Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: The throne was in danger, the Church was in danger,
Speaker 1: the very state of Russia itself. No revolutionary or foreign
Speaker 1: missionary had done what rest Sputin had done. The imperial
Speaker 1: family was stained. A vestige of the dark ages had
Speaker 1: risen up and taken the Tsar of Russia into his hands.
Speaker 1: That was the message that thundered out into the Russian parliament,
Speaker 1: the Duma, on March eighth of nineteen twelve. The speaker,
Speaker 1: Alexander Gukov, was a politician who had been working to
Speaker 1: reform the Russian government since the Revolution of nineteen o five.
Speaker 1: Now he was taking direct aim at the Tsar, and
Speaker 1: Nicholas took it personally. After all, this speech was in
Speaker 1: open defiance of his power, and in a time when
Speaker 1: the press and the church and even the supporters of
Speaker 1: the Empire had gone against the crown, this was a
Speaker 1: new low. The government that Nicholas had tried to control
Speaker 1: was now openly questioning his guy given authority. They were
Speaker 1: undermining him in the very halls of government itself. It
Speaker 1: stung all the more because it was the final exclamation
Speaker 1: point on a process that Nicholas had begun himself when
Speaker 1: he met with the President of the Duma, Mikhail Rosienko.
Speaker 1: A few months before. Nicholas had met with Rosienko in
Speaker 1: the wake of the secret police attacking the press. They
Speaker 1: had discussed Resputant's place at court. They talked over the
Speaker 1: deeply disturbing things that people had observed about Rasputant's behavior.
Speaker 1: Rosienko had even read Nicholas letters from the mothers of
Speaker 1: women who had fallen into Grigory's clutches. Rosienko told the
Speaker 1: Czar that the attempts to shut down the press were backfiring.
Speaker 1: The more Nicholas tried to silence the outrage, the more
Speaker 1: Russian readers thought that Resputant's evil influence was controlling the throne.
Speaker 1: While Rosienko talked, Nicolas smoked. He nervously lit one cigarette
Speaker 1: after another, feverishly puffing and then throwing them on the ground.
Speaker 1: When the President of the Duma was done, Nicholas think
Speaker 1: the man. He was grateful for Rosienko's honesty, he said.
Speaker 1: In the following days, Nicholas was quiet. People around him
Speaker 1: saw that he was mulling something over. A few days later,
Speaker 1: a sheaf of documents arrived on Rosienko's desk. Nicholas had
Speaker 1: ordered that all the investigations on Rasputant be sent to him.
Speaker 1: Nicholas wanted Rosienko to continue gathering evidence as long as
Speaker 1: he did it quietly. But that's where the President of
Speaker 1: the Duma violated the trust of the Czar, because he
Speaker 1: brought in his political allies like Alexander Gukov. He showed
Speaker 1: them the reports and told them that together they would
Speaker 1: save the Emperor and Russia. They compiled a complete report,
Speaker 1: a profile of Rasputin, more comprehensive than anything yet put
Speaker 1: to the page, and then they sent it to Nicholas
Speaker 1: and waited. They were greeted with only silence, a silence
Speaker 1: that was broken by Gukhov's speech to the Duma. But
Speaker 1: if Gukov and Rosienko thought that shouting against the Czar
Speaker 1: in parliament would finally make Nicholas turned back, they were
Speaker 1: badly mistaken, and fact Gukhov's speech was a turning point
Speaker 1: in the relationship between the Duma and the Romanovs. To Nicholas,
Speaker 1: it was a breach of trust. He had asked for
Speaker 1: secrecy and instead was openly attacked Alexandra sent men to
Speaker 1: seize back the documents that Nicholas had sent to Rosienko.
Speaker 1: This wasn't just political now, it was personal, and from
Speaker 1: that there was no going back. The delicate stitching that
Speaker 1: held the young constitutional government together was beginning to unravel.
Speaker 1: This is unobscured, I'm Aaron Manky. They retreated again, after all,
Speaker 1: it was their habit to do so. Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 1: didn't stay in the capital. Instead, they went looking for
Speaker 1: places to rest their heads and to leave behind the
Speaker 1: troubles of ruling Russia. In nineteen o nine, when they
Speaker 1: were threatened all the way across the North Sea in England,
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like things could get worse. But that
Speaker 1: was before Prime Minister stoy Leapin was assassinated. Iliador battled
Speaker 1: the Tzar and betrayed Rasputant. The press turned into high gear,
Speaker 1: and members of the Douma threw it all in their face. So,
Speaker 1: as always, it was time to get away. Following Rasputant's advice,
Speaker 1: they went looking for places of natural beauty and peaceful wilderness.
Speaker 1: They even found places where they wouldn't be recognized, places
Speaker 1: where they could step in and out of local shops
Speaker 1: without the owners falling to their knees. But as always,
Speaker 1: it seemed that no matter where the Romanovs went, trouble
Speaker 1: would follow. That shadow over the family only darkened on
Speaker 1: their holiday in nine twelve and the trouble they ran
Speaker 1: into that year. They would be a decisive moment for
Speaker 1: one small struggle that had recently grown into a major headache,
Speaker 1: their choy to befriend Grigory Rasputin. In fact, the trouble
Speaker 1: and what followed came to be known as a miraculous event.
Speaker 1: It became a story that has grown in its retelling
Speaker 1: down the years. The thing is, there was something of
Speaker 1: a miracle about it from the very beginning, at least
Speaker 1: for Grigory's bond with Nicholas and Alexandra, one of the
Speaker 1: crucial moments when the relationship between the Romanovs and Rasputin
Speaker 1: was sealed and their path into the future was written.
