Rasputin's personal life. Grigory Rasputin. Biography. The "elder" knew how to heal the attacks of Tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (Novykh). Born on January 9 (21), 1869 - killed on December 17 (30), 1916. Peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. He gained worldwide fame thanks to the fact that he was a friend of the family of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

In the 1900s, among certain circles of St. Petersburg society, he had a reputation as a "tsarist friend", "elder", seer and healer. The negative image of Rasputin was used in revolutionary, later in Soviet propaganda; there are still many rumors about Rasputin and his influence on the fate of the Russian Empire.

The ancestor of the Rasputin family was "Izosim Fyodorov son". The census book of the peasants of the village of Pokrovskoye for 1662 says that he and his wife and three sons - Semyon, Nason and Yevsey - had come to Pokrovskaya Sloboda twenty years earlier from the Yarensky district and "became arable land." Son Nason later received the nickname "Rosputa". All the Rosputins, who became Rasputins at the beginning of the 19th century, originated from him.

According to the yard census of 1858, there were more than thirty peasants in Pokrovskoye who bore the surname "Rasputin", including Efim, Grigory's father. The surname comes from the words "crossroads", "mudslides", "crossroads".

Grigory Rasputin was born on January 9 (21), 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province, in the family of the coachman Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin (1841-1916) and Anna Vasilievna (1839-1906) (nee Parshukova).

Information about the date of birth of Rasputin is extremely contradictory. Sources report different dates of birth between 1864 and 1872. The historian K.F.Shatzillo in an article about Rasputin in the TSB reports that he was born in 1864-1865. 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 be more consistent with the image of the "old man."

At the same time, in the metric book of the Slobodo-Pokrovskaya Mother of God Church of the Tyumen District of the Tobolsk province in the first part "On the Born" there is a record of the birth on January 9, 1869 and an explanation: "Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilyevna of the Orthodox faith had a son, Grigory." He was baptized on January 10. The receivers (godparents) were uncle Matthew Yakovlevich Rasputin and the girl Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received the name, according to the existing tradition, to name the baby after the saint on whose day he was born or baptized.

The day of the baptism of Grigory Rasputin - January 10, the day of the commemoration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

I was sick a lot in my youth. After a pilgrimage to the Verkhoturye Monastery, he turned to religion.

Grigory Rasputin's growth: 193 centimeters.

In 1893 he traveled to the holy places of Russia, visited Mount Athos in Greece, then Jerusalem. I met and established contacts with many representatives of the clergy, monks, and pilgrims.

In 1900 he set off on a new journey to Kiev. On the way back, he lived in Kazan for a long time, where he met Father Mikhail, who was related to the Kazan Theological Academy.

In 1903 he came to St. Petersburg to visit the rector of the theological academy, Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky). At the same time, the inspector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Theophan (Bystrov), met Rasputin, introducing him also to Bishop Germogen (Dolganov).

By 1904, Rasputin had acquired from a part of the high society the fame of an "old man", a "holy fool" and a "divine man", which "reinforced the position of a" saint "in the eyes of the Petersburg world", or at least he was considered a "great ascetic."

Father Feofan told about the "wanderer" to the daughters of the Montenegrin prince (later king) Nikolai Njegos - Milica and Anastasia. The sisters told the empress about the new religious celebrity. Several years passed before he began to clearly stand out among the crowd of "God's people."

On November 1 (Tuesday) 1905, Rasputin's first personal meeting with the emperor took place. This event was honored with an entry in the diary of Nicholas II. Rasputin's references do not end there.

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

In December 1906, Rasputin submitted a petition to the highest name to change his last name to Rasputin-Novykh, referring to the fact that many of his fellow villagers bear the same surname, which may lead to misunderstandings. The petition was granted.

Grigory Rasputin. Healer at the throne

Accusation of "Khlystovism" (1903)

In 1903, his first persecution by the church began: the Tobolsk consistory received a report from the local priest Pyotr Ostroumov that Rasputin behaved strangely with women who came to him "from St. Petersburg itself", about their "Passions from which he relieves them ... in the bath", that in his youth Rasputin "from his life at the factories of the Perm province made an acquaintance with the teaching of the Khlystov heresy."

An investigator was sent to Pokrovskoye, but he did not find anything defamatory, and the case was filed in the archive.

On September 6, 1907, on a denunciation of 1903, the Tobolsk consistory opened a case against Rasputin, who was accused of spreading false teaching, similar to the Khlystov one, and forming a society of followers of his false teaching.

The initial investigation was carried out by Priest Nikodim Glukhovetsky. On the basis of the collected facts, Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, a member of the Tobolsk Consistory, prepared a report to Bishop Anthony with an attachment to the review of the case under consideration by a specialist in sects D.M.Beryozkin, an inspector of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary.

D.M.Beryozkin, in his response to the conduct of the case, noted that the investigation was carried out "By persons with little knowledge of the Khlysty"that only Rasputin's two-story residential building was searched, although it is known that the place where “It never fits in living quarters ... but always settles in the backyards - in baths, in sheds, in basements ... and even in dungeons ... Pictures and icons found in the house are not described, meanwhile they usually contain the solution to heresy ".

After that, the Tobolsk Bishop Anthony ordered an additional investigation of the case, entrusting it to an experienced anti-sectarian missionary.

As a result, the case "fell apart" and was approved as completed by Anthony (Karzhavin) on May 7, 1908.

Subsequently, the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, who had taken the case from the Synod, reported that it soon disappeared, but then "The case of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory about the Khlysty of Grigory Rasputin" eventually found in the Tyumen archive.

In 1909, the police were going to expel Rasputin from St. Petersburg, but Rasputin got ahead of her and went for some time to his homeland in the village of Pokrovskoye.

In 1910, his daughters moved to Petersburg to live with Rasputin, whom he arranged to study at a gymnasium. By order of the Prime Minister, Rasputin was under surveillance for several days.

At the beginning of 1911, Bishop Theophanes invited the Holy Synod to officially express displeasure with the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in connection with Rasputin's behavior, and a member of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), reported to Nicholas II about the negative influence of Rasputin.

On December 16, 1911, Rasputin had a clash with Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor. Bishop Hermogenes, who acted in alliance with Hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov), invited Rasputin to his courtyard, on Vasilievsky Island, in the presence of Iliodor, "denounced" him by striking him with a cross several times. An argument ensued between them, and then a fight.

In 1911, Rasputin voluntarily left the capital and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

By order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov on January 23, 1912, Rasputin was again placed under surveillance, which continued until his death.

The second case of "Khlystovism" (1912)

On February 26, 1912, at an audience, Rodzianko suggested that the tsar expel the peasant forever. Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) openly wrote that Rasputin is a whip and participates in the zeal.

The new (who replaced Eusebius (Grozdov) Tobolsk Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) personally took up this case, studied the materials, requested information from the clergyman of the Intercession Church, repeatedly talked with Rasputin himself. As a result of this new investigation, the conclusion of Tobolsk was prepared and approved on November 29, 1912. spiritual consistory, sent to many high-ranking officials and some deputies of the State Duma.In conclusion, Rasputin-Novyi was called “a Christian, a man spiritually inclined and seeking the truth of Christ.” No official accusations over Rasputin no longer weighed. But this did not mean that everyone believed in results of a new investigation.

Prophecies of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books: The Life of an Experienced Wanderer (1907) and My Thoughts and Reflections (1915).

In his prophecies, Rasputin speaks of "God's punishment", "bitter water", "tears of the sun", "poisonous rains" "until the end of our century."

The deserts will advance, and the earth will be inhabited by monsters that will not be humans or animals. Thanks to "human alchemy" there will be flying frogs, kite butterflies, crawling bees, huge mice and no less huge ants, as well as the "kobaka" monster. Two princes from the West and the East will challenge the right to world domination. They will have a battle in the land of four demons, but the western prince Grayug will defeat his eastern enemy Blizzard, but he himself will fall. After these misfortunes, people will turn to God again and enter the “earthly paradise”.

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 Rasputin is mentioned in the letters of Alexandra Fedorovna to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin's surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in letters is designated 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 has been preserved in the State Archives of the Russian Federation - Novoromanovsky archive.

Grigory Rasputin with the empress and the royal children

In 1912, Rasputin dissuaded the emperor from interfering in the Balkan War, which postponed the outbreak of the First World War by 2 years.

In 1915, anticipating the February Revolution, Rasputin demanded an improvement in the supply of bread to the capital.

In 1916, Rasputin decisively spoke out in favor of Russia's withdrawal from the war, the conclusion of peace with Germany, the renunciation of the rights to Poland and the Baltic States, as well as against the Russian-British alliance.

Press campaign against Rasputin

In 1910, the writer Mikhail Novosyolov published several critical articles about Rasputin in Moskovskiye Vedomosti (No. 49 - "Spiritual guest performer Grigory Rasputin", No. 72 - "Something else about Grigory Rasputin").

After that, the State Duma received a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the legality of punishing the editors of Voice of Moscow and Novoye Vremya.

In the same year 1912, Rasputin's acquaintance, former hieromonk Iliodor, began distributing several letters of scandalous content from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses to Rasputin.

Copies, printed on a hectograph, went around St. Petersburg. Most researchers consider these letters to be fake. Later, on the advice of Iliodor, he wrote the libelous book "Holy Devil" about Rasputin, which was published in 1917 during the revolution.

In 1913-1914, the Masonic Supreme Soviet of the VVNR made an attempt to campaign for the role of Rasputin at court.

Somewhat later, the Council made an attempt to publish a brochure directed against Rasputin, and when this attempt failed (the brochure was seized by the censorship), the Council took steps to distribute this brochure in a typewritten form.

Khioniya Guseva's assassination attempt on Rasputin

In 1914, an anti-Rasputin conspiracy matured, headed by Nikolai Nikolaevich and Rodzianko.

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye. He was stabbed in the stomach and severely wounded by Khioniya Guseva, who had arrived from Tsaritsyn.

Rasputin revealed that he suspected of organizing the assassination attempt of Iliodor, but could not provide any evidence of this.

On July 3, Rasputin was transported by steamer 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 in July 1915 was declared insane and released from criminal responsibility, placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk. On March 27, 1917, on the personal instructions of A.F. Kerensky, Guseva was released.

The assassination of Rasputin

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 17, 1916 (December 30, new style) at the Yusupovs' palace on the Moika. Conspirators: F.F.Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, British intelligence officer MI6 Oswald Reiner.

The information about the murder is contradictory, it was confused both by the killers themselves and by the pressure on the investigation of the Russian imperial and British authorities.

Yusupov changed his testimony several times: in the St. Petersburg police on December 18, 1916, in exile in the Crimea in 1917, in a 1927 book, sworn in 1934 and 1965.

Starting from naming the wrong color of the clothes that Rasputin was wearing according to the killers' version and in which he was found, and to how many and where bullets were fired.

For example, forensic experts found three wounds, each of which is fatal: in the head, in the liver and in the kidney. (According to British researchers who studied the photograph, the shot was made head-on with 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 after half an hour or an hour. There was also no shot in the heart, which the killers unanimously claimed.

Rasputin was first lured into the basement, treated with red wine and a pie poisoned with potassium 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 the cloak, checked the body, unexpectedly Rasputin woke up and tried to strangle the killer.

The conspirators who ran in at that moment began to shoot at Rasputin. Having approached, they were surprised that he was still alive, and began to beat him. According to the murderers, the poisoned and shot Rasputin came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the murderers, who heard the 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 not far from Kamenny Island and thrown off the bridge into the wormwood of the Neva 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 neither cloth nor ropes.

The corpse of Grigory Rasputin

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin, which was led by the director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev, progressed rather quickly. The very 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 near 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, passers-by noticed blood stains on the parapet of the Petrovsky bridge. After divers explored the Neva, Rasputin's body was found in this place. The forensic medical examination was entrusted to the well-known professor of the Military Medical Academy DP Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not survived, and the causes of death can only be speculated.

