Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron
Speaker 1: Minky smoke filled the air. They rose from the fires
Speaker 1: of war. Russia was struggling with Japan for the eastern
Speaker 1: edge of the empire, but Nicholas mostly left that to
Speaker 1: his officers, not that it didn't keep him fretting. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, there were signs that the people
Speaker 1: of Russia weren't completely in line with his divine plan.
Speaker 1: At home, workers strikes in protests were rising up around
Speaker 1: the empire, and that included right there in the capital.
Speaker 1: Some among the aristocracy placed that purely at Nicholas's feet.
Speaker 1: For instance, even his cousins said that the turmoil rolling
Speaker 1: over the country was all about his lack of will.
Speaker 1: Maybe he was daydreaming about the days under the rule
Speaker 1: of the last Czar. Maybe he was daydreaming about the
Speaker 1: throne himself, but either way it would have been foolish.
Speaker 1: He must have forgotten the way Nicholas's grandfather died shredded
Speaker 1: by a bomb in the streets of the capital in
Speaker 1: the seventh attempt on his life. But let's be honest,
Speaker 1: no stronger commitment to authoritarian rule by any single Romanov
Speaker 1: could have stemmed the rising tide. Revolution was a many
Speaker 1: headed hydra. It just kept coming back. Under Nicholas. Unrest
Speaker 1: was not the exception either. Throughout nineteen o four, factory
Speaker 1: workers across the Imperial capital went on strike, and they
Speaker 1: knew they had the emperor by his epaulets. After all,
Speaker 1: Russia was at war with Japan for the Pacific coast
Speaker 1: of the continent, and Nicholas's empire needed those factories open
Speaker 1: to supply the army. Nicholas did give the order to
Speaker 1: crack down on the strikes, targeting and killing revolutionary dissenters,
Speaker 1: but nothing silenced the protests. In the first months of
Speaker 1: nineteen o five, things got out of hand. Nicholas got
Speaker 1: word more than one hundred thousand workers were marching on
Speaker 1: the Winter Palace, led by a socialist priest. It was
Speaker 1: January eight, and the news put the Romanovs in a panic.
Speaker 1: The infantry was called In the next day, Sunday, January nine,
Speaker 1: the column of marching protesters arrived. What did they want?
Speaker 1: They made it clear, A good minimum wage, an eight
Speaker 1: hour work day, a constitution, and an elected government. Some
Speaker 1: of the government ministers even felt that these were reasonable requests.
Speaker 1: They asked Nicholas to consider, but he silenced them. To
Speaker 1: the czar, all of this was not a sign that
Speaker 1: the empire needed reform. No, to Nicholas and the rest
Speaker 1: of the Romanovs, it was a sign that Russia needed
Speaker 1: a return to an even more pure autocracy. He told
Speaker 1: them that anything less would be an affront to God.
Speaker 1: When the crowd arrived at the palace, the infantry opened
Speaker 1: fire and the cavalry charged. It was a massacre. Over
Speaker 1: one thousand of the marchers were killed, and two thousand
Speaker 1: were left screaming in the street. Nicholas wrote in his diary,
Speaker 1: how sad to the rest of Russia. Though it was
Speaker 1: more than sad, it was an outrage. They called it
Speaker 1: their own bloody Sunday, and they rallied to the call.
Speaker 1: Riots and bombs exploded across the empire. Over one thousand
Speaker 1: government officials were killed. Grand Duke Sergey, who had married
Speaker 1: Alexandra's older sister, was hit by a blast that scattered
Speaker 1: his carriage over the roofs of the surrounding buildings. Was
Speaker 1: it enough to challenge the power of the czars. Nicholas's
Speaker 1: sister continued to see the Romanov way It was, she said,
Speaker 1: a lack of authority. But by August there was no
Speaker 1: escaping the truth. St. Petersburg was shut down, schools were closed,
Speaker 1: everyone was on strike. Nothing was being delivered over the roads,
Speaker 1: not even food, and Moscow too was at a standstill,
Speaker 1: except when it was thronged by marchers in the streets
Speaker 1: and on the rooftops, waving red flags and calling for
Speaker 1: the end of the imperial way of life. What choice
Speaker 1: did Nicholas have. In the end, he decided to insult
Speaker 1: God and save his throne. But even he couldn't quite
Speaker 1: admit it. He decided that the reforms were his idea,
Speaker 1: and he commanded that for the first time, a parliament
Speaker 1: should be established for Russia. If the Czar said it,
Speaker 1: then maybe it was God's will. After all. Nicholas may
Speaker 1: have needed the charade that it was all still under
Speaker 1: his control. But the winds of change were blowing in Russia.
Speaker 1: It was for a time the end of autocracy. This
Speaker 1: is unobscured, I'm Aaron Manky. It was a time of
Speaker 1: massive change. Even before the Revolution of nineteen o five.
Speaker 1: The turmoil that came with the modern age was making
Speaker 1: themselves known across the Romanov's empire. Yes, it was a
Speaker 1: new era of industry and transportation, and everything from money
Speaker 1: to music to the news media was taking on new
Speaker 1: and unfamiliar forms. As the people pushed for the government
Speaker 1: itself to change, Nicholas and Alexandra struggled to imagine that
Speaker 1: something new was even possible. Here's historian Douglas Smith to
Speaker 1: tell us more. There's been three hundred years of Romanov monarchy.
Speaker 1: The later decades of the dynasty under Nicholas the second
Speaker 1: our period of dynamic change. The economy is taking off,
Speaker 1: it's growing. You get an increasingly sizeable um urban middle class,
Speaker 1: you get the development of of an urban proletariat. So
Speaker 1: on one hand, what you have is this sort of
Speaker 1: dynamism and and change going on in the economy and
Speaker 1: in society at large. And then you have this static
Speaker 1: political system that goes back to the early seventeenth century
Speaker 1: of you know, one ruler with all supreme power apparently
Speaker 1: handed down from God. And so there's this growing tension
Speaker 1: between a dynamic and developing society and a rigid political
Speaker 1: system that doesn't reflect the change. It was a time
Speaker 1: in Russian life when the people living in the cities
Speaker 1: and working in the factories were seeing something new in
Speaker 1: their lives, new possibilities, a different kind of future. But
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexandra still believe they were living in a
Speaker 1: time when the blood of thousands spilled in the streets
Speaker 1: was less insulting to God than the emperor letting go
Speaker 1: of absolute power. In some ways, it almost feels like
Speaker 1: a failure of imagination. Nicholas simply could not see things
Speaker 1: any other way. Whatever it was that kept him from
Speaker 1: seeing things from the view on the street, The truth
Speaker 1: was that the only way he could think about the
Speaker 1: Russian Empire was with himself and his family at the center,
Speaker 1: as if the only opinion that mattered was his own.
