It would not be an exaggeration to say that the figure Grigory Rasputin received the widest fame. Moreover, the perception of the “elder” is striking in its inconsistency. In the novel “Agony” by the famous writer Valentin Pikul, a “fiend of hell” appears before us. Rasputin marks the collapse of Tsarist Russia, personifies the depravity and corruption of the top, makes appointments, and gives prophetic advice on key political issues. However, times change, and now they would like to demonstrate it in a different light. From television screens we are presented with the image of a genuine saint, living exclusively on higher matters, thoughts about Russia. Let's try to figure out how things really stood.

Grigory Rasputin did not immediately attract the attention of wide circles. He was better known as one of the characters who lived in court circles and specialized in the church field. In this way he was practically no different from persons of a similar nature. The only difference, perhaps, was one thing: Rasputin showed no interest in the monarchical “Union of the Russian People.” If the same Bishop Hermogenes or monk Iliodor tirelessly denounced ministers, including P.A. Stolypin, and called them traitors to Russia and the monarchy, then Rasputin did not take this path. As soon as he appeared in St. Petersburg, he began to shower influential officials not with curses, but with all sorts of requests for a variety of reasons (to accept someone, arrange something, resolve something, etc.). The Siberian “elder” managed to establish a real conveyor belt of petitions and notes to all significant departments. Of course, this required a demonstration of communication resources, based on the favor of the imperial couple towards him.

It should be noted that Rasputin masterfully used every opportunity to demonstrate his own influence, and most importantly, to spread rumors about it. In between, he could say that he had been ordered by the highest to think about what to do with the State Duma. Or, in the presence of strangers, declare that he has now called Grand Duchess Olga- daughter NicholasII(later, however, it turned out that in fact some incomprehensible lady had come.) After the assassination attempt in June 1914, he complained that if not for this unfortunate incident, he “would have delayed this war for another year.” When visiting (with another request) the Kyiv governor, he casually pointed to his belt: “And the mother queen herself embroidered the belt with her own hands,” thereby plunging the official into confusion. At the entrance to the elder’s apartment on Gorokhovaya, in a visible place lay a book with an open page, where the telephone numbers of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod and other high-ranking persons were displayed. In short, Rasputin’s entire lifestyle was subordinated to a specific goal: to extract the maximum benefit from his position. By the way, in his homeland, in the Tobolsk province (even before he gained a foothold in St. Petersburg), Rasputin was doing approximately the same thing: according to the governor, he constantly visited local officials, begged for something, sent all kinds of petitions to the capital , for which the provincial administration had to unsubscribe.

The activity of Rasputin, who boasted of his closeness to the imperial family and connections in high society, could not fail to attract attention. Naturally, the appearance of such a character was noticed by the opposition-minded public. His tireless activity provided an excellent reason to think about how matters of national importance were resolved. Therefore, when a crisis arose in the relations between the authorities and the opposition in the fall of 1915, the latter understood perfectly well what weapon it should adopt. As a result, the fame of the Siberian “righteous man” reaches its apogee: simultaneously with talk about the influence of dark forces and dirty gossip about the royal family. All the key appointments of that time began to be associated with the “elder”; in the so-called ministerial leapfrog of 1915−1916 they saw evidence of the influence of a “friend” of the imperial family. Many believed that Rasputin’s scribbles had the same power as the highest rescripts. Rasputin is the gravedigger of the dynasty. This opinion, which later became textbook, captured the minds of contemporaries of those dramatic events (and subsequently future historians).

At the same time, the worldview of the “elder” was absolutely free from political bias. He did not favor not only liberal figures, but also right-wing organizations. In particular, he remained indifferent to the monarchist leaders who asked to support this or that initiative, and they hated him no less than the liberals. One of the police officials who “looked after” Rasputin noted: “His political views, as far as he had them at all, were quite simple... The subtleties of so-called high politics were far from the range of his interests, and he absolutely could not understand what the end result was. “Various parties and groupings in the Duma are striving for an account, and the newspapers are arguing about it.” In other words, he showed his likes or dislikes, guided not by ideological considerations, but by personal and everyday preferences.

Head of the Police Department A.T. Vasiliev testifies: “Rasputin did not climb into the front rows of the political arena, he was pushed there by other people seeking to shake the foundation of the Russian throne and empire... they spread the most ridiculous rumors that created the impression that only through the mediation of a Siberian peasant can one achieve high position and influence.” A similar idea is expressed by the Tsar’s aide-de-camp A.A. Mordvinov: “I could not imagine that an educated, deeply cultured, historically read person... as, without any doubt, the Sovereign was, could fall under the influence and find himself led, not only in private life, but in public administration, by some kind of illiterate a man." Mordvinov’s remark is also very interesting: if not a single statesman of different years could claim his exclusive influence on Nicholas II, then what can we say about Rasputin?!

First of all, the following circumstance attracts attention: people who actively disseminated the version of the power of dark forces could not rely on real facts obtained, as they say, first-hand. It is well known that Nicholas II and his household led a rather secluded lifestyle; Even with the families of the imperial family they communicated infrequently, avoiding entertainment and balls that were so common at that time. Palace Commandant V.N. Voeikov noted: all those who knowledgeably discussed the Rasputin topic did not and could not know the ins and outs of the royal family, but stories about this were taken at face value. Rasputin truly became part of the life of the Tsar's family. As is known, this was facilitated by its beneficial effect on the heir, who suffered from a serious illness, as well as the disposition of the monarch and his wife towards representatives of the people. Nicholas II said about Rasputin: “This is just a simple Russian man, very religious and believer. The Empress likes him for his popular sincerity... she believes in his devotion and in the power of his prayers for our family and Alexei... but this is our completely private matter... it’s amazing how people like to interfere in everything that doesn’t concern them at all. Who can he bother?!”

In fact, Rasputin's behavior in Tsarskoye Selo was impeccable and did not give any reason to doubt his moral purity. Most likely, the “elder” did not dare to go beyond the established framework of communication with the family of Nicholas II. Another thing is that, having returned to the capital after another visit to the court, he played a completely different role - the highest adviser on key issues of state life, and most importantly, personnel policy. Sometimes, through the mask of the “arbiter of destinies,” he expressed regret about his insignificant influence. Police officer P.G. Kurlov, met with Rasputin at the doctor's Badmaeva, recalled: “I will never forget the characteristic expression that fell from Rasputin’s lips: “sometimes you have to beg the Tsar and Tsarina for a whole year before you interrogate them for something.” By the way, during the war, for a long time he could not get permission to place his own recruit son Dmitry in a safer place. In the end, Rasputin’s son was assigned to the empress’s ambulance train, which delivered the wounded to hospitals. Among the successful personnel matters that the “elder” really lobbied for, one can only include the appointment of Tobolsk governor ON THE. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky. Rasputin bothered about this official of the Perm State Chamber, with whom he often stopped on his way to Tobolsk, citing the safety of his own person during his stay in his homeland (after all, it was there that the attempt on his life took place in 1914). In this case, they met him halfway.

As for Alexandra Feodorovna’s influence on her husband, it, too, is apparently greatly exaggerated. One of the opposition leaders, Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko, assured that after Nicholas II left for headquarters, the empress began to manage all affairs, turning into a kind of regent. However, people close to him expressed great doubts about this opinion. For example, the Minister of Finance P.L. Barque claimed that the sovereign “very rarely followed the advice of the empress, which she gave him in her letters to headquarters.” The informed palace commandant V.N. spoke about the same thing. Voeikov. In the end, the episode with the appointment to the post of Comrade Chief Prosecutor of the Synod of Prince N.D. Zhevakhova, who was the queen’s creature: for a whole year she begged her husband to make this appointment. So it doesn't really look like controlling the emperor. And the following fact speaks eloquently about Rasputin’s influence: it is estimated that during the war the Empress mentioned the name of the “elder” 228 times in her letters to her husband, while he mentioned only eight.

Let's summarize. We are not dealing with the real personality of Rasputin, but with the product of a liberal PR project designed to crush the imperial power. The “elder,” of course, could not be any arbiter of the destinies of Russia due to his obvious intellectual state. At the same time, Rasputin was the organizer of fate - not of Russia, but of his own, and, moreover, since he realized this. Therefore, enthusiastic mythologization of his personality, which is certainly not devoid of natural talent, is hardly acceptable. If his natural gifts were even to a small extent guided by his intellect (which was completely absent), then he understood that establishing a relationship with the imperial couple was a very responsible matter. This cannot be treated as contacts with Tobolsk officials, squeezing out of them what you can. Alas, Rasputin was never able to realize that his style of behavior, having come into contact with the life of the family of Nicholas II, had a detrimental effect, giving chances to the enemies of Russia, of which he so loved to swear.

Grigory Rasputin

On December 30, 1916, Grigory Rasputin, a native of peasants and a friend of the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, was brutally murdered in St. Petersburg.

Among the numerous names of Russian prophets and clairvoyants, there is hardly one that would be so widely known in our country and abroad as the name Grigory Rasputin. And it is unlikely that another name from this series would be found around which an equally dense network of mysteries and legends would be woven.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin

At the end of the 20th century, many secrets of Russian history were revealed to us, however, most of them belong to the so-called Soviet period. But the threshold of this period, and Rasputin’s life, as we know, ended at the very end of 1916, appears before us more and more clearly today. And, of course, without the personality of Grigory Rasputin, without revealing the true essence of his prophecies and prophetic gift, the picture of that relatively recent era will be incomplete. Documents, their careful analysis, comparison of a variety of evidence and other sources make it possible to dispel the fog that hides the image of Rasputin from us.
In the mid-19th century, a peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province, Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin, at the age of twenty, married a twenty-two-year-old girl, Anna Vasilyevna Parshikova. The wife repeatedly gave birth to daughters, but they died. The first boy, Andrei, also died. From the census of the village population for 1897, it is known that on the tenth of January 1869 (the day of Gregory of Nyssa according to the Julian calendar), her second son was born, named after the calendar saint.

In the metric book of Pokrovskaya Sloboda, in part one “About those born” it is written: “A son, Grigory, was born to Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilievna of the Orthodox faith.” He was baptized on January 10. The godfathers (godparents) were uncle Matfei Yakovlevich Rasputin and the girl Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received his name according to the existing tradition of naming the child after the saint on whose day he was born or baptized. The day of baptism of Grigory Rasputin is January 10, the day of celebration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

However, the registry books of the rural church have not been preserved, and later Rasputin always gave different dates of his birth, hiding his real age, so the exact day and year of Rasputin’s birth is still unknown.

Rasputin's father drank a lot at first, but then he came to his senses and started a household.

According to the stories of fellow villagers, he was a smart and efficient man: he had an eight-room hut, twelve cows, eight horses and was engaged in private carriage. In general, I was not in poverty. And the village of Pokrovskoye itself was considered in the district and in the province - relative to neighboring villages - to be a rich village, since Siberians did not know the poverty of European Russia, did not know serfdom and were distinguished by their self-esteem and independence.

In the winter he worked as a coachman, and in the summer he plowed the land, fished and unloaded barges.

Very little information has been preserved about Rasputin’s mother. She died when Gregory was not even eighteen years old. After her death, Rasputin said that she often appears to him in a dream and calls him to her, foreshadowing that he will die before he reaches her age. She died barely over fifty years old, while Rasputin died at the age of forty-seven.

Young Gregory was frail and dreamy, but this did not last long - as soon as he matured, he began to fight with his peers and parents, and to go for walks (once he managed to drink away a cart with hay and horses at a fair, after which he walked home eighty miles on foot). Fellow villagers recalled that already in his youth he possessed powerful sexual magnetism. Grishka was caught more than once with girls and beaten.

Soon Rasputin began to steal, for which he was almost deported to Eastern Siberia. One day he was beaten for yet another theft - so much so that Grishka, according to the villagers, became “strange and stupid.” Rasputin himself claimed that after being stabbed in the chest with a stake, he was on the verge of death and experienced “the joy of suffering.” The injury did not go away without a trace - Rasputin stopped drinking and smoking.

Nineteen years old Grigory Rasputin married Praskovya Dubrovina, a fair-haired and black-eyed girl from a neighboring village. She was four years older than her husband, but their marriage, despite Gregory’s adventurous life, turned out to be happy. Rasputin constantly took care of his wife and children - two daughters and a son.

However, worldly passions and vices were not alien to Gregory. According to fellow villagers (who, however, must be treated very carefully), Gregory had a wild and riotous nature: along with charitable deeds, he stole horses while drunk, loved to fight, used foul language, in a word, his marriage did not calm him down. “Grishka the thief” they called him behind his back. “Stealing hay, taking away other people’s firewood - that was his business. He was very rowdy and carousing... How many times they beat him: they pushed him in the neck, like an annoying drunkard, swearing in choice words.”

Moving from peasant labor to peasant revelry, Grigory lived in his native Pokrovsky until he was twenty-eight years old, until an inner voice called him to another life, to the life of a wanderer. In 1892, Gregory went to the provincial town of Verkhotursk (Perm province), to the Nikolaevsky Monastery, where the relics of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye were kept, and pilgrims from all over Russia came to venerate them.

Rasputin considered himself to be among those people who in Russia have long been called “elders,” “wanderers.” This is a purely Russian phenomenon, and its source is in the tragic history of the Russian people.
Hunger, cold, pestilence, and the cruelty of a tsarist official are the eternal companions of the Russian peasant. Where and from whom can we expect consolation? Only from those against whom even the all-powerful government, not recognizing its own laws, did not dare raise its hand - from people not of this world, from wanderers, holy fools and clairvoyants. In the popular consciousness, these are God's people.
In suffering, in grave torment, the country emerging from the Middle Ages, not knowing what awaited it ahead, looked superstitiously at these amazing people - wanderers, walkers, not afraid of anything or anyone, who dared to speak the truth loudly. Often, wanderers were called elders, although according to the concepts of that time, a thirty-year-old person could sometimes be considered an old man.

Rasputin and his fellow countryman and friend Mikhail Pecherkin went to Athos, and from there to Jerusalem. They walked most of the way, enduring many hardships. But the suffering, spiritual and physical, paid off handsomely when they saw with their own eyes the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives (Eleon), and the Holy Sepulcher, and Bethlehem.

Holy Sepulcher
Returning to Russia, Rasputin continued to travel. Was in Kyiv, Trinity-Sergiev, Solovki, Valaam, Sarov, Pochaev, Optina Pustyn, in Nilova, the Holy Mountains, that is, in all places somewhat famous for their holiness.

Optina Pustyn

His family laughed at him. He did not eat meat or sweets, heard different voices, walked from Siberia to St. Petersburg and back, and ate alms. In the spring, he had exacerbations - he did not sleep for many days in a row, sang songs, shook his fists at Satan and ran in the cold in his shirt.

His prophecies consisted of calls to repentance “before trouble comes.” Sometimes, by pure coincidence, trouble happened the very next day (huts burned, livestock got sick, people died) - and the peasants began to believe that the blessed man had the gift of foresight. He gained followers.

At the age of 33, Gregory begins to storm St. Petersburg. Having secured recommendations from provincial priests, he settles with the rector of the Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius, the future Stalinist patriarch.

Patriarch Sergius

He, impressed by the exotic character, introduces the “old man” (long years of wandering on foot gave the young Rasputin the appearance of an old man) to the powers that be. Thus began the path of the “man of God” to glory.

Rasputin's first loud prophecy was the prediction of the death of our ships at Tsushima. Perhaps he got it from newspaper news reports that a squadron of old ships had sailed to meet the modern Japanese fleet without observing secrecy measures.

Russian squadron in the Battle of Tsushima

He dissuaded the weak-willed monarchs from escaping to England (they say they were already packing their things), which most likely would have saved them from death and would have sent Russian history in a different direction. The next time, he gave the Romanovs a miraculous icon (found from them after the execution), then allegedly healed Tsarevich Alexei, who had hemophilia, and eased the pain of Stolypin’s daughter, wounded by terrorists.

Rasputin and Tsarevich Alexei

The shaggy man forever captured the hearts and minds of the august couple. The Emperor personally arranges for Gregory to change his dissonant surname to “New” (which, however, did not stick). Soon Rasputin-Novykh acquires another lever of influence at court - the young maid of honor Anna Vyrubova (a close friend of the queen) who idolizes the “elder”.

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova

He becomes the confessor of the Romanovs and comes to the tsar at any time without making an appointment for an audience. At court, Gregory was always “in character,” but outside the political scene he was completely transformed. Having bought himself a new house in Pokrovskoye, he took noble St. Petersburg fans there. There the “elder” put on expensive clothes, became self-satisfied, and gossiped about the king and nobles.

Rasputin's house in Pokrovskoye

Every day he showed the queen (whom he called “mother”) miracles: he predicted the weather or the exact time of the king’s return home. It was then that Rasputin made his most famous prediction: “As long as I live, the dynasty will live.” The growing power of Rasputin did not suit the court.

house on the street Gorokhovaya where Rsputin lived

Cases were brought against him, but each time the “elder” very successfully left the capital, going either home to Pokrovskoye or on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1911, the Synod spoke out against Rasputin. Bishop Hermogenes (who ten years ago expelled a certain Joseph Dzhugashvili from the theological seminary) tried to drive out the devil from Gregory and publicly beat him on the head with a cross.

Rasputin was under police surveillance, which did not stop until his death. Rasputin learned to read and write only in St. Petersburg. He left behind only short notes filled with terrible scribbles. Rasputin did not save money, either starving or throwing it left and right. He seriously influenced the country's foreign policy, twice persuading Nicholas not to start a war in the Balkans (inspiring the Tsar that the Germans were a dangerous force, and the “brothers,” i.e., the Slavs, were pigs).

When World War I finally began, Rasputin expressed a desire to come to the front to bless the soldiers. The commander of the troops, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, promised to hang him on the nearest tree.

In response, Rasputin gave birth to another prophecy that Russia would not win the war until an autocrat (who had a military education, but showed himself to be an incompetent strategist) stood at the head of the army. The king, of course, led the army. With consequences known to history. Politicians actively criticized the Tsarina, the “German spy,” not forgetting Rasputin.

It was then that the image of a “gray eminence” was created, resolving all state issues, although in fact Rasputin’s power was far from absolute. German zeppelins scattered leaflets over the trenches, where the Kaiser leaned on the people, and Nicholas II on Rasputin’s genitals.

The priests also did not lag behind. It was announced that the murder of Grishka was a good thing, for which “forty sins would be removed.”