The conclusion of the forensic expert professor D.N. Kosorotova:

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, of which many were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was crushed, flattened as a result of the contusion of the corpse when it fell from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost at point-blank range, from left to right, through the stomach and liver with the fragmentation of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was profuse. On the corpse there was also a gunshot wound in the back, in the spine, with the fragmentation of the right kidney, and another point-blank wound, in the forehead, probably already dying or dead. The chest organs were intact and superficially examined, 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. "

No poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. A possible explanation for this is that the cyanide in the cakes was neutralized by sugar or heat when baked in the oven.

His daughter reports that after the assassination attempt, Guseva Rasputin suffered from high acidity and avoided sweet foods. It is reported that he was poisoned with a dose that could kill 5 people.

Some modern researchers suggest that there was no poison - this is a lie to confuse the investigation.

In 1919, Reiner was awarded the Order of the British Empire and destroyed his papers before his death in 1961.

The Compton 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 Alley wrote to Scale on January 7, 1917, eight days after the assassination: "Although not everything went according to plan, our goal was achieved ... Reiner is covering his tracks and will undoubtedly contact you ..."... According to modern British researchers, the order to three British agents (Rainer, Alley and Scale) to eliminate Rasputin came from Mansfield Smith-Cumming (the first director of MI6).

The investigation lasted two and a half months until the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on March 2, 1917. On that day, Kerensky became the Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 4, 1917, he ordered to hastily terminate the investigation, while the investigator A. T. Vasiliev was arrested and transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was interrogated by the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry until September, and later emigrated.

In 2004, the BBC showed a documentary "Who Killed Rasputin?", which brought new attention to the murder investigation. According to the version shown in the film, the "glory" and the plot of this murder belongs to Great Britain, the Russian conspirators were only executors, a control shot in the forehead was fired from a Webley 455 revolver of British officers.

Who killed Grigory Rasputin

According to the researchers who published the 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 feared Rasputin's influence on the Russian empress, which threatened to conclude a separate peace with Germany. To eliminate the threat, a conspiracy against Rasputin that had matured in Russia was used.

Bishop Isidor (Kolokolov), who was well acquainted with him, performed the funeral service for Rasputin. In his memoirs A.I.Spiridovich recalls that Bishop Isidore served the funeral mass (which he had no right to do).

At first they wanted to bury the victim in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovskoye. But because of the danger of possible unrest in connection with the sending of the body across half the country, they were interred in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the temple of Seraphim of Sarov being built by Anna Vyrubova.

MV Rodzianko writes that rumors circulated in the Duma during the celebrations about Rasputin's return to St. Petersburg. In January 1917, Mikhail Vladimirovich received a paper with many signatures from Tsaritsyn with the message that Rasputin was visiting V.K.Sabler, that Tsaritsynians knew about Rasputin's arrival in the capital.

After the February Revolution, Rasputin's burial was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. For several days, the coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage. Rasputin's body was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler at the Polytechnic Institute. An official act was drawn up on the burning of Rasputin's corpse.

Personal life of Grigory Rasputin:

In 1890 he married Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, the same pilgrim-peasant woman, who bore him three children: Matryona, Varvara and Dimitriya.

Grigory Rasputin with his children

In 1914, Rasputin settled in an apartment at 64 Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg.

Various gloomy rumors began to spread around St. Petersburg about this apartment rather quickly, they say, Rasputin turned it into a brothel and uses it to conduct his "orgies". Some said that Rasputin maintains a permanent “harem” there, others collect it from time to time. There was a rumor that the apartment on Gorokhovaya was used for witchcraft, etc.

From the testimony of Tatyana Leonidovna Grigorova-Rudykovskaya:

"... Once Aunt Agn. Fed. Hartman (my mother's sister) asked me if I wanted to see Rasputin closer. ... Having received the address on Pushkinskaya Street, on the appointed day and hour, I appeared at the apartment of Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina, my aunt 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 sewing linen to the wounded.) All of them were in the same circle and quietly chatted among themselves. Having made a general bow in English, I sat down 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 doorway, located on the opposite side from where I entered, a mighty figure - the first impression - a gypsy. A tall, powerful figure was clasped by a white Russian shirt with embroidery on the collar and fastener, a twisted belt with tassels, black trousers and Russian boots. But there was nothing Russian in it. Black thick hair, a large black beard, a swarthy face with predatory nose nostrils and some ironic and mocking smile on the lips - a face, of course, spectacular, but somewhat unpleasant. The first thing that attracted attention was his eyes: black, red-hot, they burned, piercing through and 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 subdues himself when he wanted it ...

Here everyone knew him, vying with each other to please, to attract attention. He casually sat down at the table, addressed each one by name and “you”, spoke boldly, sometimes vulgarly and rudely, beckoned to him, sat down on his knees, groped, stroked, patted on the soft places and all the “happy” were thrilled with pleasure ! It was disgusting and offensive to look at this for women who are humiliated, who have lost both their female 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 state and, laughing mockingly, every time after another attack he stubbornly stuck his eyes into me. I was a new object unknown to him ...

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

“Mashenka,” a voice said, “would you like some jam? Come to me. " Mashenka hastily jumps up and hurries to the place of call. Rasputin throws one leg over the other, takes a spoonful of jam and throws it over the toe of his boot. "Lizhi" - a voice sounds imperiously, she kneels down and, bowing her head, licks the jam ... I could not stand it any longer. Squeezing the mistress's hand, she jumped up and ran into the hallway. I don’t remember how I put on my hat, how I ran along the Nevsky. I came to at the Admiralty, I had to go home to Petrogradskaya. I bellowed at midnight and asked me never to ask me what I saw and I myself did not remember this hour either with my mother or my aunt, and I did not see Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina either. Since then, I could not calmly hear the name of Rasputin and have lost all respect for our "secular" ladies. Once, while visiting De Lazari, I went to the phone and heard the voice of this scoundrel. But she immediately said that I know who is speaking, and therefore I do not want to talk ... "

The provisional government conducted a special investigation into the Rasputin case. According to one of the participants in this investigation, V.M. Rudnev, who was sent by order of Kerensky to the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to Investigate the Abuses of Former Ministers, Chief Governors and Other High Officials" and the then Deputy Prosecutor of the Yekaterinoslav District Court: "The richest material for coverage from this side of his personality turned out to be in the data of the very covert observation of him, which was conducted by the security department; at the same time it turned out that Rasputin's amorous adventures did not go beyond the framework of night orgies with girls of easy virtue and chanson singers, and also sometimes with some of his petitioners ".

Daughter Matryona in her book “Rasputin. Why?" wrote:

"... that for all his life, his father never misused 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 father's ill-wishers. I note that they received some real food for their stories. ".

After the revolution, Rasputin's daughter Matryon emigrated to France, and later moved to the United States.

The rest of the Rasputin family members were subjected to repression by the Soviet government.

In 1922, his widow Praskovya Fedorovna, son Dmitry and daughter Varvara were deprived of voting rights 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 trail was lost in the special settlements of the Tyumen North.

This personality played an important role in the history of Russia. Rasputin never ceased to amaze his contemporaries, without ceasing to do so even today with the researchers of his biography. They write legends and anecdotes about him, make historical and not so films, endow him with supernatural qualities, including sexual power.

Thanks to his friendship with the family of the last Russian tsar, the simple peasant gained worldwide fame. Rasputin's fame was ambiguous, he was admired and worshiped, but he was also cursed, considering him a harbinger of the fall of the tsarist regime.

It is no coincidence that such a bright figure interfered with many, which became the reason for the murder of the elder. Who was he really? A saint or a crook? Let's try to find out by debunking some myths about Grigory Rasputin.

Rasputin was born in 1864 (1865). Very contradictory data about the year of birth of Grigory Efimovich. Historians agree that he was born between 1864 and 1872. The third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia considers that it was 1864-1865. In fact, the birth registers of the village of Pokrovskoye, where Rasputin was born, have been preserved. The years 1862-1868 just survived. The birth of several children to Efim Yakovlevich was recorded. During this period, they all died in infancy. But nothing has been written about the birth of Gregory. But in the records of the All-Russian census for 1897 there is a mention of him. Grigory Efimovich indicated that he was 28 years old, which can be trusted. Thus, Rasputin was born in 1869.

Rasputin had a powerful physique. The fact that Rasputin was a strong and healthy man is a myth. He was a man of short stature, physically not very strong and sickly in his youth. In 1980, the film "Agony" was shown in Pokrovskoye, but the old men who remembered Rasputin said that the main character did not look like his prototype. He was not at all so big and terrible, but rather even frail, pale, with sunken eyes and an exhausted look. The description of Rasputin is preserved in the police documents. The elder had an average physique, an oblong face, a moderate nose, a beard all round, and the general type was native Russian. It is often written that Rasputin's height was 187-193 centimeters, but this cannot be true.

Rasputin is a non-native surname. When Rasputin had just begun to enter the court, they began to say that his surname was a pseudonym that reveals the behavior of this person. They even called the "true" surname of the elder - Vilkin. In fact, this surname is found quite often in the registers of the Pokrovskoye village. In general, seven families with such a surname lived in it. In Siberia, this surname is generally common, derived from the word "crossroads" (fork, crossroads). Those who lived in such places were called Rasputins, which later transformed into Rasputins. In 1862, rural records recorded the marriage of the peasant Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and Anna Vasilievna Parshukova, the future parents of Grigory.

Rasputin did not even remember his family in his love affairs. Contemporaries noted that the elder did not forget about his wife, sincerely loving her. Rasputin married at the age of eighteen. Of the seven children born, only three survived. Family life began happily, but after the death of the first child, Gregory changed. He understood this as a terrible sign of God's wrath in response to a lack of faith. Having already gained his influence, Rasputin moved his daughters to St. Petersburg to give them a good education. His wife visited him in the capital once a year, calmly reacting to gossip about her husband and not making him scandals. There was a rumor that Praskovya once even pulled one of her husband's mistresses out of her house by the hair. However, during the interrogation of Lokhtina, who became the central figure of the scandal, the following became clear. His wife really pulled the guest by the hair, but only in response to accusations of greed. So there was no question of jealousy.

Rasputin was fabulously rich. Those who claim Rasputin's power over the tsar, and therefore over the whole country, make a logical conclusion that the elder had fabulous wealth. And this seems logical given the fact that very wealthy clients turned to him with personal requests. In gratitude, they left significant sums. But the creators of this myth bypass the question of whether Rasputin appropriated all this money for himself. Some of them he really spent on himself. The elder built himself a two-story house in his village and bought an expensive fur coat. However, compared to those mansions that the modern elite are building today, his house in the village of Pokrovskoye looks very modest. And Rasputin never had his own housing in the capital. Even the apartment on Gorokhovaya Street was not his property, but was rented by his fans. So where did all the rest of the money go? The special services checked Rasputin's bank accounts and found no significant funds there. But the fact that he spent serious sums on charity is a fact. Rasputin allocated a lot of personal funds for the construction of churches. After the death of the "wealthy" elder, his family for some reason began to live in poverty. Could this have happened to such a rich man?

Rasputin was a member of the horse thief gang. This is one of the first myths that appeared after the appearance of the elder in St. Petersburg. They said that it was horse stealing that became the beginning of a man's labor activity. However, there is essentially no evidence of such an accusation. The myth appeared thanks to the words of a fellow villager Rasputin, Kartavtsev, uttered in a private conversation. He claimed that he somehow saw the theft of his horses; among the intruders, he saw Rasputin. But the criminals were caught by the police, and the village gathering was sentenced to various punishments. For some reason, Grigory Efimovich escaped this punishment. And if you think that he could somehow persuade the policeman, then he certainly could not get away from the reprisal of his neighbors if he was guilty. And the testimony of Kartavtsev suffers from a lack of logic. Why did the owner calmly watch as his property was stolen and did not stop the criminals? If Rasputin were really a thief, he would have lost the respect of his fellow villagers. But it is known that they venerated him for the rest of their lives. Most likely, Rasputin's personal enemy simply made up his testimony, which was immediately picked up by the press, eager for a sensation. In 1915, a Siberian newspaper tried to revive this rumor. Then Rasputin personally turned to the editor and asked to provide facts confirming this information. And the newspaper was unable to find anything, which is also remarkable.