Speaker 1: It started ordinarily enough, but as we know, even ordinary
Speaker 1: pastimes were riddled with danger for the Emperor's son, little
Speaker 1: Alexei Romanov, and this jaunt through the Polish countryside was
Speaker 1: no different. But he had let his guard down, because
Speaker 1: since nineteen oh seven Alexei had been remarkably healthy. In fact,
Speaker 1: the family had stopped holding their breath. They still took precautions,
Speaker 1: for sure, but it seemed like maybe they had learned
Speaker 1: to manage their little boys chronic illness. Here's Helen Rappaport
Speaker 1: to tell us what happened next. In the Ltum Romanovs
Speaker 1: went off to one of on a trip to what
Speaker 1: was Poland what is Poland now but was then part
Speaker 1: of the Russian Empire, the big forest near Yellowish And
Speaker 1: they went to one of their big imperial hunting lodges there.
Speaker 1: And it was while they were staying there that alex
Speaker 1: say Alexey was always very reluctant to do as he
Speaker 1: was told, and he constantly be told by his minders,
Speaker 1: and he had a couple of minders who were with
Speaker 1: him all the time not to jump and leap around him.
Speaker 1: He risked banging himself, which he did one day getting
Speaker 1: into a boat. He jumped into a boat and bashed
Speaker 1: his hip and it started bleeding in the joints and
Speaker 1: at the top of his thigh. The family leapt into
Speaker 1: emergency mode. It had been a few years since he
Speaker 1: had been injured this badly, but no one had forgotten
Speaker 1: what to do. Alexei rested and, to their relief, recovered.
Speaker 1: The family moved on to a smaller hunting lodge in Poland,
Speaker 1: more modest, more out of the way. But as he
Speaker 1: got at her Alexei got more restless. He was really
Speaker 1: getting very fed out with being told by his mother.
Speaker 1: Daaned out, Now, you can't do this. You can't go
Speaker 1: off in the bicycle. He can't ride a pony, you
Speaker 1: can't go off with the other children. You just had
Speaker 1: this terrible episode. You've got to get well. And he
Speaker 1: was constantly complaining and fed up would not being able
Speaker 1: to do anything. So in the end Alexandra took him
Speaker 1: out for a coach ride. Maybe Alexandra thought this was
Speaker 1: safe enough. She was with her son and he was
Speaker 1: inside the coach, but the road was far from smooth,
Speaker 1: and Alexei was not as recovered as they all thought,
Speaker 1: which meant that every bump and the road could send
Speaker 1: his healing crashing to a halt. And that's just what happened.
Speaker 1: Let's hear from Douglas Smith. He's jostled about and this
Speaker 1: produces a bleeding episode in his leg and it becomes
Speaker 1: quite critical. The doctors are fussing over him. They don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. It's getting worse and worse. The
Speaker 1: boy is in excruciating pain, which is driving his parents,
Speaker 1: you know, utterly mad to see their their beloved son
Speaker 1: hurting so terribly. Um it gets to the point where
Speaker 1: they're about to, you know, have a priest brought in
Speaker 1: for the last rites. They don't think that that alex
Speaker 1: A is going to survive. So as sort of a
Speaker 1: last ditch effort, Alexandra sends a cable telegram to Rasputin,
Speaker 1: who's home in Siberia, for some sort of intercession. And
Speaker 1: this is the moment when we need to step back
Speaker 1: just a bit, because this story becomes a pillar in
Speaker 1: the legend of Rasputin, as if the only thing keeping
Speaker 1: Grigory together with the Romanovs was a mystical healing power.
Speaker 1: If on the one side, his story is buried under
Speaker 1: the rumors about Rasputin being the lover of the Russian queen,
Speaker 1: on the other side, we can also allow stories of
Speaker 1: his healing power to carry the burden of what we
Speaker 1: now know. So this is a good point to remember
Speaker 1: just how important Gregory had been to the royal family
Speaker 1: down through the years, because the truth is that Gregory
Speaker 1: Rasputin had been a close counselor spiritual adviser and a
Speaker 1: comforting friend to Alexandra for years and to Nicholas too.
Speaker 1: Now that much said. When Alexei was injured on the
Speaker 1: carriage ride, there was so much rumor in the air
Speaker 1: that we can only think the relationship between the Romanovs
Speaker 1: and their Siberian friend was delicate and becoming more fragile.
Speaker 1: After all, when Alexandra reached out to him by telegram, well,
Speaker 1: it was a last resort. In fact, they were so
Speaker 1: certain that their little boy would die that they drafted
Speaker 1: the official notifications of Alexei's death, and Grigory was far
Speaker 1: far away from Poland. But when they thought back to
Speaker 1: that last time that Alexei had been at death store,
Speaker 1: they must have remembered that it was under Resputant's hands
Speaker 1: and his prayers that the boy had recovered. What else
Speaker 1: could they credit with Alexei's five years of good health.
Speaker 1: So if the Russian public thought that Resputant was out
Speaker 1: of favor with Alexandra, it seems they got it wrong.
Speaker 1: All the attacks on Gregory may have soured him in
Speaker 1: the newspapers, but it never truly split Resputant and the
Speaker 1: Romanovs apart. In fact, earlier in the year, at the
Speaker 1: height of the press attacks, the Romanov family was traveling
Speaker 1: in Crimea and Grigory had traveled with them. They had
Speaker 1: been together through the winter and into the early spring.
Speaker 1: No matter what the paper said, no matter what the
Speaker 1: Duma said, Nicholas and Alexandra were adamant they would not
Speaker 1: be told who they could let through their doors, and
Speaker 1: any damage to their friendship would have been healed. When
Speaker 1: Grigory answered their telegram from Poland that fall, he was
Speaker 1: far away, but his words of comfort touched to Alexandra's heart.
Speaker 1: Leaning over the mattress that might be her son's deathbed,
Speaker 1: Alexandra was frantic with fear, that is until she read
Speaker 1: Resputant's reply, sent a message but effectively saying, don't worry.
Speaker 1: All will be well, the little one will not die.
Speaker 1: Don't let the doctors fuss around him too much. And
Speaker 1: when she got that message, of course, she calmed down
Speaker 1: and became The stress sort of vanished from her face.
