Grigori Rasputin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Grigori Rasputin This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations ). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (January 2009) "Rasputin" redirects here. For other uses, see Rasputin (disambiguation) . Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin [ O.S. 16 December] 1916) was a Russian mystic who is perceived as having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II , his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra , and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei . Rasputin had often been called the "Mad Monk", [1] while others considered him a "strannik" (or religious pilgrim ) and even a starets (ста́рец, "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be a psychic and faith healer . [1] It has been argued[ who?

][ citation needed ] that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic , visionary, healer and prophet and, on the other side of the coin, as a debauched religious charlatan. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, for accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend. [1] Contents 12 External links Early life Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye , along the Tura River in the Tobolsk guberniya (now Tyumen Oblast ) in Siberia . [2] The date of his birth remained in doubt for some time and was estimated sometime between 1863 and 1873. [3] Recently, new documents surfaced revealing Rasputin's birth date as 10 January 1869 O.S.

(equivalent to 22 January 1869 N.S.) [4] Not much is known about his childhood, and what is known was most likely passed down through his family members. He had two known siblings, a sister called Maria and an older brother named Dmitri. His sister Maria, said to have been epileptic , drowned in a river. [2] One day, when Rasputin was playing with his brother, Dmitri fell into a pond and Rasputin jumped in to save him. They were both pulled out of the water by a passerby, but Dmitri eventually died of pneumonia . Both fatalities affected Rasputin, so he subsequently named two of his children Maria and Dmitri. The myths surrounding Rasputin portray him as showing indications of supernatural powers throughout his childhood. Efim Rasputin, Grigori's father, raised horses, and one ostensible example of these powers was when he mysteriously identified the man who had stolen one of the horses. [2] When he was around the age of eighteen, he spent three months in the Verkhoturye Monastery, possibly a penance for theft.

His experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Mother of God on his return, turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. It also appears that he came into contact with the banned Christian sect known as the khlysty ( flagellants ), whose impassioned services, ending in physical exhaustion, led to rumors that religious and sexual ecstasy were combined in these rituals. Suspicions (which have not generally been accepted by historians) that Rasputin was one of the Khlysts threatened his reputation right to the end of his life. Indeed, Alexander Guchkov charged him with being a member of this illegal and orgiastic sect. The Tsar perceived the very real threat of a scandal and ordered his own investigations, but he did not, in the end, remove Rasputin from his position of influence; quite the contrary, he fired his minister of the interior for a "lack of control over the press" (censorship being a top priority for Nicholas then). He pronounced the affair to be a private one closed to debate. [5] Shortly after leaving the monastery , Rasputin visited a holy man named Makariy, whose hut was nearby.

Makariy had an enormous influence on Rasputin, who would model himself after him. Rasputin married Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina in 1889, and they had three children, named Dmitri, Varvara, and Maria . Rasputin also had another child with another woman. In 1901, he left his home in Pokrovskoye as a strannik (or pilgrim ) and, during the time of his journeying, travelled to Greece and Jerusalem . In 1903, Rasputin arrived in Saint Petersburg , where he gradually gained a reputation as a starets (or holy man) with healing and prophetic powers. Healer to Alexei Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexei 's illness (it was not publicly known in 1904 that Alexei had haemophilia ). This disease was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria , who was Alexei's great-grandmother.

When the young Tsarevich, while vacationing with his family, sustained a bruise after falling off a horse, he suffered internal bleeding for days. The Tsaritsa, looking everywhere for help, asked her best friend, Anna Vyrubova , to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer Rasputin in 1905. [6] He was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die. [6] Skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis — although, during a particularly grave crisis, Rasputin, from his home in Siberia , was believed to have eased the suffering, in Saint Petersburg, of the Tsarevich through prayer. His practical advice (such as "Don't let the doctors bother him too much; let him rest") may also have been of great assistance in allowing Alexei and his worried mother to relax, so that the child's own natural healing process might take place.

[7] Others believe he used leeches to stop the boy's bleeding for the moment; however, this is unlikely to have been successful because leech saliva contains hirudin and other natural anticoagulants . Every time the boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, the Tsaritsa called on Rasputin, and the Tsarevich subsequently got better.[ citation needed ] This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him. Diarmuid Jeffreys has proposed [8] that the medical treatment halted due to Rasputin's intervention included aspirin , then a newly-available (since 1899) " wonder drug " for the treatment of pain. Since aspirin is an antiaggregant (prevents aggregation of platelets thereby interfering with blood coagulation) — this was discovered only in 1971 — the treatment would have increased the bleeding into the joints, which was causing Alexei's joint swelling and pain. The Tsar referred to Rasputin as "our friend" and a "holy man", a sign of the trust that the family placed in him.

Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra [9] , and the Tsar and Tsaritsa considered him a man of God and a religious prophet . Everyone desirous of an audience with the royal couple had to go through him, a situation which angered certain individuals. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin. Of course, this relationship can also be viewed in the context of the very strong, traditional, age-old bond between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian leadership. Another important factor was probably the Tsaritsa's German-Protestant origin: she was definitely highly fascinated by her new Orthodox outlook — the Orthodox religion puts a great deal of faith in the healing powers of prayer. Controversy Rasputin among admirers, 1914 Rasputin soon became a controversial figure, becoming involved in a paradigm of sharp political struggle involving monarchist, anti-monarchist, revolutionary and other political forces and interests.

He was accused by many eminent persons of various misdeeds, ranging from an unrestricted sexual life (including raping a nun ) [10] to undue political domination over the royal family.[ citation needed ] While fascinated by him, the Saint Petersburg elite did not widely accept Rasputin: he did not fit in with the royal family, and he and the Russian Orthodox Church had a very tense relationship. The Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices, but such anecdotal evidence on Rasputin's life, however abundant, should be regarded with caution. Because Rasputin was a court official, though, he and his apartment were under 24-hour surveillance, and, accordingly, there exists some credible evidence about his lifestyle in the form of the famous "staircase notes" — reports from police spies which were not given only to the Tsar but also published in newspapers . According to Rasputin's daughter, Maria, Rasputin did "look into" the Khlysty sect but rejected it.

