WEBVTT - S4 – 3: Made Manifest 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.960 Welcomed, unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:10.639 Minky smoke filled the air. They rose from the fires 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.200 of war. Russia was struggling with Japan for the eastern 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.680 edge of the empire, but Nicholas mostly left that to 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.159 his officers, not that it didn't keep him fretting. But 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.320 at the same time, there were signs that the people 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.480 of Russia weren't completely in line with his divine plan. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:31.080 At home, workers strikes in protests were rising up around 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.680 the empire, and that included right there in the capital. 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.440 Some among the aristocracy placed that purely at Nicholas's feet. 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.400 For instance, even his cousins said that the turmoil rolling 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.120 over the country was all about his lack of will. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.160 Maybe he was daydreaming about the days under the rule 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.199 of the last Czar. Maybe he was daydreaming about the 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.600 throne himself, but either way it would have been foolish. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.840 He must have forgotten the way Nicholas's grandfather died shredded 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.120 by a bomb in the streets of the capital in 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.840 the seventh attempt on his life. But let's be honest, 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.280 no stronger commitment to authoritarian rule by any single Romanov 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.040 could have stemmed the rising tide. Revolution was a many 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:19.200 headed hydra. It just kept coming back. Under Nicholas. Unrest 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.240 was not the exception either. Throughout nineteen o four, factory 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.720 workers across the Imperial capital went on strike, and they 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.319 knew they had the emperor by his epaulets. After all, 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.160 Russia was at war with Japan for the Pacific coast 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.080 of the continent, and Nicholas's empire needed those factories open 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.679 to supply the army. Nicholas did give the order to 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.400 crack down on the strikes, targeting and killing revolutionary dissenters, 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:49.280 but nothing silenced the protests. In the first months of 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.680 nineteen o five, things got out of hand. Nicholas got 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.160 word more than one hundred thousand workers were marching on 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.920 the Winter Palace, led by a socialist priest. It was 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.400 January eight, and the news put the Romanovs in a panic. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.920 The infantry was called In the next day, Sunday, January nine, 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.520 the column of marching protesters arrived. What did they want? 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.320 They made it clear, A good minimum wage, an eight 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:21.320 hour work day, a constitution, and an elected government. Some 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.880 of the government ministers even felt that these were reasonable requests. 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.880 They asked Nicholas to consider, but he silenced them. To 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.560 the czar, all of this was not a sign that 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.440 the empire needed reform. No, to Nicholas and the rest 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.000 of the Romanovs, it was a sign that Russia needed 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.760 a return to an even more pure autocracy. He told 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.640 them that anything less would be an affront to God. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.520 When the crowd arrived at the palace, the infantry opened 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.560 fire and the cavalry charged. It was a massacre. Over 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.840 one thousand of the marchers were killed, and two thousand 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.959 were left screaming in the street. Nicholas wrote in his diary, 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.800 how sad to the rest of Russia. Though it was 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.960 more than sad, it was an outrage. They called it 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.040 their own bloody Sunday, and they rallied to the call. 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:15.239 Riots and bombs exploded across the empire. Over one thousand 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.320 government officials were killed. Grand Duke Sergey, who had married 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.119 Alexandra's older sister, was hit by a blast that scattered 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.720 his carriage over the roofs of the surrounding buildings. Was 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.240 it enough to challenge the power of the czars. Nicholas's 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.880 sister continued to see the Romanov way It was, she said, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.160 a lack of authority. But by August there was no 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.600 escaping the truth. St. Petersburg was shut down, schools were closed, 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:47.240 everyone was on strike. Nothing was being delivered over the roads, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:51.040 not even food, and Moscow too was at a standstill, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.560 except when it was thronged by marchers in the streets 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.120 and on the rooftops, waving red flags and calling for 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.880 the end of the imperial way of life. What choice 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.400 did Nicholas have. In the end, he decided to insult 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.800 God and save his throne. But even he couldn't quite 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.240 admit it. He decided that the reforms were his idea, 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.640 and he commanded that for the first time, a parliament 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.880 should be established for Russia. If the Czar said it, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.440 then maybe it was God's will. After all. Nicholas may 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.800 have needed the charade that it was all still under 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:30.359 his control. But the winds of change were blowing in Russia. 