Speaker 1: The people, what did they know? They weren't the czar.
Speaker 1: But that tenant of faith turned out to be a
Speaker 1: major blind spot for the Czar, as Dr Joshua Sanborn
Speaker 1: can't explain for him to recognize that politics and Russia
Speaker 1: was modern politics. That you do have things like coalescing
Speaker 1: public opinion, that you do have pressure groups, that you
Speaker 1: do have constituencies rather than a passive population that you
Speaker 1: run by divine right, is fundamentally something that if you
Speaker 1: were to accept that it would mean, he would have
Speaker 1: to accept that he's not a legitimate Sorry, he's not
Speaker 1: a legitimate leader, and he's he's unwilling to do that.
Speaker 1: In the end, though, Nicholas did sign on two reforms,
Speaker 1: not because he thought they were right, but because the
Speaker 1: ministers around the Romanovs convinced them that it was the
Speaker 1: only real way to preserve the monarchy. The document he
Speaker 1: signed putting new changes into law sound is like the
Speaker 1: first principles of the modern states we live in today.
Speaker 1: A parliament with a house of representatives called the Duma,
Speaker 1: with a prime minister to lead them. Civil rights and
Speaker 1: voting rights granted to the people of the empire, and
Speaker 1: so much more, not least of all, freedom of the
Speaker 1: press for the first time in Russian history. The changes
Speaker 1: were greeted with massive celebration, and the reforms came to
Speaker 1: be known as the October Manifesto. But not for Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra. They hung their heads in shame. Nicholas would
Speaker 1: never stop seeing his choice to give into these changes
Speaker 1: as anything other than a blemish on Russian life. He
Speaker 1: would spend the rest of his time as are trying
Speaker 1: to claw back these changes. But as much as signing
Speaker 1: the October Manifesto brought changes to Russian government. It was
Speaker 1: really just the culmination of a long process of change.
Speaker 1: And as everywhere else in Russian life, the changes that
Speaker 1: boiled up in the October Manifesto had been bubbling for
Speaker 1: a long time somewhere you might not expect the Russian Church,
Speaker 1: you see, by nineteen o five Russian religion had been
Speaker 1: experiencing its own kind of new age for quite a while,
Speaker 1: the tight geist, if you will, of of fantasy ecla. Russia,
Speaker 1: like other parts in Europe. Actually, to be honest, at
Speaker 1: the time, there was very much a fascination with dark
Speaker 1: forces at play, with a sense that they were on
Speaker 1: the verge of some sort of apocalyptic change, that it
Speaker 1: was in some ways the end of times. And there
Speaker 1: was a profound fascination with mysticism, spiritualism, the occult seances
Speaker 1: and table turning and and all sorts of these sorts
Speaker 1: of things. Hypnotism was was quite popular at the time.
Speaker 1: Most of elite aristocratic society and Russia at the time
Speaker 1: was fascinated with very spiritualist leaders, with gurus and what
Speaker 1: have you. And there was this desire to seek alternate
Speaker 1: ways of connecting with with forms of re pality that
Speaker 1: traditional religion and the Church and science were unable to
Speaker 1: explain to people who were who were seeking answers to
Speaker 1: to sort of these life's questions that seemed to have
Speaker 1: this pressing urgency. Right around nineteen hundred, the Aristocrats experimenting
Speaker 1: with spiritualism, like Romanov's friends Stana on Melitsa, were far
Speaker 1: from the only people leaving the Orthodox Church to look
Speaker 1: for answers elsewhere in Siberia. As we know, the old
Speaker 1: Believers were practicing their own form of religion. They claimed
Speaker 1: to be the real Orthodox Church, But there were also
Speaker 1: Christians who were giving up an Orthodoxy altogether, like the
Speaker 1: number of Baptists who were growing their churches on the
Speaker 1: European side of the Russian Empire. So when it came
Speaker 1: time to rewrite the laws of nineteen o five, the
Speaker 1: October Manifesto also included new terms of religious freedom for Russians.
Speaker 1: The Orthodox Church, governed by the Czar was no longer
Speaker 1: the only religion allowed in Russia. Of course, the leaders
Speaker 1: who had climbed their way to power through their belief
Speaker 1: that the Orthodox Church was the only true way to
Speaker 1: heaven were none too pleased with this development. It led
Speaker 1: many to believe that they had taken for granted the
Speaker 1: deep ties between St. Petersburg's cathedral and the Imperial throne,
Speaker 1: and they had an ally in the throne's current occupant.
Speaker 1: Having just taken the devil's bargain for peace at all
Speaker 1: costs and sold their birthright for a massive porridge, Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra would now be looking for a way to
Speaker 1: reconnect with the faith they saw slipping away, and there
Speaker 1: were plenty of people with plenty of answers waiting in
Speaker 1: the wings. It was another meeting over tea, as usual
Speaker 1: Melissa hosted at her villa. The days were getting darker
Speaker 1: and the Romanovs were deeply in need of a close
Speaker 1: conversation with even closer friends. No lingering ill will around
Speaker 1: court from the scandal of Mr Philip had kept Alexandra
Speaker 1: away from her friends, no matter what names the other
Speaker 1: members of the Romanov family might call them. So when
Speaker 1: Melissa's imitations went out, the friends flocked to her door.
Speaker 1: Stana and Nikolasha came, of course. Nicholas and Alexandra arrived
Speaker 1: at four o'clock, but it wasn't just their small circle.
Speaker 1: No When Nicholas and Alexandra arrived, they found someone new
Speaker 1: waiting for them. There. Nicholas would make a brief note
Speaker 1: in his diary, We made the acquaintance of a man
Speaker 1: of God, he wrote, Grigory from the Tobolsk region. In fact,
Speaker 1: their visit for Tea stretched into the night. It would
Speaker 1: be seven o'clock with a darkness falling around them before
Speaker 1: the royal couple broke away from conversation with their friends
Speaker 1: and with Grigory Rasputin, and they made their way back
Speaker 1: to the palace with the satisfaction of a surprising new encounter.
