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Speaker 1: Welcomed Unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.

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Speaker 1: The road is steep and narrow. You're a passenger in

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Speaker 1: the car. Next to you are the people you love most,

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Speaker 1: and all of your lives are in danger. The car

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Speaker 1: is careening around the turns, and one slip and it

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Speaker 1: could all be over. And the worst problem is the

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Speaker 1: driver is asleep at the wheel. But there is hope.

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Speaker 1: You know how to drive, and so do other people

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Speaker 1: in the car. You try to wake the man at

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Speaker 1: the wheel and convince him to make the dangerous move

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Speaker 1: of trading places with someone else. But even awake, he's

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Speaker 1: hardly any better. He tightens his grip and refuses to

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Speaker 1: let go. With bloodshot eyes, the driver screams not to

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Speaker 1: touch him. Meanwhile, the car barrels forward toward destruction. It's

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Speaker 1: too dangerous to fight for the wheel. It's too dangerous

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Speaker 1: to do nothing. Both action and inaction seem to promise

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Speaker 1: the same carnage. What should you you? This is the

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Speaker 1: question that was asked in the Moscow Gazette on September

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Speaker 1: seventeenth of nineteen fifteen. The journalist who wrote the story

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Speaker 1: was a member of the Duma Russia's parliament. The passengers

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Speaker 1: in the car were his fellow Russians, and the mad

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Speaker 1: chauffeur at the wheel was the one who claimed divine

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Speaker 1: right to steer the nation forward through the perils of war,

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Speaker 1: Zar Nicholas himself, and who could blame one furious statesman

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Speaker 1: for seeing things this way? Supplies, reinforcements, and hospitals for

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Speaker 1: the army were planned so badly that trains filled with

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Speaker 1: dying men were parked on the tracks because there was

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Speaker 1: nowhere for them to unload their priceless cargo. What was

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Speaker 1: Russia's experience of the war in nineteen fift It was death, grief, blood,

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Speaker 1: and failure. Steel coffins slowly turning men into corpses. Was

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Speaker 1: not the legacy that Zar Nicholas imagined for the Romanov dynasty,

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Speaker 1: but more and more Russians were coming to see it

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Speaker 1: as his stamp on the nation's history, because it was

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Speaker 1: the nation's present. And who should be to blame if

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Speaker 1: not for the man in charge. And when it comes

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Speaker 1: to anger at the Czar, we're not just talking about peasants.

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Speaker 1: The members of the Duma saw it, they felt it,

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Speaker 1: and published their articles damning Nicholas and so did Russia's

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Speaker 1: other aristocratic families. Their sons had also gone to war,

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Speaker 1: their children had also been killed, and they wanted answers.

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Speaker 1: What was the Tsar going to do about all this suffering?

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Speaker 1: But if the calls were for him to put someone

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Speaker 1: else at the wheel, Nicholas took the opposite course. He

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Speaker 1: thought that maybe the problem was that he had shirked

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Speaker 1: his duty and allowed his muscle bound cousin Nikolasha to

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Speaker 1: take the lead. The job had certainly not been done right,

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Speaker 1: so Nicholas decided to do it himself. He had already

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Speaker 1: been spending as much time as he could at Stavka,

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Speaker 1: the Russian military headquarters. The camp where battle plans were laid,

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Speaker 1: was established off the Moscow Warsaw Road, nestled between the

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Speaker 1: trunks of pine and birch trees and surrounded by ring

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Speaker 1: after ring of centuries. Nicholas found all of that invigorating

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Speaker 1: to him. It was a masculine place, a place for

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Speaker 1: a rugged, disciplined life, a place where every second counted

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Speaker 1: and every man was about his work. The urgency in

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Speaker 1: order reminded him of his fondest memories his younger years

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Speaker 1: in the cavalry, before he had taken up the responsibilities

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Speaker 1: of the czar, but in the summer of nineteen fifteen,

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Speaker 1: it was the responsibilities that he shouldered. The Czar's place

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Speaker 1: was with his troops. Nicholas believed it so strongly that

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Speaker 1: it was almost mystical. He even made up his mind

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Speaker 1: in the church. It was while he was standing in

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Speaker 1: the cathedral, with his eyes fixated on an image of Jesus,

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Speaker 1: that he felt a voice speak in his mind. Maybe

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Speaker 1: the reason his man had lost the war with Japan

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Speaker 1: ten years before was that he had stayed in the

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Speaker 1: palaces and left the work to others. He didn't want

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Speaker 1: to make the same mistake twice in a time of war.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't right for the Tsar to hide in palaces

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Speaker 1: and float offshore in yachts. It was time for him

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Speaker 1: to take action. It was time for him to bear

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Speaker 1: the weight of the empire on his own shoulders. So,

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Speaker 1: no matter what anyone else was shouting to the heavens,

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Speaker 1: Nicolas tightened his grip on the wheel. Nikolasha was out

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Speaker 1: and the Tzar was in. The move was dramatically, universally unpopular.

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Speaker 1: Even the rest of the Romanov family tried to argue

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Speaker 1: with Nicholas to make him reverse his decision and leave

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Speaker 1: the war to others. But finally Nicholas had found a spine.

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Speaker 1: When his ministers approached him at the end of August

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Speaker 1: begging him to reconsider, Nicholas sat and listened, sweating profusely

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Speaker 1: and clutching an icon to support his spiritual conviction that

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Speaker 1: he was meant to lead, an icon he had received

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Speaker 1: from his spiritual adviser and friend, Grigory Rasputin. His conviction

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Speaker 1: was unshaken, and in the coming days it would become

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Speaker 1: clear that the Czar wasn't the only one seizing his

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Speaker 1: royal prerogative. As the wheels of war continue to turn,

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Speaker 1: there was someone else who didn't fear putting their hands

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Speaker 1: on the controls. The Empress herself, Alexandra, this is unobscured.

