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The Rise of Rasputin: The Mad Monk Who Ran Russia

Khalid Elhassan March 3, 2025 18 min

2. Terrible Advice to Take Charge

Photo of a Portrait of Rasputin, commissioned by an acolyte, displayed in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1912. NPR

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.

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.