Speaker 1: Welcomed unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: He swam back to consciousness. The line of fire burned
Speaker 1: across his belly where the knife had slashed him open.
Speaker 1: But Grigory Rasputant's mind was already charging ahead to what
Speaker 1: came next after the attack and who was behind it.
Speaker 1: In fact, when he came to Rasputin told the people
Speaker 1: around him that he knew who was to blame, the
Speaker 1: mad monk Iliodora. After the two men finally severed their friendship,
Speaker 1: Grigory must have known it was only a matter of
Speaker 1: time before one of Iliodora's followers would follow his signature
Speaker 1: command for violence. As time would reveal, Rasputin was right.
Speaker 1: The woman who had attacked him in the street outside
Speaker 1: his house was a follower of Iliodora's violent teachings. She
Speaker 1: had even met Rasputin before, when the two teachers were
Speaker 1: still traveling together. Now, like so many others in Russia,
Speaker 1: she had come to believe that rasputants prophecies were false
Speaker 1: and his spirit was polluted with vile habits and selfish ambitions.
Speaker 1: She believed that it was Rasputin who had turned on Iliador.
Speaker 1: So she set out to avenge her chosen leader with
Speaker 1: a fifteen inch dagger on a white bone handle. In fact,
Speaker 1: she had come to see Resputant as the Antichrist. She
Speaker 1: tracked him to Crimea a year earlier, but by the
Speaker 1: time she arrived, he had already set out elsewhere again,
Speaker 1: so she followed him first to St. Petersburg and then
Speaker 1: on to Siberia. When she arrived at Pokrovsko, she rented
Speaker 1: a room and waited until she judged the time was right.
Speaker 1: Now she had left the resputant family in a panic,
Speaker 1: calling for doctors. A surgeon from the hospital in the
Speaker 1: nearby city raced by horse and carriage to Pekrowsko to
Speaker 1: try and save Resputant. When he arrived, he could see
Speaker 1: how grave the situation was. Grigory was on the verge
Speaker 1: of bleeding out. There wasn't any time to waste. The
Speaker 1: resputant family boiled water, and the surgeon held chlorophone to
Speaker 1: Grigory's face. He set to work. Resputant's wife and the
Speaker 1: other women in the house were pressed into service as nurses.
Speaker 1: When he looked into Gregory's abdomen, he found the wound
Speaker 1: was worse than he thought. The knife had cut the intestines,
Speaker 1: and when Grigory held them in they had tangled in
Speaker 1: his belly. The surgeon worked feverishly to save him, cutting, untangling, cleaning, clamping.
Speaker 1: All the gauze and antiseptic that he carried from the
Speaker 1: hospital was put to use. When he was done, he
Speaker 1: sutured the cut closed with knotted silk, and then it
Speaker 1: was time to wait. A medical orderly was assigned to
Speaker 1: the house, and he joined Rasputant's wife and their guests
Speaker 1: in the anxious questions. Had they done enough to save him?
Speaker 1: Had they acted quickly enough to stave off a lethal infection?
Speaker 1: As they waited. I can only help but wonder if
Speaker 1: they saw the irony in it all. After Grigory's years
Speaker 1: of cultivating a following among vulnerable women, not to mention
Speaker 1: his support for violent cheerleaders like Iliador, it seemed the
Speaker 1: sharp end of his project had finally come back and
Speaker 1: caught him in the gut. Now only time would tell
Speaker 1: whether the attacker had done enough to put an end
Speaker 1: to his hunting habits. So they waited, and while the
Speaker 1: doctor went back to his post in the city hospital.
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for news of the attack to travel.
Speaker 1: In fact, in under a day, the St. Petersburg Courier
Speaker 1: was shouting the story in the headlines, and it was
Speaker 1: mere hours before the word passed beyond Russia's borders. English
Speaker 1: and American papers were making it known that the evil
Speaker 1: genius behind the throne of Russia, the mystical monk in
Speaker 1: the ear of the Czar, had been stabbed in the street.
Speaker 1: All of that is a bit overblown, of course, most
Speaker 1: newspapers in Russia and abroad got the basic facts wrong,
Speaker 1: and in the big picture, Rasputin had far less power
Speaker 1: than the rumors about him said. But when has that
Speaker 1: ever stopped a good story from finding an audience? And
Speaker 1: this was an assassination attempt with all the mystery and
Speaker 1: drama anyone could desire. But as the readers across Europe
Speaker 1: and Russia were about to learn, the only thing that
Speaker 1: could top the story of a failed assassination attempt was
Speaker 1: a successful one. This is an obscure yard. I'm aaron mankey.
