Speaker 1: Welcomed Unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: Just a note before we begin. This episode includes discussion
Speaker 1: of sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Anna had met
Speaker 1: Rasputin a few years before his fanatical follower Olga had
Speaker 1: made the introduction, and in the year since, Anna had
Speaker 1: frequently opened her home to Resputant and his zealous believers
Speaker 1: as they gathered to pray and read the Bible. Now
Speaker 1: it was Grigory's turn. He was going to host Anna
Speaker 1: at his home in Pokrovsko. In fact, Alexander herself had
Speaker 1: sent a whole party of women to stay with Grigory,
Speaker 1: learned from him, and share his teaching with her. She
Speaker 1: wanted to better understand how the man lived and the
Speaker 1: weight of the things he taught, more than his few
Speaker 1: visits to the palace had allowed. With the Empress behind it,
Speaker 1: the trip gave Anna a thrill. Something told her this
Speaker 1: was a turning point and that soon, like Olga, she
Speaker 1: would be in rest Mutant's inner circle. But the closer
Speaker 1: the trip came, the less certain she got that his
Speaker 1: inner circle was where she wanted to be. She had
Speaker 1: seen the way that Olga and his other followers treated him.
Speaker 1: They threw themselves on him in rapture. They kissed his
Speaker 1: feet with joy. Olga bundled up hairs from his beard
Speaker 1: as sacred relics. Once Olga even said that Grigory was
Speaker 1: transformed into Jesus Christ himself, Anna wasn't so sure. When
Speaker 1: they arrived at away station between Siberia and the capital,
Speaker 1: Gregory joined the group to escort them the rest of
Speaker 1: the way. To seat everyone, they split the party into
Speaker 1: two different compartments. Three of the women made themselves comfortable
Speaker 1: and waved to Grigory as he led Anna and another woman, Yelena,
Speaker 1: to a different compartment, where he ushered them inside. So
Speaker 1: as Anna settled herself into the train car beside Grigory
Speaker 1: and Yelena, she had a task before her. It was
Speaker 1: time to make up her mind about who this man
Speaker 1: really was. Not to mention the whispers in the group
Speaker 1: that spending time with Grigory would mean more attention from
Speaker 1: the Empress for Anna, the trip would certainly clarify things,
Speaker 1: because as it got later and the train rattled on
Speaker 1: into darkness, Anna saw that Yelena was hanging on Grigory's
Speaker 1: every word. She was in a state of religious ecstasy,
Speaker 1: not Anna, though. In fact, she felt sleep coming on,
Speaker 1: so she looked to the bunks in the sleeper car.
Speaker 1: There were just two beds, and Anna settled herself onto
Speaker 1: the lower one. Elena and Grigory followed her lead, but
Speaker 1: they climbed into the upper bunk together. For Anna, the
Speaker 1: red flags were raised and she spoke up too. She
Speaker 1: called up that what they were doing wasn't right. Yelena
Speaker 1: should come down, she said, and share the lower bunk
Speaker 1: with her, but Yelena refused. Despite how incredibly uncomfortable she
Speaker 1: had gotten, Anna was eventually lulled to sleep by the
Speaker 1: rocky of the train, until that is, something woke her
Speaker 1: up in the darkness, something scratchy against the skin of
Speaker 1: her face. It took her a moment to realize what
Speaker 1: it was, a man's beard. Shocked, Anna rolled off the
Speaker 1: bunk and spun around. There was Grigory rasputin on her bed.
Speaker 1: Anna was ready to defend herself. She screamed a furious
Speaker 1: question at him. If he was such a holy man,
Speaker 1: how could he possibly justify what he was doing? He
Speaker 1: said nothing in silence. He simply crawled back up onto
Speaker 1: the top bunk where Yelena lay waiting. Anna stayed alert
Speaker 1: the rest of the night. In the morning, Yelena gave
Speaker 1: Anna a talking to. She said Resputant was only trying
Speaker 1: to commune with her spirit. It was a divine act,
Speaker 1: she said. But Anna knew a covering lie when she
Speaker 1: heard one. There was nothing holy or divine about what
Speaker 1: Grigory had tried to do. For the rest of the trip,
Speaker 1: Anna kept her eye on him, and she paid for
Speaker 1: it too. When they got to his home in Siberia,
Speaker 1: he brought them all inside, but throughout the week he
Speaker 1: treated Anna as the butt of a joke. He mocked
Speaker 1: her and whispered about her to the other women in
Speaker 1: the group. But this meant that Anna saw what the
Speaker 1: rest of them missed. Be side I from the locals.
Speaker 1: As they went past the way, Grigory used his charm
Speaker 1: to disarm the people around him. He even tried it
Speaker 1: against her. On the train back, he tried again to
Speaker 1: close in on her for a kiss, but she was ready.
Speaker 1: It was her fist that met him. After that, Rasputin
Speaker 1: kept his distance. Anna had his number. Though Rasputin wasn't
Speaker 1: a holy man, he was a fraud. That's what She
Speaker 1: told Alexandra she was grateful that the Empress had sponsored
Speaker 1: the trip, but Alexandra shouldn't waste any more time or
Speaker 1: attention on a man who wasn't trustworthy. If only Alexandra
Speaker 1: had listened, The other women didn't agree, though, and that
Speaker 1: put Alexandra at ease. She ignored Anna's testimony. After all
Speaker 1: other holy men vouched for Resputin, Alexandra thought maybe Anna
Speaker 1: just wasn't able to grasp the saintly innocence of simple
Speaker 1: folk like the Siberian peasant Gregory. I can only imagine
Speaker 1: how frustrating it was for Anna. Resputant was hardly an
Speaker 1: innocent rustic. There's no doubt that Anna was rightly furious
Speaker 1: with him and with Alexandra for ignoring her. She must
Speaker 1: have wondered if he could somehow be sidelined in favor
Speaker 1: of someone else who wouldn't use his place in Alexandra's
Speaker 1: affections to get his claws into the women around her.