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:36.919 It was for a time the end of autocracy. This 0:04:37.160 --> 0:05:03.400 is unobscured, I'm Aaron Manky. It was a time of 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.479 massive change. Even before the Revolution of nineteen o five. 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.120 The turmoil that came with the modern age was making 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.080 themselves known across the Romanov's empire. Yes, it was a 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.159 new era of industry and transportation, and everything from money 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.200 to music to the news media was taking on new 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:25.080 and unfamiliar forms. As the people pushed for the government 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.120 itself to change, Nicholas and Alexandra struggled to imagine that 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.560 something new was even possible. Here's historian Douglas Smith to 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.600 tell us more. There's been three hundred years of Romanov monarchy. 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:43.520 The later decades of the dynasty under Nicholas the second 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.720 our period of dynamic change. The economy is taking off, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:53.440 it's growing. You get an increasingly sizeable um urban middle class, 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.680 you get the development of of an urban proletariat. So 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.960 on one hand, what you have is this sort of 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:05.240 dynamism and and change going on in the economy and 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.000 in society at large. And then you have this static 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.040 political system that goes back to the early seventeenth century 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.920 of you know, one ruler with all supreme power apparently 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.279 handed down from God. And so there's this growing tension 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:25.320 between a dynamic and developing society and a rigid political 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.640 system that doesn't reflect the change. It was a time 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.320 in Russian life when the people living in the cities 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.600 and working in the factories were seeing something new in 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:39.760 their lives, new possibilities, a different kind of future. But 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.520 Nicholas and Alexandra still believe they were living in a 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.279 time when the blood of thousands spilled in the streets 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.599 was less insulting to God than the emperor letting go 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.080 of absolute power. In some ways, it almost feels like 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:56.119 a failure of imagination. Nicholas simply could not see things 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.480 any other way. Whatever it was that kept him from 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.279 seeing things from the view on the street, The truth 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.240 was that the only way he could think about the 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.520 Russian Empire was with himself and his family at the center, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.400 as if the only opinion that mattered was his own. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.920 The people, what did they know? They weren't the czar. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.120 But that tenant of faith turned out to be a 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.880 major blind spot for the Czar, as Dr Joshua Sanborn 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.800 can't explain for him to recognize that politics and Russia 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.120 was modern politics. That you do have things like coalescing 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.200 public opinion, that you do have pressure groups, that you 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.200 do have constituencies rather than a passive population that you 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.480 run by divine right, is fundamentally something that if you 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.320 were to accept that it would mean, he would have 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.200 to accept that he's not a legitimate Sorry, he's not 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.640 a legitimate leader, and he's he's unwilling to do that. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.400 In the end, though, Nicholas did sign on two reforms, 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.040 not because he thought they were right, but because the 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.680 ministers around the Romanovs convinced them that it was the 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.200 only real way to preserve the monarchy. The document he 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.520 signed putting new changes into law sound is like the 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.360 first principles of the modern states we live in today. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.640 A parliament with a house of representatives called the Duma, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.640 with a prime minister to lead them. Civil rights and 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.800 voting rights granted to the people of the empire, and 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.800 so much more, not least of all, freedom of the 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.120 press for the first time in Russian history. The changes 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.560 were greeted with massive celebration, and the reforms came to 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.080 be known as the October Manifesto. But not for Nicholas 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.920 and Alexandra. They hung their heads in shame. Nicholas would 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.120 never stop seeing his choice to give into these changes 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.599 as anything other than a blemish on Russian life. He 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:39.959 would spend the rest of his time as are trying 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.080 to claw back these changes. But as much as signing 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.600 the October Manifesto brought changes to Russian government. It was 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.560 really just the culmination of a long process of change. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.080 And as everywhere else in Russian life, the changes that 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.080 boiled up in the October Manifesto had been bubbling for 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.080 a long time somewhere you might not expect the Russian Church, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.640 you see, by nineteen o five Russian religion had been 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.120 experiencing its own kind of new age for quite a while, 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.559 the tight geist, if you will, of of fantasy ecla. Russia, 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.560 like other parts in Europe. Actually, to be honest, at 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.520 the time, there was very much a fascination with dark 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.800 forces at play, with a sense that they were on 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.280 the verge of some sort of apocalyptic change, that it 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.520 was in some ways the end of times. And there 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:36.800 was a profound fascination with mysticism, spiritualism, the occult seances 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.880 and table turning and and all sorts of these sorts 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.720 of things. Hypnotism was was quite popular at the time. 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.640 Most of elite aristocratic society and Russia at the time 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.840 was fascinated with very spiritualist leaders, with gurus and what 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:57.120 have you. And there was this desire to seek alternate 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.800 ways of connecting with with forms of re pality that 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.840 traditional religion and the Church and science were unable to 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.720 explain to people who were who were seeking answers to 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.520 to sort of these life's questions that seemed to have 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:16.559 this pressing urgency. Right around nineteen hundred, the Aristocrats experimenting 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.880 with spiritualism, like Romanov's friends Stana on Melitsa, were far 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.840 from the only people leaving the Orthodox Church to look 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.760 for answers elsewhere in Siberia. As we know, the old 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.520 Believers were practicing their own form of religion. They claimed 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.400 to be the real Orthodox Church, But there were also 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.800 Christians who were giving up an Orthodoxy altogether, like the 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.480 number of Baptists who were growing their churches on the 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.839 European side of the Russian Empire. So when it came 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.640 time to rewrite the laws of nineteen o five, the 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.400 October Manifesto also included new terms of religious freedom for Russians. 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.199 The Orthodox Church, governed by the Czar was no longer 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.600 the only religion allowed in Russia. Of course, the leaders 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.160 who had climbed their way to power through their belief 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.719 that the Orthodox Church was the only true way to 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.480 heaven were none too pleased with this development. It led 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.000 many to believe that they had taken for granted the 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:15.160 deep ties between St. Petersburg's cathedral and the Imperial throne, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.160 and they had an ally in the throne's current occupant. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.000 Having just taken the devil's bargain for peace at all 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.079 costs and sold their birthright for a massive porridge, Nicholas 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.200 and Alexandra would now be looking for a way to 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.120 reconnect with the faith they saw slipping away, and there 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.200 were plenty of people with plenty of answers waiting in 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:42.720 the wings. It was another meeting over tea, as usual 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.040 Melissa hosted at her villa. The days were getting darker 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.480 and the Romanovs were deeply in need of a close 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.720 conversation with even closer friends. No lingering ill will around 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.640 court from the scandal of Mr Philip had kept Alexandra 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.400 away from her friends, no matter what names the other 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.800 members of the Romanov family might call them. So when 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.200 Melissa's imitations went out, the friends flocked to her door. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.920 Stana and Nikolasha came, of course. Nicholas and Alexandra arrived 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.600 at four o'clock, but it wasn't just their small circle. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.559 No When Nicholas and Alexandra arrived, they found someone new 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.160 waiting for them. There. Nicholas would make a brief note 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.080 in his diary, We made the acquaintance of a man 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:29.000 of God, he wrote, Grigory from the Tobolsk region. In fact, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.160 their visit for Tea stretched into the night. It would 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.240 be seven o'clock with a darkness falling around them before 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.160 the royal couple broke away from conversation with their friends 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.640 and with Grigory Rasputin, and they made their way back 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.240 to the palace with the satisfaction of a surprising new encounter. 