WEBVTT - S4 – 4: Sheep's Clothing 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.320 Welcomed Unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:12.160 Just a note before we begin. This episode includes discussion 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:19.040 of sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Anna had met 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.400 Rasputin a few years before his fanatical follower Olga had 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.239 made the introduction, and in the year since, Anna had 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.080 frequently opened her home to Resputant and his zealous believers 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.280 as they gathered to pray and read the Bible. Now 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.600 it was Grigory's turn. He was going to host Anna 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:40.959 at his home in Pokrovsko. In fact, Alexander herself had 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.960 sent a whole party of women to stay with Grigory, 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.519 learned from him, and share his teaching with her. She 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.320 wanted to better understand how the man lived and the 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.240 weight of the things he taught, more than his few 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.080 visits to the palace had allowed. With the Empress behind it, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.360 the trip gave Anna a thrill. Something told her this 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.920 was a turning point and that soon, like Olga, she 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.640 would be in rest Mutant's inner circle. But the closer 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.000 the trip came, the less certain she got that his 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.080 inner circle was where she wanted to be. She had 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.360 seen the way that Olga and his other followers treated him. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.440 They threw themselves on him in rapture. They kissed his 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.479 feet with joy. Olga bundled up hairs from his beard 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.160 as sacred relics. Once Olga even said that Grigory was 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:33.479 transformed into Jesus Christ himself, Anna wasn't so sure. When 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.600 they arrived at away station between Siberia and the capital, 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.399 Gregory joined the group to escort them the rest of 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.920 the way. To seat everyone, they split the party into 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.840 two different compartments. Three of the women made themselves comfortable 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.680 and waved to Grigory as he led Anna and another woman, Yelena, 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:55.240 to a different compartment, where he ushered them inside. So 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.520 as Anna settled herself into the train car beside Grigory 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.600 and Yelena, she had a task before her. It was 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.920 time to make up her mind about who this man 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.120 really was. Not to mention the whispers in the group 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.280 that spending time with Grigory would mean more attention from 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.600 the Empress for Anna, the trip would certainly clarify things, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.400 because as it got later and the train rattled on 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.200 into darkness, Anna saw that Yelena was hanging on Grigory's 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.800 every word. She was in a state of religious ecstasy, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.880 not Anna, though. In fact, she felt sleep coming on, 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.359 so she looked to the bunks in the sleeper car. 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.960 There were just two beds, and Anna settled herself onto 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.760 the lower one. Elena and Grigory followed her lead, but 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.360 they climbed into the upper bunk together. For Anna, the 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.760 red flags were raised and she spoke up too. She 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.800 called up that what they were doing wasn't right. Yelena 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.480 should come down, she said, and share the lower bunk 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.920 with her, but Yelena refused. Despite how incredibly uncomfortable she 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.560 had gotten, Anna was eventually lulled to sleep by the 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.720 rocky of the train, until that is, something woke her 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.920 up in the darkness, something scratchy against the skin of 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.600 her face. It took her a moment to realize what 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.400 it was, a man's beard. Shocked, Anna rolled off the 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.400 bunk and spun around. There was Grigory rasputin on her bed. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.000 Anna was ready to defend herself. She screamed a furious 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.680 question at him. If he was such a holy man, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.680 how could he possibly justify what he was doing? He 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.200 said nothing in silence. He simply crawled back up onto 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.720 the top bunk where Yelena lay waiting. Anna stayed alert 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.200 the rest of the night. In the morning, Yelena gave 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.160 Anna a talking to. She said Resputant was only trying 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.880 to commune with her spirit. It was a divine act, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.880 she said. But Anna knew a covering lie when she 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.280 heard one. There was nothing holy or divine about what 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.400 Grigory had tried to do. For the rest of the trip, 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:55.760 Anna kept her eye on him, and she paid for 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.320 it too. When they got to his home in Siberia, 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.080 he brought them all inside, but throughout the week he 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.200 treated Anna as the butt of a joke. He mocked 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.600 her and whispered about her to the other women in 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.920 the group. But this meant that Anna saw what the 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.120 rest of them missed. Be side I from the locals. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.120 As they went past the way, Grigory used his charm 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.560 to disarm the people around him. He even tried it 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.520 against her. On the train back, he tried again to 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.359 close in on her for a kiss, but she was ready. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.200 It was her fist that met him. After that, Rasputin 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:33.200 kept his distance. Anna had his number. Though Rasputin wasn't 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.719 a holy man, he was a fraud. That's what She 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.360 told Alexandra she was grateful that the Empress had sponsored 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.320 the trip, but Alexandra shouldn't waste any more time or 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.400 attention on a man who wasn't trustworthy. If only Alexandra 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.800 had listened, The other women didn't agree, though, and that 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.320 put Alexandra at ease. She ignored Anna's testimony. After all 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.160 other holy men vouched for Resputin, Alexandra thought maybe Anna 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.080 just wasn't able to grasp the saintly innocence of simple 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.400 folk like the Siberian peasant Gregory. I can only imagine 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.120 how frustrating it was for Anna. Resputant was hardly an 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.640 innocent rustic. There's no doubt that Anna was rightly furious 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.440 with him and with Alexandra for ignoring her. She must 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.320 have wondered if he could somehow be sidelined in favor 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.560 of someone else who wouldn't use his place in Alexandra's 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.680 affections to get his claws into the women around her. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.839 After all, Resputen wasn't the only one making a play 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.200 for royal favorite. There were other men who might be 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.960 able to jostle him out of the palace. Take, for instance, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:43.400 the man who would first befriend Resputant and then bedevil him. 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.800 The man who came to be known as the Mad Monk. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:06:18.919 This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Mankie, the Mad Monk. It 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.719 was a name he embraced, he relished it, especially in 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.599 later years when he was trying to sell his life story. 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.480 But there was some truth to it, some violent truth. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.039 He was born Sergei Trofanov, but he would come to 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.320 be known as the Monk Iliador, and he was a 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.520 man who would buy for power in the royal court 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.200 of the Romanovs as they slid through the shadows of 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.240 history towards their end. And if we had to credit 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.159 just one person for the myths and legends that make 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.920 the true history of Grigory Rasputin so difficult to nail down, 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.360 that person is Iliador, first one of Resputant's most ardent 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.240 friends and then his most bloodthirsty foe. Born in a 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.640 Cossack fanly in southern Russia, Eliodor was the son of 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.000 a deacon and set on a path into the church 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.320 from his earliest days. He entered church training in nineteen 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.800 oh one, just a year before he would meet the 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:15.520 wandering Rasputant. Like grigory. Eliodor found that he had a 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.520 powerful way with words. But while Rasputin's quiet intensity gave 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.280 him power in drawing rooms in prayer circles, Eliodora's booming 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.400 voice was born for the public square. His gift was oratory, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.720 and soon he made the crowds who would gather to 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.840 hear him into a resounding instrument. His outlook and Rasputants 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.800 were aligned. What did he teach about when he made 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.320 his first impression? The divine power of the czar, the 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.960 holiness of Russia, the need for the people of the 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:48.000 empire to stand up and be counted. Here's historian Douglas 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:56.200 Smith to tell us more. Eliodorus a fascinating and utterly 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.560 bizarre character. He's one of these figures you really couldn't 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.880 make up even if you tried. He was again one 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:09.280 of these sort of popular preachers who, unlike Resputant, does 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.840 go to theological seminary and does get an actual training 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.560 in theology and religion and becomes an an Orthodox priest. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.080 As a preacher, Eliador counted himself a doctor to a 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.480 sick empire, but his diagnosis was about as toxic as 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.560 any illness could have been, because While Eliador was a 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.200 man of intense ambition, he was also an extremist and 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.920 a deeply racist one. He pinned Russia's problems on his 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.199 Jewish neighbors, and he wasn't alone. The undercurrents of anti 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.679 Semitism were strong in Russian culture, and he stirred them 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.440 up across the Empire, growing more and more extreme as 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.240 he went. Soon enough, Eliodora was blaming the changes in 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.400 the Russian state on Russian Jews, and he said it 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.320 was his support of the Empire that made him criticize 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.160 the Czar. When Nicholas go of autocratic rule and established 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.200 the new Parliament in nineteen o five, Eliodora said the 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.040 only way to stand up for the Czar was to 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.439 stand up to him the Czar, Faith and fatherland where 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.040 Eliodora's rallying cries, but he turned that into a recruiting 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.640 tool for the violent nationalist group known as the Black Hundreds. 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.000 They wanted to decide who was and wasn't Russian, and 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.400 to kill or sideline anyone who didn't meet their definition. 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.199 But it didn't take long to mutate from nationalist vigilantes 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.880 into right wing terrorists. Eliodora snared the racist zeal of 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.920 the Black Hundreds and whipped it into a frenzy, and 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.839 he began to preach merciless racist violence. He hated all 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.840 the influences coming into Russia from Europe, and he believed 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.720 that bloodshed was the only way to beat Russia back 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:52.000 into submission. And they followed through. His right wing terrorists 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.600 gunned down a Jewish member of the new Parliament one 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:58.400 evening while he was walking with his daughter. Eliodor sheltered 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.960 the assassins right inside his monastery. The Eleiodor's role was noticed, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.079 but hardly punished. Yes, he was pushed out of the 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.120 church academy where he taught, but easily went to another 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.920 until he was fired again. That is, he bounced around 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.760 until he finally landed under the supervision of a like 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.520 minded priest who supported Eliodora's calls for violence. Here's Douglas 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:29.360 Smith again. He is the nastiest of anti semites. Um 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:35.600 is constantly um denouncing Jews as an evil influence as 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:40.480 the destroyers of the Russian Orthodox people. Denounces Nicholas and 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.319 his government for not doing more to come down hard 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.480 on the Jews and the Empire. He denounces intellectuals he 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:53.400 had denounces socialists and liberals and the intelligentsia and what 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:58.479 have you. And he he establishes the fairly large following 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.920 in the city of sadits in Uh, quite a ways 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.760 outside the capital. But he becomes a thorn in the 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.880 side of the regime because he's he's constantly denouncing it 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.679 and calling for violence um and early on respute, and 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.839 is drawn to Eliador and another one of these sort 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.840 of right wing priests by the name of germ Again, 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.880 and the three of them Krum becomes sort of a 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:30.320 trike threesome of these um upstart preachers, if you will. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.920 In fact, this new priest, germ Again, was such a 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.920 supporter of the Black Hundreds and their violent politics that 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.240 when they battled with police in the streets during the 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.360 summer of nineteen o eight, germ Agin used the power 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.679 of the church to shelter Eliodor from consequences. But Elodor's 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.000 most powerful ally was the man with the ear of 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.800 the Empress, Grigory Rasputin. In fact, when it seemed like 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.480 Eliodor might face consequences for his role in provoking violent 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.240 terrorism and anti Semitic violence, gregg Or arranged a private 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.880 meeting between Eliador and Alexandra. Not that it was an 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.840 easy meeting. In fact, it seems like Alexandra had her 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.800 own impression to make. When she sat down with a 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.400 mad monk. She wasn't just going to bow to his teaching. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.120 She commanded him to stop attacking the tsar's ministers, and 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.600 what's more, he needed to reign in his wild provocations. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.840 No more preaching violence. It needed to stop. In fact, 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.400 if Eliodora is to be believed, she even told them 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.720 that he needed a new spiritual adviser, someone who would 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.520 curb his wild teaching and bring him back onto the 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.200 strait and narrow. But maybe you can see where this 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.840 is going. The person Alexandra told him to follow was 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.880 none other than Rasputin himself. It's not clear exactly what 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.360 she hoped would happen, whether Nicholas and Alexandra were trying 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.080 to get Rasputin to bring the mad monk to heal, 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.720 or whether Rasputin was trying to bring Alexandra under the 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.920 influence of a violent nationalist zealot. There's one thing that's clear. 