Rasputin himself in his mature years did not add clarity, reporting conflicting information about the date of birth. According to biographers, he was inclined to exaggerate his true age in order to better match the image of the "old man".

Beginning of life

In his youth, Rasputin was ill a lot. After a pilgrimage to the Verkhoturye Monastery, he turned to religion. In 1893, Rasputin traveled to the holy places of Russia, visited Mount Athos in Greece, then in Jerusalem. He met and made contacts with many representatives of the clergy, monks, wanderers.

Petersburg since 1904

The house on Gorokhovaya where Rasputin lived (with windows to the courtyard)

G. Rasputin and the imperial family

1908 Royal Village. Rasputin with the Empress, four children and a governess.

The date of the first personal meeting with the emperor is well known - on November 1, 1905, Nicholas II wrote in his diary:

November 1st. Tuesday. Cold windy day. From the shore it froze to the end of our channel and an even strip in both directions. Been very busy all morning. Breakfast: book. Orlov and Resin (Dej.). Walked. At 4 o'clock we went to Sergievka. We drank tea with Milica and Stana. We got acquainted with the man of God - Grigory from the Tobolsk province. In the evening I went to bed, worked hard and spent the evening with Alix.

There are other references to Rasputin in the diaries of Nicholas II.

Rasputin gained influence on the imperial family, and above all on Alexandra Feodorovna, by helping her son, heir to the throne, Alexei, fight hemophilia, a disease that medicine was powerless against.

Rasputin and the Church

Later biographers of Rasputin (O. Platonov) tend to see in the official investigations conducted by the church authorities in connection with the activities of Rasputin, some broader political meaning; but the investigative documents (the case of Khlystism and police documents) show that all the cases were the subject of their investigation of the very specific acts of Grigory Rasputin, which infringed on public morality and piety.

The first case of Rasputin's "Khlysty" in 1907

Secret file of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory about the peasant Grigory Rasputin.

On January 23, 1912, by order of the Minister of the Interior, Makarov, Rasputin was again placed under surveillance, which continued until his death.

The second case of Rasputin's "Khlysty" in 1912

Decree of Nicholas II

It should also be noted that opponents of Rasputin often forget about a different elevation: Bishop Anthony of Tobolsk (Karzhavin), who brought the first case of “Khlystism” against Rasputin, was moved in 1910 from cold Siberia to the Tver cathedra and was elevated to the rank of archbishop on Easter. But they remember that this translation took place precisely because the first file was sent to the archives of the Synod.

Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

The books are a literary record of his conversations, since the surviving notes of Rasputin testify to his illiteracy.

The eldest daughter writes about her father: “... my father was not fully literate, to put it mildly. He began to take his first writing and reading lessons in St. Petersburg.

In total, there are 100 canonical prophecies of Rasputin. The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House: "As long as I live, the dynasty will live."

Some authors believe that there are mentions of Rasputin in the letters of Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin's surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in the letters is indicated by the words "Friend", or "He" with capital letters, although this has no documentary evidence. The letters were published in the USSR by 1927, and by the Berlin publishing house Slovo in 1922. The correspondence was preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation - the Novoromanovsky archive.

Anti-Rasputin press campaign

Assassination attempt on Khionia Guseva

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an assassination attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovsky. He was stabbed in the stomach and severely wounded by Khioniya Guseva, who had come from Tsaritsyn. . Rasputin testified that he suspected Iliodor of organizing the assassination attempt, but was unable to provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by ship to Tyumen for treatment. Rasputin remained in the Tyumen hospital until August 17, 1914. The investigation into the assassination attempt lasted about a year. Gusev was declared mentally ill in July 1915 and freed from criminal liability by being placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk. On March 27, 1917, on the personal instructions of A.F. Kerensky, Guseva was released.

Murder

Rasputin's body recovered from the water.

Photo of a corpse in the morgue

Letter to V.K. Dmitry Pavlovich to his father V.K. Pavel Alexandrovich about the attitude to the murder of Rasputin and the revolution. Isfahan (Persia) April 29, 1917. Finally, the last act of my stay in Petr [grad] was a completely conscious and thoughtful participation in the murder of Rasputin - as the last attempt to enable the Sovereign to openly change course, without taking responsibility for the removal of this person. (Alix wouldn't let him do that.)

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 17, 1916 in the Yusupov Palace on the Moika. Conspirators: F. F. Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, British intelligence officer MI6 Oswald Reiner (English) Russian (officially, the investigation did not attribute him to the murder).

Information about the murder is contradictory, it was confused both by the killers themselves and by pressure on the investigation by the Russian, British and Soviet authorities. Yusupov changed his testimony several times: in the police of St. Petersburg on December 16, 1916, in exile in the Crimea in 1917, in a book in 1927, given under oath in 1934 and in 1965. Initially, Purishkevich's memoirs were published, then Yusupov echoed his version. However, they radically differed from the testimony of the investigation. Starting from naming the wrong color of the clothes in which Rasputin was dressed according to the killers and in which he was found, and up to how many and where the bullets were fired. For example, forensic scientists found 3 wounds, each of which is fatal: in the head, liver and kidney. (According to British researchers who studied the photograph, a test shot to the forehead was made from a British Webley .455 revolver.) After a shot in the liver, a person can live no more than 20 minutes, and is not able, as the killers said, to run down the street in half an hour or an hour. Also, there was no shot in the heart, which the killers unanimously claimed.

Rasputin was first lured into the cellar by being treated to red wine and a pie poisoned with cyanide. Yusupov went upstairs, and, returning, shot him in the back, causing him to fall. The conspirators went out into the street. Yusupov, who returned for a cloak, checked the body, suddenly Rasputin woke up and tried to strangle the killer. The conspirators who ran in at that moment began to shoot at Rasputin. Approaching, they were surprised that he was still alive, and began to beat him. According to the killers, the poisoned and shot Rasputin came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb over the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the killers, who heard the rising barking of a dog. Then he was tied with ropes hand and foot (according to Purishkevich, first wrapped in a blue cloth), taken by car to a pre-selected place near Kamenny Island and thrown off the bridge into the Neva hole in such a way that the body was under the ice. However, according to the materials of the investigation, the discovered corpse was dressed in a fur coat, there was no fabric or ropes.

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin, which was led by the director of the Police Department, A. T. Vasiliev, progressed quite quickly. Already the first interrogations of Rasputin's family members and servants showed that on the night of the murder, Rasputin went to visit Prince Yusupov. Policeman Vlasyuk, who was on duty on the night of December 16-17 on a street not far from the Yusupov Palace, testified that he had heard several shots at night. During a search in the courtyard of the Yusupovs' house, traces of blood were found.

On the afternoon of December 17, a passer-by noticed bloodstains on the parapet of the Petrovsky Bridge. After divers explored the Neva, the body of Rasputin was found in this place. The forensic medical examination was entrusted to the famous professor of the Military Medical Academy D.P. Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not been preserved; the cause of death can only be hypothesized.

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, many of which were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was shattered, flattened due to bruising of the corpse during the fall from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding due to a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost point-blank, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with crushing of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was very profuse. The corpse also had a gunshot wound in the back, in the region of the spine, with crushing of the right kidney, and another wound point-blank, in the forehead, probably already dying or deceased. The chest organs were intact and were examined superficially, but there were no signs of death from drowning. The lungs were not swollen and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water already dead.

The conclusion of the forensic expert Professor D.N. Kosorotova

No poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. Possible explanations for this are that the cyanide in the brownies has been neutralized by the sugar or heat from the oven. His daughter reports that after the assassination attempt, Gusev Rasputin suffered from high acidity and avoided sweet foods. He was reportedly poisoned with a dose capable of killing 5 people. Some modern researchers suggest that there was no poison - this is a lie to confuse the investigation.

There are a number of nuances in determining the involvement of O. Reiner. At the time, there were two MI6 officers in St. Petersburg who could have committed the murder: Yusupov's school friend Oswald Reiner and Yusupov Palace-born Captain Stephen Alley. Both families were close to Yusupov, and it is difficult to say who exactly killed. The former was suspected, and Tsar Nicholas II explicitly mentioned that the killer was Yusupov's school friend. In 1919, Rayner was awarded the Order of the British Empire, he destroyed his papers before his death in 1961. Compton's chauffeur's journal records that he brought Oswald to Yusupov (and to another officer, Captain John Scale) a week before the murder, and the last time - on the day of the murder. Compton also directly hinted at Rayner, saying that the killer is a lawyer and was born in the same city with him. There is a letter from Alley written to Scale 8 days after the assassination: "Although not everything went according to plan, our goal was achieved ... Rayner is covering his tracks and will no doubt contact you for briefing." According to modern British researchers, the order for three British agents (Reiner, Alley and Scale) to eliminate Rasputin came from Mansfield Smith-Cumming (English) Russian (first director of MI6).

The investigation lasted two and a half months until the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on March 2, 1917. On this day, Kerensky became Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 4, 1917, he ordered the investigation to be hastily terminated, while investigator A.T. Vasilyev (arrested during the February Revolution) was transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission until September, later emigrated.

English conspiracy version

According to researchers motivated by the film and released books, Rasputin was killed with the active participation of the British intelligence service Mi-6, the killers confused the investigation in order to hide the British trail. The motive for the conspiracy was the following: Great Britain was afraid of Rasputin's influence on the Russian Empress, which threatened to conclude a separate peace with Germany. To eliminate the threat, a conspiracy brewing in Russia against Rasputin was used.
It also states that the next assassination of the British secret services immediately after the revolution planned the assassination of I. Stalin, who most loudly strove for peace with Germany.

The funeral

Rasputin was buried by Bishop Isidore (Kolokolov), who knew him well. In his memoirs, A. I. Spiridovich recalls that Bishop Isidore served the funeral mass (which he had no right to do).

It was said later that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached about the funeral, rejected this request. In those days, a legend was started that the Empress was present at the autopsy and the funeral service, which also reached the English Embassy. It was a typical gossip directed against the Empress.

At first they wanted to bury the dead man in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovsky. But because of the danger of possible unrest in connection with sending the body across half the country, they buried it in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the temple of Seraphim of Sarov built by Anna Vyrubova.

Three months after Rasputin's death, his grave was desecrated. At the place of burning, two inscriptions are inscribed on a birch, one of which is in German: “Hier ist der Hund begraben” (“A dog is buried here”) and further “The corpse of Rasputin Grigory was burned here on the night of March 10-11, 1917” .

The fate of the Rasputin family

The rest of the Rasputin family was brutally dealt with by the Soviet authorities. In 1922, his widow Praskovya Fedorovna, son Dmitry and daughter Varvara were disenfranchised as "malicious elements." Even earlier, in 1920, the house and the entire peasant economy of Dmitry Grigorievich were nationalized. In the 1930s, all three were arrested by the NKVD, and their trace was lost in the special settlements of the Tyumen North.

Orgy

Rasputin and his admirers (St. Petersburg, 1914). In the top row (from left to right): Den Yu. A., 1914 Rasputin settled in an apartment on the street. Gorokhovaya, 64 in St. Petersburg. Various gloomy rumors quickly began to spread around St. Petersburg about this apartment, they say, Rasputin turned it into a brothel and uses it to conduct his "orgies". Some said that Rasputin keeps a permanent “harem” there, while others collect it from case to case. There was a rumor that the apartment on Gorokhovaya was used for witchcraft, etc.

From the memories of witnesses

… One day Aunt Agn. Fed. Hartmann (my mother's sister) asked me if I would like to see Rasputin closer. …….. Having received the address on Pushkinskaya St., on the appointed day and hour, I appeared at the apartment of Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina, my aunt's friend. Entering the small dining room, I found everyone already assembled. At the oval table, served for tea, there were 6-7 young interesting ladies. I knew two of them by sight (we met in the halls of the Winter Palace, where Alexandra Fedorovna organized the sewing of linen for the wounded). They were all in the same circle and were talking animatedly among themselves in an undertone. After making a general bow in English, I sat next to the hostess at the samovar and talked to her.

Suddenly, there was a general sigh - Ah! I looked up and saw in the door, located on the opposite side from where I entered, a powerful figure - the first impression - a gypsy. A tall, powerful figure was fitted by a white Russian shirt with embroidery on the collar and clasp, a twisted belt with tassels, black loose-fitting trousers and Russian boots. But there was nothing Russian in it. Thick black hair, a large black beard, a swarthy face with predatory nostrils of the nose and some kind of ironically mocking smile on the lips - the face, of course, is spectacular, but somehow unpleasant. The first thing that attracted attention was his eyes: black, red-hot, they burned, piercing through, and his gaze at you was felt simply physically, it was impossible to remain calm. It seems to me that he really had a hypnotic power that subjugated himself when he wanted it. …

Here everyone was familiar to him, vied with each other trying to please, to attract attention. He cheekily sat down at the table, addressed each by name and “you”, spoke catchily, sometimes vulgarly and rudely, called to him, sat him on his knees, felt, stroked, patted on soft places and all the “happy” ones were thrilled with pleasure. ! It was disgusting and insulting to look at this for women who were humiliated, who had lost both their feminine dignity and family honor. I felt the blood rush to my face, I wanted to scream, bang my fist, do something. I sat almost opposite the “distinguished guest”, he perfectly felt my condition and, mockingly laughing, each time after the next attack he stubbornly stuck his eyes into me. I was a new, unknown object to him. …

Brashly addressing one of those present, he said: “Do you see? Who made the shirt? Sasha! (meaning Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). No decent man would ever betray the secrets of a woman's feelings. My eyes grew dark from tension, and Rasputin's gaze unbearably drilled and drilled. I moved closer to the hostess, trying to hide behind the samovar. Maria Alexandrovna looked at me anxiously. …

“Mashenka,” a voice rang out, “do you want some jam? Come to me." Masha hastily jumps up and hurries to the place of conscription. Rasputin crosses his legs, takes a spoonful of jam and knocks it over on the toe of his boot. “Lick” - an imperative voice sounds, she kneels down and, bowing her head, licks off the jam ... I could not stand it anymore. Squeezing the mistress's hand, she jumped up and ran out into the hallway. I don’t remember how I put on my hat, how I ran along the Nevsky. I came to my senses at the Admiralty, I had to go home to Petrogradskaya. She roared for half the night and asked me never to question me about what I saw, and I myself neither with my mother nor with my aunt remembered this hour, I did not see Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina either. Since then, I could not calmly hear the name of Rasputin and lost all respect for our "secular" ladies. Once, while visiting De-Lazari, I came up to the phone call and heard the voice of this scoundrel. But she immediately said that I know who is speaking, and therefore I don’t want to talk ... ..

Grigorova-Rudykovskaya, Tatyana Leonidovna

The Provisional Government conducted a special investigation into the Rasputin case. According to one of the participants in this investigation, V. M. Rudnev, seconded by order of Kerensky to the "Extraordinary Investigative Commission to Investigate the Abuses of Former Ministers, Chief Executives and Other High Officials" and then a deputy prosecutor of the Yekaterinoslav District Court:

... the richest material for elucidating his personality from this side turned out to be in the data of that very covert observation of him, which was conducted by the security department; at the same time, it turned out that Rasputin's amorous adventures do not go beyond the framework of nightly orgies with girls of easy virtue and chansonnet singers, and sometimes with some of his petitioners.

Matryon's daughter in her book Rasputin. Why?" wrote:

... that for all his impregnation with life, the father never abused his power and ability to influence women in the carnal sense. However, one must understand that this part of the relationship was of particular interest to the ill-wishers of the father. I note that they received some real food for their stories.

... Then he would go to the phone and call all kinds of ladies. I had to do bonne mine mauvais jeu - because all these ladies were of an extremely dubious quality ...