Speaker 1: After all, Resputen wasn't the only one making a play
Speaker 1: for royal favorite. There were other men who might be
Speaker 1: able to jostle him out of the palace. Take, for instance,
Speaker 1: the man who would first befriend Resputant and then bedevil him.
Speaker 1: The man who came to be known as the Mad Monk.
Speaker 1: This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Mankie, the Mad Monk. It
Speaker 1: was a name he embraced, he relished it, especially in
Speaker 1: later years when he was trying to sell his life story.
Speaker 1: But there was some truth to it, some violent truth.
Speaker 1: He was born Sergei Trofanov, but he would come to
Speaker 1: be known as the Monk Iliador, and he was a
Speaker 1: man who would buy for power in the royal court
Speaker 1: of the Romanovs as they slid through the shadows of
Speaker 1: history towards their end. And if we had to credit
Speaker 1: just one person for the myths and legends that make
Speaker 1: the true history of Grigory Rasputin so difficult to nail down,
Speaker 1: that person is Iliador, first one of Resputant's most ardent
Speaker 1: friends and then his most bloodthirsty foe. Born in a
Speaker 1: Cossack fanly in southern Russia, Eliodor was the son of
Speaker 1: a deacon and set on a path into the church
Speaker 1: from his earliest days. He entered church training in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh one, just a year before he would meet the
Speaker 1: wandering Rasputant. Like grigory. Eliodor found that he had a
Speaker 1: powerful way with words. But while Rasputin's quiet intensity gave
Speaker 1: him power in drawing rooms in prayer circles, Eliodora's booming
Speaker 1: voice was born for the public square. His gift was oratory,
Speaker 1: and soon he made the crowds who would gather to
Speaker 1: hear him into a resounding instrument. His outlook and Rasputants
Speaker 1: were aligned. What did he teach about when he made
Speaker 1: his first impression? The divine power of the czar, the
Speaker 1: holiness of Russia, the need for the people of the
Speaker 1: empire to stand up and be counted. Here's historian Douglas
Speaker 1: Smith to tell us more. Eliodorus a fascinating and utterly
Speaker 1: bizarre character. He's one of these figures you really couldn't
Speaker 1: make up even if you tried. He was again one
Speaker 1: of these sort of popular preachers who, unlike Resputant, does
Speaker 1: go to theological seminary and does get an actual training
Speaker 1: in theology and religion and becomes an an Orthodox priest.
Speaker 1: As a preacher, Eliador counted himself a doctor to a
Speaker 1: sick empire, but his diagnosis was about as toxic as
Speaker 1: any illness could have been, because While Eliador was a
Speaker 1: man of intense ambition, he was also an extremist and
Speaker 1: a deeply racist one. He pinned Russia's problems on his
Speaker 1: Jewish neighbors, and he wasn't alone. The undercurrents of anti
Speaker 1: Semitism were strong in Russian culture, and he stirred them
Speaker 1: up across the Empire, growing more and more extreme as
Speaker 1: he went. Soon enough, Eliodora was blaming the changes in
Speaker 1: the Russian state on Russian Jews, and he said it
Speaker 1: was his support of the Empire that made him criticize
Speaker 1: the Czar. When Nicholas go of autocratic rule and established
Speaker 1: the new Parliament in nineteen o five, Eliodora said the
Speaker 1: only way to stand up for the Czar was to
Speaker 1: stand up to him the Czar, Faith and fatherland where
Speaker 1: Eliodora's rallying cries, but he turned that into a recruiting
Speaker 1: tool for the violent nationalist group known as the Black Hundreds.
Speaker 1: They wanted to decide who was and wasn't Russian, and
Speaker 1: to kill or sideline anyone who didn't meet their definition.
Speaker 1: But it didn't take long to mutate from nationalist vigilantes
Speaker 1: into right wing terrorists. Eliodora snared the racist zeal of
Speaker 1: the Black Hundreds and whipped it into a frenzy, and
Speaker 1: he began to preach merciless racist violence. He hated all
Speaker 1: the influences coming into Russia from Europe, and he believed
Speaker 1: that bloodshed was the only way to beat Russia back
Speaker 1: into submission. And they followed through. His right wing terrorists
Speaker 1: gunned down a Jewish member of the new Parliament one
Speaker 1: evening while he was walking with his daughter. Eliodor sheltered
Speaker 1: the assassins right inside his monastery. The Eleiodor's role was noticed,
Speaker 1: but hardly punished. Yes, he was pushed out of the
Speaker 1: church academy where he taught, but easily went to another
Speaker 1: until he was fired again. That is, he bounced around
Speaker 1: until he finally landed under the supervision of a like
Speaker 1: minded priest who supported Eliodora's calls for violence. Here's Douglas
Speaker 1: Smith again. He is the nastiest of anti semites. Um
Speaker 1: is constantly um denouncing Jews as an evil influence as
Speaker 1: the destroyers of the Russian Orthodox people. Denounces Nicholas and
Speaker 1: his government for not doing more to come down hard
Speaker 1: on the Jews and the Empire. He denounces intellectuals he
Speaker 1: had denounces socialists and liberals and the intelligentsia and what
Speaker 1: have you. And he he establishes the fairly large following
Speaker 1: in the city of sadits in Uh, quite a ways
Speaker 1: outside the capital. But he becomes a thorn in the
Speaker 1: side of the regime because he's he's constantly denouncing it
Speaker 1: and calling for violence um and early on respute, and
Speaker 1: is drawn to Eliador and another one of these sort
Speaker 1: of right wing priests by the name of germ Again,
Speaker 1: and the three of them Krum becomes sort of a
Speaker 1: trike threesome of these um upstart preachers, if you will.
