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History’s Juiciest and Intriguing Scandals

Khalid Elhassan January 11, 2021 32 min

Cheryl Crane - Johnny Stompanato — Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl being escorted from jail to juvenile court. Getty Images

15. Placing Tsarina Alexandra in charge of the country was a very bad idea.

Rasputin with Tsarina Alexandra and her children. Wikimedia

Things grew worse when Tsar Nicholas, acting again on Rasputin’s advice, placed Tsarina Alexandra in charge of running Russia while he was running the war. On the one hand, there was no doubt of her loyalty to the ruling family. On the other, she proved to be wildly incompetent in the face of running the country in her husband’s stead.

Before long, the Tsarina Alexandra was soliciting the barely literate charlatan’s advice on matters of state and governance. She then heeded his advice, or badgered her husband, Tsar Nicholas, into carrying out Rasputin’s recommendations. Soon, officials were being hired and fired based on Rasputin’s say so, and those seeking to advance or secure their positions showered him with bribes. Others sent their wives and daughters to seduce Rasputin into putting in a good word for them with the ruling couple. The scandal of Rasputin’s malign influence on Russia’s rulers kept growing.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.