Gregory Efimovich Rasputin

Gregory Efimovich Rasputin No other figure in recent Russian history has received the amount of

vilification and contempt heaped upon Gregory Rasputin. The

self-styled monk, who received practically little education in the

intricacies of the Russian Orthodox faith, came from the rural areas

of Russiaand achieved great recognition as a "staretz," or holy man in

the highest circles of St. Petersburgsociety. From rags to social

prominence the life of Gregory Rasputin holds many of the events

leading to the eventual overthrow of the Russian imperial system, the

dethronement of the House of Romanov and the assassination of the

Imperial Family.

Gregory Efimovich Rasputin came from solid peasant stock. Gregory

Efimovich was born on January 10, 1869, in Prokovskoe, a small village

in Siberiaon the banks of the TuraRiver. As a young lad, Rasputin

shocked his village by constantly finding ways to get into trouble

with the authorities. Drunkenness, stealing and womanizing were

activities particularly enjoyed by the dissolute young man. Rasputin

in fact was developing into a rake, a man with a debauched, and

endless, sexual appetite.

It was while on one of his escapades that Rasputin was first impacted

by the mystical powers of the Russian Orthodox religion. At

Verkhoturye Monastery Rasputin was fascinated by a renegade sect

within the Orthodox faith, the Skopsty. Followers of the Skopsty

firmly believed that the only way to reach God was through sinful

actions. Once the sin was committed and confessed, the penitent could

achieve forgiveness. In reality, what the S...

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...iks during the

revolution. Within three months of Rasputin's death, Nicholas lost his

throne, the imperial family were imprisoned and many of the Romanov

cousins arrested. In then end almost twenty members of the Romanov

family were massacred by Bolshevik firing squads. No other epitaph to

Rasputin's death better exemplifies the repercussions of the monk's

death than that written by Grand Duchess Maria Pavlova, sister, in her

Memoirs: "His death came to late to change the course of events. His

dreadful name had become too thoroughly a symbol of disaster. The

daring of those who killed him to save their country was

miscalculated. All of the participants in the plot, with the exception

of Prince Youssoupov later understood that in raising their hands to

preserve the old regime they struck it, in reality, its final blow."