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Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Manky. Felix Yusupov was an aristocrat, and a

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Speaker 1: wealthy one too. His family was among Russia's richest, and

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Speaker 1: while they weren't the most powerful, they were like many

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Speaker 1: other oligarchs. They had their fingers in every pie, and

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Speaker 1: Felix had his finger on the pulse too. When Nicholas

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Speaker 1: took over the command of Russia's armies. Felix wrote down

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Speaker 1: just how worried his elite friends had become. The news

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Speaker 1: on the whole was badly received. He wrote, everyone knew

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Speaker 1: that pressure had been brought to bear on the Tsar

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Speaker 1: by Rasputin. In fact, Felix wrote that the Tsar was

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Speaker 1: only going to the front because Rasputin told him to.

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Speaker 1: Nicholas had caved because the Holy Man had played on

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Speaker 1: the religious feelings that Nicholas had about his god given

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Speaker 1: role as the ruler of his people. But if this

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Speaker 1: was some kind of spiritual con game, why was Rasputin

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Speaker 1: doing it? Felix thought he knew. He wrote that it

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Speaker 1: was in Rasputin's interest to remove the Tsar as far

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Speaker 1: from Petrograd as possible, because he said, when Rasputin had

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Speaker 1: pushed the Czar out of the palace, that left Alexandra

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Speaker 1: in his power. That was what Felix Usupov and the

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Speaker 1: other wealthy Russians believe and what they feared. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the reality, though, was far more complicated. First of all,

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Speaker 1: there was the fact that Alexandra and Rasputin too, We're

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Speaker 1: actually against Nicolas spending time in Stovka. Maybe no one

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Speaker 1: else saw it at the time, but it was clear

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Speaker 1: in the Empress's writings over and over. In her letters

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Speaker 1: in the early months of that year, Alexandra was urging

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Speaker 1: Nicholas to come back home. She wanted her husband to

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Speaker 1: stay in the capital with her, and she told him

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Speaker 1: that Resputant thought the same. In fact, the reason Alexandra

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Speaker 1: was worried was the same reason that the Duma and

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Speaker 1: the aristocrats like Felix Yusupov worried about Rasputin. It was

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Speaker 1: all about how Nicholas would be influenced. In June of

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, during one of the Tsar's many visits to Stavka,

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Speaker 1: Alexandra wrote to Nicholas a letter showing her hand. She

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Speaker 1: and Rasputin were worried, she said, because when Nicholas was

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Speaker 1: far from the palace and far from her, there were

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Speaker 1: people who could make him do things that he shouldn't do.

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Speaker 1: When he was at Strafka, there were untold numbers of

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Speaker 1: advisers and generals and liars to push the czar around.

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Speaker 1: It would be healthier, Alexandra wrote, if Nicholas would take

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Speaker 1: care of things quickly and just come home. When Nicholas

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Speaker 1: made the opposite choice a few months later and took command.

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Speaker 1: He made his place at Stavka all the more prominent.

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Speaker 1: Alexandra's letters only became more urgent and came more often.

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Speaker 1: If the Czar wasn't going to be at her side.

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Speaker 1: Alexandra was determined that she would still have his ear.

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Speaker 1: Here's historian Helen Rappaport to tell us more. The wartime

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Speaker 1: correspondence is predominantly her long haranguing letters to Nicholas, telling

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Speaker 1: him to do this, that and the other, and complaining

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Speaker 1: about the girls being hormonal and argumentative, and um, you know,

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Speaker 1: telling him to sack this minister and higher that minister.

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Speaker 1: The war yor letters are very revealing of her controlling

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Speaker 1: influence over him. But if Alexandra had a controlling influence

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Speaker 1: over Nicholas, it's just as likely that Nicholas had his

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Speaker 1: own influence over Alexandra. When they were together, Nicholas could

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Speaker 1: bear the duties of state, the two could talk, and

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Speaker 1: Alexandra was free to rest and retreat while Nicholas kept

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Speaker 1: up an endless series of meetings with ministers and bureaucrats.

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Speaker 1: But now with the Czar far away, pressing matters still

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Speaker 1: had to be dealt with. And if it was the

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Speaker 1: duty of the emperor to get his hands dirty, how

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Speaker 1: much different could it be for the empress. Alexandra felt

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Speaker 1: that she had to act as well, and act she did.

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Speaker 1: To begin with, Alexandra didn't miss how much care was

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Speaker 1: needed for the wounded men. She immediately threw herself, despite

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Speaker 1: a lot of physical problems by then the scietic who

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Speaker 1: was awful, she threw herself into war work. She organized

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Speaker 1: hospital trains, She organized ladies at the court to to

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Speaker 1: to set up collecting dressings and you know, bringing to

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Speaker 1: bringing together sewing garments so the wounded. She set up

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Speaker 1: various hospitals in St. Pete but Wells and Petrograd in

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Speaker 1: the war, in the capital city and out at saskos At.

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Speaker 1: Alexandra did far more during the war than people are

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Speaker 1: aware of, many because it's not really being written about.

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Speaker 1: But if it's true that Alexandra's work in the hospitals

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Speaker 1: was overlooked, there was another side of her life that

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Speaker 1: drew far too many eyes because she wasn't just organizing

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Speaker 1: medical care. Alexandra was taking the reins of the states herself.

