Tsarina And Rasputin Essay

Rasputin took advantage of the political instability and upheavals of the era. He manipulated the Tsarina into allowing Rasputin a ministerial leap frog. ‘In the seventeen months of the `Tsarina's rule', from September 1915 to February 1917, Russia had four Prime Ministers, five Ministers of the Interior, three Foreign Ministers, three War Ministers, three Ministers of Transport and four Ministers of Agriculture.’ This caused anarchy in the government as competent and successful men were removed from power and no one was in office long enough to master responsibilities. The Tsarina and Rasputin had a self-destructive habit of picking terrible men to have jobs of high responsibility. For example, Boris Sturmer was widely regarded as an incompetent

The Tsar was seen as divinely chosen by God to rule the empire, and the Russian empire was often seen as the third Holy Roman Empire. Since the reign of Ivan III it has been seen as ‘impossible for the Christians to have a church but not have an emperor’ Ivan III. The Tsar was so closely tied to the Orthodox Church that when Iliodor (Sergei Trufanov) started to preach sermons against the Tsars it did start to change the perceptions and affect his rule. One sermon of Iliodor’s ‘The symbol of the dark force was Rasputin. He represented darkness, corruption, the source of the evils of Russia.’ Iliodor was a monk who knew Rasputin personally during his time in St Petersburg. His book was supported by Maxim Gorky, a prominent Marxist writer, who hoped Illidor's story on Rasputin would help discredit the Tsar and contribute to revolutionary propaganda. This explains some of Illidor’s exaggeration of the role of Rasputin. But I do agree with Illidor’s idea that Rasputin became a target for all anti-imperial attacks and united opposition parties against the Tsar by creating a sense of repulsion against the