Estimates of Rasputin's influence

According to the memoirs of the courtiers, Rasputin was not close to the royal family and generally rarely visited the royal palace. So, according to the memoirs of the palace commandant V. N. Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gherardi, when asked how often Rasputin visits the palace, answered: “once a month, and sometimes once every two months.” In the memoirs of the maid of honor A. A. Vyrubova, it is said that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the tsar received him much less often. Another lady-in-waiting, S. K. Buxhowden, recalled:

“I lived in the Alexander Palace from 1913 to 1917, and my room was connected by a corridor with the chambers of the Imperial children. I never saw Rasputin during all this time, although I was constantly in the company of the Grand Duchesses. Monsieur Gilliard, who also lived there for several years, also never saw him.

From the memoirs of the Director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev (he served in the "Okhranka" of St. Petersburg since 1906, and headed the police in 1916/17):

Many times I had the opportunity to meet with Rasputin and talk with him on various topics.<…>Mind and natural ingenuity gave him the opportunity to soberly and penetratingly judge a person who had only once met him. This was also known to the queen, so she sometimes asked his opinion about this or that candidate for a high position in the government. But from such harmless questions to the appointment of ministers by Rasputin is a very big step, and neither the tsar nor the tsarina, undoubtedly, never took this step.<…>And yet people believed that everything depended on a piece of paper with a few words written by Rasputin's hand ... I never believed in this, and although I sometimes investigated these rumors, I never found convincing evidence of their veracity. The cases I relate are not, as one might think, my sentimental inventions; they are evidenced by the reports of agents who worked for years as servants in Rasputin's house and, therefore, knew his daily life in the smallest detail.<…>Rasputin did not climb into the front ranks of the political arena, he was pushed there by other people seeking to shake the foundation of the Russian throne and empire ... These harbingers of the revolution sought to make a scarecrow out of Rasputin in order to carry out their plans. Therefore, they spread the most ridiculous rumors, which created the impression that only through the mediation of a Siberian peasant can one achieve a high position and influence.

The publication of reports about Rasputin in the press could be limited only partially. According to the law, articles about the imperial family were subject to preliminary censorship by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Court. Any articles in which the name of Rasputin was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were banned, but articles where only Rasputin appeared could not be banned.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov delivered a speech critical of the government and the "court party", in which the name of Rasputin was also mentioned. Milyukov took the information he gave about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt of October 16, 1916 and Neue Freye Press of June 25, regarding which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V. M. Purishkevich delivered a speech at a meeting of the Duma, in which great importance was attached to Rasputin. The image of Rasputin was also used by German propaganda. In March 1916, German zeppelins scattered over the Russian trenches a caricature depicting Wilhelm leaning on the German people, and Nikolai Romanov leaning on Rasputin's genitals.

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the Empress was Rasputin's mistress were spread among the officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became chairman of the Provisional Government.

The first revolution and the counter-revolutionary epoch following it (1907-1914) revealed the whole essence of the tsarist monarchy, brought it to the “last line”, revealed all its rottenness, vileness, all the cynicism and depravity of the royal gang with the monstrous Rasputin at its head, all the atrocities of the family The Romanovs - those pogromists who flooded Russia with the blood of Jews, workers, revolutionaries ...

Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

... oddly enough, the question of Rasputin involuntarily became the central issue of the near future and did not leave the scene for almost the entire time of my chairmanship in the Council of Ministers, bringing me to resignation with a little over two years.

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian warnak, a vagabond, smart and trained himself in a certain way of a simpleton and holy fool, and plays his role according to a learned recipe. In appearance, he lacked only a prisoner's coat and an ace of diamonds on his back. By manners - this is a man capable of anything. Of course, he does not believe in his antics, but he has developed for himself firmly learned methods by which he deceives both those who sincerely believe in all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, meaning in fact only to achieve through it of those benefits that are not given in any other way.

How did contemporaries imagine Rasputin? Like a drunken, dirty peasant who penetrated the royal family, appointed and dismissed ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the Petersburg scandalous chronicle. In addition, there are wild orgies in Villa Rode, lustful dances among aristocratic fans, high-ranking henchmen and drunken gypsies, and at the same time incomprehensible power over the king and his family, hypnotic power and faith in one's special purpose. That was it.

If there had been no Rasputin, then the opponents of the royal family and the organizers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, not for Vyrubova, from me, from whoever you want.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, the investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, writes in his book-forensic investigation:

The head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, Pokhvisnev, who held this position in 1913-1917, shows: “According to the established procedure, all telegrams addressed to the Sovereign and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all telegrams that went to the name of Their Majesties from Rasputin, were known to me at one time. There were a lot of them. Of course, it is not possible to recall their contents in sequence. In all honesty, I can say that Rasputin's enormous influence with the Sovereign and the Empress was established with complete evidence by the content of the telegrams.

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes in 1914 the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin as follows:

Father John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: "Rasputin", he said: "Look, by your last name it will be for you"

Attempts to canonize Rasputin

Religious veneration of Grigory Rasputin began around 1990 and went from the so-called. The Mother of God Center (which changed its name over the next years).

Some extremely radical monarchical Orthodox circles have also, since the 1990s, expressed thoughts about the canonization of Rasputin as a holy martyr. The proponents of these ideas were:

1. Editor of the Orthodox newspaper "Blagovest" Anton Evgenievich Zhogolev.
2. Dushenov Konstantin - editor-in-chief of Orthodox Russia.
3. "Church of John the Evangelist", etc.

Despite this, over the past ten years, religious admirers of Grigory Rasputin have issued at least two akathists to him, and also painted about a dozen icons.

• By a strange coincidence, Rasputin met Tsar Nicholas II in the same year (1905) as Papus (who came to Russia in 1905). Rasputin, like Papus, had a strong religious influence on the tsar: Papus initiated the tsar into martinism, treated his family and allegedly predicted his death ... the same is said about Rasputin. Both died at the end of 1916, with a difference of only about two months.

Rasputin in culture and art

According to the research of S. Fomin, during March-November 1917, the theaters were filled with dubious productions, and more than ten libelous films about Grigory Rasputin were released. The first such film was a two-part "sensational drama" "Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates"(production of the joint-stock company G. Liebken). The picture was delivered in record time, within a few days: on March 5, the newspaper "Early morning" announced it, and already on March 12 (! - 10 days after the abdication!) She came out on the screens of cinemas. It is noteworthy that this first libelous film was a failure as a whole and was successful only in the outskirts of small cinemas, where the audience was simpler ... The appearance of these films led to the protest of a more educated public because of their pornography and wild erotica. In order to protect public morality, it was even proposed to introduce film censorship (and this was in the first days of the revolution!), Temporarily entrusting it to the police. A group of filmmakers petitioned the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky to ban the demonstration of the tape "Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin", stop the flow movies and pornography. Of course, this did not stop the further spread of the kinorasputiniada across the country. Those who "overthrew the autocracy" were in power, and they needed to justify this overthrow. And then S. Fomin writes: “The Bolsheviks approached the matter more fundamentally after October 1917. Of course, the film waste about Rasputin received a second wind, but much broader and deeper steps were taken. Forged by P. E. Shchegolev and others were published. multi-volume Protocols of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry created by the Provisional Government, from beginning to end forged by the same P. Shchegolev with the “red count” A. Tolstoy, “Diaries” by A. Vyrubova. ... Only by about 1930, this campaign began to wane - the new generation, entering adulthood in the USSR, had already been sufficiently “processed”.

Rasputin and his historical significance had a great influence on both Russian and Western culture. Germans and Americans are to some extent attracted to his figure as a kind of "Russian bear", or "Russian peasant".
In with. Pokrovskoye (now - Yarkovsky district of the Tyumen region) operates a private museum of G.E. Rasputin.

List of literature about Rasputin

• Avrekh A. Ya. Tsarism on the eve of the overthrow.- M., 1989. - ISBN 5-02-009443-9
• Amalrik A. Rasputin
• Varlamov A. N. Grigory Rasputin-New. ZhZL series. - M: Young Guard, 2007. 851 pages - ISBN 978-5-235-02956-9
• Vasiliev A. T. Protection: Russian secret police. In the book: "Protection". Memoirs of leaders of political investigation. - M.: New Literary Review, 2004. Volume 2.
• Watala E. Rasputin. Without myths and legends. M., 2000
• Bokhanov A. N. The truth about Grigory Rasputin. - M: Russian Publishing Center, 2011. 608 p., 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4249-0002-0

Gatiyatulina Yu. R. Museum of Grigory Rasputin // Revival of the historical center of Tyumen. Tyumen in the past, present and future. Abstracts of reports and messages of the scientific-practical conference. - Tyumen, 2001. S. 24-26. - ISBN 5-88131-176-0

• E. F. Dzhanumova. My meetings with (Grigory) Rasputin
• N. N. Evreinov. Rasputin's secret. L .: "Past", 1924 (M: "Book Chamber", 1990 reprint: ISBN 5-7000-0219-1)
• V. A. Zhukovskaya. My memories of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin 1914-1916.
• Iliodor (Trufanov S.) Holy hell. Notes on Rasputin. With a preface by S. P. Melgunov. Printing house t-va Ryabushinsky. - M., 1917 XV, 188 p.
• Zhevakhov N. Memoirs. Volume I. September 1915 - March 1917]
• Kokovtsov V. N. From my past. Memoirs 1903-1919 Volumes I and II. Paris, 1933. Chapter II
• Miller L. The royal family is a victim of dark power. Melbourne, 1988. ("Lodya": reprint) ISBN 5-8233-0011-5
• Nikulin L. God's adjutant. Chronicle novel. - M., 1927 "Worker" No. 98 - "Worker" No. 146
• The fall of the tsarist regime. Verbatim records of interrogations and testimony given in 1917 at the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government. - M.-L., 1926-1927. At 7 t.
• Pikul V. Evil spirits ("At the last line")
• O. Platonov. Life for the Tsar (The Truth about Grigory Rasputin)
• Polishchuk V.V., Polishchuk O.A. Tyumen of Grigory Rasputin-New // Slovtsovsky Readings-2006: Proceedings of the XVIII All-Russian Scientific Regional Studies Conference. - Tyumen, 2006. S. 97-99. - ISBN 5-88081-558-7
• Purishkevich V. M. Diary for 1916 (The Death of Rasputin) // “The Life of the Prodigal Elder Grishka Rasputin”. - M., 1990. - ISBN 5-268-01401-3
• Purishkevich V. M. Diary (in the book "The Last Days of Rasputin"). - M.: "Zakharov", 2005
• Radzinsky E. Rasputin: Life and Death. - 2004. 576 s - ISBN 5-264-00589-3
• Rasputin M. Rasputin. Why? Memories of a daughter. - M.: "Zakharov", 2001, 2005.
• Rasputin theme on the pages of publications of our days (1988-1995): index of literature. - Tyumen, 1996. 60 p.
• Fulop-Miller, René Holy demon, Rasputin and women- Leipzig, 1927 (German) René Fülöp-Miller „Der heilige Teufel“ – Rasputin und die Frauen, Leipzig, 1927 ). Reissued in 1992. M.: Respublika, 352 pages - ISBN 5-250-02061-5
• Ruud Ch. A., Stepanov S. A. Fontanka, 16: Political investigation under the tsars.- M .: Thought, 1993. Chapter 14. "Dark forces" around the throne
• Holy Devil: Collection. - M., 1990. 320 s - ISBN 5-7000-0235-3
• Simanovich A. Rasputin and the Jews. Memoirs of the personal secretary Grigory Rasputin. - Riga, 1924. - ISBN 5-265-02276-7
• Spiridovich A.I. Spiridovitch Alexandre (General). Raspoutine 1863-1916. D'après les documents russes et les archives de l'auteur.- Paris. payot. 1935
• A. Tereshchuk. Grigory Rasputin. Biography
• Fomin S. The murder of Rasputin: the creation of a myth
• Chernyshov A. Who was "on the watch" on the night of the murder of Rasputin in the courtyard of the Yusupov Palace? //Lukic. 2003. Part 2. S. 214-219
• Chernyshov A. V. In search of the grave of Grigory Rasputin. (Regarding one publication) //Religion and Church in Siberia. - Issue. 7. S. 36-42
• Chernyshov A.V. Choice of the path. (Strokes to the religious and philosophical portrait of G. E. Rasputin) // Religion and Church in Siberia. - Issue. 9. S.64-85
• Chernyshov A.V. Something about the Rasputinia and the publishing situation of our days (1990-1991) // Religion and Church in Siberia. Collection of scientific articles and documentary materials. - Tyumen, 1991. Issue 2. pp. 47-56
• Shishkin O. A. Kill Rasputin. M., 2000
• Yusupov F. F. Memoirs (The End of Rasputin) Published in the collection "The Life of the Prodigal Elder Grishka Rasputin". - M., 1990. - ISBN 5-268-01401-3
• Yusupov F.F. The End of Rasputin (in the book "The Last Days of Rasputin") - M .: "Zakharov", 2005
• Shavelsky G. I. Memoirs of the last protopresbyter of the Russian army and navy. - New York: ed. them. Chekhov, 1954
• Etkind A. Whip. Sects, literature and revolution. Department of Slavic Studies, University of Helsinki, New Literary Review. - M., 1998. - 688 s (Book review - Alexander Ulanov A. Etkind. Whip. A bitter experience of culture. "Znamya" 1998, No. 10)
• Harold Shukman. Rasputin. - 1997. - 113 p. ISBN 978-0-7509-1529-8.

Documentaries about Rasputin

• The Last of the Kings: The Shadow of Rasputin (Last of the Czars. The Shadow of Rasputin), dir. Teresa Cherf; Mark Anderson, 1996, Discovery Communications, 51 min. (released on DVD in 2007)
• Who killed Rasputin? (Who Killed Rasputin?), dir. Michael Wadding, 2004, BBC, 50 min. (released on DVD in 2006)

Rasputin in theater and cinema

It is not known for certain whether there were any newsreel footage of Rasputin. Not a single tape has survived to this day, on which Rasputin himself would be captured.

The very first silent feature short films about Grigory Rasputin began to appear in March 1917. All of them, without exception, demonized the personality of Rasputin, exposing him and the Imperial Family in the most unattractive light. The first such film, titled "A Drama from the Life of Grigory Rasputin", was released by the Russian film magnate A. O. Drankov, who simply made a film montage of his 1916 film "Washed in Blood", based on the short story "Konovalov" by M. Gorky. Most of the other films were made in 1917 by the then largest film company, the G. Liebken Joint-Stock Company. In total, more than a dozen of them were released and there is no need to talk about any of their artistic value, since even then they caused protests in the press because of their "pornographic and wild eroticism":

• Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates (2 episodes), dir. S. Veselovsky; in the role of Rasputin - S. Gladkov

• Holy devil (Rasputin in hell)

• People of sin and blood (Tsarskoye Selo sinners)

• The love affairs of Grishka Rasputin

• Funeral of Rasputin

• Mysterious murder in Petrograd on December 16

• Trading House Romanov, Rasputin, Sukhomlinov, Myasoedov, Protopopov & Co.

• Royal guardsmen

etc. (Fomin S. V. Grigory Rasputin: investigation. vol. I. Punishment with the truth; M., Forum publishing house, 2007, pp. 16-19)

However, already in 1917, the image of Rasputin continued to appear on the movie screen. According to IMDB, the first person to embody the image of an old man on the screen was actor Edward Connelly (in the film The Fall of the Romanovs). In the same year, the film "Rasputin, the Black Monk" was released, where Montagu Love played Rasputin. In 1926, another film about Rasputin was released - “Brandstifter Europas, Die” (in the role of Rasputin - Max Newfield), and in 1928 - three at once: “Red Dance” (in the role of Rasputin - Dimitrius Alexis), “Rasputin is a saint sinner" and "Rasputin" - the first two films where Rasputin was played by Russian actors - Nikolai Malikov and Grigory Khmara, respectively.