On July 29, 1914, the mentally ill Khionia Guseva stabbed Rasputin in the stomach, shouting: “I killed the Antichrist!” The wound was fatal, but Rasputin pulled out. According to his daughter’s recollections, he had changed since then - he began to get tired quickly and took opium for pain.

Murder of Rasputin

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin

An important role in the rapid rise of Grigory Efimovich was played by his gift as a healer. Tsarevich Alexei suffered from hemophilia. His blood did not clot, and any small cut could be fatal. Rasputin had the ability to stop bleeding. He sat down next to the wounded heir to the throne, quietly whispered some words, and the wound stopped bleeding. The doctors could not do anything like that, and therefore the elder became an indispensable person for the royal family.

However, the rise of the newcomer caused discontent among many noble people. This was greatly facilitated by the behavior of Grigory Efimovich himself. He led a dissolute life (according to his surname) and radically influenced decisions that were fateful for Russia. That is, the elder was not distinguished by modesty and did not want to be content with the role of a court physician. Thus, he signed his own sentence, which everyone knows as the murder of Rasputin.

Conspirators

At the end of 1916, a conspiracy arose against the tsar's favorite. The conspirators included influential and noble people. These were: Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov (the emperor's cousin), Prince Yusupov Felix Feliksovich, State Duma deputy Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich, as well as lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky regiment Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin and military doctor Stanislav Sergeevich Lazovert.

F.F. Yusupov

Prince Yusupov with his wife Irina
It was in the Yusupov house that the murder of Rasputin was committed

There is also an opinion that a member of the conspiracy was British intelligence officer Oswald Rainer. Already in the 21st century, at the instigation of the BBC, the opinion arose that the conspiracy was organized by the British. Allegedly, they were afraid that the elder would persuade the emperor to make peace with Germany. In this case, the full power of the German machine would fall on Foggy Albion.

Oswald Reiner

As the BBC reported, Oswald Rainer knew Prince Yusupov from childhood. They had good friendly relations. Therefore, the Briton had no difficulty in persuading the high-society nobleman to organize a conspiracy. At the same time, an English intelligence officer was present at the murder of the tsar’s favorite and even allegedly fired a control shot in his head. All this bears little resemblance to the truth, if only because none of the conspirators subsequently mentioned a single word about the British’s involvement in the conspiracy. And there was no such thing as a “control shot” at all.

Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov (left)
and Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich

In addition, you need to take into account the mentality of people who lived 100 years ago. The murder of the almighty elder was considered the work of the Russian people. Prince Yusupov, out of noble motives, would never have allowed his English friend to be present at the execution of the tsar's favorite. In any case, it was a criminal offense, and, therefore, punishment could follow. And the prince could not allow this to happen to a citizen of another country.

Thus, we can conclude that there were only 5 conspirators, and all of them were Russian people. A noble desire burned in their souls to save the royal family and Russia from the machinations of ill-wishers. Grigory Efimovich was considered the culprit of all evils. The conspirators naively believed that by killing the old man, they would change the inevitable course of history. However, time has shown that these people were deeply mistaken.

Chronology of Rasputin's murder

The murder of Rasputin occurred on the night of December 17, 1916. The crime scene was the house of the Yusupov princes in St. Petersburg on the Moika.

A basement room was prepared in it. They set up chairs, a table, and placed a samovar on it. The plates were filled with cakes, macaroons and chocolate chip cookies. A large dose of potassium cyanide was added to each of them. A tray with bottles of wine and glasses was placed on a separate table nearby. They lit the fireplace, threw the bearskin on the floor and went for the victim.

Prince Yusupov went to pick up Grigory Efimovich, and the doctor Lazovert was driving the car. The reason for the visit was far-fetched. Allegedly, Felix’s wife Irina wanted to meet the elder. The prince telephoned him in advance and arranged a meeting. Therefore, when the car arrived on Gorokhovaya Street, where the favorite of the royal family lived, Felix was already expected.

Rasputin, dressed in a luxurious fur coat, left the house and got into the car. He immediately set off, and after midnight the trio returned to the Moika to the Yusupovs’ house. The remaining conspirators gathered in a room on the 2nd floor. They turned on the lights everywhere, turned on the gramophone and pretended to be a noisy party.

V.M. Purishkevich, Lieutenant S.M. Sukhotin, F.F. Yusupov

Felix explained to the elder that his wife had guests. They should leave soon, but for now you can wait in the lower room. At the same time, the prince apologized, citing his parents. They could not stand the royal favorite. The elder knew about this, so he was not at all surprised when he found himself in a basement room that looked like a casemate.

Here the guest was offered to eat the sweets on the table. Grigory Efimovich loved cakes, so he ate them with pleasure. But nothing happened. For unknown reasons, potassium cyanide did not have any effect on the old man’s body. As if he was protected by supernatural forces.

Grigory Efimovich at home

After the cakes, the guest drank Madeira and began to show impatience at Irina’s absence. Yusupov expressed a desire to go upstairs and find out when the guests would finally leave. He left the basement and went up to the conspirators, who were eagerly awaiting the good news. But Felix disappointed them and plunged them into a state of bewilderment.

However, the execution had to be carried out, so the noble prince took the Browning and returned to the basement room. Entering the room, he immediately shot at Rasputin sitting at the table. He fell out of his chair onto the floor and fell silent. The rest of the conspirators appeared and carefully examined the old man. Grigory Efimovich was not killed, but the bullet that hit him in the chest mortally wounded him.

Having enjoyed the sight of the agonizing body, the whole company left the room, turning off the light and closing the door. After some time, Prince Yusupov went downstairs to check if the elder had already died. He went into the basement and approached Grigory Efimovich, who was lying motionless. The body was still warm, but there was no doubt that the soul had already separated from it.

Felix was about to call the others to load the dead man into the car and take him out of the house. Suddenly the old man’s eyelids trembled and opened. Rasputin stared at his killer with a piercing gaze.

Then the incredible happened. The elder jumped to his feet, screamed wildly and dug his fingers into Yusupov’s throat. He strangled and constantly repeated the name of the prince. He fell into indescribable horror and tried to free himself. The fight began. Finally, the prince managed to escape from the tenacious embrace of Grigory Efimovich. At the same time, he fell to the floor. An epaulette from the prince's military uniform remained in his hand.

Felix ran out of the room and rushed upstairs for help. The conspirators rushed down and saw an old man running towards the exit of the house. The front door was locked, but the mortally wounded man pushed it with his hand, and it opened. Rasputin found himself in the yard and ran through the snow to the gate. If he had found himself on the street, it would have meant the end for the conspirators.

Purishkevich rushed after the fleeing man. He shot him in the back once, then a second time, but missed. It should be noted that Vladimir Mitrofanovich was considered an excellent shooter. From a hundred steps he hit the silver ruble, but then he couldn’t hit the wide back from 30. The elder was already near the gate when Purishkevich carefully took aim and fired a third time. The bullet finally reached its target. It hit Grigory Efimovich in the neck, and he stopped. Then the 4th shot sounded. A piece of hot lead pierced the old man’s head, and the mortally wounded man fell to the ground.

The conspirators ran up to the body and hastily carried it into the house. However, loud shots in the night attracted the police. A policeman arrived at the house to find out their reason. He was told that they shot at Rasputin, and the guardian of the law retreated without taking any measures.

After this, the old man’s body was placed in a closed car. But the mortally wounded man still showed signs of life. He wheezed, and the pupil of his open left eye rotated.

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Doctor Lazovert and Lieutenant Sukhotin got into the car. They took the body to Malaya Nevka and threw it into an ice hole. This ended the long and painful murder of Rasputin.

Conclusion

When the investigative authorities removed the corpse from the Neva 3 days later, the autopsy showed that the old man lived under water for another 7 minutes.

The amazing vitality of Grigory Efimovich’s body even today instills superstitious horror in the souls of people.

Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna ordered that the murdered man be buried in the far corner of the park in Tsarskoe Selo. An order was also given to build a mausoleum. A wooden chapel was erected next to the temporary grave. Members of the royal family visited there every week and prayed for the soul of the innocently murdered martyr.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the corpse of Grigory Efimovich was removed from the grave, taken to the Polytechnic Institute and burned in the furnace of his boiler room.

boiler room where Rasputin's body was cremated

As for the fate of the conspirators, they became extremely popular among the people. However, murderers have always been punished regardless of motives and motivations.

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich was sent to the troops of General Baratov. They performed allied duty in Persia. This, by the way, saved the life of a member of the Romanov dynasty. When the revolution broke out in Russia, the Grand Duke was not in Petrograd.

Felix Yusupov was exiled to one of his estates. In 1918, the prince and his wife Irina left Russia. At the same time, he took crumbs from the entire huge fortune. These are jewelry and paintings. Their total cost was estimated at several hundred thousand royal rubles. Everything else was plundered and stolen by the rebel people.

As for Purishkevich, Lazovert and Sukhotin, all charges against them were dropped. The February Revolution and the personality of the man they killed played a role here. Only one thing is certain - this murder greatly increased their authority and prestige.

The murder of Rasputin has at all times given rise to many assumptions, conjectures and hypotheses. There are many dark spots in this matter. The amazing vitality of the old man causes particular bewilderment. Potassium cyanide and bullets could not take him. All this gives the crime a mystical component. This is quite possible, taking into account the fact that materialism has long ceased to be a fundamental teaching that denies everything unusual and supernatural that lives side by side with us.

The article was written by Vladimir Chernov

Grigory Rasputin is one of the most amazing people born on Russian soil. Not a single tsar, commander, scientist, statesman in Rus' had such popularity, fame and influence as this semi-literate man from the Urals gained. His talent as a soothsayer and his mysterious death are still a matter of debate for historians. Some considered him vicious, others saw him as a saint. Who was Rasputin really?...

Speaking surname

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin really happened to live at the crossroads of historical roads and was destined to become a witness and participant in the tragic choice that was made at that time.

Grigory Rasputin was born on January 9 (according to the new style - 21) January 1869 in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province. The ancestors of Grigory Efimovich came to Siberia among the first pioneers. For a long time they bore the surname Izosimov, named after the same Izosim who moved from the Vologda land beyond the Urals. The two sons of Nason Izosimov began to be called Rasputin - and, accordingly, their descendants.

Here is how researcher A. Varlamov writes about the family of Grigory Rasputin: “The children of Anna and Efim Rasputin died one after another. First, in 1863, after living for several months, daughter Evdokia died, a year later another girl, also named Evdokia.

The third daughter was named Glykeria, but she lived only a few months. On August 17, 1867, son Andrei was born, who, like his sisters, turned out to be a non-tenant. Finally, in 1869, the fifth child, Gregory, was born. The name was given according to the calendar in honor of St. Gregory of Nyssa, known for his sermons against fornication."

With a dream about God

Rasputin is often portrayed as almost a giant, a monster with iron health and the ability to eat glass and nails. In fact, Gregory grew up as a weak and sickly child.

Later, he wrote about his childhood in an autobiographical essay, which he called “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer”: “My whole life was illness. Medicine did not help me. Every spring I did not sleep for forty nights. It was as if I was sleeping like oblivion, and spent all my time.” .

At the same time, already in childhood, Gregory’s thoughts differed from the train of thought of the common man in the street. Grigory Efimovich himself writes about it this way: “At the age of 15 in my village, when the sun was warm and the birds sang heavenly songs, I walked along the path and did not dare to walk in the middle of it... I dreamed of God... My soul rushed into the distance... More than once, dreaming like this, I cried and did not know where the tears came from and why they were. I believed in the good, the kind, and I often sat with the old people, listening to their stories about the lives of saints, great deeds, great deeds."

The Power of Prayer

Gregory early realized the power of his prayer, which manifested itself in relation to both animals and people. This is how his daughter Matryona writes about this: “From my grandfather, I know about my father’s extraordinary ability to handle domestic animals. Standing next to a restive horse, he could, placing his hand on its neck, quietly say a few words, and the animal would immediately calm down. And when he watched the milking, the cow became completely docile.

One day at dinner, my grandfather said that his horse was lame. Hearing this, the father silently rose from the table and went to the stable. The grandfather followed and saw his son stand for a few seconds near the horse in concentration, then go up to the back leg and put his palm on the hamstring. He stood with his head slightly thrown back, then, as if deciding that the healing had been accomplished, he stepped back, stroked the horse and said: “You feel better now.”

After that incident, my father became like a miracle worker veterinarian. Then he began to treat people too. "God helped."

Guilty without guilt

As for Gregory’s dissolute and sinful youth, accompanied by horse stealing and orgies, this is nothing more than later fabrications of newspapermen. Matryona Rasputina in her book claims that her father was so perspicacious from a young age that he “saw” the thefts of others several times and therefore for himself personally excluded the very possibility of theft: it seemed to him that others “see” it just as much as he does .

I looked through all the testimony about Rasputin that was given during the investigation in the Tobolsk Consistory. Not a single witness, even the most hostile to Rasputin (and there were many of them), accused him of theft or horse stealing.

Nevertheless, Gregory still experienced injustice and human cruelty. One day he was unfairly accused of horse theft and severely beaten, but the investigation soon found the culprits, who were sent to Eastern Siberia. All charges against Gregory were dropped.

Family life

No matter how many amorous stories are attributed to Rasputin, nevertheless, as Varlamov rightly notes, he had a beloved wife: “Everyone who knew her spoke well of this woman. Rasputin married when he was eighteen years old. His wife was three years older than him, a hard worker ", patient. She gave birth to seven children, of whom the first three died."

Grigory Efimovich met his betrothed at the dances that he loved so much. This is how his daughter Matryona writes about it: “Mom was tall and stately, she loved to dance no less than he did. Her name was Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, Parasha...

Rasputin with children (from left to right): Matryona, Varya, Mitya.

The beginning of their family life was happy. But then trouble came - the first-born lived only a few months. The boy's death affected his father even more than his mother. He took the loss of his son as a sign that he had been waiting for, but he could not have imagined that this sign would be so terrible.

He was haunted by one thought: the death of a child is a punishment for the fact that he thought so little about God. The father prayed. And prayers consoled the pain. A year later, the second son, Dmitry, was born, then - with an interval of two years - daughters Matryona and Varya. My father started building a new house - two-story, the largest in Pokrovsky..."

Rasputin's house in Pokrovskoye

His family laughed at him. He did not eat meat or sweets, heard different voices, walked from Siberia to St. Petersburg and back, and ate alms. In the spring, he had exacerbations - he did not sleep for many days in a row, sang songs, shook his fists at Satan and ran in the cold in only a shirt.

His prophecies consisted of calls to repentance “before trouble comes.” Sometimes, by pure coincidence, trouble happened the very next day (huts burned, livestock got sick, people died) - and the peasants began to believe that the blessed man had the gift of foresight. He gained followers... and followers.

This went on for about ten years. Rasputin learned about the Khlysty (sectarians who beat themselves with whips and suppressed lust through group sex), as well as the Skoptsy (preachers of castration) who separated from them. It is assumed that he adopted some of their teachings and more than once personally “delivered” pilgrims from sin in the bathhouse.

At the “divine” age of 33, Gregory begins to storm St. Petersburg. Having secured recommendations from provincial priests, he settles with the rector of the Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius, the future Stalinist patriarch. He, impressed by the exotic character, introduces the “old man” (long years of wandering on foot gave the young Rasputin the appearance of an old man) to the powers that be. Thus began the path of the “man of God” to glory.

Rasputin with his fans (mainly female fans).

Rasputin's first loud prophecy was the prediction of the death of our ships at Tsushima. Perhaps he got it from newspaper news reports that a squadron of old ships had sailed to meet the modern Japanese fleet without observing secrecy measures.

Ave, Caesar!

The last ruler of the House of Romanov was distinguished by lack of will and superstition: he considered himself Job, doomed to trials, and kept meaningless diaries, where he shed virtual tears, looking at how his country was going downhill.

The queen also lived in isolation from the real world and believed in the supernatural power of the “elders of the people.” Knowing this, her friend, the Montenegrin princess Milica, took outright scoundrels to the palace. The monarchs listened to the ravings of swindlers and schizophrenics with childish delight. The war with Japan, the revolution and the illness of the prince finally unbalanced the pendulum of the weak royal psyche. Everything was ready for Rasputin's appearance.

For a long time, only daughters were born in the Romanov family. To conceive a son, the queen resorted to the help of the French magician Philip. It was he, and not Rasputin, who was the first to take advantage of the spiritual naivety of the royal family. The scale of the chaos that reigned in the minds of the last Russian monarchs (one of the most educated people of that time) can be judged by the fact that the queen felt safe thanks to a magic icon with a bell that supposedly rang when evil people approached.

Nikki and Alix during their engagement (late 1890s)

The first meeting of the Tsar and Tsarina with Rasputin took place on November 1, 1905 at the palace over tea. He dissuaded the weak-willed monarchs from escaping to England (they say they were already packing their things), which most likely would have saved them from death and would have sent Russian history in a different direction.

The next time, he gave the Romanovs a miraculous icon (found from them after the execution), then allegedly healed Tsarevich Alexei, who had hemophilia, and eased the pain of Stolypin’s daughter, wounded by terrorists. The shaggy man forever captured the hearts and minds of the august couple.

The Emperor personally arranges for Gregory to change his dissonant surname to “New” (which, however, did not stick). Soon Rasputin-Novykh acquires another lever of influence at court - the young maid of honor Anna Vyrubova, who idolizes the “elder” (a close friend of the queen - according to rumors, even too close, who slept with her in the same bed). He becomes the confessor of the Romanovs and comes to the tsar at any time without making an appointment for an audience.

Please note that in all photographs Rasputin always holds one hand raised.

At court, Gregory was always “in character,” but outside the political scene he was completely transformed. Having bought himself a new house in Pokrovskoye, he took noble St. Petersburg fans there. There the “elder” put on expensive clothes, became self-satisfied, and gossiped about the king and nobles. Every day he showed the queen (whom he called “mother”) miracles: he predicted the weather or the exact time of the king’s return home. It was then that Rasputin made his most famous prediction: “As long as I live, the dynasty will live.”

The growing power of Rasputin did not suit the court. Cases were brought against him, but each time the “elder” very successfully left the capital, going either home to Pokrovskoye or on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1911, the Synod spoke out against Rasputin. Bishop Hermogenes (who ten years ago expelled a certain Joseph Dzhugashvili from the theological seminary) tried to drive out the devil from Gregory and publicly beat him on the head with a cross. Rasputin was under police surveillance, which did not stop until his death.