Speaker 1: In fact, this new priest, germ Again, was such a
Speaker 1: supporter of the Black Hundreds and their violent politics that
Speaker 1: when they battled with police in the streets during the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen o eight, germ Agin used the power
Speaker 1: of the church to shelter Eliodor from consequences. But Elodor's
Speaker 1: most powerful ally was the man with the ear of
Speaker 1: the Empress, Grigory Rasputin. In fact, when it seemed like
Speaker 1: Eliodor might face consequences for his role in provoking violent
Speaker 1: terrorism and anti Semitic violence, gregg Or arranged a private
Speaker 1: meeting between Eliador and Alexandra. Not that it was an
Speaker 1: easy meeting. In fact, it seems like Alexandra had her
Speaker 1: own impression to make. When she sat down with a
Speaker 1: mad monk. She wasn't just going to bow to his teaching.
Speaker 1: She commanded him to stop attacking the tsar's ministers, and
Speaker 1: what's more, he needed to reign in his wild provocations.
Speaker 1: No more preaching violence. It needed to stop. In fact,
Speaker 1: if Eliodora is to be believed, she even told them
Speaker 1: that he needed a new spiritual adviser, someone who would
Speaker 1: curb his wild teaching and bring him back onto the
Speaker 1: strait and narrow. But maybe you can see where this
Speaker 1: is going. The person Alexandra told him to follow was
Speaker 1: none other than Rasputin himself. It's not clear exactly what
Speaker 1: she hoped would happen, whether Nicholas and Alexandra were trying
Speaker 1: to get Rasputin to bring the mad monk to heal,
Speaker 1: or whether Rasputin was trying to bring Alexandra under the
Speaker 1: influence of a violent nationalist zealot. There's one thing that's clear.
Speaker 1: In the midst of a political firestorm, the Empress had
Speaker 1: looked to Grigory Resputin for answers, and it was only
Speaker 1: the beginning. He came and went unannounced. In fact, one
Speaker 1: day in August of nineteen o eight, Nicholas arrived home
Speaker 1: and was surprised to find Grigory talking with Alexandra. Not
Speaker 1: that this troubled the Czar. No, he sat down and
Speaker 1: joined them, and he wrote in his diary that he
Speaker 1: talked for another half hour. But the fact that Resputin
Speaker 1: and Alexandra were meeting alone shows us just how trusted
Speaker 1: Resputin had become, and how thoroughly Alexandra had dismissed any
Speaker 1: concerns about rest Sputan's reputation and how it might make
Speaker 1: her look. After all, she was the Empress. Why should
Speaker 1: she care what other people were saying, especially when he
Speaker 1: offered the family something they so deeply desired. One high
Speaker 1: ranking naval officer who served on the Romanov's imperial yacht
Speaker 1: would later remember that one day, when he was chatting
Speaker 1: with Alexandra, their conversation turned to spiritual city and the church.
Speaker 1: As they talked, the Empress became passionate, and the things
Speaker 1: she said stuck with him. Alexander told him that there
Speaker 1: were people whose prayers were particularly powerful, especially people who
Speaker 1: lived lives of strict holiness, and she insisted to him
Speaker 1: that Grigory Rasputin was one of these men. After all,
Speaker 1: hadn't Alexander seen the power of his prayers when her
Speaker 1: little son was suffering so deeply? It seems she had
Speaker 1: been mulling over that experience, and that had drawn some
Speaker 1: conclusions about the kind of man Resputant was. In looking
Speaker 1: to the Bible itself, she found the words pray for
Speaker 1: one another, that you may be healed. The prayers of
Speaker 1: a righteous man are powerful. In Alexander's eyes, Gregory's power
Speaker 1: of healing and his righteousness went hand in hand. If
Speaker 1: he could heal, then he was also righteous. It was
Speaker 1: as simple as that. But it wasn't just the Romanovs
Speaker 1: who were becoming more convinced of rest Sputant. In fact,
Speaker 1: if we only think about Resputin as a counselor for
Speaker 1: Nicholas and all Xandra during those days, we get the
Speaker 1: man wrong. Here's historian Helen Rappaport to tell us more so,
Speaker 1: the thing with Rasputin was, initially he was a wise
Speaker 1: girl to the family and a wise counselor, and that
Speaker 1: really was a more important function. Almost someone she did
Speaker 1: for alex say, because people have this idea that Rasputin
Speaker 1: was in and out the back door and up the
Speaker 1: stairs and into the Alexander Palace every five minutes, ingratiating
Speaker 1: himself and muttering prayers over Alexey. And that's not the case.
