Actually, pretty much everything about the guy has been told and anything that ‘hasn’t’ is probably recently made up. The story of Rasputin is a fascinating one and has given rise to many legends and myths about him. He certainly rose from nothing into being an ‘influencer’. Some of the things said about him though were bogus. For example, he was sometimes called “The Mad Monk”, but in reality he got as close to being a monk as I ever did. (I didn’t get close) This has been confirmed by the Russian Orthodox Church. (about Rasputin, not me). Of course, he never made much of an effort to deny that he was, and this ‘monk’ thing gave him some ‘cred’ among many people. A lot of these people also thought Rasputin had some kind of supernatural healing powers. They’d say “Look at how he helped the son of the tsar!” The truth was that he was probably lucky in that regard and his instructions to the Tsarina not to let the doctors touch him most likely stopped the administration of aspirin (which of course is a blood thinner and caused the boy to bleed more). Rasputin told the Tsarina, “The boy will not die.” So, supernatural or psychic powers? No.
Some people also thought he was fooling around with the Tsarina. But more than likely, even Rasputin knew he had limits and wouldn’t have dared pressing his luck on the romantic front, but he certainly did have a great influence over her. Whether he had influence when it came to governmental matters, it’s doubtful. People who were against the monarchy were quick to point out that he was controlling facets of the rule, but there isn’t any evidence that he did. Lastly, rumor has it that Rasputin was extremely hard to kill. On December 30, 1916, he was subjected to poisoning, stabbing, shooting, and drowning. Experts debate to this day how exactly he died. Was there some sort of supernatural force inside of him that wouldn’t let him die so easy? Everyone long time dead. Who can say? Rasputin was revered by some and hated by most Russian people. Rasputin was buried on January 2, 1918 in a place called Tsarskoye Selo. Later his body was dug up and burned by soldiers who didn’t want his gravesite to become a shrine to him and to his followers. Interesting too, that Rasputin warned that if he was killed, none of the royal family would live more than two years. The Romanov family was executed July 16th, 1918.
