15. Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born on January 22, 1869, in the village of Pokrovskoye, Siberia, to a peasant family. In 1897, he underwent a religious conversion and began wandering as a mystic and healer. His reputation for healing, particularly his ability to alleviate the symptoms of Tsar Nicholas II’s son, Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia, led to his close association with the Russian royal family. Rasputin’s influence at court, combined with his controversial behavior, contributed to the decline of the Romanov dynasty (britannica.com).