Rasputin, Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor

Secret agents watched through the windows the most piquant scenes from the life of a man who would soon be called “the holy devil.” Once suppressed, rumors about Grishka’s sexual adventures began to swell with renewed vigor. The police recorded Rasputin visiting bathhouses in the company of prostitutes and wives of influential people.

Copies of the Tsarina’s tender letter to Rasputin circulated around St. Petersburg, from which it could be concluded that they were lovers. These stories were picked up by newspapers - and the word “Rasputin” became known throughout Europe.

Public health

People who believed in Rasputin’s miracles believe that he himself, as well as his death, were mentioned in the Bible itself: “And if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16-18).

Today no one doubts that Rasputin really had a beneficial effect on the physical condition of the prince and the mental stability of his mother. How did he do it?

The queen at the bedside of the sick heir

Contemporaries noted that Rasputin’s speech was always incoherent; it was very difficult to follow his thoughts. Huge, with long arms, a tavern floorman's hairstyle and a spade beard, he often talked to himself and patted his thighs.

Without exception, all of Rasputin's interlocutors recognized his unusual look - deeply sunken gray eyes, as if glowing from within and fettering your will. Stolypin recalled that when he met Rasputin, he felt that they were trying to hypnotize him.

Rasputin and the Tsarina drink tea

This certainly influenced the king and queen. However, it is difficult to explain the repeated relief of the royal children from pain. Rasputin's main healing weapon was prayer - and he could pray all night long.

One day in Belovezhskaya Pushcha the heir began to experience severe internal bleeding. Doctors told his parents that he would not survive. A telegram was sent to Rasputin asking him to heal Alexei from a distance. He quickly recovered, which greatly surprised the court doctors.

Kill the dragon

The man who called himself “little fly” and appointed officials by telephone call was illiterate. He learned to read and write only in St. Petersburg. He left behind only short notes filled with terrible scribbles.

Until the end of his life, Rasputin looked like a tramp, which repeatedly prevented him from “picking” prostitutes for daily orgies. The wanderer quickly forgot about a healthy lifestyle - he drank and drunkenly called ministers with various “petitions”, failure to fulfill which was career suicide.

Rasputin did not save money, either starving or throwing it left and right. He seriously influenced the country’s foreign policy, twice persuading Nicholas not to start a war in the Balkans (inspiring the Tsar that the Germans were a dangerous force, and the “brothers,” i.e., the Slavs, were pigs).

Facsimile of Rasputin's letter with a request for some of his protégés

When World War I finally began, Rasputin expressed a desire to come to the front to bless the soldiers. The commander of the troops, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, promised to hang him on the nearest tree. In response, Rasputin gave birth to another prophecy that Russia would not win the war until an autocrat (who had a military education, but showed himself to be an incompetent strategist) stood at the head of the army. The king, of course, led the army. With consequences known to history.

Politicians actively criticized the Tsarina, the “German spy,” not forgetting Rasputin. It was then that the image of a “gray eminence” was created, resolving all state issues, although in fact Rasputin’s power was far from absolute. German Zeppelins scattered leaflets over the trenches, where the Kaiser leaned on the people, and Nicholas II on Rasputin’s genitals. The priests also did not lag behind. It was announced that the murder of Grishka was a good thing, for which “forty sins would be removed.”

On July 29, 1914, the mentally ill Khionia Guseva stabbed Rasputin in the stomach, shouting: “I killed the Antichrist!” Witnesses said that from the blow “Grishka’s guts came out.” The wound was fatal, but Rasputin pulled out. According to his daughter’s recollections, he had changed since then - he began to get tired quickly and took opium for pain.

Prince Felix Yusupov, Rasputin's killer

Rasputin's death is even more mysterious than his life. The scenery of this drama is well known: on the night of December 17, 1916, Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitry Romanov (rumored to be Yusupov’s lover) and deputy Purishkevich invited Rasputin to the Yusupov Palace. There he was offered cakes and wine, generously flavored with cyanide. This supposedly had no effect on Rasputin.

“Plan B” was put into action: Yusupov shot Rasputin in the back with a revolver. While the conspirators were preparing to get rid of the body, he suddenly came to life, tore the shoulder strap off Yusupov’s shoulder and ran into the street. Purishkevich was not taken aback - with three shots he finally knocked down the “old man”, after which he only clanked his teeth and wheezed.

To be sure, he was beaten again, tied with a curtain and thrown into an ice hole in the Neva. The water that killed Rasputin's older brother and sister also took the life of the fatal man - but not immediately. An examination of the body, recovered three days later, showed the presence of water in the lungs (the autopsy report has not been preserved). This indicated that Grishka was alive and simply choked.

Rasputin's corpse

The queen was furious, but at the insistence of Nicholas II, the murderers escaped punishment. The people praised them as deliverers from “dark forces.” Rasputin was called everything: a demon, a German spy or the empress’s lover, but the Romanovs were faithful to him to the end: the most odious figure in Russia was buried in Tsarskoye Selo.

Two months later the February revolution broke out. Rasputin's prediction about the fall of the monarchy came true. On March 4, 1917, Kerensky ordered the body to be dug up and burned. The exhumation took place at night, and according to the testimony of the exhumers, the burning corpse tried to rise. This was the final touch to the legend of Rasputin’s superstrength (it is believed that the cremated person can move due to the contraction of the tendons in the fire, and therefore the latter should be cut).

The act of burning Rasputin's body

"Who are you, Mr. Rasputin?" - such a question could have been asked by British and German intelligence at the beginning of the 20th century. A clever werewolf or a simple-minded man? Rebel saint or sexual psychopath? To cast a shadow on a person, it is enough just to correctly illuminate his life.

It is reasonable to assume that the true appearance of the royal favorite was distorted beyond recognition by “black PR”. And minus the incriminating evidence, what appears before us is an ordinary man - an illiterate, but very cunning schizophrenic, who achieved fame only thanks to a successful coincidence of circumstances and the obsession of the heads of the Romanov dynasty with religious metaphysics.

Attempts at canonization

Since the 1990s, radical-monarchist Orthodox circles have repeatedly proposed canonizing Rasputin as a holy martyr.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II: “There is no reason to raise the question of the canonization of Grigory Rasputin, whose dubious morality and promiscuity cast a shadow on the august family of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.”

Despite this, over the past ten years, religious admirers of Grigory Rasputin have published at least two akathists to him, and also painted about a dozen icons.

Curious facts

Rasputin supposedly had an older brother, Dmitry (who caught a cold while swimming and died of pneumonia) and a sister, Maria (who suffered from epilepsy and drowned in the river). He named his children after them. Grishka named his third daughter Varvara.
Bonch-Bruevich knew Rasputin well.

The Yusupov family originates from the nephew of the Prophet Mohammed. Irony of fate: a distant relative of the founder of Islam killed a man who called himself an Orthodox saint.

After the overthrow of the Romanovs, Rasputin’s activities were investigated by a special commission, of which the poet Blok was a member. The investigation was never completed.
Rasputin's daughter Matryona managed to emigrate to France and then to the USA. There she worked as a dancer and tiger trainer. She died in 1977.

The remaining family members were dispossessed and exiled to camps, where their trace was lost.
Today the church does not recognize the holiness of Rasputin, pointing out his dubious morality.

Yusupov successfully sued MGM over the film about Rasputin. After this incident, films began to put a warning about fiction: “all coincidences are accidental.”

Rasputiniana:Petrenko, Depardieu, Mashkov, DiCaprio

Since 1917, more than 30 films have been made about the Tobolsk elder! The most famous Russian films are "Agony" (1974, Rasputin - Alexey Petrenko) and "Conspiracy" (2007, Rasputin - Ivan Okhlobystin).

Now the French-Russian film “Rasputin” has been released, in which the old man is played by Gerard Depardieu. Critics did not accept the film well, however, they say that it was this film work that helped the French actor obtain Russian citizenship.

Finally, in 2013, work was completed on the new Russian series “Rasputin” (director - Andrei Malyukov, script - Eduard Volodarsky and Ilya Tilkin), in which the Tobolsk elder was played by Vladimir Mashkov...

And the other day, filming of a Hollywood film about Rasputin begins in St. Petersburg; for the main role, the film company Warner Bros. invited Leonardo DiCaprio. Why is the life story of Grigory Rasputin so attractive to directors and screenwriters?

Russian version

- We do not know whether Cagliostro, Count Dracula, existed or not. But Rasputin is a real historical figure,” says Andrei Malyukov, director of the series “Rasputin”. “At the same time, everything seems to be known about him: where he was born, and how he lived, and how he was killed. But at the same time... nothing is known! Do you know how much has been written about Rasputin? Tons! You can’t re-read everything! And everyone writes about some other person. He is a mystery, and that is why there is such interest in him. Ask anyone outside of Russia: "Who is Rasputin?" - “Yes, of course! There’s a restaurant! There’s a store!” A very popular figure.

— With what heart did you take on the filming of the series?

“I wanted to look at this person from the point of view of the truth.” After all, during his lifetime they wrote a lot about him! If you peel off and leave in a pure residue what he really did, it turns out that he was a man who sincerely supported the Russian Empire, for the Tsar, for the Tsarina, who categorically opposed the war, believing that there is enough of everything in Russia, that it is a great and powerful country. This is his message. And to those who wanted war, to those who hated Russia, he seemed like a fiend from hell. And the bottom line is that he was a man with a big plus sign. And with such a tragic fate...

— So, in your film you want to debunk all the myths that exist about Rasputin?

— There were an insane number of myths. Our eight episodes are not enough to debunk everything. Our story splits into two parallel lines: Rasputin and investigator Sweeten, whom Kerensky instructs to look into the murder of the elder and find evidence of all his “sins.” But during the investigation of this criminal crime, Sweeten, from ardent hatred of Grigory Efimovich, comes to the point that he demands that Kerensky bring the killers to justice...

Vladimir Mashkov about his hero

In the Russian-French film "Rasputin", where Rasputin was played by Depardieu, Vladimir Mashkov starred in the role of Nicholas II. Then he got into character so thoroughly that he even learned to sign his name as an emperor.

— In the new Russian film “Rasputin” my transformation is even deeper. “There’s a settler living inside me,” the actor admits. - The role is amazing! After all, Grigory Efimitch treated with prayer. He loved the person at that moment and took on all his pain. I almost died when I treated people, and this process is incredible, divine...

To declare that Rasputin is a saint or a devil, it seems to me, is the most terrible, disgusting mistake. This is a very sincere person who loved Russia, loved the Tsar, loved his people.

The story with the beard

The creators of the film say that they did not consider anyone for the main role except Mashkov, who specially flew in from America for filming. He got into character so much that sometimes he shocked the film crew: even his gait changed, a Rasputin-like stoop appeared...

Vladimir Mashkov and his hero do not have a portrait-photographic resemblance. The make-up artists even copied the beard from historical photographs down to the last hair! Makeup artists tried several beards and hair extensions, but as a result, Mashkov had to grow his hair and implant a natural beard, one hair at a time. Approximately two hours were spent on his makeup every day.

“We implanted Mashkov’s side cheeks literally hair by hair, so that even the camera would never see the glued-in beard,” said makeup artist Evgenia Malinkovskaya.

Trapped in a mirror

Filming of the film "Rasputin" began in April 2013. Some episodes were filmed in St. Petersburg, near St. Petersburg, and also in Novgorod. At the same time, the film crew faced many difficulties.

When the priests found out who the film would be about, they closed the doors of the churches and prohibited filming. (By the way, Gerard Depardieu’s team faced the same problem: Patriarch Kirill did not give them his blessing, and they also could not film in churches.)

The only temple that opened its doors for the filming of the Russian series about Rasputin was St. Sampsonievsky Cathedral. In Novgorod, they decided to film in the Anthony Monastery - and in just two days, the production designers erected a scaffolding set around the monastery wall.

It was necessary to build palace chambers. Lenfilm recreated the famous mirror trap of the Yusupov Palace, where Felix Yusupov and the conspirators lured Rasputin. This is an octagonal room of mirrors, once in which you don’t know where to go. Special mirrors were ordered for her, which are usually produced for special forces guarding consulates, so that the operator could shoot through the glass and not be reflected.

Stunts, effects, costumes

Vladimir Mashkov's partner in the film was Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). All dresses for her and Ekaterina Klimova, who played the Empress's maid of honor Anna Vyrubova, were designed from scratch and sewn in strict accordance with the fashion of the early 20th century. French lace was made according to historical samples. In England they ordered stiff collars, bought top hats and boaters. They found an antique jacket and coat for Mashkov and made a collection of shirts.

The film contains many complex stunts, most of which Vladimir Mashkov performed himself. For example, in one of the scenes, when fellow villagers believed that Rasputin had embezzled money from the sale of someone else’s horse, the actor was beaten with clubs and trampled by horses. The actor worked so honestly and let the horses get so close to him that at one moment he got carried away and the horse touched his hand.

The second, no less difficult scene is the murder of the old man. Mashkov was beaten again, and kicked. Of course, the actor was wearing special protection that covered his back, arms, chest, and legs, but the bruises remained.

Mashkov was always eager to fight, but in some episodes the stunt director was categorical: “Volodya, don’t, this is an unnecessary risk!” Therefore, sometimes the actor was replaced by an understudy, Sergei Trepesov, who worked with Vladimir Mashkov in the film “The Edge”.

compilationmaterial - Fox http://www.softmixer.com/2014/10/blog-post_59.html#more

FUCKED LIFE. A SECRET HIDDEN FOR 100 YEARS

The villainous murder of G.E. Rasputin was preceded by inhumane slander and lies, the purpose of which was to discredit the Royal Family, deprive the country of strong monarchical power, and weaken Russia, which by that time occupied a leading place in political and economic life among world powers.

In our time, interest in the royal theme, in the personality of G.E. Rasputin does not fade away. More and more publications are appearing where events and personalities are presented in the light of truth. We present to your attention one of such publications "Grigory Rasputin: slandered life, slandered death". The author of the article is a Russian philologist and writer Tatiana Mironova .

Identity falsification - creating a double

Forgery of historical documents, lies, with reference to “eyewitness accounts” are long-practiced, tested techniques of history falsifiers.<…>

Grigory Rasputin was hated by those who hated the Tsar. They aimed at Grigory Efimovich in order to get into the Royal Family, into the Autocracy itself. Blatant slander against the Elder and falsification of his personality were used. Intelligent society in Russia was more willing to listen to rumors; they believed them even more than newspapers. Even Admiral Kolchak condemned the Sovereign for Rasputin, although Kolchak himself never saw the Elder, and here is a typical example: while he was serving in the Pacific Fleet, the admiral, according to him, barely managed to suppress the officer’s revolt in response to the spread rumor that Rasputin arrived in Vladivostok and wants to visit the warships. Kolchak himself was indignant at Rasputin for this intention, but it soon became clear that the rumor was false, Grigory Efimovich was not in Vladivostok. But Kolchak, by his own admission, remained disgusted with the Elder after this incident (1).

The French ambassador Maurice Paleologue also describes Rasputin hostilely, based only on St. Petersburg rumors and gossip, recounting all sorts of fictions, although he himself saw Grigory Efimovich only once while visiting Countess L. And the Frenchman could not say anything bad about this meeting, he only had time to look at “a man with piercing eyes,” who, looking at the arrogant Frenchman, regretfully said, “There are fools everywhere,” and left. The paleologist did not attribute this phrase to himself, so he retold it with chronicle accuracy.

Who and why was Grigory Efimovich hated? Who and what did the elder interfere with? Why was he hated?

In 1912, when Russia was ready to intervene in the Balkan conflict, Rasputin begged the Tsar on his knees not to engage in hostilities, and, of course, prayed to God to incline the Tsar’s heart to this. According to Count Witte, “he (Rasputin) indicated all the disastrous results of the European fire and the arrows of history turned differently. War was averted" (2). The powers of Rasputin’s prayer were so feared that the warmongers, in which it was necessary to drag Russia into, so that, in the words of Engels, “crowns would fly into the mud,” so, the warmongers, in a new attempt to fan the flames of world carnage, decided to kill Grigory Efimovich on the same day and the same hour as the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, whose death was the prepared pretext for the outbreak of war. Rasputin was then seriously wounded and, while he was unconscious and could not pray, the Tsar was forced to begin general mobilization in response to Germany’s declaration of war on Russia.

The enemies of Russia sensed and understood the entire threat posed by Rasputin to their destructive anti-autocratic, anti-Russian plans. No wonder Purishkevich, on behalf of all those who hated Autocratic Russia, shouted from the Duma rostrum about the main obstacle to the overthrow of the Throne: “As long as Rasputin is alive, we cannot win” (3).

And Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was a humble man of prayer, convinced that all his grace-filled power was faith in the Lord of those who asked for his prayers. Purely earthly paths led Grigory Efimovich in 1904 to St. Petersburg to ask for permission to build the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in his native village of Pokrovskoye. Then the Heir-Tsarevich had just been born, and the need for hourly prayer to God to save the child’s life was clearly outlined to his Royal parents.<…>

In little Alexei Nikolaevich, given to the Royal Family through the prayers of St. Seraphim of Sarov, all the hopes of the Sovereign for the well-being of his beloved people of Russia were concentrated. He was truly a “ray of sunshine” - a kind and bright child, a great consolation to the Family, who trembled at the thought that he might fade away. Through the prayers of the saints, the gifted baby could only be saved by the prayer of the saint, especially since his illness - hemophilia - was painful, suddenly appeared, very dangerous, but not inevitably fatal, and already the sons of Tsarevich Alexei would have been an absolutely healthy generation. And the Lord sent a prayer book to the Royal Family about the health of their son.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin is presented to the Emperor in October 1905. Grigory Efimovich, according to a special revelation from God to him, even at the first meeting with the Tsar and Empress, realized his special destiny and devoted his entire life to serving the Tsar. He leaves his wanderings, lives for a long time in St. Petersburg, gathering around him people faithful to the Sovereign, and most importantly, at the slightest danger to the little one, he is nearby, because his prayer for the Tsarevich appeared, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, pleasing to God, heard by Him. And this actual prayerful intercession for the Tsarevich was for the Tsar a visible sign that in the most difficult times of his reign, a spiritual assistant to the Tsar’s service had been sent from God. As the Tsar’s sister V.K. said. Olga Alexandrovna, the Tsar and the Queen “saw in him a peasant whose sincere piety made him an instrument of God” (4, p. 298). And honest investigator V.M. Rudnev, who was a member of the Extraordinary Commission of the Provisional Government, noted in his official note on the results of the investigation that “Their Majesties were sincerely convinced of the holiness of Rasputin, the only real representative and prayer book for the Sovereign, His Family and Russia before God” (5, p.153 ).