Speaker 1: She came down to dinner first time in about two weeks,
Speaker 1: and alex I recovered this point this pivotal moment is
Speaker 1: easy to understand. Grigory wasn't there. All he did was
Speaker 1: pray and send a telegram. Did he heal Alexei? Most
Speaker 1: historians think that the boy was already on the men.
Speaker 1: But the important thing is less Alexei's healing itself. It's
Speaker 1: more about how all this seemed to Alexandra, because in
Speaker 1: her eyes, when it came to the life of her
Speaker 1: beloved son, this was a second miraculous healing. God had spoken,
Speaker 1: Rasputant had shared the message. All was well. Alexander now
Speaker 1: stood on a rock of confidence. As an ocean of
Speaker 1: uncertainty washed around her. Terrible things might arise. Waves of anger, violence, death,
Speaker 1: accusations and slander might crash against her place in the world,
Speaker 1: But the Empress of Russia could now stand unafraid. The
Speaker 1: man of God would guide her. Rasputin was a household name,
Speaker 1: not just in Russia either. By the spring of nineteen twelve,
Speaker 1: the scandal caused by the Duma taking up the issue
Speaker 1: of Rasputant nesting in the palace had made him the
Speaker 1: subject of even more rumors and wild stories than the
Speaker 1: papers could print. The ambassadors of several countries wrote back
Speaker 1: to their home offices about the mysterious Siberian peasant. Word
Speaker 1: of the religious fanatic with mysterious hypnotic powers was being
Speaker 1: inflated and floated into government offices all across Europe. Of course,
Speaker 1: like most of the trial balloons going up about Grigory,
Speaker 1: most of these reports were collections of the rumors popular
Speaker 1: among the Russian aristocracy. But when the Romanovs had gone
Speaker 1: to Crimea that spring to celebrate Easter, Rasputin also disappeared
Speaker 1: from St. Petersburg society. But his absence didn't silence the conversation.
Speaker 1: In fact, the furious speculation about him only got hotter,
Speaker 1: so much so that the newspapers started commenting on the
Speaker 1: newspaper coverage as its own story. That March, for example,
Speaker 1: one article titled Rasputini Anna complained that there was no
Speaker 1: getting rid of the story. It was like Eczema, it said.
Speaker 1: Once a paper caught the bug for publishing about Resputin,
Speaker 1: there was no going back. It became an endless flow
Speaker 1: of Grigory's comings and goings, unless there was no news,
Speaker 1: in which case it became a perpetual series of guesses
Speaker 1: about where he might be. After all, resputants sold papers,
Speaker 1: and speculation was a lucrative business. It was like a disease,
Speaker 1: they wrote, even though the pages were only paper. It
Speaker 1: seemed that Resputant had gone viral, and not everyone was
Speaker 1: happy about that, especially because it all seemed to backfire.
Speaker 1: If the original idea had been to shock the conscience
Speaker 1: of the nation and of the Romanas, the opposite had happened.
Speaker 1: All these headlines about the wandering holy Man only seemed
Speaker 1: to desensitize everyone to the whole affair. The newfound freedom
Speaker 1: of the press was teaching the newspapers a hard new lesson.
Speaker 1: If you yell loud and long enough, you get tuned
Speaker 1: out to be a spectacle. The news has to stay new.
Speaker 1: Of course, there was a grain of truth to all
Speaker 1: the reporting. Grigory was going here and there. He traveled
Speaker 1: constantly from Siberia to St. Petersburg, to Crimea, where he
Speaker 1: spent time with Nicholas and Alexandra, back to his home
Speaker 1: then in Siberia. But if the papers were chasing rumors,
Speaker 1: the secret police were tracking the man himself. Police surveillance
Speaker 1: reports included Resputant spottings whenever he would arrive in the capital.
Speaker 1: After all, he wasn't just newsworthy. Over the past few
Speaker 1: years he had become the most infamous man in all
Speaker 1: of Russia, and as a close confident of the Tsar,
Speaker 1: that made him a target. If you were against his
Speaker 1: friendship with the Czar, well, it also made him a threat,
Speaker 1: and it probably didn't help. The resputants seemed less and
Speaker 1: less like the simple, wide eyed pilgrim who had first
Speaker 1: shown up in the capital almost a decade earlier. For
Speaker 1: years now he had been living the high life. It
Speaker 1: left Grigory looking different to the papers started to comment
Speaker 1: on his appearance. By August, one paper was calling his
Speaker 1: face tormented. The skin was clinging to his owns, and
Speaker 1: the bones were poking through the skin. Dark circles never
Speaker 1: faded from around his eyes. Resputant, it seems, was getting tired.
Speaker 1: Even his daughter Maria noticed the changes when he would
Speaker 1: come home to Siberia. She remembered how much he started
Speaker 1: to resent the visitors in those years. After so much traveling,
Speaker 1: he just wanted some peace and quiet, but he had
Speaker 1: raised his profile too high for that. If it wasn't
Speaker 1: reporters and investigators coming by to get a read on
Speaker 1: his most recent events, it was religious seekers. Maria would
Speaker 1: later say her father got annoyed with them, but it
Speaker 1: didn't stop a parade of women marching up to their
Speaker 1: front door looking for the little Father and throwing themselves
Speaker 1: on him, grabbing his hands and kissing the hem of
Speaker 1: his clothes. She remembers at one point he ripped his
Speaker 1: hands away from a woman and shouted, I am not
Speaker 1: your father, I'm not even a monk. But nothing stopped
Speaker 1: the downright worship. If he wasn't the devil to the
Speaker 1: people who came prowling at the door, he was a saint,
Speaker 1: and that's not something you can just shake off. If
Speaker 1: the newspapers hadn't changed their mind, what could so. When
Speaker 1: he was home in Siberia, Grigory trying to duck out
Speaker 1: of sight. He avoided the restaurants and ate at home.
Speaker 1: He kept to his devotional rituals, which was no meat
Speaker 1: and no liquor. At least that's how Maria remembers it.