Speaker 1: It was a ceremonial stop. The journey into town went
Speaker 1: as you might expect, at least at first. The family
Speaker 1: sat in the open back seat of the car coming
Speaker 1: second in their motorcade. The streets were lined with happy faces,
Speaker 1: waving hands, and cheers filled the air. It was all
Speaker 1: going to plan, but as the royal motorcade approached City Hall,
Speaker 1: something changed. The driver spotted something taking flight from the crowd.
Speaker 1: Nothing natural, though, This was a dark object thrown into
Speaker 1: the air by an anonymous hand. As it arcd high
Speaker 1: over the line of onlookers, the driver realized it was
Speaker 1: headed right for them. He slammed on the gas pedal.
Speaker 1: The car lurched forward, and it was a moment of
Speaker 1: quick thinking and quick action that saved the family's life.
Speaker 1: Rather than dropping into their laps, the bomb bounced off
Speaker 1: the rear of the car and skidded into the car
Speaker 1: behind them. That's where it detonated. The explosion ripped through
Speaker 1: the following members of the Imperial entourage. By the Imperial
Speaker 1: family was unscathed, that is until they were on their
Speaker 1: way out of town. Because there was some confusion about
Speaker 1: the route, a new winding way was drawn up, maybe
Speaker 1: to avoid further assassination attempts, or, according to some accounts,
Speaker 1: to visit the injured guards in the hospital. Regardless, the
Speaker 1: confusion began immediately. The driver of the first car forgot
Speaker 1: that there was a route change. He turned down a
Speaker 1: street that was on the first plan in the Imperial
Speaker 1: car followed, But when the officials screamed, not that way,
Speaker 1: you fool, the royal driver slammed on the brakes. His
Speaker 1: alertness and quick thinking had saved the lives of his
Speaker 1: sovereigns earlier in the day. Now a brief lapse and
Speaker 1: attention would doom them. As the driver shifted gears and
Speaker 1: tried to turn the car, he made them sit. They
Speaker 1: had ground to a halt five ft from the crowd.
Speaker 1: That's when a wiry nineteen year old jumped forward from
Speaker 1: his side. He raised a pistol, rammed it into the car,
Speaker 1: and fired twice. Later the shooter would say that he
Speaker 1: even turned his head away while he pulled the trigger,
Speaker 1: but the shots came from point blank range. It didn't
Speaker 1: take any skill to take a life. The Archduke Franz
Speaker 1: Ferdinand had been shot and killed alongside his wife Sophie.
Speaker 1: Today we might know this as the assassination that started
Speaker 1: the First World War, and fair enough, but at the time, well,
Speaker 1: it was sort of seen as politics as usual in
Speaker 1: the region. In fact, it was seen first not as
Speaker 1: an attack that began a war, but rather an assassination
Speaker 1: that followed from a war. Here's Dr Joshua Sanborn to
Speaker 1: tell us more. This isn't assassin the nation, that is
Speaker 1: not random. Franz Ferdinand is in Sarajevo to oversee military
Speaker 1: maneuvers that have just recently annexed the territory. And you
Speaker 1: have these young radicals who are inspired both by nationalism
Speaker 1: but also by the Russian revolutionary movement now looking to
Speaker 1: change the dynamic on the ground. The people that kill
Speaker 1: Franz ferinand are not sponsored by Russia. They're not even
Speaker 1: sponsored by the top Serbian leadership. They are sponsored by
Speaker 1: the head of military intelligence, who was trying to run
Speaker 1: his own sort of radical paramilitary revolutionary movement at the
Speaker 1: same time that he's that he's heading military intelligence. It
Speaker 1: was a complex and chaotic political moment A few years
Speaker 1: before nationalist revolutionaries fought to shatter the grip of the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire, and with support from nearby imperial powers Russia,
Speaker 1: say or Russia's German cousins, they succeeded. That fight had
Speaker 1: been what we might call a decolonizing war. Siberia, Bulgaria,
Speaker 1: Greece and Montenegro had all formed an alliance the Balkan League,
Speaker 1: and fought a bloody war to read claim power. In
Speaker 1: the wake of this bloodshed, the movements leading the fight
Speaker 1: struggled to become governments, and it was a bloody process.