There are reliable facts, confirmed by many witnesses, that Rasputin saved Tsarevich Alexei from death. In 1907, when the Heir was three years old, he suffered a severe hemorrhage in his leg in Tsarskoye Selo Park. They called Grigory Efimovich, he prayed, the hemorrhage stopped. In October 1912, in Spala - the royal hunting grounds of Poland - Alexei Nikolaevich, after a severe injury, was so hopeless that doctors Fedorov and Rauchfus began to insist on the publication of bulletins about the health of the Heir. But the Empress did not rely on doctors, but only on the mercy of God. Rasputin was at that time in his homeland, in Pokrovskoye, and at the request of the Empress, Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova sent a telegram to Pokrovskoye. Soon the answer came: “God looked at your tears. Do not worry. Your Son will live." An hour after receiving the telegram, Alexei Nikolaevich’s condition improved sharply, and the mortal danger had passed.

In 1915, the Emperor, having gone to the Army, took Alexei Nikolaevich with him. On the way, the Tsarevich began to have a nosebleed. The train was returned because the Heir was bleeding. He lay in the nursery: “A small waxen face, bloody cotton wool in his nostrils.” Grigory Efimovich was called. “He arrived at the palace and went with his parents to Alexei Nikolaevich. According to their stories, he approached the bed, crossed the Heir, told his parents that there was nothing serious and they had nothing to worry about, turned and left. The bleeding stopped... The doctors said that they did not understand at all how this happened” (6, p.143-144).

The (Great) Princess Olga Alexandrovna testifies: “There were thousands and thousands of people who firmly believed in the power of prayer and the gift of healing that this man possessed” (29, p. 100).

Standing in prayer before God for the Heir is only a small part of Rasputin’s service to his Sovereign. He was a companion of prayer to the Anointed One of God for the Russian Autocratic Kingdom, and human sophisticated cunning and devilish malice, hidden from the eyes of the tsars, were often revealed to him. He warned the Tsar against many decisions that threatened disaster for the country: he was against the last convocation of the Duma, asked not to publish Duma seditious speeches, on the very eve of the February Revolution he insisted on bringing food to Petrograd - bread and butter from Siberia, even came up with the idea of ​​packaging flour and sugar so that avoid queues, because it was in the queues during the artificial organization of the grain crisis that the St. Petersburg unrest began, skillfully transformed into a “revolution”. And this is just a fraction of Rasputin’s predictions of current events during the war and pre-revolutionary period of 1914-1917. Knowing how to see the human soul, Grigory Efimovich knew the souls and moods of the sovereign’s closest servants, and therefore saw that in. book Nikolai Nikolaevich as Commander-in-Chief was not just the death of the Army, but also a threat to the Reign. Rasputin insisted that the Emperor lead the Army, and victory was not long in coming.

Rasputin's insight amazed everyone who had the opportunity to communicate with him. According to the story of Grigory Efimovich’s daughter Varvara, recorded by N.A. Sokolov in 1919, one day a woman came to Rasputin’s apartment. “The father, approaching her, said: “Well, come on, what’s in your right hand. I know what you have there." The lady took her hand out of her muff and handed him a revolver” (7, p.184).

The fact that Rasputin was perspicacious, and his perspicacity, given to him by God, guided his feat of prayer, is known not only from people spiritually close to him. The murderer Felix Yusupov testified in despair: “I have been involved in the occult for a long time and I can assure you that people like Rasputin, with such magnetic power, appear once every few centuries... No one can replace Rasputin, therefore the elimination of Rasputin will have good consequences for the revolution "(8, p.532). The enemies of the Tsar, who dreamed of destroying the Throne through “swinging society,” focused on denigrating Rasputin.<…>

How was Grigory Efimovich supposed to justify himself for non-existent sins and to whom? The Sovereign and Empress saw with their own eyes, felt his prayerful help every day and did not believe the slander, and from others... even the Sovereign and Empress only met condemnation and alienation for their favor towards the Elder. And Grigory Efimovich did not justify himself to anyone, but only prayed to God, and these prayers today remained his justification for all time: “I am going through difficult misdeeds. It’s terrible what they write, God! Give patience and stop the enemies from speaking!” (9, p.491).<…>

And such a person, the Tsar’s Friend, in the most important meaning of the word, always spiritually co-present with the Tsar in his service as the Anointed of God, first began to be killed spiritually - slandered and persecuted, and the purpose of the persecution was to tear Rasputin away from the Tsar, to destroy this saving union, powerful standing up as a spiritual wall in front of the destroyers of Russia. Many near and far, who believed the lies, went to the Tsar and Empress, wrote them insulting letters, threatened them, and demanded that Rasputin be expelled from them! But could the Emperor and Empress do this?<…>Slander had no effect on the High Ones, and the Throne still remained inviolable behind the wall of prayer of Elder Gregory, but slander had an effect on the crowd of intellectuals, on the mob, who had forgotten their love for the Tsars.

Almost all memoirs about Grigory Efimovich Rasputin suffer from a drawback that is surprising for memories: most memoirists did not see Grigory Efimovich or saw him briefly, from afar. But all the “memories”, both those who were sympathetic to the Royal Family and those who expressed hostility towards Her, spoke equally badly about Rasputin, repeating the same thing: a drunkard, a libertine, a whip. What did they know about him? What, besides rumors...<…>

Fortunately, there are other people among memoirists. General P.G. Kurlov published the book “The Death of Imperial Russia” in Berlin in 1923. The general never belonged to the circle of Grigory Efimovich, and the elder’s haters cannot accuse him of bias, in addition, he is a professional policeman, director of the Police Department, head of the Main Prison Directorate, comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and experience in dealing with people of criminal thinking and behavior, namely, this is the image of Rasputin that was imposed on society, Kurlov had a huge one, and he had no reason to stand up for Rasputin and the Royal Family after 1911, because with the murder of P.A. Stolypin's own destiny and career collapsed. Kurlov describes Rasputin as he himself saw him. “I was in the ministerial office, where the courier on duty brought Rasputin. A thin man with a wedge-shaped dark brown beard and piercing, intelligent eyes approached the minister. He sat down with P.A. Stolypin near the large table and began to prove that it was in vain to suspect him of something, since he is the most meek and harmless person... Following this, I expressed to the minister my impression: in my opinion, Rasputin was a type of Russian cunning man, that is called - on his own mind, and did not seem like a charlatan to me” (15, p. 312). “For the first time I talked with Rasputin in the winter of 1912 at one of my acquaintances... The external impression of Rasputin was the same as what I made when, unknown to him, I saw him in the minister’s office... This time I was struck only by Rasputin’s serious acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and theological issues. He behaved with restraint and not only did not show a shadow of boasting, but did not say a single word about his relationship with the Royal Family. Likewise, I did not notice any signs of hypnotic power in him and, leaving after this conversation, I could not help but say to myself that most of the rumors circulating about his influence on those around him belonged to the field of gossip, to which Petersburg is always so susceptible" (15, p. 317). At a new meeting with Kurlov, “Rasputin was keenly interested in the war and, since I had come from the theater of military operations, asked my opinion about its possible outcome, categorically stating that he considered the war with Germany a huge disaster for Russia... Being an opponent of the war that had begun, he with great patriotic enthusiasm he spoke about the need to bring it to the end, in the confidence that the Lord God will help the Emperor and Russia... It follows from this that the accusation of Rasputin of treason was just as justified as the already refuted accusation of the Empress... I had to talk with Rasputin several times in the last months of his life. I met him at the same Badmaev’s and was amazed by his innate intelligence and practical understanding of current issues, even of a state nature” (15, p. 318).

So, slander had no effect on the Royal Family; Rasputin’s prayers were its constant strengthening.<…>That is why it was decided to kill the Royal Friend, leaving the Family alone and without prayer protection on earth. But in order to publicly kill the elder, in order to make society want this murder, it was necessary to increase the slander tenfold, it was necessary to drag the bright faces of the Tsars into the mud. For this purpose, a scam was invented with the appearance of a false identity - a double of Grigory Rasputin.

The first guesses that the Royal Family compromised through Grigory Efimovich's double, appeared shortly after the murder of the Elder. One of the evidence of this is the story of the ataman of the Don Army, Count D.M. Grabbe about how, shortly after the murder of Rasputin, he was “invited to breakfast by the famous Prince Andronnikov, who allegedly handled business through Rasputin. Entering the dining room, Grabbe was amazed to see Rasputin in the next room. Not far from the table stood a man who looked exactly like Rasputin. Andronnikov looked inquisitively at his guest. Grabbe pretended not to be surprised at all. The man stood, stood, left the room and did not appear again” (17, p. 148). Needless to say, such a “double” could appear during the life of Grigory Efimovich in any “hot” place, could get drunk, make scandals, hug women, about which daily reports were compiled by dirt-hungry newspapermen, could leave the entrance of the house on Gorokhovaya and march on apartment to a prostitute, about which daily reports were compiled by security department agents. Yu.A. Den recalls with bewilderment: “It got to the point that they stated that Rasputin was debauched in the capital, while in fact he was in Siberia” (10, p.95).

The story of the double's revelry in the Moscow restaurant "Yar" is the best confirmation of this.

On March 26, 1915, Grigory Efimovich arrived and left Moscow on the same day. But here is the report of Colonel Martynov that “according to the information of the bailiff of the 2nd school. Sushchevsky part of Moscow, Colonel Semenov,” Rasputin on March 26, at about 11 pm, visited the Yar restaurant with the widow Anisya Reshetnikova, journalist Nikolai Soedov and an unidentified young woman. Then they were joined by the editor-publisher of the newspaper “News of the Season” Semyon Lazarevich Kugulsky. The company drank wine, the dispersed “Rasputin” danced the Russian dance, performed obscenities, and boasted of his power over the “old woman” (as this man called the Tsarina). At 2 o'clock in the morning the company left.<…>

The Empress quite rightly wrote to the Emperor: “He (Elder Gregory) has been slandered enough. As if they couldn’t call the police immediately and catch Him at the scene of the crime” (19).

So, in the Moscow restaurant "Yar" Rasputin's "double" walked with a dummy company, and everything played out as usual: drunkenness, harassment of ladies, mentions of the Royal Family, Khlystov dance. And if the police had been called at the same time, it would have been revealed that Rasputin was not real, and Anisya Reshetnikova, a pious merchant widow of 76 years old, had never been to the restaurant. But the newspaperman Semyon Lazarevich Kugulsky was a genuine person and, most likely, was the entrepreneur of the “orgy”. It was he who tried to ensure that the case of the revelry in “Yar” got into the press even before the investigation and became overgrown with obscene details. Following this, the State Duma prepared a request about the events at the Yar restaurant, then did not give it a go, deliberately spreading the fiction that the Duma was prohibited from making this request, since the Royal Family was “afraid of the truth.” And the idle rabble went and went to slander - a drunken, depraved man - the favorite of the Royal Family!

This is how, deliberately and brazenly, the double of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was introduced into society. And although the actions of the double, his words, notes, his very appearance - a long fleshy nose, a thin beard, restless, shifting eyes - were very different from the handsome appearance of Grigory Efimovich, the double persistently passed himself off and, most importantly, was willingly accepted as the Prayer Book and Friend of the Royal Family.

It is thanks to the existence of the double that two Rasputins appear from the pages of the security department reports: one is pious, splendid, pious, goes to churches, defends liturgies, lights candles, goes to apartments to heal the sick, receives petitioners, spiritual children, eats with them, and, moreover, how noted by all the people really close to him, Father Gregory does not take any wine, meat, or sweets into his mouth. Strict abstinence. The money donated by the petitioners is immediately distributed to other petitioners. And, most importantly, he is respectful to the point of reverence towards the Imperial Family. Another “Rasputin” is drunk for weeks, visits harlots, takes bribes for patronage, makes scandals in restaurants, breaks dishes and mirrors there, speaks bad things about the Royal Family.

The time will come, and new documents will be discovered that will definitively prove to us that the dark personality, who outwardly resembled Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, was created by the enemies of the Autocratic Russian Kingdom.

(1.) Protocols of the interrogation of Admiral Kolchak by the emergency commission of inquiry in Irkutsk in January-February. 1920 // Archive of the Russian Revolution. – T.10. – M. – 1991.

(3.) Interrogation of Maklakov V.A. Sokolov N.A. // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(4.) Worres Ian. The last Grand Duchess. – M. – 1998.

(5.) Note from Rudnev V.M. “The truth about the Russian Royal Family and dark forces” // Russian Archive. – M. – 1998.

(6.) Taneyeva (Vyrubova) A.A. Pages of my life. – M. 2000.

(7.) Sokolov N.A. Preliminary investigation 1919-1920 // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(8.) Interrogation of Maklakov V.A. Sokolov N.A. // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(9.) Groyan T.I. Martyr for Christ and for the Tsar. – M. – 2000.

(10.) Den Yu.A. The real Queen. – M. – 1998.

(15.) Kurlov P.G. The Death of Imperial Russia // Grigory Rasputin. Collection of historical materials. – M. – 1997. – T.2.

(17.) Rodzianko M.V. The collapse of the empire. - Kharkiv. – 1990.

(19.) Platonov O.A. Nicholas II in secret correspondence. – M. – 1996.

(29.) Alexander Mikhailovich v. book Book of memories // Nicholas II. Memories. Diaries. – St. Petersburg. – 1994.

We publish the preface to the book “Grigory Rasputin the New. The Life of an Experienced Wanderer. My thoughts and reflections”, published in 2002 by the publishing house “Lestvitsa”.

In Russian history G.E. Rasputin is one of the most slandered people, in whose official biography there is not a single real event.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (09/22.01.1869 – 17/30.12.1916) was born in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen region. Of the 9 born in the peasant family, he and his sister Feodosia remained, who later got married and left for another village. The surname “Rasputin” comes from the word “crossroads”, which means the development of roads, crossroads.

God's gifts of insight and healing appeared in childhood. He knew which of his fellow villagers would soon die, who had stolen what. He could sit near the stove and say: “A stranger is coming towards us.” And indeed, soon he knocked. One day his father said that their horse had sprained a ligament. He went to her, prayed and told her: “Now you will feel better.” The horse recovered. Since then, he has become a kind of rural veterinarian. Then it spread to people.

Rasputin met his future wife Dubrovina Paraskeva Fedorovna during a pilgrimage to the Abalaki monastery at the age of 18. The marriage produced 7 children, three of whom survived.

Many people in Tsarist Russia lived according to the Orthodox traditions of Holy Rus' - mainly in the spring (during Lent) or autumn (after the harvest) people walked to the holy monasteries. The common people made pilgrimages mainly on foot, eating and spending the night with the hosts who sheltered them, who readily performed this godly task. Rasputin did the same. I visited the nearby Tyumen and Abalak monasteries, the Verkhoturye St. Nicholas Monastery, the Sedmiozersk and Optina Hermitages, and the Pochaev Lavra. Repeatedly went on pilgrimage to Kyiv, to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Later I was on New Athos, in Jerusalem. Until his death, he always farmed himself (sowing and harvesting work), without hiring help.

He came to St. Petersburg in the late autumn of 1904 to the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius of Stragorod (the future patriarch), with a letter of recommendation from the vicar of the Kazan diocese, Chrysanf (Shchetkovsky), who introduced him to some people in St. Petersburg society. Rasputin was looking for money to build a new church in the village of Pokrovskoye, and in the end the tsar himself gave money for the construction.

He was also in Kronstadt with Fr. John, who was also at one time called a sectarian, a libertine, and a self-seeker for his communication with Tsar Alexander III. Received communion from the hands of Fr. John. According to the memoirs of Rasputin's daughter Matryona, Fr. John came out of the altar and asked: “Who is praying so fervently here?” He approached Rasputin, lifted him from his knees, and then invited him to his place. During the conversation he said: “It will be for you according to your name” (the name “Gregory” means “awake”).

For many representatives of high society “after the eternal intrigues and evils of secular life,” as well as during those troubled times when monarchists in high positions were killed by bombs and gunshots, conversations with him served as a consolation. Learned people and priests found him interesting. Although Gregory was illiterate, he knew the Holy Scriptures by heart and knew how to interpret them. Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) of Tobolsk considered Rasputin “an Orthodox Christian, a very intelligent, spiritually minded man, seeking the truth of Christ, able to give good advice to those who need it.”

He did the same in his native village of Pokrovskoye. According to memories in the 90s. old residents of the village, he helped the children get dressed for school, arrange a wedding for their son, buy a horse, etc.

In addition to cases of stopping bleeding in an hemophiliac heir (including when the heir was in Poland, and Rasputin was in the village of Pokrovsky, and a telegram was sent to him), there are cases when, through Rasputin’s prayers, the Lord healed and alleviated the suffering of O.V. Lakhtina (neurasthenia of the intestines), son of A.S. Simanovich (Witt's dance), A.A. Vyrubova (crushed bones in a train crash), daughter of P.A. Stolypin (his legs were blown off when terrorists exploded a bomb at his dacha).

Rasputin was an opponent of the war, he said that it was death for Russia, but if we are going to fight, we must see it to a victorious end. He approved when the tsar introduced prohibition in 1914 and replaced him as Commander-in-Chief in 1915. book Nikolai Nikolaevich, who led the army to retreat. On his advice, during the war, the empress and her eldest daughters completed courses and worked as nurses, while the younger ones darned clothes for soldiers and prepared bandages and lint in the Tsarskoye Selo hospital (the only case in history).

He could refuse to meet with the prince or count and walk on foot to the outskirts of the city to meet with an artisan or simple peasant. Princes and counts, as a rule, do not forgive such independence to a “simple peasant”. The epicenter of slander comes from the palace of Uncle Nicholas II. book Nikolai Nikolaevich and his wife Stana Nikolaevna with her sister Militsa. It was through these sisters that Grigory Rasputin first met the royal couple in November 1905. But after the tsarina’s quarrel with her sisters and the failure of Nikolai Nikolaevich to use Rasputin to influence the tsar, this family and its entourage in 1907 became unfriendly to the royal family and especially to its friend Rasputin. Many people from secular society were indignant at the royal family for bringing a simple peasant closer to them, and not from among the well-born and eminent.