One Khlyst practice was known as "rejoicing" (радение), a ritual which sought to overcome human sexual urges by engaging in group sexual activities so that, in consciously sinning together, the sin's power over the human was nullified. [11] Rasputin is said to have been particularly appalled by the belief that grace is found through self-flagellation . Like many spiritually-minded Russians, Rasputin spoke of salvation as depending less on the clergy and the church than on seeking the spirit of God within. He also maintained that sin and repentance were interdependent and necessary to salvation. Thus, he claimed that yielding to temptation (and, for him personally, this meant sex and alcohol), even for the purposes of humiliation (so as to dispel the sin of vanity ), was needed to proceed to repentance and salvation. Rasputin was deeply opposed to war, both from a moral point of view and as something which was likely to lead to political catastrophe.

During the years of World War I , Rasputin's increasing drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and willingness to accept bribes (in return for helping petitioners who flocked to his apartment), as well as his efforts to have his critics dismissed from their posts, made him appear increasingly cynical. Another way to look at this, is that like most Orthodox Christians Rasputin was brought up with the belief that the body is a sacred gift from God. Attaining divine grace through sin seems to have been one of the central secret doctrines which Rasputin preached to (and practiced with) his inner circle of society ladies. During World War I , Rasputin became the focus of accusations of unpatriotic influence at court; the unpopular Tsaritsa, meanwhile, was of German descent, and she came to be accused of acting as a spy in German employ. When Rasputin expressed an interest in going to the front to bless the troops early in the war, the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nicholas , promised to hang him if he dared to show up there. Rasputin then claimed that he had a revelation that the Russian armies would not be successful until the Tsar personally took command.

With this, the ill-prepared Nicholas proceeded to take personal command of the Russian army, with dire consequences for himself as well as for Russia. While Tsar Nicholas II was away at the front, Rasputin's influence over Tsaritsa Alexandra increased immensely. He soon became her confidant and personal adviser, and also convinced her to fill some governmental offices with his own handpicked candidates. To further the advance of his power, Rasputin cohabitated with upper-class women in exchange for granting political favours. Because of World War I and the ossifying effects of feudalism and a meddling government bureaucracy , Russia's economy was declining at a very rapid rate. Many at the time laid the blame with Alexandra and with Rasputin, because of his influence over her. Here is an example: Vladimir Purishkevich was an outspoken member of the Duma .

On November 19, 1916, Purishkevich made a rousing speech in the Duma, in which he stated, "The tsar's ministers who have been turned into marionettes , marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna — the evil genius of Russia and the tsaritsa ... who has remained a German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people." Felix Yusupov attended the speech and afterwards contacted Purishkevich, who quickly agreed to participate in the murder of Rasputin. [12] Rasputin's influence over the royal family was used against him and the Romanovs by politicians and journalists who wanted to weaken the integrity of the dynasty , force the Tsar to give up his absolute political power and separate the Russian Orthodox Church from the state. Rasputin unintentionally contributed to their propaganda by having public disputes with clergy members, bragging about his ability to influence both the Tsar and Tsaritsa, and also by his dissolute and very public lifestyle.

Nobles in influential positions around the Tsar, as well as some parties of the Duma, clamored for Rasputin's removal from the court. Perhaps inadvertently, Rasputin had added to the Tsar's subjects' diminishing respect for him. Murder This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations ). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2006) The legends recounting the death of Rasputin are perhaps even more bizarre than his strange life. According to Greg King's 1996 book The Man Who Killed Rasputin , a previous attempt on Rasputin's life had been made and had failed: Rasputin was visiting his wife and children in his hometown, Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River , in Siberia .

On June 29, 1914, he had either just received a telegram or was just exiting church, when he was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva , a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor , once a friend of Rasputin's but now absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family. Iliodor had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin, and together they formed a survivors' support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist !" After intensive surgery , however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body." His daughter, Maria, pointed out in her memoirs that he was never the same man after that: he seemed to tire more easily and frequently took opium for pain.

The Moika Palace , along the Moika River , where Rasputin was supposedly lured and murdered The murder of Rasputin has become legend, some of it invented by the very men who killed him, which is why it becomes difficult to discern exactly what happened. It is, however, generally agreed that, on December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (one of the few Romanov family members to escape the annihilation of the family during the Red Terror ), apparently lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace , where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide . According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men.

Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine , because, after the attack by Guseva, he had hyperacidity , and avoided anything with sugar . In fact, she expressed doubt that he was poisoned at all. Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, which would leave the conspirators with no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver . Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to grab one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupovs ear "you bad boy" and attempted to strangle him. As he made his bid to kill Yusupov, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him.

After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and, after wrapping his body in a sheet, threw him into an icy river, and he finally met his end there — as had both his siblings before him. Three days later, the body of Rasputin, poisoned, shot four times and badly beaten, was recovered from the Neva River. An autopsy established that the cause of death was drowning , due to the presence of water in his lungs. His arms were found in an upright position, as if he had tried to claw his way out from under the ice. In the autopsy, it was found that he had indeed been poisoned, and that the poison alone should have been enough to kill him. Yet another report, also supporting the idea that he was still alive after submerging through the ice into the Neva River, is that after his body was pulled from the river, water was found in the lungs, showing that he didn't die until he was submerged.

[13] Subsequently, the Empress Alexandra buried Rasputin's body in the grounds of Tsarskoye Selo , but, after the February Revolution , a group of workers from Saint Petersburg uncovered the remains, carried them into a nearby wood and burnt them. As the body of Rasputin was being burned, he appeared to sit up in the fire. After being poisoned, shot, beaten, drowned, and officially verified as dead, he thoroughly horrified bystanders in his apparent attempts to move and get up. This legend is attributed to improper cremation . Since his body was in inexperienced hands, his tendons were probably not cut before burning. Consequently, when his body was heated, the tendons shrunk, forcing his legs to bend, and his body to bend at the waist, resulting in it appearing to sit up. This final happenstance only poured fuel on the fire of legends and mysteries surrounding Rasputin, which would continue to live on, long after he had truly passed away. Recent evidence The details of the killing given by Felix Yusupov have never stood up to close examination.

