Undoubtedly one of the darkest and most mysterious periods in the recent history of Russia, it took place at the beginning of the twentieth century. When a strange character illiterate, full of tics and famously crazy, he conquered the Russian court, exerting a terrible influence on government decisions. Rasputin: The Mad Monk, that was how this mysterious character in history was known. How he influenced the Russian court, what gifts he had, all these questions will be revealed below. Get ready to learn a story as exciting as it is mysterious.
Rasputin: The Mad Monk | Rasputin (01/22/1869 – 12/30/1916)
Not much is known about the early years of Grigory Efimovich or Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. It appears that he was born and raised in Pokrovskoye about 300 km east of the Ural mountains, on the banks of the Turá River. These data are known thanks to a note in the books of the local Orthodox parish, where it is indicated that on January 10 (according to the old Julian calendar), January 22, 1869(according to the current Gregorian calendar).
His parents Yefim Yakovlevich Rasputin and his mother, of whom nothing is known, belonged to the Orthodox Church. Grigori’s birth ranked 5th out of the 9 children the couple had, although only two would survive Grigori and his sister Feodosia.
Pokrovskoye, was a community made up basically of illiterate peasants, so Grigori didn’t get a chance to go to school. From a very young age he drew the attention of his community for his strange behavior.
being very young his visions of the virgin Mary they had made him very popular, he claimed to feel the virgin as he was called and with whom he even had long conversations.
It seems that Rasputin suffered from various tics, which made him move his hands and feet involuntarily, so whenever he could he occupied his hands with objects, to avoid these involuntary movements. The few data we know to date have come to us thanks to María, his daughter.
When Rasputin turned 14, he faced a group of children who messed with his appearance, fed up with his insults, he attacked them. Something that cost him to overcome since his character was not violent, this event made him change his way of being, from here he would become much more sociable.
With youth came drinking and trouble. He was caught up in a horse theft Along with other boys, he was the luckiest, the rural assembly pardoned him while the rest of the gang were banished to Siberia.
His elongated, slim but strong body, a dominant character and an inordinate love for women and wine, turned Rasputin in a controversial characterwith his followers and his detractors who They called him crazy.
Rasputin: The Mad Monk | From Peasant to Monk
Before the age of 20, Rasputin got marrieda. The date is February 2, 1887 and the girlfriend Praskovia Feodorovna Dubrovina, an older woman with whom he had 5 children of whom survived Dmitri, Varvara and Matryona, the latter would change her name to Maria. In these moments it seemed that her religious faith had been parked.
But with the birth of her last daughter, Matryona, the need to leave her family and travel to the holy land to form as monkprevailed and in 1901, Rasputin leaves his home to travel to Greece and the Holy Land, his final destination.
On their way Rasputinhe survived on charity, receiving donations from the peasants he came across, while Rasputin paid them with miraculous cures or futuristic visions. The peasants considered him a mystical person and began to attribute healing powers.
It is known that for a time he remained in the Verkhoturye Monastery, subsequently left the Russian Orthodox Church, to join a Christian sect known as “the Flagellants”, who proclaimed pain to reach god. But these meetings were nothing more than parties and orgies, which Grigori or Rasputin quickly became fond of. Possibly these facts were the ones that later clouded the reputation of saint that he had.
Later and after leaving this sect, he dedicated his life to contemplation and reflection, a hermit life only broken after meeting the Brother Macarius, who had a notorious influence on Rasputin, even getting him away from drinking and eating meat. Rasputin’s life changes radically now he is a fervent and converted man.
Rasputin: The Mad Monk | Rasputin at the Romanov Court
In the year 1903, Rasputin travels to St. Petersburg, installing himself in a modest room from where he offers his help to those most in need. But Rasputin, in addition to lending his help to the poor, had a great interest in the figure of Monsignor TheophanInspector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.
He soon gained his confidence and it was the monsignor himself who introduced him to the social elitesopened the doors of the wealthiest families in the city of St. Petersburg.
already known as a man chosen by goda holy man, capable of performing impossible cures, in 1904, Rasputin is called in the presence of the Tsarina Alexandra Fidorovna, woman of fragile character, religious and superstitious. At first, the tsarina did not trust much in the attributes and visions that Raputin seemed to have.
But after an aggravation of hemophilia disease that the heir to the Russian throne Alexis Nikolaevich, suffered, the Tsarina asked Rasputin for help, it seems that through hypnosis, he made Alexis improve. He then asked the tsarina to kneel before God and the virgin and ask for the improvement of her son. After this fact, Rasputin was admitted to the palace where he would take care of the illness of Tsarevich Alexis.
Rasputin knew that the Czarina was in his favor but the same did not happen with Czar Nicholas II, who did not trust him and he knew it. For Rasputin it was a matter of time, sooner or later the monarch would let himself be influenced by the Tsarina, which would make it possible for him to stay in the palace.
Rasputin had won the favor of a large part of the Russian aristocracy, his personality, his charisma, his way of speaking, his good physique, his intuition, his great knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, his blue, intense and penetrating gaze.
In 1907, Rasputin thanks to the influence of the Czarina, obtained a public office with great powers within the government of Tsar Nicholas. A significant fact of the importance that Rasputin had within the royal family was when, on the third centenary of the Romanov dynasty on the throne of Russia, the crazy mojo it was placed next to the imperial family, in the most prominent place.
…../….. Rasputin has arrived at the Russian court, in future updates we will see what power he was able to achieve within the Russian government, who his enemies were and how his influence ended.
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