Speaker 1: It was a short journey, and I think it's worth
Speaker 1: noting just how high a climb that was. For Grigory,
Speaker 1: the simple peasant, had just made the acquaintance of the
Speaker 1: rulers of the mightiest empire on earth. For Nicholas and Alexandra,
Speaker 1: it came at us the moment they felt most in
Speaker 1: need of a friend. That diary entry by Nicholas remarked
Speaker 1: the patches of ice were beginning to freeze in the canal.
Speaker 1: He might as well have written that ice was beginning
Speaker 1: to freeze his soul only a few weeks before, when
Speaker 1: he gave into the calls for political reform in the
Speaker 1: Empire and signed the October Manifesto. He had betrayed his
Speaker 1: deepest convictions about his place in the world, the beliefs
Speaker 1: which gave meaning and direction to his life. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't just Nicholas who would have been devastated by that.
Speaker 1: In the years that they had been married, Alexandra bought
Speaker 1: into Nicholas's view. She never wavered. They believed that they
Speaker 1: were meant to rule Russia by divine right. Here's historian
Speaker 1: Helen Rappaport to tell us more. In Russia, autocracy and
Speaker 1: orthodoxy went absolutely hand in hand, that that they were
Speaker 1: the cornerstone. I mean, to be czar, you had to
Speaker 1: be Orthodox. And they had this absolutely implacable belief that
Speaker 1: in the divine right of the czar, pretty much like
Speaker 1: the divine right of kings even in Britain back in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, there was a god given role that
Speaker 1: Nicholas had this duty to perform, and he had to
Speaker 1: perform it in the absolute traditional manner in which it
Speaker 1: had been handed down to him. And Alexandra very much
Speaker 1: believed in this idea that they were the little mother
Speaker 1: and little father of the nation, the martush Bartuska, as
Speaker 1: they were called by the peasantry, and that the peasantry
Speaker 1: looked up to them unquestionably with unquestionable loyalty and devotion.
Speaker 1: And she believed that stubbornly, right to the very end,
Speaker 1: that the people really loved them. Recent events had not
Speaker 1: shaken their belief for Alexandra. But if Nicholas believed that
Speaker 1: he had insulted God by giving into the revolutionaries and reformers,
Speaker 1: Alexander at my To thought the same. So when Grigory
Speaker 1: met the Romanovs in the company of their closest friends,
Speaker 1: we can see what would make him attractive to them.
Speaker 1: He was a Siberian priest, but one who seemed to
Speaker 1: silence any doubt about what the peasants really wanted. After all,
Speaker 1: he wasn't trying to wrest power away from the throne.
Speaker 1: He was celebrating their power. Plus, he came with a
Speaker 1: sheaf of recommendations in hand from the people Nicholas and
Speaker 1: Alexandra trusted the most, the authorities in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Speaker 1: Here's more from Douglas Smith. Well, what helps sort of
Speaker 1: open the doors of the capital for resputing, chiefly are
Speaker 1: his contacts with higher ups within the Russian Orthodox Church.
Speaker 1: Through his years as a holy pilgrim, he had come
Speaker 1: to impress a great many priests and then bishops and
Speaker 1: archbishops within the church as a true man of God,
Speaker 1: as a true holy man who has risen up from
Speaker 1: the depths of Russian peasant society. And he literally league
Speaker 1: gets letters of recommendation from priests and bishops as churches,
Speaker 1: at churches and monasteries as he goes along. And it's
Speaker 1: with these letters of recommendation that he shows up in St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: probably some time around nineteen o four and is immediately
Speaker 1: accepted in at the Alexander Dievsky Monastery, one of the
Speaker 1: great seats of Russian holiness within the Russian Orthodox Church.
Speaker 1: And originally, these these church members are amazed at this figure.
Speaker 1: They have never seen someone quite like him, the energy,
Speaker 1: the fervor with which he praised the and preaches the
Speaker 1: word of God. He's referred to as a as a
Speaker 1: burning torch, as a taught string. They sensed this sort
Speaker 1: of electrical charge that comes from him as he speaks
Speaker 1: the word of God. And then through his connections in
Speaker 1: the church, he then is introduced into aristocratic society. And
Speaker 1: what made Grigory all the more trustworthy to Nicholas and
Speaker 1: Alexandra was that this has Wanderer had been introduced to
Speaker 1: Stana and Melitza by their personal confessor, a powerful Russian
Speaker 1: churchman named Theo Fan. He was a brilliant and intense
Speaker 1: monk who had recently taken over the training school for
Speaker 1: priests in St. Petersburg. That made him the our command right,
Speaker 1: a figure of tremendous authority governing an important monastery in
Speaker 1: the empire's capital, And like so many others in his day,
Speaker 1: theo Fan was wondering what the Orthodox Church needed to
Speaker 1: do to rekindle its faith. They thought maybe they needed
Speaker 1: the burning torch of men like Rasputant. While he served
Speaker 1: as confessor to occultist aristocrats like Meliza, theo Fan was
Speaker 1: also doing some searching of his own. Neither among the
Speaker 1: dead bureaucracy of the church authorities, nor in the flickering
Speaker 1: shadows of European gas lights. No, theo Fan was looking
Speaker 1: for holy men with Russian dirt under their fingernails, and
Speaker 1: when he met Rasputin, he knew he had found his man.
Speaker 1: So it was theo Fan who opened the doors to St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg's salons for Grigory Rasputin. The two men would go
Speaker 1: together to those swirling symphonies of gossip and inquiry. Aristocrats
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg were skeptical and cynical about the Church,
Speaker 1: but the deep interest in superstition and the spiritual hunger
Speaker 1: behind so many eyes meant that they were ready to
Speaker 1: sample what Resputant was serving. The same was true, of course,
Speaker 1: with the Romanovs themselves. Four days after meeting Grigory, Nicholas
Speaker 1: got a letter from this wandering preacher, and it drove
Speaker 1: home that he was just the flavor of religious patriot
Speaker 1: they had been looking for. He called Nicholas a great
Speaker 1: emperor and the autocrat of all Russia. And his note
Speaker 1: is full of praise, we might even call it flattery
Speaker 1: for the crown. It was also full of reassuring comments
Speaker 1: that the Romanovs were the masters, and the peasants like
Speaker 1: Rasputin merely their subjects. Don't worry too much about the
Speaker 1: strange turn at the times had taken. He told them
Speaker 1: they were doing their best, and sooner God would come
Speaker 1: to their aid. Here's more from Douglas Smith. What's interesting
Speaker 1: is from the very beginning of their relationship. He offers
Speaker 1: Nicholas political advice and says, don't give up the throne,
Speaker 1: don't give up power, maintain the dynasty, maintain the autocracy.