There were many versions of his account: the statement which he gave to the Saint Petersburg police on December 16, 1916, the account that he gave whilst in exile in the Crimea in 1917, his 1927 book, and, finally, the accounts given, under oath, to libel juries in 1934 and 1965. No two accounts were entirely identical, and, until recently, no other credible, evidence-based theories have been available. According to the unpublished 1916 autopsy report by Professor Kossorotov, as well as subsequent reviews by Dr. Vladimir Zharov in 1993 and Professor Derrick Pounder in 2004/05, no active poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. A possible explanation why the poison from the eaten cakes was inactive is given by the fact that the cyanide went through high temperatures when the cakes were baked in the oven. Subsequently the cyanide, or a large part of it, would have vaporized. It could not have been said with certainty that he drowned, as the water found in his lungs is a common non-specific autopsy-finding.

All three sources agree that Rasputin had been systematically beaten and attacked with a bladed weapon, but, most importantly, there were discrepancies regarding the number and caliber of handguns used. This discovery may have significantly changed the whole premise and account of Rasputin's death. British intelligence reports, between London and Saint Petersburg in 1916, indicate that the British were extremely concerned about Rasputin's displacement of pro-British ministers in the Russian government but, even more importantly, his apparent insistence on withdrawing Russian troops from World War I . This withdrawal would have allowed the Germans to transfer their Eastern Front troops to the Western Front, leading to a massive outnumbering of the Allies, and threatening their defeat. Whether this was actually Rasputin's intention or whether he was simply concerned about the huge number of casualties (as the Tsaritsa's letters indicated) is in dispute, but it is clear that the British viewed him as a real danger. Professor Pounder tells us that, of the four shots fired into Rasputin's body, the third (which entered his forehead) was instantly fatal. This third shot also provides some intriguing evidence.

In Pounder's view, with which the Firearms Department of London's Imperial War Museum agrees, the third shot was fired by a different gun from those responsible for the other three wounds. The "size and prominence of the abraded margin" suggested a large lead non-jacketed bullet . At the time, the majority of weapons used hard metal jacketed bullets, with Britain virtually alone in using lead unjacketed bullets, for their officers' Webley revolvers . Pounder came to the conclusion that the bullet which caused the fatal shot was a Webley .455 inch unjacketed round, the best fit with the available forensic evidence. Witnesses to the murder stated that the only man present with a Webley revolver was Lieutenant Oswald Rayner , a British officer attached to the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) station in Saint Petersburg. This account was supported further during an audience between the British Ambassador, Sir George Buchanan , and Tsar Nicholas, when Nicholas stated that he suspected a young Englishman who had been an old school friend of Yusupov. Rayner certainly had known Yusupov at Oxford .

There was, however, another SIS officer in Saint Petersburg at the time, namely Captain Stephen Alley , who had actually been born in the Yusupov Palace in 1876. Both families had very strong ties, so it is difficult to come to any conclusion about whom to hold responsible. Confirmation that Rayner, along with another officer, Captain John Scale , met up with Yusupov in the weeks leading up to the killing can be found in the diary of their chauffeur , William Compton , who recorded all visits. The last entry was made on the night after the murder. Compton said that "it is a little known fact that Rasputin was shot not by a Russian but by an Englishman" and indicated that the culprit was a lawyer from the same part of the country as Compton himself. There is little doubt that Rayner was born some ten miles from Compton's hometown and, throughout his life, described himself as a barrister-at-law , despite never having practised in that profession. Evidence that the attempt had not gone quite according to plan is hinted at in a letter which Alley wrote to Scale eight days after the murder: "Although matters here have not proceeded entirely to plan, our objective has clearly been achieved. ...

a few awkward questions have already been asked about wider involvement. Rayner is attending to loose ends and will no doubt brief you." On his return to England, Oswald Rayner not only confided to his cousin, Rose Jones, that he had been present at Rasputin's murder but also showed family members a bullet which he claimed to have acquired at the murder scene. Conclusive evidence is unattainable, however, as Rayner burnt all his papers before he died in 1961 and his only son also died four years later. The spirit of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin The neutrality of this article is disputed . Please see the discussion on the talk page . Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (June 2008) After Rasputin's death, his secretary Simonovich realized that Rasputin had moved a lot of money into Maria's account. Indeed, he seemed generally to have set all his affairs in order. Mere weeks before he was assassinated, according to secretary Simonovich, Rasputin wrote the following: "I write and leave behind me this letter at Saint Petersburg. I feel that I shall leave life before January 1.

I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa, to the Russian Mother and to the Children, to the land of Russia, what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for twenty-five years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no nobles in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigori has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then no one in the family, that is to say, none of your children or relations, will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people.

I go, and I feel in me the divine command to tell the Russian Tsar how he must live if I have disappeared. You must reflect and act prudently. Think of your safety and tell your relations that I have paid for them with my blood. I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family. -Grigori" Why he wrote this prophetic letter, if it was not made up by Simonovich, is still a mystery. Oddly enough, he predicted that he would not live to see the New Year, which turned out to be true. He was assassinated eight days before. Some speculate that Rasputin had a spiritual vision foreshadowing such an event, and, although he did not explicitly say so, there is certainly a strong suggestion in the letter that that might be so. Others believe that Rasputin was conscious of the fact that he was widely reviled by many of the Russian people at the time and that a number of them wanted him dead — although many of his fellow peasants seem to have supported his success with the royal court.