Speaker 1: As with many decolonizing wars, this just opens up a
Speaker 1: new question of regional power and you get these new
Speaker 1: nations states starting to act like many empires themselves, most
Speaker 1: notably Serbia in this case. And this is what causes
Speaker 1: the Second Balkan War between Serbia and Bulgaria over the
Speaker 1: question of Macedonia. In other words, nationalism doesn't just come
Speaker 1: when the empire leaves. That just opens up the more
Speaker 1: interesting phase of politics, honestly, and the more and the
Speaker 1: more violent phase frankly, of the politics of decolonization. And
Speaker 1: so you have these first two Balkan Wars and the
Speaker 1: third war, as we all know, is triggered in the
Speaker 1: Balkans in Sarajevo with the assassination. So arch Duke Franz
Speaker 1: Ferdinand's assassination look like a third link in a long
Speaker 1: chain of violence. Yes, the killing appalled the world leaders
Speaker 1: who looked on, but few expected the fighting to spread
Speaker 1: beyond the cauldron where it began, but things escalated quickly,
Speaker 1: everyone expecting what came next to just be more Balkan
Speaker 1: politics as usual. It was in for a shock. By August.
Speaker 1: Alliances were secured, diplomacy failed, sides were taken, armies mobilized,
Speaker 1: and soon even Holy Russia was entering what would become
Speaker 1: one of the bloodiest wars the world had ever seen.
Speaker 1: They were on their yacht. Of course, the splendid isolation
Speaker 1: of life on open water kept the Romanovs refreshed. But
Speaker 1: the messages came fast, and whatever tranquility they had enjoyed
Speaker 1: that year was burned away. The Archduke France Ferdinand had
Speaker 1: been assassinated swiftly. On the heels of that message, they
Speaker 1: learned that their friend Grigory Rasputin had been gutted in
Speaker 1: the street. Their kingdom was suffering violence, and if they
Speaker 1: didn't act fast, violent men would take it by force,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what Nicholas came to fear, so
Speaker 1: it was time for him to act. Gregory's daughter Maria,
Speaker 1: had sent a telegram to the royal family just after
Speaker 1: the attacks, and it set them in motion. Nicholas got
Speaker 1: hold of the Russian Minister of the Interior and told
Speaker 1: him to put his attention on Grigory's life. Rasputin is
Speaker 1: a man much honored by us, Nicholas wrote. Gregory's life
Speaker 1: was deeply valued by the imperial family. They wanted their
Speaker 1: government to serve his welfare. Gregory and Alexandra exchanged letters.
Speaker 1: He assured her that he was recovering, but the knife
Speaker 1: that wounded Resputant had cut into the Czarina's heart. Our
Speaker 1: grief is beyond description, she said in her reply. And
Speaker 1: with the Empress that invested in Gregory's health, the Russian
Speaker 1: government had little choice but to comply with the orders
Speaker 1: coming from the Romanov yacht. The Minister of the Interior
Speaker 1: and his deputies set their own constant watch on Resputin. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was protection, but it was surveillance too. If the
Speaker 1: Russian papers thought that Gregory was an evil influence on
Speaker 1: the imperial household, well, the officers of the Russian government
Speaker 1: could only have agreed. In fact, the Minister of the
Speaker 1: Interior and his deputies had long hated Rasputin, and why
Speaker 1: not they were being told to spend their precious time
Speaker 1: holding his hand. So for agents tailed Restputant as he
Speaker 1: was carried down the river and placed on board a steamer.
Speaker 1: It carried him to the city of Human where he
Speaker 1: was admitted to the hospital. The surgeon who had performed
Speaker 1: his emergency surgery could watch him there, now surrounded by
Speaker 1: all his assistants, including the new doctors who were sent
Speaker 1: by the royal family to attend him. As the doctors
Speaker 1: came in, more telegrams came out. Gregory assured the Empress
Speaker 1: that he would pull through. In fact, he downplayed how
Speaker 1: serious his injuries really were. In truth, the first surgery
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to save him. They went in again and again,
Speaker 1: trying to repair the damage. Gregory had lost so much
Speaker 1: blood that things were looking dire, but even as they
Speaker 1: tried to heal him at seeing the doctors had respute
Speaker 1: and once again on the brink of death. But somehow
Speaker 1: he pulled through. The News of the attack on him
Speaker 1: had been so widespread that anyone who heard he was
Speaker 1: still alive had to be surprised, and that made people
Speaker 1: start asking questions. The whispers that followed were the first
Speaker 1: hint of another rumor that would grow stronger over the years.
