Rasputin

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: Григо́рий Ефи́мович Распу́тин)  1869 –1916) was a Russian ”mystic” who is perceived as having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the TsaritsaAlexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the “Mad Monk,” while others considered him a “strannik” (or religious pilgrim) and even a starets (ста́рец, “elder”, a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be apsychic and faith healer.

It has been argued that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer, and prophet, and, on the other side of the coin, as a debauched religious charlatan. Historians may find both to be true, but there is much uncertainty, for accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend. – Taken from Wikipedia

Rasputin was the father of communism in Russia, and was killed by Russian loyalists in December of 1916.  He was considered by some a witch, by some a Communist, and by some a healer.  Raputin was traveling in Russia, when he heard of Tsarevich Alexei’s illness, haemophilia, or internal bleeding. Rasputin was heavily favored by the Tsarina, because he was the only one who could help the internal bleeding.  He used his influence to put pro-Communist leaders into governmental positions.When it was found that he had raped a nun, most Russians decided it was time to go.  A certain Khionia Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputins abdomen, and (graphic content warning)

 

seeing his entrails hanging out of himself, convinced that he was dead, walked out onto the street, yelling out that Rasputin was dead.  After intense surgery, however, Rasputin recovered.  

 

December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin’s influence over the Tsaritsa had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (one of the few Romanov family members to escape the annihilation of the family during the Red Terror), decided to kill him.  Prince Felix lured Rasputin to his home by telling him his wife (known for her beauty) was at his home, after returning from Crimea.  It happens, however, that his wife was still in Crimea.  Yusupov went to pick up Rasputin by car, with Dr. Lazavert driving, (another of the conspirators) disguised as a chauffeur.  Once at Felix’s house, Rasputin went down into the basement with host.  Then, by themselves, they talked.  Yusupov offered Rasputin a rose cake poisened with cyanide by Dr. Lazavert.  Rasputin ate it with no effect.  Yusupov offered him another, and another, and still Rasputin showed no signs of being poisoned.  Yusupov gave him a glass of wine, and then a glass of wine poisoned by Dr. Lazavert.  After drinking the poisoned wine, Rasputin clutched his throat, and stood up.  When Yusupov asked him what the matter was, Rasputin said he had a sligh throat irritation.  It must have soon gone away, for history tells that he asked for another glass of Madeira.  Yusupove gave him the deadly drink, and Rasputin, after guzzling it, still showed no sign of being poisoned.  It was two thirty in the morning.  Yusupov made an excuse to go upstairs for a minute, and went to the top of the stairs where his friends were waiting.  Dr. Lazavert had fainted from the stress.  Yusupov took Dmitri’s revolver, and holding it behind his back, went back down to the cellar room.  Atop a cupboard was a crucifix.  Yusupov walked over to it.  ”I love this crucifix.” He said.  Rasputin thought the objects in the cupboard were more to his liking.  Yusupov replied.  ”Gregory Efimovich, you had better look at the crucifix, and say a prayer before it. ”  

Yusupov leveled the revolver and pulled the trigger.   

Rasputin’s body fell to the rug like a log.  The rest of the party came rushing downstairs.  

There was no blood.

Rasputin was still breathing,  but lay there still, and dying.

Captian Sukhotin put on Rasputin’s coat, and drove to Rasputin’s house, to make it seem like Rasputin returned.  The others, with the exceptions or Yusupov and Puriskevich.  They smoked and talked upstairs.  Eventually Yusupov went back into the cellar.  All of a sudden, Rasputin’s left eyelid opened.  Rasputin sat up.

He stood up.

He grasped Prince Felix Yusupov’s should and started wispering “Felix…Felix…I’ll tell it all to the Tsarina”

Yusupov wriggled free and rushed upstairs screaming: “Purishkevich, shoot, shoot, he’s getting away!!!”

Rasputin was climbing up the cellar stairs on all fours, foaming at the mouth. 

Yusupov and Purishkevich stared in horror. 

Rasputin was crawling down the hall, screaming bloody murder.

Yusupov and Purishkevich stared in horror. 

Rasputin crawled out the door into the courtyard.

Yusupov and Purishkevich stared in horror. 

Rasputin crawled to the unlocked gate.

Finally Purishkevich shot.  His First two bullets missed, but the second two hit him in the shoulder, and the neck.  

Rasputin fell dead.

Yusupov came to look at the body.  

An eye opened. 

Yusupov frantically grabbed a leaded walking stick and started beating Rasputin’s body until Purishkevich pulled him away.  Purishkevich drove to the Petrovsky bridge, bound and gagged the body just to make sure.  The water was ice cold, no one could survive in it for more than five minutes, if that.  They dumped Rasputin’s body off the bridge.  On the way down, it hit the side of the bridge and broke it’s head open.  The conspirators drove away.

Three cyanide poisoned cakes.

Two cyanide poisoned glasses of wine.

Shot three times, two of the shots were pronounced fatal by the medical examiners.

Beaten into a bloody pulp.

Head split open on a fall from the bridge into below freezing waters.

Rasputin was found encased in ice, with one hand free and trying to swim to the surface, and his lungs full of water, meaning that he was alive, and trying to breath. 

Rasputin was dead.        

I would like to thank Warren H. Carroll, whose book “1917″ provided a lot of information for me, which made this post possible.  His book is available for purchase here.

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