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Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916) -

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born in January 1869 to a peasant family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye. He was one of eight, possibly nine, children, seven of whom died in infancy.

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No formal education -

Like most Siberian peasants at that time, including his mother and father, Rasputin was not formally educated and remained illiterate well into his early adulthood.

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Marriage -

In 1887, Rasputin married a peasant girl named Praskovya Dubrovina. The couple are pictured later, in 1911.

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Starting a family -

The rural couple settled into a domestic routine and had seven children, though only three survived to adulthood: Dmitry (born 1895), Matryona (1898), and Varvara (1900). The siblings are pictured with their father not long after Varvara's birth.

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Religious conversion -

Around the time of the birth of his second child, Rasputin developed a renewed interest in religion. He undertook several pilgrimages, including an extended stay at St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturye, where he learned to read and write. The experience changed him, and he returned home to Pokrovskoye looking decidedly more disheveled and behaving differently.

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Life as a holy man -

In the years that followed, Rasputin embarked on a life as a strannik (a holy wanderer or pilgrim). He would leave his wife and children for months, sometimes years, at a time to wander the country and visit a variety of holy sites.

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Attracting followers -

By the early 1900s, Rasputin had attracted a small circle of followers who would pray with him on the days he was in Pokrovskoye. These meetings were held in secret, and were the subject of some suspicion and hostility from the village priest and other villagers.

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Invitation to St. Petersburg -

Rasputin's name began to circulate beyond his home village. He had acquired a reputation as a wise and charismatic starets, or holy man. And despite rumors that he regularly indulged in sexual relationships with female followers, Rasputin was making a favorable impression as someone who could help people resolve their spiritual crises and anxieties. So much so in fact that he was recommended to Russian archbishop Theofan, who invited Rasputin to St. Petersburg. Theofan is pictured center with Rasputin (right) and another cleric. 

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Meeting the Romanovs -

By 1905, Rasputin had formed friendships with several members of the St. Petersburg aristocracy. But it was his meeting with Czar Nicholas II (pictured with his wife and family) that accelerated Rasputin's rise to prominence.

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Alexandra and the royal children -

Rasputin met Nicholas II for a second time in 1906. This time the czar introduced his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna and, later, the royal couple's children. Pictured is Rasputin with Alexandra, nurse Maria Ivanova Vishnyakova, and the five Romanov siblings.

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Healing Alexei -

Alexei (pictured), the youngest child and only son of the royal couple, was born with hemophilia. Nicholas and Alexandra became convinced that Rasputin possessed miraculous powers to heal Alexei. Alexandra in particular nurtured an almost obsessive belief that the self-proclaimed holy man could heal her son's affliction.

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Miracle worker -

In 1912, while Rasputin was away in Siberia, Alexei developed a hemorrhage in his thigh and groin, which caused a large hematoma. In severe pain and delirious with fever, the youngster appeared close to death. A telegram was sent by Alexandra to Rasputin asking him to pray for the the boy. The bleeding stopped, much to the surprise of the attending physicians. Alexei's subsequent recovery has been described by historians as "one of the most mysterious episodes of the whole Rasputin legend." Alexandra believed that Rasputin had performed a miracle, and concluded that he was essential to Alexei's survival.

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Power and status -

The royal family's belief in Rasputin's healing powers brought him considerable status and power at court. The clever and manipulative holy man used his new position to full effect, accepting bribes and sexual favors from female admirers.

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In good company -

Rasputin made a point of mixing with princely and noble blood to elevate his own social standing. He's pictured here with General Count Mikhail Putyatin (right) and Colonel Dmitriy Lotman, who both enjoyed close connections with the Russian royal family.

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The occult and supernatural -

St. Petersburg's aristocracy were intensely curious about the occult and the supernatural, and Rasputin's ideas and "strange manners" made him the subject of intense curiosity among the city's elite. Indeed, his bored, cynical audience was seeking new experiences, and Rasputin was happy to oblige.

