Brief biography of Grigory Rasputin. Who was Grigory Rasputin in reality Sergei Rasputin to what extent is he telling the truth

Exactly 146 years ago the famous Grigory Efimovich Novykh, known as Grigory Rasputin, was born. A friend of the last Romanovs, a healer to the sick son of the royal family, a secret adviser and a legendary reveler: the “elder” was famous throughout the Russian Empire for his supernatural abilities, and even after his murder, Rasputin’s personality was not forgotten, but was only surrounded by new rumors. Subsequently, at the height of the revolution, serious political decisions of Emperor Nicholas were attributed to him. What role did this mystical, but still real historical character play in the history of Russia? Amateur. media found out from experts

Questions:

What role did the famous “old man” play in the history of Russia? Is it more of a positive or negative role?

Alexey Uminsky

Today, in the 21st century, looking back, it seems that his role was very dangerous, very seductive. This was a man who took on the role of a certain prophet and interpreter of the will of God in the royal family, and in many ways his own presence in the family of the sovereign greatly strained the atmosphere before the First World War. Of course, there were a lot of rumors about him, his name became the talk of the town, but his figure was so strange and cloudy.

German Lukyanov

This historical figure is always a little demonized, believing that he determined something there. In fact, he could only determine minor moments in history. He could not command events and predetermine fundamental events. I am deeply convinced that with his actions he, of course, entered the history of Russia, but with such a disadvantage that one cannot talk about his advantages.

Was Rasputin directly involved in solving the political problems of Tsarist Russia?

Alexey Uminsky

The empress refers to him in her letters. Rasputin, of course, influenced not only royal family, but also on the structure of the church, its personnel policy, and those people who were opposed to him, he tried to remove from the sovereign’s entourage.

German Lukyanov

Sometimes this is attributed to him, but I believe that he could not influence political events, both within the country and in the outside world. This was not given to him, including due to the existing political regime. Of course, he could influence some decisions, but he played a minor role there. He could recommend someone for some positions, but the last word belongs to the monarch.

Is it possible to believe that Rasputin really had some kind of supernatural power?

Alexey Uminsky

This is confirmed by fairly reliable things. But what the component of this force was is unknown. He had a special power, a special charm that allowed him to attract attention and dominate the minds and souls of those people who trusted him. I can’t say that his talent was bright and God-given, but it was there. He gathered around himself a whole circle of admirers and admirers, mostly who trusted him greatly. But the rumors about him as a depraved person who organizes some kind of orgies are, of course, far-fetched accusations. Some of the clergy were very supportive of Rasputin, Bishop Feofan introduced him into the royal family. But the Reverend Elizaveta Feodorovna reacted very harshly to his influence.

German Lukyanov

Naturally, he had extraordinary abilities, this is a well-known fact. It is known that he stopped the blood of the royal heir, and somehow he calmed the hearts of parents regarding their sick son. Yes, he was close to members of the royal family and communicated closely with them, but nothing more.

Why did the emperor stop loving Rasputin?

Alexey Uminsky

The Tsar was dissatisfied with the influence that Rasputin had on his family, but could not do anything about it, apparently because Rasputin had the ability to stop the blood of Tsarevich Alexei, thus influencing the royal family.

German Lukyanov

Because the emperor realized what role he occupied at court, and decided that Rasputin should be removed from the imperial court. Nicholas had already expelled Rasputin several times, but somehow he managed to appear before the royal eyes again. He had extraordinary ability, studied hypnosis, but these were all artificial techniques, so he was a bit of an adventurer, solving his own problems.

😉 Greetings history lovers! In the article “Grigory Rasputin: biography,” Interesting Facts» - information about the life of a peasant who was a friend of the family of Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

It's hard to imagine a stranger and mysterious person in Russian history than Grigory Rasputin. Many historians, among the main reasons that led to the revolution of 1917 (besides, of course, the First World War), name the period when Rasputin took a dominant position in the social and political life of Russia.

Rasputin wrote several books. During his lifetime, two were published: “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer” and “My Thoughts and Reflections.”

Biography of Grigory Rasputin

The time of the greatest power of the “elder” in history is usually called “Rasputinism”. The mystery of this man’s life dates back to his birth, since neither the date nor the place of birth are known for certain.

The main thoughts of historians agree that he was born presumably in 1869 in a remote village in the Tobolsk province under the name of Novykh.

His life was very stormy. Women, theft, heavy drinking - the circle of “interests” of Grigory Efimovich was quite wide. Most likely, he once met the Khlysty. As a result of this, he became a "prophet", discovering that he had psychic abilities.

Having started preaching in his village, he soon left for the capital, allegedly asking for money to build a temple in his homeland. At that time, peasants from all over the area came to the “elder” for advice. By the time he arrived in St. Petersburg, rumors about the “healer” and “prophet” were already ahead of him.

Healer of the royal family

Among the capital's citizens, the appearance of the "elder" aroused genuine interest. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who was influenced by him, also showed interest in him. The son of Emperor Nicholas II, Alexei, was born in 1904 and, to the great grief of his parents, the heir had a terrible illness - hemophilia (incoagulability of blood).

Even a tiny scratch on a boy's body could cost him his life. Obviously, it was this illness that served as a powerful impetus for Rasputin’s career at the imperial court. Having visited the royal palace, in some mysterious way Rasputin managed to significantly alleviate the boy’s illness.

Thus, the dependence of the royal couple Nikolai and Alexandra Feodorovna on the “healer” acquired truly colossal proportions. Rasputin slowly developed in their minds the idea that if he did not exist, then soon there would be no prince.

For ten years, Rasputin fueled the empress's dependence on himself, thereby manipulating the emperor. During this time, the influence of Grigory Efimovich increased to alarming proportions.

With the help of his “prophecies” he influenced the adoption of major political decisions. It was not without his participation that the people he needed were appointed in the government.

The growth of discontent among the citizens of the capital and the aristocracy was also fueled by Rasputin’s not entirely righteous lifestyle. since since his youth, the habits of the “prophet” have remained unchanged, only worsening into more perverted and sophisticated forms.

The result of it all was that hints of Grigory Efimovich’s connection with Germany, at that time the main enemy, began to appear more and more often in the press Russian Empire in the First World War.

Of course, along with people dissatisfied with Rasputin, there were those who were conquered by the numerous virtues of the “elder” and they could not say anything bad about him, and they would not. But the controversial personality of “the libertine Gregory” began to emerge as a very specific figure of the main enemy of the state.

Murder of Grigory Rasputin

Prince F. Yusupov, head of the Black Hundred organization “Union of the Russian People” V. Purishkevich, and later Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich decided to put an end to Rasputin. The conspirators invited Rasputin to Yusupov’s house on December 16, 1916, promising him an acquaintance with the wife of the owner of the house.

Rasputin's killers: Dmitry Romanov, Felix Yusupov, Vladimir Purishkevich

The drinks and various sweets that were served to Rasputin were poisoned with potassium cyanide, but the poison had no effect! Seeing how the “prophet” eats poisoned delicacies without experiencing any problems, Yusupov could not stand it and shot Rasputin with a pistol.

Assuming that he was dead, the conspirators left the body in the basement. After some time, they discovered with horror that Rasputin had run out into the yard and began to move with difficulty towards the gate.

Purishkevich shot the “healer” twice in the back. Rasputin stood up again and tried to walk. But the conspirators overtook him, tied his hands, wrapped him in a carpet and threw him into an ice hole. Subsequently, an examination will discover that Rasputin was still alive in the river. He did not die from his wounds, but drowned. His height was 193 cm.

The crime was solved quickly, although the strange thing was that the criminals were not really hiding. Purishkevich, for example, was not punished at all. Yusupov was exiled to the Kursk province, the Grand Duke was sent to Persia.