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Speaker 1: It started at the very top, while Nicholas was away

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Speaker 1: at the front, Alexandra met with the Prime Minister almost

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Speaker 1: every day. It helped that he was on Alexandra's side,

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Speaker 1: the side of absolute monarchy. In fact, when Nicholas left

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Speaker 1: for the front, the Prime Minister even suggested that the

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Speaker 1: Duma should be dissolved. What Russia needed, he believed, was

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Speaker 1: to be united behind the Romanovs. Alexandra could only agree,

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Speaker 1: and when things on the front lines of the war

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Speaker 1: went south, it only strengthened her resolve. When members of

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Speaker 1: the Duma gathered together to meet with the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: and begged him to send more supplies and more ammunition

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Speaker 1: to the army, Alexandra wrote to Nicholas, these elected representatives

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Speaker 1: were meddling with things above their pay grade. The war

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Speaker 1: was none of their business, she said. They were merely

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Speaker 1: fostering discontent. To her, it didn't matter that they had

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Speaker 1: been the legislature of the empire. That's not what God wanted.

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Speaker 1: No God wanted an autocrat to rule. If the Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister listened to other voices, Alexandra was sure that it

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Speaker 1: would only bring the Empire more trouble. So she beat

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Speaker 1: back political advisors and advice from the disbanded Duma more

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Speaker 1: and more she took matters into her own hands. Where

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Speaker 1: supplies needed at the front were more nurses needed at home,

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Speaker 1: Alexandra would decide it for herself, and she revealed to

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Speaker 1: Nicholas just how much she wanted that power and just

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Speaker 1: how little she could see what was coming. When she wrote, Russia,

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Speaker 1: thank God, is not a constitutional country. It shouldn't be

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Speaker 1: a surprise that Rasputant sent his own letter to Stavka.

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Speaker 1: He said that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him

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Speaker 1: in a vision. She told him to travel from the

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Speaker 1: capital and visit the military headquarters. There he could help

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Speaker 1: plan the fight. He had ideas about the war, He

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Speaker 1: had ideas about the economy. God would speak through him

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Speaker 1: and deliver Russia from the tide of violence. He got

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Speaker 1: a letter back from the Tsar's cousin. The man wrote

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Speaker 1: Respute in a similar note. He said that Mary had

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Speaker 1: appeared to him as well. She told him that if

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Speaker 1: Grigory Rasputin ever came to Stavka, Nikolasha would hang him

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Speaker 1: from the nearest lamp post. It was in the months

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Speaker 1: before Nicholas would relieve him of command. Needless to say,

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Speaker 1: Resputant stay at home by Alexandra's side, and it was

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Speaker 1: a sign of how much things had changed. In the beginning,

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Speaker 1: it was Nikolasha and the sisters Stana and Melitza who

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Speaker 1: had introduced Respute into the Tsar's but by now the

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Speaker 1: tzar's cousin saw a real dark side to Gregory's influence

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Speaker 1: over the imperial couple. For years, even decades, they had

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Speaker 1: been friends, Nikolasha, Stana, Melitsa. They were the ones who

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Speaker 1: had helped her the most when she was a rush

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Speaker 1: young empress first stepping into her new home. But these

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Speaker 1: were not those years, and as Nikolasha made it clear

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Speaker 1: just how much contempt he had for Grigory Resputin, a

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Speaker 1: man the Empress trusted most, she started to suspect that

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Speaker 1: even her closest companions were plotting against her family. With

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Speaker 1: Nikolasha now threatening Resputant's life outright, Alexandra feared betrayal. Maybe

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Speaker 1: he was even scheming to take the throne. She had

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Speaker 1: all the evidence necessary to have one of those bulletin

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Speaker 1: boards with photos and pins and red string. It seemed

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Speaker 1: that in the months before Nicholas took control of the army,

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Speaker 1: Nikolasha had been meeting with the government ministers without the Czar.

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Speaker 1: In fact, Alexander learned that the ministers had been taking

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Speaker 1: reports to Nikolasha and not to her husband, even when

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Speaker 1: the matters didn't concern the fighting on the front lines.

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Speaker 1: It might not seem so strange to us now looking

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Speaker 1: back on how important Nikolasha was as the man directing

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Speaker 1: the war efforts, but to Alexandra it was a sign

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Speaker 1: that Nikolasha was making in a play to sideline Nicholas.

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Speaker 1: As much as she hated to have her husband leave

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Speaker 1: her side and go to the front, she was convinced

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Speaker 1: that Nikolasha needed to be crushed. I have absolutely no

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Speaker 1: faith in Nikolasha, she wrote to the Czar. Having gone

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Speaker 1: against a man of God, his work can't be blessed.

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Speaker 1: It didn't help that Nikolasha was in fact deeply loyal

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Speaker 1: to Nicholas and to Russia. He was against Rasputin, and

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Speaker 1: it was no secret that he wasn't the only one.

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Speaker 1: So if Nikolasha had to go, what about the others.

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Speaker 1: Here's more from Helen Rappaport. Nicholas was a long way

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Speaker 1: way at Army h Q, and she was always very

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Speaker 1: opinionated about what kind of ministers Nicholas should appoint. Generally,

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Speaker 1: a lot of toadies and yesmen were appointed during Nicholas's reign,

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Speaker 1: who were often incompetent and weak and ineffectual. But Alexandra

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Speaker 1: was the one who wanted to have a retinue of

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Speaker 1: yes men who did as she felt, you know, things

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Speaker 1: should be done. And she constantly harangued Nicholas, pressing him

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Speaker 1: into sucking this minister. I don't like that, minister. You know,

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Speaker 1: you should get rid of so and so. And it

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Speaker 1: was normally because they wouldn't the line, the line they

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Speaker 1: wouldn't tow was the one set by Alexandra, of course.

