The Rise of Rasputin: The Mad Monk Who Ran Russia

22. A Delinquent Teenager

Rasputin was born Grigory Yefimovich Novykh in a humble peasant family in a small Siberian village on January 21^st, 1869. His father was a farmer who also worked as a government courier, and ferried people and goods between nearby settlements across and along the Tura River. Little is known of Rasputin’s childhood, except that he was not formally educated. He remained functionally illiterate until adulthood, and was barely literate thereafter. By his teens, Rasputin had become a delinquent heavy drinker, who disrespected the local authorities and was involved in minor thefts and other petty crimes. He was also accused of blasphemy and bearing false witness during this period. However, what really stood out was his licentiousness and passionate pursuit of women – many of whom eagerly welcomed his advances.

21. A Hypnotic Stare

Rasputin’s most prominent feature was the penetrating stare of his piercing blue eyes, often described by those who experienced it as magnetic and hypnotic. As one noblewoman put it: “What eyes he has! You cannot endure his gaze for long. There is something difficult in him, it is like you can feel the physical pressure, even though his eyes sometimes glow with kindness, but how cruel can they be and how frightful in anger…” Rumors followed Rasputin since an early age, and at age ten, it was said he could read minds and heal the sick. Growing up, he developed a taste for theft, alcohol, and carnal activities. He joined a heretical sect that had splintered off from the Russian Orthodox Church. He then splintered off from it to form his own cult, whose members had to experience sin to become one with the Divine.

20. “The Debauched One“

Since his youth, Rasputin had a magnetism that attracted women, and he swiftly racked up conquests. In his late teens, he married a peasant girl, but marriage did not slow down his womanizing. He became so infamous in his village and surrounding district for licentiousness that he earned the nickname Rasputin, meaning “the depraved”, or “debauched one”, in Russian. In his late twenties, Rasputin saw a vision of either the Virgin Mary or Simeon of Verkhotyure, patron saint of the Urals, experienced a religious conversion, and went on a pilgrimage. Other sources have it that Rasputin actually went on the lam, and left to escape arrest and prosecution for horse theft. Whatever his motives, at around age twenty eight, Rasputin had a crisis and made drastic life changes.

19. Becoming a Holy Wanderer

In 1897, Rasputin left home for a pilgrimage to the St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhotyure, leaving behind an infant son and a pregnant wife heavy with another child. He stayed at the monastery for months, during which he learned basic literacy. During that period, he also met and was strongly influenced by a local starets – a Russian Orthodox Church elder, venerated as a religious teacher and advisor. Later, Rasputin criticized monastic life as too strict, and complained of rampant homosexuality between the monks. Be that as it may, by the time he returned home, Rasputin had changed. He stopped drinking and turned teetotaler, became a vegetarian, and engaged in passionate displays of religiosity such as fervent praying and singing. He also took on the disheveled appearance of a strannik – a Russian holy wanderer.

18. Founding a Blasphemous Cult

As a strannik, Rasputin left home for months or years to visit holy sites. He sometimes walked for days without stopping or eating, and also stopped bathing or washing himself for months at a time. To increase his suffering and hardship, in order to get nearer to God, he wore heavy shackles. Back in his home village, when not on the road and travelling to and between holy sites as far away as Greece, Syria, and Jerusalem, Rasputin founded a religious cult. His sect combined Orthodox Christian tenets with sexual practices, and other odd rituals deemed heretical and blasphemous. It began after Rasputin encountered and joined a flagellant sect known as the Khlysts – an breakaway splinter of Russia’s Orthodox Church, popular in the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries.

17. “Driving Out Sin With Sin“

Rasputin perverted the Khlystys’ beliefs that nearness to God is best achieved by a state described as “holy passionlessness”. Khlysts usually reached holy passionless via exhaustion, through rituals that combined fervent prayer with even more fervent dancing and spinning, until the congregation was worn out. Rasputin ramped things up by inventing a religious doctrine he described as “driving out sin with sin“. He reasoned that the exhaustion to attain a state of holy passionlessness should be total – not just physical, but carnal as well. So Rasputin made his followers reach carnal exhaustion via o-r-g-i-e-s – prolonged bouts of debauchery by the entire congregation in order to get all the base passions out of their systems. That way, they could get nearer to and focus on God without distractions of the flesh.