Speaker 1: And this is just the sort of message that Nick
Speaker 1: Nicholas is looking for, and especially to hear it not
Speaker 1: from some minister or general, but to hear it from
Speaker 1: a peasant from Siberia, from a man of God. It says,
Speaker 1: almost as if he becomes a mouthpiece for all of
Speaker 1: peasant Russia. When Nicholas and Alexander sit down with Rispute
Speaker 1: and they feel they are hearing the voice of the
Speaker 1: peasant masses. It was exactly the kind of thing Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra wanted. If they feared that they had disappointed
Speaker 1: God by giving up their unquestioned rule over the empire,
Speaker 1: they now had this holy man, this rough and tumble
Speaker 1: traveler with piercing eyes and prophetic words, to tell them
Speaker 1: that all was not lost. In fact, they had come
Speaker 1: through it all, war, with Japan, revolution across the capital,
Speaker 1: a new representative government, and all the changes of the
Speaker 1: modern age. They had come through it all, and they
Speaker 1: would be okay. God would still help them Resputant didn't
Speaker 1: stay in the capital. Soon enough he was on his
Speaker 1: way again, back on the road, but he had certainly
Speaker 1: made an impression. In fact, Nicholas and Alexander were so
Speaker 1: pleased that, even with Resputant gone, the people who had
Speaker 1: brought the peasant into their presence were in royal favor.
Speaker 1: Take for example, the ar command right theo Fan. Two
Speaker 1: weeks after Nicholas and Alexandra met with Resputant, they sent
Speaker 1: a request of theo Fan come to the Royal Palace
Speaker 1: to discuss an important matter, and of course he did
Speaker 1: as he was told. We can only imagine his anticipation
Speaker 1: as he neared the palace. He had worked his way
Speaker 1: into Stana and Melitz's trust, he had learned their interests,
Speaker 1: He had even brought them exciting new teachers like Grigor
Speaker 1: a Resputin, and it seemed like they had been pleased.
Speaker 1: He must have felt like everything was going according to plan.
Speaker 1: All the more so when he arrived at the palace.
Speaker 1: When he met with Nicholas, the Czar honored him with
Speaker 1: a new request. Do for Nicholas and Alexandra what he
Speaker 1: did for Stanna and melitza serve at the throne as
Speaker 1: the Romanov's personal confessor for Fia Fan. Knowing Grigory Rasputin
Speaker 1: was starting to pay off, he was decked out in finery.
Speaker 1: It was strange for a poor wanderer, but it seems
Speaker 1: the contradiction didn't hold Grigory back. He arrived home in
Speaker 1: Pokrovsko with stories to tell, man to show. In fact,
Speaker 1: the first impressions he made were the most flamboyant. His
Speaker 1: wealthy followers and admirers and big cities like Kazan and St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg had showered him with new clothing. Now that he
Speaker 1: was back in his hometown, he wore them proudly. If
Speaker 1: he had been known as something of a troublemaker before,
Speaker 1: and maybe even a old life, well he should show
Speaker 1: them how high he had climbed the Imperial letter. No
Speaker 1: one would look down on him now. And then there
Speaker 1: was the money. He came back home with a lot
Speaker 1: of it, and he started throwing it around. First, it
Speaker 1: was time for a new house for himself and his family.
Speaker 1: Right on Main Street was a good spot, right across
Speaker 1: from the place where carriages would stop and resupply, exchange horses,
Speaker 1: and give travelers a chance to gossip. Not that you
Speaker 1: need outsiders for that. Folks at home were more than
Speaker 1: capable of whispering down the lane all on their own,
Speaker 1: and whisper they did. The news went around that Gregory
Speaker 1: had gotten all his money from some of the most
Speaker 1: powerful people in Russia, for instance the Black Crows, those
Speaker 1: sisters who were close to the Czar, or maybe even
Speaker 1: the Czar himself. Whatever the case, Gregory made no effort
Speaker 1: to hide the triumphant parade of his family and belongings
Speaker 1: into the large two story house, with its expanse of property,
Speaker 1: bath barn, flower boxes, and elaborately pain did window frames inside,
Speaker 1: he made it his own. His parents, his wife, and
Speaker 1: his children moved into rooms on the first floor, though
Speaker 1: one of the rooms was reserved for devotion and filled
Speaker 1: with icons. The Kazan Mother of God stood out from
Speaker 1: the rest. The second level Resputant set aside for guests
Speaker 1: and for Grigory's work. His desk, his comfortable chairs, his piano.
Speaker 1: They all seemed better suited to the cities he had
Speaker 1: left than to the home he was moving into, and
Speaker 1: new decor moved in as well, including photos of Resputant
Speaker 1: posing with the people he had met. Priests, students and aristocrats,
Speaker 1: and no one would miss the portrait of Rasputin with
Speaker 1: the Czar and Czarina of Russia. Even with Resputant at home,
Speaker 1: more and more of these luxuries came into town, with
Speaker 1: each new baggage train passing through packages from the capital,
Speaker 1: gifts of money. All of them came to him from St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg's wealthy and well known set in, seeing that resputants
Speaker 1: claims of friends and high places was more than just bluster.
Speaker 1: And of course there was a train of visitors too.
Speaker 1: Once they knew who Grigory Resputin was and where he
Speaker 1: could be found, they arrived hot on his trail. No
Speaker 1: wonder Resputin wanted all of this expensive furniture. He wanted
Speaker 1: to receive them in style. Priests and friends of theo
Speaker 1: fan were first in line. People around Prokovsko remembered that
Speaker 1: these guests that most of their time closed up in
Speaker 1: the new Resputant house. The colorful windows didn't keep the
Speaker 1: neighbors from hearing the sound of resputants piano jangling along
Speaker 1: as the household and their guests sang hymns. And when
Speaker 1: these visitors did speak to someone local, what did they
Speaker 1: have to say about Grigory's life in the capital, well,
Speaker 1: it only added to his prestige. He was known in St.