Alternative version of death

Of course, there are alternative versions of the death of Grigory Efimovich. Among them is a version based on the fact that the conspirators acted under the leadership of a certain British intelligence officer, who, fearing that Rasputin would dissuade the emperor from participating in the war, would be left without the support of a strong ally.

This version is confirmed by bullet holes in Rasputin's forehead. Traces allegedly from a “control” shot (which neither Yusupov nor Purishkevich wrote about in their memoirs).

Be that as it may, the personality of Grigory Rasputin, a righteous man or a charlatan, will excite the minds of people for a long time. The mystical power of this man’s personality is undeniable.

In this video there is additional information on the topic “Grigory Rasputin: biography”

FUCKED LIFE. A SECRET HIDDEN FOR 100 YEARS

The villainous murder of G.E. Rasputin was preceded by inhumane slander and lies, the purpose of which was to discredit the Royal Family, deprive the country of strong monarchical power, and weaken Russia, which by that time occupied a leading place in political and economic life among world powers.

In our time, interest in the royal theme, in the personality of G.E. Rasputin does not fade away. More and more publications are appearing where events and personalities are presented in the light of truth. We present to your attention one of such publications "Grigory Rasputin: slandered life, slandered death". The author of the article is a Russian philologist and writer Tatiana Mironova .

Identity falsification - creating a double

Fake historical documents, lies, with reference to “eyewitness accounts” - long-practiced, tested techniques of falsifiers of history.<…>

Grigory Rasputin was hated by those who hated the Tsar. They aimed at Grigory Efimovich in order to get into the Royal Family, into the Autocracy itself. Blatant slander against the Elder and falsification of his personality were used. Intelligent society in Russia was more willing to listen to rumors; they believed them even more than newspapers. Even Admiral Kolchak condemned the Sovereign for Rasputin, although Kolchak himself never saw the Elder, and here is a typical example: while he was serving in the Pacific Fleet, the admiral, according to him, barely managed to suppress the officer’s revolt in response to the spread rumor that Rasputin arrived in Vladivostok and wants to visit the warships. Kolchak himself was indignant at Rasputin for this intention, but it soon became clear that the rumor was false, Grigory Efimovich was not in Vladivostok. But Kolchak, by his own admission, remained disgusted with the Elder after this incident (1).

The French ambassador Maurice Paleologue also describes Rasputin hostilely, based only on St. Petersburg rumors and gossip, recounting all sorts of fictions, although he himself saw Grigory Efimovich only once while visiting Countess L. And the Frenchman could not say anything bad about this meeting, he only had time to look at “a man with piercing eyes,” who, looking at the arrogant Frenchman, regretfully said, “There are fools everywhere,” and left. The paleologist did not attribute this phrase to himself, so he retold it with chronicle accuracy.

Who and why was Grigory Efimovich hated? Who and what did the elder interfere with? Why was he hated?

In 1912, when Russia was ready to intervene in the Balkan conflict, Rasputin begged the Tsar on his knees not to engage in hostilities, and, of course, prayed to God to incline the Tsar’s heart to this. According to Count Witte, “he (Rasputin) indicated all the disastrous results of the European fire and the arrows of history turned differently. War was averted" (2). The powers of Rasputin’s prayer were so feared that the warmongers, in which it was necessary to drag Russia into, so that, in the words of Engels, “crowns would fly into the mud,” so, the warmongers, in a new attempt to fan the flames of world carnage, decided to kill Grigory Efimovich on the same day and the same hour as the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, whose death was the prepared pretext for the outbreak of war. Rasputin was then seriously wounded and, while he was unconscious and could not pray, the Tsar was forced to begin general mobilization in response to Germany’s declaration of war on Russia.

The enemies of Russia sensed and understood the entire threat posed by Rasputin to their destructive anti-autocratic, anti-Russian plans. No wonder Purishkevich, on behalf of all those who hated Autocratic Russia, shouted from the Duma rostrum about the main obstacle to the overthrow of the Throne: “As long as Rasputin is alive, we cannot win” (3).

And Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was a humble man of prayer, convinced that all his grace-filled power was faith in the Lord of those who asked for his prayers. Purely earthly paths led Grigory Efimovich in 1904 to St. Petersburg to ask for permission to build the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in his native village of Pokrovskoye. Then the Heir-Tsarevich had just been born, and the need for hourly prayer to God to save the child’s life was clearly outlined to his Royal parents.<…>

In little Alexei Nikolaevich, given to the Royal Family through the prayers of St. Seraphim of Sarov, all the hopes of the Sovereign for the well-being of his beloved people of Russia were concentrated. He was truly a “ray of sunshine” - a kind and bright child, a great consolation to the Family, who trembled at the thought that he might fade away. Through the prayers of the saints, the gifted baby could only be saved by the prayer of the saint, especially since his illness - hemophilia - was painful, suddenly appeared, very dangerous, but not inevitably fatal, and already the sons of Tsarevich Alexei would have been an absolutely healthy generation. And the Lord sent a prayer book to the Royal Family about the health of their son.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin is presented to the Emperor in October 1905. Grigory Efimovich, according to a special revelation from God, even at the first meeting with the Tsar and Empress, realized his special destiny and devoted his entire life to serving the Tsar. He leaves his wanderings, lives for a long time in St. Petersburg, gathering around him people faithful to the Sovereign, and most importantly, at the slightest danger to the little one, he is nearby, because his prayer for the Tsarevich appeared, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, pleasing to God, heard by Him. And this actual prayerful intercession for the Tsarevich was for the Tsar a visible sign that in the most difficult times of his reign, a spiritual assistant to the Tsar’s service had been sent from God. As the Tsar’s sister V.K. said. Olga Alexandrovna, the Tsar and the Queen “saw in him a peasant whose sincere piety made him an instrument of God” (4, p. 298). And honest investigator V.M. Rudnev, who was a member of the Extraordinary Commission of the Provisional Government, noted in his official note on the results of the investigation that “Their Majesties were sincerely convinced of the holiness of Rasputin, the only real representative and prayer book for the Sovereign, His Family and Russia before God” (5, p.153 ).

There are reliable facts, confirmed by many witnesses, that Rasputin saved Tsarevich Alexei from death. In 1907, when the Heir was three years old, he suffered a severe hemorrhage in his leg in Tsarskoye Selo Park. They called Grigory Efimovich, he prayed, the hemorrhage stopped. In October 1912, in Spala - the royal hunting grounds of Poland - Alexei Nikolaevich, after a severe injury, was so hopeless that doctors Fedorov and Rauchfus began to insist on the publication of bulletins about the health of the Heir. But the Empress did not rely on doctors, but only on the mercy of God. Rasputin was at that time in his homeland, in Pokrovskoye, and at the request of the Empress, Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova sent a telegram to Pokrovskoye. Soon the answer came: “God looked at your tears. Do not worry. Your Son will live." An hour after receiving the telegram, Alexei Nikolaevich’s condition improved sharply, and the mortal danger had passed.

In 1915, the Emperor, having gone to the Army, took Alexei Nikolaevich with him. On the way, the Tsarevich began to have a nosebleed. The train was returned because the Heir was bleeding. He lay in the nursery: “A small waxen face, bloody cotton wool in his nostrils.” Grigory Efimovich was called. “He arrived at the palace and went with his parents to Alexei Nikolaevich. According to their stories, he approached the bed, crossed the Heir, told his parents that there was nothing serious and they had nothing to worry about, turned and left. The bleeding stopped... The doctors said that they did not understand at all how this happened” (6, p.143-144).

The (Great) Princess Olga Alexandrovna testifies: “There were thousands and thousands of people who firmly believed in the power of prayer and the gift of healing that this man possessed” (29, p. 100).