Rasputin was a sectarian. It was said that Rasputin was a member of the notorious Khlyst sect. Her fans believed that they could be saved with the help of self-flagellation and dumping sin, that is, orgies. For a long time, such associations operated illegally in the Russian Empire. The Khlysty, disguised as true Christians, sinned in such a way that they had nothing to do with ordinary Orthodoxy. It was just that someone really wanted to show that the spiritual mentor of the royal family was a member of an immoral and pseudo-religious society. Only Rasputin did not deserve such fame. This is evidenced by the results of a special investigation conducted in 1903-1912 by the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory. The investigators did a great job, interviewing Rasputin's fellow villagers, studying his life. All the old man's acquaintances said that he was an honest and deeply religious person who actively preaches and is not involved in sectarianism in any way. And although it was said that Rasputin indulges in pleasures with fans in the bath, this myth has also not been proven. Although it quickly became clear that Rasputin's affiliation with the Khlystists was a fiction, Archbishop Eusebius of Tobolsk insisted on a second investigation. The agents were constantly monitoring Grigory Efimovich, but this did not give any information about his connections with the sect. As a result, on November 29, 1912, the consistory decided to close the case of the Khlysty peasant Grigory Rasputin, finding him completely innocent.

Rasputin was a notable rowdy. This myth appeared in 1915, when General Dzhunkovsky, the head of one of the special services, showed the tsar a note. It said that in March of the same year, Rasputin in the Moscow restaurant "Yar" made a uniform brawl. It was said that Grigory Efimovich behaved obscenely: he drank a lot, pestered the ladies with obscene proposals and even pulled his pants down. The king, knowing the nature of his mentor, did not believe the slander and instructed his adjutant Sablin to investigate the incident. The officer turned to Dzhunkovsky with a request to give him written testimonies from those persons who were in the restaurant that evening. And then it turned out that these documents simply do not exist. Sablin could not find eyewitnesses to those outrages. But there were people who showed that that evening Rasputin behaved extremely decently in the institution.

Rasputin was the de facto ruler of Russia. In those years, many cartoons were published on Rasputin. One of them portrayed him as a giant, who held in his fist the little Tsar Nicholas II. Today, the myth is very popular, according to which the last years of the existence of the Russian Empire it was Rasputin who ruled it. But a study of the facts suggests that this is far from the case. For example, with the outbreak of the First World War, Rasputin sent the tsar as many as 15 telegrams, urging to prevent Russia from entering the conflict. But the king did not agree with this opinion, having entered the world massacre. Earlier, in 1911, Rasputin urged the tsar not to take Stolypin with him to Kiev. Grigory Efimovich believed that the minister was in mortal danger. But Nikolai rejected this advice, which cost the famous reformer his life. There are many examples of the fact that the tsar did not give the portfolios of ministers to those people whom Rasputin recommended. And Nikolai ignored his views on the conduct of the war. For example, he did not attack in the area of \u200b\u200bRiga and did not stop the offensive near Kovel. It becomes clear that it was the Russian emperor who ruled the country, having a decisive and sole voice in deciding important state issues. Rasputin was allowed to simply advise sometimes.

Rasputin was the lover of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. What really happened in the bedroom of the crowned ones is difficult to find out. In fact, there is no reliable data that such different people were connected by something other than religiosity. The rumor about the tsarina's obscene behavior was launched with a completely obvious meaning - to defame Nicholas and his family. Already in our time, the group "Boney M" in their song turned to the myth, directly singing: "Rasputin is the lover of the Russian queen." The methods of communication between Rasputin and his admirers did not imply intercourse itself. The elder caressed the women, bringing them to a trembling state. Then he stopped petting and called for prayer to forgive the sin of voluptuousness. It is likely that Rasputin had such a form of intimate friendship with Alexandra Fedorovna and her best friend, the maid of honor Anna Vyrubova. But there is counter-evidence to this myth - the adventurer Nadezhda Voskoboinikova worked as a maid for Vyrubova. She set herself a goal: to find sensational evidence of Rasputin's love affair with the queen. The maid began to constantly spy on and eavesdrop on the "lovers", but could not find anything. Even Voskoboynikova was forced to openly admit that there was no physical closeness between Alexandra Fedorovna and Rasputin.

The heir to the throne Alexei Nikolaevich was the son of Rasputin... The myth of the empress's love affair gave rise to this one. Only now, not only were there no facts about Alexandra Fedorovna's betrayal with Rasputin, she simply could not give birth to a son from him. The fact is that Alexei Nikolaevich was born in the summer of 1904, and the empress met the elder only in the fall of 1905.

Rasputin was a holy man who suffered for his faith. Even leaving aside the rumors and myths about the oddities in Rasputin's sexual behavior, as well as his drunkenness, his participation in the appointment of ministers is a historical fact. Naturally, the elder did this to please certain circles and not disinterestedly. There is evidence that Rasputin was involved in theft in the army and even espionage. For example, the appointment of Dobrovolsky as Minister of Justice brought Grigory Efimovich personally one hundred thousand rubles. And thanks to the adventurer Manasevich-Manuilov, the Germans were able to find out military secrets from Rasputin. The elder did not suffer for his faith. Both the right and the left dreamed of removing him - Rasputin had a painfully strong and unlimited influence on the tsar.

Rasputin was a lecher. This myth is constantly replicated in various stories about Rasputin. There are many facts that seem to support this myth. So, Maria Vishnyakova worked as a teacher of children. She was among the admirers of Pokrovskoye, later declaring that Rasputin had raped her at night. Only that day there were many guests in the house, and no one heard the screams. And even to Nicholas II himself, the teacher could not confirm this fact, being dismissed for libel. Another victim, nun Ksenia Goncharenkova, claimed that she was seriously and permanently seduced by the elder. But the investigation showed that the woman did not even personally know Rasputin, having seen him only a couple of times from afar. They wrote that Rasputin's mistress was the maid of honor Anna Vyrubova. But in reality they were connected by pure and disinterested friendship. After the February revolution, Vyrubova underwent a medical examination, which showed that the "victim of debauchery" was in fact a virgin! It is interesting that after the overthrow of the autocracy, the Provisional Government created a special commission, which was supposed to bring the figures of the recent past to the surface, including Rasputin. In particular, the goal was to find out the veracity of the information stated about the elder in the book of Iliodor "Holy Devil". However, the commission found out that no victims of sexual debauchery still exist, scandalous letters simply do not exist. For the sake of justice, it should be said that Rasputin did contact with prostitutes. He confessed to his friend, businessman Filippov, that he loves to look at a naked female body. But at the same time, Rasputin did not undertake any sexual actions. Information about this was included in the police reports. One of the priestesses of love told that Rasputin, who had come to her, asked to undress, looked for a few minutes and went home. That's all the debauchery attributed to this extraordinary personality.

Rasputin was a sex giant. Today the myth is fashionable that Rasputin not only had many mistresses, but also suffered from priapism, experiencing a painfully long erection. However, psychiatrists who studied Rasputin's personality came to the conclusion that this was a hysterical type of person, whose sexual abilities were very modest. Most likely, the old man had a weak potency, and his hypersexuality was feigned. Such unbridled behavior in this regard allowed him to hide his own inferiority.

A member of Rasputin is kept in St. Petersburg. The country's only museum of eroticism houses a 30-centimeter giant penis. The organizer of the institution, urologist Igor Knyazkin claims that this organ belonged to Rasputin himself. He tells the story of how he bought a penis from private collectors. Along with this part of the body were old photographs and letters. In fact, there is no evidence that the organ really belonged to the great old man. Knyazkin conducted an examination, which showed that the huge penis is indeed more than 80 years old. But Rasputin's own DNA has not survived, so there is simply nothing to compare with. Nevertheless, the beautiful myth has taken root, which brings the owner of the "treasure" material income in the form of curious visitors.

Rasputin was a German spy. The Russian army was oppressed by defeats, so the culprit of all troubles was required. This is how the myths about Rasputin the spy appeared, to whom the German queen tells all the secrets, and he sells them to enemy intelligence. This question was of interest to the courtiers, who did not hesitate to follow the queen and even read her letters. But even people neutral to Rasputin believed that he was simply blurting out military secrets. Later, during the investigation, the maid of honor Vyrubova said that the tsar's secret map was in his locked office, where even children were not allowed. In the family circle, Nikolai never spoke about military affairs. But from the letters of the Empress it follows that she was aware of the military strategy of the Russian army, trusting this to her Friend. So Rasputin knew secrets and could well become an involuntary spy, since there were secret German agents in his entourage.

Rasputin was a charlatan. The other extreme is to call Grigory Efimovich a saint. So who was he really? You just need to look at the facts of his activities. Rasputin was the man who helped the heir to Alexei in his fight against hemophilia. After Rasputin's treatment, the boy recovered noticeably. There is no doubt that the elder possessed a powerful hypnotic gift, literally programming people to recover, to change their lives. It is no coincidence that those who wanted to communicate with him and be healed constantly came and went to Rasputin. Even if one doubts the divine basis of the elder's influence, one cannot avoid his talents of mental influence. He was definitely not a charlatan, he was a talented, bright and controversial person, by the will of historical events and fate, discredited by many myths.

Name: Grigory Rasputin

Age: 47 years

Place of Birth: from. Pokrovskoe

Place of death: St. Petersburg

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

Family status: was married

Grigory Rasputin - biography

A long time ago, back in the 17th century, Izosim Fyodorov's son came to the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye and "became arable land." His children received the nickname "Rasputa" - from the words "crossroads", "mudslides", "crossroads". From them came the Rasputin family.

Childhood

In the middle of the 19th century, a son was born to the coachman Yefim and his wife Anna Rasputin. He was baptized on January 10, on the feast day of St. Gregory of Nyssa, after whom he was named. Grigory Rasputin later concealed his exact age and clearly exaggerated in order to better correspond to the image of the "elder".

Grisha Rasputin was born sickly, did not differ in health and special strength. In childhood, he did not know literacy - there was no school in the village, but he was taught peasant labor from childhood. He married a girl from a neighboring village, Praskovye, who bore him three children: Matryona, Varvara and Dmitry. Everything would be fine, but Gregory's illness was tortured: in the spring he did not sleep for forty days, suffered from insomnia, and even wetted the bed.

There were no doctors in the village, sorcerers and healers did not help. One road remained for a simple Russian peasant - to the saints, to atone for sins. I went to the Verkhotursky monastery. From this began the transformation of Grigory Rasputin.

Rasputin: in fasting and prayer

The holy saints helped: Grigory Rasputin abandoned drunkenness and meat-eating. He embarked on a journey, endured a lot, tortured himself with fasting. I didn’t change clothes for six months, wore chains for three years. He met with murderers and saints, talked about life. At home in the stable he even dug a cave in the form of a grave - at night he hid in it and prayed.

Then the fellow villagers noticed something strange in Rasputin: Grigory was walking around the village, waving his arms, muttering under his breath, threatening someone with his fist. And once in the cold, in one shirt, he ran like a madman all night, calling people to repentance. In the morning I fell by the fence and lay for a day without feeling. The villagers were worried: what if their Grishka really is a man of God? Many believed, began to go for advice, for a cure. Even a small community gathered.

Grigory Rasputin - "Burner of royal lamps"

In the early 1900s, Grigory and his family arrived in St. Petersburg. I met with the bishop, Father Sergius, the future patriarch. A thread was pulled, high-society doors began to open before the Siberian medicine man, right up to the palace ones. And after he was awarded the title of "incinerator of royal lamps," even fashion went around the capital: not to visit Rasputin is as ashamed as not to hear Chaliapin.

According to another version, it all started in the Kiev Lavra. Gregory was chopping wood in the yard, looking terrible, all in black. Two pilgrims, who turned out to be Montenegrin princesses Militsa and Stana, approached him, got to know each other, got to talking. Grishka boasted that he knew how to heal with his hands, he spoke to any disease.

Then the sisters remembered the heir. They reported to the queen, and Rasputin pulled out his lucky ticket: the empress called him to her. The grief of a mother with a terminally ill child in her arms is easy to understand. A lot of God's people, both domestic and foreign, visited the court. The queen grabbed at every opportunity like a straw. And then a Friend came!