Speaker 1: The thing is, that's about as far as you can
Speaker 1: get from the life he lived. When he traveled to St. Petersburg.
Speaker 1: If his daughters saw one face at home, the Okrana
Speaker 1: in the capital observed something completely opposite. There he spent
Speaker 1: his days and nights out on the town in company too.
Speaker 1: He went out with friends, or he made his way
Speaker 1: to the streets and neighborhoods notorious for prostitution. They followed
Speaker 1: him as he picked up women and took them down
Speaker 1: his old paths to a nearby hotel or to a bathhouse.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they trailed him as he went from bath house
Speaker 1: to brothel to bathhouse, and he had a new woman
Speaker 1: on his arm each time. It didn't look at all
Speaker 1: like the kind of life he tried to live in
Speaker 1: front of his followers. So if he was starting to
Speaker 1: look haggard and worn out, well, it wasn't just the
Speaker 1: scandal and screw rutiny that was doing it. Gregory may
Speaker 1: have been trying to keep the two sides of his
Speaker 1: life separate, but it's not like he was discreet about it.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, he seemed to throw caution to the
Speaker 1: wind when he was in St. Petersburg and when the
Speaker 1: Czar was out of town. In later years, even Maria
Speaker 1: would admit who her father became in those years, though,
Speaker 1: of course, whether the drunken stumble between brothels was something
Speaker 1: new for him is hard to pin down. It's just
Speaker 1: that he was finally being watched so much that his
Speaker 1: habits were no longer hidden. His supporters like to say
Speaker 1: that it was the city that had corrupted the Siberian peasant.
Speaker 1: Over time, they called his new lifestyle a spiritual catastrophe.
Speaker 1: Churchmen like Theo Fan, who had started by embracing Rasputin,
Speaker 1: told the story this way. Try as they might to
Speaker 1: displace some kind of blame from Grigory for his choices,
Speaker 1: or to say he didn't used to be so constantly
Speaker 1: on the prowl, it all seemed a bit too convenient.
Speaker 1: There may be some truth to it, no doubt, Grigory
Speaker 1: did adapt a bit to his new surroundings. But we
Speaker 1: can't forget just how much Fan looked past in those
Speaker 1: early years when he thought Grigory could be useful to him.
Speaker 1: Whispers had followed him from Pokrosco to Kazan and onward.
Speaker 1: And in the end, there's no debate about at least
Speaker 1: one thing. If there were neighborhoods in any city where
Speaker 1: the virtues of the Orthodox Church were left outside, it
Speaker 1: was Grigory himself who willingly opened that door and crept inside.
Speaker 1: The crisis was real. The spiritual crisis. That is, whatever
Speaker 1: Grigory may have decided about the way he would live
Speaker 1: his life, he never stopped tormenting himself about the unraveling.
Speaker 1: The sex and the drunken knights in St. Petersburg were
Speaker 1: less the cause of a collapse and more the result
Speaker 1: of one. The real crisis had been working inside him
Speaker 1: all along, no matter how he was living respute and
Speaker 1: held on to his own claim to faith. To himself,
Speaker 1: at least, he was not a fraud or a heretic.
Speaker 1: He was simply a man of God who sometimes, maybe
Speaker 1: often made miss achs. At least that's what he told himself.
Speaker 1: But if the Romanov's dismissed concerns about Gregory as malicious rumors,
Speaker 1: others did not, not the members of the Duma, not
Speaker 1: the public, and not the Russian Church. In fact, there
Speaker 1: were some who began to suspect that their earlier investigations
Speaker 1: into his teachings were flawed. In past years, church officials
Speaker 1: had decided that Resputant was no heretic, but after all
Speaker 1: the accusations against him, they decided to look again. In fact,
Speaker 1: one bishop in the city of Tubulsk, near Resputant's hometown,
Speaker 1: took up the subject with some genuine energy. He ordered
Speaker 1: church investigators to send him monthly reports on Gregory, where
Speaker 1: he went, what he taught, who he met with. Despite
Speaker 1: Rasputin being earlier cleared of connections to secret groups of heretics,
Speaker 1: it was exactly the same question they were trying to answer. Now.
Speaker 1: It seems obvious that any church leaders would want to
Speaker 1: separate themselves from Rasputin as much as possible. But there's
Speaker 1: a more clear and more personal link to these investigations too,
Speaker 1: because the Bishop of Tobolsk was personal friends with someone
Speaker 1: who had become an enemy of Rasputin, the mad monk Iliador.
Speaker 1: Not that the investigations immediately produced damning evidence, though. In
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen twelve, while Gregory was home in
Speaker 1: Pokrosco with his family, the priest there followed orders. He
Speaker 1: sent reports to the nearby bishop, but there wasn't much
Speaker 1: to say. Gregory went to church, he seemed to be
Speaker 1: working and supporting his family. All the whispers the priest
Speaker 1: could gather only said that Gregory was keeping to his prayers.
Speaker 1: He made short pilgrimages here and there. At home, it
Speaker 1: seemed like he was the devouts and pious peasant his
Speaker 1: daughter thought he might be. But there was one thing
Speaker 1: that raised concerns his followers. In fact, it was one
Speaker 1: of the women who had been devoted to him the longest.
Speaker 1: Olga look Tina Gears had passed since she had hosted
Speaker 1: him in the St. Petersburg salons, and in those years
Speaker 1: she had taken to living with the religious teachers she
Speaker 1: liked the best. Sometimes she was living in the band
Speaker 1: of followers at Risputant's house. Sometimes she had been living
Speaker 1: with another fiery preacher, Eliador. And after the split between
Speaker 1: Gregory and Eliador, it seems Olga knew where she wanted
Speaker 1: to be, and so she settled down to live with
Speaker 1: resputants family. But she ran into some conflict with his wife.