Standing in prayer before God for the Heir is only a small part of Rasputin’s service to his Sovereign. He was a companion of prayer to the Anointed One of God for the Russian Autocratic Kingdom, and human sophisticated cunning and devilish malice, hidden from the eyes of the tsars, were often revealed to him. He warned the Tsar against many decisions that threatened disaster for the country: he was against the last convocation of the Duma, asked not to publish Duma seditious speeches, on the very eve of the February Revolution he insisted on bringing food to Petrograd - bread and butter from Siberia, even came up with the idea of ​​packaging flour and sugar so that avoid queues, because it was in the queues during the artificial organization of the grain crisis that the St. Petersburg unrest began, skillfully transformed into a “revolution”. And this is just a fraction of Rasputin’s predictions of current events during the war and pre-revolutionary period of 1914-1917. Knowing how to see the human soul, Grigory Efimovich knew the souls and moods of the sovereign’s closest servants, and therefore saw that in. book Nikolai Nikolaevich as Commander-in-Chief was not just the death of the Army, but also a threat to the Reign. Rasputin insisted that the Emperor lead the Army, and victory was not long in coming.

Rasputin's insight amazed everyone who had the opportunity to communicate with him. According to the story of Grigory Efimovich’s daughter Varvara, recorded by N.A. Sokolov in 1919, one day a woman came to Rasputin’s apartment. “The father, approaching her, said: “Well, come on, what’s in your right hand. I know what you have there." The lady took her hand out of her muff and handed him a revolver” (7, p.184).

The fact that Rasputin was perspicacious, and his perspicacity, given to him by God, guided his feat of prayer, is known not only from people spiritually close to him. The murderer Felix Yusupov testified in despair: “I have been involved in the occult for a long time and I can assure you that people like Rasputin, with such magnetic power, appear once every few centuries... No one can replace Rasputin, therefore the elimination of Rasputin will have good consequences for the revolution "(8, p.532). The enemies of the Tsar, who dreamed of destroying the Throne through “swinging society,” focused on denigrating Rasputin.<…>

How was Grigory Efimovich supposed to justify himself for non-existent sins and to whom? The Sovereign and Empress saw with their own eyes, felt his prayerful help every day and did not believe the slander, and from others... even the Sovereign and Empress only met condemnation and alienation for their favor towards the Elder. And Grigory Efimovich did not justify himself to anyone, but only prayed to God, and these prayers today remained his justification for all time: “I am going through difficult misdeeds. It’s terrible what they write, God! Give patience and stop the enemies from speaking!” (9, p.491).<…>

And such a person, the Tsar’s Friend, in the most important meaning of the word, always spiritually co-present with the Tsar in his service as the Anointed of God, first began to be killed spiritually - slandered and persecuted, and the purpose of the persecution was to tear Rasputin away from the Tsar, to destroy this saving union, powerful standing up as a spiritual wall in front of the destroyers of Russia. Many near and far, who believed the lies, went to the Tsar and Empress, wrote them insulting letters, threatened them, and demanded that Rasputin be expelled from them! But could the Emperor and Empress do this?<…>Slander had no effect on the High Ones, and the Throne still remained inviolable behind the wall of prayer of Elder Gregory, but slander had an effect on the crowd of intellectuals, on the mob, who had forgotten their love for the Tsars.

Almost all memoirs about Grigory Efimovich Rasputin suffer from a drawback that is surprising for memories: most memoirists did not see Grigory Efimovich or saw him briefly, from afar. But all the “memories”, both those who were sympathetic to the Royal Family and those who expressed hostility towards Her, spoke equally badly about Rasputin, repeating the same thing: a drunkard, a libertine, a whip. What did they know about him? What, besides rumors...<…>

Fortunately, there are other people among memoirists. General P.G. Kurlov published the book “The Death of Imperial Russia” in Berlin in 1923. The general never belonged to the circle of Grigory Efimovich, and the elder’s haters cannot accuse him of bias, in addition, he is a professional policeman, director of the Police Department, head of the Main Prison Directorate, comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and experience in dealing with people of criminal thinking and behavior, namely, this is the image of Rasputin that was imposed on society, Kurlov had a huge one, and he had no reason to stand up for Rasputin and the Royal Family after 1911, because with the murder of P.A. Stolypin's own destiny and career collapsed. Kurlov describes Rasputin as he himself saw him. “I was in the ministerial office, where the courier on duty brought Rasputin. A thin man with a wedge-shaped dark brown beard and piercing, intelligent eyes approached the minister. He sat down with P.A. Stolypin near the large table and began to prove that it was in vain to suspect him of something, since he is the most meek and harmless person... Following this, I expressed to the minister my impression: in my opinion, Rasputin was a type of Russian cunning man, that is called - on his own mind, and did not seem like a charlatan to me” (15, p. 312). “For the first time I talked with Rasputin in the winter of 1912 at one of my acquaintances... The external impression of Rasputin was the same as what I made when, unknown to him, I saw him in the minister’s office... This time I was struck only by Rasputin’s serious acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and theological issues. He behaved with restraint and not only did not show a shadow of boasting, but did not say a single word about his relationship with the Royal Family. Likewise, I did not notice any signs of hypnotic power in him and, leaving after this conversation, I could not help but say to myself that most of the rumors circulating about his influence on those around him belonged to the field of gossip, to which Petersburg is always so susceptible" (15, p. 317). At a new meeting with Kurlov, “Rasputin was keenly interested in the war and, since I had come from the theater of military operations, asked my opinion about its possible outcome, categorically stating that he considered the war with Germany a huge disaster for Russia... Being an opponent of the war that had begun, he with great patriotic enthusiasm he spoke about the need to bring it to the end, in the confidence that the Lord God will help the Emperor and Russia... It follows from this that the accusation of Rasputin of treason was just as justified as the already refuted accusation of the Empress... I had to talk with Rasputin several times in the last months of his life. I met him at the same Badmaev’s and was amazed by his innate intelligence and practical understanding of current issues, even of a state nature” (15, p. 318).

So, slander had no effect on the Royal Family; Rasputin’s prayers were its constant strengthening.<…>That is why it was decided to kill the Royal Friend, leaving the Family alone and without prayer protection on earth. But in order to publicly kill the elder, in order to make society want this murder, it was necessary to increase the slander tenfold, it was necessary to drag the bright faces of the Tsars into the mud. For this purpose, a scam was invented with the appearance of a false identity - a double of Grigory Rasputin.

The first guesses that the Royal Family compromised through Grigory Efimovich's double, appeared shortly after the murder of the Elder. One of the evidence of this is the story of the ataman of the Don Army, Count D.M. Grabbe about how, shortly after the murder of Rasputin, he was “invited to breakfast by the famous Prince Andronnikov, who allegedly handled business through Rasputin. Entering the dining room, Grabbe was amazed to see Rasputin in the next room. Not far from the table stood a man who looked exactly like Rasputin. Andronnikov looked inquisitively at his guest. Grabbe pretended not to be surprised at all. The man stood, stood, left the room and did not appear again” (17, p. 148). Needless to say, such a “double” could appear during the life of Grigory Efimovich in any “hot” place, could get drunk, make scandals, hug women, about which daily reports were compiled by dirt-hungry newspapermen, could leave the entrance of the house on Gorokhovaya and march on apartment to a prostitute, about which daily reports were compiled by security department agents. Yu.A. Den recalls with bewilderment: “It got to the point that they stated that Rasputin was debauched in the capital, while in fact he was in Siberia” (10, p.95).

The story of the double's revelry in the Moscow restaurant "Yar" - the best for that confirmation.

On March 26, 1915, Grigory Efimovich arrived and left Moscow on the same day. But here is the report of Colonel Martynov that “according to the information of the bailiff of the 2nd school. Sushchevsky part of Moscow, Colonel Semenov,” Rasputin on March 26, at about 11 pm, visited the Yar restaurant with the widow Anisya Reshetnikova, journalist Nikolai Soedov and an unidentified young woman. Then they were joined by the editor-publisher of the newspaper “News of the Season” Semyon Lazarevich Kugulsky. The company drank wine, the dispersed “Rasputin” danced the Russian dance, performed obscenities, and boasted of his power over the “old woman” (as this man called the Tsarina). At 2 o'clock in the morning the company left.<…>

The Empress quite rightly wrote to the Emperor: “He (Elder Gregory) has been slandered enough. As if they couldn’t call the police immediately and catch Him at the scene of the crime” (19).