The debut of the witch doctor Gregory stunned many. The tsarevich developed severe nosebleeds. The "elder" pulled out a lump of oak bark from his pocket, pounded and covered the boy's face with a mass. The doctors only threw up their hands: the blood stopped almost instantly! And Rasputin healed with his hands. He puts his palms to the sore spot, holds it for a while and says: "Go." In a word, he also healed: he whispers, whispers, and the pain relieves as if by hand. Even from a distance, by phone.

Grigory Rasputin: the power of the gaze

Gregory knew how to recognize people on the move. He looks from under his brow - and already knows what kind of person is in front of him, a decent person or the last villain.

His heavy, hypnotic gaze subdued many. The omnipotent Stolypin kept himself on the edge of reason only by willpower. The future assassin of Rasputin, Prince Yusupov, lost consciousness upon meeting him. And women just went crazy from Grishka's strength, they became slaves regardless of age and position in the world, they were ready to lick honey from their boots.

Grigory Rasputin - predictions and prophecies

Rasputin also had another amazing gift - to see the future, and there is evidence of this from eyewitnesses.

For example, Bishop Feofan of Poltava, the empress's confessor, said: “At that time Admiral Rozhdestvensky's squadron was sailing. Therefore, we asked Rasputin: "Will the meeting with the Japanese be successful?" Rasputin replied: "I feel with my heart, he will drown ..." And this prediction later came true in the battle at Tsushima. "

Once, while in Tsarskoe Selo, Gregory did not allow the imperial family to dine in the dining room. He said to move to another room, because the chandelier might fall. They obeyed him. And two days later, the chandelier really fell ...

They say that the elder left behind 11 pages of prophecy. Among them are a terrible disease, according to the description, resembling AIDS, and sexual promiscuity, and even an invisible killer - radiation. Rasputin also wrote - allegorically, of course - about the invention of television and mobile phones.

He was extolled and at the same time feared: where did he get the gift - from God or from the Devil? But the tsar and tsarina believed Gregory. Only the nobility whispered: Grishka's demonic telephone number was "64 64 6". Hidden in it is the number of the Beast from the Apocalypse.

And then everything collapsed, taking the soil from under our feet. Admirers have become bitter enemies. Rasputin, who only yesterday played with fate, became a hindrance in someone else's game.

Grigory Rasputin: Life After Death

December 17 (December 30, new style) 1916 Grigory arrived at a party at the Yusupov palace on the Moika. The reason for the visit was far-fetched: allegedly Felix's wife Irina wanted to meet the “elder”. He was met by former friends: Prince Felix Yusupov, State Duma deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, a member of the royal family, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov, lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky regiment Sergei Sukhotin and military doctor Stanislav Lazovert.

First, the conspirators invited Gregory to the basement - they treated him to Madeira and cakes with potassium cyanide. Then they shot, struck with a kettlebell, stabbed with a knife ... However, the "old man", as if he had been spoken, continued to live. He tore off the shoulder strap from Yusupov's uniform and tried to escape, but he was caught. Tied up, lowered under the ice in a hole on Malaya Nevka, not far from Kamenny Island. Divers found the body three days later. Rasputin's lungs were full of water - he managed to untie his bonds and almost escaped, but failed to break through the thick ice.

At first, they wanted to bury Gregory in his homeland, in Siberia. Yes, only they were afraid to carry the body across the whole of Russia - they buried in Tsarskoe Selo, then in Pargolovo. Later, by order of Kerensky, Rasputin's body was exhumed and burned in a stoker at the Polytechnic Institute. But they did not rest on this either: they scattered the ashes in the wind. They were afraid of the "elder" even after his death.

With the murder of Rasputin, the royal family also split, and everyone quarreled because of him. Clouds were gathering over the country. But the "elder" warned the emperor:

“If the nobles, your relatives, kill me, then none of your children will live even two years. The Russian people will kill them ”.

It turned out that way. Of the children of Rasputin himself, only Matryona survived. Son Dmitry with his wife and the widow of Grigory Efimovich perished in Siberian exile already under Soviet rule. The daughter of Varvara died suddenly of consumption. And Matryona went to France, and then to the USA. She worked as a dancer in a cabaret, and as a governess, and as a tamer. The poster read: "Tigers and the daughter of a mad monk, whose exploits in Russia amazed the world."

Recently, a film about the life of Grigory Rasputin was released on the screens of the country. The film is based on historical materials. The role of Grigory Rasputin was played by a famous actor

As is known from his brief biography, Rasputin was born into the family of a coachman on January 9, 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. However, according to many biographers of this historical personality, the date of his birth is very contradictory, since Rasputin himself more than once indicated different data and often exaggerated his true age in order to correspond to the image of the "holy old man."

In his youth and early maturity, Grigory Rasputin travels to holy places. According to researchers, he made the pilgrimage due to frequent illnesses. After visiting the Verkhoturye Monastery and other holy places in Russia, Mount Athos in Greece, as well as Jerusalem, Rasputin turned to religion, maintaining close contacts with monks, wanderers, healers and representatives of the clergy.

Petersburg period

In 1904, as a holy wanderer, Rasputin moved to Petersburg. According to Grigory Efimovich himself, he was prompted to move by the goal of saving Tsarevich Alexei, the mission of which was entrusted to the "elder" by the Mother of God. In 1905, the wanderer, who was often called a "saint", "a man of God" and "a great ascetic", met Nicholas II and his family. The religious "elder" influences the imperial family, in particular the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, thanks to the fact that he helped in the treatment of the heir Alexei from the then incurable disease - hemophilia.

Since 1903, rumors about Rasputin's vicious deeds began to spread in St. Petersburg. Persecution begins by the church and accusations of "Khlystov". In 1907, Grigory Efimovich was again accused of spreading false doctrine that has an anti-church nature, as well as creating a society of followers of his views.

Last years

Because of the accusations, Rasputin Grigory Efimovich was forced to leave Petersburg. During this period, he visits Jerusalem. Over time, the Khlystov case was reopened, but the new Bishop Alexy dropped all charges against him. The cleansing of the name and reputation was short-lived, as rumors of orgies taking place in Rasputin's apartment on Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg, as well as of acts of witchcraft and magic, caused the need to investigate and open another case.

In 1914, an attempt was made on Rasputin's life, after which he was forced to undergo treatment in Tyumen. However, later, opponents of the “friend of the royal family”, among whom were F.F. Yusupov, V.M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, MI6 British intelligence officer Oswald Reiner, still manage to complete their plans - in 1916, Rasputin was killed.

Achievements and legacy of a historical person

In addition to his preaching work, Rasputin, whose biography is very rich, actively participated in the political life of Russia, influencing the opinion of Nicholas II. He is credited with convincing the emperor to refuse to participate in the Balkan War, which changed the timing of the outbreak of the First World War, and other political decisions of the king.

The thinker and politician left behind two books "The Life of an Experienced Wanderer" (1907) and "My Thoughts and Reflections" (1915); more than a hundred political, spiritual, historical predictions and prophecies are also attributed to his authorship.

Other biography options

There are many secrets and mysteries in Rasputin's biography. For example, it is not known exactly when he was born. Questions are raised not only by the date and month of birth, but also by the year. There are several options. Some believe that he was born in the winter, in the month of January. Others - in the summer, July 29. Information about the year of birth of Rasputin is also extremely contradictory. The following versions are put forward: 1864 or 1865, and 1871 or 1872.
see all

a peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province; gained worldwide fame due to the fact that he was a friend of the family of the Russian emperor Nicholas II

Grigory Rasputin

short biography

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (New; January 21, 1869 - December 30, 1916) - a peasant in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. He gained worldwide fame thanks to the fact that he was a friend of the family of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II. In the 1910s, in certain circles of St. Petersburg society, he had a reputation as a "tsarist friend", "elder", seer and healer. The negative image of Rasputin was used in revolutionary, later in Soviet, propaganda. Until now, numerous disputes have been going on around Rasputin's personality and his influence on the fate of the Russian Empire.

Ancestors and etymology of the surname

The ancestor of the Rasputin family was "Izosim Fyodorov son". The census book of peasants in the village of Pokrovskoye for 1662 says that he and his wife and three sons - Semyon, Nason and Yevsey - came to the Pokrovskaya Sloboda twenty years earlier from the Yarensky district and "became arable land." Son Nason later received the nickname "Rosputa". All Rosputins, who became Rasputins at the beginning of the 19th century, came from him. According to the yard census of 1858, there were more than thirty peasants in Pokrovskoye who bore the surname "Rasputin", including Efim, Grigory's father. The surname comes from the words "crossroads", "mudslides", "crossroads".

Birth

Born on January 9 (21), 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoe, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province, in the family of the coachman Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin (1841-1916) and Anna Vasilievna (1839-1906; nee Parshukova). In the metric book of the Slobodo-Pokrovskaya Mother of God Church of the Tyumen District of the Tobolsk province in the first part "On the Born" there is a record of the birth on January 9, 1869 and an explanation: "Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilievna of Orthodox faith, a son Grigory was born." He was baptized on January 10. The receivers (godparents) were uncle Matthew Yakovlevich Rasputin and the girl Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received the name, according to the existing tradition, to name the baby after the saint on whose day he was born or baptized. The day of the baptism of Grigory Rasputin - January 10, the day of commemoration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

Rasputin himself in his mature years reported conflicting information about the date of birth. According to biographers, he was inclined to exaggerate his true age in order to be more consistent with the image of the "old man." Sources report different dates of Rasputin's birth between 1864 and 1872. Thus, the historian K.F.Shatzillo in an article about Rasputin in the TSB reports that he was born in 1864-1865.

Beginning of life

In his youth, Rasputin was ill a lot. After a pilgrimage to the Verkhotursky monastery, he turned to religion. In 1893, Rasputin traveled to the holy places of Russia, visited Mount Athos in Greece, and then Jerusalem. I met and established contacts with many representatives of the clergy, monks, and pilgrims.

In 1890 he married Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, the same pilgrim-peasant woman, who bore him three children: Matryona, Varvara and Dimitriya.

In 1900 he set off on a new journey to Kiev. On the way back, he lived in Kazan for a long time, where he met Father Mikhail, who was related to the Kazan Theological Academy.

Petersburg period

By 1904, Rasputin had acquired the fame of an "elder", "holy fool" and "divine man" from a part of high society society, which "consolidated the position of a" saint "in the eyes of the Petersburg world", or at least he was considered a "great ascetic." Father Feofan told about the "wanderer" to the daughters of the Montenegrin prince (later king) Nikolai Njegos - Milica and Anastasia. The sisters told the empress about the new religious celebrity. Several years passed before he began to clearly stand out among the crowd of "God's people."

On November 1 (Tuesday) 1905, Rasputin's first personal meeting with the emperor took place. This event was honored with an entry in the diary of Nicholas II:

At 4 o'clock we went to Sergievka. We drank tea with Militsa and Stana. We got acquainted with the man of God - Gregory from the Tobolsk lips.
From the diary of Nicholas II

In December 1906, Rasputin submitted a petition to the highest name to change his last name to Rasputin-Novykh, referring to the fact that many of his fellow villagers bear the same surname, which may lead to misunderstandings. The petition was granted.

Rasputin and the Orthodox Church

Later biographers of Rasputin (O. A. Platonov, A. N. Bokhanov) are inclined to see in the official investigations carried out by the church authorities in connection with the activities of Rasputin, some broader political meaning.

The first charge of "Khlystovism", 1903

In 1903, his first persecution by the church began: the Tobolsk consistory received a report from the local priest Pyotr Ostroumov that Rasputin behaved strangely with women who came to him “from Petersburg itself”, about their “passions, from which he relieved them ... in the bath ”, about the fact that in his youth Rasputin“ from his life at the factories of the Perm province made acquaintance with the teachings of the Khlystov heresy ”. ES Radzinsky notes that an investigator was sent to Pokrovskoye, but he did not find anything defamatory, and the case was filed in the archive.

The first case of Rasputin's "Khlystovism", 1907

Elder Macarius, Bishop Theophanes and G.E. Rasputin. Monastic photo studio. 1909 g.

