The Real Story Of Rasputin

Russian mystic and faith healer Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. Befriending the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Russian Emperor, gave him significant influence in the closing years of the empire.

Rasputin was born to peasants in Pokrovskoye, a Siberian hamlet in Tyumensky Uyezd, Tobolsk Governorate (now Yarkovsky District, Tyumen Oblast). After a journey to a monastery in 1897, he became a monk or strannik.

but he had no formal Russian Orthodox Church post. He visited Saint Petersburg in 1903 or 1904–1905, enthralling religious and social elites and becoming a notable Russian figure. Rasputin met Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in November 1905.

Rasputin started healing Nicholas and Alexandra's only son, Alexei Nikolaevich, who had haemophilia, in late 1906. Some Russians saw him as a mystic, clairvoyant, and prophet, while others saw him as a religious fraud. When Nicholas departed Saint Petersburg to lead the Imperial Russian Army in World War I in 1915, Rasputin's authority peaked. Without him, Rasputin and Alexandra strengthened their power over Russia. Both characters grew more unpopular as Russian military failures on the Eastern Front increased, and in the early hours of 30 December,

Conservative Russian noblemen who disliked Rasputin's influence over the royal family killed him in 1916.

Siberia heard of Rasputin's charm and activities in the early 1900s. In 1904 or 1905, he went to Kazan and became known as a knowledgeable starets who could aid people with spiritual issues.

Despite claims that Rasputin had sex with female followers, local religious authorities liked him. Archimandrite Andrei and Bishop Chrysthanos sent Rasputin a letter of reference to Bishop Sergei, the rector of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery's theological school, and arranged for him to fly to Saint Petersburg.

Rasputin met religious authorities in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, including Archimandrite Theofan, theological school inspector and imperial family confessor. Theofan was well-connected in Saint Petersburg society. Theofan was so fascinated by Rasputin that he asked him to remain in his house and became one of his closest friends in Saint Petersburg, allowing him to attend many of the local aristocracy's religious salons. Rasputin gained early and important adherents via these sessions, many of whom would ultimately turn against him.

Saint Petersburg's aristocracy were fascinated by the occult and supernatural, and spiritualism and theosophy were popular before Rasputin's arrival. According to Fuhrmann, the city's elite were "bored, cynical, and seeking new experiences" and were fascinated by Rasputin's "strange manners" and views.

The Murder Of Rasputin

A group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Youssupov, the husband of the czar's niece, and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Nicholas's first cousin, lured Rasputin to Youssupov Palace on December 29, 1916, out of fear of his growing power and his suspected plot to make a separate peace with the Germans.

First, Rasputin's assailants handed him cyanide-laced food and drink. After failing to respond to the poison, they shot him at close range, killing him. After reviving, Rasputin tried to flee the palace grounds, but his attackers shot and battered him again. Rasputin, amazingly alive, was chained and thrown into a frigid river. The major conspirators, Youssupov and Pavlovich, were deported once his corpse was found some days later.

The imperial government collapsed soon after the Bolshevik Revolution. The Romanovs' long, gloomy rule ended with Nicholas and Alexandra's murder.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rasputin-is-murdered