The infamous Grigory Rasputin was born in 1869 in Siberia. He was the son of a farming family. He probably did not receive any, not even elementary, education. On the contrary, from an early age he was involved in petty theft, drunkenness and other debauchery. At the age of just 18, he got married. In 1897 he went on a pilgrimage and was supposedly "transformed". There, however, he met the old man Makarios and learned to read and write. Soon he himself began to blame the solitary life.
Returning he decided to become a wandering pilgrim. It is said that it also reached Athos around 1900. Soon he had formed a group of followers and built a church. But he never became a monk, nor was he ordained a priest. On the contrary, in his "church" it was rumored that orgistic ceremonies took place.
Little by little, Rasputin acquired the reputation of a "saint" and after convincing some churchmen of his "holiness", he went to St. Petersburg. There he met the confessor of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, Archimandrite Theophanis and "won him over". Theophanes turned out to be Rasputin's key to Tsarist circles. On November 1, 1905, he met the Tsar and the Tsarina.
The not very intelligent tsar and the embittered because of the illness of her son (hemophilia) and heir Alexei, the tsarina, considered Rasputin a messenger of God. So from 1906 Rasputin entered the inner circle of the tsarist environment as the therapist of Crown Prince Alexei.
Rasputin gained a permanent position in the palace, and those who wanted to ask something from the tsar had to first bribe Rasputin, either with money, or with their bodies, the ladies, or both. Some said that he had also become a lover of the Tsarina, convincing her that this was how her son would be cured.
The Holy Synod of the Russian Church repeatedly condemned Rasputin, but to no avail. He is said to have been involved in the "theosophical movement" and in groups of the Nicolaitan faith who believed that the salvation of the soul goes through sexual orgies.
The fatal World War I and the assassination
The worst came when and during World War I. Rasputin attributed the terrible defeats of the Russian armies in 1914-15 to the Grand Duke Nikolai, who had once threatened to hang him. So Rasputin began to undermine him and finally managed to depose him. The worst thing was that he convinced the tsarina and consequently the tsar that Nikolaos should take over the chief strategy.
Nikolaos was completely unrelated to military and to a large extent to political issues. When the tsar took over as commander-in-chief and went to the general headquarters, he left his wife as regent, who was a pawn in Rasputin's hands.
Meanwhile the indignation of the Russians against him was constantly increasing. Some information of the time wanted him to be a spy for the Germans. In any case the collapse of the tsarist regime is largely due to this charlatan who convinced the tsarina to fire the prime minister, the interior minister and the war minister, installing useless, corrupt guys who gave themselves millions an hour pay raises where the people were starving.
By fate, a group of conspirators was formed with the intention of exterminating Rasputin. It was headed by Prince Yusupov . It wouldn't be the first time someone would attempt to kill Rasputin. In 1914 a woman had seriously injured him with a knife. But Yusopov did not intend to fail.
On December 17 (old calendar) 1916 he invited Rasputin to his home for dinner. He did not suspect anything and went. The conspirators gave him poison but it did not affect him. So Yusupov shot him. But Rasputin did not die from the first bullet and attacked Yusupov. Then he received two more bullets from another conspirator and died.
They wrapped his body and threw it into the Neva River where it was discovered. The police took up investigations and discovered the conspirators. But Yusupov bribed the policemen and they kept quiet. Besides, no one, except the tsarist couple, was saddened by Rasputin's death. His funeral was attended by the shocked Tsar and the inconsolable Tsarina and a few other people from their circle . His wife, official mistress and children were not invited to the funeral.
After the overthrow of the tsar, soldiers dug up his body and burned it. According to some sources, the British secret service was also involved in the plot to kill him as the British ambassador was informing London about Rasputin's destructive influence on Russia's war developments. It is said, and there seems to be some truth, that Rasputin was trying to convince the Tsar to sign peace with Germany by betraying his allies in the ANTATE.
Period poster showing Rasputin holding the Tsar and Tsarina under his control.