Bullets do in fact kill

The Life of Rasputin

Russian History - Rasputin

I’m sure we’ve all heard the famous “RA RA RASPUTIN” blazing out loud during a disco, and enjoyed the musical masterpiece written by Boney M in the 70s, but who is he really...?

Rasputin otherwise known as Grigori Yefimovich Novykh, was born 1869. Rasputin never was his real name. Instead, it means ‘debauched one’, and it came to stick after his actions spread amongst the Russian public.

Rasputin’s ‘debauched’ behaviour originates from his religion: Khylsty. This religion believed in that one was nearest to God when they were being “Holy Passionless”, so in other words, when they were sexually exhausted after a day of hardworking debauchery. This persisted after his marriage, and after his wife bore him 4 kids, and was one of the major reasons people disliked him.

He was born in Siberia, which also led to most of his childhood being mystic and unknown, with possible accounts of telepathic abilities (however most likely fake as they are all unsupported by evidence). He then went on a pilgrimage to Greece and the holy lands, but eventually went to St Petersburg, in search of new opportunities.

During this time, Tsar Nicholas II faced problems with his only son, Alexis. He suffered from a severe case of Haemophilia, meaning he would bleed more than normal – and for those biology students, its because he lacked platelet production, and cuts wouldn’t cut easily.

How did he end up in the Russian Royal Court?

After arriving in St. Petersburg in 1904, Rasputin won over the local bishop, and gained reputation as a preacher, completing acts of miracles and daily tasks. Nobles owed him, ordinary people lined outside of his apartment to ask him for favours. He was able to complete what people asked, and he even said, “I could do anything”. His confidence grew with every success, and with it, his ego.

Soon enough, in 1905, his skill and miracle making abilities brought him to close to Anna Vryubova(also one of his lovers), who brought him all the way to the winter palace, and to the Tsar - To put this into context for you, he went from an illiterate peasant all the way to the Tsar himself in the royal courtroom, all because he knew how to fool people.

Surprisingly enough, Rasputin did have a few tricks up his sleeve: his ailments and cures did lead to the Tsarevich Alexis getting better from the wrath of haemophilia. The Tsarina believed him to be in him and made him a regular presence in court, thinking that he could heal his son - how he did it, however, is up for debate, and for you to decide. Afterwards, the Romanov’s supplied him with an apartment near the Winter Palace for him to be on duty at any time.

Despite being popular with the Tsarina, in 1911 Stolypin and other members of the court despised him, and eventually sent him away. Until their death of course. Luckily enough, three months after getting sent away, Rasputin returned because of Stolypin’s assassination, another mystery for you to decide what happened.

The Tsar himself actually wasn’t all too fond of Rasputin, but because of his wife being the dominant power within their relationship, he stayed, with the Tsar saying and I quote: “Better one Rasputin than ten fits of hysteria everyday”.

Rumours of the Man, the Myth, the Legend: Rasputin

A sexual deviant? A miracle monk? A political saboteur? Who really is Rasputin, and what do you believe about him?

1. He had super scary super powerful mystical powers.

I don’t know about you, but this one is NOT TRUE... Although he may have completed a series of history acts, some of it might be exaggerated or Rasputin might’ve done something we didn’t expect - for example for the Tsarevich Alexis, he may have utilised herbs and ailments, or just got lucky and he recovered on his own.

2. He was the lover of the Tsarina

This myth and widespread rumour from the time of Rasputin stemmed from his closeness with the Tsarina, Alexandra Feodorovna. The Tsarina believed Rasputin had the ability to cure his son from haemophilia, or at least him feel better, so she wanted him to go with her as standby. The rumour went further when the Tsar went to the frontlines to control the army. Rasputin had a certain charm on the Tsarina, in which the Tsarina would do whatever he asked – which is also the origin of all the corruption and useless ministers. However, as many of you may know, there is no formal evidence of Rasputin being in a relationship. Yes, indeed at one point “Tsarina’s letter” to Rasputin was printed on the press, it was most likely taken out of context, or even completely faked. The Okhrana Reports on Rasputin also show that there was no actual intimacy between the two supposed lovers. They do show Rasputin as a very busy person though, constantly finding new women, going to parties, writing love letters (with cases of talking, beyond talking actually, to multiple women in a day – the website: https://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/rasputinreport.php). Additionally, the Tsarina was also a very Victorian woman and Christian, which provides no incentive for her to have sexual relations with Rasputin.

Now, you may ask, so who did it and why? Well, the answer is simply trivial, parties that opposed the Tsar. After the passing of ‘freedom of speech and press’(not really), the press and the opposition parties wanted to take a few shots to the Tsar, but they were too afraid. So they decided to destroy his reputation through people close to him, which in this case is Rasputin.

3. The murder of Grigori Rasputin – was he truly that hard to kill?

The popular belief regarding Rasputin’s death was that he was poisoned, shot, then beat, then thrown into the river, until his eventual death of drowning. To you, this might sound miraculous and somewhat impossible, which is entirely what it is…. the reality, however, is shown in a post-mortem photograph and his autopsy report. He received three equally fatal gunshots, including one straight through the brain – meaning his death was unavoidable. His lungs were also not filled with water, which meant he didn’t drown. As for the bruises across his entire body…. It simply was how he was dealt with after death – being hit against the railing and being retrieved by grappling hooks aren’t exactly the best ways to do it. On the whole, his death was very normal and simple, and the difficult to kill aspect was almost definitely made up – just to show he is a spawn of the devil and truly that evil. A closer look on this myth is here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12024-024-00793-9#:~:text=Harris%20states%20that%20’The%20autopsy,1916%2C%20he%20was%20fatally%20shot.