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Speaker 1: And when it came to qualifications, Alexandra had at least

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Speaker 1: one easy test. What did they think of Rasputin? Were

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Speaker 1: they on the side of Nikolasha and so many others

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Speaker 1: an enemy of the friend God put by their side,

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Speaker 1: then they couldn't possibly be suitable candidates to govern the empire.

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Speaker 1: No one's job was safe, not even the men who

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Speaker 1: Grigory and Alexandra selected to lead the Russian government. One

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Speaker 1: wrong move and they went from inside track to out

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Speaker 1: in the cold. Here's Douglas Smith to tell us more

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Speaker 1: this phenomenon that becomes known as ministerial leap frog, where basically,

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Speaker 1: like one prime minister is being sacked, a new one

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Speaker 1: hired every other month. There's a there's a new head

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Speaker 1: of the police, there's changes at the upper echelons of

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Speaker 1: the military and other um posts in the government, Minister

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Speaker 1: of Interior and what have you. By those latter years,

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Speaker 1: Risputant is exercising more influence on ministerial appointments, has more

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Speaker 1: opinion about these things, and Alexandra listens to him and

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Speaker 1: tries to lean on Nicholas to make some of these changes.

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Speaker 1: Bizarre was still the one with the final word, but

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Speaker 1: more and more Nicholas made appointments and fired officials from

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Speaker 1: a distance on Alexandra's advice, and the whole time she

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Speaker 1: was looking out for her friend, Rasputants enemies are like

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Speaker 1: spiders around us. Alexandra wrote to Nicholas, Russia will not

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Speaker 1: be blessed if we let a man of God be persecuted.

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Speaker 1: She demanded that intrigues against their spiritual advisor be forbidden.

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Speaker 1: She didn't even want government officials talking about him. Anyone

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Speaker 1: who disobeyed should be pushed out of power. To Alexandra,

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Speaker 1: with the war needed was government officials who would support

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Speaker 1: the guidance that the Czar was receiving from God and

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Speaker 1: from Gregory. And what better way to find the right

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Speaker 1: help than to consult Resputin himself. After all, Alexander had

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Speaker 1: spent her years as empress avoiding the mess of elite

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Speaker 1: Russian life. Retreats after retreat to yachts, hunting, lodges, and

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Speaker 1: her bed had left her with very little clue of

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Speaker 1: where to turn when she actually needed help. She couldn't

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Speaker 1: even rely on Stanta and Melitza, so who was left

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Speaker 1: well just one man. Suddenly, the thing that resputants critics

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Speaker 1: had feared for so long was coming true. For years,

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Speaker 1: the rumors that Resputant was pulling the strings had been

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Speaker 1: merely that, just rumors. His advice had been mostly encouragement

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Speaker 1: for a troubled royal family. But now a new opportunity

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Speaker 1: was presenting itself. With Nicholas away and Alexandra taking control,

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Speaker 1: Grigory could finally become a real force behind the throne.

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Speaker 1: And Grigory had his own reasons for wanting to grip

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Speaker 1: the wheel. After all, the scar that still crossed his

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Speaker 1: stomach was a testament to just how much his enemies

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Speaker 1: wanted him dead. Here's Douglas Smith to remind us what's

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Speaker 1: important to remember is that part of the reason Resputant

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Speaker 1: is doing this is he is very much fearful for

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Speaker 1: his life. There have been several attempted assassinations of resputing

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Speaker 1: and he is terrified that the people in charged with

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Speaker 1: keeping him safe are in fact the ones that want

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Speaker 1: him dead. And so he is very much leaning on

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Speaker 1: Alexandra to make sure that the people they hired to be,

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Speaker 1: for example, the head of the police or the Ministry

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Speaker 1: of the Interior, are in fact allies of his and

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Speaker 1: not enemies just waiting to do him in. As we've seen,

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Speaker 1: if Grigory was driven by his personal paranoia, so was Alexandra.

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Speaker 1: They were relying on each other to see their way

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Speaker 1: through the empire's dark days. Gregory relied on his empress,

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Speaker 1: Alexandra relied on Gregory's insight from God. But there was

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Speaker 1: little insight to be found, and in the coming days,

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Speaker 1: as more power came into their hands, they would come

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Speaker 1: to see clearly that Grigory Rasputin was right about one thing.

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Speaker 1: At least, he had enemies on every side, and they

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Speaker 1: were coming for his life, someone you can do business with.

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Speaker 1: That's what they called grigory. It was obvious to everyone

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Speaker 1: how things at the top were starting to change. Restputants

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Speaker 1: critics were being thrown from the moving car. But if

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Speaker 1: you were a political schemer and you wanted to get in, well,

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Speaker 1: now there was an empty seat just waiting for you.

