Grigori
Rasputin was born around 1869 to a peasant family. After completely failing to
become a monk for let’s say…various reasons such as drinking and sex which
generally get you disqualified from any kind of holy work… or at least one
would hope so anyway, Rasputin became a wanderer and headed towards the west.
Eventually through what some say was the enormous charisma he had, he gained
the trust of the family of Czar Nicholas II because of his alleged healing
powers which some say were a lot of hocus-pocus. He became a favorite of the
Nicholas's wife, Alexandra but his overall political influence was minimal.
He
became swept up in the events of the Russian Revolution, and met a rather brutal
death at the hands of assassins in 1916. You see, contempt for Rasputin had
grown among political rivals of Czar Nicholas and Rasputin had made some
enemies along the way. On December 29, 1916, a group of conspirators, including
Prince Yusupov, invited Rasputin to Yusoupov's palace for a feast. Once there,
Rasputin was fed wine and cakes that had been laced with cyanide. But the
poison seemed to have no effect on the ‘holy’ man. The conspirators grew
desperate and resorted to repeatedly beating and finally shooting Rasputin
several times. He was wrapped in a carpet and thrown into the Neva River.
He
was discovered three days later. An autopsy later revealed that there was water
in Rasputin's lungs at the time of his death, and it was concluded that the
hard to kill Rasputin was somehow still alive when thrown in the river and that
he had died by drowning. Russia and the imperial family had gotten rid of
Rasputin, but his death was not the last. Shortly before his death, Rasputin had
reportedly written to Nicholas that if he were killed by government officials,
the entire imperial family would be killed. His prophecy came true 15 months
later, when the czar and his family were murdered.