Speaker 1: Now let's remember that for all these years, when Resputant
Speaker 1: was wandering and climbing the ladder of the Russian courts,
Speaker 1: he had a family at home in Siberia. His wife,
Speaker 1: Prascovia was often left affair without her husband, and their
Speaker 1: children were often without their father. But they may do.
Speaker 1: And of course, when Gregory bought the new house, brought
Speaker 1: home the new clothes and rode in with new patrons
Speaker 1: and new money. That wasn't nothing, But Prascovia and the
Speaker 1: Resputant family knew better than most that his ambitions and
Speaker 1: visions came with a cost. In some ways. It was
Speaker 1: a burden that they all had to carry. So when
Speaker 1: their guest, Olga started loudly proclaiming that Resputent ought to
Speaker 1: be treated as God himself, well that didn't sit well
Speaker 1: with his wife. She was the wife of Gregory's younger years.
Speaker 1: She knew that he was all too human, but Olga
Speaker 1: didn't appreciate that perspective, and when she didn't let the
Speaker 1: issue drop, the two women got into a ferocious argument.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine the resigned strength of Prascovia as
Speaker 1: she had to repeat that no, her wandering husband was
Speaker 1: a charismatic man, but certainly not the God of the universe. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Prascovia put her foot down. The fight sent Olga running
Speaker 1: barefoot from the house, and she disappeared. Over time, news
Speaker 1: but trickle back that she had begun wandering from monastery
Speaker 1: to monastery. She was looking for Iliador, and once in
Speaker 1: a while she even ran across reporters who took down
Speaker 1: her accounts and published the story of the wealthy st
Speaker 1: Petersburg socialite who had fallen from grace, dragged down by
Speaker 1: the talents of Grigory Rasputin. That was enough to concern
Speaker 1: the church, not least because even more concerning stories began
Speaker 1: to come out about how badly Resputant had treated Olga.
Speaker 1: Some witnesses said that he had taken to screaming her,
Speaker 1: telling her that she was demon possessed, and even beating
Speaker 1: her with a shoe. Through it all, she would desperately
Speaker 1: grab at his clothes and sob that rest Sputin was
Speaker 1: christ himself. So when a new bishop arrived into Bolsk
Speaker 1: that year, one of the things he put on his
Speaker 1: list was a visit to Pokrovsko and to the home
Speaker 1: of Grigory Resputin. It was now his job to care
Speaker 1: for the people across his region of Siberia, and after
Speaker 1: reading stacks and stacks of reports on Resputin, he decided
Speaker 1: to see this threat to the Russian people for himself.
Speaker 1: The bishop met directly with Grigory. It was a meeting
Speaker 1: meant to test resputants religious beliefs. He took a measure
Speaker 1: of Grigory's hopes and ambitions and considered whether his preaching
Speaker 1: was strengthening the church. The local priest and other church
Speaker 1: officials made another search of Resputant's house, and they questioned
Speaker 1: the people who knew him, trying to ferret out anything
Speaker 1: he said that might sound like the heresy they feared
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, though their conclusions left Resputant off the hook.
Speaker 1: What kind of a man and was Rasputin? The bishop
Speaker 1: wrote that he was honestly spiritual and that he was
Speaker 1: searching for the truth. He was intelligent, He was capable
Speaker 1: of giving good advice to those in need. That fall,
Speaker 1: he submitted a report to other leaders in Russia's church
Speaker 1: the investigations into Grigory Resputent ought to be condemned. He
Speaker 1: said there was no heresy, and in his eyes, Grigory
Speaker 1: Resputin was an orthodox Christian. But if that closed the
Speaker 1: book on Rasputin for the Russian Church, well, we can
Speaker 1: take a slightly more critical view looking back from today,
Speaker 1: because there are a few things that never made it
Speaker 1: into the bishop's report. First of all, he had known
Speaker 1: Rasputin for years, ever since Grigory had made a pilgrimage
Speaker 1: to Kazan in nineteen o four, and he left that out.
Speaker 1: Second of the bishop had his own scandals in his wake.
Speaker 1: As he splashed down at the new post in Siberia,
Speaker 1: whispers that he had been keeping a mistress and fostering
Speaker 1: fanatical followers of other mystical preachers. And from the outside,
Speaker 1: the fact that the church ended its scrutiny of Rasputin
Speaker 1: caused some concern. Reopening the investigation into Grigory's shady life
Speaker 1: had only made him stronger. What if the two men
Speaker 1: had cut some kind of a deal. And suspicions only
Speaker 1: got stronger when a few months later that bishop was
Speaker 1: transferred again to the warmer, more hospitable self, and was
Speaker 1: promoted to the fourth highest position in the Orthodox Church,
Speaker 1: very different from how Rasputant's enemies were usually treated removed
Speaker 1: from authority in the church, men like Iliodor, Germy Jen
Speaker 1: and Phio fan To a public who are now seeing
Speaker 1: schemes of Resputant behind every injustice, it seemed that opposing
Speaker 1: him came with a heavy price, and this was simply
Speaker 1: one more sign that there was something rotten in the
Speaker 1: shadow of the czar. Three years that's how long the
Speaker 1: Romanovs had ruled Russia, so naturally the planned festivities were enormous,
Speaker 1: A twenty one cannon salute rang out from the fortress
Speaker 1: and St. Petersburg. Nicholas himself led a procession from the
Speaker 1: imperial residence at the Winter Palace to the cathedral. The
Speaker 1: streets were packed, crowds cheered wildly as the imperial family approached. Inside,
Speaker 1: even the cathedral was standing room only. Honored guests, government officials,
Speaker 1: and various foreign ambassadors and dignitaries took special reserve seats
Speaker 1: to honor the history of the Romanov family and their power.