Speaker 1: Petersburg as a miracle worker. We can only imagine the
Speaker 1: sideways glances this may have provoked among the people who
Speaker 1: knew his humble origins. Not that Resputin made no effort,
Speaker 1: though far from it. In fact, one of the things
Speaker 1: he always said was that his original idea for going
Speaker 1: to St. Petersburg was to raise money to build a
Speaker 1: new church in Pekrosco. While no new church was in evidence.
Speaker 1: As the years went by, some of the money Grigory
Speaker 1: received did reach the local priests, and it was no
Speaker 1: small potatoes. In fact, he handed over five thousand roubles
Speaker 1: to them, and if that wasn't enough, he said, this
Speaker 1: was a gift from the Czar himself. We can almost
Speaker 1: see the glint in his eye saying to the local priests,
Speaker 1: never say I didn't do you any favors. But of
Speaker 1: course this wasn't the only glance the locals would see
Speaker 1: in Grigory's face. Everyone could see that while he may
Speaker 1: have gone to the capitol and worked some miracles, there
Speaker 1: was still a bit of the scamp in Grigory's scamper home,
Speaker 1: and that was nowhere more clear than in the group
Speaker 1: of followers that Grigory called his little ladies. Olga was
Speaker 1: a respectable woman. She was beautiful too, The daughter of
Speaker 1: a Kazan nobleman, she had married an engineer and made
Speaker 1: her move to the capital city, where she had her
Speaker 1: children and made friends among her husband's connections. So it
Speaker 1: was in St. Petersburg that her trouble started. Because Olga
Speaker 1: had an illness that refused to go away, something with
Speaker 1: her digestion that caused her enormous pain, not to mention
Speaker 1: personal embarrassment, especially when she couldn't keep it from her friends.
Speaker 1: Once they knew, though, they started to make suggestions, and
Speaker 1: one of them, a well connected priest, had a slightly
Speaker 1: unusual idea. Not a doctor, what use had they been
Speaker 1: so far, but something else. The priest had recently been
Speaker 1: in the company of the archimandright theo Fan, and theo
Speaker 1: Fan had introduced him to someone who might help, a
Speaker 1: wandering preacher named Resputin. With the priest's recommendation, Olga decided
Speaker 1: to give the faith healer try. The thing is, when
Speaker 1: Resputant prayed over her, she felt the illness vanish, the
Speaker 1: pain disappeared. She was free. After an encounter like that,
Speaker 1: maybe we can understand why Olga would become a resputant fonetic.
Speaker 1: She invited Grigory to stay with her family in St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: and in time her devotion to him would reach the
Speaker 1: level of the bizarre, and she was just the first
Speaker 1: of his little ladies. Soon she was joined by a
Speaker 1: widow who carried a crushing guilt for her husband's death.
Speaker 1: Her meeting with Resputant helped her lift the blame she
Speaker 1: had placed on herself. She fell in line behind Olga
Speaker 1: or Take the nurse who had worked through the violence
Speaker 1: of the Russia Japanese War. She was intrigued by the
Speaker 1: stories and asked Olga to introduce her to Resputin. When
Speaker 1: she met him, she fell head over heels. He has
Speaker 1: such a simple way with people, she said. He is
Speaker 1: so full of goodness and pure love for others, unlike
Speaker 1: anything I have encountered. After witnessing the violence of war,
Speaker 1: Grigory's teaching on love and suffering must have offered enormous relief.
Speaker 1: Of course, others followed, women who had tried and discarded hypnotism,
Speaker 1: women who had given up on their own parade of
Speaker 1: doctors and medications, women who had given up on the
Speaker 1: power of the church or the love in their marriage.
Speaker 1: When they finally came face to face with Grigory Resputin,
Speaker 1: they saw something different in his eyes, his stare. They
Speaker 1: could see something new looking back at them. But it's
Speaker 1: not like Resputin was the only one gathering a tight
Speaker 1: knit following around him, of course. After all, it was
Speaker 1: his own pilgrimage to the hermit Macquarie that got Grigory
Speaker 1: started on the life of a religious wanderer. And in
Speaker 1: those days when Resputin started to get religious visitors of
Speaker 1: his own, well, he was far from the most well known.
Speaker 1: For example, take Father John of Cronstone, a deeply charismatic
Speaker 1: and widely popular preacher in the late eighteen hundreds. He
Speaker 1: became such a popular figure in the Russian church that
Speaker 1: some historians today have even called him the first modern
Speaker 1: religious celebrity in Russia. Here's Dr Heather Coleman to say more,
Speaker 1: Father John of Cronstadt, who was truly the Billy Graham
Speaker 1: of late Imperial Russia. He was a priest who had
Speaker 1: a church outside of Petersburg and craunched At, where he
Speaker 1: emphasized a kind of a charismatic, participatory form of Orthodoxy.
Speaker 1: It had quite a sort of mystical side. People would
Speaker 1: travel to his parish, they would write to him, people
Speaker 1: would carry posters and cards about him. He was he
Speaker 1: was a huge religious figure, and he was within the church.
Speaker 1: But then he had groups of followers who who sort
Speaker 1: of went beyond and sort of idealized him and turn
Speaker 1: him into a sort of a mystical figure that they
Speaker 1: admire in and of himself. Like all other churches, the
Speaker 1: Orthodox Church had trouble keeping up with the growth of
Speaker 1: of working class suburbs in cities, and and so sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lack of available ability of a
Speaker 1: church right there in the neighborhood, and so people make
Speaker 1: their own fun for crounch dots followers. That fun meant
Speaker 1: the things you might expect, mystical healings and other miraculous
Speaker 1: powers that made it clear that he had the ear
Speaker 1: of God himself. And like Resputent, he was known for
Speaker 1: having a close following of religious women. Some writers called
Speaker 1: them Janites, the most intense and fanatical of them, but
Speaker 1: they were intense for a reason. They thought Father John
Speaker 1: was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself. If the stories
Speaker 1: about them can be believed. They were known for throwing
Speaker 1: their bodies on Father John, even biting him until he bled.
Speaker 1: It gives a new meaning to the words rabid fan.