Speaker 1: The idea that Grigory Rasputin was very hard to kill.
Speaker 1: But even as Resputin recovered, the empire around him was
Speaker 1: coming down with a bad case of war fever. Not
Speaker 1: that it was new. Some observers in Russia had followed
Speaker 1: the Balkan Wars with pleasure. They had cheered on the
Speaker 1: Balkan League through the years of violence. People that is,
Speaker 1: like Nicholas, along with many others across Russia. The Czar
Speaker 1: saw the fighting through the lens of his religion. In
Speaker 1: his writings, Nicholas called it the war between Christians and Turks,
Speaker 1: and he said he gave it great attention. Others added
Speaker 1: a layer of ethnic prejudice to the mix. To them,
Speaker 1: the Balkan League was more like a Slavic lead. The
Speaker 1: war on the western border of the Empire wasn't just
Speaker 1: Christians against Turks, but also Slavs against Germans. And while
Speaker 1: Russia wasn't sending troops into the region during those first
Speaker 1: years of fighting, they certainly were growing their forces. Russia's
Speaker 1: armies were modernizing and expanding. The Romanov government was pouring
Speaker 1: money into its army and navy and calling it the
Speaker 1: Great Program. But it was a slow process, and Nicholas
Speaker 1: thought they would not be ready for war until at
Speaker 1: least nineteen seventeen. But the crowds in the streets weren't
Speaker 1: paying attention to military logistics, and Nicholas himself had his
Speaker 1: head turned by the open moves from Austro Hungary. They
Speaker 1: were backed by his German cousin Wilhelm, and they had
Speaker 1: just declared that they would overrun Siberia and crush the
Speaker 1: pro Slavic groups that they said were responsible for the
Speaker 1: death of the Austro Hungarian air But a statement like
Speaker 1: that echoed farther than Siberia. In fact, it resonated all
Speaker 1: across Russia. If anyone wanted to crush the Slavs, they
Speaker 1: would have to face the world's greatest Slavic power, Russia.
Speaker 1: So when Austria Hungary began lobbying shells into Belgrade that July,
Speaker 1: Nicholas felt he had no choice. The Russian military went
Speaker 1: on the march to the Austrian border. A sense of
Speaker 1: Russian patriotism and slav pride swept the country. The Duma,
Speaker 1: which had so recently been tearing into the Romanovs, saw
Speaker 1: which way the wind was blowing. They pledged full support
Speaker 1: of the Czar in the Romanov's household. The children's French
Speaker 1: tutor wrote that the enthusiasm of the masses was obvious.
Speaker 1: Of course, we know that ethnic violence had flamed up
Speaker 1: across Russia for years in groups like Eliodora's terrorist supporters.
Speaker 1: But to the tutor writing in the Royal Palace, this
Speaker 1: new desire for Slavic soldiers to smash German enemies felt
Speaker 1: like a spontaneous fever. The targets of their political violence
Speaker 1: had shifted to enemies outside the Russian Empire. Nicholas and
Speaker 1: Alexandra felt that finally they had the whole country behind them.
Speaker 1: They were united for bloodshed. Telegrams flew out to the
Speaker 1: German Kaiser, Wilhelm convinced the Austrians to back down, Nicholas demanded,
Speaker 1: but the fact that Russian troops were on the move
Speaker 1: infuriated the man that Alexandra knew as cousin Willie. The
Speaker 1: response that Nicholas got from him was kind of a
Speaker 1: back yourself to on first. But after so many years
Speaker 1: of trouble, and with flags waving in the streets lifted
Speaker 1: on cheers of war, Nicholas did not want to look
Speaker 1: weak again. His forces continued to march in Germany, declared war.
Speaker 1: Grigory Resputant spent forty six days in the hospital. He
Speaker 1: was surrounded by well wishers, friends and family. Journalists tried
Speaker 1: to get to him too, and at least one photographer
Speaker 1: managed to snap a photo of Resputin in his hospital bed,
Speaker 1: even though police were stationed outside to hold back onlookers.
Speaker 1: As he recovered his strength, Grigory was also collecting his thoughts.
Speaker 1: He closely followed the situation in Europe and the rising
Speaker 1: tensions in the Balkans. People who had been hearing about
Speaker 1: Rasputin as a power behind the throne assumed that he
Speaker 1: shared the thirst for blood. Papers published all across Russia
Speaker 1: and Europe speculated that Resputant was filled with Slavic fever.