Speaker 1: But if the joy and excitement of the occasion was infectious,
Speaker 1: it didn't catch on with at least one man, Mikhail Rogianko,
Speaker 1: the President of the Duma. In fact, the day so
Speaker 1: far had put him in a foul mood. It started
Speaker 1: with those seats in the cathedral, you see. When he
Speaker 1: first saw the guest list and how the seating would
Speaker 1: be arranged, he was irate. The seats assigned to members
Speaker 1: of the Duma were in the back of the cathedral,
Speaker 1: behind a host of other functionaries and officials who were
Speaker 1: closer to the Czar. So Rosienko set out to make
Speaker 1: it right. He hunted down the Master of Ceremonies and
Speaker 1: badgered the man until he bent the seating chart to
Speaker 1: his own will, the Duma members would be moved forward.
Speaker 1: With that promise secured, he even assigned a number of
Speaker 1: his sergeants at arms to block off the section and
Speaker 1: turn away anyone who tried to plant themselves in those seats.
Speaker 1: Feeling satisfied, Rosienko took up a place on the porch
Speaker 1: to wait for the rest of the Duma members to arrive.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't long before a breathless man rushed up
Speaker 1: to him. Some scoundrel had fought past his guards and
Speaker 1: taken a space reserved for the Duma. The sergeants were
Speaker 1: arguing with him, but the man refused to budge. When
Speaker 1: he heard the description of the intruder. Ragged man in
Speaker 1: peasants dress wearing a pectoral cross, Rodsienko knew who he
Speaker 1: was dealing with. Rasputant had moved himself to the head
Speaker 1: of the class. Rodsienko marched inside, but the grigory resputant
Speaker 1: he found wasn't so ragged at all. On the contrary,
Speaker 1: he was decked out in all the finery he had
Speaker 1: received or purchased over the years. A crimson silk tunic
Speaker 1: supple leather boots, a coat line was sable for, and
Speaker 1: ebony trousers, all under an enormous cross hanging from an
Speaker 1: ornate gold chain. Rodsienko let loose. He demanded to know
Speaker 1: what Grigory thought he was doing there. The peasant would
Speaker 1: get out, or Rosienko would drag him out by the beard.
Speaker 1: The two men locked eyes, and I can only imagine
Speaker 1: the flashes of fire that burned the air between them. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Rosienko told Resputant to clear the cathedral. There was no
Speaker 1: place for a vile heretic like him in that sacred house.
Speaker 1: But Rasputin defended himself by saying that he had been
Speaker 1: invited there, and he dared Rosienko to make good on
Speaker 1: his threats. The President of the Duma obliged. He jumped
Speaker 1: on Resputant, battered him with blows, and called the Cossack
Speaker 1: guard to bounce him out the door. At least that's
Speaker 1: how Rosienko remembered it. He wrote it down too, then
Speaker 1: he published it in his memoirs. Ever since, It's a
Speaker 1: moment that has been told and retold to show just
Speaker 1: how much bad blood there was between Rasputin and the
Speaker 1: Russian officials. Around him. After all, it had the ring
Speaker 1: of truth, the fine clothes, the men of various parts
Speaker 1: of Russian life scraping with each other to take pride
Speaker 1: of place near the Tsar, the bickering that Ms Two
Speaker 1: blows and is only settled by Cossack muscle. It's all
Speaker 1: pitch perfect, if we can believe Rosienko. That is the
Speaker 1: thing is. It seems that in the end, Resputant did
Speaker 1: attend the celebrations, and not just at the cathedral. In fact,
Speaker 1: there were plenty of ways to partake, and it became
Speaker 1: clear the Resputant was a guest of the imperial family
Speaker 1: as the days went by, because they took their party
Speaker 1: on the road, and they took Gregory with them. Nicholas's
Speaker 1: sister commented that after everything, it was stunning and even
Speaker 1: upsetting that Resputant was now back in plain view, strutting
Speaker 1: along with the other elites. But after all, this was
Speaker 1: a celebration of the Czar's power, and if anyone needed
Speaker 1: a sign that the Tsar's wishes overruled the will of
Speaker 1: the people or anyone else's, this did the trick. Despite
Speaker 1: all the rumors, despite all the investigations, If the Czar
Speaker 1: wanted Grigory Resputant by his side. Then Resputant was untouchable.
Speaker 1: After all, Nicholas and Alexander had a point to make.
Speaker 1: Their advisors had been telling them that Resputant was threat
Speaker 1: to the throne. They warned that revolutionaries like the men
Speaker 1: who had killed the Prime Minister were still on the hunt.
Speaker 1: Resputant shouldn't be seen with them. But then the celebrations
Speaker 1: themselves were an enormous risk. Advertising their procession from city
Speaker 1: to city only made it more likely that people discontented
Speaker 1: with Czarist rule would turn the pageant into a blood bath.
Speaker 1: No such thing occurred, though, and as cheering crowds greeted
Speaker 1: them along their itinerary, Alexandra mocked the warnings. You can
Speaker 1: see for yourself, she said. The ministers are cowards. They
Speaker 1: had tried to scare the emperor with threats of assassinations
Speaker 1: and revolutionaries, but to her eyes, it was all just
Speaker 1: as much a veil of lies as the press reports
Speaker 1: about her and Resputant. But from where we sit today
Speaker 1: we see how misguided Alexandra it really was. The future
Speaker 1: she faced was a dark one. The ministers had been
Speaker 1: telling her the truth. They were imperiled on every side.
Speaker 1: If the Romanovs thought that they were loved across their empire,
Speaker 1: then maybe the biggest lies were the ones they told themselves,
Speaker 1: and they were far from understanding the people they ground
Speaker 1: under their feet. Here's Dr Joshua Sanborn to tell us more.
