46 Facts About Grigori Rasputin

1.

Grigori Rasputin had a religious conversion experience after embarking on a pilgrimage to a monastery in 1897, and has been described as a monk or as a, though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church.

2.

In November 1905, Grigori Rasputin met Nicholas II and his empress consort, Alexandra Feodorovna.

3.

Grigori Rasputin was a divisive figure at court, seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan.

4.

Grigori Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River in the Tobolsk Governorate in the Russian Empire.

5.

Grigori Rasputin's father, Yefim, was a peasant farmer and church elder who had been born in Pokrovskoye in 1842 and married Rasputin's mother, Anna Parshukova, in 1863.

6.

Historians agree that like most Siberian peasants, including his mother and father, Grigori Rasputin was not formally educated and remained illiterate well into his early adulthood.

7.

In 1886, Grigori Rasputin traveled to Abalak, Russia, some 250 km east-northeast of Tyumen and 2,800 km east of Moscow, where he met a peasant girl named Praskovya Dubrovina.

8.

In 1897, Grigori Rasputin developed a renewed interest in religion and left Pokrovskoye to go on a pilgrimage.

9.

Grigori Rasputin's reasons are unclear; according to some sources, Rasputin left the village to escape punishment for his role in horse theft.

10.

Whatever his reasons, Grigori Rasputin cast off his old life: he was twenty-eight, married ten years, with an infant son and another child on the way.

11.

Grigori Rasputin had undertaken earlier, shorter pilgrimages to the Holy Znamensky Monastery at Abalak and to Tobolsk's cathedral, but his visit to the St Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturye in 1897 transformed him.

12.

Grigori Rasputin returned to Pokrovskoye a changed man, looking disheveled and behaving differently.

13.

Grigori Rasputin became a vegetarian, swore off alcohol, and prayed and sang much more fervently than he had in the past.

14.

Grigori Rasputin spent the years that followed as a strannik, leaving Pokrovskoye for months or even years at a time to wander the country and visit a variety of holy sites.

15.

Historian Douglas Smith argues that it is impossible to know whether Grigori Rasputin stayed in St Petersburg or returned to Pokrovskoye at some point between his first arrival and 1905.

16.

Regardless, by 1905 Grigori Rasputin had formed friendships with several members of the aristocracy, including the "Black Princesses", Militsa and Anastasia of Montenegro, who had married the tsar's cousins, and were instrumental in introducing Grigori Rasputin to the tsar and his family.

17.

Grigori Rasputin first met the tsar on 1 November 1905, at the Peterhof Palace.

18.

Grigori Rasputin returned to Pokrovskoye shortly after their first meeting and did not return to St Petersburg until July 1906.

19.

On his return, Grigori Rasputin sent Nicholas a telegram asking to present the tsar with an icon of Simeon of Verkhoturye.

20.

Harold Shukman wrote that Grigori Rasputin became "an indispensable member of the royal entourage".

21.

Grigori Rasputin may have been aware of Alexei's condition as early as October 1906, and was summoned by Alexandra to pray for Alexei when he had an internal hemorrhage in the spring of 1907.

22.

Grigori Rasputin had been rumored to be capable of faith-healing since his arrival in St Petersburg, and the tsarina's friend Anna Vyrubova became convinced that Grigori Rasputin had miraculous powers shortly thereafter.

23.

In November 1906 Grigori Rasputin suddenly paid a visit to the Baratynsky family in Kazan and told them he could read people's minds.

24.

Olga Ilyin's description of Grigori Rasputin and his behavior in "Visits to the Imperial Court" is a small but no doubt valuable contribution to history.

25.

At the very beginning of dinner, when Nastya was about to put a plate of soup in front of Grigori Rasputin, he wanted to get out a comb, and he began to run it through his oily hair.

26.

Alexandra believed that Grigori Rasputin had performed a miracle, and concluded that he was essential to Alexei's survival.

27.

Some writers and historians, such as Ferro, claim that Grigori Rasputin stopped Alexei's bleeding on other occasions through hypnosis.

28.

Some historians, including memoirist Pierre Gilliard, Alexei's French-language tutor, have speculated that Grigori Rasputin controlled Alexei's bleeding by disallowing the administration of aspirin, then widely used to relieve pain, but unknown as an anti-clotting agent until the 1950s.

29.

One of the girls' governesses, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva, was horrified in 1910 because Grigori Rasputin was permitted access to the nursery when the four girls were in their nightgowns.

30.

The empress refused to believe Vishnyakova "and said that everything Grigori Rasputin does is holy".

31.

Grigori Rasputin had released ardent letters written to him by the Tsarina and the four grand duchesses.

32.

Nicholas ordered Grigori Rasputin to leave St Petersburg for a time, much to Alexandra's displeasure, and Grigori Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine.

33.

Grigori Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on its reverse side by the grand duchesses and their mother.

34.

In St Petersburg, Grigori Rasputin faced opposition from even more prominent critics, including prime minister Peter Stolypin and the Okhrana, the Tsar's secret police.

35.

Grigori Rasputin went to Theofan for aid, and the incident helped to convince Theofan that Rasputin was a danger to the monarchy.

36.

Grigori Rasputin was seriously wounded, and for a time it was not clear if he would survive.

37.

Grigori Rasputin died of three gunshot wounds, one of which was a close-range shot to his forehead.

38.

Grigori Rasputin initially refused the cakes but then began to eat them and, to Yusupov's surprise, appeared unaffected by the poison.

39.

Grigori Rasputin then asked for some Madeira wine and drank three glasses, but still showed no sign of distress.

40.

Grigori Rasputin took a revolver from Dmitry Pavlovich, then returned to the basement and told Rasputin that he'd "better look at the crucifix and say a prayer", referring to a crucifix in the room, then shot him once in the chest.

41.

Suddenly, Grigori Rasputin leaped up and attacked Yusupov, who freed himself with some effort and fled upstairs.

42.

Grigori Rasputin followed Yusupov into the palace's courtyard, where he was shot by Purishkevich.

43.

News of Grigori Rasputin's murder spread quickly, even before his body was found.

44.

Kosorotov's report was lost, but he later stated that Grigori Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three gunshot wounds, a slice wound to his left side, and many other injuries, many of which Kosorotov felt had been sustained post-mortem.

45.

Grigori Rasputin found no evidence that Rasputin had been poisoned.

46.

Some later accounts claimed that Grigori Rasputin's penis had been severed, but Kosorotov found his genitals intact.