Analysis Of To Kill Rasputin

Andrew Cook, the author of To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin, is a well-known author and historian. He is a foreign affairs and defence specialist for many years and has gained access to classified intelligence services archives. Cook is one of five historians that was given special permission under 1992 ‘Waldegrave Initiative’ by the Cabinet Office to examine closed M15 documents. Andrew Cook writes this book to further investigate Rasputin’s death and discover for the first time the masterminds behind the murder. Rasputin was said to have been first poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river.

Many people wanted Rasputin dead for many different reasons. Andrew Cook is meticulous in relating the whole tale of Rasputin’s increasing influence on the Tsarina and the belief by many that he was virtually running the country. Rumours and plots abounded that the “Mad Monk” wielded huge political power, was said to live a life of debauchery, was planning to make the Tsar sign a peace pact between Russia and Germany, and was more than friendly with the Tsarina and her daughters. It was certainly a fact that the desperate Tsarina relied on him to relieve her son’s illness and believed in his power of healing, as well as asking for his opinion on all major decisions about both the country and the war. Something had to be done and some Russian aristocrats decided to take matters into their own hands.

We have all heard about Prince Felix Yusupov and his fellow collaborators, but Cook’s book manages to offer some new information as well as relating details of all the major people involved, a reconstruction of what happened, the investigation and the aftermath of Rasputin’s murder. Prince Felix Yusupov ...

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...on the Tsar and his family. His murder was seen by many as the means to an end of political instability during a time of great strife. Cook makes the argument that it could be classified as a political crime, especially as he searches into the possibility that English agents were involved. The most remarkable aspect of the night in question is that the admitted conspirators all seem to recount very different scenarios, whether out of confusion or to cover up a greater truth. With so many theories, witnesses and inconsistencies, and the fact that this crime never went to trial and no one was accused of or punished for it, the night of Rasputin’s murder remains shrouded in mystery. Cook attempts to clarify many aspects, like a contemporary review of Rasputin’s autopsy and newly available archives, but it is not definitive and there could very well be more revelations.