The myth of the sex giant: an attempt by scientists to recreate the psychological portrait of Grigory Rasputin. Love stories
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-Novykh is a legendary man from a remote Siberian village, who managed to get close to the August Family of Nicholas II as a medium and advisor and, thanks to this, went down in history.Historians are contradictory in assessing his personality. Who was he - a cunning charlatan, a black magician, a drunkard and a libertine, or a prophet, a holy ascetic and miracle worker who had the gift of healing and foresight? There is no consensus to this day. Only one thing is beyond doubt - the uniqueness of nature.
Childhood and youth
Gregory was born on January 21, 1869 in the rural settlement of Pokrovskoye. He became the fifth, but the only surviving child in the family of Efim Yakovlevich Novykh and Anna Vasilievna (before Parshukova's marriage). The family did not live in poverty, but because of the alcoholism of its head, all property soon after the birth of Gregory went under the hammer.Since childhood, the boy was not very strong physically, he was often ill, from the age of 15 he suffered from insomnia. As a teenager, he surprised fellow villagers with his strange abilities: supposedly he could heal sick cattle, and once, using clairvoyance, he pointed out exactly where the missing neighbor's horse was. But in general, until the age of 27, he was no different from his peers - he worked a lot, drank, smoked, was illiterate. A dissolute lifestyle and awarded him the nickname Rasputin, which stuck tightly. Also, some researchers ascribe to Gregory the creation of a local branch of the Khlyst sect, preaching "deadly sin".
In search of work, he settled in Tobolsk, got a wife, a religious peasant woman Praskovya Dubrovina, who bore him a son and two daughters, but marriage did not curb his eagerness for female affection. As if some inexplicable force attracted the opposite sex to Gregory.
Around 1892, a dramatic change took place in the man's behavior. Prophetic dreams began to disturb him, and he turned to nearby monasteries for help. In particular, I visited Abalaksky, located on the banks of the Irtysh. Later, in 1918, it was visited by the royal family exiled to Tobolsk, who knew about the monastery and the miraculous icon of the Mother of God kept there from the stories of Rasputin.
The decision to start a new life matured for Gregory finally, when in Verkhoturye, where he came to venerate the relics of St. Simeon of Verkhotursky, he had a sign - in a dream the heavenly patron of the Ural land came and told him to repent, go wandering and heal people. The appearance of the saint shocked him so much that he stopped sinning, began to pray a lot, gave up eating meat, quit drinking and smoking, and set out on wanderings in order to introduce a spiritual principle into his life.
He walked around many holy places in Russia (in Valaam, on Solovki, in Optina Hermitage, etc.), and visited beyond its borders - on the holy Greek Mount Athos and in Jerusalem. In the same period, he mastered literacy and Holy Scripture, in 1900 he made a pilgrimage to Kiev, then to Kazan. And all this - on foot! Wandering through the Russian expanses, he preached sermons, made predictions, made spells of demons, talked about his gift to work miracles. Rumors about his healing powers spread throughout the country, and suffering people from different places began to come to him for help. And he treated them, having no idea about medicine.
Petersburg period
In 1903, the already famous healer found himself in the capital. According to legend, the Mother of God appeared to him with an order to go and save Tsarevich Alexei from illness. Rumors of a healer reached the Empress. In 1905, during one of the attacks of hemophilia, inherited by the son of Nicholas II through Alexandra Feodorovna, the "folk doctor" was invited to the Winter Palace. Through the laying on of hands, whispering prayers and a compress from steamed bark, he managed to stop the nosebleeds, which could be fatal, and soothe the boy. 
In 1906 he changed his last name to Rasputin-Novykh.
The subsequent life of a wanderer-seer in the city on the Neva was inextricably linked with the August family. For more than 10 years, he treated the Tsarevich, successfully banished the empress's insomnia, sometimes just by phone. The mistrustful and cautious autocrat did not welcome frequent visits to the "elder", but noted that after a conversation with him, even his soul felt "easy and calm."
Soon, the extraordinary seer acquired the image of "adviser" and "friend of the king", gaining tremendous influence on the couple of rulers. They did not believe the rumors circulating about his drunken brawls, orgies, performing rituals of black magic and indecent behavior, as well as that he took bribes to promote certain projects, including decisions that were fateful for the country, and for the appointment of officials to high positions. For example, at the behest of Rasputin, Nicholas II dismissed his uncle Nikolai Nikolayevich from the post of supreme commander-in-chief of the army, since he clearly saw an adventurer in Rasputin and was not afraid to tell his nephew about it.
Rasputin was forgiven by drunken brawls, shameless antics like a binge in the Yar restaurant in the nude. "The legendary debauchery of the Emperor Tiberius on the island of Capri becomes after this moderate and banal," - this is how the American ambassador recalled the parties in the house of Gregory. There is also information about Rasputin's attempt to seduce Princess Olga, the younger sister of the emperor.
Communication with a person of such a reputation undermined the authority of the emperor. In addition, few knew about the Tsarevich's illness, and the closeness of the healer to the Court began to be explained by more than friendly relations with the empress. But, on the other hand, on many representatives of secular society, especially women, he had an amazing effect. He was admired and considered a saint.
Personal life of Grigory Rasputin
Rasputin married at the age of 19, after returning to Pokrovskoe from the Verkhotursky Monastery, to Praskovya Fedorovna nee Dubrovina. They met at an Orthodox holiday in Abalak. In this marriage, three children were born: in 1897, Dmitry, a year later, the daughter of Matryona, and in 1900, Varya.In 1910, he took his daughters to his capital and sent them to the gymnasium. The wife and Dima stayed at home, in Pokrovskoye, on the farm, where he periodically came. She supposedly knew very well about his riotous lifestyle in the capital, and was completely calm about it.
After the revolution, Varya's daughter died, falling ill with typhus and tuberculosis. The brother, mother, wife and daughter were sent into exile to the North, where they all soon passed away.
The eldest daughter managed to live to old age. She got married, gave birth to two daughters: the eldest - in Russia, the youngest - already in exile. In recent years she lived in the United States, where she passed away in 1977.
Death of Rasputin
In 1914, an attempt was made on the life of the seer. Khionia Guseva, the spiritual daughter of the hieromonk of extreme right-wing views, Iliodor, shouted "I killed the Antichrist!" wounded him in the stomach. The favorite of the emperor survived and continued to participate in state affairs, causing strong protest among the tsarist opponents. 
Shortly before his death, Rasputin, feeling the threat hanging over him, sent a letter to the empress, in which he indicated that if any of the relatives of the royal family became his murderer, then Nicholas II and all his relatives would die within 2 years, they say, it was him such a vision. And if a commoner becomes a murderer, then the imperial family will flourish for a long time.
A group of conspirators, including the husband of the sovereign's niece Irina, Felix Yusupov, and the autocrat's cousin, Dmitry Pavlovich, decided to put an end to the influence of the unwanted "adviser" on the imperial family and the entire Russian government (they were spoken of in society as lovers).
Then Felix shot him in the back, but again to no avail. The guest ran out of the mansion, where the killers shot him point-blank. And this did not kill the "God man." Then they began to finish him off with truncheons, castrated, and threw his body into the river. Later it turned out that even after these bloody atrocities, he survived and tried to get out of the icy water, but drowned.
Rasputin's predictions
Throughout his life, the Siberian soothsayer made about a hundred prophecies, including:Your own death;
The collapse of the empire and the death of the emperor;
World War II, describing in detail the siege of Leningrad (“I know, I know, they will surround Petersburg, they will starve to death! How many people will die, and all because of this nemchura! But you will not see Petersburg! Nakos, we will go to bed with hunger, but we will not let you in! ”He once shouted in his hearts to a German who had insulted him. Anna Vyrubova, a close friend of the Empress Alexandra, wrote in her diary);
Space flights and the landing of a man on the moon ("the Americans will walk on the moon, leave their shameful flag and fly away");
The formation of the USSR and its subsequent disintegration ("There was Russia - there will be a red hole. There will be a red hole - there will be a swamp of the wicked who dug a red hole. There was a swamp of the wicked - there will be a dry field, but there will be no Russia - there will be no hole");
Nuclear explosion in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (claimed to have seen two islands burned to ashes in the fire);
Genetic experiments and cloning (the birth of "monsters without a soul and an umbilical cord");
Terrorist attacks at the beginning of this century.
Grigory Rasputin. Documentary.
One of his most impressive predictions is the statement about "the world in reverse" - this is the upcoming disappearance of the sun for three days, when the earth will be covered with fog, and "people will wait for death as salvation", and the seasons will change places.
All this information was gleaned from the diaries of his interlocutors, so there is no reason to consider Rasputin a "predictor" or "clairvoyant."
Grigory Rasputin
Bestial doctor
The first manifestations of the extraordinary "psychic" talents of Grigory Rasputin date back to early childhood, when he was a village "spiritual veterinarian" and treated sick cattle with "suggestion". Grigory began to drink at the age of 15. He was an impudent, violent lover of fights and foul language. He even beat his dad, once while drunk, he pulled out a chunk of his beard. To steal hay, take away other people's firewood - it was his business. At the age of 19, Grigory married a 23-year-old blonde, black-eyed girl, Praskovya Dubrovina. But he didn't even think to settle down, drunkenness, theft and all sorts of dirty stories with drinking companions and village girls intensified. Once, being caught at the scene of a crime, Gregory was severely beaten and taken to the volost government. A case was initiated against him. Gregory decided not to tempt fate and went to the Verkhoturye Monastery.
Lustful pilgrim
A new period of his life begins with a pilgrimage to the monastery where Rasputin spent three months. In the monastery, he meets the Khlyst sect. The Khlysty believed that a person must first sin, and only then atone for his sins. They had many strange sexual traditions and practices. These rituals, in fact, were nothing more than ordinary orgies with a change of partners. Gregory especially liked the theory of the whips that sins can be expiated with the help of sex.
Gregory returned from the monastery as a completely different person: he gave up drinking, smoking, eating meat, began to avoid people, pray fervently and master the Church Slavonic literacy. He poetically explained his transformation by seeing him in the field of the Kazan Mother of God, who cried with living tears and cried out: "Gregory! Go wander, cleanse people of sins and remove passions from them." But fellow villagers decided that their Grishka simply wanted to hide from the investigation into the thefts, others believed that a decisive influence on Grigory had a stake on the head. The closest to the truth, probably, was his father, Efimiy Andreevich, who explained the miraculous changes that had occurred to his son, laziness and a desire to avoid hard peasant labor. Gregory abandoned his family and household and went to wander.
In the third year after Rasputin's disappearance, rumors circulated among the peasants about a certain wanderer. It was said that he had already been revealed to the fishermen, that he was sent by God and carries the Holy Spirit in him. It was said that the amazing wanderer retired into the forest with attractive girls and women to celebrate a special divine ritual. They kindle a big fire and pray fervently. After finishing the prayer, the wanderer hugs the women, caresses them, and then everyone dances and sings around the fire until the women begin to stagger violently. Then the stranger exclaims, "Humble yourselves in sin! Test the flesh!" Further in the darkness of the night forest, the pilgrim commits terrible sins.
When Grigory Rasputin returned to his village of Pokrovskoye, he became even stranger than he was before. In Pokrovskoe they soon realized that the pilgrim about whom there was a rumor was their fellow villager Grigory Rasputin. They made fun of him and called among themselves "Grishka the saint." "Through a woman - into people" Gradually the fame of the new and very peculiar "preacher" grew, and the clever and cunning Grigory skillfully and deftly used it. From "Grishka" he turned into "elder" and "father Grigory". Later in his diary, Rasputin wrote: "And I thought a lot about whether the honor will come to me? And after a great disposition I realized: my dear and honors are through a woman. Therefore, in a woman, the spirit is livelier, she makes more noise, and without noise - neither God nor honor can be done! " And Gregory began to make his breathtaking career "through a woman." In 1903, he so gloriously "consoled" the recently widowed Tobolsk merchant-millionaire Bashmakova that she formed a powerful patronage for the "elder", taking him to Kazan.
According to letters of recommendation from Kazan clergy, Grigory ends up in St. Petersburg, where he charms the rector of the theological academy, despite the fact that he has already heard how Rasputin "rode a woman" in Kazan. He enters into the confidence of the tsar's confessor Theophanes. They introduce Rasputin to the aristocratic salons of St. Petersburg, which at that time showed an increased interest in mystical and religious issues. Then he meets his beloved maid of honor and friend of the tsarina Anna Vyrubova. Vyrubova was fanatically devoted to Gregory, and until the end of his days he appeared to her in the form of a holy man, unmercenary and miracle worker. In the salons, Gregory's fame grew rapidly. It was enough for him to appear to amaze and charm this idle, gullible society, indulging in the most senseless tricks of the occult. It became an exotic dessert that was "treated" in plush living rooms. And in November 1905, Rasputin was introduced to the royal couple.
A friend of the royal family
The conquest of the heart of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna took place through Anna Vyrubova (“Annushka,” as Grigory called her), but the main reliable argument in favor of “Father Gregory” came later. The heir to the throne, Alexei, suffered from hemophilia (incoagulability of blood) - a serious and incurable disease. Several times, when Alexei was dying and the doctors were powerless, Rasputin managed to save the heir by prayer and suggestion alone. This immediately made him famous and led to an extraordinary rise in the royal court. Alexandra Feodorovna began to call him "Friend" and idolized him as a saint. The tsar at first tried to resist the charms of the Siberian peasant, but was forced under the influence of his beloved Alyk to also believe in "Friend". Gradually, the influence of the "elder" began to go beyond the boundaries of the royal family. Not a single major appointment was complete without the advice of "Friend". No one could hope for a ministerial post if he did not pass the "test" through Rasputin. The way in which this "peasant chancellor" checked the candidates for the position was simple: Gregory came to the subject, looked intently into his eyes for several minutes, and that was the end of the exam.
In the company of "rasputinok"
But nowhere was the character of Grigory Rasputin manifested with such strength and brightness as in the alcove. He was undoubtedly one of the luckiest sex adventurers in history. Having sex with this unwashed peasant, who had a messy beard, greasy hair and dirty hands with "mourning" nails, was something completely new, previously unknown and extremely exciting. Ladies gathered in his apartment and waited in line for an invitation to his bed, which Rasputin himself called "the holy of holies." A rather wide circle of his zealous admirers formed around the "elder", which included the ladies of St. Petersburg world and semi-world. They idolized him and made up a whole retinue, receiving the name "Rasputinok". Whoever surrenders to this God, himself becomes divine, in contact with his body! "- said Olga Lokhtina, the wife of the state councilor. Rasputin became so fashionable and gained such fame that even the husbands of the women with whom he had already slept, not at all embarrassed, boasted a friend in front of a friend that their wives were already “with this incredible Rasputin.” The “elder's” apartment at 64 Gorokhovaya Street, where he lived, turned into a combination of bureaucratic chancellery and a brothel. noisy feasts were held in the rooms with abundant libations, often escalating into orgies.At almost any moment one could find Rasputin in the hall surrounded by his “students.” One of them usually sat on his lap, he stroked her hair and whispered in his ear that something about the "mysterious resurrection" and salvation through sin. Then he began to sing, the song was picked up by those present. Soon everyone began to dance some wild and crazy dance. trips to the "study" of Gregory began, where the "holy of holies" stood. Rasputin drove the lady out of his "study" usually with the words: "Well, well, mother, everything is all right." The devil is not so terrible ...
However, contrary to popular opinion and the variety of myths, the real Rasputin was by no means the sexual machine that they are trying to present him with. On the contrary, he was a man of sharply reduced potency. Gregory himself invariably insisted on his "impassivity" (sexual weakness), saying that he was indifferent to what to lean against - "a woman or a blockhead." "It has come - it has begun to swirl ... has passed - it has vomited, it will come, whirl and let it go, and there is no sin or joy in it for me," - this is Rasputin's somewhat strange attitude to his own sexual desire. Rasputin was really eager to conquer as many women as possible (for "honor will come through a woman"), but the very technology of "conquest" looked very peculiar. According to one of his "rasputinoks", Grigory is "a very special person", because he gives a woman "such sensations that our men are worthless." What kind of supernatural sensations are these that an aristocrat was unable to give to a woman?
Iliodor's dossier
Having collected an extensive "sexual dossier" on Rasputin, the monk Iliodor - his former friend, and then an ardent enemy - divided all victims of his "sexual aggression" into four categories. The first included those whom Rasputin only kissed and took to the bathhouse to wash, the second — those whom he touched in a certain way, the third — those from whom Rasputin “cast out the devil,” and only the fourth included those with whom Rasputin committed the sin of carnal copulation. Women belonging to the first category, Iliodor numbers "hundreds, and in the women's monasteries, where Elder Gregory liked to drop in, you will not read them." There were also a lot of representatives of the second group - with whom Grigory "took care". Neither "zealousness" nor "casting out of the demon" were nevertheless bodily copulations. Rasputin limited himself to lovemaking in a very wide range, including their "most incredible" forms. In an exceptional variety of forms, caresses lay the secret of those "special sensations" with which Rasputin bestowed on his admirers and patients. Rasputin himself categorically insisted that he heals women with affection, and not with bodily intercourse. “Here, those who are bullshit, I’m living with the queen,” Rasputin said to one of his admirers. “And that devil, they don’t know, there’s a lot of affection, maybe there’s more. You yourself are thinking about the queen? ...? "
Caress without intercourse
The scenario of Rasputin's sexual attacks on women was always the same: verbal harassment, kissing, chaotic touching of the intimate parts of a woman's body, tearing off clothes, and as a result ... a cold "monastic kiss" and passionate prayer together. If the "victim" began to resist, Rasputin was ready at any moment to easily stop his seemingly unrestrained offensive and generally turn the conversation to another topic. When the situation was favorable, Rasputin prepared the woman in advance for the unusual forms of his sexual seizure. “Do you know what life is about?” He instilled in his next “pupil.” “She is in affection, but you just need to caress something differently, not like these yerniks are yours. They caress for their own body, and I’m half for the spirit, great strength here. But what kind of friend for such a kindness INTO you want to do. He will give his soul ... "The question is: why did Rasputin need to spend so much energy to persuade a woman to" surrender "if did he know in advance that he was not able to show himself as a full-fledged partner? Firstly, with the help of constant love games, never ending with sexual intercourse, Rasputin managed to keep under his influence a significant number of sexually exalted and passionately in love with him women, including Anna Vyrubova and Alexandra Fedorovna. Secondly, the frequent renewal of sexual impressions compensated Rasputin for his lack of full sexual desire. "Love through the eyes" was generally one of Rasputin's favorite pastimes. In addition to sexual games and gazing at women, selfless dances were surrogates of sexual satisfaction, the ease of performance of which delighted even the masters of the imperial ballet, and a complex of sadomasochistic experiences. So, when washing his feet, Rasputin forced women to undress themselves and undress themselves. "Could there be more humiliation for a woman when she, being herself naked to complete nudity, washes the feet of a naked man." On holidays, Rasputin was especially careful to grease his boots with tar, "so that the elegant ladies who came with congratulations, lying at his feet, would stain their silk dresses more." When more acute sadistic sensations were required, Rasputin resorted to light assault.
Not quite impotent
In the list, Iliodor could not give a single one hundred percent convincing example of Rasputin's bodily intercourse with women. Satisfied with only rumors, Iliodor lists 12 "victims of carnal copulation", and even those raise doubts. Yet Rasputin was not completely impotent. This is confirmed by the fact that he has children (although Grigory was able to give birth to his first child only in the tenth year of family life). Rasputin, however, had two de facto wives: the "Pokrovskaya" Praskovya and the "Petersburg" Dunya Bekeshova. But even with them, apparently, complete sexual harmony was not observed. "I love everyone equally," Rasputin said of women. But once he once said: "Only two women in the world have stolen my heart - then Vyrubova and Sukhomlinova." However, neither one nor the other was Rasputin's mistresses. There was, however, still a certain person to whom Gregory experienced a real blind love. But more on that later. Almost with more pleasure than pretty young men, Rasputin "healed" men. The homosexual beginning was disturbed in him even in his young years, when in the Verkhoturinsky monastery he was harassed for several nights in a row and almost raped by fathers Sergius and Joseph. "I'm not going to participate in your perversions!" - Gregory exclaimed pathetically and ran away. So he told himself. However, in the future, the homosexual tendency developed, and Rasputin's attraction to men was even stronger than to women.
Alluring look
Judging by the photographs of Grigory Rasputin, it is difficult to understand how this not very attractive peasant could evoke such strong feelings towards himself. His long, always oiled hair was parted casually in the middle. On his head, above his forehead, there was a small bald patch, formed from the blow when he was beaten. But the most remarkable of Rasputin's were his eyes. Blue, close to each other, they blinked very rarely and radiated magnetism. Rarely did anyone endure his heavy, piercing gaze. This look especially affected women: impressionable natures under the gaze of these eyes began to beat in hysterics. The ever increasing power of Rasputin was becoming dangerous. After Gregory entered the royal family, intrigues began to weave around him. The highest Petersburg society suddenly began to see the light, accusations and curses began to pour on Rasputin from all sides. People worried about the fate of the empire tried at any cost to get rid of the hated "holy devil", as the newspaper called Gregory, whose fatal influence was attributed to many of the country's troubles. They tried to buy off Rasputin, assassination attempts were being prepared on him, conspiracies were drawn up. "Death is near me, - said Grigory. - She climbs up to me like a whore. I have chased her many times. That is why I have my own star shining." In the summer of 1914, a noseless beggar woman suddenly attacked Grigory and tried to chop off his "manhood" with a soldier's cleaver. It was Khioniya Guseva, a syphilitic woman who had once been "offended" by Grigory. Rasputin's lower abdomen was damaged, but "dignity" remained with him. Rasputin made convulsive attempts to stay afloat and began to drink. In March 1915, while in Moscow, he visited the Yar restaurant. At first he publicly talked about his sexual adventures in Petrograd, then he bared his genitals and declared that "he does whatever he wants with the tsarina." An incredible scandal broke out not only throughout Moscow, but also throughout Russia. Rasputin immediately left for his Pokrovskoye and returned to Petrograd only in the summer.
Tragic male love
In the fall of 1916, a young aristocrat Felix Yusupov, a famous homosexual, having married the emperor's niece Irina and suffering for several years, decided to "get medical treatment" in order to somehow correspond to his official marital status. He turned to Rasputin. The "old man" was very animated by this proposal and asked the handsome prince to come tomorrow, taking his guitar with him. They began to see each other almost daily. How bisexual Rasputin "treated" Felix for homosexuality, one can only guess. "Well, honey ... You come more often ... here's how we get closer together ... Let's go to my office ..." The refined aristocrat Yusupov "dirty man" there is a physiological disgust in him. Rasputin, on the other hand, immediately fell in love with Felix. Having provoked Rasputin into homosexual affection, Yusupov fell into a trap with his own hand. It was already impossible to break out of this trap: Felix did not have the courage to quarrel with the all-powerful king's favorite. Yusupov was close to despair. He turned for help to his friends - Grand Dukes Dmitry Pavlovich and Nikolai Mikhailovich, who were also homosexuals. They offered to destroy Rasputin, disguising the sexual assassination as a political one. For this purpose (for disguise), a member of the State Duma, Purishkevich, was invited to take part in the conspiracy. Felix pretended to agree to an intimate meeting with Gregory, and on the night of December 16 (according to the old style) invited him to his palace. Grigory dressed smartly and at 12 o'clock in the morning went down the back door to the street, where a car with Yusupov was waiting for him. In the basement of the palace, Felix began to treat Gregory to cakes with potassium cyanide. Rasputin ate pastries and chatted with his lover. Then Yusupov went for a pistol and shot this devil, whom the poison did not take. Rasputin dropped dead. When Felix bent over the "corpse", he suddenly grabbed Yusupov by the throat and began to strangle him. Poor Felix barely escaped. Rasputin ran out of the house and headed for the gate. Purishkevich ran after him and with four pistol shots completed their nearly failed assassination attempt. Rasputin's corpse was taken to the Neva and thrown into an ice-hole. Felix Yusupov was the very person whom Rasputin fell in love with so blindly and passionately. His true first and last love. The guides of the Yusupov Palace Museum say that in the prince's office, located under the basement, where Rasputin was killed, women faint: the force fields left by the dead "holy devil" continue to operate.
Bibliography
Elena Laktionova. Grigory Rasputin.
A slandered martyr, a sorcerer, a hero-lover, a German spy, or a heresiarch? "Around the World" figured out who the favorite of the last Russian emperor really was
Grigory Rasputin. Photo of 1900
Grigory Rasputin had a different surname
Yes.
To be called Grigory Rasputin-Novy, or simply Grigory Novy, the "elder" at his request was officially authorized by Nicholas II. “Living in the village of Pokrovskoye, I carry the surname of Rasputin, while many fellow villagers bear the same surname, which can lead to all kinds of misunderstandings,” Gregory explained in a petition addressed to the emperor on December 15, 1906. Probably, the "elder" also wanted to neutralize the negative associations that the surname Rasputin evoked.
The peasant Rasputin was the only spiritual mentor "from the people" at the court
Not. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the highest circles of the Russian Empire, it became fashionable to communicate with the bearers of the "popular faith" - all kinds of miracle healers, blessed, poor wanderers. Rasputin had predecessors at court, in particular the holy fool Mitya Kozelsky and the hysterical Daria Osipova.
German group Boney M, performers of the 1978 hit Rasputin, in Moscow
Rasputin enjoyed incredible success with women
Yes. According to numerous testimonies, Rasputin was surrounded by a crowd of admirers, including noble and influential ladies. Women noted that the outwardly unattractive "old man" had an inexplicable attraction. In the eyes of society, “spiritual mentoring” looked ambiguous when Rasputin visited the bathhouse with his fans or laid them next to him on the bed, but the “elder” claimed that in this way he relieves the ladies from the sin of fornication and pride, and he himself abstains. On several occasions, however, Gregory happened to get punched in the face by his interlocutor, who did not see the difference between “spiritual practice” and harassment.
Rasputin (left) with Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor. Photo of 1908
Rasputin was a monk or priest
Not. In 1919, the daughter of the “elder” Matryona said: “It seems that he had an idea to go to a monastery, but then he abandoned this thought. He said that he did not like monastic life, that monks did not observe morality and that it was better to be saved in the world. " State Duma Chairman Mikhail Rodzianko indignantly pointed out to the emperor that Rasputin, without dignity, bears the priest's cross, laid down for the priest. Gregory's followers called him an "elder" - a spiritual mentor, which could be a layman.
Tsarevich Alexey. Photo of the early 1910s
The "elder" knew how to heal the attacks of Tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia
Yes. There is ample evidence of this. Researchers believe: the reason is the ability of the "elder" to influence by suggestion. According to geneticist John Haldane, if stress is relieved by hypnotic techniques, it can cause narrowing of the small vessels of the arterial system and thereby reduce bleeding. Professor Alexander Kotsyubinsky believes that Rasputin inspired the Tsarevich with the idea of improving his condition, and also reassured the boy's relatives, which helped to overcome the crisis.
Khlystov's zeal
Rasputin was a sectarian
Not... “What a whip I am. God forbid. I go to church, I recognize all the dogmas, I pray, ”the“ elder ”declared. However, many suspected Rasputin of sectarianism because of his exalted behavior, vegetarianism, and especially because of the custom of going to the bathhouse with admirers: this "spiritual practice" was very reminiscent of Khlyst's zeal, which often turned into orgies. According to the religious scholar Sergei Firsov, during his travels, Rasputin also communicated with religious freethinkers, from whom he could gain unorthodox ideas. But for the Khlyst, the meaning of life is the interests of his community ("ship"), and Rasputin was too independent and egocentric.
Page from the diary of Grigory Rasputin
Rasputin was uneducated
Yes... According to a contemporary, Grigory counted the money as follows: “Two hundred square meters, three hundred square meters,” then he had “thousands,” which he juggled with completely at will. He learned to write on his own, but did not know spelling or punctuation; two of Rasputin's books were dictation and extensively edited.
Sculptor Naum Aronson at work on the bust of Rasputin. 1915 year
The "old man" was a German spy
Not. "The favorite of the court, a strange man, Grigory Rasputin, was recognized by rumors as a German agent pushing the tsar into a separate peace with Germany," singer Fyodor Chaliapin recalled. Russian counterintelligence officer Alexander Rezanov, who checked these rumors, stated: "I must honestly say that I have no reason to consider him a German agent." For a spy, Rasputin was too outspoken in his sympathy for Germany. The British ambassador George Buchanan, whose informants followed the "elder", came to the same conclusion: if Rasputin supplied valuable information to the enemy power, it was involuntarily, having a habit of blurting out the content of his conversations with the tsar in society.
Portrait of Alexandra Feodorovna. Nikolay Bondarevsky. 1907 year
Rasputin was the empress's lover
Unlikely... In 1912, the deputy Guchkov published her letter to the "elder": "I am only at peace in my soul, I rest when you, teacher, sit beside me, and I kiss your hands and lay my head on your blessed shoulders." “Only those who did not know the empress, her lofty spirit and crystal clear family life, only deeply vicious people, fanatics or lovers of scandals could see in this letter a confirmation of the outrageous slander,” said Alexander Spiridovich, head of the palace security. In the reports of the secret police officers assigned to Rasputin, there is not even a hint of a dangerous connection.
Researchers believe the third shot was fired from a revolver Webley, british army weapons
Rasputin was killed by a British intelligence officer
Unlikely. As you know, after an unsuccessful attempt to poison the "elder", the conspirators-monarchists were shot dead on the night of December 16-17 (Old Style) 1916 in the palace of Prince Yusupov on the Moika in St. Petersburg. Retired British detective Richard Cullen and intelligence historian Andrew Cook, pointing out inconsistencies in the details of the murder by the participants, suggested that Felix Yusupov and deputy Vladimir Purishkevich were hiding information about the third gunman, British intelligence agent Oswald Reiner, a friend of the prince. However, the professor of forensic medicine Dmitry Kosorotov, who performed the autopsy of the "elder", testified that only one bullet had been found and it was impossible to establish the number of shooters. Reiner's presence at the crime scene is inconclusive. The British special services had every reason to wish the death of Rasputin, who fought for a separate peace between Russia and Germany, but the Russian elite had enough of its own motives to remove the "elder", and she did not hide it.
The image of Rasputin according to the canons of icon painting
Rasputin was canonized
Not... The movement for the canonization of the "elder" began in the 1990s, several icon-painting images were created, it is argued that there are also myrrh-streaming images among them. At the 2004 Council of Bishops, the hierarchs officially expressed the position of the ROC: there are no sufficient grounds for canonizing Grigory Rasputin. “He discredited the monarchy and the last Russian emperor, which was used by the enemies of the fatherland. I see no reason to reconsider the role of Rasputin in the history of Russia, ”Patriarch Alexy II declared back in 2002.
Movie. "Mad Monk"
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"Rasputin and the Empress". Director: Richard Boleslavsky. Lionel Barrymore as Rasputin. |
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"Rasputin" ("Rasputin, the demon of women"). Director: Adolf Troz. Conrad Veidt as Rasputin. |
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"Rasputin" ("Tragedy of the Empire"). Director: Marcel L'Herbier. Harry Bohr as Rasputin. |
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"Rasputin: the mad monk". Director: Don Sharp. Christopher Lee as Rasputin. |
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"Nikolai and Alexandra". Director: Franklin Scheffner. Tom Baker as Rasputin. |
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"Agony". Director: Elem Klimov. Alexei Petrenko as Rasputin. |
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"Rasputin". Director: Uli Edel. Alan Rickman as Rasputin. |
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"Anastasia". Cartoon studio Disney. Directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman. Rasputin was voiced by Christopher Lloyd. |
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Hellboy. Director: Guillermo del Toro. Karel Roden as Rasputin. |
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"Conspiracy". Director: Stanislav Libin. Ivan Okhlobystin as Rasputin. |
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"Rasputin". Director: Jose Diane. Gerard Depardieu as Rasputin. |
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"Grigory R.". Director: Andrey Malyukov. Vladimir Mashkov as Rasputin. |
Photo: Alamy / Legion-media, AKG / East News (x2), Mary Evans / Legion-media, Library of Congress, Alexey Varfolomeev / RIA Novosti, Fine Art images (x2), Alamy, Everett collection (x5) / Legion- media, Getty Images, Diomedia (x3), PhotoXPress.ru, ITAR-TASS / The Walt Disney Company Russia & CIS Press Service, Orthodox33
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (1864/65 or 1872-1916) - In 1905, Grigory Rasputin appeared at the royal court.The background of his appearance in St. Petersburg is as follows. Grand Duchess Anastasia, wife of Nikolai Nikolaevich, and her sister Militsa went on pilgrimage to Kiev. They stayed in the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Monastery. One morning they noticed an ordinary wanderer in the courtyard of the monastery, chopping wood, and asked him several questions. He told them about his travels to holy places and about his life. The Grand Duchesses were making the pilgrimage trip incognito and they were bored. They began to invite Rasputin — and it was he — for tea, and talked to him. Rasputin said that he was from the peasants of the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province, where he had a wife, Praskovya, a son and two daughters. Gregory also proudly reported that he attracted many people with his religious sermons, and he succeeded in overcoming learned missionaries and theologians in religious disputes. Indeed, there was something in Rasputin's personality that attracted people to him, and especially women. When he told the Grand Duchesses that he had the ability to cure all diseases, including hemophilia, they decided to invite Rasputin to treat the heir.
Rasputin arrived in St. Petersburg not by rail, but on foot and at the same time barefoot. He stayed at the monastery hotel as a guest of Archimandrite Theophanes. In Tsarskoe Selo, Rasputin was eagerly awaited, but received with restraint. He left a pleasant impression, behaved calmly and with dignity. He treated the sick prince with special courtesy. Rasputin had the gift of influencing people in a calming way, and thanks to his departure, the health of the heir improved significantly. At any deterioration in the boy's health and at the slightest ailment, a miracle worker was called: he had inexplicable power over the boy. And thanks to the fact that the empress and the emperor were convinced that Rasputin was necessary for the heir, this peasant gained tremendous influence on the royal couple.
Rasputin was a stout man, of medium height, with light gray deep-set eyes, and long brown hair that fell over his shoulders. His piercing gaze, few could withstand.
Rasputin's admirers can be divided into two categories. Some believed in his supernatural powers and his holiness, in his divine purpose, while others simply considered it fashionable to take care of him or tried to achieve some advantages for themselves or their loved ones through him. When Rasputin was reproached for his weakness for the female sex, he usually replied that his guilt was not so great, since so many high-ranking officials directly hang their mistresses and even wives around his neck, in order to get some benefits from him for themselves. ... And most of these women entered into an intimate relationship with him with the consent of their husbands or loved ones. Rasputin had admirers who visited him on holidays to congratulate him, and at the same time hugged his tar-soaked boots. Rasputin, laughing, said that on such days he smeared his boots with tar especially so that the elegant ladies lying at his feet would stain their silk dresses more. Rasputin's fabulous success with the royal couple made him some kind of deity. One word from Rasputin was enough for officials to receive high orders or other distinctions, positions that they did not dare to dream of. At the whim of Rasputin, ministers and advisers were deprived of their posts, by his own will some inconspicuous official could make a dizzying career. It was an amazing picture when Russian princesses, countesses, famous artists, all-powerful ministers and dignitaries were caring for a drunken man. He treated them worse than the lackeys and maids. At the slightest provocation, he swore the most obscene words that would have made the grooms blush.