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.920 It was a short journey, and I think it's worth 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.960 noting just how high a climb that was. For Grigory, 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:54.520 the simple peasant, had just made the acquaintance of the 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:59.280 rulers of the mightiest empire on earth. For Nicholas and Alexandra, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.680 it came at us the moment they felt most in 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.319 need of a friend. That diary entry by Nicholas remarked 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.160 the patches of ice were beginning to freeze in the canal. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.560 He might as well have written that ice was beginning 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.840 to freeze his soul only a few weeks before, when 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.360 he gave into the calls for political reform in the 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.480 Empire and signed the October Manifesto. He had betrayed his 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:24.200 deepest convictions about his place in the world, the beliefs 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.400 which gave meaning and direction to his life. But it 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.120 wasn't just Nicholas who would have been devastated by that. 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.160 In the years that they had been married, Alexandra bought 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.760 into Nicholas's view. She never wavered. They believed that they 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.400 were meant to rule Russia by divine right. Here's historian 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:45.240 Helen Rappaport to tell us more. In Russia, autocracy and 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:51.160 orthodoxy went absolutely hand in hand, that that they were 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.400 the cornerstone. I mean, to be czar, you had to 0:13:54.440 --> 0:14:00.720 be Orthodox. And they had this absolutely implacable belief that 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.440 in the divine right of the czar, pretty much like 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.360 the divine right of kings even in Britain back in 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:11.040 the seventeenth century, there was a god given role that 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.760 Nicholas had this duty to perform, and he had to 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.280 perform it in the absolute traditional manner in which it 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.360 had been handed down to him. And Alexandra very much 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:29.320 believed in this idea that they were the little mother 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:33.440 and little father of the nation, the martush Bartuska, as 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.640 they were called by the peasantry, and that the peasantry 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:43.840 looked up to them unquestionably with unquestionable loyalty and devotion. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.320 And she believed that stubbornly, right to the very end, 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.400 that the people really loved them. Recent events had not 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.840 shaken their belief for Alexandra. But if Nicholas believed that 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.840 he had insulted God by giving into the revolutionaries and reformers, 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.360 Alexander at my To thought the same. So when Grigory 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.800 met the Romanovs in the company of their closest friends, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.520 we can see what would make him attractive to them. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.280 He was a Siberian priest, but one who seemed to 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.120 silence any doubt about what the peasants really wanted. After all, 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:16.760 he wasn't trying to wrest power away from the throne. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.040 He was celebrating their power. Plus, he came with a 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.040 sheaf of recommendations in hand from the people Nicholas and 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.080 Alexandra trusted the most, the authorities in the Russian Orthodox Church. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.080 Here's more from Douglas Smith. Well, what helps sort of 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.000 open the doors of the capital for resputing, chiefly are 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:40.240 his contacts with higher ups within the Russian Orthodox Church. 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.720 Through his years as a holy pilgrim, he had come 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.000 to impress a great many priests and then bishops and 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.880 archbishops within the church as a true man of God, 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.760 as a true holy man who has risen up from 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.240 the depths of Russian peasant society. And he literally league 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.440 gets letters of recommendation from priests and bishops as churches, 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.240 at churches and monasteries as he goes along. And it's 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:11.560 with these letters of recommendation that he shows up in St. Petersburg, 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.200 probably some time around nineteen o four and is immediately 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.600 accepted in at the Alexander Dievsky Monastery, one of the 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.600 great seats of Russian holiness within the Russian Orthodox Church. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:27.760 And originally, these these church members are amazed at this figure. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.479 They have never seen someone quite like him, the energy, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.520 the fervor with which he praised the and preaches the 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.880 word of God. He's referred to as a as a 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.800 burning torch, as a taught string. They sensed this sort 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.360 of electrical charge that comes from him as he speaks 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.480 the word of God. And then through his connections in 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:55.280 the church, he then is introduced into aristocratic society. And 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.120 what made Grigory all the more trustworthy to Nicholas and 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.120 Alexandra was that this has Wanderer had been introduced to 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.479 Stana and Melitza by their personal confessor, a powerful Russian 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.520 churchman named Theo Fan. He was a brilliant and intense 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.320 monk who had recently taken over the training school for 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.000 priests in St. Petersburg. That made him the our command right, 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.520 a figure of tremendous authority governing an important monastery in 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.000 the empire's capital, And like so many others in his day, 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.080 theo Fan was wondering what the Orthodox Church needed to 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.480 do to rekindle its faith. They thought maybe they needed 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:35.760 the burning torch of men like Rasputant. While he served 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:40.119 as confessor to occultist aristocrats like Meliza, theo Fan was 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.440 also doing some searching of his own. Neither among the 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:47.040 dead bureaucracy of the church authorities, nor in the flickering 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.560 shadows of European gas lights. No, theo Fan was looking 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.119 for holy men with Russian dirt under their fingernails, and 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.160 when he met Rasputin, he knew he had found his man. 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.760 So it was theo Fan who opened the doors to St. 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.600 Petersburg's salons for Grigory Rasputin. The two men would go 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:09.159 together to those swirling symphonies of gossip and inquiry. Aristocrats 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.400 in St. Petersburg were skeptical and cynical about the Church, 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.359 but the deep interest in superstition and the spiritual hunger 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.720 behind so many eyes meant that they were ready to 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.760 sample what Resputant was serving. The same was true, of course, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:28.560 with the Romanovs themselves. Four days after meeting Grigory, Nicholas 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.560 got a letter from this wandering preacher, and it drove 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.560 home that he was just the flavor of religious patriot 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.919 they had been looking for. He called Nicholas a great 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.720 emperor and the autocrat of all Russia. And his note 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.040 is full of praise, we might even call it flattery 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.160 for the crown. It was also full of reassuring comments 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.720 that the Romanovs were the masters, and the peasants like 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.280 Rasputin merely their subjects. Don't worry too much about the 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.920 strange turn at the times had taken. He told them 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.840 they were doing their best, and sooner God would come 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.040 to their aid. Here's more from Douglas Smith. What's interesting 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.680 is from the very beginning of their relationship. He offers 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.879 Nicholas political advice and says, don't give up the throne, 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.680 don't give up power, maintain the dynasty, maintain the autocracy. 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.120 And this is just the sort of message that Nick 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.240 Nicholas is looking for, and especially to hear it not 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.160 from some minister or general, but to hear it from 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.840 a peasant from Siberia, from a man of God. It says, 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:36.359 almost as if he becomes a mouthpiece for all of 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.760 peasant Russia. When Nicholas and Alexander sit down with Rispute 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.040 and they feel they are hearing the voice of the 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.000 peasant masses. It was exactly the kind of thing Nicholas 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.440 and Alexandra wanted. If they feared that they had disappointed 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.680 God by giving up their unquestioned rule over the empire, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.959 they now had this holy man, this rough and tumble 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.760 traveler with piercing eyes and prophetic words, to tell them 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.520 that all was not lost. In fact, they had come 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.200 through it all, war, with Japan, revolution across the capital, 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.480 a new representative government, and all the changes of the 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.440 modern age. They had come through it all, and they 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:18.439 would be okay. God would still help them Resputant didn't 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.040 stay in the capital. Soon enough he was on his 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.720 way again, back on the road, but he had certainly 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.119 made an impression. In fact, Nicholas and Alexander were so 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.320 pleased that, even with Resputant gone, the people who had 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.920 brought the peasant into their presence were in royal favor. 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.480 Take for example, the ar command right theo Fan. Two 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.120 weeks after Nicholas and Alexandra met with Resputant, they sent 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.920 a request of theo Fan come to the Royal Palace 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.880 to discuss an important matter, and of course he did 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.600 as he was told. We can only imagine his anticipation 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.080 as he neared the palace. He had worked his way 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.879 into Stana and Melitz's trust, he had learned their interests, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.919 He had even brought them exciting new teachers like Grigor 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.800 a Resputin, and it seemed like they had been pleased. 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.880 He must have felt like everything was going according to plan. 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.080 All the more so when he arrived at the palace. 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.080 When he met with Nicholas, the Czar honored him with 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.919 a new request. Do for Nicholas and Alexandra what he 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.760 did for Stanna and melitza serve at the throne as 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:25.600 the Romanov's personal confessor for Fia Fan. Knowing Grigory Rasputin 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:32.600 was starting to pay off, he was decked out in finery. 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.720 It was strange for a poor wanderer, but it seems 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.000 the contradiction didn't hold Grigory back. He arrived home in 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.800 Pokrovsko with stories to tell, man to show. In fact, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.240 the first impressions he made were the most flamboyant. His 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.600 wealthy followers and admirers and big cities like Kazan and St. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:53.119 Petersburg had showered him with new clothing. Now that he 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.040 was back in his hometown, he wore them proudly. If 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.439 he had been known as something of a troublemaker before, 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.600 and maybe even a old life, well he should show 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.680 them how high he had climbed the Imperial letter. No 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.360 one would look down on him now. And then there 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.240 was the money. He came back home with a lot 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.480 of it, and he started throwing it around. First, it 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:15.959 was time for a new house for himself and his family. 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.240 Right on Main Street was a good spot, right across 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.080 from the place where carriages would stop and resupply, exchange horses, 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.520 and give travelers a chance to gossip. Not that you 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:29.159 need outsiders for that. Folks at home were more than 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.040 capable of whispering down the lane all on their own, 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.120 and whisper they did. The news went around that Gregory 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.080 had gotten all his money from some of the most 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.200 powerful people in Russia, for instance the Black Crows, those 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.240 sisters who were close to the Czar, or maybe even 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.919 the Czar himself. Whatever the case, Gregory made no effort 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:52.879 to hide the triumphant parade of his family and belongings 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.400 into the large two story house, with its expanse of property, 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:02.159 bath barn, flower boxes, and elaborately pain did window frames inside, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.200 he made it his own. His parents, his wife, and 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.080 his children moved into rooms on the first floor, though 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.080 one of the rooms was reserved for devotion and filled 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.560 with icons. The Kazan Mother of God stood out from 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:19.160 the rest. The second level Resputant set aside for guests 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:24.320 and for Grigory's work. His desk, his comfortable chairs, his piano. 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.280 They all seemed better suited to the cities he had 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:30.719 left than to the home he was moving into, and 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.359 new decor moved in as well, including photos of Resputant 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:39.119 posing with the people he had met. Priests, students and aristocrats, 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:42.040 and no one would miss the portrait of Rasputin with 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.760 the Czar and Czarina of Russia. Even with Resputant at home, 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:49.600 more and more of these luxuries came into town, with 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:53.600 each new baggage train passing through packages from the capital, 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.119 gifts of money. All of them came to him from St. 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.959 Petersburg's wealthy and well known set in, seeing that resputants 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:04.399 claims of friends and high places was more than just bluster. 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:07.880 And of course there was a train of visitors too. 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:11.399 Once they knew who Grigory Resputin was and where he 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:14.679 could be found, they arrived hot on his trail. No 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.600 wonder Resputin wanted all of this expensive furniture. He wanted 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:21.960 to receive them in style. Priests and friends of theo 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:25.639 fan were first in line. People around Prokovsko remembered that 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:27.800 these guests that most of their time closed up in 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:31.040 the new Resputant house. The colorful windows didn't keep the 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:35.000 neighbors from hearing the sound of resputants piano jangling along 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.080 as the household and their guests sang hymns. And when 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.000