So, in the Moscow restaurant "Yar" Rasputin's "double" walked with a dummy company, and everything played out as usual: drunkenness, harassment of ladies, mentions of the Royal Family, Khlystov dance. And if the police had been called at the same time, it would have been revealed that Rasputin was not real, and Anisya Reshetnikova, a pious merchant widow of 76 years old, had never been to the restaurant. But the newspaperman Semyon Lazarevich Kugulsky was a genuine person and, most likely, was the entrepreneur of the “orgy”. It was he who tried to ensure that the case of the revelry in “Yar” got into the press even before the investigation and became overgrown with obscene details. Following this, the State Duma prepared a request about the events at the Yar restaurant, then did not give it a go, deliberately spreading the fiction that the Duma was prohibited from making this request, since the Royal Family was “afraid of the truth.” And the idle rabble went and went to slander - a drunken, depraved man - the favorite of the Royal Family!

This is how, deliberately and brazenly, the double of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was introduced into society. And although the actions of the double, his words, notes, his very appearance - a long fleshy nose, a thin beard, restless, shifting eyes - were very different from the handsome appearance of Grigory Efimovich, the double persistently passed himself off and, most importantly, was willingly accepted as the Prayer Book and Friend of the Royal Family.

It is thanks to the existence of the double that two Rasputins appear from the pages of the security department reports: one is pious, splendid, pious, goes to churches, defends liturgies, lights candles, goes to apartments to heal the sick, receives petitioners, spiritual children, eats with them, and, moreover, how noted by all the people really close to him, Father Gregory does not take any wine, meat, or sweets into his mouth. Strict abstinence. The money donated by the petitioners is immediately distributed to other petitioners. And, most importantly, he is respectful to the point of reverence towards the Imperial Family. Another “Rasputin” is drunk for weeks, visits harlots, takes bribes for patronage, makes scandals in restaurants, breaks dishes and mirrors there, speaks bad things about the Royal Family.

The time will come, and new documents will be discovered that will definitively prove to us that the dark personality, who outwardly resembled Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, was created by the enemies of the Autocratic Russian Kingdom.

(1.) Protocols of the interrogation of Admiral Kolchak by the emergency commission of inquiry in Irkutsk in January-February. 1920 // Archive of the Russian Revolution. – T.10. – M. – 1991.

(3.) Interrogation of Maklakov V.A. Sokolov N.A. // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(4.) Worres Ian. The last Grand Duchess. – M. – 1998.

(5.) Note from Rudnev V.M. “The truth about the Russian Royal Family and dark forces” // Russian Archive. – M. – 1998.

(6.) Taneyeva (Vyrubova) A.A. Pages of my life. – M. 2000.

(7.) Sokolov N.A. Preliminary investigation 1919-1920 // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(8.) Interrogation of Maklakov V.A. Sokolov N.A. // Investigation of the regicide. Secret documents. – M. – 1993.

(9.) Groyan T.I. Martyr for Christ and for the Tsar. – M. – 2000.

(10.) Den Yu.A. The real Queen. – M. – 1998.

(15.) Kurlov P.G. The Death of Imperial Russia // Grigory Rasputin. Collection of historical materials. – M. – 1997. – T.2.

(17.) Rodzianko M.V. The collapse of the empire. - Kharkiv. – 1990.

(19.) Platonov O.A. Nicholas II in secret correspondence. – M. – 1996.

(29.) Alexander Mikhailovich v. book Book of memories // Nicholas II. Memories. Diaries. – St. Petersburg. – 1994.

We publish the preface to the book “Grigory Rasputin the New. The Life of an Experienced Wanderer. My thoughts and reflections”, published in 2002 by the publishing house “Lestvitsa”.

In Russian history G.E. Rasputin is one of the most slandered people, in whose official biography there is not a single real event.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (09/22.01.1869 – 17/30.12.1916) was born in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen region. Of the 9 born in the peasant family, he and his sister Feodosia remained, who later got married and left for another village. The surname “Rasputin” comes from the word “crossroads”, which means the development of roads, crossroads.

God's gifts of insight and healing appeared in childhood. He knew which of his fellow villagers would soon die, who had stolen what. He could sit near the stove and say: “A stranger is coming towards us.” And indeed, soon he knocked. One day his father said that their horse had sprained a ligament. He went to her, prayed and told her: “Now you will feel better.” The horse recovered. Since then, he has become a kind of rural veterinarian. Then it spread to people.

Rasputin met his future wife Dubrovina Paraskeva Fedorovna during a pilgrimage to the Abalaki monastery at the age of 18. The marriage produced 7 children, three of whom survived.

Many people in Tsarist Russia lived according to the Orthodox traditions of Holy Rus' - mainly in the spring (during Lent) or autumn (after the harvest) people walked to the holy monasteries. The common people made pilgrimages mainly on foot, eating and spending the night with the hosts who sheltered them, who readily performed this godly task. Rasputin did the same. I visited the nearby Tyumen and Abalak monasteries, the Verkhoturye St. Nicholas Monastery, the Sedmiozersk and Optina Hermitages, and the Pochaev Lavra. Repeatedly went on pilgrimage to Kyiv, to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Later I was on New Athos, in Jerusalem. Until his death, he always farmed himself (sowing and harvesting work), without hiring help.

He came to St. Petersburg in the late autumn of 1904 to the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius of Stragorod (the future patriarch), with a letter of recommendation from the vicar of the Kazan diocese, Chrysanf (Shchetkovsky), who introduced him to some people in St. Petersburg society. Rasputin was looking for money to build a new church in the village of Pokrovskoye, and in the end the tsar himself gave money for the construction.

He was also in Kronstadt with Fr. John, who also in his time for communication with the king Alexander III called a sectarian, a libertine, a self-seeker. Received communion from the hands of Fr. John. According to the memoirs of Rasputin's daughter Matryona, Fr. John came out of the altar and asked: “Who is praying so fervently here?” He approached Rasputin, lifted him from his knees, and then invited him to his place. During the conversation he said: “It will be for you according to your name” (the name “Gregory” means “awake”).

For many representatives of high society “after the eternal intrigues and evils of secular life,” as well as during those troubled times when monarchists in high positions were killed by bombs and gunshots, conversations with him served as a consolation. Learned people and priests found him interesting. Although Gregory was illiterate, he knew the Holy Scriptures by heart and knew how to interpret them. Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) of Tobolsk considered Rasputin “an Orthodox Christian, a very intelligent, spiritually minded man, seeking the truth of Christ, able to give good advice to those who need it.”

He did the same in his native village of Pokrovskoye. According to memories in the 90s. old residents of the village, he helped the children get dressed for school, arrange a wedding for their son, buy a horse, etc.

In addition to cases of stopping bleeding in an hemophiliac heir (including when the heir was in Poland, and Rasputin was in the village of Pokrovsky, and a telegram was sent to him), there are cases when, through Rasputin’s prayers, the Lord healed and alleviated the suffering of O.V. Lakhtina (neurasthenia of the intestines), son of A.S. Simanovich (Witt's dance), A.A. Vyrubova (crushed bones in a train crash), daughter of P.A. Stolypin (his legs were blown off when terrorists exploded a bomb at his dacha).

Rasputin was an opponent of the war, he said that it was death for Russia, but if we are going to fight, we must see it to a victorious end. He approved when the tsar introduced prohibition in 1914 and replaced him as Commander-in-Chief in 1915. book Nikolai Nikolaevich, who led the army to retreat. On his advice, during the war, the empress and her eldest daughters completed courses and worked as nurses, while the younger ones darned clothes for soldiers and prepared bandages and lint in the Tsarskoye Selo hospital (the only case in history).

