Rasputin: Essential Biographies E-Book

Harold Shukman

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Gregory Rasputin features in Russian history as a malign and destructive force, a man with an unhealthy influence on the Empress Alexandra and undue power in Russian politics. Yet his purposes were ostensibly beneficent. An uneducated peasant, he left Siberia to become a wandering 'holy man' and soon acquired a reputation as a healer. The empress was desperate to find a cure for haemophilia from which her son Alexei suffered, and in 1905 Rasputin was presented at court. His positive effect on the heir's health made him indispensible. But his religious teachings were unorthodox, and his charismatic presence aroused in many ladies of the St Petersburg aristocracy an exalted response, which he exploited sexually. Shady financial dealings added to the atmosphere of debauchery and scandal, and he was also seen as a political threat. He was assassinated bin 1916.

Leseprobe

RASPUTIN

For Barbara

RASPUTIN

HAROLD SHUKMAN

First published in 2009

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

©Harold Shukman, 1997, 2009, 2011

The right of Harold Shukman, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7073 3

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7074 0

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Chronology

1 EARLY DAYS

2 RELIGION AND HIGH SOCIETY

3 GROWING FAME

4 TRIAL AND TRIBULATION

5 WAR AND SPY MANIA

6 FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

7 THE END

8 POSTSCRIPT

Notes

Bibliography

CHRONOLOGY

22 Jan. 1869

Birth of Gregory Yefimovich Rasputin in Pokrovskoe, Tobolsk Province, Siberia

1888 or 1889

Rasputin marries Praskovia Dubrovina

26 Nov. 1894

Nicholas marries Alix of Hesse

7 May 1896

Coronation of Nicholas II in Moscow

1901

Philippe Vachod, the French clairvoyant, introduced to empress

1903

Rasputin arrives in St Petersburg, returns to Siberia after five months

4 Feb. 1904

Outbreak of Russo-Japanese War

12 Aug. 1904

Birth of heir to the Russian throne, the Tsarevich Alexei

22 Jan. 1905

Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg

17 Feb. 1905

Grand Duke Sergei assassinated in Moscow

5 Sept. 1905

Russo-Japanese Peace Treaty of Portsmouth, New Hampshire

20 Oct. 1905

General strike

30 Oct. 1905

Nicholas II signs October Manifesto granting civil liberties

Autumn 1905

Anna Vyrubova introduced to Nicholas and Alexandra

14 Nov. 1905

Rasputin meets tsar and tsarina

10 May 1906

First State Duma opens

21 July 1906

Duma dissolved

Nov. 1906

Rasputin treats tsarevich for first time

3 Mar. 1907

Second Duma opens

15 June 1907

Second Duma dissolved, new electoral law announced

20 Nov. 1907

Third Duma opens

Summer 1909

Rasputin and Father Iliodor tour monasteries and visit Pokrovskoe; Rasputin meets Prince Felix Yusupov

1910

Complaints about Rasputin by grand duchesses’ governess

Mar. 1911

Prime Minister Stolypin sends Rasputin away from capital; Rasputin begins second pilgrimage to Jerusalem

14 Sept. 1911

Stolypin assassinated in Kiev

Dec. 1911

Church tribunal investigates charges against Rasputin

Jan. 1912

Prime Minister Kokovstev advises Rasputin to leave capital

28 Nov. 1912

Fourth, and last, Duma opens

1914

Rasputin meets Prince Andronnikov

Feb. 1914

Prince Felix Yusupov marries tsar’s niece, Princess Irina

Spring 1914

Rasputin meets Dmitri Rubinstein

June 1914

Attempt on Rasputin’s life by Chionya Guseva

1 Aug. 1914

Germany declares war on Russia

Sept. 1914

Rasputin returns to St Petersburg

Jan. 1915

War minister dismissed, spy mania spreads

Mar. 1915

Rasputin creates scandal at Yar Restaurant in Moscow, banished from capital; Princess Irina Yusupova gives birth to daughter

June 1915

Anti-German riots in Moscow; Yusupov’s father dismissed with ignominy as governor-general

July 1915

Empress calls Rasputin back from Siberia; Rasputin urges tsar to take over supreme command

Aug. 1915

Press campaign against Rasputin

5 Sept. 1915

Tsar takes over supreme command from Grand Duke Nikolai; Scandal over canonization of John of Tobolsk

16 Sept. 1915

Duma prorogued

Nov. 1915

Rasputin secures appointment of Pitirim as Metropolitan of Petrograd

Feb. 1916

Goremykin replaced by Stuermer as prime minister

Nov. 1916

Duma reconvenes, Milyukov makes his ‘treason or stupidity’ speech

30 Dec. 1916

Rasputin murdered

4 Jan. 1917

Rasputin buried at Tsarskoe Selo

Mar. 1917

Riots in Petrograd; Provisional government formed; Nicholas abdicates, royal family placed under arrest; Rasputin’s body exhumed and burnt

April 1917

Lenin arrives in Petrograd

July 1917

Kerensky becomes prime minister

Aug. 1917

Royal family removed to Tobolsk, Siberia

7 Nov. 1917

Bolsheviks seize power

1918

Volunteer Army formed by anti-Bolshevik generals

Mar. 1918

Soviet–German Peace Treaty of Brest Litovsk ratified

May 1918

Royal family moved to Ekaterinburg

July 1918

Tsar’s brother and other grand dukes murdered

29 July 1918

Royal family murdered by Bolsheviks

ONE

EARLY DAYS

The fall of an empire demands explanation in terms of historical forces that one expects to match the scale of the events themselves – major war, economic collapse, social revolution. But individuals also have their place. It is, for instance, impossible to think of the Russian revolution without mentioning Nicholas II, Kerensky, Lenin or Trotsky. Yet among these names we also invariably encounter that of Gregory Rasputin, usually described as a drunken, lecherous pseudo-holy man, a debauched peasant whose baneful influence over the Empress Alexandra was to prove fatal to the Romanov dynasty. A small private museum has been opened in his birthplace which aims to show that his reputation as an utterly amoral and mercenary reprobate is based mostly on myth. He has featured in novels and films – even in a pop song that opened with ‘Ra, Ra, Rasputin/Lover of the Russian queen/Russia’s greatest love machine’.

The purpose of this book is to identify the qualities that enabled Rasputin to enter Russian history, and that lent themselves to this sort of treatment, to ask what made the Romanov dynasty susceptible to his influence, and to explain why the relationship was ultimately disastrous.