Grigori Rasputin Research Paper

Grigori Rasputin: The “Mad Monk” Assassinations are rare in this world of ours, when someone thinks of the word assassination names that come to mind might be John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, or Abraham Lincoln, but does anyone think of Grigori Rasputin not likely most people have probably never even heard the name let alone know anything about him. But little dose people know is that Grigori Rasputin was killed by the Tsar’s jealousy and that Rasputin stained his image. It has been said that Rasputin was quite the charmer back in the day, well endowed, he could swoon almost any woman off their feet including Tsarina Alexandria. Grigori Rasputin was born on January 22, 1869 in Pokrovskoe, Siberia, Russia to parents
Efim Vilkin and Anna Parshukova. Rasputin was born a peasant in his small village of Pokrovskoe little is known about Rasputin’s childhood. Rasputin had two siblings Dmitri and Maria both died while Rasputin was a child which affected him deeply, he went on to name his first two children after them. Around the age of 18 the spent 3 months in the Verkhoturye Monastery. His experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Virgin Mary on his return, turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. He later married his wife Praskovia in 1889 and had 3 children. In 1901 he left his home to become a traveler, his travels took him to places such as Greece and Jerusalem. In 1903 he arrived in Saint Petersburg where he gradually gained a reputation as a holy man with healing powers. In 1905 his relation with the royal family begins when the Tsarina franticly looks for any and everyone who could help heal her hemophiliac son Alexi.
He was said to have been able to heal Alexi through prayer and was proven to relive Alexi, each time Alexi got injured Rasputin came to his aid and was able to heal him. This caused the Tsar and the rest of the royal family to befriend and trust Rasputin. Soon Rasputin grew a controversial image such as speaking against the royal family, practicing a forbidden sect and even raping a nun. He became increasingly drunk and appeared cynical to most. “Rasputin favored Jews, prostitutes, homosexuals, and the poor and disadvantaged, including and, in particular, members of religious sects. He understood the danger of war, and did what he could to preserve peace. But Rasputin was selfish and shortsighted. He took bribes and was party to corruption and profiteering during the war. Rasputin ended as a womanizer and hopeless drunk, who undermined the regime of Nicholas II and hastened its collapse (Fuhrmann).” Jews and homosexuals were not favored groups of people at the time, the fact that he openly favored them tarnished his image and even the Tsars image for having Rasputin as his advisor. The fact that Rasputin’s beliefs tarnish the Tsar’s image and that his wife is rumored to of had an affair with Rasputin deeply angered the Tsar and put the nail in Rasputin’s soon to be
coffin. Up to this point Rasputin has lived one weird and mysterious life but is assassination is ever weirder. The first attempt on Rasputin’s life happened 2 years before his death on June 29, 1914 a former prostitute have grown disgusted by Rasputin’s actions she took a knife and slashed his abdomen wide open and left his entrails hanging out. But after intensive surgery Rasputin soon recovered. Rasputin’s assignation has been one with many rumors surrounding it. On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsarina had made him a threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich lured Rasputin to the Moika Palace along the Moika river. They led Rasputin in to the basement and fed him cakes and wine poisoned with cyanide that would have been enough to kill six men, but the poison had no effect on Rasputin. Wanting to end Rasputin’s life once and for all Yusupov left and came back with a relover the he shot Rasputin in the back after some time had passed Yusypov went to look at the body and that’s when Rasputin lunged at him and tried to strangle Yusypov the rest of the conspirators shot Rasputin three times and found that he was still alive the clubbed him and sexually mutilated him. After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of his bonds and the carpet wrapping him tried to claw his way out, but drowned in the river. In an autopsy performed 3 days later they found that he was indeed poisoned and that should have killed him alone, but that he had really drounded in the river, thus ending the bizarre and dark life of Rasputin.