Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia.
Background
Grigori Rasputin was born into a poor Russian peasant family in Tobolsk Province. The exact date of his birth is unknown; estimates range from 1864 to 1872. The family name was Novykh; Grigory received the name Rasputin, meaning "the debauchee" or "the dissolute one," from his fellow villagers as a young man. Rasputin fell into trouble with the law for such offensives as petty theft and making sexual advances to young girls; his life took a more promising direction when he came into the orbit of a Russian religious sect, the Khlysty or "Flagellants." Russian tradition accepted the kind of individual Rasputin then became: a self-declared holy man claiming the power to heal the sick.
Education
By the early years of the twentieth century, he had made his way to St. Petersburg. Sometime between 1905 and 1907, his contacts in the conventional religious hierarchy and among high-ranking members of the nobility allowed him access to the imperial family.
Career
Rasputin's champion became the Empress Alexandra. After ten years of marriage and the birth of four daughters, Alexandra had delivered a male child and heir to the throne; she was soon devastated to learn that he suffered from hemophilia. The early death of her mother and a sister, along with various other family tragedies, had made her mistrust conventional medical treatment. Rasputin was only the latest in a succession of faith healers and mystics who had managed to penetrate the empress' circle. The new holy man's apparent ability to keep Alexis, Alexandra's son, alive in times of medical crisis made him a trusted adviser to the empress and, through her, an influence on Tsar Nicholas II.
From 1910 onward Rasputin was understood to have substantial political power. This, plus his dissolute behavior (his religious beliefs stressed the need first to sin in order thereafter to be fully redeemed) made him the target of sharp criticism in the Russian Duma, the newly founded legislative body. In 1911 he was briefly expelled from St. Petersburg by Premier Petr Stolypin. The empress succeeded in arranging his return to the capital. At the close of 1912, Rasputin solidified his place within the imperial circle: Alexis was stricken during a family vacation in Poland; with the child at death's door, Rasputin advised the empress to reject the doctors' intended method of treating the lad, who thereupon recovered. By 1913 Rasputin was actively courted by political conservatives like Boris Sturmer. The holy man's view that the Duma formed a threat not only to himself but also to the prerogatives of the monarchy made him a natural ally for the political Right.
Rasputin allegedly opposed Russia's entry into World War I. His influence grew, however, during the course of the war. When Tsar Nicholas left to take command of the field armies in the fall of 1915, the empress, advised by Rasputin, took over the substantial governmental chores of the monarch. The precise extent of Rasputin's authority has given rise to controversy. Maire's biography restates the traditional view that "the peasant became dictator." It is likely that Rasputin had a less substantial role. He influenced high-level appointments, encouraging the tsar and empress to choose arch conservatives whom they preferred in any case.
He threw his weight against the political claims of the Duma; once again, he reinforced the desires of the imperial couple. In all, Rasputin's greatest historical importance may rest in the personal and political antagonisms he aroused in the Duma and in informed public opinion. These hostilities, combined with the nation's wartime suffering, inevitably undercut the authority of the monarchy.
In individual cases, historians have found Rasputin directly influential. The rise of Sturmer, a poorly qualified bureaucratic hack, to become premier in February 1916 is attributed to Rasputin and the empress. So too is the disastrous elevation of Aleksandr Protopopov to become minister of the interior and the effective leader of the Cabinet from September 1916 to the March 1917 revolution. The exit of capable individuals also can be blamed in large measure on Rasputin. War Minister Andrei Polivanov, for example, was forced from office in March 1916, due in part to a petty quarrel with Rasputin over the holy man's use of government vehicles.
Having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsarina had made him a threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich concocted a plan to kill Rasputin in December 1916, apparently by luring Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace.
Rasputin was murdered during the early morning on December 1916 30 December 1916, at the home of Felix Yusupov. He died of three gunshot wounds, one of which was a close-range shot to his forehead. Beyond this, little is certain about his death, and the circumstances of his death have been the subject of considerable speculation. According historian Douglas Smith, "what really happened at the Yusupov home on 17 December will never be known.", 595 The story of Rasputin's death that Yusupov recounted in his memoirs, however, has become the most often frequently told version of events.
Rasputin's lurid personality and his colorful relationship with Russia's ruling family should not divert attention from the deeper problems afflicting the nation. In the best of circumstances, Russia and the circles from which it was likely to draw its political leaders could hardly be expected to surmount the stresses of World War I. The ambitious and intriguing holy man at most accelerated a political breakdown that had, by late 1915, become inevitable.
Religion
In 1897, Rasputin developed a renewed interest in religion, and left Pokrovskoye to go on a pilgrimage. His reasons for doing so are unclear: according to some sources, Rasputin left the village to escape punishment for his role in a horse theft. Other sources suggest that he had a vision - either of the Virgin Mary, or of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye - while still others suggest that Rasputin's pilgrimage was inspired by his interactions with a young theological student, Melity Zaborovsky. Whatever his reasons, Rasputin's departure was a radical life change: he was twenty-eight, had been married ten years, and had an infant son with another child on the way. According to Douglas Smith, his decision "could only have been occasioned by some sort of emotional or spiritual crisis."
Politics
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) to undue political domination over the royal family
Even before his arrival in St. Petersburg in 1903, the city was wildly fascinated with mysticism and aristocrats were obsessed with anything occult. 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 strained relationship. The Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices. 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.
Views
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. 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 Tsarina, meanwhile, who was of Anglo-German descent, was 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 Tsar 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 war, Rasputin's influence over Tsarina Alexandra increased. He soon became her confidant and personal adviser, and also convinced her to fill some governmental offices with his own handpicked candidates. To further advance his power in the highest circles of Russian society, Rasputin cohabited 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.
Personality
He has been described as a monk or as a "strannik" (wanderer, or pilgrim), though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church. After traveling to St. Petersburg, either in 1903 or the winter of 1904-5, Rasputin captivated some church and social leaders. He became a society figure, and met the Tsar in November 1905.
Physical Characteristics:
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, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother. When doctors could not help Alexei, the Tsarina looked everywhere for help, ultimately turning to her best friend, Anna Vyrubova, to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer Rasputin in 1905. 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. Every time the boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, the Tsarina called on Rasputin, and the Tsarevich subsequently got better.[citation needed] This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him.
Quotes from others about the person
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. Rasputin is said to have been particularly appalled by the belief that grace is found through self-flagellation.
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, 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 number 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 keep defending the Eastern Front. While 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 had attended Oxford University with Yusopov were directly involved in planning and carrying out the assassination.
Shishkin was the first historian to suggest that British agents were directly involved in Rasputin's death, but according to Joseph Fuhrman, Shishkin's suggestion that Hoare himself shot Rasputin is "almost certainly not true." Later, both Cook and Cullen also wrote books which argued that Yusopov had essentially been a "front man" for British agents, who had planned and executed Rasputin's murder. Both authors point to a letter that British agent Stephen Alley wrote to his colleague John Scale which suggested that Rasputin's death had been "well received" and noted that "a few awkward questions have already been asked" about British involvement and to stories that Rayner, Alley, and Scale later told their families as evidence of British involvement in the assassination. Cook also commissioned a forensic analysis of old photographs of Rasputin's corpse, and concluded from this that Raynor had personally shot Rasputin. According to Fuhrmann, however, the forensic analysis Cook relied on was likely incorrect, and the the letter between Alley and Scale demonstrates that British agents were aware of the plot, but does not prove that they were actively involved.
Connections
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 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.