In 1925, A. N. Tolstoy's play The Empress's Conspiracy was written and immediately staged in Moscow (published in Berlin in 1925), which depicts the murder of Rasputin in detail. In the future, the play was staged by some Soviet theaters. In the Moscow theater I. V. Gogol in the role of Rasputin was Boris Chirkov. And on Belarusian television in the mid-60s, based on Tolstoy's play, a television play "The Collapse" was filmed, in which Roman Filippov (Rasputin) and Rostislav Yankovsky (Prince Felix Yusupov) played.

In 1932, the German "Rasputin - a demon with a woman" was released (in the role of Rasputin - the famous German actor Konrad Weidt), and the Oscar-nominated "Rasputin and the Empress", in which the title role went to Lionel Barrymore. Rasputin was released in 1938, starring Harry Baur.

Once again cinema returned to Rasputin in the 1950s, which was marked by productions with the same name Rasputin, released in 1954 and 1958 (for television) with Pierre Brasseur and Nartsms Ibanes Menta in the roles of Rasputin, respectively. In 1967, the cult horror film "Rasputin the Mad Monk" was released with the famous actor Christopher Lee as Grigory Rasputin. Despite many errors from a historical point of view, the image he created in the film is considered one of the best film incarnations of Rasputin.

The 1960s also saw the release of Rasputin's Night (1960, with Edmund Pardom as Rasputin), Rasputin (1966 TV show starring Herbert Stass) and I Killed Rasputin (1967), where the role was played by Gert Fröbe, known for his role as Goldfinger, the villain from the James Bond film of the same name.

In the 70s, Rasputin appeared in the following films: Why the Russians Revolutionized (1970, Rasputin - Wes Carter), the television show Rasputin as part of the Play of the Month cycle (1971, Rasputin - Robert Stevens), Nikolai and Alexandra (1971, Rasputin - Tom Baker), TV series "Fall of Eagles" (1974, Rasputin - Michael Aldridge) and TV show "A Cárné összeesküvése" (1977, Rasputin - Nandor Tomanek)

In 1981, the most famous Russian film about Rasputin was released - "Agony" Elema Klimov, where the role was successfully embodied by Alexei Petrenko. In 1984, Rasputin - Orgien am Zarenhof was released with Alexander Conte as Rasputin.

In the 90s, the image of Rasputin, like many others, began to deform. In the parody sketch of the show "Red Dwarf" - "Melting", released in 1991, Rasputin was played by Stephen Micalef, and in 1996 two films about Rasputin were released - "Successor" (1996) with Igor Solovyov in the role of Rasputin and "Rasputin", where he was played by Alan Rickman (and young Rasputin by Tamas Toth). In 1997, the cartoon "Anastasia" was released, where Rasputin was voiced by the famous actor Christopher Lloyd and Jim Cummings (singing).

In the new millennium, interest in the figure of Rasputin does not weaken. The films "Rasputin: The Devil in the Flesh" (2002, for television, Rasputin - Oleg Fedorov and "Killing Rasputin" (2003, Rasputin - Ruben Thomas), as well as "Hellboy: Hero from Hell", where the main villain is the resurrected Rasputin, have already been released, played by Karel Roden.In 2007, the film "Conspiracy", directed by Stanislav Libin, where the role of Rasputin is played by Ivan Okhlobystin.

In music

Rasputin in poetry

Commercial use of Rasputin's name

Commercial use of the name Grigory Rasputin in some trademarks began in the West in the 1980s. Currently known:

In St. Petersburg there are also:

see also

Notes

1. GOVERNMENT OF THE TYUMEN REGION. On approval of the list of unique documents to be included in the register of unique documents of the archival funds of the Tyumen region. Metric data on the birth of G. Rasputin.
2. "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" (3rd edition), Moscow, publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia" 1969-1978. (Retrieved April 12, 2009)
3. "Rasputin: life and death", M .: Vagrius, 2000, 279 pages (chapter - "The Disappeared Birthday") Edvard Radzinsky (Retrieved April 12, 2009)
4. See Chapter LXI // Nikolai Zhevakhov. Memoirs of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, Prince N. D. Zhevakhov. T. 1. September 1915 - March 1917. - Munich: Ed. F. Vinberg, 1923.
5. Varlamov A. N. Grigory Rasputin-New. ZhZL series. - M: Young Guard, 2007. 851 pages - ISBN 978-5-235-02956-9
6. Diaries of Nicholas II (1894-1916) Diary of Nicholas II. 1905
7. Ioffe G. Z. Even the warnings of her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna that the people's dissatisfaction with Rasputin was transferred to the royal family did not in any way affect the empress. The writer and journalist Igor Obolensky writes about this in his book "Mysteries of Love. Rasputin. Chanel. Hollywood":

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was born into a peasant family in the village of Pokrovsky, Tobolsk province. His father was a simple muzhik, a drunkard, a thief and horse-hunter, named Yefim Novy.

The exact time of his birth is unknown, historians name different years - from 1863 to 1872, for example, Evreinov N.N. says with confidence that Rasputin was born in 1863, Ioffe says about 1884 or 1885. But the opinion of Platonov seems to me more reliable in this matter, who claims that all these years are unreliable and argues that ... not a single Soviet historian bothered to look into the parish registers of the church in the village of Pokrovsky, where this man was born and spent most of his life . True, not all of these books have been preserved, but there is a complete selection of information about those born, deceased and married from 1862 to 1868. Leafing through these dilapidated books, spoiled by a bug and moisture, first of all, in 1862 we come across an entry dated January 21 about the marriage of “Pokrovskaya Sloboda, peasant Yakov Vasilyev Rasputin, son of Efim Yakovlevich, 20 years old, with the maiden Anna Vasilievna, daughter of the village of Usalka, peasant Vasily Parshukov, 22 years old." These are the parents of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin. The surname Rasputin appears in the book many times. In total, 7 families bearing the surname Rasputins live in the village of Pokrovsky. By the way, this surname is found quite often in Siberia and usually comes from the word “crossroads”, which, according to Dahl’s dictionary: “a siding road, a fork, a fork in the path, a place where roads converge or diverge, a crossroads”. People who lived in such places often received the nickname Rasputins, which later turned into the surname Rasputins.

According to church books, on February 11, 1863, Efim Yakovlevich and Anna Vasilievna have a daughter, Evdokia, who dies a few months later. On August 2, 1864, they also have a daughter, whom they, like the deceased, again call Evdokia, but she did not live long . The next birth in the family of Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin is recorded in the book on May 8, 1866 - the daughter Glykeria was born, who also died 4 months later “from diarrhea”. And finally, on August 17, 1867, the son Andrei was born to the Rasputins, who was also not destined to live. In 1868, there are no records in the church book about those born in the family of E.Ya. Rasputin. Thus, according to church books, Grigory Rasputin could not have been born between 1863 and 1868. Later parish registers have not been preserved in the Intercession Church, but the completed forms of the All-Russian Population Census for 1897 remained, according to which Grigory Efimovich Rasputin is 28 years old this year. The census was conducted very carefully, and therefore the year of Rasputin's birth -1869 - can be considered established. And the year 1869 came...

Before this date, there is no information about the birth of Gregory in the registers of births. So he could not have been born before 1869, and the data in our encyclopedias is incorrect. But ... all the books dating from this and subsequent years have disappeared from the archive!

But in the Tobolsk archive, the census book of the inhabitants of the village of Pokrovsky for 1897 survived, where next to the name of Grigory Rasputin in the column "Year, month and birthday by metric", ending all the assumptions, it appears January 10, 1869. January 10 is the day of St. Gregory, which is why he was named so.

By the way, the confusion with the date of his birth was diligently created by ... Rasputin himself. In the "Case of the Tobolsk Consistory" (in 1907), he states that he is 42 years old (he adds 4 years to himself). Seven years later, in 1914, during the investigation into the assassination attempt on him by Khioniya Guseva, he says: "My name is Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-New, 50 years old" (adds 5 years). In the notebook where the queen entered the sayings of the "old man", it is written from his words: "I have already lived 50 years, the sixth decade is coming." The entry is dated 1911, that is, Rasputin adds 8 years to himself.

However, it is not difficult to understand his persistence in adding age - after all, the queen called him "old man"...

Eldership is a special institution of Russian church life. In the old days, monks were called elders, most often hermits. But by the 19th century, that was already the name of the monks, "marked with a special sign," who, by their pious life, fasting and prayers, earned the right to be "chosen by God." The Almighty gave them the power to prophesy and heal. These are "leaders of souls", intercessors for people before God. But the "old man" in the popular mind is always a man in years, an old man who has experienced a lot and rejected everything earthly.

And the "old man" Rasputin was shy of his by no means old years. After all, he was younger than the tsar ... That's why he added years to himself, which was not difficult with his wrinkled, prematurely aged peasant face.

Grisha Rasputin grew up as an only child in the family, besides poor health. It can be assumed that under these conditions, after the death of the first four children, Grisha's parents paid more attention to him than is possible in an ordinary peasant family with many children, and, probably, even spoiled him. But as the only assistant to his father, Gregory began to work early, at first he helped to graze cattle, went with his father to cart, then participated in agricultural work, helped to harvest, but, of course, fished in Tura and the surrounding lakes. There was no school in Pokrovsky, and Grisha, like his parents, was illiterate until the beginning of his wandering. In general, he did not stand out among other peasants, except for his morbidity, which in peasant families was understood as inferiority and gave rise to ridicule.

Grisha, the youngest son of the driver Efim Andreevich Rasputin from Pokrovsky, liked to hang around in the stable. There he could sit for hours on a small low pedestal under a lamp, look at the huge animals with wide-open bright children's eyes and, holding his breath, listen to the tapping of hooves and the snoring of horses. Grisha was a smart, mischievous, even fearless boy, the organizer of all the mischievous pranks of peasant children; but as soon as he, in wide and long linen trousers, followed his father or a worker into the stable, he immediately changed: his childish face suddenly acquired an expression of unusual seriousness, his gaze became intensely attentive, the figure acquired a masculine posture. With firm, measured steps, he walked after the adults, filled with such a feeling as if he were entering a sanctuary, where you need to behave quietly and seriously, as in a church.

It was a holiday for him when they were allowed to remain alone with the horses. Very quietly and cautiously, he slipped towards the horse, stood on tiptoe to stroke and caress her warm rump with outstretched hands. At such moments, he was full of that tenderness that he did not show either in relation to his parents, or in relation to his brothers and sisters, or to anyone else.

Sometimes he cautiously ran to the door, looked out into the yard to make sure that no one was coming, climbed the wooden feeder with monkey dexterity, grabbed the iron supports of the manger and boldly jumped on the back of the horse. He pressed his hot cheek to her neck and carried on a long amazing conversation in a gentle language that was understandable only to the two of them.

Dinner among the horses was the greatest joy for the boy. He loved the dim light of a large tin lamp hanging obliquely on the wall, that unusual semi-darkness in which here and there the shining side of a horse or a heap of straw was lit up. He inhaled with admiration the smell of the stall and never tired of affectionately touching his hand or cheek to the regularly heaving side of the horse.

Yes, he always considered the stable the best place, although he usually willingly ran through the meadows with other peasant boys and watched with pleasure how his father and other fishermen sat on the banks of the Tura and fished. He would gladly give any entertainment for his horses, in which he saw silent friends and mysterious allies. This soon led to the fact that Grisha learned much more about life and the habits of horses than the most experienced old drivers of Pokrovsky, and they, when something was wrong with their animals, sent for him more than once.

What a miracle the stable appeared to him that evening when his father first read to him the story of the birth of the baby Jesus from a large book with many beautiful pictures! With burning eyes, Grisha listened to every word of the story about Saint Joseph, Mary and the newborn baby that was lying in the manger when the three wise men came to bow to him. From that moment on, everything in his father's stable - the big wooden trough and the dimly lit lamp - seemed to be filled with a mysterious meaning that only he understood and about which he did not speak to anyone. The stall became for the boy even more than before, his own, wonderful world, full of mysterious wonders.

One day, when old Yefim had left the house, Grisha slipped into a large room, stood on a chair, and took from the ledge a large book with pictures, which his father was reading to him. Burning with impatience, he flipped through the heavy folio with thick clasps until he found the picture, which depicted a stall with a manger and baby Jesus in blue, red, golden-yellow tones. He looked forward to the evening when, after dinner, he could ask his father to read from this book. Sitting on old Yefim's lap, he eagerly looked at the beautiful pictures, while his father read what happened next with the baby Jesus, how he grew up and became the Savior of the world.

Every evening Yefim Andreevich, yielding to his son's entreaties, took up a thick book; soon Grisha knew all the pictures perfectly, and after a while even the letters were no longer dumb, meaningless signs for him. Listening to his father, watching how he clumsily moved his finger from word to word, from line to line, he got acquainted with the letters and learned the art of composing words from them.

And so little Grisha grew up in two mysterious worlds at the same time: here was a stable with all its wonders, and there was a large book with colorful pictures and black icons that slowly began to speak to him in an understandable language.

Grisha Rasputin was 12 years old when an unexpected drama occurred in his life, the consequences of which were felt for a long time: he was playing with his older brother Misha on the banks of the Tura, when he suddenly fell into the water. Without thinking twice, little Grisha jumped after his brother, and both boys would have inevitably drowned if they had not been saved by a peasant passing by. On the same day, Misha fell ill with severe pneumonia and soon died, while Grisha survived, but from a terrible shock he developed a severe fever.

Finally he came to his senses, recovered, played again and fiddled with his favorite horses, but something in him had changed: his always ruddy and plump baby face was now pale, haggard, and if by the evening it was flushed, it was no longer a healthy flush, and a feverish touch of fever. There were also strange behavioral changes that gave parents a lot of trouble. No one could say what he still lacked, even the village medicine man could not give advice. Soon the boy again developed a strong fever, for many weeks he was in a semi-conscious state.

There was nothing else to do but place the patient in the "dark half", the dark part of the large kitchen. In winter, when the Siberian blizzard blew through the fields and village streets outside, it was the warmest and most comfortable place. In addition, everyone living in the house liked to gather in the kitchen, so the sick child was always under supervision. At dusk the peasant neighbors would come and sit on the wide benches around the big stove. Workers poured vodka and offered Siberian sweets, and until late at night there was talk about everything that happened in the village itself, or about news that had leaked into Pokrovskoye from neighboring villages.

On one of these evenings they were talking in whispers, as Grisha felt worse again; turning his pale face to the wall, he lay indifferent for several hours, which greatly alarmed his parents. The gathered voices were discussing the important incident in hushed voices.

Last night, a crime was committed that greatly agitated all the inhabitants of Pokrovsky: one of the poorest carters had his only horse stolen from the stable, and the unfortunate man had nothing to hope for. The kind-hearted peasants of Pokrovsky, both old and young, set off in the morning in search of the thief and his prey, but all efforts were in vain, not a single stall of the village managed to find the stolen horse.

Tired and annoyed, the peasants who took part in the search told about their futile efforts; they were all indignant at what they had done, since in the eyes of these Siberian drivers the theft of a horse was the most vile crime, more terrible and reprehensible even than murder. These peasants, in whose villages exiled criminals from the settlements often appeared, usually saw even the greatest sinners as "poor, weak brothers"; but for the horse thief they had neither sympathy nor mercy, his crime was considered the most terrible. Therefore, the peasants who had gathered that evening in the “dark half” of Yefim Andreevich were seething with rage, especially since this time the poor driver, the owner of the only horse, became the victim. Anna Yegorovna, Yefim's wife, was forced more than once to ask her to speak more quietly when the excitement of her guests increased too much, pointing to a sick child. Outside it was completely dark, and only the lamp on the table cast a dull light on the peasants who surrounded the stove.

