tombstone, but since 1990 the archives in Russia opened up and more information became available for researchers. In September 1910 she went to Kazan (perhaps the Kazan Gymnasium) and then came to St. Petersburg, where her first name was changed to Maria to better fit with her social aspirations. Rasputin had brought Maria and her younger sister Varvara (Barbara) to live with him in the capital with the hope of turning them into "little ladies." After being refused at the Smolny Institute, they attended Steblin-Kamensky private preparatory school in October 1913.