Speaker 1: He only came when he was invited. He didn't make
Speaker 1: that many visits to the wrong and offs at the
Speaker 1: Alexander Palace, and he often went long periods not seeing
Speaker 1: the family or communicated by telephone with them or by
Speaker 1: letter or telegram. In fact, Grigory was spending more and
Speaker 1: more time among the other wealthy and powerful Russian families.
Speaker 1: House after house, an aristocrat after aristocrat opened their doors
Speaker 1: for him. Let's have historian Douglas Smith tell us more.
Speaker 1: He makes his way from palace to palace, going to
Speaker 1: various aristocratic salons, and these men and women within the
Speaker 1: upper echelons of Russian society are fascinated by these peasant
Speaker 1: holy men, if you will, It's like they're being put
Speaker 1: in touch with creatures from another planet. It's a world
Speaker 1: that they, being part of the westernized urban elite, have
Speaker 1: no real contact with. They don't go to Siberia they
Speaker 1: don't go to peasant huts, and so it it allows
Speaker 1: them to enter this whole world of a Russian society
Speaker 1: from which they're cut off, but which holds great fascination
Speaker 1: for them. And here's the thing, some of what we
Speaker 1: know about resputants teaching actually sounds like good advice. When
Speaker 1: he stepped into these crowded and rowdy salons and got
Speaker 1: to know the wealthy families who were partying their way
Speaker 1: through a period of revolution, Rasputin didn't stay silent. In fact,
Speaker 1: he often gave spiritual advice that was simple, practical and
Speaker 1: matter of fact. Yes, go to church, but after a service,
Speaker 1: go for a long walk, take a day and get
Speaker 1: as far away from the city as you can. Become
Speaker 1: aware of your smallness and let the pride and vanity
Speaker 1: of your wealth and position of power be wiped away.
Speaker 1: Find God in the world where you are, be humble,
Speaker 1: field tenderness, truly connect with the world around you, rather
Speaker 1: than hiding behind your wealth and power and privilege. He
Speaker 1: often said that his new followers needed to give up
Speaker 1: the glorification of their own passions and instead be of
Speaker 1: service to God. If Grigory Resputant was the only person
Speaker 1: giving advice like this to the families of the princes
Speaker 1: and grand dukes, I'm sure it would have felt like
Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air. In fact, it goes a
Speaker 1: long way to describing resputants charm on when the elites
Speaker 1: in the capital, he talked to everyone informally, He ate
Speaker 1: simple meals. He didn't have even the basic social graces
Speaker 1: that were expected in their circles, and he knew that
Speaker 1: from the beginning that his directness, his rudeness, was part
Speaker 1: of what attracted him to people, and he made sure
Speaker 1: to hold onto it, because, as we know, that attraction
Speaker 1: to Resputin was powerful. One follower of his, Nikolai Jevakov,
Speaker 1: remembered just how much the people let Restputant's prayer meetings
Speaker 1: thirsted to hear what he would say. Even when Gregory
Speaker 1: hardly talked at all, his fanatical admirers tried to read
Speaker 1: the secret meanings behind every word and phrase They trembled
Speaker 1: in his presence, even though Jevakov himself was only a
Speaker 1: minor prince and a powerful official in the Russian Church.
Speaker 1: This kind of reaction was new. Once, when Jevakov joined
Speaker 1: a prayer meeting with Restputant, he watched Olga trembling in
Speaker 1: a corner, screaming out he's a saint, He's a saint,
Speaker 1: until Resputin himself got annoyed and told her to be quiet.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just these over the top celebrations of
Speaker 1: grigory that made him uncomfortable. There were other things said
Speaker 1: about him too, things he was far less able to control.
Speaker 1: All it was inevitable, really, As Rasputin became more comfortable
Speaker 1: surrounded by luxury and truly took a place at court,
Speaker 1: he would also begin to play a role in the
Speaker 1: central drama of court life, the game of whispers. And
Speaker 1: as we know with Gregory, there was plenty to whisper about,
Speaker 1: even if the Empress had already decided that every story
Speaker 1: she didn't like was unfounded slander. In fact, the more
Speaker 1: people who got to know Resputin, the more stories they
Speaker 1: were to tell. If Resputin had a host of followers
Speaker 1: who felt the allure of his teaching about love and
Speaker 1: connection and perhaps even bought into his way of talking
Speaker 1: about God, there were plenty of others who saw through
Speaker 1: his game. After all, they saw just how much he
Speaker 1: was enjoying his new life as a spiritual adviser to
Speaker 1: the rich and powerful. As historian Helen Rappaport says, Gregory
Speaker 1: Resputen was what you might call an opportunist. He became
Speaker 1: very fashionable, and all these society ladies folk ground to
Speaker 1: him and their photographs of him sitting surrounded by admiring women,
Speaker 1: and they brought in gifts, and they gave him beautiful clothes,
Speaker 1: and they fed him and flattered him. And I think
Speaker 1: in that sense he was an opportunist. You know, if
Speaker 1: somebody wanted to give him money or take him out
Speaker 1: for a good dinner, he was more than happy to oblige.