In 1910, in order to undermine the throne and the entire Russian state, some newspapers joined in denigrating Rasputin, which people believed just as much as we now believe the media. Provincial newspapers often took articles from metropolitan newspapers.

In 1912, Hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov), who knew Rasputin, renounces Christ (sends a written renunciation to the synod), apologizes to the Jews and begins to write a slanderous book on Rasputin and the royal family “Holy Devil”, individual episodes from which were published in imperial Russia, and it was published in its entirety in Russia after the February Revolution.

In 1914, the bourgeois Khionia Guseva makes an attempt on Rasputin's life in the village of Pokrovskoye (she hits him in the stomach with a dagger). When the police find out that she is a follower of Iliodor-Trufanov, he flees responsibility abroad. Unlike us, the enemies of our Fatherland know very well who is for them and who is against them, and Iliodor-Trufanov, who has already returned to Soviet Russia, gets a job on the recommendation of F.E. Dzerzhinsky to the Cheka for special cases.

To create the image of Rasputin as a drunkard, a whip and a depraved person, his doubles worked.

The real G.E. Rasputin

Photos of G.E.'s doubles Rasputin, given in the book

Reputable journalists and writers were invited to a meeting with the double and his fans, so that they would subsequently write and tell their friends about Rasputin’s behavior (memoirs of the writer N.A. Teffi). The existence of a double was also testified to by the ataman of the Don army, Count D.M. Grabbe, who spoke about how, shortly after the murder of Rasputin, he was invited to breakfast by the famous Prince Andronnikov, who allegedly handled business through Rasputin. Entering the dining room, Grabbe was amazed to see Rasputin in the next room. Not far from the table stood a man who looked exactly like Rasputin. Andronnikov looked inquisitively at his guest. Grabbe pretended not to be surprised at all. The man stood, stood, left the room and did not appear again.

General V.F. was also active. Dzhunkovsky was the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the head of the gendarme corps while he was in this post. Under his patronage, a case was fabricated in 1915 about Rasputin’s unbridled behavior in the Moscow restaurant “Yar” without a single testimony from a real person, who was widely covered in the press, and the diaries of external surveillance of Rasputin, supposedly to protect his life after the assassination attempt, were subjected to literary processing.

The owner of the St. Petersburg restaurant “Villa Rode” A.S. also worked in conjunction with the double. Rode. Articles about Rasputin's debauchery in this restaurant were regularly published in newspapers.

After the Bolshevik revolution, Prince Andronnikov and General Dzhunkovsky were accepted and worked in the bodies of the Cheka, and the merchant A.S. Rode was appointed director of the House of Scientists in Petrograd.

Forged letters from the empress and her daughters to Rasputin circulated in secular salons, talking about an adulterous relationship between them, allegedly given by Rasputin to Iliodor-Trufanov while communicating with him. Rumors spread at the front that the Empress (German by birth) and Rasputin surrendered Russia to Germany due to the alleged weakness of the Tsar because of their love of alcohol. Rasputin was credited with influencing government affairs, all unpopular dismissals and appointments, and government actions that were undesirable to society. Duma figures, future Februaryists, spoke out and spoke from the rostrum against Rasputin.

A woman came to confession to the confessor of the royal family, Archimandrite Feofan (Bistrov), who told about Rasputin’s inappropriate behavior with her, and he, not allowing the idea that one could lie in confession, and violating the secrecy of confession, told the empress and his hierarchs about it.

Rasputin spoke about the highest Christian virtue - love, which is not understandable even to all Christians, not to mention the people of this world, and it was conveniently turned into carnal “love”, understandable to everyone. Likewise, humility was turned into thoughtless submission.

It must be said that everyone close to the royal family, the royal ministers, and monarchists in general were subjected to attacks and ridicule. As the royal doctor E.S. said. Botkin: “If there had been no Rasputin, the opponents of the Royal Family and the preparers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova; if there had been no Vyrubova, from me, from whomever you want.”

Many people, incl. those who subsequently left their memoirs in exile, who did not know Rasputin personally, formed their opinion about him based on rumors circulating in their social circle. The tsar himself repeatedly arranged secret checks of the “facts,” but they were not confirmed.

Believing in the slander against the royal family and its friend Rasputin, the Russian people calmly accepted the February revolution, the overthrow of the tsar and even the murder of the royal family.

Rasputin told his loved ones that he would not live to see 1917 and would die in terrible agony. Before going with F.F. Yusupov to his house, he burned all the correspondence and put on a new shirt. They killed as martyrs: they beat him with a whip, knocked out an eye, pulled out tufts of hair, and made an incision under the left hypochondrium (in the image of Christ). Then they threw him alive into the hole, because... my lungs were full of water.

The investigation showed all this contrary to the official version - the execution, which was described by those who declared themselves to be murderers (but from their testimony it is clear that they did not know what kind of shirt Rasputin was wearing, i.e. they did not see him without outer clothing). Found not far from a hole under the ice. The fingers of the right hand, freed from the rope, were folded into the sign of the cross as a symbol of victory over death.

Immediately after the abdication of the king, by order of A.F. Kerensky's body, Rasputin's body was dug up and burned in the suburbs of Petrograd, the case of his murder was closed, Khionia Guseva was released (in 1919, she also attempted the life of Patriarch Tikhon with a dagger), Rasputin's spiritual father, Fr. Makariy (Polikarpov) Verkhotursky. The revolutionary synod sent all the monarchist hierarchs to retire, incl. Bishop Isidore (Kolokolov), who performed the funeral service for Rasputin. After the Bolshevik revolution, Rasputin's daughter Matryona emigrated with her husband, the second daughter died of typhus, his wife and son were exiled as special settlers, where they died. Church and house of Rasputin in the village. Pokrovsky was destroyed. The main reason for burning the bodies of the royal family and Rasputin is to conceal the method of murder (those who were actually shot were not burned).

In films and books - creating the external image of a huge, tall and scary man. In reality, Rasputin was in poor health, not physically very strong, and of short stature (as can be seen from the photograph, and the Empress, as is known, was of average height).

All films, all foreign and domestic literature (with the exception of books: I.V. Evsin “The Slandered Elder”, T.L. Mironov “From Under the Lies”, O.A. Platonov “Life for the Tsar” and the documentary film “ Martyr for Christ and for the Tsar Gregory the New” directed by V. Ryzhko, as well as the book of the same name by schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan) and V.L. Smirnov “The Unknown about Rasputin”), fake diaries of the queen’s friend A.A. Vyrubova, Rasputin himself and the memoirs of his daughter Matryona, allegedly his secretary A.S. Simanovich, the names of restaurants, alcohol and tobacco products - everything is aimed at denigrating Rasputin, which pursues 3 goals:

1) Discrediting the monarchy. By calling it imperialism, tsarism, the tsarist regime, we are told that the tsar himself, with his wife and friend Rasputin, became the cause of the fall of the autocracy, revolutions and subsequent troubles in Russia.

2) Discrediting the Orthodox faith.“The royal family and Rasputin were Orthodox, but what did they do?”

3) Discrediting the Russian people. Because Rasputin is a representative of the common people, a representation of this people as the source of everything bad and unclean, and not the source of a godly life and loyalty to the tsar.

The denigration of Rasputin is being done constantly (new books and films are being published) in order to instill in all generations of Russian people (and the whole world) a persistent rejection, and therefore a non-return to their Christian statehood - Orthodoxy, monarchy, nationality.

On the contrary, what was disintegrated in Tsarist Russia was secular society, which stood between the Tsar and the people. It despised the common people, at the expense of which it lived, considered the monarchy an obstacle to progress according to the Western model, and a disdainful and mocking attitude towards Orthodoxy was a sign of good form (many were involved in the occult). In his last letter, Rasputin said that in 25 years there would be no nobles left in Russia.

Many people refer to the negative attitude of the now canonized saints towards Rasputin, but no one talks about a subsequent change in their opinion. After the Bolshevik revolution, Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganov) (whose cell attendant Iliodor-Trufanov was at one time) sent the royal family in Tobolsk a letter apologizing for his statements, served a memorial service for Rasputin, for which he was drowned in the river. Ture opposite the village. Pokrovsky. The Tsarina's sister Elizaveta Feodorovna sent the royal family in Yekaterinburg a small copy of the newly-revealed "Sovereign" icon of the Mother of God and a letter of forgiveness for condemning them, believing in the slander of Rasputin.

There is only one truth, and it is with God. The Lord does not give His gifts to ordinary sinful people, not to mention obvious sinners. And images of ordinary people do not stream myrrh, but only the righteous, and there are no exceptions to this phenomenon (as the icon of Rasputin, painted by the Tobolsk Orthodox who did not wait for his canonization, streams myrrh).

Myrrh-streaming icon G.E. Rasputin

The Lord will ask each person for failure to comply with His commandment “Do not judge,” especially if the person being condemned is innocent. A person’s guilt is greater in the case of public statements and seducing others into this sin.

Those people who believe that Rasputin stopped the blood of the heir with witchcraft blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because. do not agree with the decision of the Orthodox Church to canonize the royal family. Because According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, turning to magicians is punishable by excommunication from church communion, and certainly not canonization. And, as you know, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven either in this or in the next century.

peasant of the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province; gained worldwide fame due to the fact that he was a friend of the family of Russian Emperor Nicholas II

Grigory Rasputin

short biography

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (New; January 21, 1869 - December 30, 1916) - peasant of the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. He gained worldwide fame due to the fact that he was a friend of the family of Russian Emperor Nicholas II. In the 1910s, in certain circles of St. Petersburg society he had a reputation as a “royal friend,” “elder,” seer and healer. The negative image of Rasputin was used in revolutionary, and later Soviet, propaganda. Until now, there are numerous disputes surrounding the personality of Rasputin and his influence on the fate of the Russian Empire.

Ancestors and etymology of the surname

The ancestor of the Rasputin family was “Izosim Fedorov’s son.” The census book of the peasants of the village of Pokrovsky for 1662 says that he and his wife and three sons - Semyon, Nason and Yevsey - came to Pokrovskaya Sloboda twenty years earlier from the Yarensky district and “set up arable land.” Nason's son later received the nickname "Rosputa". From him came all the Rosputins, who became Rasputins at the beginning of the 19th century. According to the yard census of 1858, there were more than thirty peasants in Pokrovskoye who bore the surname “Rasputins,” including Efim, Gregory’s father. The surname comes from the words “crossroads”, “thaw”, “crossroads”.

Birth

Born on January 9 (21), 1869 in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province, in the family of coachman Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin (1841-1916) and Anna Vasilievna (1839-1906; nee Parshukova). In the metric book of the Slobodo-Pokrovskaya Mother of God Church of the Tyumen district of the Tobolsk province, in part one “About those born” there is a birth record on January 9, 1869 and an explanation: “Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his wife Anna Vasilievna of the Orthodox religion had a son, Gregory.” He was baptized on January 10. The godfathers (godparents) were uncle Matfei Yakovlevich Rasputin and the girl Agafya Ivanovna Alemasova. The baby received his name according to the existing tradition of naming the child after the saint on whose day he was born or baptized. The day of the baptism of Grigory Rasputin is January 10, the day of celebration of the memory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

Rasputin himself in his mature years reported conflicting information about his date of birth. According to biographers, he was inclined to exaggerate his true age in order to better fit the image of an “old man.” Sources give various dates for Rasputin's birth between 1864 and 1872. Thus, historian K.F. Shatsillo, in an article about Rasputin in the TSB, reports that he was born in 1864-1865.

Beginning of life

In his youth, Rasputin was sick a lot. After a pilgrimage to the Verkhoturye Monastery, he turned to religion. In 1893, Rasputin traveled to the holy places of Russia, visited Mount Athos in Greece, and then Jerusalem. I met and made contacts with many representatives of the clergy, monks, and wanderers.

In 1890 he married Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, a fellow pilgrim-peasant, who bore him three children: Matryona, Varvara and Dimitri.

In 1900 he set off on a new journey to Kyiv. On the way back, he lived in Kazan for quite a long time, where he met Father Mikhail, who was associated with the Kazan Theological Academy.

Petersburg period

In 1903, he came to St. Petersburg to visit the rector of the Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky). At the same time, the inspector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Feofan (Bistrov), met Rasputin, introducing him also to Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganov).

By 1904, Rasputin had gained the fame of an “old man,” a “fool,” and a “man of God” among part of high society society, which “secured the position of a ‘saint’ in the eyes of the St. Petersburg world,” or at least he was considered a “great ascetic.” Father Feofan told about the “wanderer” to the daughters of the Montenegrin prince (later king) Nikolai Njegosh - Militsa and Anastasia. The sisters told the empress about the new religious celebrity. Several years passed before he began to clearly stand out among the crowd of “God’s men.”

On November 1 (Tuesday) 1905, Rasputin’s first personal meeting with the emperor took place. This event was honored with an entry in the diary of Nicholas II:

At 4 o'clock we went to Sergievka. We drank tea with Militsa and Stana. We met the man of God - Gregory from Tobolsk province.

From the diary of Nicholas II

Rasputin gained influence on the imperial family and, above all, on Alexandra Feodorovna by helping her son, heir to the throne Alexei, fight hemophilia, a disease against which medicine was powerless.

In December 1906, Rasputin submitted a petition to the highest name to change his surname to Rasputin-Novykh, citing the fact that many of his fellow villagers have the same last name, which could lead to misunderstandings. The request was granted.

Rasputin and the Orthodox Church

Later life writers of Rasputin (O. A. Platonov, A. N. Bokhanov) tend to see some broader political meaning in the official investigations conducted by the church authorities in connection with Rasputin’s activities.

The first charge of "Khlysty", 1903

In 1903, his first persecution by the church begins: the Tobolsk Consistory receives a report from the local priest Pyotr Ostroumov that Rasputin behaves strangely with women who come to him “from St. Petersburg itself,” about their “passions from which he delivers them... in the bathhouse,” that in his youth Rasputin “from his life in the factories of the Perm province brought acquaintance with the teachings of the Khlyst heresy.” E. S. Radzinsky notes that an investigator was sent to Pokrovskoye, but he did not find anything discrediting, and the case was archived.

The first case of Rasputin’s “Khlysty”, 1907

On September 6, 1907, based on a denunciation from 1903, the Tobolsk Consistory opened a case against Rasputin, who was accused of spreading false teachings similar to Khlyst’s and forming a society of followers of his false teachings.

Elder Macarius, Bishop Theophan and G. E. Rasputin. Monastic photo studio. 1909

The initial investigation was carried out by priest Nikodim Glukhovetsky. Based on the collected facts, Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, a member of the Tobolsk Consistory, prepared a report to Bishop Anthony with the attachment of a review of the case under consideration by sect specialist D. M. Berezkin, inspector of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary.

D. M. Berezkin, in a review of the conduct of the case, noted that the investigation was carried out by “persons with little knowledge of Khlystyism,” that only Rasputin’s two-story residential house was searched, although it is known that the place where the zeal takes place “is never placed in residential premises ... and always takes place in the backyard - in bathhouses, in sheds, in cellars... and even in dungeons... The paintings and icons found in the house are not described, yet they usually contain the solution to the heresy...". After which Bishop Anthony of Tobolsk decided to conduct a further investigation into the case, entrusting it to an experienced anti-sectarian missionary.

As a result, the case “fell apart” and was approved as completed by Anthony (Karzhavin) on May 7, 1908.

Subsequently, the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, who took the file from the Synod, said that it soon disappeared, but, according to E. Radzinsky, “The Case of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory on the Khlystism of Grigory Rasputin” was eventually found in the Tyumen archive.

The first “Case of Khlysty,” despite the fact that it exonerates Rasputin, causes an ambiguous assessment among researchers.

According to E. Radzinsky, the unspoken initiator of the case was Princess Militsa of Montenegro, who, thanks to her power at court, had strong connections in the Synod, and the initiator of the hasty closure of the case due to pressure “from above” was one of Rasputin’s St. Petersburg fans, General Olga Lokhtina. The same fact of Lokhtina’s patronage as a scientific discovery of Radzinsky is cited by I.V. Smyslov. Radzinsky associates the soon deteriorated relationship between the princesses Militsa and Anastasia with the Tsarina precisely with Militsa’s attempt to initiate this case (quote: “... they were together indignant at the “black women” who dared to organize a shameful investigation against the “man of God”).

O. A. Platonov, seeking to prove the falsehood of the charges against Rasputin, believes that the case appeared “out of nowhere,” and the case was “organized” by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (husband of Anastasia of Chernogorsk), who before Rasputin occupied the place of the royal family’s closest friend and adviser. O. A. Platonov especially highlights the prince’s affiliation with Freemasonry. A. N. Varlamov does not agree with Platonov’s version of Nikolai Nikolaevich’s intervention, not seeing a motive for him.

According to A. A. Amalrik, Rasputin was saved in this matter by his friends Archimandrite Feofan (Bistrov), Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganev) and Tsar Nicholas II, who ordered to “hush up” the matter.

Historian A. N. Bokhanov claims that the “Rasputin case” is one of the first cases of “black PR” not only in Russia, but also in world history. The Rasputin theme is “the clearest indicator of the most severe spiritual and psychological split in the country, a split that became the detonator of the revolutionary explosion of 1917.”

O. A. Platonov in his book provides in detail the contents of this case, considering a number of testimonies against Rasputin hostile and/or fabricated: surveys of village residents (priests, peasants), surveys of St. Petersburg women who, after 1905, began to visit Pokrovskoye. A. N. Varlamov nevertheless considers these testimonies to be quite reliable, and analyzes them in the corresponding chapter of his book. A. N. Varlamov identifies three charges against Rasputin in the case:

• Rasputin acted as an impostor doctor and was engaged in healing human souls without a diploma; he himself did not want to become a monk (“He said that he did not like monastic life, that monks do not observe morality and that it is better to be saved in the world,” Matryona testified at the investigation), but he also dared others; as a result of which two Dubrovina girls died, who, according to fellow villagers, died due to “Grigory’s bullying” (according to Rasputin’s testimony, they died from consumption);
• Rasputin’s craving for kissing women, in particular, the episode of the forced kiss of 28-year-old prosphora Evdokia Korneeva, about which the investigation arranged a confrontation between Rasputin and Korneeva; “the accused denied this testimony partly completely, and partly making a forgettable excuse (“6 years ago”)”;
• testimony of the priest of the Church of the Intercession, Father Fyodor Chemagin: “I went (by chance) to the accused and saw how the latter returned wet from the bathhouse, and after him all the women who lived with him came from there - also wet and steamy. The accused confessed, in private conversations, to the witness about his weakness to caress and kiss the “ladies,” admitted that he was with them in the bathhouse, that he stood in the church absent-mindedly.” Rasputin “objected that he went to the bathhouse long before the women, and, having become very angry, lay in the dressing room, and came out really steamy - shortly before the women (arrived there).”

