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June 24, 2014

Rasputin



Grigori Rasputin was born around 1869 to a peasant family. After completely failing to become a monk for let’s say…various reasons such as drinking and sex which generally get you disqualified from any kind of holy work… or at least one would hope so anyway, Rasputin became a wanderer and headed towards the west. Eventually through what some say was the enormous charisma he had, he gained the trust of the family of Czar Nicholas II because of his alleged healing powers which some say were a lot of hocus-pocus. He became a favorite of the Nicholas's wife, Alexandra but his overall political influence was minimal. 

He became swept up in the events of the Russian Revolution, and met a rather brutal death at the hands of assassins in 1916. You see, contempt for Rasputin had grown among political rivals of Czar Nicholas and Rasputin had made some enemies along the way. On December 29, 1916, a group of conspirators, including Prince Yusupov, invited Rasputin to Yusoupov's palace for a feast. Once there, Rasputin was fed wine and cakes that had been laced with cyanide. But the poison seemed to have no effect on the ‘holy’ man. The conspirators grew desperate and resorted to repeatedly beating and finally shooting Rasputin several times. He was wrapped in a carpet and thrown into the Neva River. 

He was discovered three days later. An autopsy later revealed that there was water in Rasputin's lungs at the time of his death, and it was concluded that the hard to kill Rasputin was somehow still alive when thrown in the river and that he had died by drowning. Russia and the imperial family had gotten rid of Rasputin, but his death was not the last. Shortly before his death, Rasputin had reportedly written to Nicholas that if he were killed by government officials, the entire imperial family would be killed. His prophecy came true 15 months later, when the czar and his family were murdered.