Speaker 1: They called, after all, he was Orthodox. What about all
Speaker 1: those things he said when he came back from the
Speaker 1: Holy Land, and didn't he champion the reign of the
Speaker 1: czar over the Russian Empire? Surely he was committed to
Speaker 1: uniting all Slavs under the Romanov dynasty. Maybe he was
Speaker 1: even going to enlist in the army himself, As in
Speaker 1: so many other times in Resputant's life. They actually got
Speaker 1: the story dead wrong. The idea that he was cheerleading
Speaker 1: for the war was pure fabrication. It was one more
Speaker 1: way of stirring up controversy and criticism, but it certainly
Speaker 1: wasn't a look at the truth. In fact, when news
Speaker 1: of the fighting in the Balkans reach Resputants hospital bed,
Speaker 1: the news hit him like a blow. Whatever else was
Speaker 1: true about Gregory, he was not an engine driving toward war.
Speaker 1: When he considered the idea, he didn't see a glorious
Speaker 1: future for the dynasty. Instead, as Douglas Smith says, for once,
Speaker 1: Resputant saw clearly the devastation it would bring. He foresaw
Speaker 1: that if Russia were to go to war, that it
Speaker 1: would lead to seas of blood, millions of innocent Russian
Speaker 1: peasants killed, and bloody slaughter, and he pled with Nicholas
Speaker 1: in the most powerful and prophetic of terms, to not
Speaker 1: go to war. In fact, during the earlier fighting in
Speaker 1: the Balkans, Rasputin had urged Alexandra to intervene. He wanted
Speaker 1: her to convince Nicholas to hold back. Even then, Rasputin
Speaker 1: believed war would be a disaster. Once in nineteen twelve,
Speaker 1: when the Czar's cousin Nikolasha was trying to convince Nicolas
Speaker 1: to send Russian forces into the Fray, Rasputin begged him
Speaker 1: not to listen. A year later, in nineteen thirteen, when
Speaker 1: he was asked to comment on fighting in the Balkans,
Speaker 1: Rasputin actually said something that would have surprised his readers.
Speaker 1: Going to war, he said, kills your own soul. Even
Speaker 1: the vicious army will live in fear after it has
Speaker 1: beaten its enemies into submission, because the violence of conquest
Speaker 1: will breathe the violence of retaliation. And in some ways
Speaker 1: this was really sharp insight the violence of that first
Speaker 1: Balkan War. It led to the second, and on and on.
Speaker 1: Not that Resputin didn't share the ideas that fuel the
Speaker 1: war's loudest cheerleaders, the idea that the Russian spirit and
Speaker 1: even Russian Christianity were superior to all others. Well, he
Speaker 1: had been clamoring that for years, but it was that
Speaker 1: very Russian spirit he was most worried about, and no
Speaker 1: one remembered this better than Grigory's own family, the people
Speaker 1: around him as he recovered from his injuries. His daughter
Speaker 1: Maria would later write, the Resputant was fixed on the
Speaker 1: horrors and cruelty of war. His thoughts weren't on the
Speaker 1: triumphs of the Czar, but on the people who would
Speaker 1: be crushed by armies criss crossing the countryside. It seems
Speaker 1: Grigory had a deep seated conviction that war and violence
Speaker 1: were a violation of his Russian faith. Rasputin saw this
Speaker 1: as the clear and simple problem at the center of
Speaker 1: a clash between nations, and he wanted the Tsar to
Speaker 1: see it too. As Douglas Smith says, he begged the
Speaker 1: Tsar to back away from the coming storm, and one
Speaker 1: letter he sent to Nicholas makes for an eerie warning
Speaker 1: of the devastation to come. Rasputant wrote, dear friend, I'll
Speaker 1: say again, a menacing cloud is over Russia, lots of
Speaker 1: sorrow and grief. It's dark and there's not a ray
Speaker 1: of hope, a sea of tears immeasurable. And as to blood,
Speaker 1: what can I say? There are no words indescribable horror.
Speaker 1: I know they all want war from you, evidently not
Speaker 1: realizing this this means ruin. I'm gonna redo that little
Speaker 1: bit there. I know they all want war from you,
Speaker 1: evidently not realizing that this means ruin. Hard is God's
Speaker 1: punishment when he takes away reason. It's the beginning of
Speaker 1: the end. You are the czar, father of the people.