Speaker 1: And when he died, several of the women who followed
Speaker 1: him broke into his apartment and rated it for his
Speaker 1: personal items, relics of his holiness and healing powers to
Speaker 1: take home. Not that Father John encouraged any of this.
Speaker 1: It said he refused to give communion to the women
Speaker 1: who attacked him out of zeal but there's no question
Speaker 1: that he put some care into cultivating his reputation, and
Speaker 1: his followers came from all parts of Russian life, including
Speaker 1: the highest echelons of Russian society. In fact, in the
Speaker 1: days when Nicholas's father had fallen ill, Father John had
Speaker 1: been summoned in the hopes that his prayers would bring
Speaker 1: the czar's health back. The prayers, of course, were unanswered,
Speaker 1: and the weight of ruling Russia fell to Nicholas and
Speaker 1: his new wife. But when the Czar died, it was
Speaker 1: Father John and not any other official in the Orthodox
Speaker 1: Church who administered the last rites. So when the stories
Speaker 1: of Grigory rasputants growing legion of followers, and his close
Speaker 1: ties to the Imperial court started to grow, no one
Speaker 1: really had to look far from some point of comparison.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a little odd, sure, but people do
Speaker 1: odd things all the time. Just look at Father John.
Speaker 1: In the life of a preacher, being a royal favorite
Speaker 1: could mean a lot. Soon, though, the stories being whispered
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg about Rasputin didn't be so easily dismissed
Speaker 1: through glib comparisons to other preachers. Had Father John's followers
Speaker 1: ever sewn his fingernail clippings into their clothes as if
Speaker 1: they were holy relics? Because they were doing that for Grigory,
Speaker 1: Where was the religious wanderer who would criss cross Russia
Speaker 1: on foot begging for food. Well, these days he was
Speaker 1: coming up the river on an expensive luxury steamer, clinking
Speaker 1: glasses with the wealthy. But if Grigory liked it that way, well,
Speaker 1: he was about to find himself navigating some rough waters.
Speaker 1: The bishop was going on the offensive. He was in Tobolsk,
Speaker 1: the city closest to Rasputin's home, village, and he had
Speaker 1: received letters from a number of women who had visited
Speaker 1: this religious wanderer in Pokrovsko, and what they reported had
Speaker 1: the bishop deeply disturbed. One letter was from a woman
Speaker 1: who said that she had first met Gregory respued In
Speaker 1: in nineteen o three. It was her sister's funeral, and
Speaker 1: while she was grieving the loss, Grigory had approached to her.
Speaker 1: He said he was looking for some young women to
Speaker 1: go with him to the bath house. What they were
Speaker 1: going to do there, well, he said they were going
Speaker 1: to learn to temper their passions. He assured her that
Speaker 1: he meant nothing immoral by this, but that smelled of
Speaker 1: protesting too much. She declined, but looked into it, and
Speaker 1: what she found took her from skeptical to dead set
Speaker 1: against him. Apparently, Rasputin was traveling from village to village,
Speaker 1: warning that some traveling holy men were really seducers in disguise.
Speaker 1: But he offered a solution. He could help the town's
Speaker 1: young women defend themselves from those hungry wolves by desensitizing
Speaker 1: themselves to the sin of lust. All they had to do,
Speaker 1: he said, was come with him to the bath house
Speaker 1: and subject themselves to him. After they felt his kisses,
Speaker 1: their passions would be conquered. They would be free of
Speaker 1: sin and safe from predators. She took her daughter and
Speaker 1: followed Resputant to Pokrovsko. There they found him surrounded by
Speaker 1: his little ladies, the high society women from St. Petersburg,
Speaker 1: who pampered him and showered him with hugs and kisses,
Speaker 1: all in front of his wife and family. She wrote
Speaker 1: it all down and sent it off to the bishop.
Speaker 1: Another letter said even more that these women following Resputant
Speaker 1: had taken to wearing black dresses with white head scarves,
Speaker 1: that they had taken to calling him father Grigory, and
Speaker 1: that he himself was now spending his days dressed in
Speaker 1: a black cassock with a large cross hanging down on
Speaker 1: his chest. In other words, he was dressed like an
Speaker 1: Orthodox priest, and he was being treated like one too.
Speaker 1: To be a religious pilgrim was no bad thing, but
Speaker 1: to pose as a priest and take advantage of hurting women,
Speaker 1: this was a bishop who wouldn't brook that kind of behavior.
Speaker 1: He gave the word, and soon enough church investigators were
Speaker 1: swarming Pokrovsko. Of course, their first port of call was
Speaker 1: the local priest, the real one. I mean, we don't
Speaker 1: know where they met him, perhaps in his newly renovated church,
Speaker 1: but whatever the case, he prized them with a good report.
Speaker 1: Gregory resputant. Oh, yes, he was a good man. His
Speaker 1: family came to church just as they were expected. They
Speaker 1: were good Orthodox people. In fact, if anything, he was
Speaker 1: more devoted to prayer than anyone else in town. That's
Speaker 1: when the team arrived at Grigory's house. His welcome wasn't
Speaker 1: so warm, though, not that he was aggressive. In fact,
Speaker 1: if anything, he seemed terrified when he opened the door
Speaker 1: and brought them inside the church, investigators separated and swept
Speaker 1: the house. They were looking for signs of occult activity
Speaker 1: or heresy. In fact, they were most worried that Gregory's
Speaker 1: group of followers was part of an insidious cult that
Speaker 1: had broken away from groups of the Siberian Old Believers
Speaker 1: and had gone even further from the Orthodox Faith. Here's
Speaker 1: Dr Coleman again. This was a Russian religious movement that
Speaker 1: really began life in the late seventeenth century as a
Speaker 1: branch of the Old Belief, and like certain other branches
Speaker 1: of the Old Belief, the Pistoian demanded celibacy from its adherents,
Speaker 1: and they didn't have different doctrines or any sort of
Speaker 1: systematic doctrine. These were groups of believers who met together
Speaker 1: regularly at night for long prayer meetings, where they would
Speaker 1: sing spiritual verses and church hymns and recite the Jesus Prayer,
Speaker 1: a central Orthodox prayer that is is recited in a
Speaker 1: meditative format. Lord Jesus, Christ, Son of God, have mercy
Speaker 1: on me, a sinner, and you recite it over and over,
Speaker 1: and these meetings would The goal was to have the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit descend on certain of the members these leaders,
Speaker 1: who were known as Christ's or as Mothers of God,
Speaker 1: and then and then they would dance and they would prophesy.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, anyone who went looking for Christie
Speaker 1: was left chasing shadows. Very early, their enemies started calling
Speaker 1: them not Christie or christ but Clisti, which means whip
Speaker 1: or flagolence um. They were accused of sexual immorality, of
Speaker 1: having orgies. The American historian Eugene Clay has shown that
Speaker 1: there is in fact no evidence of this, and that
Speaker 1: you know already in the early eighteenth century the term
Speaker 1: Clistie really doesn't have any any meaning. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: applied to a whole range of unrelated sort of charismatic
Speaker 1: religious movements. Um. There's no religious group that claims to
Speaker 1: be clisti. Um. There are certainly some evidence of networks
Speaker 1: of these charismatic groups, but they saw themselves as being
Speaker 1: within Orthodoxy. So maybe it's no surprise that when the
Speaker 1: bishop's men followed the suspicion that Restputan and his followers
Speaker 1: were Clysti, they came up empty. They sat down with
Speaker 1: Restputant and grilled him about his practices, but everything he
Speaker 1: stammered out matched up with the word of the local priest.
Speaker 1: Yes he was a sincere Orthodox believer. He had taken
Speaker 1: many pilgrimages and now accepted pilgrims in his own right.
Speaker 1: He had given up meats and alcohol. And yes he
Speaker 1: was sometimes a sinner, but who wasn't. He was always
Speaker 1: working to change his guilty ways. But when they turned
Speaker 1: their eyes on the women Gregory's most devoted followers, they
Speaker 1: got only the slimmest of testimonies. When they pressed for
Speaker 1: these salacious details, the most they got was that, of course,
Speaker 1: Grigory kissed them. There was the natural way of greeting,
Speaker 1: and it was done in a pure and spiritual way.
Speaker 1: There was nothing strange about it. The investigators went back
Speaker 1: to the bishop into Bolsk and put their heads together.
Speaker 1: What could they do? The country now permitted religious freedom.
Speaker 1: If this wanderer was starting his own group of spiritual meditation,
Speaker 1: of sacred kisses or anything else, it was hardly something
Speaker 1: they could crack down on. They had their doubts about
Speaker 1: Grigory's motives, but what could they do if they had
Speaker 1: concerns to pass along. There's only one place they could
Speaker 1: have gone up the ladder to St. Petersburg. That's where
Speaker 1: our command right, theo Fan and the Czar waited to
Speaker 1: hear any concerns. We don't know if those questions were
Speaker 1: ever raised, but if they were, they were met only
Speaker 1: with silence. But in Grigory's life this was something of
Speaker 1: an omen because this was far from the last time
Speaker 1: that concerning letters would put rasputin in hot water. He
Speaker 1: boarded a train for the capitol. It was the spring
Speaker 1: of nineteen oh seven, and Grigory knew that he was
Speaker 1: still welcome in St. Petersburg. The caravan of devotees who
Speaker 1: had visited him in Pokrovsko kept his flame alive when
Speaker 1: they returned home to their cities and their social circles
Speaker 1: in the East. The stories of his miraculous healings and
Speaker 1: the relief he brought to the women in his entourage
Speaker 1: meant that no one had forgotten about Resputin, even if
Speaker 1: they hadn't caught wind of the concern among the priests
Speaker 1: and bishops in Siberia. So he was finally heading back
Speaker 1: for another rendezvous with a pee he was most eager
Speaker 1: to be friend. He was headed back to the palace
Speaker 1: of the Czar, and not too soon. After all. Their
Speaker 1: deepest concern, and the thing that troubled them more than
Speaker 1: any of the turmoil agitating the Empire, was the lifelong
Speaker 1: worry over the health of the little boy in their
Speaker 1: own house, and the fact that Alexei's hemophilia meant his
Speaker 1: life was constantly on a knife's edge was only too
Speaker 1: plain to Alexandra. You see, Alexei was three at the time,
Speaker 1: and one day that spring, when he was playing outside
Speaker 1: in the garden at the family's royal home, he took
Speaker 1: a fall. Any fall was dangerous to the boy, but
Speaker 1: this was a bad one. He started to bleed internally,
Speaker 1: and the pain was excruciating. His aunt, who was staying
Speaker 1: at the palace, remembered the scene. The poor child lay
Speaker 1: in such pain, she wrote, with dark patches under his
Speaker 1: eyes and his little body all distorted. The bleeding, you see,
Speaker 1: was in his leg, and she recalled that the swelling
Speaker 1: was horrible. It was terrifying for the entire family. What
Speaker 1: about the doctors, she wrote that they were useless. The
Speaker 1: Royal physician was there, yes, but his team stood around
Speaker 1: looking helpless. None of them had anything they could do
Speaker 1: to help. But Alexandra knew that Rasputin had arrived in
Speaker 1: the capitol, so she sent for him. It was the
Speaker 1: call he had been waiting for. Grigory arrived at the
Speaker 1: Royal Palace and was ushered into the room where Alexei
Speaker 1: lay on the bed. He was in unbelievable pain. So
Speaker 1: what did Resputant do? He prayed. We can imagine him
Speaker 1: at the boy's bedside, with the eager parents and maybe
Speaker 1: a doctor or two, leaning forward, willing the healing to work.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. By the next morning, Alexei was
Speaker 1: feeling better. In the eyes of the household, it was
Speaker 1: a miracle. The swelling had gone down and the pain
Speaker 1: had faded away, and it created one of the most
Speaker 1: enduring aspects of Rasputant's legend, that the stories about his
Speaker 1: miraculous healings were true. It's certainly left even the most
Speaker 1: skeptical Romanovs, like Nicholas's sister, with something to puzzle over,
Speaker 1: and we've been puzzling over it ever since. Here's more
Speaker 1: from Helen Rappaport. They had this incredible auto suggestive power,
Speaker 1: an ability to calm and one of the most important
Speaker 1: things when a child, or a patient, or the mother
Speaker 1: of the child is stressed and anxious as Alexandra was
Speaker 1: when Alexey had these terrible attacks of leading, was to calm,
Speaker 1: calm her, and through calming her, that was transmitted to
Speaker 1: the child and it calmed alex Say, and I think
Speaker 1: this is one of the key points in understanding how
Speaker 1: what he did work. But it did work, and that
Speaker 1: miracle did more than just heal the boy. Its strengthened
Speaker 1: the bond between Grigory and the Romanovs. Before he was
Speaker 1: a religious teacher that they trusted, Now he was a
Speaker 1: welcome guest, not us to the afternoons in council with
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexandra, but to the nursery where the children played.