D. M. Berezkin, in his response to the conduct of the case, noted that the investigation was carried out by "persons who are little knowledgeable in Khlystovism," that only Rasputin's two-storey residential building had been searched, although it is known that the place where the riots take place "never fits in residential premises ... and always settles in the backyards - in baths, in sheds, in basements ... and even in dungeons ... Pictures and icons found in the house are not described, meanwhile they usually contain the solution to heresy ... ”. After that, Bishop Anthony of Tobolsk ordered an additional investigation of the case, entrusting it to an experienced anti-sectarian missionary.

As a result, the case "fell apart" and was approved as completed by Anthony (Karzhavin) on May 7, 1908.

Subsequently, the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, who had taken the case from the Synod, reported that it soon disappeared, but, according to E. Radzinsky, the “Case of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory about the Khlysty of Grigory Rasputin” was eventually found in the Tyumen archive.

The first "Case of Khlystovstvo", despite the fact that it justifies Rasputin, causes an ambiguous assessment among researchers.

According to E. Radzinsky's assumption, the tacit initiator of the case was Princess Militsa of Montenegro, who, thanks to her power at court, had strong connections in the Synod, and the initiator of the hasty closure of the case due to pressure from “above” was one of the St. Petersburg fans of Rasputin General's General Olga Lokhtin. The same fact of Lokhtina's patronage as a scientific discovery of Radzinsky is cited by I. V. Smyslov. Radzinsky connects the relations between princesses Militsa and Anastasia with Tsarina Radzinsky, which soon deteriorated, with Militsa's attempt to initiate this case (cit. “... together they were indignant at the“ black women ”who dared to organize a shameful investigation against the“ God's man ”").

OA Platonov, seeking to prove the far-fetched accusations against Rasputin, believes that the case appeared “from scratch”, and the case was “organized” by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (the husband of Anastasia of Chernogorskaya), who before Rasputin occupied the place of the closest friend and adviser to the royal family. OA Platonov especially emphasizes the prince's belonging to Freemasonry. A.N. Varlamov does not agree with Platonov's version of the intervention of Nikolai Nikolaevich, who does not see a motive in that.

According to A. A. Amalrik, Rasputin was saved in this matter by his friends Archimandrite Theophan (Bystrov), Bishop Germogen (Dolganev) and Tsar Nicholas II, who ordered to “hush up” the case.

The historian A. N. Bokhanov claims that the "Rasputin case" is one of the first cases of "black PR" not only in Russia, but also in world history. The Rasputin theme is "the clearest indicator of the most difficult spiritual and psychological split in the country, the split that detonated the revolutionary explosion of 1917."

OA Platonov in his book gives a detailed account of the contents of this case, considering a number of testimonies against Rasputin to be hostile and / or fabricated: interviews with villagers (priests, peasants), interviews with Petersburg women who, after 1905, began to visit Pokrovskoe. AN Varlamov nevertheless considers these testimonies to be quite reliable, and subjects them to analysis in the corresponding chapter of his book. A.N. Varlamov singles out three charges against Rasputin in the case:

Rasputin acted as an impostor doctor and was engaged in the healing of human souls without a diploma; he himself did not want to become a monk (“He said that he did not like monastic life, that monks did not observe morality and that it was better to be saved in the world,” Matryona showed during the investigation), but he also dared others; as a result of which two girls of Dubrovin died, who, according to fellow villagers, died because of "Grigory's bullying" (according to Rasputin's testimony, they died of consumption);
rasputin's craving for kissing women, in particular, the episode of the violent kiss of 28-year-old prosphora Evdokia Korneeva, about which the investigation arranged a confrontation between Rasputin and Korneeva; “The accused denied this testimony partly completely, and partly dissuading himself from memory (“ 6 years ago ”)”;
the testimony of Father Fyodor Chemagin, priest of the Intercession Church: “I went (by chance) to the accused and saw the latter come back wet from the bathhouse, and after him all the women who lived with him came from there — also wet and steamy. The accused confessed, in private conversations, to the witness of his weakness to caress and kiss the "ladies", he confessed that he was with them in the bath, that he was absentmindedly in the church. Rasputin "objected that he had gone to the bathhouse long before the women, and when he was badly burned, he was lying in the dressing room, and a really pair came out of there, not long before the women (arrived there)."

The appendix to the report of Metropolitan Yuvenaly (Poyarkov) at the Bishops' Council, held in the autumn of 2004, reads the following: “ The case of G. Rasputin's accusation of Khlysty, kept in the Tobolsk branch of the State Archives of the Tyumen Region, has not been thoroughly studied, although lengthy excerpts from it are given in the book by O. A. Platonov. In an effort to “rehabilitate” G. Rasputin, OA Platonov, who, by the way, is not a specialist in the history of Russian sectarianism, characterizes this case as “fabricated”. Meanwhile, even the extracts he cited, including the testimony of the priests of the Pokrovskaya settlement, indicate that the question of G. Rasputin's closeness to sectarianism is much more complicated than it seems to the author, and in any case still needs a special and competent analysis.».

Undercover Police Surveillance, Jerusalem - 1911

In 1909, the police were going to expel Rasputin from St. Petersburg, but Rasputin got ahead of her and went for some time to his homeland in the village of Pokrovskoye.

In 1910, his daughters moved to Petersburg to live with Rasputin, whom he arranged to study at a gymnasium. By order of Prime Minister Stolypin, Rasputin was under surveillance for several days.

In 1911, Rasputin voluntarily left the capital and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

By order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov on January 23, 1912, Rasputin was again placed under surveillance, which continued until his death.

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

In January 1912, the Duma declared its attitude to Rasputin, and in February 1912 Nicholas II ordered VK Sabler to reopen the case of the Holy Synod about Rasputin's “Khlysty” and to hand over for Rodzianko's report, “and the palace commandant Dedyulin and gave him The case of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory, which contained the beginning of the Investigative Proceedings on the accusation of Rasputin of belonging to the Khlyst sect. On February 26, 1912, at an audience, Rodzianko invited the tsar to expel the peasant forever. Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) openly wrote that Rasputin is a whip and participates in the zeal.

Rasputin's opponents believe that Bishop Alexy "helped" him in this way for selfish purposes: the disgraced bishop, exiled to Tobolsk from the Pskov See as a result of the discovery of a sectarian St. John's monastery in the Pskov province, stayed in the Tobolsk See only until October 1913, that is, only a year and a half. after which he was appointed Exarch of Georgia and elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Kartala and Kakheti with the title of a member of the Holy Synod. This is seen as the influence of Rasputin.

However, researchers believe that the rise of Bishop Alexy in 1913 took place only thanks to his devotion to the reigning house, which is especially evident from his sermon delivered on the occasion of the 1905 manifesto. Moreover, the period in which Bishop Alexy was appointed Exarch of Georgia was a period of revolutionary ferment in Georgia.

In the opinion of Archbishop Anthony Karzhavin, it should also be noted that Rasputin's opponents often forget about another elevation: the first case of "Khlysty" against Rasputin, Bishop Anthony (Karzhavin) of Tobolsk was moved in 1910 from cold Siberia to the Tver See and to Easter was elevated to the rank of archbishop. But, according to Karzhavin, they remember that this translation took place precisely because the first case was sent to the archives of the Synod.

Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

Rasputin, G.E. The Life of an Experienced Wanderer... - May 1907.
G.E. Rasputin. My thoughts and reflections... - Petrograd, 1915.

In his prophecies, Rasputin speaks of "God's punishment", "bitter water", "tears of the sun", "poisonous rains" "until the end of our century." The deserts will advance, and the earth will be inhabited by monsters that will not be humans or animals. Thanks to "human alchemy" there will be flying frogs, kite butterflies, crawling bees, huge mice and no less huge ants, as well as the "kobaka" monster. Two princes from the West and the East will challenge the right to world domination. They will have a battle in the land of four demons, but the western prince Grayug will defeat his eastern enemy Blizzard, but he himself will fall. After these misfortunes, people will turn to God again and enter the “earthly paradise”.

The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House: "As long as I live, the dynasty will also live."

Attitude towards war

In 1912, Rasputin dissuaded the emperor from interfering in the Balkan War, which postponed the outbreak of the First World War by 2 years. In 1914, he repeatedly spoke out against Russia's entry into the war, believing that it would only bring suffering to the peasants. In 1915, anticipating the February Revolution, Rasputin demanded an improvement in the supply of bread to the capital. In 1916, Rasputin decisively spoke out in favor of Russia's withdrawal from the war, the conclusion of peace with Germany, the renunciation of the rights to Poland and the Baltic States, as well as against the Russian-British alliance.

Anti-Rasputin Press Campaign

In 1912, Novosyolov published a brochure "Grigory Rasputin and mystical debauchery" in his publishing house, which accused Rasputin of Khlysty and criticized the higher church hierarchy. The brochure was banned and confiscated from the printing house. The Voice of Moscow newspaper was fined for publishing excerpts from it. After that, the State Duma received a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the legality of punishing the editors of Voice of Moscow and Novoye Vremya. In the same 1912, Rasputin's acquaintance, former hieromonk Iliodor, began distributing several letters of scandalous content from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses to Rasputin.

Copies, printed on a hectograph, went around St. Petersburg. Most researchers consider these letters to be a forgery .. Later, Iliodor, on the advice of Gorky, wrote a libelous book "Holy Devil" about Rasputin, which was published in 1917 during the revolution.

In 1913-1914, the Masonic Supreme Soviet of the VVNR made an attempt to campaign for the role of Rasputin at court. Somewhat later, the Council made an attempt to publish a brochure directed against Rasputin, and when this attempt failed (the brochure was seized by the censorship), the Council took steps to distribute this brochure in a typewritten form.

The assassination attempt of Khioniya Guseva

In 1914, an anti-Rasputin conspiracy matured, headed by Nikolai Nikolaevich and Rodzianko.

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye. He was stabbed in the stomach and severely wounded by Khioniya Guseva, who had arrived from Tsaritsyn. Rasputin revealed that he suspects of organizing the assassination attempt of Iliodor, but could not provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by steamer 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 in July 1915 was declared insane and released from criminal responsibility, placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk.

Guseva's assassination attempt made it into international news. Rasputin's condition was reported in newspapers in Europe and the USA; The New York Times brought this story to the front page. Rasputin's health received more attention in the Russian press than the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Murder

Wax figures of participants in the conspiracy against Grigory Rasputin (left to right) - State Duma deputy V.M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, lieutenant S.M. Sukhotin. Exposition in the Yusupov Palace on the Moika

Letter to the. K. Dmitry Pavlovich's father V. K. Pavel Alexandrovich on the attitude towards the murder of Rasputin and the revolution. Isfahan (Persia) April 29, 1917. Finally, the last act of my stay in Peter [the fence] was a completely conscious and deliberate participation in the murder of Rasputin - as the last attempt to give the Tsar the opportunity to openly change course, without taking responsibility for removing this person. (Alix would not have let him do that.)

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 17, 1916 (December 30, new style) at the Yusupovs' palace on the Moika. Conspirators: F. F. Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, British intelligence officer MI-6 Oswald Reiner.

The information about the murder is contradictory, it was confused both by the killers themselves and by the pressure on the investigation of the Russian imperial and British authorities. Yusupov changed his testimony several times: in the St. Petersburg police on December 18, 1916, in exile in the Crimea in 1917, in a 1927 book, sworn in 1934 and 1965. Initially, the memoirs of Purishkevich were published, then Yusupov echoed his version. However, they were fundamentally at odds with the testimony of the investigation. Starting from naming the wrong color of the clothes that Rasputin was wearing according to the killers' version and in which he was found, to how many and where bullets were fired. For example, forensic experts found three wounds, each of which is fatal: in the head, in the liver and in the kidney. (According to British researchers who studied the photograph, a shot in the forehead was made from a British Webley 455 revolver.) After a shot in the liver, a person can live no more 20 minutes and is not able, as the killers said, to run down the street in half an hour or an hour. There was also no shot in the heart, which the killers unanimously claimed.