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Speaker 1: The czar may have always been out of reach, but

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Speaker 1: what about the elevated Siberian peasant with a penchant for drink,

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Speaker 1: expensive clothes and nights out on the town. If other

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Speaker 1: officials and ministers had tried to save Russia by tearing

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Speaker 1: Rasputant down, a very different approach was now on offer. Flattery, gifts,

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Speaker 1: and gossip. They were the stock in trade for many

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Speaker 1: who had always been held on the outside. Now the

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Speaker 1: wheelers and dealers around Petrograd saw doors opening for them

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Speaker 1: as well. The opportunist with the Czarina's ear, well, that

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00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 1: looked like an opportunity. But for men like the ones

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Speaker 1: who stepped into the picture, Resputant was only valuable when

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Speaker 1: he was still their route to the palace. Once they

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Speaker 1: found themselves in the government's inner circle. Though, grigory respute

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Speaker 1: and went from being an opportunity to a liability because

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Speaker 1: anyone who wanted to use resputant to get to Alexandra

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Speaker 1: soon found they would have to dispose of him if

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Speaker 1: they wanted to get their own way. So the next

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Speaker 1: time a call came threatening Grigory's life, it came from

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Speaker 1: inside the house that he built. Here's Douglas Smith to

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Speaker 1: give us the fascinating details. There are several plots and

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Speaker 1: assassinations that were in the gainst for spute in his lifetime,

346
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Speaker 1: and one of the more bizarre was put together by

347
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Speaker 1: the so called troy Ka the Threesome, the head of

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Speaker 1: which was the Minister of Interior, man named Stoff, who

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Speaker 1: in fact got the job as minister claiming to be

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Speaker 1: a defender of respute and an ally of Resputing the

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Speaker 1: fact that he was even chosen at all, though, shows

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Speaker 1: just how naive Gregory and Alexandra were, because while it

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Speaker 1: was true that their new Minister of Interior was a

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Speaker 1: well known and well connected man, the thing he was

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Speaker 1: mostly known for was corruption. Yes, he had been a

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Speaker 1: member of Eliador's right wing terrorist group, but he had

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Speaker 1: also been a provincial governor. He had been elected to

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Speaker 1: the Duma, but he didn't make friends there. The others

359
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: called him a hooligan, a criminal, and a scoundrel. His

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Speaker 1: patriotism was flamboyant and his hatred for Germans was real,

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Speaker 1: but anyone who actually knew him could see that he

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Speaker 1: was really just out for himself. When he was first appointed,

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Speaker 1: Grigory was overjoyed resput and thought that finally he had

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Speaker 1: a man in the government who would attend directly to him.

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Speaker 1: After all, the new minister had made every promise that

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Speaker 1: Gregory and Alexandra wanted to hear. He would crack down

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Speaker 1: the press, he would help get Rasputants allies into other

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Speaker 1: high positions. He would even supply Gregory with a regular

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Speaker 1: allowance of money from the government coffers. When Gregory returned

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Speaker 1: to Petrograd from a trip to Siberia in the fall

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifteen, he was buzzing with excitements. Things were

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Speaker 1: finally going his way, but it was all too good

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Speaker 1: to be true. Once he was appointed to serve in

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Speaker 1: the Tsar's government as an ally to Rasputin, the new

375
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Speaker 1: minister's true colors were on display. He very quickly then

376
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Speaker 1: shifts to the other side, to the competing camp, and

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Speaker 1: starts trying to dream up ways to to do in Resputin.

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Speaker 1: He he plots to have him put on a train

379
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Speaker 1: and sent off outside the capital, and then someone was

380
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Speaker 1: going to come and pick him up and throw him

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Speaker 1: off a speeding train. Um. There's attempts to put together

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Speaker 1: a bottle of poison wine that he will drink and die. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then together with a couple of others, he comes

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Speaker 1: up with trying to lure Iliador, who by this time

385
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Speaker 1: has fled Russia for Norway, to pay iliad Or sixty

386
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Speaker 1: thousand rubles if iliad Or could get some of his

387
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Speaker 1: allies who are still in Russia to shoot and kill Resputing.

388
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Speaker 1: Now this plotting gets very complex. It's like a bizarre

389
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,120
Speaker 1: sort of crime story, but it all comes to light

390
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Speaker 1: before it can happen. The moves that Nicholas was making

391
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Speaker 1: at Alexandra and Rasputin's advice, of course, were turning his

392
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Speaker 1: administration into a kind of wild West, the kind of

393
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Speaker 1: place where, even once he was caught to the new

394
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Speaker 1: minister thought he could simply talk his way out of consequences.

395
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Speaker 1: Plus Stoff claims that no, no, no, I was never

396
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Speaker 1: trying to kill Resputin. I was trying to out a

397
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,960
Speaker 1: plot to kill Resputin, but in the end of the

398
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 1: whole thing blows up in his face. But it offers

399
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,480
Speaker 1: further proof to Alexander and Resputing that even the people

400
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: that they hire in place and positions of power to

401
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,959
Speaker 1: keep resputing if are in fact snakes in the grass

402
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 1: who won him killed. It was yet one more chance

403
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: for the Romanovs to realize they were off track. But

404
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: they had never been a royal couple to admit mistakes.

405
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,359
Speaker 1: With every misstep that risked their lives and that risked

406
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Speaker 1: the empire, they only became more convinced the only people

407
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: they could trust were themselves and the Siberian mystic, of course,

408
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,360
Speaker 1: and like Nicholas and Alexandra, Rasputin was undaunted. Rather than

409
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: seeing just how bad he was at organizing an imperial government,

410
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:36,840
Speaker 1: Rasputin was actually emboldened. With every new minister appointed, he

411
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: felt more and more powerful, He felt more and more

412
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 1: in charge, and that feeling gratified him more than anything

413
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Speaker 1: he had felt in a very long time. As nineteen

414
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: sixteen began, Grigory Rasputin was back in Petrograd and he

415
00:24:52,119 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: had come to flex his muscles. Let's remember that Alexandra

416
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,480
Speaker 1: was German. No one had really forgotten that either, but

417
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:06,679
Speaker 1: they were beginning to remember it in a new and

418
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,959
Speaker 1: all too significant way. After all, Russian soldiers were marching

419
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,360
Speaker 1: by the millions to fight Germans, and the German soldiers

420
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: of the Austro Hungarian Empire were sending back those Russian

421
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: boys in body bags. In an empire racked by fear, conspiracy,

422
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: and the lust for blood, the dots were all too

423
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 1: easy to connect, and all the more so with the

424
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: next move they made to set up a government they

425
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 1: could keep on a tight leash. Because the man that

426
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 1: Alexandra recommended to Nicholas as the next prime minister was

427
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: named Boris Sturmer. If that sounds like a German name

428
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 1: to you, you're not alone. It seems like most of

429
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: the Russian Empire felt the same too, even Nicholas for

430
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: the czar. Of course, it could just have been that

431
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 1: Boris wasn't the brightest bulb in the lamp, so to speak.