The appendix to the report of Metropolitan Juvenaly (Poyarkov) at the bishops’ council, held in the fall of 2004, states the following: “ The case of G. Rasputin being accused of Khlysty, stored in the Tobolsk branch of the State Archive of the Tyumen Region, has not been thoroughly investigated, although lengthy excerpts from it are given in the book by O. A. Platonov. In an effort to “rehabilitate” G. Rasputin, O. A. Platonov, who, by the way, is not a specialist in the history of Russian sectarianism, characterizes this case as “fabricated.” Meanwhile, even the extracts he cited, including the testimony of the priests of the Pokrovskaya settlement, indicate that the question of G. Rasputin’s closeness to sectarianism is much more complicated than it seems to the author, and in any case still requires a special and competent analysis».

Covert police surveillance, Jerusalem - 1911

In 1909, the police were going to expel Rasputin from St. Petersburg, but Rasputin was ahead of them and he himself went home to the village of Pokrovskoye for some time.

In 1910, his daughters moved to St. Petersburg to join Rasputin, whom he arranged to study at the gymnasium. At the direction of Prime Minister Stolypin, Rasputin was placed under surveillance for several days.

At the beginning of 1911, Bishop Feofan suggested that the Holy Synod officially express displeasure to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in connection with Rasputin’s behavior, and a member of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), reported to Nicholas II about the negative influence of Rasputin.

On December 16, 1911, Rasputin had a clash with Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor. Bishop Hermogenes, acting in alliance with Hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov), invited Rasputin to his courtyard; on Vasilievsky Island, in the presence of Iliodor, he “convicted” him, striking him several times with a cross. An argument ensued between them, and then a fight.

In 1911, Rasputin voluntarily left the capital and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

By order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov on January 23, 1912, Rasputin was again placed under surveillance, which continued until his death.

The second case of Rasputin's "Khlysty" in 1912

In January 1912, the Duma announced its attitude towards Rasputin, and in February 1912, Nicholas II ordered V.K. Sabler to resume the case of the Holy Synod on Rasputin’s “Khlystism” and hand over Rodzianko for the report, “and the palace commandant Dedyulin and handed over to him The case of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory, which contained the beginning of Investigative Proceedings regarding the accusation of Rasputin of belonging to the Khlyst sect.” On February 26, 1912, at an audience, Rodzianko suggested that the tsar expel the peasant forever. Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) openly wrote that Rasputin is a whip and is participating in zeal.

The new (who replaced Eusebius (Grozdov)) Tobolsk Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) personally took up this case, studied the materials, requested information from the clergy of the Church of the Intercession, and repeatedly talked with Rasputin himself. Based on the results of this new investigation, the conclusion of the Tobolsk Church was prepared and approved on November 29, 1912 spiritual consistory, sent to many high-ranking officials and some deputies of the State Duma. In conclusion, Rasputin-Novy was called “a Christian, a spiritually minded person and a seeker of the truth of Christ." Rasputin no longer faced any official charges. But this did not mean at all that everyone believed in results of a new investigation.

Rasputin’s opponents believe that Bishop Alexy “helped” him in this way for selfish purposes: the disgraced bishop, exiled to Tobolsk from the Pskov See as a result of the discovery of a sectarian St. John’s monastery in the Pskov province, stayed at the Tobolsk See only until October 1913, that is, only a year and a half, after which he was appointed Exarch of Georgia and elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Kartalin and Kakheti with the title of member of the Holy Synod. This is seen as the influence of Rasputin.

However, researchers believe that the rise of Bishop Alexy in 1913 took place only thanks to his devotion to the reigning house, which is especially visible from his sermon delivered on the occasion of the 1905 manifesto. Moreover, the period in which Bishop Alexy was appointed Exarch of Georgia was a period of revolutionary ferment in Georgia.

According to Archbishop Anthony Karzhavin, it should also be noted that Rasputin’s opponents often forget about another exaltation: Bishop of Tobolsk Anthony (Karzhavin), who brought the first case of “Khlysty” against Rasputin, was moved in 1910 from cold Siberia to the Tver See and to Easter was elevated to the rank of archbishop. But, according to Karzhavin, they remember that this translation took place precisely because the first case was sent to the archives of the Synod.

Prophecies, writings and correspondence of Rasputin

During his lifetime, Rasputin published two books:

• Rasputin, G. E. Life of an Experienced Wanderer. - May 1907.
• G. E. Rasputin. My thoughts and reflections. - Petrograd, 1915.

In his prophecies, Rasputin speaks of “God’s punishment,” “bitter water,” “tears of the sun,” “poisonous rains” “until the end of our century.” Deserts will advance, and the earth will be inhabited by monsters that will not be people or animals. Thanks to “human alchemy”, flying frogs, kite butterflies, crawling bees, huge mice and equally huge ants will appear, as well as the monster “kobaka”. Two princes from the West and the East will challenge the right to world domination. They will have a battle in the land of four demons, but the western prince Grayug will defeat his eastern enemy Blizzard, but he himself will fall. After these misfortunes, people will again turn to God and enter “earthly paradise.”

The most famous was the prediction of the death of the Imperial House: “As long as I live, the dynasty will live.”

Some authors believe that Rasputin is mentioned in Alexandra Feodorovna’s letters to Nicholas II. In the letters themselves, Rasputin’s surname is not mentioned, but some authors believe that Rasputin in the letters is designated by the words “Friend”, or “He” in capital letters, although this has no documentary evidence. The letters were published in the USSR by 1927, and in the Berlin publishing house “Slovo” in 1922. The correspondence was preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation - Novoromanovsky Archive.

Attitude to war

In 1912, Rasputin dissuaded the emperor from intervening in the Balkan War, which delayed the start of the First World War by 2 years. In 1914, he repeatedly spoke out against Russia's entry into the war, believing that it would only bring suffering to the peasants. In 1915, anticipating the February Revolution, Rasputin demanded an improvement in the capital's supply of bread. In 1916, Rasputin spoke out strongly in favor of Russia's withdrawal from the war, concluding peace with Germany, renouncing rights to Poland and the Baltic states, and also against the Russian-British alliance.

Anti-Rasputin campaign in the press

In 1910, the writer Mikhail Novoselov published several critical articles about Rasputin in Moskovskie Vedomosti (No. 49 - “Spiritual guest performer Grigory Rasputin”, No. 72 - “Something else about Grigory Rasputin”).

In 1912, Novoselov published in his publishing house the brochure “Grigory Rasputin and Mystical Debauchery,” which accused Rasputin of being a Khlysty and criticized the highest church hierarchy. The brochure was banned and confiscated from the printing house. The newspaper "Voice of Moscow" was fined for publishing excerpts from it. After this, the State Duma followed up with a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the legality of punishing the editors of Voice of Moscow and Novoye Vremya. Also in 1912, Rasputin’s acquaintance, former hieromonk Iliodor, began distributing several scandalous letters from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses to Rasputin.

Copies printed on a hectograph circulated around St. Petersburg. Most researchers consider these letters to be forgeries. Later, Iliodor, on the advice of Gorky, wrote a libelous book “Holy Devil” about Rasputin, which was published in 1917 during the revolution.

In 1913-1914, the Masonic Supreme Council of the All-Russian People's Republic attempted to launch a propaganda campaign regarding the role of Rasputin at court. Somewhat later, the Council made an attempt to publish a brochure directed against Rasputin, and when this attempt failed (the brochure was delayed by censorship), the Council took steps to distribute this brochure in a typed copy.

Assassination attempt by Khionia Guseva

In 1914, an anti-Rasputin conspiracy matured, headed by Nikolai Nikolaevich and Rodzianko.

On June 29 (July 12), 1914, an attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye. He was stabbed in the stomach and seriously wounded by Khionia Guseva, who came from Tsaritsyn. Rasputin testified that he suspected Iliodor of organizing the assassination attempt, but could not provide any evidence of this. On July 3, Rasputin was transported by ship to Tyumen for treatment. Rasputin remained in the Tyumen hospital until August 17, 1914. The investigation into the assassination attempt lasted about a year. Guseva was declared mentally ill in July 1915 and released from criminal liability, being placed in a psychiatric hospital in Tomsk.

Guseva's assassination attempt made international news. Rasputin's condition was reported in newspapers in Europe and the USA; The New York Times made the story front page. In the Russian press, Rasputin's health received more attention than the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Murder

Wax figures of participants in the conspiracy against Grigory Rasputin (from left to right) - State Duma deputy V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Lieutenant S. M. Sukhotin. Exhibition at the Yusupov Palace on the Moika

Letter to the. K. Dmitry Pavlovich to father V. to Pavel Alexandrovich about his attitude to the murder of Rasputin and the revolution. Isfahan (Persia) April 29, 1917. Finally, the last act of my stay in Petrograd was a completely conscious and thoughtful participation in the murder of Rasputin - as a last attempt to give the Emperor the opportunity to openly change course, without taking responsibility for the removal of this man. (Alix wouldn’t let him do that.)

Rasputin was killed on the night of December 17, 1916 (December 30, new style) in the Yusupov Palace on the Moika. Conspirators: F. F. Yusupov, V. M. Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, British intelligence officer MI6 Oswald Reiner.

Information about the murder is contradictory, it was confused both by the killers themselves and by the pressure on the investigation by the Russian imperial and British authorities. Yusupov changed his testimony several times: in the St. Petersburg police on December 18, 1916, in exile in Crimea in 1917, in a book in 1927, sworn to in 1934 and in 1965. Initially, Purishkevich’s memoirs were published, then Yusupov echoed his version. However, they radically diverged from the testimony of the investigation. Starting from naming the wrong color of the clothes that Rasputin was wearing according to the killers and in which he was found, to how many and where bullets were fired. For example, forensic experts found three wounds, each of which was fatal: to the head, liver and kidney. (According to British researchers who studied the photograph, the shot to the forehead was made from a British Webley 455 revolver.) After a shot to the liver, a person can live no more than 20 minutes and is not capable, as the killers said, of running down the street in half an hour or an hour. There was also no shot to the heart, which the killers unanimously claimed.

Rasputin was first lured into the basement, treated to red wine and a pie poisoned with potassium cyanide. Yusupov went upstairs and, returning, shot him in the back, causing him to fall. The conspirators went outside. Yusupov, who returned to get the cloak, checked the body; suddenly Rasputin woke up and tried to strangle the killer. The conspirators who ran in at that moment began to shoot at Rasputin. As they approached, they were surprised that he was still alive and began to beat him. According to the killers, the poisoned and shot Rasputin came to his senses, got out of the basement and tried to climb over the high wall of the garden, but was caught by the killers, who heard a dog barking. Then he was tied with ropes on his hands and feet (according to Purishkevich, first wrapped in blue cloth), taken by car to a pre-selected place near Kamenny Island and thrown from the bridge into the Neva polynya in such a way that his body ended up under the ice. However, according to the investigation, the discovered corpse was dressed in a fur coat, there was no fabric or ropes.

The investigation into the murder of Rasputin, led by the director of the Police Department A.T. Vasilyev, progressed quite quickly. Already the first interrogations of Rasputin’s family members and servants showed that on the night of the murder, Rasputin went to visit Prince Yusupov. Policeman Vlasyuk, who was on duty on the night of December 16-17 on the street not far from the Yusupov Palace, testified that he heard several shots at night. During a search in the courtyard of the Yusupovs' house, traces of blood were found.

On the afternoon of December 17, passers-by noticed blood stains on the parapet of the Petrovsky Bridge. After exploration by divers of the Neva, Rasputin’s body was discovered in this place. The forensic medical examination was entrusted to the famous professor of the Military Medical Academy D. P. Kosorotov. The original autopsy report has not been preserved; the cause of death can only be speculated.

“During the autopsy, very numerous injuries were found, many of which were inflicted posthumously. The entire right side of the head was crushed and flattened due to the bruise of the corpse when it fell from the bridge. Death resulted from heavy bleeding due to a gunshot wound to the stomach. The shot was fired, in my opinion, almost point-blank, from left to right, through the stomach and liver, with the latter being fragmented in the right half. The bleeding was very profuse. The corpse also had a gunshot wound in the back, in the spinal area, with a crushed right kidney, and another point-blank wound in the forehead, probably of someone who was already dying or had died. The chest organs were intact and were examined superficially, but there were no signs of death by drowning. The lungs were not distended, and there was no water or foamy fluid in the airways. Rasputin was thrown into the water already dead.”

Conclusion of the forensic expert Professor D.N. Kosorotova

No poison was found in Rasputin's stomach. There are explanations that the cyanide in the cakes was neutralized by sugar or high heat during oven cooking. On the other hand, Doctor Stanislav Lazovert, who was supposed to poison the cakes, said in a letter addressed to Prince Yusupov that instead of poison he put a harmless substance.

There are a number of nuances in determining O. Reiner's involvement. At that time, there were two British MI6 intelligence officers serving in St. Petersburg who could have committed the murder: Yusupov’s friend from University College (Oxford) Oswald Rayner and Captain Stephen Alley, who was born in the Yusupov Palace. The former was suspected, and Tsar Nicholas II directly mentioned that the killer was Yusupov's friend from college. In 1919, Rayner was awarded the Order of the British Empire, he destroyed his papers before his death in 1961. Compton's driver's log records that he brought Oswald to Yusupov (and to another officer, Captain John Scale) a week before the assassination, and last time - on the day of the murder. Compton also directly hinted at Rayner, saying that the killer was a lawyer and was born in the same city as him. There is a letter from Alley written to Scale on January 7, 1917, eight days after the murder: “Although not everything went according to plan, our goal was achieved... Rayner is covering his tracks and will undoubtedly contact you...”.

The investigation lasted two and a half months until the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on March 2, 1917. On this day, Kerensky became Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. On March 4, 1917, he ordered a hasty termination of the investigation, while investigator A.T. Vasilyev was arrested and transported to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was interrogated by the Extraordinary Commission of Investigation until September, and later emigrated.

Version about the English conspiracy

In 2004, the BBC aired the documentary Who Killed Rasputin?, which brought new attention to the murder investigation. According to the version shown in the film, the “glory” and the plan for this murder belong to Great Britain, the Russian conspirators were only the perpetrators, the control shot to the forehead was fired from the British officers’ Webley 455 revolver.

According to British researchers, Rasputin was killed with the active participation of the British intelligence service Mi-6; the killers confused the investigation in order to hide the British trail. The motive for the conspiracy was supposed to be British concerns about Rasputin's influence on the Russian Empress and the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany.

The murder of Rasputin, version of Felix Yusupov

Events immediately preceding the murder

At the end of August 1915, it was officially announced that Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was removed from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, whose duties were assumed by Emperor Nicholas II. A. A. Brusilov wrote in his memoirs that the impression in the troops from this replacement was the most negative and “it never occurred to anyone that the tsar would take upon himself the responsibilities of the supreme commander in chief in this difficult situation at the front. It was common knowledge that Nicholas II understood absolutely nothing about military affairs and that the title he assumed would be only nominal.”

Felix Yusupov claimed in his memoirs that the emperor took command of the army under pressure from Rasputin. Russian society greeted the news with hostility, as the understanding of Rasputin's permissiveness grew. With the departure of the sovereign to Headquarters, taking advantage of the unlimited favor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Rasputin began to regularly visit Tsarskoye Selo. His advice and opinions acquired the force of law. Not a single military decision was made without Rasputin’s knowledge. “The queen trusted him blindly, and he solved pressing, and sometimes secret, state issues.”

Felix Yusupov was struck by the events associated with his father, Felix Feliksovich Yusupov. In his memoirs, Felix wrote that on the eve of the war, the administrations of Russian cities and large enterprises, including Moscow, were controlled by the Germans: “German arrogance knew no bounds. German surnames were carried both in the army and at court.” Most of the ministers who received the ministerial portfolio from Rasputin were Germanophiles. In 1915, Felix's father received an appointment from the Tsar to the post of Moscow Governor-General. However, Felix Feliksovich Yusupov was unable to fight the German encirclement: “traitors and spies ruled the roost.” The orders and instructions of the Moscow Governor-General were not carried out. Outraged by the state of affairs, Felix Feliksovich went to Headquarters. He outlined the situation in Moscow - no one had yet dared to openly tell the truth to the sovereign. However, the pro-German party that surrounded the sovereign was too strong: upon returning to Moscow, my father learned that he had been removed from the post of governor general for untimely stopping anti-German pogroms.

Members of the imperial family tried to explain to the sovereign how dangerous Rasputin’s influence was for the dynasty, as well as for Russia as a whole. There was only one answer: “Everything is slander. Saints are always slandered." The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna wrote to her son, begging him to remove Rasputin and prohibit the queen from interfering in state affairs. Nicholas told the queen about this. Alexandra Feodorovna ended relations with people who were “pressuring” the sovereign. Elizaveta Feodorovna, also almost never visiting Tsarskoe, came to talk with her sister. However, all arguments were rejected. According to Felix Yusupov, the German General Staff continuously sent spies into Rasputin’s entourage.

Felix Yusupov claimed that “the tsar was weakening from the narcotic potions with which he was drugged daily at the instigation of Rasputin.” Rasputin received virtually unlimited power: “he appointed and dismissed ministers and generals, pushed around bishops and archbishops...”.

There was no hope left to “open the eyes” of Alexandra Feodorovna and the sovereign. “Without agreement, everyone alone (Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich) came to the same conclusion: Rasputin must be removed, even at the cost of murder.”

