The assassination of Rasputin, the infamous “mad monk” of Russia, will constitute the first event of a great historical narrative mixing historical facts and legends. But the death of this holy man and controversial healer was a burning element in the already tense situation in pre-revolutionary Russia. Rasputin was killed on December 30, 1916 (December 17 in the current Russian calendar at the time), in the basement of the Moika Palace, the Saint Petersburg residence of Prince Felix Yusupov, the most wealthy Russian and the husband of the Tsar’s only niece, Irina… Her bruised body was discovered in the Neva River a few days later.

But then, how does Rasputin’s assassination fit into the larger context of the Russian Revolution?

The irresistible rise of Rasputin

Over the previous decade, Rasputin rose rapidly through the ranks of Russian society, beginning as an obscure Siberian peasant and becoming a wandering holy man, before becoming one of the most important figures in the Tsar’s inner circle.

Rasputin was born in 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoye, on the Tura River which flows east from the Ural Mountains, where Europe meets Asia in Siberia. He seems destined for an ordinary life, despite some conflicts in his youth with the local authorities for unruly behavior. He married a local woman, Praskovya Dubrovina, and became the father of three surviving children, Maria, Dmitri and Varvara. He works on the family farm.

Rasputin’s life changed in 1892, when he spent several months in a monastery, which put him on the path to international fame. Despite his later nickname, “the mad monk”, Rasputin never received holy orders. Men in Rasputin’s position generally renounce their past lives and relationships, but Rasputin continues to see his family – his daughters will later live with him in St. Petersburg – and financially support his wife.

His religious fervor, combined with a seductive personal charisma, attracted the attention of certain Russian Orthodox clergymen, then of eminent members of the imperial family, who then introduced him to Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra.

Nicolas wrote to one of his ministers in October 1906: “A few days ago I received a peasant from the Tobolsk district, Grigory Rasputin, who brought me an icon of St. Simon Verkhoturia. He made a remarkably strong impression on both Her Majesty and myself, so that instead of five minutes, our conversation went on for over an hour. »

A privileged place with the Russian imperial couple

The imperial couple had consulted with unconventional spiritual advisors in the past, but Rasputin managed to read their inner hopes and tell them what they wanted to hear. He encourages Nicolas to have more confidence in his role as Tsar and Alexandra finds that his advice soothes her anxieties. At the time of World War I, Rasputin also provided political advice while making recommendations for ministerial appointments, much to the chagrin of the Russian elite.

Rasputin manages to cement his relationship with the Tsar and Tsarina for having – allegedly – ​​helped alleviate the haemophilia of their only son, Alexei. Rasputin’s so-called healing powers are still debated today. The Tsar’s sister, Grand Duchess Olga, wrote that she saw Rasputin healing Alexei by kneeling at the foot of his bed and praying; the soothing atmosphere he created in the palace may have contributed to his recovery. Alexandra’s lady-in-waiting, Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, believes Rasputin used folk medicine used in Siberian villages to treat internal bleeding in horses.

Behind the image of the holy man, an ambivalent character

Rasputin presented himself to the imperial court as a holy man, although he was not officially affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and spoke only as a self-proclaimed representative of the peasantry.

However, his behavior outside the court paints a different picture of Rasputin. His drunkenness and his liaisons with women of all social origins, from street prostitutes to society ladies, scandalized the public. Rasputin seems to be resting on his laurels, showing shirts embroidered for him by the Empress and inviting his friends and servants to his house in Pokrovskoye.

The press, liberated thanks to the rights granted to it by Nicolas II in 1905, then spread very dark stories about Rasputin, both in Russia and abroad. Rumors of his influence on the Tsarist regime spread throughout Europe. The petitioners, believing that Rasputin lives with the imperial family, mail their requests to “Rasputin, Tsar’s Palace, St. Petersburg”.

The assassination of Rasputin was intended to restore the fire prestige of the Russian Empire

As Rasputin’s influence grew, his popularity waned. Soldiers on the Eastern Front of World War I even speak of an absolutely scandalous intimate affair between Rasputin and Alexandra. As the war progressed, outlandish stories spread of Rasputin’s supposed betrayal of the German enemy, including a fanciful story that he sought to undermine the war effort by starting a cholera epidemic in St. Petersburg with “poisoned apples imported from Canada”. What the public believes they know about Rasputin outweighs his opinions and actual activities, fueling demands to remove him from his position of influence by any means necessary.

Rasputin’s assassin then appears. For Felix Ioussoupov and his co-conspirators, the elimination of Rasputin must give Nicolas II a last chance to restore the reputation and the prestige of the monarchy. Without Rasputin, the Tsar would be more open to the advice of his extended family, the nobility and the Duma and less dependent on Alexandra. It is hoped that he will return from military headquarters and rule again from St. Petersburg.

The best-known account of Rasputin’s murder is that which Yusupov wrote in his memoirs, published in 1928. Yusupov claims to have invited Rasputin to his palace to meet his wife Irina (who was actually absent at the time) and him serving a tray of cakes and many glasses of wine laced with potassium cyanide. Much to Yusupov’s astonishment, Rasputin does not appear to have been affected by the poison. Desperate, Yusupov borrowed the revolver of Grand Duke Dmitri, the Tsar’s cousin, and shot Rasputin several times, but failed to kill him. According to the memoirs, this devil who was dying of poison, who had a bullet in his heart, had to be raised from the dead by the powers of evil. There was something appalling and monstrous in his diabolical refusal to die. There was said to be water in his lungs when his remains were discovered, indicating that he eventually died by drowning.

Rasputin’s real murder was probably far less dramatic. His daughter Maria, who fled Russia after the Revolution and became a circus lion tamer, presented as “the daughter of the famous mad monk whose exploits in Russia astonished the world”, wrote her own book in 1929, in which she condemned Yusupov’s actions and questioned the veracity of his account. She wrote that her father didn’t like sweets and would never eat a tray of cakes. Autopsy reports do not mention poisoning or drowning, but conclude that he was shot in the head at close range. It would appear that Yusupov turned the murder into an epic struggle of good versus evil to sell books and bolster his own reputation.

Much to the chagrin of Yusupov and his co-conspirators, the murder of Rasputin did not lead to a radical change in the politics of Nicholas and Alexandra. For the nascent Bolsheviks, Rasputin symbolized the corruption at the heart of the imperial court, and his murder was seen, quite rightly, as an attempt by the nobility to maintain power at the expense of the proletariat. For them, Rasputin represented the larger problems of tsarism. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the head of the provisional government Alexander Kerensky went so far as to say: “Without Rasputin, there would not have been Lenin. »