432
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 1: He was also, like other misfires, a bit showy in

433
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: society and a bit slow on anything that really mattered,

434
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 1: a bureaucrat who was too old and too dull for

435
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 1: even the other bureaucrats around the czar. They asked him

436
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: to choose someone else, but none of the misgivings would

437
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 1: compare to the letter Nicholas gott from Alexandra. I hope

438
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: you will appoint him, she wrote, he has suited best

439
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,400
Speaker 1: of all for the present time. When Rasputin's own letter followed,

440
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: Nicholas allowed himself to be swayed. In January of nineteen sixteen,

441
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: Boris Sturmer became the new Prime Minister of the Russian Empire.

442
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,439
Speaker 1: On his very first day at the new post, he

443
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,400
Speaker 1: made the journey to Grigory's rooms. Boris pledged his loyalty.

444
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 1: Rasputin gave his blessing. But if that set nerves at

445
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 1: ease in the palace, it set off alarms throughout the

446
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: rest of the Empire. Fears and conspiracies swelled into the

447
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: streets like an overflowing sewer, And among the worst of

448
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: it was the way that anti German fears were staining everything.

449
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 1: In past generations, German and Slavic neighbors had settled down

450
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,479
Speaker 1: under the same imperial roof. There had been some growing

451
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: sense of ethnic strife over the last few decades, sure,

452
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: but for a long time Russian anger and fear had

453
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 1: been turned not against the Germans but against the Ottoman Empire.

454
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: But when the dogs of war were finally loosed against

455
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 1: Russia's European neighbors, there was a united effort to turn

456
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 1: all of that fury against new targets. Here's Dr Joshua

457
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: Sanborn to explain. The difficulty is that Nicholas himself, um,

458
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,440
Speaker 1: starting in nineteen fourteen become begins to play a much

459
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:32,199
Speaker 1: larger role in developing ethno politics, to encouraging the idea

460
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: that you should mobilize around your ethnicity and so um.

461
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 1: He tries to do some of that in the midst

462
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 1: of the war as well. So and this is this

463
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: is the toxic combination that explodes over the course of

464
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: the war. And the thing was the shrapnel from that

465
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: explosion was going to lodge in the Czar's own house.

466
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 1: It was almost like he forgot where his wife had

467
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: come from, but no one else did. And if the

468
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: earliest parts of the war had allowed them to overlook

469
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,360
Speaker 1: that fact, things were piling up that brought it back

470
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,440
Speaker 1: to center stage. The recent failures on the battlefield, for example,

471
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: could they be more incompetent? What about Alexandra's new energy

472
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,679
Speaker 1: for controlling the government, and the appointment of men like

473
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,640
Speaker 1: Boris Sturmer across the Empire, and especially in the offices

474
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 1: of the disbanded Duma. People were beginning to ask, were

475
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:20,719
Speaker 1: the failures of the Russian government stupidity or treason? And

476
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: maybe Alexandra was secretly more wedded to the land of

477
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: her birth than to her new homeland. Those fears were unfounded,

478
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,640
Speaker 1: of course, but a lack of evidence had never stopped

479
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: people from speculating wildly about Alexandra. That had been the

480
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: stuff of popular conversations for years. In fact, it was

481
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: that long runway of salacious gossip about what was happening

482
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,479
Speaker 1: in the palace that let the most recent, most vicious

483
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: rumors take flight. The Czarina's most fervent critics were now

484
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: wondering if every scandal going all the way back to

485
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: monsenor Philippe and the missteps that Alexandra had made from

486
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 1: the very beginning of her reign, we're all just one

487
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 1: long game to undermine the romanof dynasty. But if there

488
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: was a German plot to sabotage Russia, they would certainly

489
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 1: have to look much further back than the day Alexandra

490
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: and Nicholas first felt a spark at the family wedding.

491
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: Here's Dr Joshua Sanborn to explain much of the Romanov

492
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: family was was German. Virtually all of the stars over

493
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: the course the nineteenth century had chosen brides from the

494
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: German principalities and then from Germany itself. So many of

495
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: them had German mothers, and this has been going back

496
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: for again for generations, and this was starting to become

497
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: a problem for them. Right Alexander would would eventually be

498
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: sort of be criticized for being pro German because she

499
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: had this German background to her critics. It was bad

500
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: enough when the Empress was shuffling the deck of government agencies,

501
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,320
Speaker 1: the army and the police. But things really came to

502
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: a head in nineteen sixteen when something even closer to

503
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: Russian hearts came under Restputant's hand, the leadership of the

504
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: Russian Church. Here's more from Douglas Smith. Spudents almost starts

505
00:29:55,960 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: looking around for allies defenders and wants to have them.

506
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: It in positions of power within the Russian Orthodox Church too,

507
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: if you will guard him from his enemies, and one

508
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: of those is Varnava, who was also born a peasant

509
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: like him, had no real education, but was a powerful preacher,

510
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 1: and then sort of makes his way slowly up the

511
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: church and Resputant decides that he wants Varnava to be

512
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: appointed bishop, but the bishops are strongly against it because

513
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: they don't think he's worthy of the title in the position.

