Grigori Rasputin

Russian Mystic

Favorite of the Czarina

One Weird Dude

The Mad Monk

• 1869-1916• Raised in Siberia; had a vision of the Mother of God in a monastary • Considered a magic healer, moved to the capital of St. Petersburg in 1903

Tsaravich Alexi• a hemophiliac• “cured” by Rasputin• Rasputin gained great influence over the Tsar and Tsarina.

Big following among Aristocracy

• Told the Tsar to take direct control of army in World War I.• Leadership was opposed• Plotted to murder him, and invited him to a party in the Moika Palace.

• Legend says he was given poison enough to kill 5, but it didn’t kill him.• So, they shot him• and strangled him• beat him• wrapped him in a blanket and threw him in the icy river, where he drowned.• Body cremated, but he sat up during the cremation!!