And suddenly the sick child got up and went to the peasants in a white, floor-length shirt, with deathly pale cheeks and a feverishly frightening gleam in his light blue eyes. Before they had time to recover from surprise, the child was already standing in front of them, staring intently in front of him for several seconds, then jumped up to the peasant of a heroic physique, grabbed his legs, climbed onto his shoulders and sat astride his back. Then he screamed piercingly:

He broke into uncontrollable childish laughter, shaking all over with some strange delight, hitting the peasant's chest with his heels, as if wanting to spur him on, and at the same time shouting that Pyotr Alexandrovich was the horse thief. His thin, childish voice sounded so piercing, his eyes flashed so strangely that everyone present was frightened. And they didn’t even know how to take the accusation of the boy, since Pyotr Alexandrovich was a very respected and wealthy man, who, moreover, was most indignant and from the very beginning demanded a merciless prosecution of the criminal.

Most of all, old Yefim and his wife were struck by the child's seizures. If little Grisha hadn't been lying in a fever for a long time, Efim Andreevich would have given him a proper flog on the spot, because he knew how to maintain strict order in the house. Anna Yegorovna tried to smooth over the awkward situation and hastened to apologize to the respected Peter Alexandrovich. The rest of the guests also tried to restore peace, and even the rudely offended Pyotr Aleksandrovich finally made a friendly face and expressed regret at Grisha's serious illness. When the peasants began to disperse, the former peaceful atmosphere reigned again. Despite this, some of Yefim's guests could not forget the words of the sick boy; they remembered them again and again, and then one, then the other could not stand it, got up in the middle of the night and, stealthily, made his way into the courtyard to Pyotr Alexandrovich. There, in the darkness of the night, men met, seized with a restless desire to establish the truth. Soon there were many of them.

When they silently crawled up to the gates of Pyotr Alexandrovich, they suddenly saw how he, just as stealthily, left his house, looked around to see if anyone saw him, and then, thinking that he was alone, went to the cellar in the farthest corner of the courtyard. . Immediately after this, the peasants, to their greatest surprise, saw how Pyotr Alexandrovich led the stolen horse out of the closet and disappeared with him into the darkness.

The next day, early in the morning, the peasants reached out to Yefim's house and told, now and then overshadowing themselves with the sign of the cross, calling on the Holy Mother of God and St. George as witnesses, that little Grisha had told the truth in a fever and Pyotr Alexandrovich was really a horse thief. Interrupting each other, they told how they followed the criminal, then they caught and beat him until he lost consciousness. They were all now convinced that God was speaking through the mouth of a sick boy.

No matter what they said about this "miracle", apparently, the boy, in a fever, with his greatly aggravated instinct, noticed something dubious in the behavior and words of Pyotr Alexandrovich. Even during his numerous visits to the stables of the village of Pokrovsky, this man seemed suspicious to him, which later prompted him to accuse. Be that as it may, this incident led to the fact that later, when Grisha recovered, the local peasants cast strange glances at him, as if asking themselves what they still thought about it.

Time passed. Grisha grew up and, like all other peasant boys, spent his time in taverns, hovering over girls, and eventually got used to a dissolute and idle life. Sometimes he diligently engaged in peasant work, and then again he drank all day. He changed a little after he saw the beautiful fair-haired Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina at one of the "gatherings" for which the village youth gather and fell in love with her. But when the dark-eyed, slender girl became his wife, Grisha could not leave his dissolute lifestyle and got involved again in all sorts of dirty stories with drinking buddies and village girls.

And then a second strange event happened to him, which made a huge impression on him and about which he told only his closest friend, the peasant boy Mikhail Pecherkin, when one day they walked together along the banks of the Tura, talking about crops, cattle, horses and girls, and Then they started talking about God. Grigory, according to Mikhail's story, was walking across the field behind a plow, he had just completed the furrow to the end and was about to turn the horse, when he suddenly heard a wonderful choir behind him, as if singing a choir of girls from the village. Turning around, he let go of the plow, because very close he saw a beautiful woman, the Most Holy Theotokos, swinging, as if on a swing, in the golden rays of the afternoon sun. The solemn singing of a thousand angels sounded in the air, echoed by the Virgin Mary.

This phenomenon lasted only a few moments, then disappeared. Shocked to the core, Grigory stood in the middle of a deserted field, his hands trembling, he was unable to continue his work. When I went into the stable in the evening to look at the horse, I felt an inexplicable sadness. Something inside told him that this was a sign of God, but at the same time he felt that, according to the highest will of the Creator, he must leave the horses, the tavern, the village, his father, wife and girls. And he considered it best never to think about this wonderful phenomenon again and not to tell anyone about it. Except for his friend Pecherkin, no one then heard a single word about what appeared to the peasant boy Grigory and what thoughts and feelings awakened in him at the same time.

Gregory grew up as a thoughtful, observant child. He peered into the life of nature, animals and birds. He liked to be present at the work of rural doctors - he watched carefully, but without asking. The boy sat motionless for a long time, thinking about something intently. Later he recalled: “at the age of 15 in my village during the summer season, when the sun was warm and the birds sang paradise songs, I dreamed of God. My soul was torn into the distance. why do they. So my youth passed in some kind of contemplation, in some kind of dream. Growing up, he lived for several years in the city, got married; The couple had three children. But something prompted Rasputin to drastically change his lifestyle. His acquaintances said that he had become a new person. "He began to pray often and fervently. He stopped drinking and smoking. He stopped eating meat and dairy food and observed this fast until the end of his life."

The nickname Rasputin, which was soon awarded to the young Gregory by his comrades, is very characteristic of this period of his life and is prophetic for later times. This expression, derived from the word "libertine", in the language of the peasants means: "libertine", "voluptuous", "skirt". More than once, the fathers of the families severely beat him, repeatedly, on the orders of the police officer, they even punished him publicly with a whip.

Joy of suffering

In the papers of the Extraordinary Commission there are testimonies of Rasputin's fellow villagers about his sinful youth: "Father sends him ... for hay and bread to Tyumen, for 80 versts, and he returns on foot, goes these 80 versts without money, and beaten, and drunk, and sometimes without horses.

There was a dangerous force in this nondescript young peasant who found an outlet in drunkenness and fights. He felt cramped from this bestial strength, as if from a heavy burden ...

“I was dissatisfied,” Rasputin told Menshikov, “I couldn’t find an answer to many things, and I began to drink.” Drunkenness was the norm of peasant life. His father drank, and Grigory himself became the same. Now, more and more often, tender reverie, for which he was called contemptuously "Grishka the Fool", was replaced by a terrible rampage. And already another fellow villager describes "Grishka violent, impudent, with a riotous nature," who "fought not only with strangers, but also with his parent."

“But still I thought in my heart ... how people are saved,” Rasputin said in his Life. And this, apparently, was true. The dull life of fellow villagers - peasant labor from dawn to dusk, interrupted by drunkenness - what a life it is ...

Then what is life? He does not know. And the drinking continues. There wasn’t enough money for spree, dangerous things began ... His fellow villager Kartavtsev testified during interrogation: “I caught Grigory stealing my guards ... Having cut the guards, he put everything on a cart and wanted to take him away. But I caught him and wanted to force to take the stolen goods to the parish... He wanted to run and wanted to hit me with an ax, but I, in turn, hit him with a stake and so hard that blood flowed from his nose and mouth in a stream.... At first I thought I killed him but he began to stir... And I took him to the volost administration.He did not want to go...but I hit him several times in the face with my fist, after which he went to the volost himself... weird and stupid."

"He struck with a stake ... blood flowed in a stream," bloody, merciless fights - a common thing in Siberia. Rasputin was by no means of a heroic physique, but, as we will see later, he possessed extraordinary physical strength. So the beatings of an elderly fellow villager hardly made a special impression on him. Not without reason, as Kartavtsev describes, he immediately continued the thieves' affairs: “Shortly after the theft of the poles, a couple of horses were stolen from my pasture ... I myself guarded the horses and saw that Rasputin and his comrades were driving up to them ... but I did not give this value ... A few hours after that, I discovered the loss of the horses.

Dashing comrades went to the city to sell horses. Rasputin, according to Kartavtsev, for some reason did not go with them, he returned home.

Something really happened to Grigory during the beatings. And Kartavtsev's explanation - "he became somehow strange and stupid" - is indispensable here. He could not understand the rustic peasant of the dark, complex nature of Rasputin. It can be seen that when the stake threatened to destroy him, when the blood flooded his face, Gregory experienced something... The beaten young man felt a strange joy in his soul, something that he himself would later call "the joy of humility, the joy of suffering, reproach"... "Reproach - joy to the soul," he explained many years later to Zhukovskaya. That is why Grishka so obediently went to the volost government for reprisals. And therefore, after the second theft, he did not go to the city to sell horses.

Perhaps from this moment his transformation begins. And the villagers, apparently, felt the change. Not without reason, after the theft of horses, when the question of the expulsion of Rasputin and his comrades for vicious behavior to Eastern Siberia was being decided, "according to the verdict of the society, they sent the comrades, but he survived" ...

It's time to get married - take one more working hand into the house. His wife Praskovya (Paraskeva) Fedorovna is from the neighboring village of Dubrovnoye. She was older than him, but in the villages they often chose a wife not for youth and beauty, but for "fortress" so that she could work well both in the field and at home.

He is 28 years old and still lives with his father's family. According to the 1897 census, he was not independent: the family consisted of "the owner Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin, 55 years old, his wife Anna Vasilievna ... son Grigory, 28 years old, his wife Praskovya Fedorovna, 30 years old." All are considered farmers, and all are illiterate.

Praskovya was an exemplary wife - she gave birth to a son and two daughters to Grigory. But most importantly, she was a good worker, and hands in Rasputin's household were very necessary. For Gregory himself was already often absent - he went to holy places. His transformation is complete.

“I came to the conclusion that in the life of Rasputin, a simple peasant, there was some great deep experience that completely changed his psyche and forced him to turn to Christ,” T. Rudnev, investigator of the Extraordinary Commission, would later write.

Hypnotist?

In 1903, the "old man" arrived in St. Petersburg, where he almost immediately gained incredible popularity among secular ladies. What is the reason for his dizzying success? The answer suggests itself: he probably had hypnotic abilities. Indeed, this version is confirmed in the notes of S. P. Beletsky (1873-1918).

“When I was the director of the police department,” he writes, “at the end of 1913, watching the correspondence of people approaching Rasputin, I had in my hands several letters from one of the Petrograd magnetizers to my lady of the heart, who lived in Samara which testified to the great hopes placed by this hypnotist, personally for his material well-being, on Rasputin, who took hypnosis lessons from him and, according to this person, gave great hopes, due to Rasputin's strong will and ability to concentrate it in himself. rove. In view of this, having collected more detailed information about the hypnotist, who belonged to the type of swindlers, I frightened him away, and he quickly left Petrograd. Whether Rasputin continued to take hypnosis lessons from anyone else after that, I don’t know, since I soon left the service.

The same point of view was shared by P. A. Badmaev (Zhamsaran) (1841-1920), a real state councilor, a doctor of Tibetan medicine, who enjoyed influence at court. Once, at the request of his wife Elizaveta Fedorovna, he invited Rasputin to his dacha, who stayed on Poklonnaya Hill for about an hour. Pyotr Aleksandrovich received him in his office, where Elizaveta Fedorovna came for a short time.

“The room was served hand-made twisted Chinese tea. The owner knew that the “old man” loved Madeira, but wine was usually not served in the house, and here they did not make an exception.

• How did you like Grigory Efimovich? Badmaev asked after the guest's departure.
• In my opinion, he is ... just a peasant, - answered Elizaveta Fyodorovna.
• Man. But not simple. Hypnosis. Owns.
• And with the help of hypnosis stops the blood of a sick heir?
• I do not think. Here is another effect. As Fredericks told me (Fredericks V. B., 1838-1927, Count, Adjutant General. Minister of the Imperial Court and Appanages. - Note A.P.), Rasputin, tumbling and grimacing, rolls into Alexei's bedroom ... He surprised, distracted - the blood stops, and this can be explained. As for hypnosis, it may affect Her Majesty ... But there is also a will ”(Gusev B. Doctor Badmaev: Tibetan medicine, royal court, secular power. M .: Russian book, 1995).

But G. Rasputin possessed not only a strong will and the ability to concentrate it in himself, his appearance was also extraordinary, especially his eyes.

“Well, he has eyes! Every time I see him, I am amazed at how varied their expression and such depth. It is impossible to hold his gaze for long. There is something heavy in him, as if you feel material pressure, although his eyes often shine with kindness, always with a share of slyness, and there is a lot of softness in them. But how cruel they can be sometimes and how terrible in anger” (E. Dzhanumova. “My meetings with Rasputin”. P .: Izd. Petrograd, 1923).

E. Dzhanumova in her memoirs cites two more cases of G. Rasputin's hypnotic abilities.

In November 1915, Dzhanumova's beloved niece Alisa fell seriously ill in Kiev, and her life hung in the balance. The “old man” found out about this and undertook to help. “Something strange happened here,” Dzhanumova writes in her diary dated November 26, “which I can’t explain in any way. Try as I might, I can't think of anything. I don't know what it was. But I will state everything in detail - maybe later some explanations will be found, but now I can say one thing - I don’t know. He took my hand. His face changed, became like a dead man's, yellow, waxy and motionless with horror. His eyes rolled back completely, only whites were visible. He jerked me sharply by the arms and said dully: "She won't die, she won't die, she won't die." Then he released his hands, his face took on its former color. And he continued the conversation that had begun, as if nothing had happened ... I was going to leave for Kiev in the evening, but I received a telegram: "Alice's temperature had dropped better." I decided to stay another day. In the evening, Rasputin came to us ... I showed him the telegram: “Did you really help this?” I said, although of course I didn't believe it. “I told you that she would be healthy,” he answered with conviction and seriousness. “Well, do it again as you did then, maybe she will get better.” “Oh, you fool, how can I do this? It was not from me, but from above. And again, it can't be done. But I told you she'll get better, why are you worried?" I was puzzled. I don't believe in miracles, but what a strange coincidence: Alice is getting better. What does it mean? His face, when he held hands, I will never forget. From the living it has become the face of a dead man, it trembles as I remember.

Another testimony in the diary of E. Dzhanumova is dated November 28, 1915. The “old man” was visiting her; Suddenly the phone rang - they are calling from Tsarskoye Selo. He approaches: “What? Alyosha (the royal heir. - Approx. A.P.) does not sleep? Does your ear hurt? Let's get him on the phone... What are you doing, Alyoshenka, half-night? Hurts? Nothing hurts. Go lie down now. The ear doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt, I tell you. Do you hear? Sleep." Fifteen minutes later they called again. Alyosha's ear doesn't hurt. He fell asleep peacefully. "How did he fall asleep?" "Why don't you fall asleep? I said to sleep." "He had an earache." "I told you it doesn't hurt." He spoke with calm confidence, as if it could not be otherwise.

A. N. Khvostov (1872-1918), Minister of the Interior (1915-1916), chairman of the right-wing faction in the Fourth State Duma, also spoke about the incredible power of Rasputin's hypnosis. “Rasputin was one of the most powerful hypnotists I have ever met! When I saw him, I felt completely depressed; yet no hypnotist has ever been able to influence me. Rasputin pressed me; undoubtedly, he had a great power of hypnosis ”(The Fall of the Regime. Verbatim reports of interrogations and testimonies given in 1917 in the Extraordinary Investigation Commission of the Provisional Rights. Ed. P. N. Shchegolev. In 7 vols. M .; L. 1924-1927).

In addition to ordinary hypnotism, G. Rasputin, as the great Russian neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist V. M. Bekhterev (1857-1927) believed, possessed the so-called "sexual" hypnotism (V. Bekhterev. Rasputinism and the society of high society ladies. "Petrogradskaya Gazeta", 21.03 .1917). Indeed, women were crazy about the "old man". Despite the rudeness and rudeness, the number of those wishing to get closer to the “living Christ” grew day by day. The most beautiful, educated and inaccessible turned out to be at the complete disposal of G. Rasputin. The sexual appetite of the “holy devil” was exorbitant. Contemporaries claimed that the secret of this was the use of Tibetan herbs. Here, for example, is what V. Purishkevich (1870-1920), a member of the State Duma of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th convocations, one of the organizers and perpetrators of the assassination of Rasputin, wrote in his diary on this subject.

