Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin was a monk and a faith healer. He is mainly famous for his role as the mystical advisor in the royal court of Czar Nicholas 2 of Russia. His rivals often called him ‘the mad monk’ and ‘fraud monk’.

Grigori Rasputin born in 1869 to a poor peasant family in Siberia. Possibly he never learned to read and write. Village people often believed that Rasputin got spiritual powers and supernatural feelings from his childhood. Many villagers also experienced the extreme cruelty of child Rasputin towards animals.

As Rasputin wanted to become a monk, he entered the Verkhoture Monastery in Russia. But he left it in order to get married. He married Proskovia Fyodorovna when he was 19. The couple got three children but two of them died earlier. In early 20’s he left his family and traveled Greece and Middle East as a pilgrim.

Rasputin’s fame of spirituality brought him St. Petersburg in 1903. In 1905 Czar Nicholas 2 and Czarina Alexandra Feodornova came to know about his healing power. Their son Alexis was suffering from hemophilia. The king and the queen experienced Rasputin’s power when he cured Alexis by healing. The royal couple, especially the queen became very passionate towards Rasputin.

Grigori Rasputin soon became very faithful towards Alexandra. Many politicians and journalists used his power of association with the royal family to reform the state system. In fact, he became the topmost unofficial advisor of Czarina Alexandra. At that time the press published many of his sexually vulgar activities.

Many of the ministers of the royal court advised Alexandra to dismiss Rasputin. But Czarina already began to trust Rasputin blindly. As a matter of fact, she dismissed many of the ministers and government officials because of having doubts about Rasputin.

At night of December 29 in 1916, a group of royal men including grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich invited Rasputin to dinner and poisoned him. But the poison proved ineffective. Then they shot Rasputin multiple times and threw him into Neva river.

According to the popular beliefs, Rasputin’s prophecy came true when the Bolshevik revolutionaries killed the royal family in a body. People still remember Rasputin as a mysterious man of history.