Speaker 1: So he did. He did exploit the fascination there was
Speaker 1: for him initially in Saint Petersburg, and and was wined
Speaker 1: and dined and you know, very well looked after and
Speaker 1: entertained and lived well on it for a while. They
Speaker 1: brought in curious seekers, yes, but the other stories wouldn't
Speaker 1: go away either, the stories that let everyone know how
Speaker 1: he treated the women around him. Take the conversation that
Speaker 1: arm and Jeffikov had one day had with one of
Speaker 1: Alexandra's most senior ladies in waiting. She was the kind
Speaker 1: of person who saw everything in the palace, and of
Speaker 1: course she was usually known for her discretion, but she
Speaker 1: was troubled, and somehow one day she found herself complaining
Speaker 1: to this prince that there were some unusual comings and goings.
Speaker 1: Not only was this Grigory rasputant fellow meeting often with
Speaker 1: the Empress, but when he arrived, he was let in
Speaker 1: the back door so as to keep his visits off
Speaker 1: the official guest books. Or at least this is the
Speaker 1: story as Jebikov would later tell it. He says the
Speaker 1: story startled him not because the Empress was talking off
Speaker 1: the record with her spiritual adviser, but most of all
Speaker 1: because her lady in waiting was telling stories about it.
Speaker 1: He warned her that even telling someone like him, a
Speaker 1: church official, was dangerous. She was talking about the private
Speaker 1: spiritual life of the Empress, and at a time when
Speaker 1: the Romanov dynasty was on shaky ground too, she had
Speaker 1: better keep her complaints like these to herself. In the future,
Speaker 1: she risked feeding suspicion of the monarchy itself. Whatever else
Speaker 1: might be threatening the royal family, gossip was the first
Speaker 1: and the worst danger to the throne. Looking back, he
Speaker 1: couldn't have been more right, Even though Jevikov probably did
Speaker 1: not realize just how dangerous these rumors about respute and
Speaker 1: really were. Who could blame him. Nicholas and Alexander themselves
Speaker 1: insisted that their meetings with their spiritual adviser were no
Speaker 1: one's business. They believed that they were simply between themselves,
Speaker 1: Grigory and God. But that's where they could not have
Speaker 1: been more wrong. If only the warning from Nicholas's mother
Speaker 1: had continued to echo in his mind. Remember who you
Speaker 1: are for the czar, She had told him, there is
Speaker 1: no private life. Every personal connection, every friendship, every choice
Speaker 1: is made under the weight of imperial rule. She tried
Speaker 1: to make her son understand that famous truism of monarchy,
Speaker 1: heavy is the head that wears the crown. But somehow,
Speaker 1: despite being raised in the royal courts of Europe, neither
Speaker 1: Alexandra nor Nicholas took that warning to heart. They insisted
Speaker 1: that they be allowed the private life of a modern family.
Speaker 1: In fact, because nikol List was the czar, he commanded
Speaker 1: it his privacy would be respected. But when has any
Speaker 1: royal ever managed to silence the whispers in their court.
Speaker 1: With the popularity of salon gatherings among the Russian aristocracy,
Speaker 1: privacy and respect were just about the least likely things
Speaker 1: I can imagine, and maids do talk. Soon enough, an
Speaker 1: attendant of one of Alexandra's closest friends was passing around
Speaker 1: the story that a mysterious peasant with a beastly appearance
Speaker 1: was slipping in and out of the royal Palace and
Speaker 1: he was meeting privately with Alexandra. That was enough for
Speaker 1: the first wave of rumors, but the mill was hungry
Speaker 1: for more, and every reseller of a tale wants to
Speaker 1: add something a little juicy to the simple recitation. It
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the beastly visitor to become a
Speaker 1: beastly lover. And so it was in the salons of
Speaker 1: the Russian aristocrats in St. Isaac Square in St. Petersburg
Speaker 1: that the most enduring myth of Resputant was born. Resputant
Speaker 1: was hanged, after all, she was a known revolutionary terrorist,
Speaker 1: Anna Resputant, that is, in February, she was executed in St. Petersburg.
Speaker 1: Like Grigory, she was a peasant, and she had been
Speaker 1: arrested and convicted for a failed assassination tempt on none
Speaker 1: other than Nikolasha, the Czar's violent cousin and the husband
Speaker 1: of their friends, Stana. It was no surprise to Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra that the sharp end of the revolutionary energy
Speaker 1: was pointed at them and the other Romanovs. That the
Speaker 1: woman who tried to carry out such a plot shared
Speaker 1: a name with their friend, Gregory, was a mere coincidence
Speaker 1: to the imperial couple, of course, by now they had
Speaker 1: known Gregory for years. But for the aristocrats circling up
Speaker 1: in the capital, especially those just meeting Gregory for the
Speaker 1: first time, or worse, just hearing the rumors about him,
Speaker 1: this was no coincidence at all. And it wasn't just
Speaker 1: the society busybodies who smelled something fishy. The execution of
Speaker 1: an arrest sputant put other more steely. I had observers
Speaker 1: on Gregory's tail, the Okrana, Russia's secret police. Despite the
Speaker 1: number of people living across Russia with that name, the
Speaker 1: coincidence was too much for the head of the Okrana
Speaker 1: to overlook, so he followed up on the matter. He
Speaker 1: started by reaching out to investigators in Siberia. He may
Speaker 1: have received reports on Gregory's predatory habits and maybe the
Speaker 1: record of his youthful conflicts with the local magistrates. But
Speaker 1: these weren't the only inquiries the Okrana made. They also
Speaker 1: wanted something a little more current. They set some agents
Speaker 1: to tail Gregory on his rounds through the city. They
Speaker 1: didn't find what they were looking for. No links to
Speaker 1: in a no signs of connection to revolutionary terrorism. No.