“Why are you, Felix,” Rasputin once said to Yusupov [Yusupov F.F. (1887-1967), Prince, Count Sumarokov-Elsten. He took part in the murder of Rasputin. -Approx. A.P.], - you don’t visit Badmaev - he is a necessary person, a useful person, you go to him, dear, it hurts well he heals with herbs, everything is only with his herbs. He will give you a tiny, tiny glass of tincture from his grass, and y-! uh-! how you want a woman ... "(Purishkevich V. Diary" How I killed Rasputin ". M .: Soviet writer, 1990).

Today, medical experts express another hypothesis about the unusual activity of the "old man" in this area. According to the Aesculapius, Rasputin had a serious illness, only he did not suffer from it, but rather enjoyed it.

As it turned out, Rasputin successfully mastered not only hypnosis, but also self-hypnosis. On June 28, 1914, the fanatic Khionia (Feonia) Guseva, a dressmaker from Tsaritsyn, seriously wounded the “old man” with a dagger in the stomach. She was aiming, apparently, at the genitals (the bladder turned out to be affected). After that, the life of Grigory Efimovich literally hung in the balance for several days. But the fatal denouement did not follow. Eyewitnesses who were next to him claimed that he stubbornly repeated for hours: “I will survive, I will survive, I will survive ...” And death receded.

Healer?

After a few years in St. Petersburg, the influence of G. Rasputin on the high-society ladies' society increased incredibly.

In 1907, he was presented to the court and again demonstrated his unusual abilities. With the help of prayers, the "old man" helped stop the bleeding of the heir to the throne, who suffered from hemophilia. After that, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna fully believed in the holiness of Grigory Efimovich.

Whether the “elder” really had the ability to heal, or whether he simply bribed the servants and they gave the prince some drugs that increase bleeding, remains unclear to this day.

This is how, according to the publicist P. Kovalevsky, the “treatment” was carried out.

“When, at the insistence of Kokovtsov [Kokovtsov V.N. (1853-1943), count, Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire in 1904-1914. -Approx. A.P.) Rasputin was removed from the palace, Alexei fell ill again. And doctors could not find the causes and did not know the means to stop these painful phenomena. Rasputin was discharged again. He laid hands, made passes, and the disease stopped after a while.

These machinations were arranged by Vyrubova [Vyrubova A. A. (1884-1964) the closest lady-in-waiting of the Empress. -Approx. A.P.] with the assistance of the famous doctor of Tibetan medicine Badmaev. The former heir was systematically "baited".

Among the means of Tibetan medicine, Badmaev had powder from young deer antlers, the so-called antlers, and ginseng root. These are very potent remedies used in Chinese medicine...

Chinese medicine ascribes to powdered antlers and ginseng root the ability to raise the strength of the elderly, to rejuvenate them in any way. But antler and ginseng powders, taken in large quantities, can cause severe and dangerous bleeding, especially in people who are predisposed to it.

The former heir was known to be very prone to bleeding. And so, when it was necessary to raise the influence of Rasputin or to cause a new appearance in case of his removal, Vyrubova took these powders from Badmaev and contrived to give this remedy to Alexei with drink or food.

The disease opened up. Until Rasputin returned, the heir was "baited." Doctors lost their heads, not knowing what to prescribe an exacerbation of the disease. They did not find funds. They sent for Rasputin. Powders ceased to give, and after a while the painful phenomena disappeared. So Rasputin appeared in the role of a miracle worker. The life and health of Rasputin was associated with the life and health of the former heir.

Receiving anonymous letters and telegraph messages that he would be killed, Rasputin told Alexandra Feodorovna: “When I die, on the 40th day after my death, the heir will fall ill.”

And the prophecy was indeed fulfilled. On the 40th day of Rasputin's death, the heir fell ill. Obviously, Vyrubova decided after the death of Rasputin to keep the family of Nicholas II in the same way. Perhaps she tried, at least in part, to play the role played by the deceased” [Kovalevsky P. Grishka Rasputin. M., 1922].

It is possible that everything that P. Kovalevsky told readers about is pure truth. And this is probably the secret of Rasputin's healing. But some clarifications should be given to the version of the publicist. It is possible that ginseng was indeed used to provoke bleeding in Alexei.

Symptoms of poisoning by this plant from the Araliaceae family are: headache and dizziness, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, fever, respiratory failure, loss of consciousness. A characteristic sign of intoxication is bleeding (even bleeding from the nose and ears), manifested by bloody vomiting and diarrhea (Danilenko V.S., Rodionov P.V. Acute plant poisoning. Kiev: Health, 1981).

However, antler powder could not be used to stimulate bleeding. The fact is that it, on the contrary, causes increased blood clotting. Moreover, later, a liquid alcohol extract from non-ossified horns, or antlers, of spotted and red deer (maral and red deer) found use in traditional medicine in the treatment of patients with hemophilia (Dyadyura Ya. I. Treatment of patients with hemophilia with pantocrine. - Medical case No. 1. C .935).

Of course, it is impossible to judge strictly the publicist P. Kovalevsky - in those years, even many certified doctors did not know this fact.

Apparently, both ginseng and antlers were used to demonstrate the sorcery charms of the "old man", only for different purposes. But it cannot be ruled out that the “miraculous healings” of Alexei are the fruit of the hypnotic influence of the “holy devil” on the heir to the throne.

Prophet?

As you know, Rasputin was famous for his divination. True, eyewitnesses were far from unambiguous about them. Some argued that the prophecies of the "old man" were reliable, and cited numerous testimonies of this. Others denied their indisputability, referring to no less number of irrefutable facts.

But be that as it may, one prediction of the "old man" is known, which turned out to be true. The text of this, perhaps, the most famous prophecy, is fully quoted in his book “Memoirs of Grigory Rasputin’s Personal Secretary” by Aron Simanovich. Here it is.

“The spirit of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-Novykh from the village of Pokrovsky.

I am writing and leaving this letter in Petersburg. I foresee that even before the first of January I will be gone from life. I want to punish the Russian people, dad, Russian mother, children and the Russian land, what to do. If hired assassins, Russian peasants, my brothers, kill me, then you, Russian Tsar, have nothing to fear. Remain on your throne and reign. And you, Russian Tsar, do not worry about your children. They will rule Russia for hundreds of years. If the boyars and nobles kill me and they shed my blood, then their hands will remain stained with my blood, and for twenty-five years they will not be able to wash their hands. They will leave Russia. Brothers will rise up against brothers and kill each other, and for twenty years there will be no nobility in the country.

Tsar of the Russian land, when you hear the ringing of bells informing you of the death of Gregory, then know that if your relatives committed the murder, then not one of your family, that is, children and relatives, will live longer than two years. The Russian people will kill them. I am leaving and I feel in myself a Divine command to tell the Russian Tsar how he should live after my disappearance. You have to think, take everything into account and act carefully. You must take care of your salvation and tell your family that I paid them with my life. I will be killed. I'm no longer alive. Pray, pray. Stay strong. Take care of your chosen family ”[Simanovich A. Memoirs of the personal secretary of Grigory Rasputin. - Tashkent: Uzbekistan, 1990].

As you know, two months after Prince F. Yusupov and the conspirators killed Rasputin, Nicholas II was deposed from the throne, and a year later he was shot by the Bolsheviks along with his family and loved ones.

It would seem that this letter is irrefutable proof that Rasputin really had the gift of a prophet, if not for the following facts.

It is known that the above letter was made public after the liquidation of the Romanov family, like many other similar predictions of the "old man". In addition, reputable experts do not hesitate to classify it as a fake. The style of presentation of this message is not Rasputin. Historians believe that the farewell letter was written by A. Simanovich. From this it is clear that this "original document" cannot be an "iron" confirmation that Rasputin is a great soothsayer.

The question arises: were there reliable cases of the prophecies of the “old man”?

Were! -contemporaries of the "God's man" say and give a foresight, which he often repeated to the queen. “As long as I live, nothing will happen to you all and to the dynasty. If I don't exist, you won't either."

Even more amazing is the letter addressed to children, which Rasputin handed over to his eldest daughter Matryona shortly before his death.

"My dear! We are in danger of disaster. Great disasters are coming. The face of the Mother of God became dark, and the spirit is outraged in the stillness of the night. This silence will not last long. Anger will be terrible. And where should we run?

The Scripture says, “But no one knows about that day and hour.” This day has come for our country. There will be tears and blood. In the darkness of suffering, I can't see anything. My hour will soon strike. I am not afraid, but I know that parting will be bitter. God alone knows the ways of your suffering. Countless people will die. Many will become martyrs. The earth will shake. Hunger and disease will mow down people. Signs will be revealed to them. Pray for your salvation. Take comfort in the grace of our Lord and the grace of our intercessors” [Matryona Rasputina. Rasputin. Memories of a daughter. Moscow: Zakharov, 2000].

However, can these prophecies be taken seriously? Hardly. Inspiring Alexandra Feodorovna with the formula that the royal family would also perish with his death, the savvy peasant simply wanted to protect himself from the unexpected providence. He knew for sure that "mom" and "dad" frightened by his predictions would now cherish his life like the apple of their eye.

It was also not difficult to foresee the imminent collapse of monarchical Russia at that time. Rumors about this were in the air, and no sign from above was needed.

It is curious that Rasputin himself played a significant role in the collapse of the state, the death of his own and the royal family. Almost everyone who had this or that relation to the court spoke about this. It is no coincidence that in revolutionary Petrograd the surname of the “old man” was deciphered in this way: “Romanova Alexandra Destroyed the Throne of Emperor Nicholas with Her Behavior.”

The following curious fact speaks in favor of the fact that Rasputin did not possess the gift of foresight. In January 1905, the parapsychologist Count Louis Gamon predicted the fate of Grigory Efimovich. This is what he literally said: “I see that you will die a terrible death in the palace. You will be threatened with poison, a knife, a gun. But I see the cold waters of the Neva closing over you.”

The “old man” cast a contemptuous glance at the prophet and replied: “This is ridiculous. They call me the savior of Russia. I am the maker of destiny."

As you know, death made itself felt to the "God's man" in 1914, when the peasant woman Guseva stabbed him in the stomach with a knife. Thus, he was "threatened with a knife." Two years later, a group of Black Hundreds lured Grigory Efimovich into a trap. He was offered poisoned wine and food. When the poison did not work, the conspirators shot several times at the "holy devil" and, finally, threw the body of the murdered man into the icy waters of the Neva.

The story of Rasputin's secret is over. But is it possible to assert that all "i" are dotted? Of course not. Many mysteries of this controversial personality have yet to be solved by historians, psychologists, psychotherapists, and writers.

Khlysty

When people talk about Rasputin’s Khlystism, I recall how, under Soviet rule, believers in labor collectives were usually called “damned Baptist” behind their backs, without attaching any importance to what denomination this believer actually belonged to (most often, of course, he was Orthodox).

Sometimes it seems that about the same meaning was invested in tsarist Russia in the word "whip".

It is likely that Rasputin was familiar with the Khlysty. That is why he became an “experienced wanderer” in order to experience, to weigh, as he said, different paths in spiritual life and choose his own path. “So I went on a pilgrimage ... I was interested in everything, good and bad, I hung it up, but there was no one to ask, what does it mean? He traveled a lot and hung, that is, he checked everything in life.

Rasputin knew a lot and saw a lot. That is why he was precious to the Tsar, because he brought with him to the palace, along with the dust of Russian roads on his boots, all the lights and darkness of the people's life: both the great power of the people's faith, and the experienced knowledge of the darkness of superstition and the irresistible cruelty of the people's life.

Rasputin communicated with whips, and with Jews, and with revolutionaries, and with enlightened nihilists. But he himself remained Orthodox. He was that rarest case when the bearer of a living and ardent faith managed not to be tempted by the repulsiveness of official Orthodoxy, managed to endure the persecution of the persecuting Church and not go into either schism or terror. And we can only guess how many people he converted along the way.

Rasputin was not ashamed of his passion for dancing and did not hide it, not in the least worried that this passion was almost the only "proof" of his whipping. As his daughter Maria (Matryona) recalls, “father used to say that one can pray to God in dances as well as while standing in prayer.” In this judgment, as in other cases, Rasputin is wiser than his opponents.

I recall the story of how the Palestinians, who were performing worship with wild noise and dancing, were thrown out of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during Easter, and the sacred fire did not descend ... that a person, along with the acceptance of the Spirit, must lose all interest in earthly life, a taste for earthly things.

This is one of the manifestations of the so-called "hidden Monophysitism of Orthodoxy." In Russia, under the influence of this bias, for some time a strong idea has developed about the incompatibility of the worldly and spiritual way of life, to which Rasputin replied: “No, the cheerful God did not refuse paradise, but most of all he loved them, but you only need to have fun in the Lord.”

In response, sullen: "Whip."

Conquest of the capital

He is 33 years old. And, apparently, it is no coincidence that at this time (the age of Christ) he begins to prepare for a trip to the capital, where the rumor about him has already come. He is still young. But his face is wrinkled from the sun and wind of endless wanderings. A peasant's face, sometimes even at twenty-five it is the face of an old man...

In his wanderings, he learned to accurately recognize people. Holy Scripture, the teachings of the great shepherds, the countless sermons he listened to - everything was absorbed by his tenacious memory. In Khlyst's "ships", where they combined pagan conspiracies against diseases with the power of Christian prayer, he learned to heal. He realized his strength. It is enough for him to put his nervous, restless hands on the patient - and the diseases dissolve in them.

On the eve of the first Russian revolution, Rasputin appears in St. Petersburg to destroy both the city and the world, which in just 14 years will become "Atlantis", an irrevocable memory...

Miracle! miracle!

In the autumn of 1912, Rasputin truly performed a miracle - he saved the life of the heir. Even the peasant's enemies will be forced to admit this.

The tragedy began in early October in Spala, a hunting castle in the protected Belovezhskaya Pushcha, where the royal hunt was going on. Many guests came to the castle. There were merry festivities, but what was going on in one of the far rooms remained a mystery to everyone.

Once, during a ball, the Swiss Gilliard (he taught the Tsarevich French, and later became his tutor) left the hall into the inner corridor and found himself in front of a door, from behind which desperate groans were heard. Suddenly, at the end of the corridor, he saw the Empress - she was running, holding her ball gown in her hands. She had to leave the ball in full swing - the boy began another attack of unbearable pain. From excitement, she did not even notice Gilliard ...

From Nikolai's diary: "October 5... We spent a gloomy name day today, poor Alexei has been suffering from a secondary hemorrhage for several days."

Blood poisoning has begun. The doctors prepared Alix for her inevitable end. I had to officially announce the illness of the heir.

From KR's diary: "October 9... A bulletin about the illness of the Tsesarevich appeared. He is the only son of the Sovereign! God save him!"

A year earlier, Alexei had bleeding in the kidneys. And then, as Xenia wrote in her diary, "they sent for Gregory. Everything stopped with his arrival."

Now Rasputin was far away. But Alix believed that his prayer would conquer any distance.

From Vyrubova's testimony: "A telegram was sent to Rasputin asking him to pray, and Rasputin reassured him with a telegram that the heir would live ... "God looked at your tears and heeded your prayers ... your son will live."

When Alix, with a face exhausted from sleepless nights, triumphantly showed this telegram to the doctors, they only shook their heads sadly. And they noted with amazement: although the boy was still dying, the queen ... immediately calmed down! So she believed in the power of Rasputin. It seemed to the doctors then that the Middle Ages had returned to the castle, however ... the heir recovered!

Alix was happy: she saw a miracle with her own eyes. With one prayer, without even coming to Spala, "God's man" saved her son!