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.719 In the midst of a political firestorm, the Empress had 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.679 looked to Grigory Resputin for answers, and it was only 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:12.120 the beginning. He came and went unannounced. In fact, one 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.080 day in August of nineteen o eight, Nicholas arrived home 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.040 and was surprised to find Grigory talking with Alexandra. Not 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.960 that this troubled the Czar. No, he sat down and 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.600 joined them, and he wrote in his diary that he 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.760 talked for another half hour. But the fact that Resputin 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.439 and Alexandra were meeting alone shows us just how trusted 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:36.480 Resputin had become, and how thoroughly Alexandra had dismissed any 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.120 concerns about rest Sputan's reputation and how it might make 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.439 her look. After all, she was the Empress. Why should 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.280 she care what other people were saying, especially when he 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.520 offered the family something they so deeply desired. One high 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.000 ranking naval officer who served on the Romanov's imperial yacht 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.760 would later remember that one day, when he was chatting 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:00.760 with Alexandra, their conversation turned to spiritual city and the church. 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.280 As they talked, the Empress became passionate, and the things 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.320 she said stuck with him. Alexander told him that there 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.439 were people whose prayers were particularly powerful, especially people who 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.319 lived lives of strict holiness, and she insisted to him 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.560 that Grigory Rasputin was one of these men. After all, 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.200 hadn't Alexander seen the power of his prayers when her 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.320 little son was suffering so deeply? It seems she had 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.400 been mulling over that experience, and that had drawn some 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.400 conclusions about the kind of man Resputant was. In looking 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.360 to the Bible itself, she found the words pray for 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.440 one another, that you may be healed. The prayers of 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:43.760 a righteous man are powerful. In Alexander's eyes, Gregory's power 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.400 of healing and his righteousness went hand in hand. If 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.320 he could heal, then he was also righteous. It was 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.640 as simple as that. But it wasn't just the Romanovs 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.720 who were becoming more convinced of rest Sputant. In fact, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.080 if we only think about Resputin as a counselor for 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.920 Nicholas and all Xandra during those days, we get the 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.840 man wrong. Here's historian Helen Rappaport to tell us more so, 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.880 the thing with Rasputin was, initially he was a wise 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.960 girl to the family and a wise counselor, and that 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.040 really was a more important function. Almost someone she did 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.760 for alex say, because people have this idea that Rasputin 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.240 was in and out the back door and up the 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.800 stairs and into the Alexander Palace every five minutes, ingratiating 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.120 himself and muttering prayers over Alexey. And that's not the case. 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.880 He only came when he was invited. He didn't make 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.120 that many visits to the wrong and offs at the 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.280 Alexander Palace, and he often went long periods not seeing 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:48.000 the family or communicated by telephone with them or by 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.480 letter or telegram. In fact, Grigory was spending more and 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.840 more time among the other wealthy and powerful Russian families. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:01.000 House after house, an aristocrat after aristocrat opened their doors 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.560 for him. Let's have historian Douglas Smith tell us more. 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.120 He makes his way from palace to palace, going to 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.560 various aristocratic salons, and these men and women within the 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:17.240 upper echelons of Russian society are fascinated by these peasant 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.640 holy men, if you will, It's like they're being put 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.200 in touch with creatures from another planet. It's a world 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.680 that they, being part of the westernized urban elite, have 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.760 no real contact with. They don't go to Siberia they 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.960 don't go to peasant huts, and so it it allows 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.560 them to enter this whole world of a Russian society 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.120 from which they're cut off, but which holds great fascination 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.920 