After the great speech that inspired Yusupov to make his move, rumors were flying about the Duma that something was soon to happen to Rasputin, and he may simply have gotten wind of the rumors without knowing who exactly the conspirators were. Daughter Rasputin's daughter, Maria Rasputin (Matryona Rasputina) (1898–1977), emigrated to France after the October Revolution , and then to the U.S. There she worked as a dancer and then a tiger-trainer in a circus . She left memoirs [14] about her father, wherein she painted an almost saintly picture of him, insisting that most of the negative stories were based on slander and the misinterpretations of facts by his enemies. Name meaning This article may contain original research or unverified claims . Please improve the article by adding references . See the talk page for details. (April 2008) The name Rasputin is not an uncommon surname, and does not have a "disgraceful" meaning, as the contemporary Russian writer Valentin Rasputin would be quick to explain. In Russian, it does not mean " licentious ", which has often been claimed.

There is, however, a very similar Russian adjective, rasputny (распу́тный), which does mean "licentious" — as well as the corresponding noun, "rasputnik". Some even suggest that his name meant "dissolute". [15] There are at least two options for the root-word : one of them is "put", which means "way", "road", and other close nouns are rasputye, a place where the roads diverge or converge, and rasputitsa (распу́тица), "muddy road season". Some historians argue that the name Rasputin may be a place name, since it does roughly signify "a place where two rivers meet", describing the area from which the Rasputin family originates and where his sibling died. Yet another possibility is the just-mentioned "put'" giving rise to the verb "putat", which means to "entangle" or "mix up" — "rasputat' " being its antonym — "disentangle", "untie", "clean up a misunderstanding".

However, the most well-founded explanation is a standard Russian surname derivation from the old Slavic name "Rasputa" ("Rasputko") (recorded as early as in sixteenth century), with the meaning "ill-behaved child", the one whose ways are against traditions or the will of parents. It is said that Rasputin tried to have his name changed to the inconspicuous "Novykh" ( Russian : Новыx) after his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land — "Novykh" (from the Russian Новый, meaning "New") connotes "Novice" — but that is the subject of much dispute. In popular culture Music The music group Boney M (with Frank Farian, Reyam and Fred Jay) released a song about Rasputin, " Rasputin " in 1978. [16] In 2007, Type O Negative featured a photo of Rasputin on the cover of their latest album, Dead Again . The Rasputin Music stores, a chain in California , is named for Rasputin, and its advertising even contains photographic images and other altered images of Rasputin.

The store's logo on its website features the classic image of Rasputin as a DJ mixing the tunes. The band Mastodon makes references to Rasputin throughout their album Crack the Skye . Theatre The final days of Rasputin’s life were portrayed on stage in Rivers of Blood [2] , written by the American poet and playwright Jay Jeff Jones. The play was produced in London in 1983 and was directed by the Irish novelist and poet Dermot Healey. The role of Rasputin was played by Gabriel Connaughton (brother of the novelist and Oscar nominated screenwriter Shane Connaughton [3] ). Cinema Rasputin's story has been fictionalized in a number of films since the 1920s. The first film made about him, Rasputin, the Black Monk , premiered in October 1917, but all copies have been lost. In 1932, Rasputin was portrayed by Lionel Barrymore in Rasputin and the Empress , from MGM studios. The Czarina was portrayed by Ethel Barrymore and Prince Paul Chegodieff by John Barrymore .

In 1938, a French film about his life called La Tragédie impériale (a.k.a. Rasputin), starring Harry Baur was based on a novel by Alfred Neumann and directed by Marcel L'Herbier . In 1996, actor Alan Rickman won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his portrayal of Rasputin in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny . An extremely fictionalized Rasputin portrayed by Christopher Lloyd and Jim Cummings (providing his singing voice) stars as the primary antagonist in the 1997 animated film Anastasia . Along with a litany of other historical inaccuracies regarding the Romanov Dynasty and Russian Revolution, Rasputin is portrayed as a former confidante to Tzar Nicholas who is banished as a traitor after being revealed as a charlatan. He is also depicted as a lich . In the 2004 film Hellboy , Rasputin, portrayed by Karel Roden , is depicted as having survived his homicide, and is seen working with the Nazis , demonstrating great occult abilities linked with the underworld .

Rasputin is depicted as being nearly immortal; every time he dies, he is resurrected with a part of his god within his body. Television A popular anime program, Blood+ , featured an episode titled "Do you Remember the Promise?", where the main character Saya remembers her time during the 1920s tracking down Rasputin. [17] Circus The Moscow State Circus currently touring the United Kingdom has dedicated it's production to the life of Rasputin and his views and visions on life. The ringmaster portrays Rasputin by wearing a false beard and similar clothing. A narration reminds the audience of the life or Rasputin between certain acts. See also References ^ a b c Rasputin: The Mad Monk [DVD]. USA: A&E Home Video. 2005. ^ a b c Colin Wilson, Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs, Arthur Baker Limited, 1964, p. 23-26. ^ Heinz Liepman, Rasputin and the Fall of Imperial Russia, p. 21. ^ Edvard Radzinsky & Judson Rosengrant (ed.), The Rasputin File, Nan A.

Talese, 2000, p. 25. ^ P.N., no. 5644, September 6, 1936. ^ a b Robert Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, Dell Publishing, 1967, p. 185. ^ Massie, p. 187. Grigori Rasputin | Hellboy Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Grigori Rasputin was born on January 21 1869. As a young man he frequently had visions, and was aware of great power inside him, the ability to heal sick people and see the future. These powers convinced him he was destined for greatness. He used his power to gain a place in the court of Tsar Nicholas II, using his powers to cure prince Alexei's hemophilia. After being assassinated by Prince Felix Yusopov on December 16th, 1916, Rasputin was revived and contacted by the Ogdru Jahad . They enlisted him as their mortal agent in the world. Soon after, Rasputin was contacted by the Nazis to begin development on an occult method for ending the Second World War.

From this, Project Ragna Rok was born. The Nazis sought to use Rasputin to defeat the Allies, but Rasputin knew this would never happen. He merely intended to use the Nazi’s resources as long as he could to achieve his own goals: to trigger the apocalypse which would jumpstart a new Eden. Rasputin summoning the Beast of the Apocalypse for the Nazis. When the summoning accidentally placed the creature ( Hellboy ) in the hands of the Allies, Rasputin retreated to the Arctic Circle. He returned in 1994 with Sadu-Hem , a monstrous spawn of the Ogdru Jahad, in tow. Rasputin's goal was to use Hellboy's stone right hand to free the Ogdru Jahad from their crystal prisons and permit them to raze the earth. However, Rasputin's plans were foiled by the timely intervention of Hellboy's associates from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense , Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien . Rasputin was killed and Sadu-Hem was burned to death.

