Grigori Rasputin
January 21, 1869 – December 30, 1916
Russian mystic and healer who gained influence over Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra and was murdered by nobles in 1916.
Biography
Grigori Rasputin was born in 1869 into a peasant family in Pokrovskoye, a village in Tobolsk Governorate in Siberia. In 1887 he married Praskovya Dubrovina. A pilgrimage in 1897 to the St Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturye brought on a religious conversion, and he became a wandering holy man, known as a starets, though he never held any office in the Orthodox Church.
Around 1903 to 1905 he reached Saint Petersburg, where he impressed religious and society figures, and in November 1905 he met Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. From late 1906 he acted as a faith healer for their only son Alexei, who had haemophilia, which gave him lasting access to the imperial family. Admirers saw him as a mystic and prophet, critics as a charlatan, and scandalous stories about him spread widely.
His influence peaked in 1915, when Nicholas left the capital to command the army in the First World War and Rasputin and Alexandra gained sway over appointments across the empire. As defeats mounted, both became deeply unpopular. A group of conservative nobles, including Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich, murdered him on 30 December 1916. Many historians think his reputation helped discredit the monarchy shortly before its fall.