On October 21, Minister of the Court Frederiks announced: "The acute and difficult period of illness of His Imperial Highness ... has passed." "Wasn't that enough to win the love of your parents!" Vyrubova recalled.

And upon Rasputin's arrival in St. Petersburg, the "kings" once again heard encouraging...

From the testimony of Vyrubova: "Doctors said that the heir had hereditary bleeding, and he would never get out of it due to the thinness of the vessels. Rasputin reassured them, arguing that he would grow out of him ..."

It was then that Rasputin first announced that immediately after the final recovery of the heir, he would leave the court.

And Alix believed and idolized the peasant. Unfortunately, we are using the right word...

Rumors about the possible death of the Tsarevich forced the tsar's brother, Mikhail, to act. In the event of a sad outcome, he became the heir to the throne. But he knew - in this case, the tsar and the Family would never allow him to marry his mistress Natasha Wulfert, the divorced wife of the captain.

Ashy hair and velvety eyes of the most elegant woman of St. Petersburg won - Mikhail hurried. On October 31, the Dowager Empress received a letter from Cannes: "My dear mother ... how hard and painful it is for me to upset you ... but two weeks ago I married Natalya Sergeevna ... I, perhaps, would never have decided on this, if not for the illness of little Alexei ... "

Now the future of the throne for the Family was connected only with the sick boy.

Now it was in the hands of a "strange deity," as one of the newspapermen called Rasputin.

And the "strange deity" continued its amazing life. And the agents continued to send reports to the police department: "3. 12. 1912 ... visited the editorial office of the spiritual newspapers "The Bell" and "Voice of Truth" with Lyubov and Maria Golovina ... After which he took a prostitute on Nevsky and went with her to the hotel ".

"January 9. I wanted to visit the family baths with Sazonova, but they were closed. He broke up with her and took a prostitute."

The same clear alternation: from the prim Golovins' house to a prostitute, then a meeting with Vyrubova, a visit to the baths with one of the fans, again a prostitute ... Sometimes in the evenings - by car to Tsarskoye Selo.

Now this pursuit of the body has become common for him - for some reason he is not at all afraid of denunciations to the "kings". "While on his first visits before meeting with prostitutes, he showed some caution, looked around and walked through the back streets, then on his last visit, these meetings were completely open," the report on external observation says.

And now this individual in a peasant coat, with a disheveled beard, darting along suspicious streets, running into prostitutes' apartments, again dared to interfere in world politics! At least that's what many thought.

In the winter of 1912-13 Rasputin took another step towards death.

About the oddities of Gregory's drunkenness

As for the unbridled Rasputin drunkenness, something doesn’t quite fit here either ... Probably, there really were cases when “newspaper reporters and all sorts of crooks,” as Anna Vyrubova puts it to denigrate Their Majesties, “used his simplicity, took him away from and got drunk on themselves." But more often, probably, the spiritual joy of the elder, who could not cope with the seething of grace-filled forces given to him beyond measure, was mistaken for intoxication, joy, which, most likely, can be compared with the drunkenness of Noah, who had just made a covenant with God.

Radzinsky writes about the strangeness of Rasputin's drunkenness in his book: “Sometimes, in the midst of a drunkenness, a call was heard from Tsarskoe, and he was informed that Alexei was ill. Having mysteriously sobered up (so that even the smell of alcohol disappeared), he set off in a car sent to save the boy.

And here is Filippov’s testimony on this topic: “Rasputin sat with me from 12 noon to 12 at night, and he drank a lot, sang, danced, talked with the public that I had. Then, having taken several people to Gorokhovaya, he continued to drink sweet wines with them until 4 in the morning. When they announced the gospel, he expressed a desire to go to matins and ... got there and defended the entire service until 8 in the morning and, returning, as if nothing had happened, received an audience of 80 people ... At the same time, he drank amazingly - without all the bestiality that is so common in a drunken Russian peasant ... Many times I wondered how you can keep your head clean ... and how, after all sorts of drinking parties and excesses, not to soak in sweat ... "

In Radzinsky we also find a psychologically quite plausible explanation for the craving for noisy and drunken companies, which was found in the old man after Russia's entry into the war - after the clouds began to gather over Russia. “Soon he will finally understand that his death is inevitable, like the death of this unfortunate, naive couple, surrounded not by loving relatives, but by a hostile court and a distraught society that was eager for war. And now he will increasingly drown out his fear with wine.

And yet, behind this psychologism, one should not lose sight of the spiritual plan in which Gregory made his way, following the One about Whom the same unchanging world once said: “Here is a man who loves to eat and drink wine, a friend to publicans and sinners” (Matthew 11:19).

About the victims of rasputin

In 1917, the Extraordinary Investigative Commission (ChSK) asked all suspicious ladies who had visited Rasputin several times on Gorokhovaya Street, in his “salon”, to answer, as Radzinsky delicately put it, “unpleasant questions.”

None of these women, as follows from Radzinsky's book, admitted that she was intimate with Rasputin. Such closeness, even once, was denied by: the “prostitute” Tregubova, the “cocotte” Sheila Lunts, the singer Vera Varvarova, the widow of the Cossack captain N.I. Voskoboynikova. The ties with Rasputin were also categorically denied by the women interviewed by the ChSK, who constituted a “narrow circle of initiates”: M. Golovina, O. Lokhtina, A. Vyrubova, Yu. Den.

But what about the notes of women who claim that Rasputin tried to corrupt them. And what do you mean tried?

Let us turn to the “Memoirs” of V. Zhukovskaya, who writes about one of these “attempts”: “The brutalized face moved forward, it became some kind of flat, wet hair, like wool, stuck around it in tufts ... eyes, narrow, burning, seemed glass through them. Silently fighting back... and escaping, I retreated to the wall, thinking that he would throw himself again. But he, staggering, slowly stepped towards me and, croaking: “Let's go and pray!” - grabbed my shoulder ... threw me on my knees, and, having collapsed from behind, began to bow to the ground ... Repeating this once ... ten, he stood up and turned to me, he was pale, sweat poured down his face in streams but he breathed quite calmly, and his eyes looked softly and kindly - the eyes of a gray Siberian wanderer.

What an amazing mix of fantasy and reality! No less surprising are the results of this confusion.

Guseva, who made an attempt on Rasputin in Petrovsky, herself admitted that she decided to kill under the impression of Iliodor Trufanov's stories about the "dirty things" of the old man. As a specific example of these dirty tricks, she cites Rasputin's corruption of the nun Xenia in the Tsaritsyn Monastery. However, in the case of the assassination attempt on Rasputin, there are testimonies from the nun Xenia herself, from which it follows that she saw Rasputin only from afar and never even spoke to him.

Of the five hundred pages of the disappeared Rasputin file, Radzinsky managed to extract and pin to the prosecution only two incriminating documents. The first is the testimony of Maria Vishnyakova, the nanny of the royal children, rumors about whose rape Rasputin stubbornly circulated in St. Petersburg at the height of the anti-Rasputin campaign in the press.

In her testimony, Vishnyakova describes an event that, according to her, occurred when, in the spring of 1910, on the advice of the Empress, she was visiting Rasputin in Pokrovsky. Literally, the testimony sounds like this: “For several days Rasputin behaved decently towards me ... and then one night Rasputin came to me, began to kiss me and, bringing me to hysteria, deprived me of my virginity.”

Does Radzinsky himself believe these testimonies? It looks like not quite. Returning to this story at the end of the book, he calls it mysterious (p. 427) and suggests the motives that prompted the nurse to raise a scandal: Rasputin “distanced her from himself. And the offended nanny announced that he had raped her” (ibid.). As you can see, in 1917, before the commission, she softened her accusation and no longer spoke about rape. Very important in this story is the testimony of Vel. Princess Olga Alexandrovna that when rumors of rape reached the Tsar, he "immediately ordered an investigation." According to her, it was stopped after "the girl was caught with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard in bed."

About self-proclaimed saviors

That is, the reaction of the Sovereign to the accusation against Rasputin is absolutely adequate.

Meanwhile, Miller and other admirers of the Royal Family and the Tsar and the Tsarina are also counted as victims. Unable to cope with their dislike for Rasputin, they begin to justify the August persons with the help of such arguments that their sympathy turns into a sentence.

Here are the words of a prominent admirer of the last autocrat, investigator N. Sokolov: “Having become a necessity for the sick Empress, he (Rasputin) already threatened her, insistently repeating: “The heir is alive while I am alive. As the destruction of her psyche continued, he began to threaten more widely: my death will be your death.

Thus, well-wishers, faithful monarchists, in the end, came close to the opinion that the Empress is mentally unhealthy, and the Tsar is not fully capable. And if so, then you need to save them from themselves. Truly, this is what it means to shift from a sick head to a healthy one.

Miller's book allows you to vividly imagine how much pressure was exerted on the Royal Family.

A recollection is given of how the Emperor, after listening to another report on Rasputin, exclaimed: "I am simply suffocating in this atmosphere of gossip, fiction and malice."

More than once the book also speaks of the many tears shed by the Empress because of their persecuted "Friend". The main burden of the struggle fell on her shoulders, because she was firmer than the Emperor in defending her positions and in the belief that "Russia will not be blessed if her master allows a man sent by God ... to be persecuted."

Here is the answer to the question why Rasputin was not disgraced, despite all the demands of society. For the royal couple, to betray an innocent, in their opinion, person, to give up on him for the sake of their peace of mind, meant to betray Russia. It was, above all, a moral choice.

His magnetism, his supernatural power of suggestion, changed the course of history and was said to have been the cause of many misfortunes that befell the Russian empire.
The murder that took place in December 1916 in the Yusupov Palace was inevitable, but belated, from the point of view of many left, right, liberal and conservative groups. Although Grigory Efimovich himself had been warned for a long time and repeatedly about the inevitable tragic end. 1905

A year - the clairvoyant Louis Jamon predicted to Grigory Rasputin that he would die from a bullet and poison, and the icy waters of the Neva would become his grave. But the old man did not listen.
A small group of conspirators gathered to commit the murder. It included Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, a relative of the Romanovs, Prince Felix Yusupov, a deputy from the right Purishkevich and Lieutenant Sukhotin. It was they who decided that Rasputin should be killed with poison, choosing it as the most suitable means to hide the traces of the murder. But things didn't go the way the killers had hoped.
In order not to retell the events associated with the murder of Rasputin, one should only dwell on one fact: in the memoirs it was described many times that the conspirators wanted to use poison - a means, although not for the brave, but, from the point of view of the participants, true. The famous writer Radzinsky does not agree that the poison was used, and generally gives his personal version of the murder, moreover, the emphasis is on the fact that, in his opinion, Rasputin did not like and did not eat sweets. In general, the further events recede into the past, the more implausible and fantastic versions appear. So, in 1981, the book "Intimate and Sexual Lives of Famous People" by Irving Wallis, Sylvia Wallis, Emmy Wallis and David Walechinsky was published in England. It also writes about Grigory Rasputin. Let us cite only one passage from that creation, testifying to the "Scientific" approach of the authors, here is what they wrote: "when Rasputin began to lose consciousness from the poison beginning to act, Yusupov first raped him, and then shot him four times with a pistol. Rasputin fell on sex, but was alive. Grigory Rasputin was then castrated. His severed penis was later found by a servant."
However, if we follow the generally accepted picture of the murder, which was recorded in documents and memoirs, then the poison was still used, and the murder scene was less phantasmagoric than in the fabrications of authors from England. For example, the French ambassador in St. Petersburg, Maurice Paleolog, in his memoirs of Rasputin writes: “between the chairs in which Yusupov and his guest were lounging, a round table was placed in advance, on which they placed two plates of cakes with cream, a bottle of Madeira and tray with six glasses.
The cakes placed near the old man were poisoned with potassium cyanide, delivered by the doctor of the Obukhov hospital, an acquaintance of Prince Felix. Each of the three glasses next to these cakes contained three decigrams of potassium cyanide, dissolved in a few drops of water; however weak this dose may seem, it is nevertheless enormous, because even a dose of four centigrams is lethal....
Suddenly, the "Old Man" drinks his glass. And, clicking his tongue, he says:
- You have a noble Madeira. I would drink more.
Mechanically, Yusupov filled not the glass extended by the old man, but two other glasses with potassium cyanide.
Grigory grabs and drinks the glass in one go. Yusupov is waiting for the victim to faint.
But for some reason the poison had no effect.
Third glass. All no action."
And here is what Prince Yusupov himself wrote in his memoirs: "I managed to throw the glass from which Rasputin drank on the floor, it broke. Taking advantage of this, I poured Madeira into a glass of potassium cyanide."
The only reaction of the elder to the poisoning attempt, described by the paleologist, is as follows: "But Rasputin hardly listens to him; he walks back and forth, panting and burping. Potassium cyanide works." Yusupov described the effect of poison on an old man who drank poisoned drinks and ate poisoned food in this way: “yes, my head felt heavy, and it’s hard in my stomach. Give me another glass - it will become easier.”
But as you know, the killers still had to resort to a revolver and dumbbells, and then drown the viable old man. Why the poison did not affect the body of Grigory Rasputin remained a mystery, which he took with him to the grave (later his decomposed corpse was burned. Perhaps the miracle was due to the fact that Rasputin, like Tsar Mithridates, accustomed his body to various poisons. In years of youth in the Irtysh region, Grigory repeatedly showed tricks with poisons in taverns. He diluted the poison provided to him and gave some to the dog along with the meat. She died in terrible convulsions. After that, Rasputin drank all the poison and washed it down with kvass from the stall. The exact answer to the question the presence of poisons could have been given by forensic experts, but they were not allowed to do so.During the autopsy, a viscous mass of a dark brown color was found in Rasputin's stomach, but they could not determine its composition, since, on the orders of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, further research was The absence of autopsy results and the subsequent burning of the remains of the great old man do not make it possible to confirm the hypothesis that the size liver in Rasputin significantly exceeded the norm, and this anomaly made it possible to take doses of poison that were fatal to an ordinary organism.

How many years did Rasputin live?

47 years old (1869–1916)

What can unite Grigory Rasputin, Emperor Nicholas II and Joseph Stalin? The fates of these great personalities are contradictory and full of secrets, the life of historical characters has not yet been fully studied. But the deaths of these three people are even more mysterious, and the secrets that rest in the graves of their owners excite the minds of many modern people. The author, Edward Radzinsky, in his audiobook tries to study the life and death of Rasputin, Nicholas II and Stalin to answer some questions. The writer lifts the veil of mystery, and who knows what will be behind it?

Name: Grigory Rasputin

Zodiac sign: Aquarius

Age: 47 years old

Occupation: peasant, friend of Tsar Nicholas II, seer and healer

Marital status: married

Grigory Rasputin: biography

Grigory Rasputin is a well-known and controversial personality in Russian history, disputes about which have been going on for a century. His life is filled with a mass of inexplicable events and facts related to proximity to the emperor's family and influence on the fate of the Russian Empire. Some historians consider him an immoral charlatan and swindler, while others are sure that Rasputin was a real seer and healer, which allowed him to gain influence on the royal family.

Grigory Rasputin

Rasputin Grigory Efimovich was born on January 21, 1869 in the family of a simple peasant Efim Yakovlevich and Anna Vasilievna, who lived in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. The day after the birth, the boy was baptized in the church with the name Gregory, which means "wakeful."

Grisha became the fourth and only surviving child of his parents - his older brothers and sisters died in infancy due to poor health. At the same time, he was also weak from birth, so he could not play enough with his peers, which became the reason for his isolation and craving for solitude. It was in early childhood that Rasputin felt attached to God and religion.

Where and how was Rasputin killed?

Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Grigory Rasputin interesting facts. Grigory Rasputin - interesting facts

Hello friends. Today I will tell you interesting facts from the life of Rasputin Grigory Efimovich, and no less mysterious story of death. But let's look at everything in chronological order.

He comes from the village of Pokrovskoye, Tyumen region, but no one knows the exact date of his birth, they are called 1864 - 1872, and the number is February 9 or 21. Different sources give different information about this. As a child, he was a sickly child and had health problems.