Wake the Devil Main article: Wake the Devil Rasputin re-appeared as a ghost while his pawns attempted to restore the vampire Vladimir Giurescu to life. Rasputin directed Ilsa Haupstein , a loyal member of Project Ragna Rok, to abandon her efforts to revive Giurescu and instead place herself within an enchanted iron maiden presented by Koku . Haupstein did so, dying in the process, but her blood allowed the goddess Hecate to use the iron maiden as a permanent and indestructible body. Hecate's mortal form, like that of Rasputin himself, had been destroyed. Soon after, Rasputin retreated to the roots of Yggdrasil where he met the Baba Yaga, who she tells him that he was nothing but a pawn for the Ogdru Jahad. Conqueror Worm Main article: Conqueror Worm (story) Rasputin appeared lastly in his ghostly form as a counsel to Inger von Klempt . He persuaded her that she was to be the first of a final race of men, but she was executed by Lobster Johnson and the end of the world was averted with the destruction of the Conqueror Worm .

Rasputin's failed efforts to restart his new Eden was mocked by Hecate, which Rasputin angrily lash out at the goddess from which he is then decimated by Hecate. The Baba Yaga took what was left of his soul and placed it in an acorn. Legacy Main article: Plague of Frogs (story) When the BPRD investigated the disappearance of a regenerated Sadu-Hem from a Bureau facility in New Jersey, they found a Doomsday cult led by an acolyte of Rasputin. The acolyte, who had exhibited a chest wound the day that Rasputin was speared to death, fulfilled Rasputin's prophecy regarding his killer. Abe Sapien , the agent that killed Rasputin, was himself speared to death by the acolyte. Sapien, however, was soon revived and both the acolyte and Sadu-Hem were killed. Darkness Calls Main article: Darkness Calls Towards the end of the series, as Hellboy is trying to fight his way out of the Baba Yaga 's world, the villainess puts as much of her power as she can into her slave Koshchei the Deathless to kill Hellboy.

As she runs out of her own power, she states she has one more try, and wants to use the spirit of Rasputin, (still in the acorn) to power Koshchei. But her demon friend Koku throws the acorn between the roots of the World Tree, stating "not him." Hellboy hears Rasputin's name mentioned and only states "Don't even get me started on that guy!" The acorn containing Rasuptin's soul then fell into Hell. Powers and Abilities Edit Even before Grigori Rasputin was recruited by the Ogdru Jahad, he possessed some measure of supernatural abilities, including the power to temporarily heal others. After he made contact with the Baba Yaga in late nineteenth/early twentieth century his powers truly began to come into their own, making Rasputin a very powerful wizard indeed. By offering Baba Yaga a portion of his soul, Rasputin also became immortal, though not invincible. Prior to his death, Rasputin demonstrated a wide array of supernatural talents. It was with his magic that Hellboy was brought into the world, and it was with his guidance that many of the Nazi doomsday projects came into existence.

With the assistance of an Ogdru Hem Rasputin was able to transform four explorers into frog men. When Hellboy first encountered Rasputin in Cavindesh Hall the wizard was able to survive a large calibur gunshot wound to the head and knock Hellboy away with barely a murmur, easily overriding the numerous charms of protection Hellboy kept on his person. Rasputin was also able to take control of Liz Sherman's mind through arcane means, and was shown to survive a spear through the chest, though the injury did sap his powers significantly. Reduced to a flaming skeleton, the last power he demonstrated before his death was the ability to breath fire, afterwards Hellboy shattered him with his stone fist, killing him. After his death Rasputin became a ghost, one that still possessed a great deal of power. Even as a ghost he still bore the spear wound Abe Sapien had given him, a wound that now produced blue flame. As a ghost Rasputin was shown to have the ability to teleport, become immaterial, and make people blind. He could also venture into different dimensions, going so far as to visit the Baba Yaga near the World Tree.

Rasputin could also "mark" individuals he deemed important, causing a blue flame to flicker above their heads. What this mark entailed to the individual, if anything, is unclear. Film version Edit Karel Roden as Grigori Rasputin. Actor Karel Roden played Rasputin, the primary antagonist, in Hellboy . He was seen working with the Nazis in the film and demonstrated great occult abilities linked with the underworld. Rasputin was depicted as being nearly immortal; every time he died, he was resurrected with a part of his god within his body. This ability was likely inspired by rumors of the real-life Rasputin being difficult to kill. In 1944, Rasputin attempted to open a portal into the beyond and unleash the Ogdru Jahad . From what he believed, the Ogdru Jahad would destroy their enemies and remake the world into a paradise. However, an Allied attack on the church where the ceremony was performed disrupted it. When Professor Trevor Bruttenholm tossed a grenade at the portal, it destabilized it and it sucked Rasputin into it.

The results of the portal's opening was a child-like, red creature the Allies decided to name " Hellboy ". Sixty years later, Rasputin's lover, Ilsa von Haupstein and Karl Ruprecht Kroenen resurrect him in the mountains of Moldavia. Returned to a world that has changed in his absence, Rasputin set in motion events that would lead to the end of the world. During the climax of the film, Rasputin nearly succeeded in freeing the Ogdru Jahad , but Hellboy rejected him and stabbed Rasputin with one of his own severed horns. Rasputin's 'god', a giant tentacled monster called the Behemoth, burst from his body and grew to gigantic size. Dying and outliving his usefulness, Rasputin was crushed to death by the Behemoth. Edit On the 3-disc DVD version of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, an animated comic called the "Zinco Epilogue" shows a company called Zinco researching through the remains of the mausoleum from the first movie. The company only find Kroenen's body and takes it for research. Mr.