Rasputin's wife came to Petersburg to visit her husband and children who lived with him only once a year and stayed for the shortest possible time. During her visits, the elder did not embarrass himself, but treated her very kindly. She did not pay much attention to his love affairs and said: “He can do whatever he wants. He has enough for everyone. " He kissed his aristocratic admirers in the presence of his wife, and she was even flattered. A passionate revelry, Rasputin was on the best terms with all the playwomen of the life of the capital. The mistresses of the grand dukes, ministers and financiers were close to him. Therefore, he knew all the scandalous stories, the connections of high-ranking officials, the night secrets of the big world and knew how to use all this to expand his influence in government circles. Petersburg high society ladies, cocottes, famous artists - all were proud of their relationship with the favorite of the royal couple. It often happened that Rasputin called one of his friends from this circle and invited him to a famous restaurant. Invitations were always accepted, and revelry and debauchery began. However, debauchery is not of the kind that, according to rumors, Rasputin arranged before his arrival in the capital, living in Pokrovskoye. Grigory's fellow villagers recalled that in the evening Rasputin gathered his followers of both sexes and led them into the forest. There they made a fire and cooked herbs with incense, danced around the fire. Gradually the dance quickened and became quite wild. When the fire was extinguished, Rasputin shouted: "Obey the flesh!" - and everyone threw themselves to the ground. An orgy began.
It is difficult to judge how true this information is, but the sources about Rasputin's capital and Moscow revels are quite reliable. So, Colonel Semyonov, the bailiff of the 2nd section of the Suschevskaya part of Moscow, testified about such an evening in the Yar restaurant on March 26, 1915. Rasputin arrived there with the widow of A.I. Reshetnikova, an employee of Moscow and St. Petersburg newspapers N.N. Soedov and an unidentified young woman. The whole company was already tipsy. Having occupied the office, the arrivals called the editor-publisher of the Moscow newspaper “Novosti Sezona” S.L. Kugulsky and invited a female choir who sang and danced for them. Rasputin danced "Russian", and then began to confess with the singers about the tsarina. Further, Rasputin's behavior took on a completely ugly character of some kind of sexual psychopathy: he allegedly bared his genitals and in this form continued to conduct a conversation with the singers, distributing them notes with the inscriptions: "Love unselfishly," etc. To the remarks of the head of the choir about the obscenity of his behavior, the elder noticed that he always behaves like that in front of women.
One of the most famous women who fell under the influence of Rasputin was the lady-in-waiting of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna A.A. Taneeva (Vyrubova). Here is how an eyewitness, Hieromonk Iliodor, tells about their relationship, which he himself witnessed: “We arrived at the Marble Palace. Rasputin was actually dancing beside Vyrubova, with his left hand tugging at his beard, and with his right hand he grabbed the shoulders, hitting his hips with his palm, as if wishing to calm the playful horse. Vyrubova stood obediently. He kissed her. I, in a sinful deed, thought: "Ugh, disgusting! And how her tender, beautiful face tolerates those nasty hard cheeks ..." But Vyrubova endured and seemed to even find some pleasure in these senile kisses ... Finally, Vyrubova said: "Well , they are waiting for me in the palace; I have to go, goodbye, holy father "... Something fabulous happened here, and if others spoke, I would not believe it, otherwise I saw it myself. Vyrubova fell to the ground like a simple penitent peasant, touched both Rasputin's feet with her forehead, then got up, kissed Grigory three times on the lips and kissed his dirty hands several times, and left. "
Iliodor also told in his notes how in Tsaritsyn, in one of the houses, Grigory Rasputin "blessed" all pretty and young ladies and girls with kisses. He kissed them several times in the house, kissed them in the yard and outside the gate. The old women also climbed to sanctify themselves with the kisses of the elder, but he repulsed them. One priest from Saratov said that while Rasputin was staying with him, his wife's young sister came to them. The elder invited her to walk into the city, and during the walk he grabbed the girl, started kneading her, kissing her, grabbing her by different parts of her body and pressing her against the wall. The girl broke free and ran into the house all in tears ... Novice Ksenia told how Rasputin once, left alone with her, ordered her to undress him, then undress herself and go to bed with him. Rasputin began kissing her ... and tortured her for four hours, and then let her go home.
And here are some records from the data of external observation of Grigory Rasputin, made in 1915.
“On February 19, Rasputin at 10.15 pm left house 1 along Spasskaya Street from the Solovievs with two ladies and left in a taxi, and at 3 am he returned home alone.
10th of March. About one o'clock in the morning about 7-8 men and women came to Rasputin ... and stayed until 3 o'clock in the morning. The whole company shouted, sang songs, danced, knocked, and all the drunks went out with Rasputin and went to no one knows where.
11th of March. At 10.15 am Rasputin was met alone on Gorokhovaya Street and escorted to 8 Pushkinskaya Street to the prostitute Tregubova, and from there to the bathhouse.
March 13. Miller bought Rasputin a hat. At 6.50 pm Rasputin went with two ladies to house 76 along the Catherine Canal, to the Savelyevs, where he stayed until 5 am and lay sick all day.
April 3rd. Rasputin brought a woman to his apartment at 1 am, and she spent the night with him.
In the summer he left for Pokrovskoe, where he continued his riotous life, from time to time sending telegrams to Tsarskoe Selo, Vyrubova. And here women came to him from everywhere. More and more new female surnames appeared in the reports. The same thing continued in 1916. Rasputin gained more and more influence over the empress. Obviously, not without his participation, she believed that she alone was destined to save Orthodox Russia. And she had no doubt that Rasputin's patronage and his "high spiritual qualities" are necessary for success. She consulted with him on every occasion, asked for his blessing. But the relationship of the queen with Gregory was cloaked with a veil of secrecy. Not a word was written about them in the newspapers. In society, they talked about this in a whisper, and only the closest to each other, as a shameful secret, which is better not to delve into.
Everyone knew that Rasputin himself rarely visited the palace, and most often saw the queen at Vyrubova's, in her apartment on Srednaya Street, where he sometimes spent several hours with both women.
However, there were people in society who resented Rasputin's position and his power in the country. And they understood that the only way to stop the influence of an illiterate peasant on the royal couple was to kill Grigory Rasputin. Several unsuccessful attempts were made on the elder. Finally, the plan succeeded.
Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich stood at the head of the conspiracy. Cakes soaked in potassium cyanide were prepared. The same poison was dissolved in a glass of wine. Rasputin was invited to the prince. At first, Rasputin refused to eat the cakes, but then he swallowed one by one. There would be enough poison in everyone to kill a person, and Yusupov waited for the result, but in vain. Then he invited Rasputin to drink Madeira. The elder drank and complained of a slight burning sensation in his throat, drank more wine. Again, no use. When Rasputin asked Yusupov to sing, he went out for the guitar, but took the revolver and, returning, shot Rasputin in the heart. When the prince's accomplices wanted to hide the body, he came to life. He was shot four more times, and the body was thrown into Malaya Nevka.
The Empress was beside herself with grief, and the people triumphed. People hugged on the street, went to put candles in the Kazan Cathedral. However, some considered this murder fatal in the history of the empire. Rasputin himself allegedly wrote in his will that if the nobles would kill him, then "the brothers will rise up against the brothers and will kill each other ..." Although, it would seem, what kind of blind man one had to be so that, seeing all the abomination of the Russian reality of those years, one would not understand that the country and the people are heading for disaster. And the fact that the princesses retired in separate offices with a dirty peasant-swindler and lay at his feet is a vivid evidence of this.
GRIGORY EFIMOVICH RASPUTIN
(1864/65 or 1872-1916)
The real name is Novykh. A peasant in the Tobolsk province, known for "divinations" and "healings".
Providing assistance to the heir to the throne, suffering from hemophilia, he gained unlimited trust of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Emperor Nicholas L. Killed by conspirators who considered Rasputin's influence disastrous for the monarchy.
In 1905, Grigory Rasputin appeared at the royal court. The background of his appearance in St. Petersburg is as follows. Grand Duchess Anastasia, wife of Nikolai Nikolaevich, and her sister Militsa went on pilgrimage to Kiev. They stayed in the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Monastery. One morning they noticed an ordinary wanderer in the courtyard of the monastery, who was injecting wood, and they asked him several questions. He told them about his travels to holy places and about his life. The Grand Duchesses were traveling incognito in bogomolje, and they were bored. They began to invite Rasputin - and it was he - for tea, and talked to him. Rasputin said that he was from the peasants of the village of Pokrov in the Tobolsk province, where he had a wife, Praskovya, a son and two daughters. Gregory also proudly reported that with his religious sermons he attracts many people, and he succeeds in overcoming learned messiahs and theologians in religious disputes. Indeed, there was something in Rasputin's personality that attracted people to him, and especially women. When he told the Grand Duchess that he had the ability to cure all diseases, including hemophilia, they decided to invite the Scared to treat the heir.
Rasputin arrived in St. Petersburg not by rail, but on foot and at the same time barefoot. He stayed at the monastery hotel as a guest of Archimandrite Theophaia. In Tsarskoe Selo Rasputin was eagerly awaited, but received with restraint. He left a pleasant impression, behaved calmly and with dignity. He treated the sick Tsarevich with special caution. Rasputin had the gift of influencing people in a calming way, and thanks to his departure, the health of the heir improved significantly. At any deterioration in the boy's health and at the slightest ailment, a miracle worker was called: he had inexplicable power over the boy. And thanks to the fact that the empress and the emperor were convinced that Ras Putin was necessary for the heir, this man gained tremendous influence on the royal couple.
Rasputin was a stout man, of medium height, with light gray, deep-set eyes, and long brown hair that fell over his shoulders. His piercing gaze, few could withstand.
The admirers of Rasputin can be divided into two categories. Some believed in his supernatural powers and his holiness, in his divine purpose, while others simply considered it fashionable to take care of him or tried to achieve some advantages for themselves or their loved ones through him. When "Rasputin was reproached with his weakness for the female sex, he usually replied that his guilt was not so great, since a lot of high-ranking officials directly hang their mistresses and even wives on his neck in order to get some benefits from him for And most of these women entered into an intimate relationship with him with the consent of their husbands or loved ones. Rasputin had admirers who visited him on holidays to congratulate him, and at the same time hugged his tar-soaked boots. Rasputin, laughing, told On such days, he especially plentifully smears his sa-pogues with tar, so that: the elegant ladies lying at his feet would stain their silk dresses more.
Rasputin's fabulous success with the royal couple made him some kind of deity. One word from Rasputin was enough for officials to receive high orders or other distinctions, positions that they did not dare to dream of. At the whim of Rasputin, ministers and advisers were deprived of their posts, by his own will some inconspicuous official could make a dizzying career.
It was an amazing picture when Russian princesses, countesses, famous artists, omnipotent ministers and dignitaries were courting a drunken peasant. He treated them worse than the lackeys and maids. At the slightest provocation, he scolded the most inappropriate words, which would have made the grooms blush. His impudence was indescribable. He treated ladies and girls from society in the most unceremonious way, and the presence of their husbands and fathers did not bother him. Rasputin's behavior should have angered the most notorious prostitute, but none of the noble ladies and gentlemen showed their indignation. Everyone feared him and flattered him. The ladies at the table kissed and licked his dirty hands, because he ate without cutlery.
Rasputin's rooms were almost unfurnished, only in his office there were several leather chairs. It hosted intimate meetings of Rasputin with representatives of the highest Petersburg society. Everything went very simply, and then Rasputin immediately ushered the lady out with the words: "Well, well, mother, everything is all right!" - and he went to the bathhouse. He hated too intrusive persons, but if he was refused, he pursued the woman with perseverance.
Rasputin's wife came to Petersburg to visit her husband and children who lived with him only once a year and stayed for the shortest possible time. During her visits, the elder did not embarrass himself, but treated her very kindly. She did not pay much attention to his love affairs and said: “He can do whatever he wants. He has enough for everyone. ” He kissed his aristocratic admirers in the presence of his wife, and she even flattered it.
A passionate revelry, Rasputin was on the best terms with all the playwomen of the life of the capital. The mistresses of the grand dukes, ministers and financiers were close to him. Therefore, he knew all the scandalous stories, the connections of high-ranking officials, the night secrets of the big world and knew how to use all this to expand his influence in government circles. Petersburg high society ladies, cocottes, famous artists - all were proud of their relationship with the favorite of the royal couple. It often happened that Rasputin called one of his friends from this circle and invited him to a famous restaurant. Invitations were always accepted, and revelry and debauchery began. However, debauchery is not of the kind that, according to rumors, Rasputin arranged before his arrival in the capital, living in Pokrovskoye. Grigory's fellow villagers recalled that in the evening Rasputin gathered his followers of both sexes and led them into the forest. There they made a fire and cooked herbs with incense, danced around the fire. Gradually the dance quickened and became quite wild. When the fire was extinguished, Rasputin shouted: "Obey the flesh!" - and everyone threw themselves to the ground. An orgy began.
It is difficult to judge how true this information is, but the sources about Rasputin's capital and Moscow revels are quite reliable. So, Colonel Semyonov, the bailiff of the 2nd section of the Suschevskaya part of Moscow, testified about such an evening in the Yar restaurant on March 26, 1915. Rasputin arrived there with the widow A.I. Reshetnikova, an employee of Moscow and St. Petersburg newspapers N.N. Soedov and an unidentified young woman. The whole company was already tipsy. Having occupied the office, the arrivals called the editor-publisher of the Moscow newspaper “Novosti Sezona” S.L. Kugulsky was invited by a female choir who sang and danced for them. Rasputin danced "Russian", and then began to confess with the singers about the tsarina. Further, Rasputin's behavior took on a completely ugly character of some kind of sexual psychopathy: he allegedly bared his genitals and in this form continued to conduct a conversation with the singers, distributing them notes with the inscriptions: "Love unselfishly", etc. To the remarks of the head of the choir about the unacceptability of his behavior, the elder remarked that he always behaves like that in front of women.
One of the most famous women who fell under the influence of Rasputin was the lady-in-waiting of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna A.A. Taneeva (Vyrubo-va). Here is how an eyewitness, Hieromonk Iliodor, tells about their relationship, which he himself witnessed: “We arrived at the Marble Palace. Rasputin was actually dancing beside Vyrubova, with his left hand tugging at his beard, and with his right hand he grabbed the shoulders, hitting his hips with his palm, as if wishing to calm the playful horse. Vyrubova stood obediently. He kissed her. I, by a sinful deed, thought: “Phew, disgusting! And how her gentle, beautiful face tolerates those nasty, hard cheeks ... ”But Vyrubova endured and seemed to even find some pleasure in these old age kisses ... Finally, Vyrubova said:“ Well, they are waiting for me in the palace; I have to go, goodbye, saint father ”... Something fabulous happened here, and if others spoke, I would not believe it, otherwise I saw it myself. Vyrubova fell to the ground like a simple penitent peasant, touched Rasputin's both feet with her forehead, then got up, kissed Grigory three times on the lips and kissed his dirty hands several times, and left. "
Iliodor also told in his notes how in Tsaritsyn, in one of the houses, Grigory Rasputin “blessed” all pretty and young ladies and girls with kisses. He kissed them several times in the house, kissed them in the yard and outside the gate. The old women also climbed to sanctify themselves with the kisses of the elder, but he repulsed them. One priest from Saratov said that while Rasputin was staying with him, his wife's young sister came to them. The elder invited her to walk into the city, and during the walk he grabbed the girl, started kneading her, kissing her, grabbing her by different parts of her body and pressing her to the stsns. The girl broke free and ran into the house all in tears ... Novice Ksenia recounted how Rasputin once, left alone with her, ordered her to undress him, then undress herself and go to bed with him. Rasputin began kissing her ... and tortured her for four hours, and then let her go home.
And here are some records from the data of external observation of Grigory Rasputin, made in 1915.
“On February 19, Rasputin came out at 10.15 pm. 1 along Spasskaya street from the Solovievs with two ladies and in a taxi, he left, and at 3 o'clock in the morning he returned home alone.
10th of March. About one o'clock in the morning, about 7-8 men and women came to Rasputin ... and stayed until 3 o'clock in the morning. The whole company shouted, sang songs, danced, knocked, and all the drunks went out with Rasputin and went to no one knows where.
11th of March. At 10.15 am Rasputin was met alone on Gorokhovaya Street and was escorted to 8 Pushkinskaya Street to the prostitute Trsgubova, and from there to the bathhouse.
March 13. Miller bought Rasputin a hat. At 6.50 pm Rasputin went with two ladies to house 76 along the Catherine Canal, to the Savelyevs, where he stayed until 5 am and lay sick all day.
April 3rd. Rasputin brought a woman to his apartment at 1 am, who spent the night with him.
April 9th. Rasputin at 9h45 was carried out by v. 18 on Sadovaya st. to ... A.F. Filipov, former publisher of the newspapers Dengi and Birzhevoy Den. It was noticed that some kind of meeting or revelry was taking place. Rasputin returned home at 6.30 am.
April 15. Rasputin with the monk Martian was in the house of 45 ggo Ligovka with the weary honorary citizen V.E. Psstrikov. In the absence of the latter, they are with his son and the still unknown student of kutshsh. A musician was playing. They sang songs, and Rasputin danced with Pestrikov's maid.
20 April. At about 10 o'clock in the evening, unknown men and women, 10-12 people began to gather for Rasputin ... At 11 o'clock, guitar playing and dancing were heard. This happened until 2 am.
26 of May. Rasputin, together with the prostitute Tregubogsoy, arrived home drunk on the motor of the merchant Manus.
2 June. At 10 pm Rasputin arrived home drunk with Manus and Kuz-minskiy and, without going into the apartment, sent the doorman's wife for the masseuse Utina, but she was not at home. Then he himself went to the dressmaker Katya. Apparently, he was not allowed into the apartment, he returned and began to molest the doorman's wife. She broke free and called his apartment, and his servant, Dunya, took Rasputin home. "
And further in the same spirit. In the summer he left for Pokrovskoe, where he continued his riotous life, from time to time sending telegrams to Tsarskoe Selo, Vyrubova. And here women came to him from everywhere. The officer’s wife, Patushinskaya, came from Tyume-ni, with whom he walked in his arms. Then he began to walk to the wife of the psalm-reader Yermolai “for intimate purposes”. When Patushinskaya was summoned by her husband home, she was replaced by the wife of a certain Dobrovolsky, who came with her husband to Rasputin from Petrograd. Then all together - Rasputin and his wife, the Dobrovolskys, deacon Yermolai and his wife - went to Tyumen to the Patushinskys, where they staged a walk down the street, and when it got dark, Rasputin and Patushinskaya imperceptibly "retired into the darkness."
On his return to Petrograd, Rasputin continued the same life. Sometimes he went to Tsarskoe Selo, from where Vyrubova brought him on her engine, but more often he received women, he drank, sometimes he came home in the morning, drunk. More and more new female surnames appeared in the reports. November 14 - Princess T. Shakhovskaya, November 25 - artist Varvarova, December 1 Rasputin with Princess Dolgorukova in "Astoria", on December 3 Senator Mamontov's content - Voskoboinikov appeared to him, on December 12 - again with Varvarova, 14 December - Rasputin and M. Yasinskaya at night went to the restaurant "Vil-la Rode", where he had a scandal, then to the gypsy choir, then to Yasinskaya's apartment. On December 15, he again drank in "Villa Rode", already with Varvarova, a) on December 7, Princess Dolgorukova sent a motor for him from the "Astoria" hotel ...
The same thing continued in 1916. Rasputin gained more and more influence over the empress. Obviously, not without his participation, she believed that she alone was destined to save Orthodox Russia. And she had no doubts that Rasputin's patronage and his “high spiritual qualities” were necessary for success. She consulted with him on every occasion, asked for his blessing. But the relationship of the queen with Gregory was clothed in a veil of secrecy. Not a word was written about them in the newspapers. In society, they talked about this in a whisper, and only those closest to each other, as a shameful secret, which is better not to delve into.
Everyone knew that Rasputin himself rarely visited the palace, and most often saw the queen at Vyrubova's, in her apartment on Srednaya Street, where he sometimes spent several hours with both women.
However, there were people in society who resented Rasputin's position and his power in the country. And they understood that the only way to stop the influence of an illiterate peasant on the royal couple was to kill Grigory Rasputin. Several unsuccessful attempts were made on the elder. Finally, the plan succeeded.
Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich stood at the head of the conspiracy. Cakes soaked in potassium cyanide were prepared. The same hell was dissolved in a glass of wine. Rasputin was invited to the prince. At first, Ras Putin refused to eat the cakes, but then he swallowed one by one. There would be enough poison in everyone to kill a person, and Yusupov waited for the result, but in vain. Then he invited Rasputin to drink Madeira. The elder drank and complained of a slight burning sensation in his throat, drank more wine. Again, no use. When Rasputin asked Yusupov to sing, he went out for the guitar, but took the revolver and, returning, shot Rasputin in the heart. When the prince's accomplices wanted to hide the body, he came to life. He was shot four more times, and the body was thrown into Malaya Nevka.
The Empress was beside herself with grief, and the people triumphed. People hugged on the street, went to light candles in the Kazan Cathedral. However, some considered this murder to be fatal in the history of the empire. Rasputin himself allegedly wrote in his will that if the nobles killed him, then “the brothers will rise up against the brothers and will kill each other ...” Although, it would seem, what kind of blind man one had to be so that, seeing all the abomination of Russian reality in those years , do not understand that the country and the people are heading for disaster. And the fact that the princesses retired in separate offices with a dirty peasant-swindler and lay at his feet is a vivid evidence of this.