Speaker 1: Gregory's ties were on the opposite side to Eliador and
Speaker 1: other violent assist monarchists who supported bloodshed in support of
Speaker 1: the czar. But all the same, the Okrana agents found
Speaker 1: plenty to dislike. The man wasn't a terrorist, but he
Speaker 1: also wasn't a saint. Reports came back from their investigators
Speaker 1: that Grigory's life wasn't so restrained after all. His days
Speaker 1: of wandering, poverty and simplicity were left far far behind.
Speaker 1: They took note of his seductions and the way he
Speaker 1: used his teachings on love to pressure women for sex.
Speaker 1: They watched him go from aristocratic salon to salon, getting
Speaker 1: progressively drunker and leaving damning whispers in his wake. All
Speaker 1: of that was bad enough, bad enough that the head
Speaker 1: of the Okrana felt Grigory resput and shouldn't be as
Speaker 1: he said within cannon shots of the Royal Palace. So
Speaker 1: as the head of Russia's secret police, he decided to intervene.
Speaker 1: He sent word up the chain. The report was far
Speaker 1: from public knowledge, but in the end made it all
Speaker 1: the way to the Prime Minister stoy Leapin, the man
Speaker 1: responsible for bringing such a potentially delicate issue to the Czar.
Speaker 1: When he did, though Nicholas didn't take it well. In essence,
Speaker 1: Nicholas told stoi Leapin to mind his own business. Grigory
Speaker 1: Resputin wasn't a political issue, and he wasn't a matter
Speaker 1: for the Okrana. He was a personal connection, Nicholas said.
Speaker 1: If the thing he didn't say was how important Grigory
Speaker 1: seemed to be protecting the health of their royal heir, Alexei, Well,
Speaker 1: Nicholas wasn't keen on the whole conversation to begin with.
Speaker 1: Stoylepin tried to tell Nicholas that this idea was naive.
Speaker 1: Everything and everyone the Tzar touched was political by nature.
Speaker 1: Every choice he made sent shock waves through the whole empire.
Speaker 1: Nicholas listened, and then he told stoy Lepin what he
Speaker 1: wanted to hear. He would stop meeting with Grigory Resputin,
Speaker 1: Stoi Lepin left satisfied one more triumph in the service
Speaker 1: of the Russian state. After all, soy Lepin might just
Speaker 1: have been the Empire's most effective political force. The only
Speaker 1: problem was Nicholas had no intention of keeping his word.
Speaker 1: Nothing changed. Here's Douglas Smith on what happened next. Apparently,
Speaker 1: Nicholas told Stileepen, I cannot get rid of respute and
Speaker 1: because for me, it's better to have one Resputin than
Speaker 1: you know, another hundred hysterical fits from Alexandra if I'm
Speaker 1: forced to get rid of this man, So you all
Speaker 1: will just need to find your way to deal with
Speaker 1: his presence, with the fact that he's a part of
Speaker 1: our life, because I just can't get rid of him.
Speaker 1: My wife needs him, the Empress needs him, and this
Speaker 1: is just how it's going to be. When Stoi Leepin
Speaker 1: and the Ocrona realized that they had been played, they
Speaker 1: took a risk. Unsatisfied that this was just the way
Speaker 1: things would be, they decided to take matters into their
Speaker 1: own hands. Together, Stoy Leapin and the secret police plotted
Speaker 1: to capture Resputin and send him into exile. They weren't
Speaker 1: bold enough to kill him, but their plan was to
Speaker 1: forbid him from ever coming back to St. Petersburg. Even
Speaker 1: that was a risk. They knew they might face the
Speaker 1: wrath of the royal couple, but they sided it was
Speaker 1: worth it. The Akrona agents swept the streets looking for Gregory,
Speaker 1: but suddenly the party hopping holy man was nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found, at least not by the police. It was
Speaker 1: almost as if he had been tipped off to the plan,
Speaker 1: and to be honest, he probably was. From what we know,
Speaker 1: it seems Grigory started to travel by side streets, dodging
Speaker 1: familiar routes and keeping his head down. He quit staying
Speaker 1: at his home in the capitol and started lodging in
Speaker 1: the private guest rooms of his followers. So for a
Speaker 1: while he slipped the dragnet. Eventually, though, a group of
Speaker 1: agents hunting Rasputant brought him to the ground. They staked
Speaker 1: out a house where he was staying and surrounded him
Speaker 1: for three weeks. They watched the exits. Any moment they
Speaker 1: would have him in their hands, or so they thought,
Speaker 1: But then they got word from Siberia Grigory Resputant had
Speaker 1: arrived home in Pokrovsko. Somehow his powerful friends had spirited
Speaker 1: him away. Whatever powers they possessed, The Prime Minister in
Speaker 1: the head of Russia's secret police fell short of putting
Speaker 1: Gregory in chains. Resputin had won, and the secret police
Speaker 1: had received the order to stand down, at least for now.