Zinco, the founder, travels to the Amundsen Glacier along with Kroenen's decapitated head. Zinco places Kroenen's head on a machine he finds and the head is brought back to life. Kroenen responds "As you promised, my master." Zinco responds that he isn't his master, until it's revealed that Rasputin has returned. It isn't revealed yet if Rasputin has survived from the Behemoth or if he's a ghost due to the fact that Rasputin reappears in front of Zinco. The sexual obsession that drove Rasputin to his death: Countless myths have been woven about him. But a dazzling book, using private diaries, reveals new details of the self-styled 'Christ in miniature' | Daily Mail Online The sexual obsession that drove Rasputin to his death: Countless myths have been woven about him.

But a dazzling book, using private diaries, reveals new details of the self-styled 'Christ in miniature' The Russian mystic had an insatiable sex drive, writes FRANCES WELCH It was even said the cows produced more milk with him around But temptation would lead him to his death at the hands of his enemies comments For someone who described himself as ‘a Christ in miniature’ and had inveigled his way into Russia’s imperial court as a much-revered ‘Holy Man’, Grigori Rasputin spent his last day alive indulging in an astonishing amount of debauchery. That snowy morning of December 16, 1916, had seen him staggering into his St Petersburg flat in the early hours, clearly embracing one of his favourite dictums, that wine was ‘God’s own remedy’. This was by no means unusual according to the police bodyguards who watched over his home on the direct orders of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Tsarina Alexandra, the last rulers of the doomed Romanov dynasty. Legendary: The mystic Rasputin (centre) held court with the Tsar and Tsarina and, of course, countless women. But his sexual obsession would ultimately be used against him...

to lead him to his gruesome death Their reports described Rasputin at various times as ‘very drunk’, ‘dead drunk’ and ‘overcome with drink’. Shortly after returning to his flat, the Man of God, known for his shunning of sleep, was back on the street. A brief lie-down had set him up for his next trip, to his beloved ‘banya’, the bath-house where he would have his genitals soaped by one of the ‘little ladies’, as he called his female followers, after which they would thrash him with twigs. After this rousing session, he was ready for a brisk walk to the nearest church to renounce Satan. As he said repeatedly: ‘Without sin there is no repentance.’ The evening found him back home, where he finished off his 12th bottle of Madeira wine in as many hours, before receiving a visitor, a plump blonde called ‘Sister Maria’. RELATED ARTICLES Share Bad smell: One person who encountered him said Rasputin smelled a little like a goat His niece Anna, who was there, recalled that this was no sister of mercy. ‘She helped him to remove the tension that apparently took hold of him against his will,’ she recalled.

Rasputin and Sister Maria retired to his study where they set about removing some of that tension. But he could not dally with her for too long for he had one more appointment that night, with a beautiful young aristocrat called Princess Irina. He was to meet her at her sumptuous palace in St Petersburg after her dinner guests had gone home. It was an assignation he was looking forward to, yet one to which he should never have agreed. For it was in that palace that he was about to meet his bizarre and brutal end — poisoned, beaten and ultimately shot by a gang of his enemies. As I discovered after using unpublished memoirs, diaries and letters to research a book on this extraordinary man, the fact that a vague promise of sex should have proved Rasputin’s downfall was unsurprising. He was, after all, a man who considered the serial seduction of women to be some kind of religious duty. Born in 1869, the son of a peasant, he grew up in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye where his mystical gifts were reportedly in evidence by the time he was 12.

It was said that the family cows produced more milk when he was around and he once solved a horse theft by prophesying correctly that the stolen animal would be found in the home of the richest man in the village. After a spell in a monastery in his late 20s, he claimed that by sleeping with women he could take on their sins and thus help them find the ‘grace of God’. ‘I don’t degrade you, I purify you,’ he told his female followers as he led them in energetic dances around incense-fragranced fires in nearby forests, after which he would purportedly ‘rejoice’ with each of them. Icon: The peasant and mystic has become a cult figure in popular culture, and was immortalised by Tom Baker in the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra (with Janet Suzman, left) With mesmeric eyes and an ability to contract and expand his pupils at will, he had plenty of willing disciples, despite his poor personal hygiene. Every spring he set off on treks to various holy places and boasted of the privations he suffered en route, once claiming he had gone six months without changing his underwear. One man who encountered him remarked that he smelled like a goat.

Others talked of his foul breath and ‘teeth like blackened stumps’. This did not deter the groups of young women he frequently brought back from his travels. These acolytes were given distinctly unholy nicknames such as ‘Hot Stuff’, ‘Boss Lady’ and ‘Sexy Girl’. Remarkably, his liaisons with them were tolerated by his wife, Praskovia, who, three years his senior, had married him when he was 18 and remained loyal to him to the end. ‘He has enough for all,’ she once remarked cryptically, referring perhaps to the legendary size of Rasputin’s endowment. Many could attest to that, including the two sisters, aged 15 and 20, who were invited to join him at a bath-house in the city of Kiev for a session of ‘rejoicing’. Salvation: Often nicknamed the Mad Monk, Rasputin said he was 'purifying' women by sleeping with them When he was accosted by their outraged mother, he told her that she should feel at peace. ‘The Day of Salvation has dawned for your two daughters,’ he announced grandly.

He won favour in imperial circles when rumours of his powers reached the Grand Duchess Militza, a gullible woman who had introduced many ‘Holy Men’ to her cousin, the Tsarina. These included a French butcher and ‘mystic’ named Monsieur Philippe who claimed that he could make people invisible. At a church service in 1903, Rasputin publicly declared the Tsarina would be delivered of a much-longed for male heir within a year and, following the arrival of the Tsarevich Alexei in August 1904, the Grand Duchess arranged for him to meet the proud parents on the first of many subsequent visits to the imperial palace. 'He has enough for all,' his wife once remarked cryptically, referring perhaps to the legendary size of Rasputin’s endowment.

