The Holy Devil: How a Siberian Mystic Took Control of the Russian Empire

On November 1, 1905, Tsar Nicholas II wrote in his diary: "We made the acquaintance of a man of God — Grigory, from Tobolsk province." The man was Grigori Rasputin, an illiterate Siberian peasant and wandering holy man who had come to St. Petersburg through a network of aristocratic mystic enthusiasts. Within three years, he would become indispensable to the imperial family in a way that no one could stop — because their son was dying and only Rasputin seemed able to help. Tsarevich Alexei suffered from severe hemophilia. In 1908, during one of the boy's bleeding crises, Rasputin was summoned to the palace. He calmed the child — probably through hypnosis and perhaps by persuading doctors to stop giving aspirin, which worsens bleeding — and the episode subsided. For Tsarina Alexandra, already deeply spiritual and desperate, this was a miracle from God. From that moment, Rasputin's access to the imperial family was effectively unlimited and untouchable. He began attending state meetings. He wrote the Tsarina long letters on matters of policy. "Our Friend" — as the royal family called him — told Alexandra which ministers to hire and fire. The political damage accelerated in 1915 when Tsar Nicholas left for the front to personally command Russia's collapsing armies. Alexandra assumed de facto control of domestic policy with Rasputin at her shoulder. Between 1915 and 1916, four interior ministers, three foreign ministers, and three war ministers were appointed and dismissed in rapid succession, selected partly at Rasputin's recommendation. Duma politicians begged for intervention. On November 19, 1916, the right-wing deputy Vladimir Purishkevich stood in parliament and declared that Russia's ministers had become "marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra." On December 30, a group of nobles that included Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich murdered Rasputin in the basement of the Yusupov Palace. The Romanov dynasty fell ten weeks later.