Speaker 1: It's hard to know what the relationship between That's Are
Speaker 1: and the people were. There're no surveys, there are no poles,
Speaker 1: there are no there's no way to really get at
Speaker 1: this question. And so much of what we have is
Speaker 1: the representation of the autocracy itself for how it wanted
Speaker 1: that relationship to be, how it wanted it to look,
Speaker 1: and they had a lot of resources in order to
Speaker 1: sort of have that happen. Indeed, in the years building
Speaker 1: up to World War One, there are a series of
Speaker 1: celebration that sort of they were intended to heighten this
Speaker 1: bond between the monarch and the people. And these build
Speaker 1: up to the church centenary anniversary of the Romanov dynasty
Speaker 1: itself in and so they have big celebrations that always
Speaker 1: always are trying to stress this bond between That's Are
Speaker 1: and the people. And when we say big celebrations, we
Speaker 1: mean big. They filled the streets in St. Petersburg, and
Speaker 1: in Moscow and more, cathedrals, monasteries and the Kremlin hosted
Speaker 1: events in their honor. Nicholas and Alexandra strode across the
Speaker 1: Red Square, trailed by a Cossack officer carrying their heir
Speaker 1: Alexei in his arms. From city to city they stamped
Speaker 1: three hundred years of Romanov rule on Russia. But with
Speaker 1: all of that pomp and pageantry, the question remains was
Speaker 1: any of it real? Did it work? Did these celebrations
Speaker 1: rebuild the bond between the czar and the people? Maybe
Speaker 1: in Moscow, but the Russian Empire was vast, and no
Speaker 1: matter how far the Czar traveled with his family and
Speaker 1: his entourage, he wasn't reaching the hearts of the empire's borders.
Speaker 1: Far from the parades and the speeches and the tussles
Speaker 1: between Rasputin and the ministers about who will sit at
Speaker 1: the Tsar's right hand, other things were brewing. Let's follow
Speaker 1: Dr Sandborn to places further from the throne, but no
Speaker 1: less consequential. The relationship between that's are in ethnic Russians
Speaker 1: and and and those on the periphery um that is
Speaker 1: certainly different, and that's going to vary widely depending on
Speaker 1: where in the Russian Empire you are. So nationalism and
Speaker 1: anti Russian nationalism is developing more strongly in certain places
Speaker 1: than in others, most notably in Poland, but also beginning
Speaker 1: to develop but by the time we get to the
Speaker 1: twentieth century in places like Ukraine and in the Baltic States,
Speaker 1: and even to a certain extent more broadly into sort
Speaker 1: of the Asian territories of the Russian Empire too. The
Speaker 1: thing we have to remember is that this relationship is distant.
Speaker 1: That's are always wanted to see this as an intimate relationship,
Speaker 1: but but it was a distant one. You know, most people,
Speaker 1: of course never saw that's are and you know, they
Speaker 1: live their lives in their local regions, in these local contexts.
Speaker 1: And in the years leading up to that three anniversary,
Speaker 1: the growing anti Russian nationalism was driven forward by a
Speaker 1: self defeating force, the efforts of the Romanov government that
Speaker 1: make them more Russian. In places where other churches and
Speaker 1: other languages were outlawed, a growing resentment turned the people
Speaker 1: against the distant ours. Schools were forced to teach only
Speaker 1: Russian history, and crackdowns on other languages spread. But it
Speaker 1: had the opposite of its desired effect. Ethnic nationalists on
Speaker 1: the periphery. They had long tried to say, Hey, you
Speaker 1: guys are all Ukrainians, and the Ukrainians will be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know where. I'm kind of a peasant, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of a Christian. And now they're coming along, and
Speaker 1: now they finally have the proof. They're like, see, your Ukrainians,
Speaker 1: the state is punishing for being a Ukrainian. Now they say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: now that's what you mean, Like I can't go to
Speaker 1: the church I want to go to. My kids are
Speaker 1: speaking some weird language when they come home from school
Speaker 1: with a weird accent. All of that becomes much more
Speaker 1: concrete for them, and so as a result, rusification, which
Speaker 1: is intended to to limit the spread of ethnic nationalism,
Speaker 1: actually helps to develop it, especially in the western borderlands Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Lavia, Estonia.
Speaker 1: But all of that was happening far from where Nicholas
Speaker 1: was traveling. His parade of stage managed visits to various
Speaker 1: sights at the heart of the Empire weren't showing him
Speaker 1: how people really felt about his rule. After all, it
Speaker 1: was his own government who was putting on the show.
Speaker 1: There was a problem. Though. It wasn't just the Russian
Speaker 1: people who were hearing the message. It was Nicholas himself.
Speaker 1: Here's Dr Sanborn to tell us more. You have these
Speaker 1: big celebrations and the nobility welcome you, and it's crowds
Speaker 1: of cheering peasants. This is exactly what Nicholas wanted to see,
Speaker 1: and it's he's able to convince himself that this is
Speaker 1: a political reality. And so it's dangerous in a certain way,
Speaker 1: right when you when you start using your own product.
Speaker 1: But he had always sort of used his own product,
Speaker 1: right He he was always imbuing himself with this notion
Speaker 1: that he was a popular Russian star, and that stars
Speaker 1: don't get their authority by being voted or surveyed. But
Speaker 1: but it's just a mystical thing. You're born with it.
Speaker 1: Because whatever the shape of the past they were celebrating,
Speaker 1: the future that the Romanovs and their empire were facing
Speaker 1: was about to hit them like a runaway train. Wrapped
Speaker 1: in the banners of his noble lineage, Nicholas couldn't see
Speaker 1: that the patchwork empire heat inherited was about to come
Speaker 1: apart at the seams. It seemed like he had won
Speaker 1: so why did Grigory feel like he was under such
Speaker 1: a great weight. The so called miracle that healed Alexei
Speaker 1: assured him his place alongside the czar in the greatest
Speaker 1: festivities of the age. He had wealth, he had connections,
Speaker 1: He had a place at the capitol. He could indulge
Speaker 1: his every urge without consequences. But it wasn't enough. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was making regular visits to the Romanov household. Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra still welcomed him, but he was tired. Tired
Speaker 1: of the constant attention It had stolen his peace, Tired
Speaker 1: of the press attacks and rumors, not to mention when
Speaker 1: the stories bit a little too close to the bone
Speaker 1: in the first waves of negative attention. He had ducked
Speaker 1: out of sight and come back stronger. But he didn't
Speaker 1: want to spend the rest of his life working the
Speaker 1: back rooms of church officials and dodging the secret police investigators.