514
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: But the one who can ultimately push this through is

515
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: the Emperor, and resput and you know, in vegles his

516
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 1: way in with Alexandra Nicholas and gets Nicholas against the

517
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 1: wishes of the body known as the Holy Synod, which

518
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: is a sort of the ruling body of the church,

519
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: to go ahead and make Varnava a bishop, which he

520
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:56,440
Speaker 1: later becomes. And again this this introduces this great rift

521
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: and distrust between the official church and nick list, which

522
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 1: further undermines Nicholas and his power and authority. Amidst the

523
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: turmoil of war, that choice erupted into its own scandal

524
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: when the czar's handpicked bishop began feuding with the other

525
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: leaders in the church. Because in that squabbling, the bishop

526
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 1: visited Alexandra, he knew where to go when he needed

527
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: a personal favor. He asked her to lean on the

528
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: Tsar and replace the chief procurator of the church. So

529
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: she did. But like the other let's call them personal

530
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 1: choices that Alexander was making, this one was a real blunder.

531
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: The man Alexandra chose was another government bureaucrats with no

532
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: experience in the church. And then when she then started

533
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: reassigning the bishops from city to city to bring allies

534
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: of Rasputant to the post in Petrograd, the outrage was

535
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: too much for pious Russians to take. Nicholas was the

536
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: one who finally demanded the transfers, but the blame was

537
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 1: placed squarely on Alexandra and Rasputin to the faithful priests

538
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 1: and monks of the Russian Church. This shredded the fabric

539
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: of Orthodox Christian faith. Yes, Nicholas was believed to be

540
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: the divine autocrats, but by allowing a man like Rasputant

541
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 1: to influence his decisions, he was now showing himself to

542
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: be unworthy of that office. Somehow a serpent had slithered

543
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 1: in and taken the crown. The wealthy elites across Russia

544
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: were equally aflame with anger. Princess Zinaida Yusupov wrote to

545
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: her son Felix that she was shocked by what was

546
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: happening in the Czar's palace. She wished that she could

547
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: leave Russia and never return. Gregory is back yet again,

548
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: she wrote, and I disdain everyone who tolerates this and

549
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: remains silent. She spoke for a growing number of the

550
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: aristocrats who saw the empire crumbling around them. They started

551
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: to call their governments the reign of Rasputin. It was

552
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 1: Grigory's world and they were all just living in it.

553
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: The pressure was growing for someone in their circles to

554
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 1: do something. The fact that Boris Sturmer was pushed out

555
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 1: of his office after only a few months did almost

556
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: nothing to quell their fears. Putting out the spark that

557
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: started the wildfires didn't save the forest, and in the

558
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: flickering light of those flames, every little thing that Resputant

559
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: and Alexandra had done over the past decade was being

560
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: seen in a new light of suspicion. The very fact

561
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 1: that Rasputin had counseled the Czar against war came back

562
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,160
Speaker 1: to bite him. He had begged Nicholas not to send

563
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,080
Speaker 1: Russian men like his son to the battle front. Now

564
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 1: so many of those boys were dead, caught up in

565
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 1: their search for a German conspiracy. The Russian public saw

566
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: those doubting messages as a sign that Rasputin wasn't committed

567
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: to the fight. His council had undermined the army. They thought,

568
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: maybe it was even the reason that all those battles

569
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: had been lost. His whispers in Alexandra's ear had led

570
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: to the government being thrown topsy turvy. And now this

571
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:49,600
Speaker 1: wandering mystic who wasn't even a priest or a monk,

572
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: believed that he was the man to decide who should

573
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 1: lead God's holy Church in the heart of Russia. I

574
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: hope you can see how easy it was to question

575
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: all of this. Could it be that there was a

576
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 1: secret plot laid by German agents to strangle the life

577
00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: out of Russia using a Siberian hand two aristocrats like

578
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 1: Felix Yusupov Grigory was the spider at the center of

579
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: a slowly constructed web, and the Czar was simply too

580
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: blind to see that the Siberian peasant wasn't there to

581
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:22,560
Speaker 1: save Russia, he was there to tear it all down.

582
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 1: His daily life was quite simple. In the morning, he

583
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: would find himself in church, then It was breakfast, nothing elaborate,

584
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 1: just something simple and nourishing. His home was five modest rooms.

585
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 1: His furniture was sparse, a table and a few chairs,

586
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 1: a cheap writing desk. Yes, he had a staff, people

587
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:46,280
Speaker 1: to cook and clean and care for his two daughters,

588
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 1: Maria and Varvara. Sometimes his niece came to live with

589
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,760
Speaker 1: him in Petrograd too. It seems that even in nineteen sixteen,

590
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 1: at the height of his power, there was still something

591
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 1: in Grigory Resputant that wanted to do things the right way,

592
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 1: to live simply to holy man. That would have surprised

593
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 1: the people who knew about his business. It would have

594
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,800
Speaker 1: surprised the people paying him huge bribes to push forward

595
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: their agenda behind the scenes. It would get a laugh

596
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 1: from the people who saw him out on the town

597
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:18,040
Speaker 1: night after night, drinking Madeira wine and dancing with chorus girls.

