Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (1869 - 1916) was a paradoxical person during his lifetime and after his death continues to be such, despite the dozens of books and articles published about him over the century that have passed since his death. Until about the end of the twentieth century, due to a lack of factual materials, the literature about Rasputin painted him either as a depraved demon who destroyed Russia, or as a saint innocently killed by a passion-bearer. It depended partly on the personality of the author, partly on the social order.
Later works do not add much clarity. Their authors often slip into polemics, not sparing opponents. Moreover, such odious writers as E. Radzinsky took up the development of the topic. They need to find out the truth in the last place, the main thing is shocking, or, as it is fashionable to say now, hype. And Rasputin's life and rumors about him gave reasons for shocking.
The authors of more or less objective studies almost universally admit that, despite the depth of research, they failed to comprehend the Rasputin phenomenon. That is, the facts have been collected and analyzed, but it is impossible to find out the reasons that gave rise to them. Perhaps in the future, researchers will be more fortunate. Another thing is also possible: those who believe that the myth of Rasputin was created by Russian oppositionists of the entire political spectrum are right. Rasputin turned out to be an ideal figure for indirect, but sharp and dirty criticism of the royal family and the entire Russian government. After all, he seduced the tsarina, through her appoints ministers and directs military operations, etc. Revolutionaries of all stripes took into account that direct criticism of the tsar was unacceptable for peasant Russia, and resorted to another method.
1. When Grisha was still young, he revealed the act of horse stealing. Hearing the conversation between his father and fellow villagers about the unsuccessful search for a horse of one of the poor, the boy entered the room and pointed directly at one of those present. After spying on the suspect, the horse was found in his yard, and Rasputin became a clairvoyant.
With fellow villagers
2. After getting married at the age of 18, Rasputin did not lead the most dignified way of life - he did not shy away from female society, drinking, etc. Gradually he began to be imbued with a religious spirit, studied Holy Scripture and went to holy places. On the way to one of the places of pilgrimage, Gregory met Malyuta Soborovsky, a student at the theological academy. Skuratovsky, after lengthy conversations, convinced Grigory not to ruin his abilities with a riotous life. The meeting had a great influence on Rasputin's later life, and Soborovsky ended up in Moscow, quit his monastic service and was killed in a drunken brawl on Sukharevka.
3. For 10 years, Rasputin made a pilgrimage to holy places. He visited not only all the significant shrines of Russia, but also visited Athos and Jerusalem. He traveled by land exclusively on foot, got on a cart only if the owner invited him. He ate alms, and in poor places worked off his food for the owners. While making pilgrimages, he kept his eyes and ears open and became convinced that monasticism is a rather ostentatious thing. Gregory also had a purely negative opinion of church pastors. He was sufficiently well versed in the Holy Scriptures and had a sufficiently lively mind to curb the arrogance of any bishop.
4. On his first visit to St. Petersburg, Rasputin had to converse with five bishops at once. All attempts of high-ranking ministers of the church to confuse the Siberian peasant or catch him on contradictions in theological issues were in vain. And Rasputin returned to Siberia - he missed his family.
5. Grigory Rasputin treated money, on the one hand, as a zealous peasant - he built a house for his family, provided for his loved ones - and on the other hand, as a true ascetic. He kept, as in the old days in France, an open house in which anyone could eat and find shelter. And a sudden contribution from a rich merchant or bourgeois could immediately distribute among those in need of the house. At the same time, he disdainfully threw the bundles of banknotes into the desk drawer, and the small change of the poor was honored with lengthy expressions of gratitude.
6. His second visit to St. Petersburg, Rasputin could well have formalized as an ancient Roman triumph. His popularity reached the point that crowds of people were waiting for gifts from him after Sunday services. Gifts were simple and cheap: gingerbread, pieces of sugar or cookies, handkerchiefs, rings, ribbons, small toys, etc. but there were entire collections of interpretations of gifts - not every gingerbread predicted a “sweet”, happy life, and not every ring foreshadowed marriage.
7. In communication with the royal family, Rasputin was not an exception. Nicholas II, his wife and daughters loved to receive all kinds of soothsayers, wanderers, pages, and holy fools. Therefore, breakfasts and dinners with Rasputin may well be explained by the desire of members of the royal family to communicate with someone from the common people.
In the royal family
8. The information about the treatment by Rasputin of a noble resident of Kazan Olga Lakhtina is quite contradictory. Doctors, both Russian and foreign, treated her in vain for her debilitating neurasthenia. Rasputin read several prayers over her and healed her physically. After that, he added that a weak soul would destroy Lakhtina. The woman so fanatically believed in the wonderful abilities of Gregory that she began to fervently worship him and died in a madhouse shortly after the death of the idol. Against the background of today's knowledge of psychology and psychiatry, it is quite possible to assume that both the disease and the cure of Lakhtina were caused by reasons of a mental nature.
9. Rasputin made many predictions, most of them in a very vague form (“Your Duma will not live long!” - and it was elected for 4 years, etc.). But the publisher and, as he called himself, public figure A. V. Filippov made quite specific money by publishing six brochures of Rasputin's predictions. Moreover, people who, reading the brochures, considered the predictions to be charlatanism, instantly fell under the spell of the Elder when they heard them from his lips.
10. The main enemy of Rasputin since 1911 was his protege and friend, Hieromonk Iliodor (Sergei Trufanov). Iliodor first circulated letters from members of the imperial family to Rasputin, the content of which can at least be assessed as ambiguous. Then he published the book "Grisha", in which he directly accused the empress of cohabitation with Rasputin. Iliodor enjoyed such unofficial support in the circles of the highest bureaucracy and nobility that Nicholas II was placed in the position of justifying himself. With his character, this only aggravated the situation - in response to the accusations, he mumbled something about his personal life ...