Rasputin was first lured into the basement, treated with red wine and a pie poisoned with cyanide potassium. 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 the cloak, checked the body, unexpectedly 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 murderers, the poisoned and shot Rasputin came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the murderers, who heard the barking of a dog. Then they tied him hand and foot with ropes (according to Purishkevich, first wrapping him in blue cloth), took him by car to a pre-selected place near Kamenny Island and threw him off the bridge into the wormwood of the Neva 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 neither cloth nor ropes.

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, many of which were already inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was crushed, flattened as a result of the contusion of the corpse when it fell from the bridge. Death followed from profuse bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost at point-blank range, from left to right, through the stomach and liver with the fragmentation of the latter in the right half. The bleeding was profuse. On the corpse there was also a gunshot wound in the back, in the spine, with the fragmentation of the right kidney, and another point-blank wound, in the forehead, probably already dying or dead. The breast organs were intact and superficially examined, 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. There are explanations that the cyanide in the cakes was neutralized by sugar or heat when baked in the oven. On the other hand, Dr. Stanislav Lazovert, who was supposed to poison the cakes, said in a letter addressed to Prince Yusupov that he had put a harmless substance instead of poison.

There are a number of nuances in defining O. Reiner's involvement. At that time, there were two MI6 British intelligence officers in St. Petersburg who could have committed the murder: Yusupov's friend from University College (Oxford) Oswald Reiner and Captain Stephen Alley, who was born in the Yusupov Palace. The former was suspected, and Tsar Nicholas II directly mentioned that the killer was Yusupov's college friend. In 1919, Reiner was awarded the Order of the British Empire, he destroyed his papers before he died in 1961. The Compton chauffeur's journal records that he brought Oswald to Yusupov (and to another officer, Captain John Scale) a week before the murder, and for 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 Alley wrote to Scale on January 7, 1917, eight days after the assassination: "Although not everything went according to plan, our goal was achieved ... Reiner covers his tracks and will undoubtedly contact you ..."

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

Version of the English conspiracy

In 2004, the BBC aired the documentary Who Killed Rasputin ?, which brought renewed attention to the murder investigation. According to the version shown in the film, the "glory" and the plot of this murder belongs to Great Britain, the Russian conspirators were only executors, a control shot in the forehead was fired from a Webley 455 revolver of British officers.

According to British researchers, 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 supposed to be Britain's fears about Rasputin's influence on the Russian empress and the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany.

The assassination of Rasputin, version of Felix Yusupov

Events immediately preceding the murder

At the end of August 1915, it was officially announced that the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich had been removed from the post of supreme commander in chief, whose duties were assumed by Emperor Nikolai II. AA Brusilov wrote in his memoirs that the impression in the troops from this replacement was the most negative and “it never occurred to anyone that the tsar would assume the duties of the supreme commander in this difficult situation at the front. It was generally known that Nicholas II absolutely did not understand anything in military affairs and that the title he assumed would be only nominal. "

Felix Yusupov in his memoirs claimed that the emperor took command of the army under pressure from Rasputin. Russian society greeted the news with hostility, as the understanding of Rasputin's permissiveness grew. With the departure of the sovereign to Headquarters, taking advantage of the boundless disposition of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Rasputin began to regularly visit Tsarskoe Selo. His advice and opinions acquired the force of law. No military decision was made without Rasputin's knowledge. "The queen trusted him blindly, and he was quick to solve urgent and sometimes secret state issues."

Felix Yusupov was struck by the events associated with his father - Felix Feliksovich Yusupov. In his memoirs, Felix wrote that on the eve of the war, the administrations of Russian cities, large enterprises, including Moscow, were run by the Germans: “German arrogance knew no boundaries. German surnames were worn both in the army and at court. " Most of the ministers who received the ministerial portfolio from Rasputin were Germanophiles. In 1915, Felix's father received an appointment from the tsar to the post of Moscow governor-general. However, Felix Feliksovich Yusupov was unable to fight the German entourage: "traitors and spies ruled the ball." Orders and orders of the Moscow governor-general were not carried out. Outraged by the state of affairs, Felix Feliksovich went to Headquarters. He outlined the situation in Moscow - no one has yet dared to openly tell the truth to the sovereign. However, the pro-German party that surrounded the sovereign was too strong: upon returning to Moscow, my father found out that he had been removed from the post of governor-general for untimely stopped anti-German pogroms.

Members of the imperial family tried to explain to the sovereign how dangerous the influence of Rasputin was for the dynasty, as well as for Russia as a whole. There was only one answer: “Everything is slander. The saints are always slandered ”. Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna wrote to her son, begging him to remove Rasputin and forbid the empress to interfere in state affairs. Nicholas told the queen about this. Alexandra Fyodorovna broke off relations with people who "put pressure" on the sovereign. Elizaveta Fedorovna, also almost never visiting Tsarskoye, came to talk with her sister. However, all arguments were rejected. According to Felix Yusupov, the German General Staff continuously sent spies to Rasputin's entourage.

Felix Yusupov asserted that "the tsar was weakened from the narcotic potions, which he was daily drunk with at the instigation of Rasputin." Rasputin received virtually unlimited power: "he appointed and dismissed ministers and generals, pushed around bishops and archbishops ...".

Alexandra Fyodorovna and the Emperor had no hopes to "open her eyes". "Without saying a word, each one alone (Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich) came to a common conclusion: Rasputin must be removed, even at the cost of murder."

Murder

Felix hoped to find "people determined, ready to act" to carry out his plan. There was a narrow circle of people ready for decisive action: Lieutenant Sukhotin, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Purishkevich and Doctor Lazovert. After discussing the situation, the conspirators decided that "poison is the surest way to hide the fact of murder." Yusupov's house on the Moika was chosen as the place of murder:

I intended to receive Rasputin in a semi-basement apartment, which I was finishing for that. The arcades divided the basement hall into two parts. The larger one had a dining room. In the smaller one, the spiral staircase, which I already wrote about, led me to my apartment on the mezzanine. Halfway there was an exit to the courtyard. The dining room, with its low vaulted ceiling, was illuminated by two small sidewalk-level windows that looked out onto the embankment. The walls and floor in the room were made of gray stone. In order not to arouse Rasputin's suspicions by the sight of a bare cellar, he had to decorate the room and give it a residential look.

Felix ordered the butler Grigory Buzhinsky and the valet Ivan to prepare tea for six people by eleven, buy cakes, cookies, and bring wine from the cellar. Felix led all the accomplices into the dining room and for some time the arrivals silently examined the site of the future murder. Felix took out a box of potassium cyanide and placed it on the table next to the cakes.

Dr.Lazovert put on rubber gloves, took several crystals of poison from it, ground into powder. Then he took off the tops of the cakes, sprinkled the filling with powder in an amount that, he said, could kill an elephant. Silence reigned in the room. We watched his actions with excitement. It remains to put the poison in the glasses. They decided to put it at the last moment so that the poison does not evaporate

In order to maintain a pleasant mood in Rasputin and not let him suspect anything, the murderers decided to give everything the look of a finished dinner: the chairs were moved away, tea was poured into the cups. We agreed that Dmitry, Sukhotin and Purishkevich would go up to the mezzanine and start the gramophone, choosing more fun music.

Lazovert, disguised as a chauffeur, started the engine. Felix put on a fur coat and pulled a fur hat over his eyes, as it was necessary to secretly deliver Rasputin to the house on the Moika. Felix agreed on these actions, explaining to Rasputin that he did not want to "advertise" the relationship with him. They arrived at Rasputin after midnight. He was expecting Felix: “put on a silk shirt embroidered with cornflowers. Girdled with a crimson cord. Black velvet trousers and boots were brand new. Hair is slicked, beard is combed with extraordinary care. "

Arriving at the house on the Moika, Rasputin heard American music and voices. Felix explained that these were the guests of his wife who would soon be leaving. Felix invited the guest into the dining room.

“We went down. Not having time to enter, Rasputin threw off his fur coat and began to look around with curiosity. He was especially attracted by the supplier with drawers. He amused himself like a child, opened and closed doors, looked inside and out "

Felix tried for the last time to persuade Rasputin to leave Petersburg, but was refused. Finally, after speaking "his favorite conversations," Rasputin asked for tea. Felix poured him a cup and offered him cyanide eclairs.

I looked with horror. The poison was supposed to act immediately, but to my amazement, Rasputin continued to talk, as if nothing had happened.

Then Felix offered Rasputin the poisoned wine.

I stood beside him and watched his every move, expecting that he was about to collapse ... But he drank, smacked, sipped wine like a real connoisseur. Nothing has changed in his face.

Under the pretext of seeing off, Yusupov went up to the "guests of his wife." Felix took the revolver from Dmitry and went down to the basement - aimed at the heart and pulled the trigger. Sukhotin disguised himself as an "old man", putting on his fur coat and hat. Following the developed plan, taking into account the presence of surveillance, Dmitry, Sukhotin and Lazovert had to take the "elder" in Purishkevich's open car back to his home. Then, in Dmitry's closed car, return to the Moika, pick up the corpse and deliver it to the Petrovsky bridge. However, the unexpected happened: with a sharp movement, the “killed” Rasputin jumped to his feet.

He looked creepy. His mouth was foamy. He screamed in a bad voice, waved his hands and lunged at me. His fingers dug into my shoulders, strove to reach my throat. His eyes popped out of their sockets, and blood began to flow from his mouth. Rasputin quietly and hoarsely repeated my name.

Purishkevich came running to Yusupov's call. Rasputin “wheezing and growling” quickly moved to the secret exit to the courtyard. Purishkevich rushed after him. Rasputin ran to the middle gate of the courtyard, which was not locked. "A shot rang out ... Rasputin swung and fell into the snow."

Purishkevich ran up, stood by the body for a few moments, made sure that this time it was all over, and quickly walked to the house.

Dmitry, Sukhotin and Lazovert in a closed car drove to fetch the corpse. They wrapped the body in canvas, loaded it into a car and drove off to the Petrovsky bridge, where they threw the body into the river.

Consequences of the murder

On the evening of January 1, 1917, it became known that Rasputin's body had been found in Malaya Nevka in an ice hole under the Petrovsky Bridge. The body was delivered to the Chesme almshouse five miles from Petersburg. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna demanded the immediate execution of Rasputin's killers.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, having arrived from Pskov, where the headquarters of the Northern Front was located, told with what frantic enthusiasm the news of the assassination of Raputin was greeted by the troops. "No one doubted that now the sovereign would find himself honest and loyal people." However, according to Yusupov: “Rasputin's poison has been poisoning the highest spheres of the state for many years and devastated the most honest and ardent souls. As a result, some did not want to make decisions, while others believed that there was no need to make them. "

At the end of March 1917, Mikhail Rodzianko, Admiral Kolchak and Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich offered Felix to become emperor.

The assassination of Rasputin, memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

According to the published memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, on December 17, 1916 in Kiev, the adjutant with enthusiasm and joy informed Alexander Mikhailovich that Rasputin was killed in the house of Prince Yusupov, personally by Felix, and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich became his accomplice. Alexander Mikhailovich was the first to inform the Dowager Empress (Maria Feodorovna) about the murder of Rasputin. However, “the thought that her granddaughter's husband and her nephew had stained their hands with blood caused her great suffering. As Empress she sympathized, but as a Christian she could not help but be against the shedding of blood, no matter how valiant the motives of the culprits were. "

It was decided to get Nicholas II's consent to come to St. Petersburg. The members of the Imperial Family asked Alexander Mikhailovich to intercede for Dmitry and Felix before the Emperor. At the meeting, Nikolai hugged the prince, as he knew Alexander Mikhailovich well. Alexander Mikhailovich made a defensive speech. He asked the Tsar not to look at Felix and Dmitry Pavlovich as ordinary murderers, but as patriots. The Emperor said after a pause: "You speak very well, but you will agree that no one - be he the Grand Duke or a simple man - has the right to kill."

The emperor promised to be merciful in choosing punishments for the two guilty. Dmitry Pavlovich was exiled to the Persian front at the disposal of General Baratov, and Felix was ordered to leave for his estate Rakitnoe near Kursk.