He could refuse to meet with the prince or count and walk on foot to the outskirts of the city to meet with an artisan or simple peasant. Princes and counts, as a rule, do not forgive such independence to a “simple peasant”. The epicenter of slander comes from the palace of Uncle Nicholas II. book Nikolai Nikolaevich and his wife Stana Nikolaevna with her sister Militsa. It was through these sisters that Grigory Rasputin first met the royal couple in November 1905. But after the tsarina’s quarrel with her sisters and the failure of Nikolai Nikolaevich to use Rasputin to influence the tsar, this family and its entourage in 1907 became unfriendly to the royal family and especially to its friend Rasputin. Many people from secular society were indignant at the royal family for bringing a simple peasant closer to them, and not from among the well-born and eminent.

In 1910, in order to undermine the throne and the entire Russian state, some newspapers joined in denigrating Rasputin, which people believed just as much as we now believe the media. Provincial newspapers often took articles from metropolitan newspapers.

In 1912, Hieromonk Iliodor (Trufanov), who knew Rasputin, renounces Christ (sends a written renunciation to the synod), apologizes to the Jews and begins to write a slanderous book on Rasputin and the royal family “Holy Devil”, individual episodes from which were published in imperial Russia, and it was published in its entirety in Russia after the February Revolution.

In 1914, the bourgeois Khionia Guseva makes an attempt on Rasputin's life in the village of Pokrovskoye (she hits him in the stomach with a dagger). When the police find out that she is a follower of Iliodor-Trufanov, he flees responsibility abroad. Unlike us, the enemies of our Fatherland know very well who is for them and who is against them, and Iliodor-Trufanov, who has already returned to Soviet Russia, gets a job on the recommendation of F.E. Dzerzhinsky to the Cheka for special cases.

To create the image of Rasputin as a drunkard, a whip and a depraved person, his doubles worked.

The real G.E. Rasputin

Photos of G.E.'s doubles Rasputin, given in the book

Reputable journalists and writers were invited to a meeting with the double and his fans, so that they would subsequently write and tell their friends about Rasputin’s behavior (memoirs of the writer N.A. Teffi). The existence of a double was also testified to by the ataman of the Don army, Count D.M. Grabbe, who spoke about how, shortly after the murder of Rasputin, he was invited to breakfast by the famous Prince Andronnikov, who allegedly handled business through Rasputin. Entering the dining room, Grabbe was amazed to see Rasputin in the next room. Not far from the table stood a man who looked exactly like Rasputin. Andronnikov looked inquisitively at his guest. Grabbe pretended not to be surprised at all. The man stood, stood, left the room and did not appear again.

General V.F. was also active. Dzhunkovsky was the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the head of the gendarme corps while he was in this post. Under his patronage, a case was fabricated in 1915 about Rasputin’s unbridled behavior in the Moscow restaurant “Yar” without a single testimony from a real person, who was widely covered in the press, and the diaries of external surveillance of Rasputin, supposedly to protect his life after the assassination attempt, were subjected to literary processing.

The owner of the St. Petersburg restaurant “Villa Rode” A.S. also worked in conjunction with the double. Rode. Articles about Rasputin's debauchery in this restaurant were regularly published in newspapers.

After the Bolshevik revolution, Prince Andronnikov and General Dzhunkovsky were accepted and worked in the bodies of the Cheka, and the merchant A.S. Rode was appointed director of the House of Scientists in Petrograd.

Forged letters from the empress and her daughters to Rasputin circulated in secular salons, talking about an adulterous relationship between them, allegedly given by Rasputin to Iliodor-Trufanov while communicating with him. Rumors spread at the front that the Empress (German by birth) and Rasputin surrendered Russia to Germany due to the alleged weakness of the Tsar because of their love of alcohol. Rasputin was credited with influencing government affairs, all unpopular dismissals and appointments, and government actions that were undesirable to society. Duma figures, future Februaryists, spoke out and spoke from the rostrum against Rasputin.

A woman came to confession to the confessor of the royal family, Archimandrite Feofan (Bystrov), who told about Rasputin’s inappropriate behavior with her, and he, not allowing the idea that one could lie in confession, and violating the secrecy of confession, told the empress and the hierarchs he knew about this.

Rasputin spoke about the highest Christian virtue - love, which is not understandable even to all Christians, not to mention the people of this world, and it was conveniently turned into carnal “love”, understandable to everyone. Likewise, humility was turned into thoughtless submission.

It must be said that everyone close to the royal family, the royal ministers, and monarchists in general were subjected to attacks and ridicule. As the royal doctor E.S. said. Botkin: “If there had been no Rasputin, the opponents of the Royal Family and the preparers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova; if there had been no Vyrubova, from me, from whomever you want.”

Many people, incl. those who subsequently left their memoirs in exile, who did not know Rasputin personally, formed their opinion about him based on rumors circulating in their social circle. The tsar himself repeatedly arranged secret checks of the “facts,” but they were not confirmed.

Believing in the slander against the royal family and its friend Rasputin, the Russian people calmly accepted the February revolution, the overthrow of the tsar and even the murder of the royal family.

Rasputin told his loved ones that he would not live to see 1917 and would die in terrible agony. Before going with F.F. Yusupov to his house, he burned all the correspondence and put on a new shirt. They killed as martyrs: they beat him with a whip, knocked out an eye, pulled out tufts of hair, and made an incision under the left hypochondrium (in the image of Christ). Then they threw him alive into the hole, because... my lungs were full of water.

The investigation showed all this contrary to the official version - the execution, which was described by those who declared themselves to be murderers (but from their testimony it is clear that they did not know what kind of shirt Rasputin was wearing, i.e. they did not see him without outer clothing). Found not far from a hole under the ice. The fingers of the right hand, freed from the rope, were folded into the sign of the cross as a symbol of victory over death.

Immediately after the abdication of the king, by order of A.F. Kerensky's body, Rasputin's body was dug up and burned in the suburbs of Petrograd, the case of his murder was closed, Khionia Guseva was released (in 1919, she also attempted the life of Patriarch Tikhon with a dagger), Rasputin's spiritual father, Fr. Makariy (Polikarpov) Verkhotursky. The revolutionary synod sent all the monarchist hierarchs to retire, incl. Bishop Isidore (Kolokolov), who performed the funeral service for Rasputin. After the Bolshevik revolution, Rasputin's daughter Matryona emigrated with her husband, the second daughter died of typhus, his wife and son were exiled as special settlers, where they died. Church and house of Rasputin in the village. Pokrovsky was destroyed. The main reason for burning the bodies of the royal family and Rasputin is to conceal the method of murder (those who were actually shot were not burned).

In films and books - creating the external image of a huge, tall and scary man. In reality, Rasputin was in poor health, not physically very strong, and of short stature (as can be seen from the photograph, and the Empress, as is known, was of average height).

All films, all foreign and domestic literature (with the exception of books: I.V. Evsin “The Slandered Elder”, T.L. Mironov “From Under the Lies”, O.A. Platonov “Life for the Tsar” and the documentary film “ Martyr for Christ and for the Tsar Gregory the New” directed by V. Ryzhko, as well as the book of the same name by schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan) and V.L. Smirnov “The Unknown about Rasputin”), fake diaries of the queen’s friend A.A. Vyrubova, Rasputin himself and the memoirs of his daughter Matryona, allegedly his secretary A.S. Simanovich, the names of restaurants, alcohol and tobacco products - everything is aimed at denigrating Rasputin, which pursues 3 goals:

1) Discrediting the monarchy. By calling it imperialism, tsarism, the tsarist regime, we are told that the tsar himself, with his wife and friend Rasputin, became the cause of the fall of the autocracy, revolutions and subsequent troubles in Russia.