Speaker 1: Not that all the romanof children knew what to do
Speaker 1: with this bearded peasant, though Alexey kind of laughed at
Speaker 1: rasps and a bit behind his back and found him
Speaker 1: a bit odd and weird. But then Anastasia did too,
Speaker 1: and they sometimes giggled because he was a bit strange
Speaker 1: with that deep sonorous voice and those huge, mesmerizing blue eyes.
Speaker 1: So but I think towards the end Alexey could recognize
Speaker 1: that Rasputin was their friend. You see, they referred to him.
Speaker 1: All of the children predominant and the parents as well
Speaker 1: referred to him as their friend. Not that this friendship
Speaker 1: silenced all doubts, though Alexandra was too protective of Alexei
Speaker 1: and her girls for that. No, when word of the
Speaker 1: church inquiry finally did reach the palace, Alexandra knew what
Speaker 1: to do. She turned to her personal confessor, the archimand
Speaker 1: right theo Fan he had introduced her to Rasputin. After all,
Speaker 1: what did he know about the man? When field Fan
Speaker 1: couldn't answer, Alexander gave him a task of his own.
Speaker 1: Go to Pakrosco himself and come back to report what
Speaker 1: he learned. So soon enough, the ar command right of
Speaker 1: the St. Petersburg Monastery was on his way to Siberia
Speaker 1: on a personal mission from the Empress. He spoke with
Speaker 1: the priests there and followed in the footsteps of the
Speaker 1: bishop's investigators, and when he returned to St. Petersburg, his
Speaker 1: reports set Alexandra at ease. Yes, the peasant was perhaps
Speaker 1: getting a tad big for his bridges. The elegance of
Speaker 1: his new house was a bit awkward, a bit tasteless.
Speaker 1: He was maybe trying a bit too hard to live
Speaker 1: out his idea of a rich lifestyle. But what was
Speaker 1: the harm in that tastelessness? Was no sin. Plus, they
Speaker 1: all knew Gregory's ways. He was a rough peasant. You
Speaker 1: could hardly expect more. We don't know if Alexander considered
Speaker 1: the fact that theo Fan's own reputation was at stake.
Speaker 1: It's certainly true that he was the one responsible for
Speaker 1: bringing Raspute into the royal couple. There was maybe what
Speaker 1: we might call a conflict of interest in fia Fan
Speaker 1: investigating Grigory's background. Too much of theo Fan's position in
Speaker 1: the capital and his own access to Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 1: was at stake all the same. It seems Alexandra took
Speaker 1: his words to heart. She had begun to hear nasty
Speaker 1: rumors about Rasputant, but her personal confessor assured her that
Speaker 1: they were no more than hearsay. It was an important moment,
Speaker 1: Alexandra's first inoculation against the criticisms of her new friend,
Speaker 1: and in the coming years she would need it. Czar
Speaker 1: Nicholas was trying to get a handle on things to
Speaker 1: deal with the changes in Russia. To make sure that
Speaker 1: he rigged the new parliament, the Duma, to his liking,
Speaker 1: Nicholas knew what to do. He put his own people
Speaker 1: in charge, starting with his finance secretary, who became the
Speaker 1: first Prime minister. After all, Nicholas had made sure that
Speaker 1: even though the parliament was going to be elected, he
Speaker 1: would have the power to pull the strings as he
Speaker 1: saw fit. That way, he could at least try to
Speaker 1: ensure that they would keep the government obedient to his wishes.
Speaker 1: It didn't go well, though. On the eve of the
Speaker 1: Douma's first meeting, Nicholas demanded his hand picked man's resignation,
Speaker 1: and then he flailed for someone else to step in.
Speaker 1: With all of that on his mind and the peace
Speaker 1: of the country still tenuous at best, it can be
Speaker 1: no wonder that he didn't have time for the rumors
Speaker 1: that kept cropping up that there was something wrong, something
Speaker 1: scandalous about Grigory Rasputin. Plus he had the word of
Speaker 1: his personal confessor to go on. Just like Alexandra. He
Speaker 1: called fia Fan into give an account of Grigory. What
Speaker 1: he heard wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, though he has
Speaker 1: many sins, fia Fan told the Czar. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, he actually repented for the things he had done,
Speaker 1: and fia Fan vouched for him personally. Each time he repents,
Speaker 1: the man said, he becomes pure. In fact, just to
Speaker 1: drive the point home, fia Fan even went to the
Speaker 1: trouble of going out to the hermit's hut and finding Maccarie.
Speaker 1: He picked the man up, grab resputant along the way,
Speaker 1: and brought them both back to the capital to meet
Speaker 1: with Nicholas. It was as if to say, see, the
Speaker 1: holy men of Russia are on your side. You can
Speaker 1: trust us for now. Fia Fan and others in the
Speaker 1: Russian Church were just glad that they had rid the
Speaker 1: nation of men like Monseigneur Philippe. Better to have Russian
Speaker 1: old believers in the Tsar's ear than European spiritualists. All
Speaker 1: of that was enough to set Nicholas's mind at ease,
Speaker 1: and he turned to other matters. After all, his son
Speaker 1: was alive, his wife was comforted. What more could he
Speaker 1: ask for? He took for a fan at his word.
Speaker 1: In the future, though Fia Fan would come to deeply
Speaker 1: regret just how much he had defended Grigory Rasputin from
Speaker 1: the witnesses against him. His later testimony was filled with regret.
Speaker 1: The empire was at a crossroads, and Rasputin, he said,
Speaker 1: was on a false path, but Nicholas and Ella Xandra
Speaker 1: would follow it all the way to the bitter end.
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. Despite how incredibly uncomfortable she
Speaker 1: had gotten, Anna was eventually lulled to sleep by the
Speaker 1: rocking 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, Elena 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. Unobscured was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Josh Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio, with research
Speaker 1: by Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and original music
Speaker 1: by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians, source materials,
Speaker 1: and links to our other shows over at grim and
Speaker 1: Mild dot com. Slash Unobscured and as always thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: M