The funeral

Facsimile of the official act on the burning of the corpse of G.E.Rasputin

Bishop Isidor (Kolokolov), who was well acquainted with him, performed the funeral service for Rasputin. In his memoirs A.I.Spiridovich recalls that Isidor had no right to do the funeral mass. Afterward, there were rumors that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached for the funeral service, rejected this request. Also in those days, a legend was launched, mentioned in the reports of the English embassy, \u200b\u200bthat the wife of Nicholas II was allegedly present at the autopsy and funeral service. At first they wanted to bury the victim in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovskoye. But because of the danger of possible unrest in connection with the sending of the body, he was buried in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo on the territory of the temple of Seraphim of Sarov, which was being built by Anna Vyrubova.

MV Rodzianko wrote that rumors circulated in the Duma during the celebrations about Rasputin's return to St. Petersburg. In January 1917, Mikhail Vladimirovich received a paper with many signatures from Tsaritsyn with the message that Rasputin was visiting V.K.Sabler, that Tsaritsynians knew about Rasputin's arrival in the capital.

After the February Revolution, Rasputin's burial was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. For several days, the coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage, and then Rasputin's corpse was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler at the Polytechnic Institute. An official act was drawn up on the burning of Rasputin's corpse:

Forest. March 10-11, 1917
We, the undersigned, between 7 and 9 o'clock in the morning, jointly burned the body of the murdered Grigory Rasputin, transported by car by the authorized temporary committee of the State Duma, Philip Petrovich Kupchinsky, in the presence of a representative of the Petrograd public mayor, captain of the 16th Novo-Arkhangelsk regiment of the Uhlan, Vladimiir Pavlovich Kochadeev. The burning itself took place near the main road from Lesnoye to Peskarevka, in the forest with the absolute absence of strangers, except for us, who applied below the hand:
Representative from the Public Petrogr. Gradon.
Captain of the 16 Ulanskiy Novoarch. P. V. KOCHADEEV.,
Commissioner Time. Com. Gosud. Duma KUPCHINSKY.
Students of the Petrograd Polytechnic
Institute:
S. BOGACHEV,
R. FISHER,
N. MOKLOVICH,
M. SHABALIN,
S. LIKHVITSKY,
V. VLADIMIROV.
Round stamp: Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, head of security.
A note below: The act was drawn up in my presence and I certify the signatures of those who signed.
Duty on guard.
Ensign PARVOV

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

The fate of the Rasputin family

After the revolution, Rasputin's daughter Matryon emigrated to France, and later moved to the United States. In 1920, the house and all the peasant economy of Dmitry Grigorievich was nationalized. In 1922, his widow Praskovya Fedorovna, son Dmitry and daughter Varvara were deprived of voting rights as "malicious elements." In the 1930s, all three were arrested by the NKVD, and their trail was lost in the special settlements of the Tyumen North.

Accusations of immorality

Rasputin and his fans (St. Petersburg, 1914).
In the top row (from left to right): A. A. Pistolkors (profile), A. E. Pistolkors, L. A. Molchanov, N. D. Zhevakhov, E. H. Gil, unknown, N. D. Yakhimovich, O. V. Loman, N. D. Loman, A.I. Reshetnikova.
In the second row: S. L. Volynskaya, A. A. Vyrubova, A. G. Gushchina, Yu. A. Den, E. Ya. Rasputin.
In the last row: Z. Timofeeva, M. E. Golovina, M. S. Gil, G. E. Rasputin, O. Kleist, A. N. Laptinskaya (on the floor).

In 1914, Rasputin settled in an apartment at 64 Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg. Various gloomy rumors began to spread around St. Petersburg about this apartment quite quickly, for example, that Rasputin had turned it into a den. Some said that Rasputin maintains a permanent “harem” there, others collect it from time to time. There was a rumor that the apartment on Gorokhovaya was used for witchcraft.

From the memories of witnesses

… Once Aunt Agn. Fed. Hartmann (my mother's sister) asked me if I wanted to see Rasputin closer. …… .. Having received the address on Pushkinskaya Street, 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 the sewing of linen for the wounded was organized by Alexandra Fedorovna). They were all in the same circle, and they were talking animatedly among themselves in an undertone. Having made a general bow in English, I sat down next to the hostess at the samovar and talked with her.
Suddenly there was a general sigh - Ah! I looked up and saw in the doorway, located on the opposite side from where I entered, a mighty figure - the first impression - a gypsy. A tall, powerful figure was hugged by a white Russian shirt with embroidery on the collar and fastener, a twisted belt with tassels, black trousers and Russian boots. But there was nothing Russian in it. Black thick hair, a large black beard, a swarthy face with predatory nose nostrils and some ironic and mocking smile on the lips - a face, of course, spectacular, but somewhat unpleasant. The first thing that attracted attention was his eyes: black, red-hot, they burned, piercing through and through, and his gaze at you was felt simply physically, it was impossible to remain calm. It seems to me that he really did have a hypnotic power to subdue him when he wanted to. ...
Here everyone knew him, vying with each other to please, to attract attention. He casually sat down at the table, addressed each one by name and “you”, spoke boldly, sometimes vulgarly and rudely, beckoned to him, sat down on his knees, groped, stroked, patted on the soft places and all the “happy” were thrilled with pleasure ! It was disgusting and offensive to look at this for women who are humiliated, who have lost both their female 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 state and, laughing mockingly, every time after another attack he stubbornly stuck his eyes into me. I was a new object unknown to him. ...
Impudently addressing one of those present, he said: “Do you see? Who embroidered the shirt? Sasha! " (meaning Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). No decent man would ever betray the secret of a woman's feelings. My eyes darkened with tension, and Rasputin's gaze drilled and drilled unbearably. I moved closer to the hostess, trying to hide behind the samovar. Maria Alexandrovna looked at me anxiously. ...
“Mashenka,” a voice said, “would you like some jam? Come to me. " Mashenka hastily jumps up and hurries to the place of call. Rasputin throws one leg over the other, takes a spoonful of jam and throws it over the toe of his boot. "Lizhi" - a voice sounds imperiously, she kneels down and, bowing her head, licks the jam ... I could not stand it any longer. Squeezing the mistress's hand, she jumped up and ran into the hallway. I don’t remember how I put on my hat, how I ran along the Nevsky. I came to at the Admiralty, I had to go home to Petrogradskaya. I bellowed at midnight and asked me never to ask me what I saw and I myself did not remember this hour either with my mother or my aunt, and 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 answered the phone call and heard the voice of this scoundrel. But she immediately said that I knew who was speaking, and therefore I did not want to talk ...
Grigorova-Rudykovskaya, Tatiana Leonidovna

The provisional government conducted a special investigation into the Rasputin case. According to the materials of the investigation of V. M. Rudnev, who was sent by order of Kerensky to the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to Investigate the Abuses of Former Ministers, Chief Governors and Other High Officials" and who was then assistant prosecutor of the Yekaterinoslav Regional Court:

... it turned out that Rasputin's amorous adventures did not go beyond the framework of night orgies with girls of easy virtue and chansonnet singers, and also sometimes with some of his supplicants. As for the proximity to the ladies of high society, in this regard, no positive observation materials were obtained and the investigation was not obtained.
... In general, Rasputin was by nature a man of wide scope; the doors of his house were always open; there was always a crowd of the most varied people, feeding at his expense; in order to create around him the aura of a benefactor according to the word of the Gospel: "the hand of the giver will not grow thin", Rasputin, constantly receiving money from petitioners for the satisfaction of their petitions, widely distributed this money to the needy and generally to people of the poor classes who also turned to him with any requests , even not of a material nature ..

Daughter Matryona in her book “Rasputin. Why?" wrote:

... that for all his life was saturated, the father never misused 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 father's ill-wishers. Note that they were getting some real food for their stories.

From the testimony of Prince M.M. Andronikov to the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry:

... Then he answered the phone and called all kinds of ladies. I had to do bonne mine mauvais jeu - because all these ladies were extremely dubious ...

French Slavic philologist Pierre Pascal wrote in his memoirs that Alexander Protopopov denied Rasputin's influence on the career of a minister. However, Protopopov spoke about the act of pederast in which Metropolitan Pitirim, Prince Andronikov and Rasputin took part.

Rasputin in 1914. Author E. N. Klokacheva

Estimates of Rasputin's influence

Mikhail Taube, who was Deputy Minister of Public Education in 1911-1915, recites the following episode in his memoirs. Once a man came to the ministry with a letter from Rasputin and a request to appoint him as an inspector of public schools in his native province. The minister (Lev Kasso) ordered this petitioner down the stairs. According to Taube, this incident proved how exaggerated all the rumors and gossip about Rasputin's behind-the-scenes influence were exaggerated.

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 recollections of the palace commandant Vladimir Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gerardi, when asked how often Rasputin visits the palace, replied: "once a month, and sometimes two months." In the memoirs of the maid of honor Anna Vyrubova, it is said that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the tsar received him even less often. Another maid of honor, Sophia Buxgewden, 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. "

For all the time he spent at court, Gilliard recalls his only meeting with Rasputin: “One day, while getting ready to go out, I met him in the hall. I managed to examine him while he was taking off his fur coat. He was a tall man, with an emaciated face, with a very sharp gaze of gray-blue eyes from under his tousled eyebrows. He had long hair and a big peasant beard. ”Nicholas II himself in 1911 told VN Kokovtsov about Rasputin that:

... personally, he hardly knows "this little man" and saw him briefly, it seems, no more than two or three times, and moreover at very large distances of time.

From the memoirs of the director of the Police Department A. T. Vasiliev (he served in the "secret police" of St. Petersburg from 1906 and headed the police in 1916-1917, later he led the investigation into the murder of Rasputin):

Many times I had the opportunity to meet with Rasputin and talk with him on various topics.<…> Intelligence and natural ingenuity gave him the opportunity to soberly and shrewdly judge a person only once he met. This was also known to the queen, so she sometimes asked his opinion about a particular 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 it, and although I sometimes investigated these rumors, I never found convincing evidence of their truth. The incidents I am referring to 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 who were trying to shake the foundations of the Russian throne and the empire ... These harbingers of revolution tried to make Rasputin a scarecrow 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 could a high position and influence be achieved.

A. Ya. Avrekh believed that in 1915 the tsarina and Rasputin, having blessed the departure of Nicholas II to Headquarters as supreme commander, made something like a "coup d'état" and appropriated a significant part of power: as an example, A. Ya. Avrekh cites their interference in the affairs of the southwestern front during the offensive organized by A.A. Brusilov. A. Ya. Avrekh believed that the tsarina significantly influenced the tsar, and the tsarina - Rasputin.

A. N. Bokhanov, on the contrary, believes that the whole "rasputiniada" is the fruit of political manipulation, "black PR". However, as Bokhanov says, it is well known that informational pressure only works when not only certain groups have intentions and opportunities to affirm the desired stereotype in the public consciousness, but society itself is prepared to accept and assimilate it. Therefore, just to say, as it is sometimes done, that the stories about Rasputin that have been circulated are a complete lie, even if this is really so, it means not to clarify the essence: why were the fabrications about him taken on faith? This basic question remains unanswered to this day.

At the same time, the image of Rasputin was widely used in revolutionary and German propaganda. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II, there were many rumors in the Petersburg world about Rasputin and his influence on power. It was said that he himself absolutely subjugated the tsar and the tsarina and ruled the country, either Alexandra Feodorovna seized power with the help of Rasputin, or the country was ruled by a "triumvirate" of Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the tsarina.

The publication of reports about Rasputin could only be partially limited. By law, articles on the imperial family were subject to prior censorship by the head of the office of the ministry of the court. Any articles in which Rasputin's name was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were forbidden, but articles where only Rasputin appeared could not be banned.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov made a speech critical of the government and the "court party", in which the name of Rasputin was also mentioned. Miliukov took the information he gave about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt of October 16, 1916 and the Neuer Freye Press of June 25, about which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V.M. Purishkevich made 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, the German zeppelins scattered over the Russian trenches a caricature depicting Wilhelm, leaning on the German people, and Nikolai Romanov, leaning on the genitals of Rasputin.

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 Zemsky-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became the chairman of the Provisional Government.