Murder

Felix hoped to find “decisive people ready to act” to implement his plan. A narrow circle of people was formed who were ready for decisive action: Lieutenant Sukhotin, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Purishkevich and Doctor Lazovert. After discussing the situation, the conspirators decided that “poison is the surest way to hide the fact of the murder.” Yusupov's house on the Moika River was chosen as the location of the murder:

I was going to receive Rasputin in the semi-basement apartment, which I was decorating for that purpose. Arcades divided the basement hall into two parts. The larger one housed a dining room. In the smaller one, the spiral staircase, which I already wrote about, led to my apartment on the mezzanine. Halfway there was an exit to the courtyard. The dining room, with its low vaulted ceiling, received light from two small sidewalk-level windows overlooking the embankment. The walls and floor of the room were made of gray stone. In order not to arouse suspicion in Rasputin by the appearance of a bare cellar, it was necessary to decorate the room and give it a residential appearance

Felix ordered the butler Grigory Buzhinsky and the valet Ivan to prepare tea for six people by eleven, buy cakes and cookies, and bring wine from the cellar. Felix led all the accomplices into the dining room and for some time those who arrived silently examined the scene of the future murder. Felix took out a box of potassium cyanide and placed it on the table next to the cakes.

Doctor Lazovert put on rubber gloves, took several crystals of poison from it, and ground it into powder. Then he removed the tops of the cakes and sprinkled the filling with enough powder, he said, to kill an elephant. There was silence in the room. We watched his actions excitedly. All that remains is to put the poison in the glasses. We decided to put it in at the last moment so that the poison would not evaporate.

In order to maintain a pleasant mood in Rasputin and not allow him to suspect anything, the killers decided to make everything look like a finished dinner: they moved the chairs away and poured tea into the cups. It was agreed that Dmitry, Sukhotin and Purishkevich would go up to the dress circle and start the gramophone, choosing more cheerful music.

The lazovert, dressed as a driver, started the engine. Felix put on his fur coat and pulled his fur hat down over his eyes, since it was necessary to secretly deliver Rasputin to the house on the Moika. Felix agreed on these actions, explaining to Rasputin that he did not want to “advertise” his relationship with him. We arrived at Rasputin's place after midnight. He was expecting Felix: “put on a silk shirt embroidered with cornflowers. He girded himself with a crimson cord. The black velvet trousers and boots were brand new. The hair is slicked, the beard is combed with extraordinary care.”

Arriving at the house on the Moika, Rasputin heard American music and voices. Felix explained that these were his wife's guests and would be leaving soon. Felix invited the guest to go into the dining room.

“We went down. Before he could enter, Rasputin took off his fur coat and began to look around with curiosity. The one with the boxes was especially attractive to him. He amused himself like a child, opening and closing doors, looking inside and out.”

Felix tried for the last time to persuade Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg, but was refused. Finally, having talked through “his favorite conversations,” Rasputin asked for tea. Felix poured him a cup and offered him eclairs with potassium cyanide.

I looked in horror. The poison should have taken effect immediately, but, to my amazement, Rasputin continued to talk as if nothing had happened.

Then Felix offered Rasputin poisoned wine.

I stood next to him and watched his every move, expecting that he was about to collapse... But he drank, smacked, savored the wine like a true connoisseur. Nothing changed in his face.

Under the pretext of seeing him off, Yusupov went up to his “wife’s guests.” Felix took the revolver from Dmitry and went down to the basement - aimed at the heart and pulled the trigger. Sukhotin dressed up as an “old man”, wearing his fur coat and hat. Following the developed plan, taking into account the presence of surveillance, Dmitry, Sukhotin and Lazovert were supposed to take the “old man” in Purishkevich’s open car back to his home. Then, in Dmitry’s closed car, return to the Moika, pick up the body and deliver it to the Petrovsky Bridge. However, the unexpected happened: with a sharp movement, the “killed” Rasputin jumped to his feet.

He looked creepy. His mouth was foaming. He screamed in a bad voice, waved his arms and rushed at me. His fingers dug into my shoulders, trying to reach my throat. The eyes bulged out of their sockets, blood flowed from the mouth. Rasputin repeated my name quietly and hoarsely.

Purishkevich came running to Yusupov’s call. Rasputin, “wheezing and growling,” quickly moved to the secret exit into the courtyard. Purishkevich rushed after him. Rasputin ran to the middle gate of the courtyard, which was not locked. “A shot rang out... Rasputin swayed and fell into the snow.”

Purishkevich ran up, stood by the body for a few moments, was convinced that this time it was all over, and quickly went to the house.

Dmitry, Sukhotin and Lazovert went to pick up the corpse in a closed car. They wrapped the corpse in canvas, loaded it into a car and drove to Petrovsky Bridge, where they threw the body into the river.

Consequences of the murder

On the evening of January 1, 1917, it became known that Rasputin’s body was discovered in the Malaya Nevka in an ice hole under the Petrovsky Bridge. The body was taken to the Chesme almshouse five miles from St. Petersburg. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna demanded the immediate execution of Rasputin's killers.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, having arrived from Pskov, where the headquarters of the Northern Front was located, told how the news of Raputin’s murder was greeted with frantic delight by the troops. “No one doubted that now the sovereign would find honest and loyal people.” However, according to Yusupov: “Rasputin’s poison poisoned the highest spheres of the state for many years and devastated the most honest, most ardent souls. As a result, some did not want to make decisions, while others believed that there was no need to make them.”

At the end of March 1917, Mikhail Rodzianko, Admiral Kolchak and Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich offered Felix to become emperor.

The murder of Rasputin, memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

According to the published memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, on December 17, 1916 in Kyiv, the adjutant with enthusiasm and joy informed Alexander Mikhailovich that Rasputin was killed in the house of Prince Yusupov, personally by Felix, and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich became his accomplice. Alexander Mikhailovich was the first to inform the Dowager Empress (Maria Feodorovna) about the murder of Rasputin. However, “the thought that her granddaughter’s husband and her nephew had their hands stained with blood caused her great suffering. As an Empress she sympathized, but as a Christian she could not help but be against the shedding of blood, no matter how valiant the motives of the perpetrators.”

It was decided to obtain Nicholas II’s consent to come to St. Petersburg. Members of the Imperial Family asked Alexander Mikhailovich to intercede for Dmitry and Felix before the Emperor. At the meeting, Nikolai hugged the prince, as he knew Alexander Mikhailovich well. Alexander Mikhailovich made a defensive speech. He asked the Emperor not to look at Felix and Dmitry Pavlovich as ordinary murderers, but as patriots. The Emperor, after a pause, said: “You speak very well, but you will agree that no one - be he a Grand Duke or a simple man - has the right to kill.”

The Emperor promised to be merciful in choosing punishments for the two culprits. Dmitry Pavlovich was exiled to the Persian Front at the disposal of General Baratov, and Felix was ordered to go to his Rakitnoye estate near Kursk.

Funeral

Facsimile of the official act of burning the corpse of G. E. Rasputin

Rasputin's funeral service was conducted by Bishop Isidor (Kolokolov), who was well acquainted with him. In his memoirs, A.I. Spiridovich recalls that Isidore did not have the right to perform a funeral mass. Afterwards there were rumors that Metropolitan Pitirim, who was approached about the funeral service, rejected this request. Also in those days, a legend was started, mentioned in the reports of the English embassy, ​​that the wife of Nicholas II was allegedly present at the autopsy and funeral service. At first they wanted to bury the murdered man in his homeland, in the village of Pokrovskoye. But due to the danger of possible unrest in connection with the sending of the body, he was interred in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoe Selo on the territory of the Church of Seraphim of Sarov, which was being built by Anna Vyrubova.

M.V. Rodzianko wrote that during the celebrations there were rumors in the Duma about Rasputin’s return to St. Petersburg. In January 1917, Mikhail Vladimirovich received a paper with many signatures from Tsaritsyn with a message that Rasputin was visiting V.K. Sabler, that the Tsaritsyn people knew about Rasputin’s arrival in the capital.

After the February Revolution, Rasputin's burial place was found, and Kerensky ordered Kornilov to organize the destruction of the body. The coffin with the remains stood in a special carriage for several days, and then Rasputin’s corpse was burned on the night of March 11 in the furnace of the steam boiler of the Polytechnic Institute. An official act on the burning of Rasputin’s corpse was drawn up:

Lesnoye. March 10-11, 1917
We, the undersigned, between 7 and 9 o’clock in the morning, jointly burned the body of the murdered Grigory Rasputin, transported by car by the authorized representative of the temporary committee of the State Duma, Filipp Petrovich Kupchinsky, in the presence of a representative of the Petrograd public mayor, captain of the 16th Uhlan Novoarkhangelsk regiment, Vladimir Pavlovich Kochadeev. The burning itself took place near the high road from Lesnoy to Peskarevka, in the forest in the absolute absence of strangers except us, who laid hands below:
Representative from the Society. Petrogr. Gradon.
Captain of the 16th Ulan Novoarch. P. V. KOCHADEV.,
Authorized Time Com. State Duma KUPCHINSKY.
Students of Petrograd Polytechnic
Institute:
S. BOGACHEV,
R. FISCHER,
N. MOKLOVICH,
M. SHABALIN,
S. LIKHVITSKY,
V. VLADIMIROV.
Round seal: Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, head of security.
Note below: The act was drawn up in my presence and I certify the signatures of those who signed it.
Guard duty officer.
Ensign PARVOV

Three months after Rasputin's death, his grave was desecrated. At the site of the burning two inscriptions were inscribed, one of which is in German: “ Hier ist der Hund begraben” (“A dog is buried here”) and further “The corpse of Rasputin Grigory was burned here on the night of March 10-11, 1917.”

The fate of the Rasputin family

Rasputin's daughter Matryona emigrated to France after the revolution and subsequently moved to the USA. In 1920, Dmitry Grigorievich’s house and entire peasant farm were nationalized. In 1922, his widow Praskovya Fedorovna, son Dmitry and daughter Varvara were deprived of voting rights as “malicious elements.” In the 1930s, all three were arrested by the NKVD, and their trace was lost in the special settlements of the Tyumen North.

Accusations of immorality

Rasputin and his admirers (St. Petersburg, 1914).
Top row (from left to right): A. A. Pistolkors (in profile), A. E. Pistolkors, L. A. Molchanov, N. D. Zhevakhov, E. Kh. Gil, unknown, N. D. Yakhimovich, O. V. Loman, N. D. Loman, A. I. Reshetnikova.
In the second row: S. L. Volynskaya, A. A. Vyrubova, A. G. Gushchina, Yu. A. Den, E. Ya. Rasputin.
In the last row: Z. Timofeeva, M. E. Golovina, M. S. Gil, G. E. Rasputin, O. Kleist, A. N. Laptinskaya (on the floor).

In 1914, Rasputin settled in an apartment at 64 Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg. Various dark rumors quickly began to spread around St. Petersburg about this apartment, for example, that Rasputin turned it into a brothel. Some said that Rasputin maintains a permanent “harem” there, while others say he collects them from time to time. There was a rumor that the apartment on Gorokhovaya was used for witchcraft.

From the memories of witnesses

...One day Aunt Agnes. Fed. Hartmann (mother's sister) asked me if I would like to see Rasputin closer. ……..Having received an address on Pushkinskaya Street, on the appointed day and hour I showed up at the apartment of Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina, my aunt’s friend. Entering the small dining room, I found everyone already assembled. Around 6-7 young interesting ladies were sitting at an oval table set for tea. I knew two of them by sight (they met in the halls of the Winter Palace, where Alexandra Feodorovna organized sewing of linen for the wounded). They were all in the same circle and were animatedly talking to each other in low voices. Having made a general bow in English, I sat down next to the hostess at the samovar and talked with her.

Suddenly there was a sort of general sigh - Ah! I looked up and saw in the doorway, located on the opposite side from where I was entering, a powerful figure - the first impression was a gypsy. The tall, powerful figure was clad in a white Russian shirt with embroidery on the collar and fastener, a twisted belt with tassels, untucked black trousers and Russian boots. But there was nothing Russian about him. Black thick hair, a large black beard, a dark face with predatory nostrils of the nose and some kind of ironic, mocking smile on the lips - the face is certainly impressive, but somehow unpleasant. The first thing that attracted attention was his eyes: black, red-hot, they burned, piercing right through, and his gaze on you was simply felt physically, it was impossible to remain calm. It seems to me that he really had a hypnotic power to subjugate him when he wanted it. ...

Everyone here was familiar to him, vying with each other to please and attract attention. He sat down at the table cheekily, addressed everyone by name and “you,” spoke catchily, sometimes vulgarly and rudely, called them to him, sat them on his knees, felt them, stroked them, patted them on soft places, and everyone “happy” was thrilled with pleasure. ! It was disgusting and offensive to watch for women who were humiliated, who lost both their feminine dignity and family honor. I felt the blood rushing to my face, I wanted to scream, punch, do something. I was sitting almost opposite the “distinguished guest”; he perfectly sensed my condition and, laughing mockingly, each time after the next attack he stubbornly stuck his eyes into me. I was a new object unknown to him. ...

Impudently addressing someone present, he said: “Do you see? Who embroidered the shirt? Sashka! (meaning Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). No decent man would ever reveal the secrets of a woman's feelings. My eyes grew dark from tension, and Rasputin’s gaze unbearably drilled and drilled. I moved closer to the hostess, trying to hide behind the samovar. Maria Alexandrovna looked at me with alarm. ...

“Mashenka,” a voice said, “do you want some jam?” Come to me." Mashenka hurriedly jumps up and hurries to the place of summoning. Rasputin crosses his legs, takes a spoonful of jam and knocks it over the toe of his boot. “Lick it,” the voice sounds commanding, she kneels down and, bowing her head, licks the jam... I couldn’t stand it anymore. Squeezing the hostess’s hand, she jumped up and ran out into the hallway. I don’t remember how I put on my hat or how I ran along Nevsky. I came to my senses at the Admiralty, I had to go home to Petrogradskaya. She roared at midnight and asked never to ask me what I saw, and neither with my mother nor with my aunt did I remember about this hour, nor did I see Maria Alexandrovna Nikitina. Since then, I could not calmly hear the name of Rasputin and lost all respect for our “secular” ladies. Once, while visiting De Lazari, I answered the phone and heard the voice of this scoundrel. But I immediately said that I know who is talking, and therefore I don’t want to talk...

Grigorova-Rudykovskaya, Tatyana Leonidovna

The Provisional Government conducted a special investigation into the Rasputin case. According to the materials of the investigation of V. M. Rudnev, who was sent by order of Kerensky to the “Extraordinary Investigative Commission to investigate the abuses of former ministers, chief managers and other senior officials” and who was then a comrade prosecutor of the Yekaterinoslav District Court:

... it turned out that Rasputin’s amorous adventures did not go beyond the framework of night orgies with girls of easy virtue and chansonnet singers, and also sometimes with some of his petitioners. As for the proximity to the ladies of high society, in this regard, no positive observational materials were obtained by the investigation.
...In general, Rasputin by nature was a man of broad scope; the doors of his house were always open; the most varied crowd always crowded there, feeding at his expense; In order to create a halo of benefactor around himself according to the word of the Gospel: “the hand of the giver will not fail,” Rasputin, constantly receiving money from petitioners for satisfying their petitions, widely distributed this money to the needy and in general to people of the poor classes, who also turned to him with any requests , not even of a material nature..

Daughter Matryona in her book “Rasputin. Why?" wrote:

...that with all his life, the father never abused his power and ability to influence women in a carnal sense. However, one must understand that this part of the relationship was of particular interest to the father’s ill-wishers. I note that they received some real food for their stories.

From the testimony of Prince M. M. Andronikov to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission:

...Then he would go to the phone and call all kinds of ladies. I had to do bonne mine mauvais jeu - because all these ladies were of extremely dubious character...

French Slavic philologist Pierre Pascal wrote in his memoirs that Alexander Protopopov denied Rasputin’s influence on the minister’s career. However, Protopopov spoke about an act of pederasty in which Metropolitan Pitirim, Prince Andronikov and Rasputin participated.

Rasputin in 1914. Author E. N. Klokacheva

Estimates of Rasputin's influence

Mikhail Taube, who was a fellow minister of public education in 1911-1915, cites the following episode in his memoirs. One day a man came to the ministry with a letter from Rasputin and a request to appoint him as an inspector of public schools in his native province. The minister (Lev Kasso) ordered this petitioner to be lowered from the stairs. According to Taube, this incident proved how exaggerated all the rumors and gossip about Rasputin's behind-the-scenes influence were.

According to the recollections of courtiers, Rasputin was not close to the royal family and generally rarely visited the royal palace. Thus, according to the memoirs of the palace commandant Vladimir Voeikov, the head of the palace police, Colonel Gherardi, when asked how often Rasputin visited the palace, answered: “once a month, and sometimes once every two months.” The memoirs of maid of honor Anna Vyrubova say that Rasputin visited the royal palace no more than 2-3 times a year, and the king received him even less often. Another maid of honor, Sophia Buxhoeveden, recalled:

“I lived in the Alexander Palace from 1913 to 1917, and my room was connected by a corridor with the chambers of the Imperial children. I never saw Rasputin during all this time, although I was constantly in the company of the Grand Duchesses. Monsieur Gilliard, who also lived there for several years, also never saw him.”

During all the time he spent at court, Gilliard recalls his only meeting with Rasputin: “One day, getting ready to go out, I met him in the hallway. I managed to look at him while he was taking off his fur coat. He was a tall man, with a gaunt face, with very sharp gray-blue eyes from under unkempt eyebrows. He had long hair and a big peasant beard.” Nicholas II himself in 1911 told V.N. Kokovtsov about Rasputin that:

...personally, he almost doesn’t know “this little guy” and has seen him briefly, it seems, no more than two or three times, and at that at very long distances.

From the memoirs of the director of the Police Department A.T. Vasiliev (he served in the secret police of St. Petersburg since 1906 and headed the police in 1916-1917, later he led the investigation into the murder of Rasputin):

Many times I had the opportunity to meet with Rasputin and talk with him on various topics.<…>His intelligence and natural ingenuity gave him the opportunity to soberly and insightfully judge a person he had only met once. The queen also knew this, so she sometimes asked his opinion about this or that candidate for a high post in the government. But from such harmless questions to the appointment of ministers by Rasputin is a very big step, and this step neither the Tsar nor the Tsarina, undoubtedly, ever took<…>And yet people believed that everything depended on a piece of paper with a few words written in Rasputin's hand... I never believed this, and although I sometimes investigated these rumors, I never found convincing evidence of their veracity. The incidents I relate are not, as some may think, my sentimental inventions; they are evidenced by reports from agents who worked for years as servants in Rasputin's house and therefore knew his daily life in great detail.<…>Rasputin did not climb into the front rows of the political arena, he was pushed there by other people seeking to shake the foundation of the Russian throne and empire... These harbingers of the revolution sought to make a scarecrow out of Rasputin in order to carry out their plans. Therefore, they spread the most ridiculous rumors, which created the impression that only through the mediation of a Siberian peasant could one achieve high position and influence.