598
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,800
Speaker 1: But the truth is often complicated, and Grigory Resputant remained

599
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,839
Speaker 1: a man with two faces. At home, Maria knew her

600
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: father as the gentle and loving man who ate dry

601
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: pretzels with his tea, the man who met with hundreds

602
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,719
Speaker 1: of followers every single day, despite his fears of being

603
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: killed the man who took his huge bribes. Yes, but

604
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 1: then gave them to the poor. That's one thing to

605
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: be said for him. At least, if one of the

606
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 1: people standing down his block came looking for money, they

607
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 1: were actually going to get it. And what about the Empress. Yes,

608
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:53,480
Speaker 1: each month she paid his rent one and twenty one roubles,

609
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 1: and yes she would hear his grand proclamations about how

610
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: the government should be run, but much to her annoyance,

611
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:01,719
Speaker 1: even during the war years, he would come to the

612
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,400
Speaker 1: palace with his pockets stuffed with notes and request for

613
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,240
Speaker 1: the Czar. He felt duty bound to be an advocate

614
00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:11,120
Speaker 1: for the Russian people, even peasants just like him. But

615
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: it all feels less charming when we remember that many

616
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,800
Speaker 1: of the people who came to speak with him were women,

617
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 1: and if they came on the wrong day. Grigory's attentions

618
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 1: came with a heavy cost. He never stopped using his

619
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,239
Speaker 1: position and his power to force favors from vulnerable followers.

620
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,840
Speaker 1: There were men among his petitioners too. Of course, the

621
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: secret police jotted down the many times that men tried

622
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,319
Speaker 1: to visit him in secret, ashamed of asking him for

623
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: help with their careers. With securing promotions or with arranging

624
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:42,240
Speaker 1: shady business deals. Once he even had the governor general

625
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 1: of the city of Petrograd groveling at his feet. By

626
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 1: the later months of nineteen sixteen, Resputant's apartment almost seemed

627
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 1: like its own kind of government agency. His power was

628
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,280
Speaker 1: no longer a matter of perception. He toppled his enemies,

629
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: and the divine autocrat looked to him to speak the

630
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: words of God. All of this for a Siberian peasant

631
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: who never had an official government post. Yes, he became

632
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 1: a creature of Petrograd. No matter how many nights he

633
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: spent collecting gifts of wine and wealth from the Russian elites,

634
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 1: he always seemed to hold on to his past, the

635
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 1: light and the darkness too. In later years, Rasputin's daughter

636
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 1: would write that Grigory wasn't just trying to use the

637
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 1: Czar and Czarina as pawns. No, his belief in their

638
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: god given place ruling the empire that was real, and

639
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,759
Speaker 1: over time he did come to love Nicholas and Alexandra.

640
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 1: He loved serving them and their children. But he also

641
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 1: loved the power that he got from that bond, and

642
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:40,719
Speaker 1: he had his own views too, of who the Romanovs

643
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: really were. He believed that Nicholas was good, but painfully naive.

644
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: He was a czar too far removed from the people,

645
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 1: too wrapped in a bubble of protection, that made the

646
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,239
Speaker 1: Russian Empire hate and fear their ruler rather than love him.

647
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:59,080
Speaker 1: And once, it seems he even said so to Nicholas's face.

648
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 1: And maybe in just this one instance, the czar saw

649
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 1: things more clearly than the mystic. Nicholas told Rasputin that

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00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,120
Speaker 1: if he and Alexandra were to live out in the open,

651
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: the people would kill him, just as they had his grandfather.

652
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: Overcome by his devotion to the divine emperor, raspute and

653
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 1: denied it. He said, the people would never kill their zar.

654
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: If it would be anyone, Rasputin believed it would be

655
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: the elites and intellectuals who would finally eat the Romanovs alive.

656
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 1: But if Grigory was talking about the czar when he

657
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: said those words, he got it slightly wrong. The elites

658
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 1: of Petrograd didn't have their knives out pointed at Nicholas. Now.

659
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: They were appointed at the peasant standing behind the throne.

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00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: That's it for this week's episode of unobscured stick around

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00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: after this short sponsor break for a preview of what's

662
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 1: in store for next week. She came in with the others.

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00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 1: It was a typical day for Resputant. Petitioners were lined

664
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 1: up outside his door. They filed in with requests for prayer,

665
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: for favors, for help with something in their lives that

666
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 1: was out of reach. Maybe they wanted healing for themselves

667
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:13,919
Speaker 1: or for a wounded son who had come back from

668
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: the front, and she came in with them. In fact,

669
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 1: there's no sign that Resputant thought she was any different

670
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 1: from the rest, That is until she stepped up to Grigory.

671
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 1: Something in her hand caught the light, and he asked

672
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,359
Speaker 1: her to show it to him. As she approached. Out

673
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 1: from under her coat, she drew a revolver with a

674
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:36,720
Speaker 1: ferocious light in her eyes. She raised it between them

675
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: and wavered. After a moment, she broke down. The point

676
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,240
Speaker 1: of a gun fell to the floor, and she offered

677
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:46,759
Speaker 1: it to Resputant. She had come to kill him, she said,

678
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:50,080
Speaker 1: and the secret police who were guarding Resputant hadn't seen

679
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:53,080
Speaker 1: that she was carrying a weapon to her meeting with him.

680
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 1: She could have taken his life then and there. But

681
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 1: instead she put the gun in his hands, and as

682
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 1: she did, she told him it was when she saw

683
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:04,800
Speaker 1: his eyes that she realized her mistake. She simply couldn't

684
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 1: go through with it. Unobscured was created by me Aaron

685
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,360
Speaker 1: Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh

686
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio, with research by

687
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and original music by

688
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 1: Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians, source materials

689
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 1: and links to our other shows over at grim and

690
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:43,799
Speaker 1: Mild dot com, slash Unobscured, and as always, thanks for

691
00:40:43,880 --> 00:41:12,919
Speaker 1: listening the boo