Speaker 1: Don't allow the madness to triumph and destroy themselves and
Speaker 1: the people. Yes, they'll conquer Germany, but what of Russia.
Speaker 1: If one thinks than truly, never, for all of time
Speaker 1: has once suffered like Russia drowned in her own blood.
Speaker 1: Great will be the ruin grief without end grigory. As
Speaker 1: the following years went on, the show, more prophetic words
Speaker 1: have rarely been spoken, and for Resputin it was deeply personal,
Speaker 1: because the lives of Russian soldiers weren't just abstract to him.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was worried about his own son, Dmitri.
Speaker 1: The boy was of fighting age. If Russia went to war,
Speaker 1: Rasputin's own son would be among those sent to the
Speaker 1: front line. In his agitation about the coming catastrophe, Rasputin
Speaker 1: even managed to tear open his wounds once again. Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexandra were always concerned with the health of Alexei,
Speaker 1: their son and heir, and Rasputin was no different, and
Speaker 1: that concern made the prospect of marching into the looming
Speaker 1: conflict deeper and more terrifying for him than it could
Speaker 1: possibly be for the royal family. And as far as
Speaker 1: we can tell, Respute the letter to Nicholas did nothing
Speaker 1: to change his mind. Gregory may have hoped that, as
Speaker 1: a spiritual adviser to the Romanov household, his words would
Speaker 1: carry authority, but the Russian Empire had already marched too far.
Speaker 1: Rasputant's letter landed on deaf ears. Unfortunately, it didn't have
Speaker 1: enough of an in fact on the Czar. And I
Speaker 1: always think it's one of those great what if moments
Speaker 1: in the history of the twentie centuries. What if Nicholas
Speaker 1: had listened to Respute and and not agreed with his generals.
Speaker 1: How the course of history might have been different. But
Speaker 1: this wasn't resputants only attempt to change history. He sent
Speaker 1: a series of letters and telegrams to the Czar. In
Speaker 1: another shorter message, he simply wrote, let Papa not plan war,
Speaker 1: for with war will come the end of Russia. Once
Speaker 1: the fighting began, though Gregory believed disaster was inevitable, not
Speaker 1: that he was completely alone either. There were other State
Speaker 1: of shoals who argued against war. A few voices here
Speaker 1: and there rose up to call the plans madness and
Speaker 1: to dismiss the idea of Slavs fighting for Slavs as
Speaker 1: a form of old fashioned romanticism. But these objections were
Speaker 1: too few and too far between to catch the Tsar's ears,
Speaker 1: and by now Nicholas was determined. When he received the telegram,
Speaker 1: he was furious. Not only was respute and meddling in
Speaker 1: matters beyond his authority, but he was also undermining the
Speaker 1: very thing that was uniting Russia around the Czar. Besides
Speaker 1: England and France appeared ready to join Russia in the fight.
Speaker 1: There was a whole network of allies who were rising
Speaker 1: up to crush Germany, and the Czar's army was so
Speaker 1: huge that even without friends at their side, most Russians
Speaker 1: believe that the war would be over in just a
Speaker 1: few months. Officers in the army even planned to pack
Speaker 1: their dress uniforms so that they would be ready for
Speaker 1: the parades after their quick victory. The generals agreed, they
Speaker 1: laid plans for a quick victory. A few supplies, weapons
Speaker 1: and ammunition was all they really needed. Nicholas had been
Speaker 1: trying to live up to his role as an absolute
Speaker 1: monarch for his entire life. He was not about to
Speaker 1: give up now, when the fighting on the western edge
Speaker 1: of his empire offered him the chance to solidify his
Speaker 1: role with the Russian people, a pact sealed with the
Speaker 1: blood of their enemies. Gregory was released from the hospital
Speaker 1: towards the end of August, but his wounds weren't fully healed.
Speaker 1: In fact, he could barely stand. The pain in his
Speaker 1: gut was constant. He wore loose robes because nothing else
Speaker 1: would fit over his bandages. But more than all the
Speaker 1: pain in his body were the thoughts that wouldn't leave
Speaker 1: his mind. The attack had left him shaken, frail, even paranoid.
Speaker 1: He was being hunted. Danger surrounded him on every side.
Speaker 1: Even so, he didn't retreat to his home in Siberia
Speaker 1: this time. When he was released from the hospital, Rasputin
Speaker 1: set out for the capital fighting had begun. Grigory did
Speaker 1: not want to be cut off from the heart of
Speaker 1: the empire, where decisions of grave importance were being made.