Rasputin, Iliodor and Hermogenes. Still friends ...
11. The first to speak about the terrible sexuality of Rasputin was the rector of the Rasputin house church in the village of Pokrovskoye, Pyotr Ostroumov. When Grigory, on one of his visits to his homeland, offered to donate thousands of rubles for the needs of the church, Ostroumov, to the best of his understanding, decided that the guest from afar wanted to take his place of bread, began to ring about Rasputin's Khlysty. Ostroumov got, as they say, past the cash register - the Khlysty were distinguished by excessive sexual abstinence, and such impulses could not seduce the then Petersburg. The case of Rasputin's Khlysty was opened twice, and twice awkwardly hushed up without finding evidence.
12. Don Aminado's lines "And even to the poor cupid / Looking awkwardly from the ceiling / At the titled fool, / At the man's beard" did not appear from scratch. In 1910, Rasputin became a frequenter of ladies' salons - of course, a person can enter the royal apartments.
13. The famous writer Teffi described her attempt to seduce Rasputin (of course, only at the request of Vasily Rozanov) in terms more appropriate for a schoolgirl than for the notorious heartbreaker that was Teffi. Rozanov twice seated the very pretty Teffi to the left of Rasputin, but the author's maximal achievement was the Elder's autograph. Well, of course, she wrote a book about this adventure, this lady did not miss her.
Perhaps Rozanov should have put Teffi opposite Rasputin?
14. The healing effect of Rasputin on Tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia, is confirmed even by the most ardent haters of Grigory. Doctors of the royal family Sergei Botkin and Sergei Fedorov at least twice ascertained their own impotence with bleeding in the boy. Both times Rasputin had enough prayers to save the bleeding Alexei. Professor Fedorov directly wrote to his Parisian colleague that as a doctor he could not explain this phenomenon. The boy's condition was steadily improving, but after the murder of Rasputin, Alexei again became weak and extremely painful.
Tsarevich Alexey
15. Rasputin had an extremely negative attitude towards representative democracy in the form of the State Duma. He called the deputies talkers and talkers. In his opinion, it is up to the one who feeds to decide, and not professionals who know the laws.
16. Already in exile, a friend of the last Empress Lily Den at a social event tried to explain the Rasputin phenomenon using an example understandable to the British. Having estimated the relative sizes of the two countries, she asked a rhetorical, as it seemed to her, question: how would the inhabitants of Foggy Albion react to a man who went from London to Edinburgh (530 km) on foot (Oh, women's logic!). She was immediately informed that on the way such a pilgrim would be executed for vagrancy, for a person in his mind would either cross the island by train, or stay at home. And Rasputin traveled more than 4,000 km from his native village to Kiev to get to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
17. The behavior of newspapers is an excellent characteristic of the state of Russian educated society after the death of Rasputin. Well, journalists, who have lost all remnants of not only common sense, but also elementary human decency, published from issue to issue under the heading “Rasputiniad” the most vile fabrications. But even the world famous psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev, who had never communicated with Grigory Rasputin, gave an interview about him in several parts, discussing the “sexual hypnotism” of a brutally murdered person.
A Sample of Exposing Journalism
18. Rasputin was by no means a teetotaler, but he drank moderately enough. In 1915, he allegedly staged an obscene brawl at the Moscow restaurant Yar. No documents about this have been preserved in the archives, although the Moscow security department monitored Rasputin. There is only a letter describing this brawl, sent in the summer of 1915 (after 3.5 months). The author of the letter was the head of the department, Colonel Martynov, and it was addressed to the assistant minister of the interior Dzhunkovsky. The latter is known for helping to transport the complete archive of Iliodor (Trufanov) abroad and has repeatedly organized provocations against Rasputin.
19. Grigory Rasputin was killed on the night of October 16-17, 1916. The murder took place in the palace of the princes Yusupov - it was Prince Felix Yusupov who was the soul of the conspiracy. In addition to Prince Felix, Duma deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Count Sumarokov-Elston, doctor Stanislav Lazovert and lieutenant Sergei Sukhotin participated in the murder. Yusupov brought Rasputin to his palace after midnight and treated him to poisoned cakes and wine. The poison didn't work. When Rasputin was about to leave, the prince shot him in the back. The wound was not fatal, and Rasputin, despite several blows to the head with a flail, managed to jump out of the basement floor into the street. Here Purishkevich was already shooting at him - three shots past, the fourth in the head. Having kicked the dead body, the assassins took it away from the palace and threw it into the ice-hole. The actual punishment was incurred only by Dmitry Pavlovich (a ban on leaving Petrograd and then sending to the troops) and Purishkevich (Bel was arrested and released already under Soviet rule). 
20. In 1917, revolutionary soldiers demanded that the Provisional Government allow them to find and excavate Rasputin's grave. There were rumors about jewelry that the empress and her daughter put in the coffin. Of the treasures in the coffin, only an icon with paintings by members of the imperial family was found, but Pandora's box was opened - a pilgrimage began to Rasputin's grave. It was decided to secretly remove the coffin with the body from Petrograd and bury it in a secluded place. On March 11, 1917, a car with a coffin drove out of the city. On the road to Piskaryovka, the car broke down, and the funeral team decided to burn Rasputin's corpse right by the road.