Many could attest to that, including the two sisters, aged 15 and 20, who were invited to join him at a bath-house in the city of Kiev for a session of ‘rejoicing’ A reverence for peasants was fashionable among the Russian aristocracy at that time, and Rasputin’s life‑long illiteracy and habit of eating with his fingers went down well with ‘Papa’ and ‘Mama’, as he took it upon himself to call them. So did what appeared to be a remarkable sixth sense. Legend has it that on one occasion, Rasputin was talking to the Tsarina about providence when he suddenly interrupted himself, shouting: ‘He’s in the blue room!’ They ran to the palace’s blue billiard room where Rasputin scooped Tsarevich Alexei up just before a falling chandelier landed exactly where he had been standing. Above all, however, the Tsarina was enslaved by the ‘healing power’ of Rasputin’s prayers. As it became apparent that her beloved son had haemophilia, the hereditary condition which affects the blood’s ability to clot, he seemed to be the only person who could stop the flow whenever Alexei injured himself.

It has since been suggested that his secret lay in an ability to calm the Tsarevich, lowering his blood pressure and thus easing the bleeding. Or it might have been his distaste for the new wonder-drug aspirin, dished out by the Russian court doctors for pain relief and only discovered in later years to be an anti-coagulant which would have worsened the bleeding considerably. Whatever lay behind the cures, the Tsarina’s faith in Rasputin was unwavering and his name became known the length and breadth of Russia. While his wife remained at home in Pokrovskoye, he took a flat in St Petersburg, where the streets outside became crowded with his followers, the so-called ‘Rasputinki’. Up to 400 of them at a time were known to gather before sunrise, waiting as long as three days to see him. Christ-like: One myth said Rasputin could enlarge or contract his own pupils at will These devotees came in search of miracle cures or keep-sakes, including Rasputin’s fingernail clippings.

These were much prized, despite one St Petersburg restaurant manager testifying that the Man of God’s hands were ‘grimy, with bitten, blackened nails’. Since it was known that he had the ears of the ‘Tsars’, as he called them, favour-seekers would file through the lobby, bearing lavish gifts of wine, carpets and even huge fish. Floral tributes were a favourite: ‘Idiots bring fresh flowers every day. They know I love them,’ he swaggered ungraciously. Those deemed attractive enough to become one of his ‘little ladies’ would, like Sister Maria, be invited to join him in his study. That contained a sofa so over-used that its back eventually gave way. Powerful: But his alliance with Tsar Nicholas II (pictured) drew jealousy from Rasputin's enemies Reports of such excesses soon spread through Petersburg and those outside the city had other damning tales. At one monastery, the nuns claimed that Rasputin had been conducting orgies and bathing with novices. Soon his life was being threatened by outraged clerics, including an unhinged monk called Iliodor whose zeal was such that at one point he had accrued 120 bombs with which to dispatch him.

He never deployed them, opting instead to brandish an axe at Rasputin and threaten to castrate him. In a similar vein, a crazed dwarf Holy Man named Blessed Mitya first punched ‘the true Christ’, as the Tsar apparently called him, and then attempted to pull off his manhood. Rasputin survived such assaults, but in the years leading up to his death, there was ever more anger about his growing influence at court. By claiming divine guidance, he could persuade the Tsarina to do almost anything and this also gave him great influence over the Tsar, a colourless and indecisive man who generally went along with his highly-strung wife’s wishes. ‘Better one Rasputin than ten fits of hysterics a day,’ he would say. One of those he worked against was the Tsar’s uncle, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who was hugely distrustful of Rasputin and had once threatened to hang him. In 1915, Rasputin urged the Tsar to remove the Grand Duke from command of the country’s million-strong army and this he agreed to do, even though the country was then engaged in World War I.

Rasputin was also said to be exploiting that war to his own financial advantage, charging 2,000 roubles a time (roughly £200 today) for keeping a soldier from the Front Other gossip accused him of sleeping with the Tsarina. This was unlikely since she was a woman of such modesty that she assiduously covered the lavatory and bath when they were not in use. But Rasputin inadvertently encouraged the rumours during a drunken dinner at a restaurant in Moscow. Seat of power: Men can reportedly cure impotence by sitting on Grigori Rasputin's old wooden chair, left On this occasion, his customary bragging about his place in the imperial couple’s affections culminated in him roaring that ‘the old girl’ had slept with him. When diners at another table asked if he was really Rasputin, he dropped his trousers and waved his most famous feature at them, all the while distributing notes saying ‘Love unselfishly’. Still the Tsarina refused to hear a word against him, preferring to believe that an imposter was posing as Rasputin and misbehaving in public to blacken his name.

This fuelled suspicion that the German-born Tsarina was working with Rasputin to sabotage the Russian war effort. Popular culture: The 1996 film Rasputin featured Alan Rickman and Greta Scaachi Indeed, it has been alleged that the bullet said to have killed Rasputin was fired by a British secret service agent, amid concerns he was lobbying for the Russians to make a separate peace with the Tsarina’s homeland. The agent most frequently referred to as the assassin was Oswald Rayner, who was at Princess Irina’s palace on the morning after Rasputin’s murder and for the next 24 hours. He had been at Oxford with her husband, Prince Felix Yussoupov, and the idea he could have killed Rasputin is not so outlandish. But Yussoupov had his own reasons for wanting Rasputin dead. In June 1915, mobs gathered in Moscow’s Red Square calling for Rasputin to be hanged. The governor of the city was Prince Yussoupov’s father, ‘Papa Felix’, and when he complained to the Tsar about the unrest Rasputin was causing, he was sacked on the spot.

The wealthy Yussoupovs were a dangerous family to alienate, and Yussoupov spared no expense in preparing an elaborate trap with which to exact revenge on Rasputin the following year. Then 29, the Prince was bisexual and not averse to what he called ‘love affairs of a special kind’ even after marrying Princess Irina, an acknowledged beauty, in 1914. Pretending that he wanted Rasputin’s help in ridding himself of such desires, he drew him still closer by suggesting he should come to the palace late one night for a rendezvous with his wife. Rasputin was shown into a room in the palace’s basement, safely out of earshot of potential witnesses. Befuddled by the Madeira he had drunk earlier that day, he was told that the Princess was upstairs and that he could meet her as soon as Yussoupov and his three friends had left. In fact, she was far away in the Crimea. The conspirators intended to poison Rasputin while he waited for the liaison. But no matter how much cyanide-laced wine and food they plied him with, he showed no ill-effects.

