14. Winning Over the Imperial Family
Rasputin made it to Saint Petersburg as a wandering hermit. There, his weird ideas and magnetic personality attracted high society’s attention. Especially high society women, eager to experience Rasputin and his doctrine of religious redemption through sin. Eventually, he met Tsarina Alexandra, and somehow succeeded where doctors had failed in alleviating her hemophiliac son’s suffering. She came to believe him holy, showered him with favors, and refused to hear any criticism of how he abused his sudden elevation and access to power. It was widely reported that he was c-u-c-k-olding Tsar Nicholas II, and that he had become not only the Tsarina’s lover, but was ravishing her daughters as well. Reports boosted by Rasputin himself, since he often bragged when drunk about of his carnal escapades with the imperial family.