Interesting facts about Rasputin's biography begin after he comes of age. Until the age of 18, he was an ordinary peasant and was engaged in agricultural work. And after coming of age he hit the pilgrimage.

In 1890 he acquired a wife of peasant origin, she also led a pilgrimage lifestyle. He was characterized as a man with a piercing gaze, but slovenly dressed. He began his journey from the Verkhotursky Monastery, and then was in Greece, Jerusalem and directly in his native Russia.

After visiting the holy places, Rasputin became famous for his discovered abilities for treatment and prediction. From birth, he had the gift of a hypnotist, Grigory Rasputin could speak wounds and turn any object into a talisman.

After marriage, they had a son and two daughters. It is not known for what merits, but the elder was revered by many secular ladies who came to him in Siberia. Even Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself helped him and considered him a holy man. While all the people laughed at the stories about Rasputin's festivities and revelry, the empress considered them to be slander of envious people and ill-wishers. Rasputin was completely trusted by the children of the royal family. According to the elder himself, the Mother of God herself called him to St. Petersburg in order to help Tsarevich Alexei, who was ill with hemophilia.

Whatever reputation Grigory Efimovich Rasputin had, interesting facts speak for themselves. Rasputin's predictions came true. He foreshadowed the death of the royal family, the revolution and the death of a large number of the aristocracy. Even his predictions, which he prophesied after his death, came true, namely, about the illness of Tsarevich Alexei. He foreshadowed his death, spoke about the fate of the throne, the upcoming disasters associated with nuclear power plants.

His predictions included terrible natural changes, earthquakes, the decline of moral values, human cloning and the danger from such experiments. We can talk about one more prediction with a shudder, let's hope that Rasputin was mistaken here - the third world war.

From the memoirs of the only surviving daughter of Rasputin Matryona, it follows that the father abused alcohol and the female sex. But if viewed from the point of view of an outside observer, then being the royal confessor, Rasputin did not give rest to many, including the Soviet government represented by the Bolsheviks. It's all because of the fear that some experienced, knowing about his abilities.

Facts about the last day of Rasputin's life: after taking a large dose of poison in food, washed down with wine, Rasputin remained alive. Apparently the poison was old or something weakened its effect. After he was finished off with a shot in the head, and the corpse was thrown into the river.

However, on this day, a note was found from Grigory Efimovich, where he assumes his death and if it is at the hands of the peasants, then the monarchy will remain in the country. If his killers are aristocrats, then there will be no monarchy, just as there will be no mercy for the royal family.

All his predictions were recorded from his words and are still being studied. When the February Revolution ended, Elizaveta Feodorovna was visited by the abbesses of the monasteries, who told about strange things after the death of Rasputin. That night, most of the brothers and sisters at the monastery were subjected to fits of insanity, uttered loud cries and blasphemed.

In times of instability, more and more people are becoming interested in the predictions of psychics and clairvoyants. Perhaps one of the most important prophecies about Russia was compiled by the elder Grigory Rasputin.

The figure of Rasputin in the history of Russia still remains a mystery, and rumors and legends still circulate about his influence on the royal family. Rasputin's predictions about Russia were published in Pious Reflections in 1912. And if at that time most of his prophecies were perceived as fiction, now almost all of his words can truly be called prophetic.

What predictions of Rasputin came true

It should be noted that many of the prophecies of Grigory Rasputin came true. So, what did the elder say during his lifetime and what followed his words?

The execution of the royal family. The fact that the entire royal family would be killed, Rasputin knew long before the tragedy. Here is what he wrote in his diary: “Every time I hug the tsar and mother, and the girls, and the prince, I shudder with horror, as if I were hugging the dead ... And then I pray for these people, because in Russia they need more than anyone. And I pray for the Romanov family, because the shadow of a long eclipse falls on them.

About the revolution of 1917: “Darkness will fall on Petersburg. When his name is changed, then the empire will end."

About his own death and about the future of Russia after his death. Rasputin said that if ordinary people, peasants, killed him, then Tsar Nicholas would not have to fear for his fate, and the Romanovs would rule for another hundred years and more. If the nobles kill him, then the future of Russia and the royal family will be terrifying. “The nobles will flee the country, and the king’s relatives will not survive in two years, and the brothers will rise up against the brothers and will kill each other,” the elder wrote.

Accidents at nuclear power plants. “Towers will be built all over the world, they will be castles of death. Some of these castles will fall, and rotten blood will flow out of these wounds, which will infect the earth and sky. Because clots of infected blood, like predators, will fall on our heads. Many clots will fall to the ground, and the land where they fall will become deserted for seven generations,” Grigory Rasputin said about the future of Russia.

Natural disasters. The elder also spoke about natural disasters, which every year we observe more and more. “Earthquakes at this time will become more frequent, the lands and waters will open, and their wounds will swallow people and belongings ... The seas will enter the cities, and the lands will become salty. And there will be no water that is not salty. A person will be under salty rain, and will wander on salty land, between drought and flood ... The rose will bloom in December, and in June there will be snow.

Cloning. Grigory Rasputin also knew that experiments with cloning would be carried out in the future: "Irresponsible human alchemy, in the end, will turn ants into huge monsters that will destroy houses and entire countries, and fire and water will be powerless against them."

Rasputin's prediction about the future of Russia

The following predictions are difficult to decipher, as Rasputin used symbols and images in his prophecies. Probably, this is his prediction about the future of Russia, which has not yet come true or is just beginning to come true: “People are heading towards disaster. The most inept ones will drive the wagon in Russia, and in France, and in Italy, and in other places... Mankind will be crushed by the march of madmen and scoundrels. Wisdom is bound in chains. The ignorant and powerful will dictate laws to the wise and even the humble… Three hungry snakes will crawl along the roads of Europe, leaving ashes and smoke behind them. The world is waiting for three "lightning" that will sequentially burn the land between the sacred rivers, the palm garden and lilies. A bloodthirsty prince will come from the west, who will enslave a person with wealth, and another prince will come from the east, who will enslave a person with poverty.

Read about other predictions of psychics and astrologers on our website. Good luck and don't forget to press the buttons and

Who killed Rasputin and how?

Who killed Grigory Rasputin and why On December 17, 1916 (according to the old style), Grigory Rasputin fell at the hands of the killers. He was killed as a result of a conspiracy led not by Felix Yusupov and not by State Duma deputy Purishkevich, but by British intelligence agent Oswald Rainer.

Video Murder of Rasputin. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1917

Grigory Rasputin

On December 30, 1916, Grigory Rasputin, a native of the peasantry, a family friend of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, was brutally murdered in St. Petersburg.

Among the numerous names of Russian prophets and clairvoyants, there is hardly one that would be so widely known in our country and abroad as the name Grigory Rasputin. And it is unlikely that another name from this series will be found, around which an equally dense network of mysteries and legends would be woven.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin

At the end of the 20th century, many secrets of Russian history were revealed to us, however, most of them belong to the so-called Soviet period. But the eve of this period, and Rasputin's life, as you know, ended at the very end of 1916, today appears before us more and more clearly. And, of course, without the personality of Grigory Rasputin, without revealing the true essence of his prophecies and visionary gift, the picture of that relatively recent era will be incomplete. Documents, their careful analysis, comparison of a variety of evidence and other sources make it possible to dispel the fog that hides the image of Rasputin from us.
In the middle of the 19th century, a peasant from the village of Pokrovsky, Tobolsk province, Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin, at the age of twenty, married a twenty-two-year-old girl Anna Vasilievna Parshikova. The wife repeatedly gave birth to daughters, but they died. The first boy, Andrei, also died. From the village census for 1897, it is known that on January 10, 1869 (the day of Gregory of Nyssa according to the Julian calendar), her second son was born, named after the calendar saint.

In the metric book of the Pokrovskaya Sloboda, in the first part “On those born”, it is written: “The son Grigory was born to Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilievna of the Orthodox faith.” He was baptized on January 10th. The godparents were Uncle Matthew Yakovlevich Rasputin and the maiden Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received the name according to the existing tradition of naming the child by the name of the saint on whose day he was born or baptized. The day of the baptism of Grigory Rasputin is January 10, the day of the celebration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

However, the parish registers of the village church were not preserved, and in the future Rasputin always gave different dates of his birth, hiding his real age, so the exact day and year of Rasputin's birth is still unknown.

Rasputin's father at first drank a lot, but then he took up his mind and acquired a household.

According to the stories of fellow villagers, he was a smart and competent man: he had an eight-room hut, twelve cows, eight horses, and was engaged in private carriage. In general, did not live in poverty. Yes, and the village of Pokrovskoye itself was considered in the county and in the province - relative to neighboring villages - a rich village, since Siberians did not know the poverty of European Russia, did not know serfdom and were distinguished by self-esteem and independence.

In winter, he worked as a coachman, in the summer he plowed the land, fished and unloaded barges.

Little information has been preserved about Rasputin's mother. She died when Gregory was not even eighteen years old. After her death, Rasputin said that she often appears to him in a dream and calls to her, foreshadowing that he will die before he reaches her age. She died barely over the age of fifty, while Rasputin died at the age of forty-seven.

Young Gregory was frail and dreamy, but this did not last long - having barely matured, he began to fight with his peers and parents, walk (once he managed to drink a cart with hay and horses at the fair, after which he walked home eighty miles on foot). Fellow villagers recalled that already in his youth he had powerful sexual magnetism. Grishka was found more than once with girls and beaten.

Soon Rasputin began to steal, for which he was almost exiled to Eastern Siberia. Once he was beaten for another theft - so much so that Grishka, according to the villagers, became "strange and stupid." Rasputin himself claimed that after being struck with a stake in the chest, he was on the verge of death and experienced "the joy of suffering." The injury did not pass without a trace - Rasputin stopped drinking and smoking.

Nineteen years old Grigory Rasputin married Praskovya Dubrovina, a fair-haired and black-eyed girl from a neighboring village. She was four years older than her husband, but their marriage, despite the adventurous life of Gregory, turned out to be happy. Rasputin constantly took care of his wife and children - two daughters and a son.

However, worldly passions and vices were not alien to Gregory either. According to fellow villagers (who, however, must be treated very carefully), Grigory's nature was violently reckless: along with charitable deeds, he drove horses while drunk, liked to fight, used foul language, in a word, his marriage did not settle down. “Grishka the thief” was called behind his back. “Stealing hay, taking other people's firewood away was his business. He was very brawling and reveling ... How many times they beat him: they pushed him in the neck, like an annoying drunkard, cursing with choice words.

Passing from peasant labor to peasant revelry, Grigory lived in his native Pokrovsky until the age of twenty-eight, until an inner voice called him to another life, to the life of a wanderer. In 1892, Grigory went to the county town of Verkhotursk (Perm province), to the Nikolaevsky Monastery, where the relics of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye were kept, pilgrims from all over Russia came to bow to them.

Rasputin considered himself to be one of those people who in Russia have long been called "old men", "wanderers". This is a purely Russian phenomenon, and its source is in the tragic history of the Russian people.
Hunger, cold, pestilence, cruelty of the tsarist official are the eternal companions of the Russian peasant. Where, from whom to expect consolation? Only from those on whom even the omnipotent power, not recognizing their own laws, did not dare to raise a hand - from people not of this world, from wanderers, holy fools and clairvoyants. In the popular mind, these are God's people.
In suffering, in great torment, the country emerging from the Middle Ages, not knowing what lay ahead of it, superstitiously looked at these amazing people - wanderers, kalik passers-by, who were not afraid of anything and no one, who dared to speak the truth loudly. Often wanderers were called elders, although according to the then concepts, even a thirty-year-old person could sometimes be considered an old man.

Rasputin with his countryman and friend Mikhail Pecherkin went to Athos, and from there to Jerusalem. They traveled most of the way on foot, enduring many hardships. But suffering, spiritual and physical, paid off a hundredfold when they saw with their own eyes the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives (Oleon), the Holy Sepulcher, and Bethlehem.

Holy Sepulcher
Returning to Russia, Rasputin continued to wander. I was in Kiev, Trinity-Sergiev, on Solovki, in Valaam, Sarov, Pochaev, in Optina Pustyn, in the Nil, the Holy Mountains, that is, in all places, somehow famous for their holiness.

Optina Pustyn

The family laughed at him. He did not eat meat and sweets, heard different voices, walked from Siberia to St. Petersburg and back, ate alms. In the spring, he had exacerbations - he did not sleep for many days in a row, sang songs, shook his fists at Satan and ran through the frost in one shirt.

His prophecies were calls to repentance "before trouble comes." Sometimes, by sheer coincidence, misfortunes happened the very next day (huts burned, cattle got sick, people died) - and the peasants began to believe that the blessed peasant had the gift of foresight. He got followers.

At the age of 33, Grigory begins to storm Petersburg. Having enlisted the recommendations of provincial priests, he settled with the rector of the Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius, the future Stalinist patriarch.

Patriarch Sergius

He, impressed by the exotic character, represents the “old man” (many years of wandering on foot gave the young Rasputin the appearance of an old man) to the powers that be. Thus began the path of the "man of God" to glory.

The first loud prophecy of Rasputin was the prediction of the death of our ships at Tsushima. Perhaps he took this from the newspaper news, which reported that a squadron of old ships went out to meet the modern Japanese fleet without respecting secrecy.

Russian squadron in the battle of Tsushima

He dissuaded weak-willed monarchs from escaping to England (they are said to have already packed their things), which, most likely, would have saved them from death and would have directed the history of Russia in a different direction. The next time he presented the Romanovs with a miraculous icon (found from them after the execution), then he allegedly healed Tsarevich Alexei, who was ill with hemophilia, and eased the pain of Stolypin's daughter, who was wounded by terrorists.

Rasputin and Tsarevich Alexei

The shaggy man forever took possession of the hearts and minds of the august couple. The emperor personally arranges for Gregory to change the dissonant surname to "New" (which, however, did not take root). Soon Rasputin-Novykh acquires another lever of influence at court - the young lady-in-waiting Anna Vyrubova (a close friend of the queen) who idolizes the "old man".

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova

He becomes the confessor of the Romanovs and comes to the tsar at any time without making an appointment for an audience. At court, Gregory was always "in character", but outside the political scene he was completely transformed. Having bought himself a new house in Pokrovsky, he took noble St. Petersburg admirers there. There, the "old man" put on expensive clothes, became smug, gossiped about the king and nobles.

Rasputin's house in Pokrovsky

Every day he showed the queen (whom he called "mother") miracles: he predicted the weather or the exact time of the king's return home. It was then that Rasputin made his most famous prediction: "As long as I live, the dynasty will live." The growing power of Rasputin did not suit the court.

house on st. Gorokhovaya where Rsputin lived

Cases were initiated against him, but every time the “elder” very successfully left the capital, going either home to Pokrovskoye, or on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1911, the Synod spoke against Rasputin. Bishop Germogen (who expelled a certain Iosif Dzhugashvili from the seminary ten years ago) tried to drive the devil out of Gregory and publicly beat him on the head with a cross.

Rasputin was put under police surveillance, which did not stop until his death. Rasputin learned to read and write only in St. Petersburg. He left behind only short notes filled with terrible scribbles. Rasputin did not save money, now starving, then throwing it to the right and left. He seriously influenced the country's foreign policy, twice persuading Nicholas not to start a war in the Balkans (inspiring the tsar that the Germans were a dangerous force, and the "brothers", that is, the Slavs, were pigs).

When World War I nevertheless began, Rasputin expressed a desire to come to the front to bless the soldiers. The commander of the troops, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, promised to hang him on the nearest tree.

In response, Rasputin gave birth to another prophecy that Russia would not win the war until the autocrat (who had a military education, but showed himself to be a mediocre strategist) stood at the head of the army. The king, of course, led the army. With historical consequences. Politicians actively criticized the queen - the "German spy", not forgetting about Rasputin.