Suspecting their victim was being protected by supernatural powers, they shot him. Rasputin's luck could not last forever - in June 1915, mobs in Red Square (pictured) demanded his hanging Even then, after a few hours, he seemed to come miraculously back to life and managed to escape. As he ran across the palace yard, however, he was shot again — though nobody could later agree about who fired the bullet. Even then, one account suggests he was still alive when they inspected his body the next morning. ‘Turning his face up, he groaned and it seemed he rolled his right eye which fixed me, dazed but terrible,’ claimed Vladimir Purishkevich, a politician who was part of the plot. At the museum in his home village, it’s said men can be cured of impotence simply by sitting on his wooden chair Rasputin certainly should have been dead by then. Yussoupov had launched a ferocious attack with a cudgel, beating him so thoroughly and viciously that even his testicles were crushed. His body was found two days later when a sleeve of his fur coat was spotted protruding from the ice on a nearby river.

When the Prince was subsequently implicated in his murder, the Tsar exiled him to one of the Yussoupov family’s far-flung estates, but he dared not punish him further for fear of revolt. Hailed as a hero, the Prince survived the Revolution, and he and Princess Irina lived out their years in the South of France. The imperial family were not so fortunate, of course, and when they were shot and bayoneted to death by the Bolsheviks in July 1918, their murderers discovered lockets around the necks of the Tsarina and her four young daughters. Each contained a picture of Rasputin. Others seem to have sought out rather grislier reminders of the mystic-turned-martyr. An exhibition of erotica at a museum in St Petersburg claimed to be in possession of his pickled private parts, while at the museum in his home village, it’s said men can be cured of impotence simply by sitting on his clumpy wooden chair. So faith in Rasputin’s healing powers persists even a century after the passion for women which so dominated his life eventually tempted him to his death.

Adapted from Rasputin: A Short Life by Frances Welch, to be published this week by Short Books at £12.99. © 2014 Frances Welch. To order a copy for £11.49 (incl p&p) call 0844 472 4157. Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin | Russian mystic | Britannica.com Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin Alternative Title: Grigory Yefimovich Novykh Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin, original name Grigory Yefimovich Novykh (born 1872?, Pokrovskoye, near Tyumen , Siberia , Russian Empire—died December 30 [December 17, Old Style], 1916, Petrograd [now St.

Petersburg , Russia]), Siberian peasant and mystic whose ability to improve the condition of Aleksey Nikolayevich , the hemophiliac heir to the Russian throne, made him an influential favourite at the court of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra . Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin. Photo Harlingue/H. Roger-Viollet Although he attended school, the peasant Grigory Yefimovich Novykh remained illiterate, and his reputation for licentiousness earned him the surname Rasputin, Russian for “debauched one.” He evidently underwent a religious conversion at age 18, and eventually he went to the monastery at Verkhoture, where he was introduced to the Khlysty (Flagellants) sect. Rasputin perverted Khlysty beliefs into the doctrine that one was nearest God when feeling “holy passionlessness” and that the best way to reach such a state was through the sexual exhaustion that came after prolonged debauchery . Rasputin did not become a monk.

He returned to Pokrovskoye, and at age 19 married Proskovya Fyodorovna Dubrovina, who later bore him four children. Marriage did not settle Rasputin. He left home and wandered to Mount Athos , Greece, and Jerusalem, living off the peasants’ donations and gaining a reputation as a starets (self-proclaimed holy man) with the ability to heal the sick and predict the future. Rasputin’s wanderings took him to St. Petersburg (1903), where he was welcomed by Theophan, inspector of the religious Academy of St. Petersburg, and Hermogen, bishop of Saratov. The court circles of St. Petersburg at that time were entertaining themselves by delving into mysticism and the occult, so Rasputin—a filthy, unkempt wanderer with brilliant eyes and allegedly extraordinary healing talents—was warmly welcomed. In 1905 Rasputin was introduced to the royal family, and in 1908 he was summoned to the palace of Nicholas and Alexandra during one of their hemophiliac son’s bleeding episodes.

Rasputin succeeded in easing the boy’s suffering (probably by his hypnotic powers) and, upon leaving the palace, warned the parents that the destiny of both the child and the dynasty were irrevocably linked to him, thereby setting in motion a decade of Rasputin’s powerful influence on the imperial family and affairs of state. In the presence of the royal family, Rasputin consistently maintained the posture of a humble and holy peasant. Outside court, however, he soon fell into his former licentious habits. Preaching that physical contact with his own person had a purifying and healing effect, he acquired mistresses and attempted to seduce many other women. When accounts of Rasputin’s conduct reached the ears of Nicholas, the tsar refused to believe that he was anything other than a holy man, and Rasputin’s accusers found themselves transferred to remote regions of the empire or entirely removed from their positions of influence. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent By 1911 Rasputin’s behaviour had become a general scandal. The prime minister, P.A. Stolypin, sent the tsar a report on Rasputin’s misdeeds.

As a result, the tsar expelled Rasputin, but Alexandra had him returned within a matter of months. Nicholas, anxious not to displease his wife or endanger his son, upon whom Rasputin had an obviously beneficial effect, chose to ignore further allegations of wrongdoing. Rasputin reached the pinnacle of his power at the Russian court after 1915. During World War I , Nicholas II took personal command of his forces (September 1915) and went to the troops on the front, leaving Alexandra in charge of Russia’s internal affairs, while Rasputin served as her personal advisor. Rasputin’s influence ranged from the appointment of church officials to the selection of cabinet ministers (often incompetent opportunists), and he occasionally intervened in military matters to Russia’s detriment. Though supporting no particular political group, Rasputin was a strong opponent of anyone opposing the autocracy or himself.

Question: Who was Grigori Rasputin popularly linked with?
Answer: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia