Episode 268; Grigori Rasputin: The Mad Monk [2]
The clock was ticking.
A group of conservatives formed a plan to kill Rasputin and save the monarchy from more scandal.
This group included one of the richest men in Russia, Prince
Feliks Yusupov, who was also the husband of the tsar's niece.
The plan was to lure Rasputin to Yusupov's home, Moika
Palace, and on December 30th of 1916, Rasputin arrived.
What exactly happened that day is unknown, and there are many myths surrounding Rasputin's death.
According to Yusupov, he offered Rasputin tea and cakes, which Rasputin ate with pleasure.
What Rasputin didn't know, of course, was that the food
and drink had been laced with cyanide, a deadly poison.
Rasputin reportedly ate the cakes but didn't seem affected by the poison.
He then asked for some wine, which was provided to him.
The wine too, had cyanide in it.
It got to 2.30 in the morning, but Rasputin was still there, seemingly completely fine.
Yusupov excused himself and went upstairs to consult his
co-conspirators, the other two men who were involved in the plan.
He returned downstairs, took a gun, and shot Rasputin in the chest.
Now, being shot directly in the chest did affect Rasputin, of course.
Yusupov thought he had killed Rasputin, so he returned upstairs to celebrate.
The men dressed someone in Rasputin's clothes and ordered him to drive to
Rasputin's apartment to make it seem like he had returned home that night.
But when they returned to dispose of Rasputin's body, to get rid of the
body, they found that he was still alive and he proceeded to fight Yusupuv.
A few more shots seemed to do the trick, they shot
Rasputin a few more times, and he collapsed, finally dead.
The men took his body, wrapped him up in a thick cloth and took him to a frozen river.
They found a hole in the ice and threw him in.
News travelled fast of Rasputin's death and on January the
1st, policemen found Rasputin's body under the river ice.
Although Yusupov told this elaborate story about Rasputin's death, Rasputin's daughter
Maria questioned Yusupov's account, saying that her father would never have eaten cakes.
In addition, autopsy reports showed no signs of Rasputin being poisoned, though it
was clear that Rasputin's body had undergone a lot of physical trauma after he died.
The cause of death was determined to be three gunshot wounds but there was
reportedly water found in his lungs, which indicates that Rasputin could have been
alive when he was thrown into the river, this is after having eaten enough cyanide
to kill a herd of elephants and being shot several times at point-blank range.
He might have been impossible to kill, but he was now certainly dead.
And in the months after Rasputin's murder, things went from bad to worse for the Romanovs.
People were starving, the transportation system was falling apart, and Russia had suffered
greatly in World War One, with an estimated 3 million Russians losing their lives.
As the majority of the country celebrated Rasputin's death, the Romanovs continued to mourn him.
This only made the public hate the Royal family even more.
To the Bolsheviks and their supporters, Rasputin had represented the corruption of the monarchy.
While they might have hated him personally, his murder was seen as a desperate
attempt by the elite to hold onto power at the expense of the working class.
Put another way, he was killed by some of the richest and most powerful men
in Russia in an attempt to save the Romanov dynasty and stop the revolution.
Although Rasputin might have been killed to maintain order
and to keep the monarchy intact, his murder did the opposite.
It only served to make people more angry and was yet another
reason to take action against the Romanovs, once and for all.
And in March of 1917, just over two months after Rasputin's death and after a series
of strikes and protests, Nicholas was forced to step down from his position as tsar.
Rasputin's body was dug up and burned by Soviet
soldiers so that his grave could not become a shrine.
He was a controversial and polarising figure both in life and death and his legacy continues today.
Although he is mostly remembered outside Russia as the man who wouldn't die, the mystery
of his life and death has inspired stories all over the world, and has added yet another
flavour, another vivid dimension, to the fascinating history of the Russian revolution.
It's interesting to wonder about the extent to which Rasputin influenced the fall of the Romanovs.
Certainly it's hard to make the argument that he did anything to help their
survival, but quite how much importance he had in their downfall is up for debate.
For some, he was merely an interesting character who had no real political power.
A strange, mad peasant who simply existed and caused some controversy in high society.
But for others, he was much more.
When the Russian revolution ended, the Provisional Government leader
Alexander Kerensky said, “Without Rasputin, there would have been no Lenin.”
Whatever you think of Grigori Rasputin the man, it is
undeniable that the legend has gone down in history.
Had his life gone another way, he might have remained a Russian peasant, farming his land,
rarely leaving his village, and probably having the occasional wild night in Siberia.
Instead, he set off for the capital, claimed to have cured the heir to the
throne, seduced the Tsar, Tsarina, and hundreds if not thousands of other
women in Russian high society, became the lover of many and the enemy of many
more, and perhaps, just perhaps, changed the course of Russian history forever.
As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
It is a fascinating story and there are plenty of tales
about his life that we haven't had the time to include today.
So, I'd love to know, especially from the listeners in Russia, how
important do you think Rasputin was in the story of modern Russia?
How would Russian history have been different without him, if at all?
I would love to know.
You can head right into our community forum, which is at
community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