Speaker 1: He was fed up. Reporters were mobbing his St. Petersburg apartment.
Speaker 1: They made him nervous. They called him a heretic, They
Speaker 1: called him a sex maniac. They called him a servant
Speaker 1: of the Antichrist. There was a time when he would
Speaker 1: have said that these were nothing more than clouds that
Speaker 1: wind and sun would scatter. Not to mention the Czar,
Speaker 1: but he had been rubbing shoulders with Nicholas and Alexander
Speaker 1: for long enough now that he wondered if maybe there
Speaker 1: was another way, maybe he could deal with it all himself.
Speaker 1: So he sent some messages on his own behalf. One
Speaker 1: went to the Minister of the Interior. One went to
Speaker 1: the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, protect him from
Speaker 1: his enemies and what he called the abuse in the press.
Speaker 1: It was the early months of nineteen fourteen, and Grigory
Speaker 1: Resputant was finally throwing his weight around. But if he
Speaker 1: felt like the accusations in public outrage were getting tiresome,
Speaker 1: the attacks on Resputant were about to get a lot
Speaker 1: more real and to hit a lot closer to home.
Speaker 1: Toward the end of spring, Grigory decided to leave the
Speaker 1: capital behind for some time at home in Siberia. His
Speaker 1: friends and followers sent him off with good cheer, a
Speaker 1: little piece simplicity and family time, and he would be
Speaker 1: back as good as new. And it started the way
Speaker 1: he planned. His first morning in Pokrovsko, he spent at
Speaker 1: church followed by a large meal with his family. A
Speaker 1: group of visiting friends even joined him while they were
Speaker 1: still gathered around the table. Though, a knock came at
Speaker 1: the war. It was a telegram from a photographer asking
Speaker 1: if he could stop by to take pictures of Grigory's
Speaker 1: home and family. He quickly scratched out a reply and
Speaker 1: then ran out the door to catch the messenger, waving
Speaker 1: the slip and calling out to him. He wanted to
Speaker 1: be sure the reply went out right away. As he
Speaker 1: went though, Rasputant passed someone who was standing at his gate.
Speaker 1: It was a woman dressed in black. She was like
Speaker 1: many people he had met before. In fact, as he
Speaker 1: stood in front of her, she bowed. Assuming she was
Speaker 1: there to beg He fumbled with his wallet to see
Speaker 1: if there was something he could give her, But in
Speaker 1: that moment while he paused, her hand disappeared into her clothes,
Speaker 1: and then she dove forward. Suddenly, pain burned across Grigory's stomach.
Speaker 1: He slapped his hand down over his gut and stumbled
Speaker 1: backward into a run, yelling that he had been attacked.
Speaker 1: When he looked back, he could see that she was
Speaker 1: running after him. She was carrying a large knife red
Speaker 1: with his own blood, and she had a deadly look
Speaker 1: in her eyes. When she reached him again, he was ready,
Speaker 1: despite the blood running down his legs. He fought back,
Speaker 1: and by the time the others came to grab her arms,
Speaker 1: Grigory had already knocked her down. By now, people were
Speaker 1: running out of his house, and shouts rang out up
Speaker 1: and down the crowd that formed along the street. Gregory's
Speaker 1: wife ran to his side. As she pulled him toward
Speaker 1: their door, she noticed that he was losing consciousness and
Speaker 1: no wonder by the second more of his blood caked
Speaker 1: into the dust. Their friends surrounded him and lay him
Speaker 1: on a bench. Someone else ran for a doctor. Resputant
Speaker 1: had been gutted in the street, right in front of
Speaker 1: his own house. In an instant, he had been sent
Speaker 1: to death's door. If only a powerful healer could drop
Speaker 1: in to pray over him, speak to his blood, and
Speaker 1: call him back from the brink. It would take time
Speaker 1: for the motives of the attack to become clear, but
Speaker 1: there were even darker tidings clutched in the hands of
Speaker 1: the next messengers headed to Pokrovsko. War was on the
Speaker 1: wind again. Nicholas and Alexandra were calling for their adviser,
Speaker 1: but he lay elsewhere, stretched out and pale. It seemed
Speaker 1: that Grigory Rasputin wasn't so untouchable after all. That's it
Speaker 1: for this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this
Speaker 1: short sponsor break for a preview of what's in store
Speaker 1: for next week. He swam back to consciousness. The line
Speaker 1: of fire burned across his belly where the knife had
Speaker 1: slashed him open. But Grigory Rasputant's mind was already charging
Speaker 1: ahead to what came next after the attack and who
Speaker 1: was behind it. In fact, when he came to Rasputin
Speaker 1: told the people around him that he knew who was
Speaker 1: to blame, the mad monk Iliodora. After the two men
Speaker 1: finally severed their friendship, Grigory must have known it was
Speaker 1: only a matter of time before one of Iliodora's followers
Speaker 1: would follow his signature command for violence. As time would reveal,
Speaker 1: Rasputin was right. The woman who had attacked him in
Speaker 1: the street outside his house was a follower of Eliodora's
Speaker 1: violent teachings. She had even met Rasputin before, when the
Speaker 1: two teachers were still traveling together. Now, like so many
Speaker 1: others in Russia. She had come to believe that rasputants
Speaker 1: prophecies were false and his spirit was polluted with vile
Speaker 1: habits and selfish ambitions. She believed that it was Rasputin
Speaker 1: who had turned on Iliador, so she set out to
Speaker 1: avenge her chosen leader with a fifteen inch dagger on
Speaker 1: a white bone handle. Unobscured was created by me Aaron
Speaker 1: Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh
Speaker 1: Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio, with research by
Speaker 1: Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and original music by
Speaker 1: Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians, source materials
Speaker 1: and links to our other shows over at grim mild
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Unobscured, and as always, thanks for listening