2) Discrediting the Orthodox faith.“The royal family and Rasputin were Orthodox, but what did they do?”

3) Discrediting the Russian people. Because Rasputin is a representative of the common people, a representation of this people as the source of everything bad and unclean, and not the source of a godly life and loyalty to the tsar.

The denigration of Rasputin is being done constantly (new books and films are being published) in order to instill in all generations of Russian people (and the whole world) a persistent rejection, and therefore a non-return to their Christian statehood - Orthodoxy, monarchy, nationality.

On the contrary, what was disintegrated in Tsarist Russia was secular society, which stood between the Tsar and the people. It despised the common people, at the expense of which it lived, considered the monarchy an obstacle to progress according to the Western model, and a disdainful and mocking attitude towards Orthodoxy was a sign of good form (many were involved in the occult). In his last letter, Rasputin said that in 25 years there would be no nobles left in Russia.

Many people refer to the negative attitude of the now canonized saints towards Rasputin, but no one talks about a subsequent change in their opinion. After the Bolshevik revolution, Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganov) (whose cell attendant Iliodor-Trufanov was at one time) sent the royal family in Tobolsk a letter apologizing for his statements, served a memorial service for Rasputin, for which he was drowned in the river. Ture opposite the village. Pokrovsky. The Tsarina's sister Elizaveta Feodorovna sent the royal family in Yekaterinburg a small copy of the newly-revealed "Sovereign" icon of the Mother of God and a letter of forgiveness for condemning them, believing in the slander of Rasputin.

There is only one truth, and it is with God. The Lord does not give His gifts to ordinary sinful people, not to mention obvious sinners. And images of ordinary people do not stream myrrh, but only the righteous, and there are no exceptions to this phenomenon (as the icon of Rasputin, painted by the Tobolsk Orthodox who did not wait for his canonization, streams myrrh).

Myrrh-streaming icon G.E. Rasputin

The Lord will ask each person for failure to comply with His commandment “Do not judge,” especially if the person being condemned is innocent. A person’s guilt is greater in the case of public statements and seducing others into this sin.

Those people who believe that Rasputin stopped the blood of the heir with witchcraft blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because. do not agree with the decision of the Orthodox Church to canonize the royal family. Because According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, turning to magicians is punishable by excommunication from church communion, and certainly not canonization. And, as you know, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven either in this or in the next century.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin is an outstanding personality in history. His image is quite ambiguous and mysterious. Disputes about this man have been going on for almost a century.

Birth of Rasputin

Many still have not been able to decide who Rasputin is and what he actually became famous for in the history of Russia. He was born in 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoye. Official information about the date of his birth is quite contradictory. Some historians believe that Grigory Rasputin's life span is 1864-1917. In his mature years, he himself did not clarify things, reporting various untrue data about the date of his birth. Historians believe that Rasputin liked to exaggerate his age in order to fit the image of an old man he himself created.

In addition, many explained such a strong influence on the royal family precisely by the presence of hypnotic abilities. Rumors about Rasputin's healing powers had been spreading since his youth, but even his parents did not believe in it. His father believed that he became a pilgrim only because he was very lazy.

Assassination attempt on Rasputin

There were several attempts on the life of Grigory Rasputin. In 1914, he was stabbed in the stomach and seriously wounded by Khionia Guseva, who came from Tsaritsyn. At that time she was under the influence of Hieromonk Iliodor, who was an opponent of Rasputin, since he saw him as his main competitor. Guseva was placed in a psychiatric hospital, considered mentally ill, and after some time she was released.

Iliodor himself more than once chased Rasputin with an ax, threatening to kill him, and also prepared 120 bombs for this purpose. In addition, there were also several more attempts on the life of the “holy elder,” but all of them were unsuccessful.

Predicting your own death

Rasputin had an amazing gift of providence, so he not only predicted his own death, but also the death of the royal family, and many other events. The empress's confessor, Bishop Feofan, recalled that Rasputin was once asked what the outcome of the meeting with the Japanese would be. He replied that Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s squadron would drown, which is what happened in the battle of Tsushima.

Once, while with the imperial family in Tsarskoe Selo, Rasputin did not allow them to have dinner in the dining room, saying that the chandelier might fall. They obeyed him, and literally 2 days later the chandelier actually fell.

They say that he left behind 11 more prophecies that are gradually coming true. He also predicted his own death. Shortly before the murder, Rasputin wrote a will with terrible prophecies. He said that if he was killed by peasants or hired killers, then nothing would threaten the imperial family and the Romanovs would remain in power for many years. And if the nobles and boyars kill him, then this will bring destruction to the House of Romanov and there will be no nobility in Russia for another 25 years.

The story of Rasputin's murder

Many people are interested in who Rasputin is and why he is famous in history. Moreover, his death was unusual and surprising. A group of conspirators were from wealthy families, under the leadership of Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, they decided to put an end to the unlimited power of Rasputin.

In December 1916, they lured him to a late dinner, where they tried to poison him by mixing potassium cyanide into cakes and wine. However, potassium cyanide had no effect. Yusupov got tired of waiting and shot Rasputin in the back, but the shot only provoked the old man more, and he rushed at the prince, trying to strangle him. His friends came to Yusupov’s aid, who shot Rasputin several more times and beat him severely. After that, they tied his hands, wrapped him in cloth and threw him into the hole.

According to some reports, Rasputin fell into the water while still alive, but could not get out, became hypothermic and choked, from which he died. However, there are records that he received mortal wounds while still alive and fell into the water of the Neva already dead.

Information about this, as well as the testimony of his killers, is quite contradictory, so it is not known exactly how this happened.

The series "Grigory Rasputin" is not entirely true to reality, since in the film he was made to be a tall and powerful man, although, in fact, he was short and sickly in his youth. According to historical facts he was a pale, frail man with an exhausted appearance and sunken eyes. This is confirmed by police records.

There are quite contradictory and interesting facts in the biography of Grigory Rasputin, according to which he did not possess any extraordinary abilities. Rasputin is not the old man’s real name, it is just his pseudonym. Real name is Vilkin. Many believed that he was a ladies' man, constantly changing women, but contemporaries noted that Rasputin sincerely loved his wife and constantly remembered her.

There is an opinion that the “holy elder” was fabulously rich. Since he had influence at court, he was often approached with requests for large rewards. Rasputin spent part of the money on himself, as he built a 2-story house in his native village and purchased an expensive fur coat. He spent most of his money on charity and built churches. After his death, security services checked the accounts, but found no money in them.

Many said that Rasputin was actually the ruler of Russia, but this is absolutely not true, because Nicholas II had his own opinion on everything, and the elder was only allowed to sometimes advise. These and many other interesting facts about Grigory Rasputin show that he was completely different from what he was thought to be.

Grigory Rasputin is one of the most amazing people born on Russian soil. Not a single tsar, commander, scientist, statesman in Rus' had such popularity, fame and influence as this semi-literate man from the Urals gained. His talent as a soothsayer and his mysterious death are still a matter of debate for historians. Some considered him vicious, others saw him as a saint. Who was Rasputin really?...

Speaking surname

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin really happened to live at the crossroads of historical roads and was destined to become a witness and participant in the tragic choice that was made at that time.

Grigory Rasputin was born on January 9 (21 according to the new style) in the village of Pokrovsky, Tyumen district, Tobolsk province. The ancestors of Grigory Efimovich came to Siberia among the first pioneers. For a long time they bore the surname Izosimov, named after the same Izosim who moved from the Vologda land beyond the Urals. The two sons of Nason Izosimov began to be called Rasputin - and, accordingly, their descendants.

Here is how researcher A. Varlamov writes about the family of Grigory Rasputin: “The children of Anna and Efim Rasputin died one after another. First, in 1863, after living for several months, daughter Evdokia died, a year later another girl, also named Evdokia.

