Rasputin Rasputin Grigory (or Gregory) Rasputin is without question one of the most sensational figures in Russian history. This mystic from Siberia arrived in St. Petersburg in 1911 and within a few years had become one of the most influential men in government. His ability to remain in such a high position despite widely publicized periods of drinking and womanizing is no doubt, the source of great envy among political figures around the world today. Rasputin’s rise to power was due to his close relationship with the czar Nicholas II’s wife, Alexandra. Her son, Alexis, suffered from hemophaelia, and only Rasputin could do what the top best doctor were unable to do, stop the boy’s bleeding.
Because of this, Alexandra believed he was a holy man sent to protect Alexis and she always kept him near. Rasputin is as famous for his death as he is for his life. At the end of 1916, a group of aristocrats working with the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich (a cousin of Nicholas II) decided that Rasputin’s influence had grown too great and that he had to be killed in order to save Russia. They lured him to the Yusupovsky Palace on the telling him that Prince Felix Yusupovsky would introduce Rasputin to his beautiful wife.
Rasputin was led to the cellar and fed poisoned cakes and wine, but he was unaffected. Yusupovsky then shot the monk at point blank range and Rasputin collapsed on the floor. When Yusupov went to tell his fellow conspirators the good news, they sent him back to make sure he was dead. On returning to inspect the body, Rasputin suddenly regained consciousness and started to choke Yusupov, who in seeing Rasputin alive was completely shocked.
The Prince fled the cellar, screaming for help; when they all returned Rasputin was gone. They later found him in the yard crawling towards the front gate and began to shoot and bludgeon him. They then bound him in carpet and tossed him into the river. When Rasputin’s body was found, he was untied and his lungs were found to be filled with water, showing that he didn’t actually die until he was thrown into the river.