A. Ya. Avrekh believed that in 1915 the Tsarina and Rasputin, having blessed the departure of Nicholas II to Headquarters as supreme commander, carried out something like a “coup d’etat” and appropriated a significant part of the power to themselves: as an example, A. Ya. Avrekh cites their intervention in the affairs of the southwestern front during the offensive organized by A. A. Brusilov. A. Ya. Avrekh believed that the queen significantly influenced the king, and Rasputin influenced the queen.

A. N. Bokhanov, on the contrary, believes that the entire “Rasputiniada” is the fruit of political manipulation, “black PR.” However, as Bokhanov says, it is well known that information pressure only works when certain groups not only have the intentions and capabilities to establish a desired stereotype in the public consciousness, but also society itself is prepared to accept and assimilate it. Therefore, just to say, as is sometimes done, that the widely circulated stories about Rasputin are a complete lie, even if this is really true, means not to clarify the essence: why were the fabrications about him taken on faith? This basic question remains unanswered to this day.

At the same time, the image of Rasputin was widely used in revolutionary and German propaganda. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II, there were many rumors in the St. Petersburg world about Rasputin and his influence on the government. It was said that he himself absolutely subjugated the Tsar and Tsarina and ruled the country, either Alexandra Feodorovna seized power with the help of Rasputin, or the country was ruled by a “triumvirate” of Rasputin, Anna Vyrubova and the Tsarina.

The publication of reports about Rasputin in print could only be partially limited. By law, articles about the imperial family were subject to preliminary censorship by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Court. Any articles in which the name of Rasputin was mentioned in combination with the names of members of the royal family were prohibited, but articles in which only Rasputin appeared were impossible to prohibit.

On November 1, 1916, at a meeting of the State Duma, P. N. Milyukov made a speech critical of the government and the “court party,” in which the name of Rasputin was mentioned. Miliukov took the information he provided about Rasputin from articles in the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt dated October 16, 1916 and Neue Freie Press dated June 25, regarding which he himself admitted that some of the information reported there was erroneous. On November 19, 1916, V. M. Purishkevich gave a speech at a meeting of the Duma in which great importance was attached to Rasputin. The image of Rasputin was also used by German propaganda. In March 1916, German Zeppelins scattered a cartoon over the Russian trenches depicting Wilhelm leaning on the German people and Nikolai Romanov leaning on Rasputin's penis.

According to the memoirs of A. A. Golovin, during the First World War, rumors that the empress was Rasputin’s mistress were spread among officers of the Russian army by employees of the opposition Zemstvo-City Union. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the chairman of Zemgor, Prince Lvov, became the chairman of the Provisional Government.

After the overthrow of Nicholas II, the Provisional Government organized an emergency commission of inquiry, which was supposed to look for crimes of tsarist officials and, among other things, investigate the activities of Rasputin. The commission carried out 88 surveys and interrogated 59 people, prepared “stenographic reports,” the chief editor of which was the poet A. A. Blok, who published his observations and notes in the form of a book entitled “The Last Days of Imperial Power.”

The commission has not finished its work. Some of the interrogation protocols of senior officials were published in the USSR by 1927. From the testimony of A.D. Protopopov to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission on March 21, 1917:

CHAIRMAN. Do you know the importance of Rasputin in the affairs of Tsarskoe Selo under the Tsar? - Protopopov. Rasputin was a close person, and, like a close person, they consulted with him.

Opinions of contemporaries about Rasputin

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia in 1911-1914, Vladimir Kokovtsov, wrote with surprise in his memoirs:

... oddly enough, the question of Rasputin involuntarily became the central issue of the near future and did not leave the scene for almost the entire time of my chairmanship of the Council of Ministers, leading me to resignation a little over two years later.

In my opinion, Rasputin is a typical Siberian varnak, a tramp, smart and trained himself in the well-known manner of a simpleton and a holy fool and plays his role according to a memorized recipe.

In appearance, he lacked only a prisoner's coat and an ace of diamonds on his back.

In terms of habits, this is a person capable of anything. He, of course, does not believe in his antics, but he has developed firmly memorized techniques with which he deceives both those who sincerely believe all his eccentricities, and those who deceive themselves with their admiration for him, having in fact only intended to achieve through it benefits that are not provided in any other way.

Rasputin's secretary Aron Simanovich writes in his book:

How did contemporaries imagine Rasputin? Like a drunken, dirty man who infiltrated the royal family, appointed and fired ministers, bishops and generals, and for a whole decade was the hero of the St. Petersburg scandalous chronicle. In addition, there are wild orgies in the “Villa Rode”, lustful dances among aristocratic fans, high-ranking henchmen and drunken gypsies, and at the same time an incomprehensible power over the king and his family, hypnotic power and faith in his special purpose. That was all.

The confessor of the royal family, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev:

Rasputin is “a completely God-fearing and believing person, harmless and even rather useful for the Royal Family... He talks with them about God, about faith.”

Doctor, life physician of the family of Nicholas II Evgeny Botkin:

If there had been no Rasputin, then the opponents of the royal family and the preparers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, if there had been no Vyrubova, from me, from whomever you want.

The investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, writes in his book of judicial investigation:

The head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, Pokhvisnev, who held this position in 1913-1917, testifies: “According to the established procedure, all telegrams submitted to the Sovereign and Empress were presented to me in copies. Therefore, all the telegrams that were sent to Their Majesties from Rasputin were known to me at one time. There were a lot of them. It is, of course, impossible to remember their contents sequentially. In all honesty, I can say that Rasputin’s enormous influence with the Tsar and Empress was clearly established by the contents of the telegrams.”

Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosopher Ornatsky, rector of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, describes the meeting of John of Kronstadt with Rasputin in 1914 as follows:

Father John asked the elder: “What is your last name?” And when the latter answered: “Rasputin,” he said: “Look, it will be your name.”

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov), an elder of the Sedmiezernaya Hermitage, spoke very harshly about Rasputin: “Kill him like a spider: forty sins will be forgiven...”

Attempts to canonize Rasputin

Religious veneration of Grigory Rasputin began around 1990 and originated from the so-called. The Mother of God Center (which changed its name over the following years).

Some extremely radical monarchist Orthodox circles have also, since the 1990s, expressed thoughts about canonizing Rasputin as a holy martyr.

Well-known supporters of these ideas were: editor of the Orthodox newspaper “Blagovest” Anton Zhogolev, writer of the Orthodox-patriotic, historical genre Oleg Platonov, singer Zhanna Bichevskaya, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Orthodox Rus'” Konstantin Dushenov, “Church of St. John the Evangelist”, etc.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church for the canonization of saints and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II: “There is no reason to raise the question of the canonization of Grigory Rasputin, whose dubious morality and promiscuity cast a shadow on the August family of the future royal martyrs of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.”

According to Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, a member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints:

Of course, the opposition used Rasputin, inflating the myth of his omnipotence and omnipotence. He was portrayed as worse than he was. Many hated him with all their hearts. For Tsarevna Olga Nikolaevna, for example, he was one of the most hated people, because he destroyed her marriage with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, which prompted the latter to participate in the murder of Rasputin.

Rasputin in culture and art

According to the research of S. Fomin, during March-November 1917, theaters were filled with “dubious” productions, and more than ten “libelous” films about Grigory Rasputin were released. The first such film was a two-part "sensational drama""Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates"(produced by G. Liebken joint-stock company). In the same row stands A. Tolstoy’s widely demonstrated play “The Conspiracy of the Empress.”

Grigory Rasputin became the central character in playwright Konstantin Skvortsov’s play “Grishka Rasputin.”

Rasputin and his historical significance had a great influence on both Russian and Western culture. Germans and Americans are to some extent attracted to his figure as a kind of “Russian bear”, or “Russian peasant”.
In the village Pokrovskoe (now Yarkovsky district of the Tyumen region) there is a private museum of G.E. Rasputin.

Documentary films about Rasputin

• Historical chronicles. 1915. Grigory Rasputin
• Last of the Czars. The Shadow of Rasputin, dir. Teresa Cherf; Mark Anderson, 1996, Discovery Communications, 51 min. (released on DVD in 2007)
• Who killed Rasputin? (Who Killed Rasputin?), dir. Michael Wedding, 2004, BBC, 50 min. (released on DVD in 2006)

Rasputin in theater and cinema

It is not known for certain whether there were any newsreel footage of Rasputin. Not a single tape has survived to this day on which Rasputin himself was depicted.

The very first silent feature short films about Grigory Rasputin began to be released in March 1917. All of them, without exception, demonized the personality of Rasputin, showing him and the Imperial Family in the most unsightly light. The first such film, entitled “Drama from the Life of Grigory Rasputin,” was released by Russian film magnate A O. Drankov, who simply made a film montage of his 1916 film “Washed in Blood,” based on M. Gorky’s story “Konovalov.” Most of the other films were shot in 1917 by the then largest film company “Joint Stock Company of G. Libken.” In total, more than a dozen of them were released and there is no need to talk about any of their artistic value, since even then they caused protests in the press due to their “pornography and wild eroticism”:

• Dark forces - Grigory Rasputin and his associates (2 episodes), dir. S. Veselovsky; in the role of Rasputin - S. Gladkov
• Holy Devil (Rasputin in Hell)
• People of sin and blood (Tsarskoye Selo sinners)
• The love affairs of Grishka Rasputin
• Rasputin's funeral
• Mysterious murder in Petrograd on December 16
• Trading house of Romanov, Rasputin, Sukhomlinov, Myasoedov, Protopopov and Co.
• Tsar's guardsmen

etc. (Fomin S.V. Grigory Rasputin: investigation. vol. I. Punishment with truth; M., Forum publishing house, 2007, pp. 16-19)

Nevertheless, already in 1917, the image of Rasputin continued to appear on the silver screen. According to IMDB, the first person to portray the image of the old man on screen was actor Edward Conelli (in the film “The Fall of the Romanovs”). The same year, the film “Rasputin, the Black Monk” was released, where Montague Love played Rasputin. In 1926, another film about Rasputin was released - “Brandstifter Europas, Die” (in the role of Rasputin - Max Newfield), and in 1928 - three at once: “The Red Dance” (in the role of Rasputin - Dimitrius Alexis), “Rasputin - Saint Sinner" and "Rasputin" are the first two films where Rasputin was played by Russian actors - Nikolai Malikov and Grigory Khmara, respectively.

In 1925, A. N. Tolstoy’s play “The Conspiracy of the Empress” (published in Berlin in 1925) was written and immediately staged in Moscow, where the murder of Rasputin is shown in detail. Subsequently, the play was also staged by some Soviet theaters. At the Moscow Theater. N.V. Gogol played the role of Rasputin by Boris Chirkov. And on Belarusian television in the mid-60s, a television play “The Collapse” was filmed based on Tolstoy’s play, in which Roman Filippov (Rasputin) and Rostislav Yankovsky (Prince Felix Yusupov) played.

In 1932, the German “Rasputin - a Demon with a Woman” was released (famous German actor Conrad Veidt played the role of Rasputin) and the Oscar-nominated “Rasputin and the Empress”, in which the title role went to Lionel Barrymore. In 1938, Rasputin was released with Harry Baur in the title role.

Cinema returned to Rasputin again in the 50s, which was marked by productions with the same name "Rasputin", released in 1954 and 1958 (for television) with Pierre Brasseur and Narzmes Ibanez Menta in the roles of Rasputin, respectively. In 1967, the cult horror film “Rasputin - the Mad Monk” was released with the famous actor Christopher Lee in the role of Grigory Rasputin. Despite many errors from a historical point of view, the image he created in the film is considered one of the best film incarnations of Rasputin.

The 1960s also saw the release of The Night of Rasputin (1960, starring Edmund Pardom), Rasputin (a 1966 TV production starring Herbert Stass), and I Killed Rasputin (1967), where The role was played by Gert Fröbe, known for his role as Goldfinger, the villain from the James Bond film of the same name.

In the 70s, Rasputin appeared in the following films: “Why the Russians Revolutionized” (1970, Rasputin - Wes Carter), the television production “Rasputin” as part of the “Play of the Month” series (1971, Rasputin - Robert Stevens), “Nicholas and Alexandra” (1971, Rasputin - Tom Baker), the television series "Fall of Eagles" (1974, Rasputin - Michael Aldridge) and the television play "A Cárné összeesküvése" (1977, Rasputin - Nandor Tomanek)

In 1981, the most famous Russian film about Rasputin was released - "Agony" Elem Klimov, where the image was successfully embodied by Alexey Petrenko. In 1984, “Rasputin - Orgien am Zarenhof” was released with Alexander Conte in the role of Rasputin.

In 1992, stage director Gennady Egorov staged the play “Grishka Rasputin” based on the play of the same name by Konstantin Skvortsov at the St. Petersburg Drama Theater “Patriot” ROSTO in the genre of political farce.

In the 90s, the image of Rasputin, like many others, began to deform. In the parody sketch of the show "Red Dwarf" - "The Melt", released in 1991, Rasputin was played by Steven Micallef, and in 1996 two films about Rasputin were released - "The Successor" (1996) with Igor Solovyov as Rasputin and "Rasputin", where he was played by Alan Rickman (and young Rasputin by Tamas Toth). In 1997, the cartoon “Anastasia” was released, where Rasputin was voiced by the famous actor Christopher Lloyd and Jim Cummings (singing).

The films “Rasputin: The Devil in the Flesh” (2002, for television, Rasputin - Oleg Fedorov and “Killing Rasputin” (2003, Rasputin - Ruben Thomas), as well as “Hellboy: Hero from Hell", where the main villain is the resurrected Rasputin, have already been released. played by Karel Roden.The film was released in 2007 "CONSPIRACY", directed by Stanislav Libin, where the role of Rasputin is played by Ivan Okhlobystin.

In 2011, the French-Russian film “Rasputin” was shot, in which the role of Gregory was played by Gerard Depardieu. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, it was this work that gave the actor the right to receive Russian citizenship.

In 2014, the Mars Media studio produced an 8-episode television film “Gregory R.” (dir. Andrey Malyukov), in which the role of Rasputin was played by Vladimir Mashkov.

In music

• The disco group Boney M. released the album “Nightflight to Venus” in 1978, one of the hits of which was the song “Rasputin”. The lyrics of the song were written by Frank Farian and contain Western cliches about Rasputin - “Russia's greatest love machine”, “lover of the Russian queen”. The music used motifs from popular Turkic "Kyatibim", the song “mimics” Eartha Kitt’s performance of the Turk (Kitt’s exclamation “Oh! those Turks” Boney M copied as “Oh! those Russians"). On the road Boney M In the USSR, this song was not performed at the insistence of the host party, although it was later included in the release of the group’s Soviet record. The death of one of the band members, Bobby Farrell, occurred exactly on the 94th anniversary of the night of the murder of Grigory Rasputin in St. Petersburg.
• Alexander Malinin's song "Grigory Rasputin" (1992).
• The song by Zhanna Bichevskaya and Gennady Ponomarev “The Spiritualized Wanderer” (“Elder Gregory”) (c. 2000) from the music album “We are Russians” is aimed at exalting “holiness” and canonizing Rasputin, where there are the lines “ Russian elder with a staff in his hand, a miracle worker with a staff in his hand».
• The thrash band Corrosion of Metal has a song “Dead Rasputin” in the album “Sadism”, released in 1993.
• In 2002, the German power metal band Metalium recorded their own song “Rasputin” (album “Hero Nation - Chapter Three”), presenting their view of the events around Grigory Rasputin, without the cliches that have developed in pop culture
• The Finnish folk/Viking metal band Turisas released the single “Rasputin” in 2007 with a cover version of the song by the group “Boney M”. A video clip was also shot for the song “Rasputin”.
• In 2002, Valery Leontiev performed the Russian version of Boney M Rasputin’s song “New Year” at RTR’s “New Year’s Attraction” (“Ras, Let’s open the doors wide, and let all of Russia join a round dance...”)

Rasputin in poetry

Nikolai Klyuev more than once compared himself to him, and in his poems there are frequent references to Grigory Efimovich. “They are following me,” wrote Klyuev, “millions of charming Grishkas.” According to the memoirs of the poet Rurik Ivnev, the poet Sergei Yesenin performed the then fashionable ditties “Grishka Rasputin and the Tsarina.”

The poetess Zinaida Gippius wrote in her diary dated November 24, 1915: “Grisha himself rules, drinks and eats his maids of honor. And Fedorovna, out of habit.” Z. Gippius was not a member of the inner circle of the imperial family, she simply passed on rumors. There was a proverb among the people: “The Tsar-Father is with Yegor, and the Tsarina-Mother is with Gregory.”

Commercial use of Rasputin's name

Commercial use of the name Grigory Rasputin in some trademarks began in the West in the 1980s. Currently known:

• Vodka Rasputin. Produced in various forms by Dethleffen in Flexburg (Germany).
• Beer "Old Rasputin". Produced by North Coast Brewing Co. (California, USA) (from 04/21/2017)
• Beer "Rasputin". Produced by Brouwerij de Moler (Netherlands)
• Cigarettes “Rasputin black” and “Rasputin white” (USA)
• In Brooklyn (New York) there is a restaurant and nightclub “Rasputin” (from 04/21/2017)
• In Encio (California) there is a grocery store "Rasputin International Food"
• In San Francisco (USA) there is a music store “Rasputin”
• In Toronto (Canada) there is a famous vodka bar Rasputin http://rasputinvodkabar.com/ (from 04/21/2017)
• In Rostock (Germany) there is a Rasputin supermarket
• In Andernach (Germany) there is a Rasputin club
• In Dusseldorf (Germany) there is a large Russian-language disco “Rasputin”.
• In Pattaya (Thailand) there is a Russian cuisine restaurant Rasputin.
• In Moscow there is a men's club "Rasputin"
• The men's erotic magazine "Rasputin" is published in Moscow

In St. Petersburg:

• Since the mid-2000s, the interactive show “Horrors of St. Petersburg” has been operating, the main character of which is Grigory Rasputin.
• Beauty salon "Rasputin's House" and the hairdressing school of the same name
• Hostel "Rasputin"

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