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Controversy -

Rasputin's royal privileges soon made him a controversial figure. His enemies accused him of heresy and sexual assault. Opposition to Rasputin's influence grew within the church, and he was denounced as a heretic. Caricatures such as the one pictured depicted the royal couple as puppets of a dangerous and scheming individual who posed a threat to the monarchy.

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Political satire -

This Russian satirical drawing of Rasputin has him center stage as the czar's family gather around him in "passionate attachment" to the mystic from Pokrovskoye.

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Vladimir Purishkevich (1870–1920) -

The advent of the First World War, the dissolution of feudalism, and a meddling government bureaucracy all contributed to Russia's rapid economic decline. Many blamed the country's woes on Alexandra and her evil spirit Rasputin. One outspoken member of the Duma, Vladimir Purishkevich (pictured), stated angrily that Rasputin's influence over Alexandra had made him a threat to the empire. Purishkevich would later become directly involved with Rasputin's murder.

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First assassination attempt -

However, the first attempt on Rasputin's life was not politically motivated. Instead, in June 1914, a 33-year-old peasant woman named Chionya Guseva tried to kill Rasputin by stabbing him in the stomach outside his home in Pokrovskoye. Rasputin was seriously wounded and spent several weeks in hospital recovering. His would-be killer was later declared insane.

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Felix Yusupov (1887–1967) -

Russian aristocrat and prince, Felix Yusupov, had married Princess Irina of Russia, the czar's only niece, in 1914. Two years later, Yusupov, together with Vladimir Purishkevich and Dmitri Pavlovich, led a group of nobles in concocting a plan to assassinate Rasputin, who by now had been accused of behaving inappropriately on visits to the royal family—and particularly with the czar's teenage daughters Olga and Tatyana.

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The murder of Rasputin -

On December 30, 1916, Rasputin was lured to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace. Felix Yusupov took Rasputin to a small cellar (pictured) where he served his unsuspecting guest tea and cakes laced with cyanide. To Yusupov's surprise, Rasputin appeared unaffected by the poison, even asking for some Madeira wine (which had also been poisoned) and drinking three glasses, but still showing no signs of distress. Exasperated, Yusupov pulled out a revolver and shot Rasputin once in the chest. Though seriously wounded, Rasputin fled the cellar  and made it into the palace's courtyard before being shot again by a waiting Purishkevich. 

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Dmitri Pavlovich (1891–1942) -

It was Dmitri Pavlovich, a grandson of Czar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin of Czar Nicholas II, whose revolver Yusupov used to fire the first shot into Rasputin. Pavlovich and the others were waiting in a ground floor study as the shooting took place.

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Revolution and the end of a dynasty -

The conspirators wrapped Rasputin's lifeless body in cloth, and drove it to the Petrovsky Bridge, where they dropped it into the Malaya Nevka River. The corpse was discovered, frozen solid, on January 1. Rasputin was buried the next day, during a funeral attended only by members of the royal family. His body, however, was exhumed and burned by a detachment of soldiers shortly after the czar abdicated the throne in March 1917 as the Russian Revolution took hold, thus ending the Romanov dynasty's 300-year rule of Russia.

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Aftermath -

Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and the couple's five children were executed by communist revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Pictured is Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was taken to meet their fate, photographed in 1928.

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Rasputin's daughter -

Matryona Rasputin, who later called herself Maria, wrote two memoirs about her father, dealing with Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, the attack by Chionya Guseva, and the murder. A third one, 'The Man Behind the Myth,' was published in 1977.

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American citizen -

Maria married Boris Soloviev in 1917. The couple fled Russia in 1920 for Europe, ending up in Paris where Boris died in 1926. Maria found work as a dancer in a circus, a job that took her to the United States. She married again in 1940, and became a US citizen in 1946. During the last years of her life, she lived in Los Angeles, living on Social Security benefits. She died on September 27, 1977, and is buried in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery. She's pictured being interviewed by a journalist from the Spanish magazine Estampa in 1930.

Sources: (History) (Biography) (History Daily)

See also: The Last Supper–famous final feasts

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