Grigori Rasputin was a self-proclaimed holy man who originated from the badlands of Siberia. Born in 1869, Rasputin grew up as a simple peasant in a land of vast desert with extreme temperatures, illiterate farmers, troublesome criminals, and exiled politicians.
From a very early age, Rasputin had been noted by the locals for his ability to heal supposedly incurable animals simply with a touch of his hand or a silently administered prayer. It was also believed that he had visions, one of which he successfully identified a horse thief. hidden in a crowd of strangers.
As a young man, he became particularly interested in the Russian Orthodox Church, so much so that he began traveling long distances to visit monasteries in remote locations, such as the famous monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece.
Later, despite being married with three children, he regularly left his hometown of Pokrovskoye, on the banks of the Tura River, to study the Orthodox faith with some of the leading religious minds of the day.
Such study was not unusual for serious orthodox scholars, but what was unusual was how affected these holy men became with their student, Grigori Rasputin.
Rasputin somehow captivated these scholars, they enthusiastically introduced him to even more prominent religious tutors in an upward spiral of learning. He eventually found himself in Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, in the society of the most prominent clerical minds of the time.
Although Rasputin was essentially an illiterate and often filthy product of Siberia, he managed to create a coterie of adoring fans, all of whom were eager to hear him teach the faith in his unique, rugged and outspoken style. seen as a blow. of fresh air compared to the more formal and often condescending doctrines as projected by classically educated priests.
What was most exciting was that this long-haired, bearded, almost dangerous character of a self-confessed holy man, with disturbingly hypnotic eyes exuded a magnetic presence that captivated his audiences, large or small.
It was around this time in St. Petersburg society that the question of whether Rasputin could be ‘The Second Coming of Christ?’
Rasputin’s reputation was traveling far and wide and he was even introduced to the Czar, Nicholas II, who had a son and heir named Alexei who suffered chronically from the bleeding disease known as Hemophilia.
Nicholas’s wife, Tsarina Alexandra, was especially devoted to Alexei, and when she was injured so badly that the doctors declared she could not be helped and would soon die, she was beside herself. After a priest administered last rites and the impending death of his son was notified to the Russian masses through the newspapers, he decided that he would try anything to save his son’s crumbling life. quickly.
As a last resort, Alexandra, who had previously met Rasputin and heard stories of his mystical powers, sent him a desperate telegram asking for his help in saving her son, but Rasputin was in his hometown of Pokrovskoye almost 2,000 miles away when she received. plea, however, in return, he promptly responded with a telegram of his own.
“The child will not die!” he announced, “Keep the medics away until I get there!”
Almost immediately, Alexei began to recover and after Rasputin arrived and became the boy’s regular companion, he never suffered from the disease again.
Such inexplicable ‘miracles’ significantly enhanced the self-proclaimed holy man’s reputation both within the royal palace and in the upper echelons of St. Petersburg society.
However, while Grigori Rasputin was adored by the tsarina in the royal house and the people in general were in awe of his mystical feats, he also began to show a much darker side to his character.
When not in the sight of royalty, Rasputin was renowned as an inveterate drunkard, his lust knew no bounds, and his religious gatherings were largely attended by gullible groups of ‘parish ladies’ that at times bordered on being described as orgies.
Meanwhile, over time, Tsarina Alexandra’s will began to spin, so much so that while Tsar Nicholas was on the military front during the war with Japan, Russian government ministers began openly questioning who made the internal rules and military. policies, it was the regent tsarina or her closest adviser, Rasputin.
With such rumors of Rasputin’s indiscreet behavior and political decisions dragging Russia ever closer to an abyss, the Siberian holy man was steadily becoming the play’s archenemy. Newspapers published cartoons of Rasputin using the Tsar and Tsarina as mere puppets and even rumors began to spread that the Tsarina was Rasputin’s secret lover.
This was the scene of the beginning of the Russian Revolution, the workers no longer believed that the Tsar was their God-given ruler and the door was opened for Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky to orchestrate the uprising that ultimately dissolved the Russian monarchy that had ruled Russia. for generations.
A year before World War I began in 1917, soon followed by revolution, Rasputin was successfully assassinated by members of the general royal family. At that time, all thoughts of Rasputin as the second coming of Christ had long since evaporated, he had become public enemy number one, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief over his death. However, he left a legacy of actions and predictions that to this day cannot be fully explained.
First during his lifetime, rumors abounded that he could not be killed. The actual details of his murder make this statement seem almost true.
He also predicted before his death that if a member of the royal family assassinated him, the tsar, his wife, and all their children would soon follow, this of course happened.
He also stated that after his death he would rise from the grave, this he did, although not necessarily in the way that the imagination of the event would have envisioned.
Something about Rasputin was definitely larger than life. He had some inexplicable powers of mystification and an effect on people that his daughter Maria described as “magnetism”.
Although not formally trained in hypnotism until later in life, many of his acts of early youth infer some level of natural hypnotic power, yet characterizing it as ‘The Second Coming of Christ’ seems to have been shown to be far from the truth. . , although it has never been successfully explained what gave him such influence over the people around him.
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