Speaker 1: It turns out theo Fan was the first one to turn,
Speaker 1: or maybe the second, but it was no small matter
Speaker 1: that changed his mind. It took a brutal personal testimony
Speaker 1: from one of Grigory's closest followers to finally shake the
Speaker 1: Our command Right's good opinion and get him to see
Speaker 1: Resputin for who he really was. That testimony came to
Speaker 1: fi a Fan in the form of a letter from
Speaker 1: a woman who had been with Grigory almost from the beginning,
Speaker 1: and what she described with shocking that is, if you
Speaker 1: haven't been paying attention. She had been living with the
Speaker 1: Resputant family in Siberia, wanting to share life with the
Speaker 1: preacher and learn his ways. She told Fia Fan she
Speaker 1: had learned all too much at home, out of the
Speaker 1: public eye and surrounded only by his family and his
Speaker 1: most devoted followers. Grigory acted as his own sort of authoritarian.
Speaker 1: He wasn't just demanding but violent. He beat his wife,
Speaker 1: his children, and all the women in his home. He
Speaker 1: held them hostage, and when he had them alone, whether
Speaker 1: in private train cars or in the privacy of his house,
Speaker 1: he attacked them in every way he could think of.
Speaker 1: It was a testimony of terror. Via Fan used to
Speaker 1: dismiss the stories about resput And as the foibles of
Speaker 1: a man that could be overlooked. After all, who among
Speaker 1: God's flock didn't wander from the path of righteousness every
Speaker 1: now and then. But this was so much more than that.
Speaker 1: Despite for a Fan's friendship with Grigory, and maybe because
Speaker 1: of it, the weight of all the things he heard
Speaker 1: about Grigory finally landed. The wool was pulled from his eyes.
Speaker 1: Theo Fan made a copy of the letter, he wrote
Speaker 1: a note to Nicholas, wrapped it together with the original,
Speaker 1: and sent it to the leaders of the church and
Speaker 1: to the Czar. Rasputin is a criminal in the religious
Speaker 1: and moral sense of the word, he wrote, and from
Speaker 1: our vantage today that's perfectly clear. Historian Douglas Smith puts
Speaker 1: it plainly central to who Rasputin was is he was
Speaker 1: allege what gloss was needed. Grigory Rasputin was a predator.
Speaker 1: It's the simple truth, and with that conviction now firmly
Speaker 1: in Theophan's mind, he waited for the Emperor to do
Speaker 1: the right thing. He waited for far too long, because
Speaker 1: even though Nicholas got the letter from Theophan, the man
Speaker 1: who had served as his personal confessor, he did nothing
Speaker 1: about it. He seemed to be confused about how theo
Speaker 1: fan could say these things. After all, he had been
Speaker 1: a friend of Rasputin and had even introduced him to
Speaker 1: their household. It didn't seem to cross Nicholas's mind that
Speaker 1: the accusations could be true. That's all the more infuriating
Speaker 1: when it becomes clear that other women were saying the
Speaker 1: same things, including some who were close to the royal family.
Speaker 1: Take the nursemaid of their son, Alexei. She cared for
Speaker 1: the boy and would have been around when Rasputin joined
Speaker 1: the household to pray in the nursery. What exactly she
Speaker 1: told Alexandra isn't clear, but we do know she told
Speaker 1: the Empress that Grigory had attacked her, maybe more than once.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was she said, though Alexandra refused to believe it,
Speaker 1: and to add one devastating wound to another. She told
Speaker 1: the maid never to bring it up again. I can
Speaker 1: only imagine how much that hurt. It's the sort of
Speaker 1: terrible injustice that's still all too common. Not that it
Speaker 1: went unnoticed entirely. The other household staff in charge of
Speaker 1: caring for the Romanov children started to make some noise.
Speaker 1: Soon enough, the mood around Rasputant's visits went from cordial
Speaker 1: to cold. The governess of the four Princesses, for one,
Speaker 1: wanted no part of Grigory's visits and wanted him to
Speaker 1: have no part in the girl's lives. To her, he
Speaker 1: was a scandal waiting to happen. The safety of the
Speaker 1: girls was at risk, and so the reputation of the
Speaker 1: Romanov family was as well. And she was right that said,
Speaker 1: this seems like the right time to note one thing.
Speaker 1: There's no evidence that Grigory were attacked any of the romanovs.
Speaker 1: All the girls, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia seemed to like
Speaker 1: and trust him. The official Okrana reports said that when
Speaker 1: it came to the Romanov girls, he behaved properly and honorably.
Speaker 1: Maybe that overstates the case, but of course, the children
Speaker 1: were never truly left alone with him. Here's Douglas Smith
Speaker 1: once again. He was allowed access to the nursery where
Speaker 1: the children were being raised. He would help put them
Speaker 1: to bed, he would rough house with them. It's quite startling,
Speaker 1: and you really question the judgment of Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 1: because there are maids present, there are nursemaids present, and
Speaker 1: they see this and they're they're shocked by it, and
Speaker 1: they begin to then talk outside the palace and it's
Speaker 1: and it starts to spread. Um Again, I don't think
Speaker 1: there was ever anything untoward that happened at these moments.
Speaker 1: They were always being watched by the parents or by nurses,
Speaker 1: what have you. But it does become the sore for
Speaker 1: gossip and rumors. We have letters that have survived that
Speaker 1: rispute and wrote to the children and they're they're, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're very innocent and they're very you know, they
Speaker 1: don't suggest anything nefarious. So there aren't signs that Gregory
Speaker 1: hurt the children. After all. As a predator, Gregory was
Speaker 1: an opportunist. It was his close connection to the Romanov
Speaker 1: family that made him feel powerful and that gave him
Speaker 1: the chance to bring other vulnerable people into his clutches.