16. A Holy Man Who Could Soothe Troubled Spirits

When not leading his congregation in wild o-r-g-i-e-s to bring them closer to God, Rasputin was on the road, touring holy sites. His fame grew as he roamed Orthodox Christendom, living off donations. He gradually established a reputation as a strannik, or a holy wanderer, who could predict the future and heal the sick. His first big break came in the early 1900s, when he reached the city of Kazan on the Volga River. Within a short time, word spread of the arrival of a special strannik with piercing blue eyes, who could soothe spiritual anxieties. Simultaneously, word also spread that the new arrival was constantly getting it on with his female followers. Despite such escapades, Rasputin charmed and won over the local religious authorities, especially an influential father superior of a famous pilgrimage site, the Seven Lakes Hermitage.

15. Winning Over the Imperial Family’s Confessor

Rasputin gained the Kazan locals’ confidence, then used them as stepping stones to bigger and better things. He finagled a letter of introduction and recommendation to Bishop Sergei, rector of a seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Russia’s capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1904, Kazan’s authorities paid Rasputin’s travel expenses to St. Petersburg, where he met and impressed Bishop Sergei. The bishop in turn introduced the strannik to other influential Russian religious figures. They included an Archimandrite (head of a group of a monasteries) Theofan, who was well connected in Russian high society, and who became the Tsar’s and Tsarina’s confessor. Theofan was so impressed by Rasputin that he invited him to live in his home, and became one of his greatest boosters.

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.

13. A Filthy and Stinking Mystic Was Just What Russia’s Elites Wanted

Rasputin reached St. Petersburg at a time when Slavism and a conservative yearning for a return to Russia’s ancient roots were in vogue, and when mysticism and the occult had become fashionable with its decadent court and high society. The dirty, smelly, holy peasant with captivating eyes and a reputation for faith healing, was a living embodiment of Russia’s roots and Russian mysticism. He became an instant hit. By 1905, his path paved with introductions and recommendations from important religious figures, Rasputin had won over and befriended numerous influential aristocrats. His new friends and patrons included not only prominent St. Petersburg high society members, but also grand dukes and grand duchesses from the Tsar’s family. He was introduced to Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and their children, including the heir to the Russian throne, the young Tsarevich Alexei.

12. An Ability to Soothe a Suffering Child

Tsarevich Alexei was a hemophiliac – a disease whose sufferers bleed uncontrollably from even minor cuts – and had arrived at death’s door as a result on various occasions. Doctors could offer no cure, and were often unable to alleviate the symptoms or ease the poor child’s suffering. Rasputin arrived at a time when Alexei’s parents, particularly his mother, were driven to desperation by their only son’s ailment. Rasputin had developed a reputation as a faith healer by then. When the Tsarevich suffered a severe bout of internal bleeding in 1907 and the doctors could offer no relief, Tsarina Alexandra asked him to pray for her son. He arrived at the palace at night and began praying. The following morning, Alexei had stopped bleeding. Rasputin’s standing with the Tsarina rose dramatically.

11. The Tsarina Believed that Rasputin Could Work Miracles

Rasputin’s standing with Tsarina Alexandra skyrocketed in 1912, when her son suffered severe internal hemorrhage after a bumpy carriage ride. Alexei became delirious with fever and pain, and seemed on death’s door, with doctors helpless to cure or soothe him. Rasputin was back in Siberia, and the desperate Alexandra sent a telegram asking him to pray for her son. He wrote her back that “God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much“. The following day, the bleeding stopped. It was purely coincidental – most hemophilia bouts eventually stop on their own, and it just so happened that these particular bout’s ending coincided with Rasputin’s arrival and prayers. Nobody could explain that however to Alexandra, who convinced herself that Rasputin had performed miracles.

10. Telling the Tsarina What She Wanted to Hear

Tsarina Alexandra saw in Rasputinthe answer to her fervent prayers. From then on, nothing could shake her belief that he was blessed by God, and that his presence was vital to her family and for her son’s survival. Having impressed them with his “healing” abilities, Rasputin began offering advice to the Tsar and Tsarina, exerting influence on matters that were trivial and benign at first. Over time, however, his influence grew increasingly malign, and negatively impacted both the imperial family and the Russian Empire. Rasputin became a regular visitor to the imperial palace, and spent hours talking with the Tsarina about religion and other matters. He flattered Alexandra by telling her what she wanted to hear. Specifically, that she and her husband were beloved by Russia’s masses, and needed to be seen more by their adoring subjects.

9. Russia’s Rulers Turned to a Barely Literate Peasant for Advice

Rasputin told Tsarina Alexandra that she and her husband should see him more often and place their absolute trust in him. He also told her that to him, the imperial couple were like God. As such, he would never lie to them, and would always tell them the truth. He contrasted his self-declared honesty with the Tsar’s ministers, who, according to Rasputin, were dishonest and did not care about the people or their tears. Rasputin’s words moved Alexandra, and she came to believe that he had been sent by God to help her family and protect the imperial dynasty. At the time, Tsarist rule was coming under increasing pressure as the imperial system started crumbling because of structural flaws and incompetent governance. Tsar and Tsarina began turning to Rasputin, confiding in him and seeking the comfort of his assurances that God was watching over them.

8. Rasputin’s Bad Reputation Reflected Badly on His Tsarist Patrons

The fact remained that the peasant strannik had a notorious reputation for lechery and a unique brand of religious practices with his female followers. Amid stories of the wild o-r-g-i-e-s he engaged in with his congregation, it was not long before rumors circulated that Rasputin was sleeping with the Tsarina and c-u-c-k-olding the Tsar. It was commendable of Nicholas II that he was secure enough in his wife’s fidelity to dismiss the rumors. However, he failed to realize that regardless of the truth, perception mattered. Rasputin’s proximity to the Tsar’s family, particularly his wife and teenage daughters, brought the imperial family into disrepute. It also opened the Tsar to mockery and ridicule as a c-u-c-k-old, thus damaging his dignity and prestige.

7. Upper Class Women Threw Themselves at Rasputin

Whether or not Rasputin actually seduced Tsarina Alexandra – something he boasted he had done – there was no doubt that he seduced dozens of aristocratic women in St. Petersburg. In the presence of the imperial family, he kept up the act of a humble and holy peasant. Beyond the royal gaze, however, he fell back into his lecherous habits, preaching that physical contact with his person had holy healing powers. The strannik exerted a powerful animal magnetism, which many found inexplicable, upon high society women. Before long, the licentious healer had a cult following of wealthy and aristocratic women, young and old, maidens and matrons, throwing themselves at him like modern groupies at a rock star. Rasputin set himself up in an apartment where people from all classes, but especially aristocratic women, flocked to visit him.

6. A Holy Man’s Wild Party Pad

Many Russian aristocrats and high society figures, aware that Rasputin had the Tsar’s and Tsarina’s ear, sought to gain his favor. Some even sent their wives or daughters to seduce him into putting in a good word for them at court, or their female kin did so on their own initiative to help their male relative. And many admiring women visited him simply out of lust. Rasputin was always down for getting it on, and had enviable stamina and staying power. The authorities posted plainclothes policemen at Rasputin’s building, and their reports frequently described dozens of women, from prostitutes to high ranking aristocrats, visiting his apartment. The police reports described loud noises of drunken revelry, partying, beatings, violent sex, and o-r-g-i-e-s that lasted until sunrise and beyond.

