Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / The Romanovs and the Last Tsar's Faith: Rasputin and the Holy Man
Transcript
- Lucas: So after all these episodes on the Romanovs — Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, the reforms, the wars — we finally come to the end. But before the execution in the Ipatiev House, there's one figure who looms over the last years of the dynasty: Grigori Rasputin. Luna: The mad monk, right? Lucas: That's the stereotype, but the reality is more complicated. Rasputin was a Siberian peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye, born around 1869. He was never a monk — he was a strannik, a holy wanderer, part of a tradition of wandering mystics in Russia. Lucas: He had some connection to a sect called the Khlysty, or 'flagellants,' who believed in ecstatic worship that could sometimes involve group rituals. But whether Rasputin was actually a member is debated. What we know is that he had a magnetic presence, a penetrating gaze, and a reputation for healing. Luna: How did a Siberian peasant end up in the tsar's court? Lucas: It's a story that starts with hemophilia. Tsarina Alexandra was a carrier of the genetic disorder, and her only son, Alexei Nikolaevich, had inherited it. The royal family kept his condition secret, but by 1905, when Alexei was an infant, he suffered a severe bleeding episode that doctors couldn't stop. Lucas: Desperate, Alexandra turned to a series of so-called holy men and faith healers. Rasputin was introduced to the court in November 1905, and he apparently managed to calm Alexei's bleeding — possibly through hypnosis, or simply by his presence. From then on, Alexandra believed he was a saint sent by God. Luna: And Nicholas went along with it? Lucas: Nicholas was more skeptical, but he saw Rasputin as a man of God and appreciated his loyalty. The problem was that Rasputin's influence grew far beyond the sickroom. He started handing out political advice, and Alexandra — who was deeply superstitious and passionate — pushed Nicholas to follow Rasputin's counsel. She wrote to Nicholas in letters, 'Listen to our Friend,' always capitalised. Lucas: This was happening during World War I, when Nicholas was at the front and Alexandra ran the government from Petrograd. She was German-born and deeply unpopular, and Rasputin's presence at court fed wild rumors — that he was a German spy, that he controlled the tsarina through sex, that the monarchy was in league with dark forces. Luna: It really damaged the monarchy's credibility, didn't it. Lucas: Enormously. By 1916, even conservative aristocrats believed Rasputin had to be removed. A plot was hatched by Prince Felix Yusupov, a flamboyant nobleman, and Vladimir Purishkevich, a right-wing politician. They lured Rasputin to Yusupov's palace on the night of December 16, 1916, and poisoned him, shot him multiple times, and finally drowned him in the Neva River. Luna: And he survived the poison, right? Lucas: According to the legend, yes. The story goes that Rasputin ate poisoned cakes and drank poisoned wine but showed no effect, so they shot him. Even then, he supposedly tried to strangle Yusupov before being shot again and thrown into the river. The autopsy showed he had water in his lungs, meaning he was still alive when he hit the water. Luna: That's incredible. Lucas: It's a great story, but some historians think the poison might have been weakened or that the whole thing was more chaotic than the legend suggests. What's certain is that Rasputin's body was found the next day, and his death didn't save the monarchy — it only removed a figure who, for better or worse, had been a stable presence for Alexandra. Lucas: You know, it's episodes like this where I realise how much we rely on listener support to keep this show ad-free. We deliberately don't run ads on these conversations — we'd rather just talk history without interruption. If that matters to you, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a nice way to keep things clean and focused. Lucas: Exactly. So back to Rasputin — his influence was a symptom of a deeper problem. The tsarist system had become so closed and autocratic that there was no legitimate outlet for public opinion. People saw Rasputin as proof that the court was corrupt and out of touch. When the February Revolution came in 1917, the monarchy fell almost overnight. Luna: And Rasputin's ghost haunted them to the end. Lucas: Absolutely. After the abdication, Nicholas and Alexandra were exiled to Tobolsk, and then to Yekaterinburg. The Ipatiev House, where they were executed, became a kind of symbol — the place where the Romanov dynasty ended. But Rasputin's role in discrediting them was a major reason the public didn't rally to save them. Luna: So would you say he was a cause of the revolution, or just a symbol? Lucas: I'd say he was a symptom that became a cause. He accelerated the loss of legitimacy by embodying everything that was wrong with the autocracy. But the structural problems — poverty, war, inequality — were there long before he arrived. The revolution would have happened without him, but it might have taken longer, and the Romanovs might have had a better chance of survival. Lucas: After his death, the Provisional Government even set up a commission to investigate Rasputin's influence. They found a lot of corruption and meddling, but no evidence of the wildest rumors — like that he was a German agent. Still, the damage was done. Luna: It's fascinating how one person can become a lightning rod for so much anger. Lucas: And in the end, Rasputin was a human being — flawed, maybe manipulative, but also a man who genuinely believed he had a divine calling. His daughter, Maria, later wrote memoirs defending him, and she even worked in a circus in the United States. But for most Russians, he was simply 'the dark force' that helped bring down the old world.