After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the Provisional Government organized an extraordinary commission of inquiry, which was supposed to look for the crimes of the tsarist officials, including investigating the activities of Rasputin. The commission conducted 88 interrogations and interrogated 59 persons, prepared "stenographic reports", the editor-in-chief of which was the poet A. Blok, who published his observations and notes in the form of a book entitled "The Last Days of the Imperial Power".

The commission has not finished its work. Some of the protocols of interrogation of high-ranking officials were published in the USSR by 1927. From the testimony of A.D. Protopopov to the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry on 03/21/1917:

CHAIRMAN. Do you know the importance of Rasputin in the affairs of Tsarskoe Selo under the Tsar? - Protopopov. Rasputin was a close person, and, as with a close person, they consulted with him.

Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

Vladimir Kokovtsov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia in 1911-1914, wrote with surprise in his memoirs:

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

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian varnak, a vagabond, intelligent and trained himself in the well-known way of a simpleton and a holy fool and playing his role according to a learned recipe.
In appearance, he lacked only the prisoner's armyman and the ace of diamonds on his back.
By manners, this is a person capable of anything. Of course, he does not believe in his antics, but he has developed for himself firmly memorized techniques with which he deceives both those who sincerely believe in all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, having in fact only meant to reach through him of those benefits that are not given in any other way.

Rasputin's secretary, Aron Simanovich, writes in his book:

How did Rasputin's contemporaries imagine? As a drunken, dirty peasant who infiltrated the royal family, appointed and dismissed ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the scandalous St. Petersburg chronicle. Besides, there are also wild orgies in Villa Rode, lustful dances among aristocratic female fans, high-ranking minions and drunken gypsies, and at the same time an incomprehensible power over the tsar and his family, hypnotic strength and faith in one's special purpose. That was all.

Confessor of the royal family, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev:

Rasputin is "a completely God-fearing and believing person, harmless and even rather useful for the Royal Family ... He talks with Them about God, about faith."

Doctor, physician of the family of Nicholas II Evgeny Botkin:

If it had not been for Rasputin, the opponents of the royal family and those who prepared the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, if it had not been for Vyrubova, out of me, from whoever you want.

Investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov writes in his book-judicial 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 submitted to the Emperor and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all the telegrams that went to the name of Their Majesties from Rasputin were known to me at one time. There were a lot of them. It is, of course, impossible to remember their content consistently. In all honesty, I can say that the tremendous influence of Rasputin with the Tsar and the Empress was clearly established 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:

Fr. John asked the elder: "What is your surname?" And when the latter answered: "Rasputin", he said: "Look, by your surname it will be for you."

Schiarchimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), the elder of the Sedmiyezernaya Hermitage, spoke very sharply about Rasputin: "Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven ...".

Attempts to canonize Rasputin

Religious veneration of Grigory Rasputin began around 1990 and came from the so-called. Theotokos center (which changed its name over the next years).

Some extremely radical monarchist Orthodox circles have also, since the 1990s, expressed thoughts about the canonization of Rasputin as a holy martyr.

Famous supporters of these ideas were: the editor of the Orthodox newspaper "Blagovest" Anton Zhogolev, the writer of the Orthodox-patriotic, historical genre Oleg Platonov, the singer Zhanna Bichevskaya, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Pravoslavnaya Rus" Konstantin Dushenov, "Church of John the Theologian" and others.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church for the canonization of saints and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II: "There is no reason to raise the question of the canonization of Grigory Rasputin, whose dubious morality and illegibility cast a shadow on the August surname of the future royal passion-bearers of Tsar Nicholas II and his family."

According to a member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov:

Of course, Rasputin was used by the opposition, fanning the myth of his omnipotence and omnipotence. He was portrayed worse than he was. Many hated him with all their hearts. For Tsarevna Olga Nikolaevna, for example, this was one of the most hated people, because he destroyed her marriage with the Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, which prompted the latter to participate in the murder of Rasputin.

Rasputin in culture and art

According to S. Fomin's research, during March-November 1917, theaters were filled with “dubious” performances, and more than ten “libelous” films about Grigory Rasputin were released. The first such film was the two-part "Sensational drama""Dark Forces - Grigory Rasputin and His Companions" (production of the joint-stock company G. Liebken). In the same row is the widely shown play by A. Tolstoy "The Conspiracy of the Empress".

Grigory Rasputin became the central character of the play "Grishka Rasputin" by the playwright Konstantin Skvortsov.

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

Documentaries about Rasputin

Historical chronicles. 1915. Grigory 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 2007)
Who killed Rasputin? (Who Killed Rasputin?), Dir. Michael Wedding, 2004, BBC, 50 min. (released on DVD 2006)

Rasputin in theater and cinema

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

The very first silent feature short films about Grigory Rasputin began to appear in March 1917. All of them, without exception, demonized Rasputin's personality, exposing him and the Imperial Family in the most unattractive light. The first such film, entitled "A Drama from the Life of Grigory Rasputin" O. Drankov, who simply edited his 1916 film "Washed in Blood" based on the story of M. Gorky "Konovalov" .Most of the other films were shot in 1917 by the then largest film company "Joint Stock Company G. Liebken". 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 provoked protests in the press because of their "pornography and wild eroticism":

Dark Forces - Grigory Rasputin and His Companions (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)
Grishka Rasputin's love affairs
The funeral of Rasputin
Mysterious murder in Petrograd on December 16
Trading house Romanov, Rasputin, Sukhomlinov, Myasoedov, Protopopov and Co.
Tsar's oprichniks

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

Nevertheless, 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 the old man on the screen was actor Edward Conelli (in the movie "The Fall of the Romanovs"). In the same year the film "Rasputin, the Black Monk" was released, where Rasputin was played by Montague Love. 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 Conspiracy of the Empress (published in Berlin in 1925) was written and immediately staged in Moscow, which shows in detail the murder of Rasputin. Later on, the play was staged by some Soviet theaters. In the Moscow theater. Boris Chirkov played the role of Rasputin in N.V. Gogol. And on Belarusian television in the mid-60s, the TV show "Crash" was filmed based on Tolstoy's play, in which Roman Filippov (Rasputin) and Rostislav Yankovsky (Prince Felix Yusupov) played.

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

Once again, cinema returned to Rasputin in the 50s, which were marked by performances with the same name "Rasputin", released in 1954 and 1958 (for television) with Pierre Brasser and Narzms Ibanez 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 mistakes from a historical point of view, the image he created in the film is considered one of the best film incarnations of Rasputin.

In the 60s, such films as "The Night of Rasputin" (1960, in the role of Rasputin - Edmund Pardom), "Rasputin" (TV show in 1966 with Herbert Stass in the title role) and "I Killed Rasputin" (1967), where the role was played by Gert Froebe, best 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 did the Russians revolutionize (1970, Rasputin - Wes Carter), the TV show Rasputin as part of the Play of the Month cycle (1971, Rasputin - Robert Stevens), Nikolai and Alexandra (1971, Rasputin - Tom Baker), TV series "Eagles Fall" (1974, Rasputin - Michael Aldridge) and the TV show "A Cárné összeesküvése" (1977, Rasputin - Nandor Tomanek)

In 1981, the most famous Russian film about Rasputin was released - "Agony" Elem Klimova, where the image was successfully embodied by Alexey Petrenko. In 1984 "Rasputin - Orgien am Zarenhof" was released with Alexander Conte as Rasputin.

In 1992, stage director Gennady Yegorov staged the play Grishka Rasputin based on the play of the same name by Konstantin Skvortsov at the ROSTO Patriot Drama Theater in St. Petersburg in the genre of political farce.

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

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 the Hell", where the main villain is the resurrected Rasputin, have already been released. played by Karel Roden. In 2007 the film was released "Conspiracy", directed by Stanislav Libin, where the role of Rasputin is played by Ivan Okhlobystin.

In 2011, the Franco-Russian film Rasputin was filmed, in which Gerard Depardieu played the role of Gregory. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, it was this work that gave the actor the right to obtain Russian citizenship.

In 2014, Mars Media studio filmed an 8-episode TV film "Grigory R." (directed by Andrey Malyukov), in which the role of Rasputin was played by Vladimir Mashkov.

In music

Disco group Boney M. in 1978 released the album "Nightflight to Venus", one of the hits of which was the song "Rasputin". The lyrics were written by Frank Farian and contain Western clichés about Rasputin - “the greatest Russian love machine”, “lover of the Russian queen.” The music used the motives of the popular Turku "Kyatibim", the song "mimics" the performance of the Turki by Erta Kitt (exclamation of Kitt "Oh! those Turks" Boney M copied as “Oh! those Russians "). On the road Boney M in the USSR, at the insistence of the host side, this song was not performed, although later it was nevertheless included in the release of the group's Soviet disc. The death of one of the members of the Bobby Farrell group came exactly on the 94th anniversary of the night of the murder of Grigory Rasputin, in St. Petersburg.
Song of Alexander Malinin "Grigory Rasputin" (1992).
The song by Zhanna Bichevskaya and Gennady Ponomarev “Spiritualized Wanderer” (“Elder Gregory”) (c. 2000) from the music album “We are Russians” is aimed at extolling “holiness” and canonizing Rasputin, where there are lines “ Russian elder with a staff in his hand, a miracle worker with a staff in his hand».
In the album "Sadism", released in 1993, the thrash group Corrosion of Metal has the song "Dead Rasputin".
The German power metal band Metalium recorded their own song "Rasputin" (album "Hero Nation - Chapter Three") in 2002, presenting their view of the events around Grigory Rasputin, without the clichés prevailing in pop culture
Finnish folk / viking metal band Turisas released the single "Rasputin" in 2007 with a cover version of the band's song "Boney M". A video clip was also filmed for the song "Rasputin".
In 2002, Valery Leontyev performed the Russian version of the Boney M Rasputin song “New Year” (“Race, Let's open the doors wide open, but all Russia will go into a round dance ...”) at the “New Year's attraction” RTR

Rasputin in poetry

Nikolai Klyuev has more than once compared himself to him, and in his poems there are frequent references to Grigory Efimovich. “They are following me,” wrote Klyuev, “millions of charming Grishkas.” According to the memoirs of the poet Rurik Ivnev, poet Sergei Yesenin performed the then fashionable ditties “Grishka Rasputin and the Tsarina”.

Poetess Zinaida Gippius wrote in her diary dated November 24, 1915: “Grisha himself rules, drinks and eats maid of honor. And Fedorovna, out of habit. " Z. Gippius was not a member of the immediate circle of the imperial family, she simply passed on rumors. The proverb "Tsar-father with Egoriy, and Tsarina-mother with Gregory" was used by the people.

Commercial use of Rasputin's name

The commercial use of the name Grigory Rasputin in some brands began in the West in the 1980s. Today known:

Rasputin vodka. Produced in various forms by Dethleffen in Flexburg (Germany).
Beer "Old Rasputin". Produced by North Coast Brewing Co. (California, USA) (from 21-04-2017)
Beer "Rasputin". Produced by Brouwerij de Moler (Netherlands)
Cigarettes "Rasputin black" and "Rasputin white" (USA)
There is a restaurant and nightclub "Rasputin" in Brooklyn, New York (from 21-04-2017)
There is a grocery store "Rasputin International Food" in Ensio (California)
There is a music store "Rasputin" in San Francisco (USA)
In Toronto (Canada) there is a famous vodka bar Rasputin http://rasputinvodkabar.com/ (from 21-04-2017)
There is a supermarket Rasputin in Rostock (Germany)
There is a Rasputin club in Andernach (Germany)
In Dusseldorf (Germany) there is a large Russian-speaking disco "Rasputin".
There is a Russian restaurant Rasputin in Pattaya (Thailand).
There is a men's club "Rasputin" in Moscow
A men's erotic magazine "Rasputin" is published in Moscow

In St. Petersburg:

Since the mid-2000s, there has been an interactive show "The Horrors of St. Petersburg", the protagonist of which is Grigory Rasputin.
Beauty salon "House of Rasputin" and the school of the same name of hairdressing art
Hostel "Rasputin"

Categories:

Popular biographies