Speaker 1: Targeting the Romanov sisters would have put his hunting grounds
Speaker 1: at risk, but there's no question that he was on
Speaker 1: the prowl, and he set his clause into other members
Speaker 1: of the household. But when the governess brought her concerns
Speaker 1: directly to Nicholas, he once again turned a blind eye.
Speaker 1: He said to her, I have survived all these difficult
Speaker 1: ears only by his prayers. Her answer was that he
Speaker 1: had survived by the prayers from all of Russia, but
Speaker 1: it didn't get through to him. Nicholas told her that
Speaker 1: he didn't believe the stories that she was telling him.
Speaker 1: You're two pure of hearts, your majesty. She told him
Speaker 1: to see the filth that surrounds you, but Nicholas refused
Speaker 1: to be swayed. If he believed her, he said it
Speaker 1: would make him an enemy of his own children, and
Speaker 1: that could never be true. Like Alexandra, he said that
Speaker 1: that was the end of it and told her to
Speaker 1: never bring it up again. And under the silence of
Speaker 1: that command, the dark future of his entire family continued
Speaker 1: to fester and grow. There's no doubt the gossip hurt
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexandra were frustrated that the other nobles at
Speaker 1: court wouldn't leave well enough alone. They wanted all those
Speaker 1: prime eyes to turn away, to look elsewhere, if only
Speaker 1: they had been willing to do a little prying of
Speaker 1: their own. Despite the about face from theo Fan, despite
Speaker 1: the investigations of the secret police and the urgent warnings
Speaker 1: from the Prime Minister, they held onto their connection with Rasputin.
Speaker 1: He continued visiting them, counseling them, and behind their backs,
Speaker 1: using their relationship for his own purposes. If you think
Speaker 1: back to an earlier episode, it's a bitter irony that
Speaker 1: it was thea Fan himself who had convinced them not
Speaker 1: to listen to the concerns. Remember, when he conducted his
Speaker 1: earlier investigation, he was too concerned with how it might
Speaker 1: make him look if Rasputin's real life didn't match up
Speaker 1: with his appearances. But by convincing the royal couple that
Speaker 1: criticisms of the Siberian peasant preacher were just jealous, slander
Speaker 1: and backbiting, he helped them shut the door on any
Speaker 1: legitimate criticism, even when it later came to himself. And
Speaker 1: of course, the legitimate criticism was also being mixed in
Speaker 1: with even more poisonous lies. Were the courtiers whispering that
Speaker 1: Resputant and Alexandra were lovers. No one knew better than
Speaker 1: Alexandra how false that accusation was, and if that was false,
Speaker 1: the rest must be false as well. And there's one
Speaker 1: more layer going on all the way back to their
Speaker 1: French spiritualist, Mr. Philippe. Here's Douglas Smith one more time.
Speaker 1: The more Respute and iss is criticized by powerful men
Speaker 1: within the government, within the army, within the church, the
Speaker 1: more Alexandra doubles down that she is not going to
Speaker 1: let them take resputing away from her. I think she
Speaker 1: always regretted the fact that she had allowed members of
Speaker 1: the Romano family and within the government circles to force
Speaker 1: her Nicholas to get rid of Monsieur Philippe, and she
Speaker 1: was she was determined that that was not going to
Speaker 1: happen again. So Alexandra's arms were wrapped tightly around Grigory
Speaker 1: Rasputin and her maids, her friends, her confessor, or the
Speaker 1: backbiters at court couldn't say anything that would change that,
Speaker 1: no matter how right they were either about Rasputin or
Speaker 1: about what it would mean for the Romanovs and the
Speaker 1: power of the throne when words started to get around.
Speaker 1: Because if Nicholas and Alexandra thought that gossip in aristocratic
Speaker 1: circles hurt, they only had to wait until early March
Speaker 1: of nineteen That's when the Oscow Gazette made sure that
Speaker 1: everyone in the Russian Empire knew the name of Gregory Rasputin.
Speaker 1: That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around
Speaker 1: after this short sponsor break for a preview of what's
Speaker 1: in store for next week. The spiritual touring actor Grigory Rasputin.
Speaker 1: That's what the Moscow Gazette called him, But that was
Speaker 1: just the headline. Things only got worse for Gregory from there.
Speaker 1: Apparently the writer knew all the favorite talking points from
Speaker 1: the elite salons. He was a cunning Siberian charlatan, a
Speaker 1: predatory letcher, a hypnotist, and a false teacher who used
Speaker 1: his ideas about Holy love to get far too up
Speaker 1: close and personal with his followers. They called him a
Speaker 1: pseudo prophet and damned him for teaching spiritual delusions that
Speaker 1: were opposite of the traditions of the Orthodox Church. But
Speaker 1: the article didn't stop at condemning resputants, delusions, and false holiness.
Speaker 1: It also attacked other areas of his life. It accused
Speaker 1: Grigory of being a lazy, deadbeat, a man who had
Speaker 1: abandoned his family in Pokrovsko, whose children were fatherless and unruly,
Speaker 1: and the author even said that in investigating his piece,
Speaker 1: he had spoken with a church leader who called Gregory
Speaker 1: a heretic and a sexual predator. Unobscured was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Josh Thayne in partnership with I Heart Radio, with
Speaker 1: research by Sam Alberty, writing by Karl Nellis, and original
Speaker 1: music by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians,
Speaker 1: source materials and links to our other shows over at
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mile dot com, slash Unobscured, and as always,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening