Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (January 10, 1869 - December 16, 1916 (O.S.))
was a Russian mystic with an influence in the later days of Russia's Romanov
dynasty.
He was also known as the 'Mad Monk', although he was not actually a monk,
but a starets, or religious pilgrim. He was believed to have been a faith
healer. He can be considered one of the more controversial characters in
20th century history, although Rasputin is viewed by most historians today
as a scapegoat. He played a small but extremely pivotal role in the downfall
of the Romanov dynasty that finally led to Bolshevik victory and the
establishment of the Soviet Union.
Rasputin played an important role in the lives of the Tsar Nicholas II, his
wife, the Tsarina Alexandra and their only son, the Tsarevich Alexei, who
was a hemophilia patient and suffered from a lot of pain.
The name Rasputin in Russian does not mean "licentious", as is often
claimed. It may bear the connotation of "mud", as in rasputitsa -- "mud
season" (i.e., "rainy season"). However, most historians agree that his name
signifies, roughly, a place where two rivers meet, which describes the area
from which the Rasputin family originates. It is said that Rasputin tried to
have his name changed to the inconspicuous "Novykh" ("New Man") after his
first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but this is a subject of dispute. In
fact, "Rasputin" is a not-uncommon surname, and does not have a
"disgraceful" meaning, as the contemporary Russian writer, Valentin
Rasputin, would be quick to explain.
Rasputin, whose date of birth is a matter of dispute (generally ranging from
1869 to 1871), was born into a Siberian peasant family in the Tyumen
district. He was regarded as the last resort of the desperate Tsar and
Tsarina. They had tried everywhere to find a cure for their son and in 1905
asked the charismatic peasant healer for help. He was said to possess the
ability to heal through prayer, and he was indeed able to give the boy some
relief. Skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis, though during a
particularly grave crisis, Rasputin, from his home in Siberia, apparently
eased the suffering of the tsarevitch (in Saint Petersburg) through prayer.
Since this was not the first time that he healed the tsarevitch, it does not
prove that the healing resulted from prayer rather than from a psychosomatic
effect, but it does cast grave doubt on the hypnosis hypothesis.
He was called "Our friend" by the tsar, a sign perhaps of the trust the
family put in him. Especially on Alexandra he had a considerable personal
and political influence. They considered him to be a man of God and a
religious prophet. Their relationship can also be viewed in the context of
the very strong, traditional, age-old bond between the Russian Orthodox
Church and the Russian leadership.
Rasputin in the meantime became a controversial figure, leading a scandalous
personal life with his mostly female followers from the Saint Petersburg
high society. Furthermore, he was frequently seen picking up prostitutes and
often drank himself into a stupor. According to Rasputin's daughter, Maria,
Rasputin did "look into" the Klysthy sect, and rejected them. While the
Western world is particularly interested in the sexual aspects of this sect
(supposedly tied to a belief that one can obtain humility only by debasing
oneself), Rasputin was particularly appalled by the belief that grace is
found by harming one's body. Like most Orthodox Christians, Rasputin was
brought up with the belief that the body is a sacred gift from God.
(Attaining divine grace through sin seems to have been one of the central
secret doctrines that Rasputin preached to (and practiced with) his inner
circle of society ladies). The idea that one can attain grace through sin is
not secret. It is also understood that sin is an inescapable part of the
human condition, and the responsibility of a believer is to be keenly aware
of his sins, and willing to confess them, thereby attaining humility.
During World War I he became a focus of accusations of unpatriotic influence
at court; the unpopular Tsarina was of German descent, and her confidante
Rasputin was accused of being a spy in German employ. Nobles in influential
positions around the tsar as well as some parties of the Duma, the Russian
parliament, clamoured for his removal from the court of the tsar.
Prince Felix Yussupov, an important member of the elite of Saint Petersburg,
finally took the lead in the decision to murder Rasputin. On the night of
December 29/December 30, 1916 (16 December according to the Julian calendar
that was still used in Russia at the time), Yussupov invited Rasputin to his
palace on the pretext of his wife Irina needing his attentions as a healer.
In a dining room in the palace basement, the Prince plied his guest with
poisoned wine and cakes; when the Siberian peasant failed to die, he and his
co-conspirators repeatedly shot Rasputin in the chest, back and head, and
beat him around the head with a dumb-bell handle. They then tied the
purported corpse into a sheet and dropped it through a hole in the ice into
the river Neva, where the sturdy peasant finally drowned, having drifted
under the ice, still fighting to free himself.
Within three months Nicholas II and the Romanov dynasty were overthrown;
within 19 months the tsar and his family were all dead.
The contemporary press as well as sensationalist articles and books that
were published in the 1920s and 1930s (one of them even by Yusupov,
Rasputin's main murderer) turned the charismatic peasant into something of a
20th-century folk myth. To Westerners, Rasputin became the embodiment of the
purported Russian backwardness, superstition, irrationality and
licentiousness, and an object of sensational interest; to the Russian
Communists, he represented all that was evil in the old regime and had been
overcome in the revolution. Yet to the ordinary Russian people, he remained
a symbol of the voice of the peasantry, and many (Russians) to this day
reject the myths, honoring the man. In fact, after the fall of the Communist
government, key documentation was discovered, and the Church considered
canonizing Rasputin as a martyr. This, obviously, is in conflict with what
is stated by the writer of the paragraph below, presumably written about
certain documents that were written for the express purpose of demonizing
Rasputin to justify his murder. Unfortunately, a number of things will
remain in dispute until all the documentation is verified and released.
Since the end of Communism in Russia in the 1990s, some Russian nationalists
have tried to whitewash Rasputin's reputation and use the powerful 20th
century archetype that he has become for their own end. New evidence that
has surfaced since the end of the Soviet Union, however, clearly refutes
their claims of his saintliness.