5. The Tsar Ignored Reports of Putin’s Depravity

Many reports of Rasputin’s unruly and unholy conduct – including assaulting a nun – reached Nicholas II, but he either dismissed them out of hand, or laughed them off with comments such as “the holy are always slandered“. The Tsar’s confessor investigated the reports of Rasputin’s misconduct, concluded there was truth in them, and advised Nicholas to distance himself from the strannik. The Tsar, at the behest of his wife who was fiercely protective of Rasputin, sided with the strannik and banished his confessor. By 1911, Rasputin’s notorious behavior had become a national scandal, and turned the imperial family into a laughingstock. Russia’s Prime Minister P.A. Stolypin sent the Tsar a detailed report of Rasputin’s misdeeds, which compelled Nicholas to banish him to his village in Siberia. As seen below, the banishment proved brief.

4. Transforming Russia’s Rulers Into Puppets

A few months into Rasputin’s banishment, Tsarevich Alexei suffered a severe bout of hemophilia. His desperate mother telegraphed Rasputin asking him to pray for her son, and the kid got better soon after Rasputin replied. Alexandra made her husband bring the strannik back to St. Petersburg. From then on the Tsar, anxious for peace at home, and convinced that Rasputin had a beneficial impact on his son, ignored all allegations of wrongdoing. Gradually, Rasputin transformed the royal couple – particularly Tsarina Alexandra – into puppets. He offered Russia’s rulers disastrously bad advice, which they accepted, in the mistaken belief that Rasputin was a holy man blessed by God, and so would not steer them wrong. He steered them catastrophically wrong.

3. Rasputin at War

Early in World War I, Rasputin wanted to go to the front and bless the troops. Russia’s Commander-in-Chief, who deemed Rasputin a loathsome charlatan, vowed to hang him if he came anywhere near the front. So Rasputin bad mouthed him to the Tsar, and claimed that he had a religious revelation that Russia’s armies would not succeed unless Nicholas II went to the front and took personal command of his troops. In 1915, after a string of disasters, Nicholas relocated from St. Petersburg to the front, took charge of the armed forces, and announced that he would hitherto assume personal command of the war. It was a foolish decision. Until then, Tsardom’s absolutism was made psychologically palatable to Russia’s masses with the myth that whatever went wrong, the Tsar was not to blame. That changed when the Tsar took personal command of the armies.

2. Terrible Advice to Take Charge

Nicholas’ decision to heed Rasputin’s advice and directly command Russia’s armies was made worse by whom he chose to run the home front: his wife. Far as the Tsar was concerned, Alexandra was loyal to him and the imperial family, comprised of her own children. However, she was incompetent, as well as stupid. And the worst kind of stupid: too stupid to grasp the extent of her stupidity, and thus easily deluded into believing that she is intelligent. Left to run things in St. Petersburg, Alexandra, convinced that Rasputin was guided by God, started soliciting the barely literate charlatan’s advice on matters of state and government. She then heeded his advice, or badgered her weak minded husband to carry out Rasputin’s worst recommendations.

1.     A Scandalous State of Affairs That Only Ended With Rasputin’s Assassination

The scandalous state of affairs made the Tsarist government a laughingstock and brought it into low repute. The seriousness was exacerbated by the hardships of WWI, in which Russian forces suffered many humiliating defeats. After Nicolas took personal command of the armies, the responsibility for military reversals could no longer be shunted from the crown, but was laid directly at the Tsar’s feet. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Tsarina remained protective of Rasputin, refusing to hear any criticism of the faith healer, let alone heed advice to banish him. The impossible impasse finally came to an end when a group of aristocrats, led by a Prince Feliks Yusupov, husband of the Tsar’s niece, finally assassinated Rasputin on the night of December 30^th, 1916, in order to rid Russia of his malign influence.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Fuhrmann, Joseph T. – Rasputin: The Untold Story (2012)

History Collection – 10 Historic Government Systems That Shaped Russia

Massie, Robert K. – Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia (1967)

Radzinsky, Edvard – The Rasputin File (2000)

Wilson, Colin – Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs (1964)