It was then that the image of the "grey eminence" was created, solving all state issues, although in fact Rasputin's power was far from absolute. German zeppelins scattered leaflets over the trenches, where the Kaiser relied on the people, and Nicholas II on Rasputin's genitals.

The priests were not far behind either. It was announced that the murder of Grishka is a boon for which "forty sins will be removed."

On July 29, 1914, the mentally ill Khionia Guseva stabbed Rasputin in the stomach, shouting: "I killed the Antichrist!" The wound was fatal, but Rasputin pulled himself out. According to his daughter's recollections, since then he has changed - he began to get tired quickly and took opium for pain.

Murder of Rasputin

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin

An important role in the rapid rise of Grigory Efimovich was played by his gift as a healer. Tsarevich Alexei suffered from hemophilia. His blood did not clot, and any small cut could end fatally. Rasputin also had the ability to stop the blood. He sat down near the wounded heir to the throne, quietly whispered some words, and the wound stopped bleeding. Doctors could not do anything of the kind, and therefore the elder became an indispensable person for the royal family.

However, the rise of a newcomer caused a feeling of discontent among many noble people. This was largely facilitated by the behavior of Grigory Efimovich himself. He led a dissolute life (according to his surname) and radically influenced decisions that were crucial for Russia. That is, the elder was not distinguished by modesty and did not want to be content with the role of a court physician. Thus, he himself signed the sentence for himself, which is known to everyone as the murder of Rasputin.

conspirators

At the end of 1916, a conspiracy arose against the royal favorite. The number of conspirators included influential and noble people. These were: Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov (cousin of the emperor), Prince Yusupov Felix Feliksovich, deputy of the State Duma Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich, as well as Lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin and military doctor Stanislav Sergeevich Lazovert.

F.F. Yusupov

Prince Yusupov with his wife Irina
It was in the house of the Yusupovs that the murder of Rasputin was committed.

There is also an opinion that British intelligence officer Oswald Reiner was a member of the conspiracy. Already in the 21st century, at the suggestion of the BBC, the opinion arose that the plot was organized by the British. Allegedly, they were afraid that the elder would persuade the emperor to make peace with Germany. In this case, the entire power of the German machine would have fallen on Foggy Albion.

Oswald Reiner

As the BBC broadcast, Oswald Rainer knew Prince Yusupov from childhood. They had good friendships. Therefore, the Briton easily persuaded the high-society nobleman to organize a conspiracy. At the same time, an English intelligence officer was present at the murder of the royal favorite and even, allegedly, made a control shot in his head. All this bears little resemblance to the truth, if only because none of the conspirators subsequently mentioned in a single word about the involvement of the British in the conspiracy. And there was no such thing as a "control shot" at all.

Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov (left)
and Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich

In addition, you need to take into account the mentality of people who lived 100 years ago. The murder of the almighty old man was considered the work of the Russian people. Prince Yusupov, out of noble motives, would never have allowed his English friend to be present at the execution of the royal favorite. In any case, it was a criminal offense, and, therefore, punishment could follow. And the prince could not allow this in relation to a citizen of another country.

Thus, we can conclude that there were only 5 conspirators, and all of them were Russian people. A noble desire burned in their souls to save the royal family and Russia from the machinations of ill-wishers. Grigory Efimovich was considered the culprit of all evils. The conspirators naively believed that by killing the old man, they would change the inevitable course of history. However, time has shown that these people were deeply mistaken.

Chronology of Rasputin's assassination

The murder of Rasputin took place on the night of December 17, 1916. The scene of the crime was the house of the Yusupov princes in St. Petersburg on the Moika.

It has a basement room. They put chairs, a table, and hoisted a samovar on it. Cakes, macaroons and chocolate biscuits were placed on plates. A large dose of potassium cyanide was added to each of them. A tray with bottles of wine and glasses was placed nearby on a separate table. They kindled a fireplace, threw a bearskin on the floor and went after the victim.

Prince Yusupov went for Grigory Efimovich, and the doctor Lazovert was driving the car. The reason for the visit was far-fetched. Allegedly, Felix's wife Irina wanted to meet the elder. The prince phoned him beforehand and arranged a meeting. Therefore, when the car arrived at Gorokhovaya Street, where the favorite of the royal family lived, Felix was already waiting.

Rasputin, dressed in a luxurious fur coat, left the house and got into the car. He immediately set off, and after midnight the trinity returned to the Moika to the Yusupovs' house. The remaining conspirators gathered in a room on the 2nd floor. They turned on the lights everywhere, turned on the gramophone and pretended to be a noisy merry company.

V.M. Purishkevich, Lieutenant S.M. Sukhotin, F.F. Yusupov

Felix explained to the old man that his wife had guests. They should leave soon, but for now you can wait in the lower room. At the same time, the prince apologized, referring to his parents. They could not stand the royal favorite. The elder knew about this, so he was not at all surprised when he found himself in a basement that looked like a casemate.

Here the guest was offered to eat sweets standing on the table. Grigory Efimovich loved cakes, so he ate them with pleasure. But nothing happened. Potassium cyanide, for unknown reasons, had no effect on the body of the old man. As if he was protected by supernatural powers.

Grigory Efimovich at home

After the cakes, the guest drank Madeira and began to show impatience at the absence of Irina. Yusupov expressed a desire to go upstairs and find out when the guests would finally leave. He left the basement and went up to the conspirators, who were looking forward to the good news. But Felix disappointed them and plunged them into a state of bewilderment.

However, the execution had to be carried out, so the noble prince took the Browning and returned to the basement room. Entering the room, he immediately fired at Rasputin, who was sitting at the table. He slumped from his chair to the floor and fell silent. The rest of the conspirators appeared and carefully examined the elder. Grigory Efimovich was not killed, but a bullet that hit his chest wounded him mortally.

Having enjoyed the sight of the agonizing body, the whole company left the room, putting out the light in it and closing the door. After some time, Prince Yusupov went downstairs to check if the elder had already died. He went into the basement, went up to Grigory Efimovich, who was lying motionless. The body was still warm, but there was no doubt that the soul had already separated from it.

Felix was about to call the others to load the dead man into the car and take him out of the house. Suddenly the old man's eyelids fluttered and opened. Rasputin stared at his killer with a piercing gaze.

Then the incredible happened. The elder jumped to his feet, screamed wildly and dug his fingers into Yusupov's throat. He choked and incessantly repeated the name of the prince. He fell into indescribable horror and tried to free himself. The fight began. Finally, the prince managed to escape from the tenacious embrace of Grigory Efimovich. He then fell to the floor. In his hand was the shoulder strap from the prince's military uniform.

Felix ran out of the room and rushed upstairs for help. The conspirators rushed down and saw an old man running towards the exit from the house. The front door was locked, but the mortally wounded man pushed it with his hand, and it opened. Rasputin found himself in the yard and ran across the snow to the gate. If he found himself on the street, then for the conspirators it would mean the end.

Purishkevich rushed after the fleeing. He shot him in the back once, then a second, but missed. It should be noted that Vladimir Mitrofanovich was considered an excellent shooter. From a hundred steps he hit a silver ruble, but here he could not hit a wide back from 30. The elder was already near the gate when Purishkevich took careful aim and fired a third time. The bullet finally hit its target. She hit Grigory Efimovich in the neck, and he stopped. Then the 4th shot was fired. A piece of red-hot lead pierced the head of the old man, and the mortally wounded man collapsed to the ground.

The conspirators ran up to the body and hurriedly carried it into the house. However, loud gunshots in the night attracted the police. A policeman arrived at the house to find out their cause. He was told that Rasputin had been shot at, and the guardian of the law retreated without taking any measures.

After that, the body of the old man was placed in a closed car. But the fatally wounded man still showed signs of life. He was wheezing, and the pupil of his open left eye was rolling.

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Dr. Lazovert and Lieutenant Sukhotin got into the car. They took the body to Malaya Nevka and threw it into the hole. With this, the long and painful murder of Rasputin ended.

Conclusion

When the investigating authorities removed the corpse from the Neva 3 days later, an autopsy showed that the elder lived under water for another 7 minutes.

The amazing vitality of the body of Grigory Efimovich even today inspires superstitious horror in the souls of people.

Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna ordered to bury the murdered man in the far corner of the park in Tsarskoye Selo. An order was also given to build a mausoleum. A wooden chapel was erected next to the temporary grave. Members of the royal family visited there every week and prayed for the soul of the innocently murdered martyr.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the corpse of Grigory Efimovich was removed from the grave, taken to the Polytechnic Institute and burned in the furnace of his boiler room.

the boiler room where Rasputin's body was cremated

As for the fate of the conspirators, they became extremely popular among the people. However, murderers at all times were punished regardless of motives and motivations.

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich was sent to the troops of General Baratov. They performed an allied duty in Persia. By the way, this saved the life of a member of the Romanov dynasty. When the revolution broke out in Russia, the Grand Duke was not in Petrograd.

Felix Yusupov was exiled to one of his estates. In 1918, the prince left Russia with his wife Irina. At the same time, from the entire huge state, he took the crumbs. These are jewelry and paintings. Their total cost was estimated at several hundred thousand royal rubles. Everything else was looted and plundered by the insurgent people.

As for Purishkevich, Lazovert and Sukhotin, all charges against them were dropped. Here the February Revolution played its role, and the personality of the person they killed. Undoubtedly, only one thing - this murder greatly increased their authority and prestige.

The murder of Rasputin at all times caused a lot of assumptions, conjectures and hypotheses. There are many dark spots in this case. Of particular bewilderment is the astonishing vitality of the old man. He could not take potassium cyanide and bullets. All this gives the crime a mystical component. This is quite possible, given the fact that materialism has long ceased to be the fundamental doctrine that denies everything unusual and supernatural that lives side by side with us.

The article was written by Vladimir Chernov

Name: Rasputin Grigory Efimovich

State: the Russian Empire

Field of activity: Politics, religion

Greatest Achievement: Became an adviser to the imperial family, had influence on Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova and through her on the policy of the state

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was born in 1869 in the West Siberian village of Pokrovskoye.

As a child, he had developmental problems, as a result of which he led an immoral lifestyle and violated the law in his youth.

Tired of this way of life, Rasputin turned to faith. He became a religious elder, a wandering healer.

The people recognized a certain healing and divinatory gift in Rasputin, which once led to his acquaintance with the imperial family.

Rasputin was the only one who could cope with the symptoms of hemophilia, which tormented Tsarevich Alexei, which allowed the elder to constantly be at court, and also influence the decisions of the empress.

The activities of Rasputin and his influence on the royal family could not but cause a protest from a part of the top of the state, which subsequently led to the murder of Rasputin by Felix Yusupov.

He was considered a miracle worker and anarchist: Grigory Rasputin was born into a farming family and reached the adviser to the family of the Russian emperor. Not everyone appreciated his skyrocketing career. In 1916, Rasputin was the victim of a brutal murder.

On December 19, 1916, a man was found on the ice of the Neva River in St. Petersburg. His face was mutilated, his skull was dented, his right eye was gouged out. He was shot several times. However, this man was still alive and was trying to remove the shackles. This almost dead man was Grigory Rasputin.

In their report, the police wrote that on the days of the funeral, many came to the banks of the Neva to scoop up water in buckets and glasses - with water there was the power of the dead, which could work miracles, as was believed at that time in Russia.

Life of Rasputin

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was born in 1869 in the West Siberian village of Pokrovskoye. He called himself "The Elder", a beggar. A religious preacher who never had a theological education. How this pious vagabond became one of Russia's most powerful figures is posthumously sung by Boney M.'s "Lover of the Russian Queen" is considered one of the most popular mysteries of the 20th century.

The sources available today allow us to analyze his life in some detail, because almost all the people in his environment wrote something about him: the Imperial family, his Jewish secretary, his murderers. A few years ago, the Russian playwright and historian Edward Radzinsky made a valuable addition to Rasputin's X-Files. Radzinsky received from an auction at Sotheby's (one of the oldest auction houses in the world) a carefully stitched 426-page material on the death of Rasputin, issued in 1917.

Provincial People's Prophet

Although assessments of Rasputin vary greatly - some noted black spots in the mouth, an unpleasant smell, others, on the contrary, admired his white strong teeth - in any case, it was undeniable how powerful the provincial people's prophet was. Rasputin was given offices and even ministerial positions. He served the imperial family as a confessor, healer and advisor.

Some tend to believe that there was a romantic and even sexual relationship between Rasputin. But, in particular, Edvard Radzinsky and other historians see no signs of sexual relations between the Empress and Rasputin. In fact, he was not so close to the royal family and rarely visited the royal court. Nevertheless, on the eve of the revolution, the aristocracy returned to normal life, but they still found a potential “sinner” in the monk. The end of his life also marked the end of imperial power in Russia. He was killed in December 1916. Literally two months later, a revolution began in the country.

In his Siberian village, Rasputin was considered a failure. His fellow villagers called him "Grishka the Fool". He stole a lot, drank everything that burned, led a very wild life. But at some point, Rasputin decided to turn to faith and began to wander from one monastery to another.

At the end of 1903, Rasputin moved to St. Petersburg. There, the respected priest John of Kronstadt certified his faith, gave parting words (since the diaries of neither Rasputin nor John have been preserved, it is not yet possible to find out the reliable details of this meeting). Rasputin comes to the imperial court, where his healing abilities came in handy. He made a very strong impression on him.

The fact is that the son of Nicholas II suffered from hemophilia (low blood clotting). When he was diagnosed with blood poisoning in the fall of 1907, the royal family summoned Rasputin. A wonderful healer blesses the room, reads prayers - and the boy is suddenly cured.

At least from that day on, Rasputin has been an indispensable person in the Tsar's court. The queen considers him a messenger of God.

But even after that, the anarchist Rasputin is clearly not satisfied with this power. He criticizes the tsar, attacks the nobility, advocates a constitution, and accuses the landlords of depriving the farmers of their education and land. In the circles of aristocrats, he is positioned as a plebeian.

Rasputin was a great favorite of women. There was an opinion among the people that he led a rather riotous lifestyle and even accused him of immorality. Some even claimed that he collected a whole harem at his home.

Many rumors began to form around Rasputin. Newspapers carried out entire campaigns against Rasputin, reported on his alleged victims.

Murder of Rasputin

Since the royal family ordered to guard Rasputin, any attempts to kill him were suppressed by the police. In November 1916, a dispute about the dubious old man began to rise in the State Duma. The right-wing deputies are massively attacking the tsar and the "German queen". Deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, known for his anti-Semitic views, claimed that "dark forces" ruled the country. "All this comes from Rasputin, it threatens the existence of the empire."

They also thought for a long time in court circles, including Prince Felix Yusupov and the young Grand Duke Dmitry. Together with Purishkevich, they developed a plan to assassinate Rasputin in December 1916.

So, Prince Yusupov invited Rasputin to his place to introduce him to his attractive wife. But, instead of a lady, there was an abundance of wine in the basement of the Yusupov Palace. First, he was offered tea with eclairs, in which potassium cyanide was diluted in advance. But this did not affect Rasputin's condition at all. Neither eclairs with potassium cyanide nor poisoned wine took it. Then Yusupov shot Rasputin. But despite this, after the shot, he woke up and tried to escape, but the killers caught up with him, tied him up and threw him from the bridge into the river. But even then he was still alive. This is believed because when his body was found, there was neither cloth nor ropes on it.

“I am lost,” the tsar said after the news of Rasputin's death. Although, this bloody act showed discord in the Romanov family: Some family members demanded in a petition to recognize the murder as a patriotic act. In general, many positively perceived the death of Rasputin. In the State Duma, a whole celebration was held on this occasion.

Although the tsar refused, but Yusupov, who later lived serenely in Paris, was banished to the estate. Later, Maria Rasputina, daughter of Gregory, wrote that her father was called a "spy", "holy devil" and "horse thief".