for them. And here's the thing, some of what we 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.680 know about resputants teaching actually sounds like good advice. When 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.560 he stepped into these crowded and rowdy salons and got 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.080 to know the wealthy families who were partying their way 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.000 through a period of revolution, Rasputin didn't stay silent. In fact, 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.160 he often gave spiritual advice that was simple, practical and 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.199 matter of fact. Yes, go to church, but after a service, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.840 go for a long walk, take a day and get 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.320 as far away from the city as you can. Become 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.280 aware of your smallness and let the pride and vanity 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.360 of your wealth and position of power be wiped away. 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.520 Find God in the world where you are, be humble, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.240 field tenderness, truly connect with the world around you, rather 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.320 than hiding behind your wealth and power and privilege. He 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.639 often said that his new followers needed to give up 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.919 the glorification of their own passions and instead be of 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.639 service to God. If Grigory Resputant was the only person 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.200 giving advice like this to the families of the princes 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.600 and grand dukes, I'm sure it would have felt like 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.239 a breath of fresh air. In fact, it goes a 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.280 long way to describing resputants charm on when the elites 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.000 in the capital, he talked to everyone informally, He ate 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.600 simple meals. He didn't have even the basic social graces 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.679 that were expected in their circles, and he knew that 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.240 from the beginning that his directness, his rudeness, was part 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.960 of what attracted him to people, and he made sure 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.359 to hold onto it, because, as we know, that attraction 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:12.639 to Resputin was powerful. One follower of his, Nikolai Jevakov, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.000 remembered just how much the people let Restputant's prayer meetings 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.200 thirsted to hear what he would say. Even when Gregory 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.640 hardly talked at all, his fanatical admirers tried to read 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.560 the secret meanings behind every word and phrase They trembled 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.239 in his presence, even though Jevakov himself was only a 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.359 minor prince and a powerful official in the Russian Church. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:38.160 This kind of reaction was new. Once, when Jevakov joined 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.240 a prayer meeting with Restputant, he watched Olga trembling in 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.879 a corner, screaming out he's a saint, He's a saint, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.640 until Resputin himself got annoyed and told her to be quiet. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.320 But it wasn't just these over the top celebrations of 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.560 grigory that made him uncomfortable. There were other things said 0:18:55.560 --> 0:19:00.000 about him too, things he was far less able to control. 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:07.320 All it was inevitable, really, As Rasputin became more comfortable 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.560 surrounded by luxury and truly took a place at court, 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:12.760 he would also begin to play a role in the 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.920 central drama of court life, the game of whispers. And 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.040 as we know with Gregory, there was plenty to whisper about, 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.080 even if the Empress had already decided that every story 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.760 she didn't like was unfounded slander. In fact, the more 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.359 people who got to know Resputin, the more stories they 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.320 were to tell. If Resputin had a host of followers 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.719 who felt the allure of his teaching about love and 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.600 connection and perhaps even bought into his way of talking 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.760 about God, there were plenty of others who saw through 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.040 his game. After all, they saw just how much he 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.040 was enjoying his new life as a spiritual adviser to 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.400 the rich and powerful. As historian Helen Rappaport says, Gregory 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:56.080 Resputen was what you might call an opportunist. He became 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.080 very fashionable, and all these society ladies folk ground to 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.639 him and their photographs of him sitting surrounded by admiring women, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.600 and they brought in gifts, and they gave him beautiful clothes, 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.080 and they fed him and flattered him. And I think 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.440 in that sense he was an opportunist. You know, if 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:16.560 somebody wanted to give him money or take him out 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.200 for a good dinner, he was more than happy to oblige. 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:24.600 So he did. He did exploit the fascination there was 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.639 for him initially in Saint Petersburg, and and was wined 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.119 and dined and you know, very well looked after and 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.480 entertained and lived well on it for a while. They 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.880 brought in curious seekers, yes, but the other stories wouldn't 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.840 go away either, the stories that let everyone know how 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.760 he treated the women around him. Take the conversation that 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.399 arm and Jeffikov had one day had with one of 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.160 Alexandra's most senior ladies in waiting. She was the kind 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.800 of person who saw everything in the palace, and of 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.199 course she was usually known for her discretion, but she 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.160 was troubled, and somehow one day she found herself complaining 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.520 to this prince that there were some unusual comings and goings. 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.560 Not only was this Grigory rasputant fellow meeting often with 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.679 the Empress, but when he arrived, he was let in 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.400 the back door so as to keep his visits off 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.359 the official guest books. Or at least this is the 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.399 story as Jebikov would later tell it. He says the 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.760 story startled him not because the Empress was talking off 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.760 the record with her spiritual adviser, but most of all 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.679 because her lady in waiting was telling stories about it. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:35.960 He warned her that even telling someone like him, a 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.680 church official, was dangerous. She was talking about the private 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.320 spiritual life of the Empress, and at a time when 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.520 the Romanov dynasty was on shaky ground too, she had 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.439 better keep her complaints like these to herself. In the future, 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.800 she risked feeding suspicion of the monarchy itself. Whatever else 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.040 might be threatening the royal family, gossip was the first 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.800 and the worst danger to the throne. Looking back, he 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.560 couldn't have been more right, Even though Jevikov probably did 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:07.680 not realize just how dangerous these rumors about respute and 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.840 really were. Who could blame him. Nicholas and Alexander themselves 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.080 insisted that their meetings with their spiritual adviser were no 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:18.639 one's business. They believed that they were simply between themselves, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.879 Grigory and God. But that's where they could not have 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.360 been more wrong. If only the warning from Nicholas's mother 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.920 had continued to echo in his mind. Remember who you 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.280 are for the czar, She had told him, there is 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:37.520 no private life. Every personal connection, every friendship, every choice 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.800 is made under the weight of imperial rule. She tried 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.240 to make her son understand that famous truism of monarchy, 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.120 heavy is the head that wears the crown. But somehow, 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.480 despite being raised in the royal courts of Europe, neither 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.760 Alexandra nor Nicholas took that warning to heart. They insisted 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.640 that they be allowed the private life of a modern family. 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.040 In fact, because nikol List was the czar, he commanded 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:06.640 it his privacy would be respected. But when has any 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.680 royal ever managed to silence the whispers in their court. 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:14.040 With the popularity of salon gatherings among the Russian aristocracy, 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.359 privacy and respect were just about the least likely things 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:21.879 I can imagine, and maids do talk. Soon enough, an 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.160 attendant of one of Alexandra's closest friends was passing around 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.760 the story that a mysterious peasant with a beastly appearance 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:32.080 was slipping in and out of the royal Palace and 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:36.240 he was meeting privately with Alexandra. That was enough for 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.880 the first wave of rumors, but the mill was hungry 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.080 for more, and every reseller of a tale wants to 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.600 add something a little juicy to the simple recitation. It 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.720 didn't take long for the beastly visitor to become a 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.960 beastly lover. And so it was in the salons of 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:55.560 the Russian aristocrats in St. Isaac Square in St. Petersburg 0:23:56.000 --> 0:24:12.680 that the most enduring myth of Resputant was born. Resputant 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.960 was hanged, after all, she was a known revolutionary terrorist, 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:23.159 Anna Resputant, that is, in February, she was executed in St. Petersburg. 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:26.520 Like Grigory, she was a peasant, and she had been 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.960 arrested and convicted for a failed assassination tempt on none 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:33.480 other than Nikolasha, the Czar's violent cousin and the husband 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:36.480 of their friends, Stana. It was no surprise to Nicholas 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.679 and Alexandra that the sharp end of the revolutionary energy 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.119