The third daughter was named Glykeria, but she lived only a few months. On August 17, 1867, son Andrei was born, who, like his sisters, turned out to be a non-tenant. Finally, in 1869, the fifth child, Gregory, was born. The name was given according to the calendar in honor of St. Gregory of Nyssa, known for his sermons against fornication."

With a dream about God

Rasputin is often portrayed as almost a giant, a monster with iron health and the ability to eat glass and nails. In fact, Gregory grew up as a weak and sickly child.

Later, he wrote about his childhood in an autobiographical essay, which he called “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer”: “My whole life was illness. Medicine did not help me. Every spring I did not sleep for forty nights. It was as if I was sleeping like oblivion, and spent all my time.” .

At the same time, already in childhood, Gregory’s thoughts differed from the train of thought of the common man in the street. Grigory Efimovich himself writes about it this way: “At the age of 15 in my village, when the sun was warm and the birds sang heavenly songs, I walked along the path and did not dare to walk in the middle of it... I dreamed of God... My soul rushed into the distance... More than once, dreaming like this, I cried and did not know where the tears came from and why they were. I believed in the good, the kind, and I often sat with the old people, listening to their stories about the lives of saints, great deeds, great deeds."

The Power of Prayer

Gregory early realized the power of his prayer, which manifested itself in relation to both animals and people. This is how his daughter Matryona writes about this: “From my grandfather, I know about my father’s extraordinary ability to handle domestic animals. Standing next to a restive horse, he could, placing his hand on its neck, quietly say a few words, and the animal would immediately calm down. And when he watched the milking, the cow became completely docile.

One day at dinner, my grandfather said that his horse was lame. Hearing this, the father silently rose from the table and went to the stable. The grandfather followed and saw his son stand for a few seconds near the horse in concentration, then go up to the back leg and put his palm on the hamstring. He stood with his head slightly thrown back, then, as if deciding that the healing had been accomplished, he stepped back, stroked the horse and said: “You feel better now.”

After that incident, my father became like a miracle worker veterinarian. Then he began to treat people too. "God helped."

Guilty without guilt

As for Gregory’s dissolute and sinful youth, accompanied by horse stealing and orgies, this is nothing more than later fabrications of newspapermen. Matryona Rasputina in her book claims that her father was so perspicacious from a young age that he “saw” the thefts of others several times and therefore for himself personally excluded the very possibility of theft: it seemed to him that others “see” it just as much as he does .

I looked through all the testimony about Rasputin that was given during the investigation in the Tobolsk Consistory. Not a single witness, even the most hostile to Rasputin (and there were many of them), accused him of theft or horse stealing.

Nevertheless, Gregory still experienced injustice and human cruelty. One day he was unjustly accused of horse theft and severely beaten, but the investigation soon found the culprits, who were sent to Eastern Siberia. All charges against Gregory were dropped.

Family life

No matter how many amorous stories are attributed to Rasputin, nevertheless, as Varlamov rightly notes, he had a beloved wife: “Everyone who knew her spoke well of this woman. Rasputin married when he was eighteen years old. His wife was three years older than him, a hard worker ", patient. She gave birth to seven children, of whom the first three died."

Grigory Efimovich met his betrothed at the dances that he loved so much. This is how his daughter Matryona writes about it: “Mom was tall and stately, she loved to dance no less than he did. Her name was Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, Parasha...

Rasputin with children (from left to right): Matryona, Varya, Mitya.

The beginning of them family life was happy. But then trouble came - the first-born lived only a few months. The boy's death affected his father even more than his mother. He took the loss of his son as a sign that he had been waiting for, but he could not have imagined that this sign would be so terrible.

He was haunted by one thought: the death of a child is a punishment for the fact that he thought so little about God. The father prayed. And prayers consoled the pain. A year later, the second son, Dmitry, was born, then - with an interval of two years - daughters Matryona and Varya. My father started building a new house - two-story, the largest in Pokrovsky..."

Rasputin's house in Pokrovskoye

His family laughed at him. He did not eat meat or sweets, heard different voices, walked from Siberia to St. Petersburg and back, and ate alms. In the spring, he had exacerbations - he did not sleep for many days in a row, sang songs, shook his fists at Satan and ran in the cold in his shirt.

His prophecies consisted of calls to repentance “before trouble comes.” Sometimes, by pure coincidence, trouble happened the very next day (huts burned, livestock got sick, people died) - and the peasants began to believe that the blessed man had the gift of foresight. He gained followers... and followers.

This went on for about ten years. Rasputin learned about the Khlysty (sectarians who beat themselves with whips and suppressed lust through group sex), as well as the Skoptsy (preachers of castration) who separated from them. It is assumed that he adopted some of their teachings and more than once personally “delivered” pilgrims from sin in the bathhouse.

At the “divine” age of 33, Gregory begins to storm St. Petersburg. Having secured recommendations from provincial priests, he settles with the rector of the Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius, the future Stalinist patriarch. He, impressed by the exotic character, represents the “old man” (long years of wandering on foot gave the young Rasputin the appearance of an old man) strong of the world this. Thus began the journey " God's man"to glory.

Rasputin with his fans (mostly female fans).

Rasputin's first loud prophecy was the prediction of the death of our ships at Tsushima. Perhaps he got it from newspaper news reports that a squadron of old ships had sailed to meet the modern Japanese fleet without observing secrecy measures.

Ave, Caesar!

The last ruler of the House of Romanov was distinguished by lack of will and superstition: he considered himself Job, doomed to trials, and kept meaningless diaries, where he shed virtual tears, looking at how his country was going downhill.

The queen also lived in isolation from real world and believed in the supernatural power of the “elders of the people.” Knowing this, her friend, the Montenegrin princess Milica, took outright scoundrels to the palace. The monarchs listened to the ravings of swindlers and schizophrenics with childish delight. The war with Japan, the revolution and the illness of the prince finally unbalanced the pendulum of the weak royal psyche. Everything was ready for Rasputin's appearance.

For a long time, only daughters were born in the Romanov family. To conceive a son, the queen resorted to the help of the French magician Philip. It was he, and not Rasputin, who was the first to take advantage of the spiritual naivety of the royal family. About the scale of the mess that reigned in the minds of the last Russian monarchs (one of the most educated people that time), one can judge by the fact that the queen felt safe thanks to a magic icon with a bell that supposedly rang when evil people approached.

Nikki and Alix during their engagement (late 1890s)

The first meeting of the Tsar and Tsarina with Rasputin took place on November 1, 1905 at the palace over tea. He dissuaded the weak-willed monarchs from escaping to England (they say they were already packing their things), which most likely would have saved them from death and would have sent Russian history in a different direction.

The next time, he gave the Romanovs a miraculous icon (found from them after the execution), then allegedly healed Tsarevich Alexei, who had hemophilia, and eased the pain of Stolypin’s daughter, wounded by terrorists. The shaggy man forever captured the hearts and minds of the august couple.

The Emperor personally arranges for Gregory to change his dissonant surname to “New” (which, however, did not stick). Soon Rasputin-Novykh acquires another lever of influence at court - the young maid of honor Anna Vyrubova, who idolized the “elder” (a close friend of the queen - according to rumors, even too close, who slept with her in the same bed). He becomes the confessor of the Romanovs and comes to the tsar at any time without making an appointment for an audience.

Please note that in all photographs Rasputin always holds one hand raised.

At court, Gregory was always “in character,” but outside the political scene he was completely transformed. Having bought himself a new house in Pokrovskoye, he took noble St. Petersburg fans there. There the “elder” put on expensive clothes, became self-satisfied, and gossiped about the king and nobles. Every day he showed the queen (whom he called “mother”) miracles: he predicted the weather or the exact time of the king’s return home. It was then that Rasputin made his most famous prediction: “As long as I live, the dynasty will live.”

The growing power of Rasputin did not suit the court. Cases were brought against him, but each time the “elder” very successfully left the capital, going either home to Pokrovskoye or on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1911, the Synod spoke out against Rasputin. Bishop Hermogenes (who ten years ago expelled a certain Joseph Dzhugashvili from the theological seminary) tried to drive out the devil from Gregory and publicly beat him on the head with a cross. Rasputin was under police surveillance, which did not stop until his death.

Rasputin, Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor

Secret agents watched through the windows the most piquant scenes from the life of a man who would soon be called “the holy devil.” Once hushed up, rumors about Grishka's sexual adventures began to swell with new strength. The police recorded Rasputin visiting bathhouses in the company of prostitutes and wives of influential people.

Copies of the Tsarina’s tender letter to Rasputin circulated around St. Petersburg, from which it could be concluded that they were lovers. These stories were picked up by newspapers - and the word “Rasputin” became known throughout Europe.

Public health

People who believed in Rasputin’s miracles believe that he himself, as well as his death, were mentioned in the Bible itself: “And if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16-18).

Today no one doubts that Rasputin really had a beneficial effect on physical state the prince and the mental stability of his mother. How did he do it?

The queen at the bedside of the sick heir

Contemporaries noted that Rasputin’s speech was always incoherent; it was very difficult to follow his thoughts. Huge, with long arms, a tavern floorman's hairstyle and a spade beard, he often talked to himself and patted his thighs.

Without exception, all of Rasputin's interlocutors recognized his unusual look - deeply sunken gray eyes, as if glowing from within and fettering your will. Stolypin recalled that when he met Rasputin, he felt that they were trying to hypnotize him.

Rasputin and the Tsarina drink tea

This certainly influenced the king and queen. However, it is difficult to explain the repeated relief of the royal children from pain. Rasputin's main healing weapon was prayer - and he could pray all night long.

One day in Belovezhskaya Pushcha the heir began to experience severe internal bleeding. Doctors told his parents that he would not survive. A telegram was sent to Rasputin asking him to heal Alexei from a distance. He quickly recovered, which greatly surprised the court doctors.

Kill the dragon

The man who called himself “little fly” and appointed officials by telephone call was illiterate. He learned to read and write only in St. Petersburg. He left behind only short notes filled with terrible scribbles.

Until the end of his life, Rasputin looked like a tramp, which repeatedly prevented him from “picking” prostitutes for daily orgies. ABOUT healthy way The wanderer quickly forgot his life - he drank and drunkenly called ministers with various “petitions”, failure to fulfill which was career suicide.

Rasputin did not save money, either starving or throwing it left and right. He seriously influenced the country's foreign policy, twice persuading Nicholas not to start a war in the Balkans (inspiring the Tsar that the Germans were a dangerous force, and the “brothers,” i.e., the Slavs, were pigs).

Facsimile of Rasputin's letter with a request for some of his protégés

When First World War However, it began, Rasputin expressed a desire to come to the front to bless the soldiers. The commander of the troops, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, promised to hang him on the nearest tree. In response, Rasputin gave birth to another prophecy that Russia would not win the war until an autocrat (who had a military education, but showed himself to be an incompetent strategist) stood at the head of the army. The king, of course, led the army. With consequences known to history.

Politicians actively criticized the Tsarina, the “German spy,” not forgetting Rasputin. It was then that the image of a “gray eminence” was created, resolving all state issues, although in fact Rasputin’s power was far from absolute. German zeppelins scattered leaflets over the trenches, where the Kaiser leaned on the people, and Nicholas II on Rasputin’s genitals. The priests also did not lag behind. It was announced that the murder of Grishka was a good thing, for which “forty sins would be removed.”

On July 29, 1914, the mentally ill Khionia Guseva stabbed Rasputin in the stomach, shouting: “I killed the Antichrist!” Witnesses said that from the blow “Grishka’s guts came out.” The wound was fatal, but Rasputin pulled out. According to his daughter’s recollections, he had changed since then - he began to get tired quickly and took opium for pain.

Prince Felix Yusupov, Rasputin's killer

Rasputin's death is even more mysterious than his life. The scenery of this drama is well known: on the night of December 17, 1916, Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitry Romanov (rumored to be Yusupov's lover) and deputy Purishkevich invited Rasputin to the Yusupov Palace. There he was offered cakes and wine, generously flavored with cyanide. This supposedly had no effect on Rasputin.

“Plan B” was put into action: Yusupov shot Rasputin in the back with a revolver. While the conspirators were preparing to get rid of the body, he suddenly came to life, tore the shoulder strap off Yusupov’s shoulder and ran into the street. Purishkevich was not taken aback - with three shots he finally knocked down the “old man”, after which he only clanked his teeth and wheezed.

To be sure, he was beaten again, tied with a curtain and thrown into an ice hole in the Neva. The water that killed Rasputin's older brother and sister also took the life of the fatal man - but not immediately. An examination of the body, recovered three days later, showed the presence of water in the lungs (the autopsy report has not been preserved). This indicated that Grishka was alive and simply choked.

Rasputin's corpse

The queen was furious, but at the insistence of Nicholas II, the murderers escaped punishment. The people praised them as deliverers from “dark forces.” Rasputin was called everything: a demon, a German spy or the empress’s lover, but the Romanovs were faithful to him to the end: the most odious figure in Russia was buried in Tsarskoye Selo.

Two months later the February revolution broke out. Rasputin's prediction about the fall of the monarchy came true. On March 4, 1917, Kerensky ordered the body to be dug up and burned. The exhumation took place at night, and according to the testimony of the exhumers, the burning corpse tried to rise. This was the final touch to the legend of Rasputin’s superstrength (it is believed that the cremated person can move due to the contraction of the tendons in the fire, and therefore the latter should be cut).

The act of burning Rasputin's body

"Who are you, Mr. Rasputin?" - such a question could have been asked by British and German intelligence at the beginning of the 20th century. A clever werewolf or a simple-minded man? Rebel saint or sexual psychopath? To cast a shadow on a person, it is enough just to correctly illuminate his life.

It is reasonable to assume that the true appearance of the royal favorite was distorted beyond recognition by “black PR”. And minus the incriminating evidence, what appears before us is an ordinary man - an illiterate, but very cunning schizophrenic, who achieved fame only thanks to a successful coincidence of circumstances and the obsession of the heads of the Romanov dynasty with religious metaphysics.

Attempts at canonization

Since the 1990s, radical-monarchist Orthodox circles have repeatedly proposed canonizing Rasputin as a holy martyr.

The ideas were rejected by the Synodal Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church and criticized by Patriarch Alexy II: “There is no reason to raise the question of the canonization of Grigory Rasputin, whose dubious morality and promiscuity cast a shadow on the august family of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.”

Despite this, over the past ten years, religious admirers of Grigory Rasputin have published at least two akathists to him, and also painted about a dozen icons.

Curious facts

Rasputin supposedly had an older brother, Dmitry (who caught a cold while swimming and died of pneumonia) and a sister, Maria (who suffered from epilepsy and drowned in the river). He named his children after them. Grishka named his third daughter Varvara.
Bonch-Bruevich knew Rasputin well.

The Yusupov family originates from the nephew of the Prophet Mohammed. Irony of fate: a distant relative of the founder of Islam killed a man who called himself an Orthodox saint.

After the overthrow of the Romanovs, Rasputin’s activities were investigated by a special commission, of which the poet Blok was a member. The investigation was never completed.
Rasputin's daughter Matryona managed to emigrate to France and then to the USA. There she worked as a dancer and tiger trainer. She died in 1977.

The remaining family members were dispossessed and exiled to camps, where their trace was lost.
Today the church does not recognize the holiness of Rasputin, pointing out his dubious morality.

Yusupov successfully sued MGM over the film about Rasputin. After this incident, films began to put a warning about fiction: “all coincidences are accidental.”