Speaker 1: When he arrived, he found a city as changed as
Speaker 1: he was. On the first of September, the government dispensed
Speaker 1: with the name St. Petersburg. It was to European, to German.
Speaker 1: They preferred something more Slavic, so they chose the name Petrograd.
Speaker 1: But if Grigory feared that he would have to overcome
Speaker 1: his differences with the Czar, he found the opposite was
Speaker 1: the case. Two days after he arrived, he had his
Speaker 1: first meeting with Nicholas, and any anger or ill will
Speaker 1: on the Czar's parts had faded. After all, the first
Speaker 1: victories on the battlefield had given way to some serious defeats.
Speaker 1: All those supplies the generals had sent to the front,
Speaker 1: they were far too few. Despite the millions of soldiers
Speaker 1: added to the Russian army, they found that they had
Speaker 1: entered the war with only half the artillery that they
Speaker 1: were facing from the Germans. And when it came to
Speaker 1: mobilizing their forces, the Germans had ten times the length
Speaker 1: of railroad to rush soldiers into the battlefield. There would
Speaker 1: be no swift Russian victory. The Empire was in the
Speaker 1: war for the Long Hall, and that left Nicholas in
Speaker 1: a foul mood. His confidence was shaken. As the city
Speaker 1: and the czar changed. Grigory followed suit. Now that he
Speaker 1: was back in the emperor's presence and the war had begun,
Speaker 1: Rasputin joined the chorus of Russians who were supporting the
Speaker 1: war effort. If Nicholas needed someone to tell him that
Speaker 1: the war was the right choice and Russia would be victorious, well,
Speaker 1: Grigory Rasputin would tell him what he wanted to hear.
Speaker 1: Soon enough, Nicholas came to treasure their meetings once. That October,
Speaker 1: he wrote in his diary that the difficulties of the
Speaker 1: war had left him anxious and afraid, but Rasputin brought
Speaker 1: him peace. It was Grigory's calming talk, Nicholas wrote that
Speaker 1: lifted his spirits. But even as Grigory was rekindling his
Speaker 1: relationship with the Romanovs, he was finding it difficult to
Speaker 1: resume his old habits in the capital. Back at his
Speaker 1: Petrograd apartment, Resputant found himself flooded with the constant throng
Speaker 1: of well wisher's friends and new followers. People came to
Speaker 1: him asking for money, prayers, healing, and advice. Once they
Speaker 1: found out where he lived, they started lining up before sunrise.
Speaker 1: The police watching Grigory reported that he met with over
Speaker 1: one people every single day, and the police themselves were
Speaker 1: a constant presence around Resputin. Here's more from Douglas Smith.
Speaker 1: There was typically, you know, dozens of agents that were
Speaker 1: tracking him in any one time, and not only were
Speaker 1: they tracking him, but they were tracking everybody that he
Speaker 1: came in contact with, and would would do investigations into
Speaker 1: his circle and his contacts and associates and what have you.
Speaker 1: And part of it was surveillance, but part of it
Speaker 1: was also after the summer of nineteen o fourteen, when
Speaker 1: he was almost murdered, supposedly they were also charged with
Speaker 1: keeping him safe from another such attempt on his life.
Speaker 1: But these officers only went part of the way toward
Speaker 1: lifting Grigory's fear of assassination. He had spent too many
Speaker 1: years dodging the secret police to suddenly appreciate them. Now
Speaker 1: there were some perks though. He no longer went to
Speaker 1: the Czar's Palace by train. Instead, he was now chauffeured
Speaker 1: by a car to and from the palace for his
Speaker 1: meetings with the royal family. But even that left Grigory
Speaker 1: open to more rumors. The car itself became the subject
Speaker 1: of legends and rumors about the machine guns being carried
Speaker 1: to and fro to protect the holy Man, and even
Speaker 1: that he was driving through the streets, gunning down pedestrians
Speaker 1: as he went. It was ridiculous, of course, but it's
Speaker 1: an example of just how much every move Grigory made
Speaker 1: was turned back on him, as if reflected in a
Speaker 1: fun house mirror. But there wasn't too much that Grigory
Speaker 1: found fun about it. Having been robbed of his quiet,
Speaker 1: his peace, and his sense of safety and confidence, Grigory
Speaker 1: turned for solace to the bottle. He had been drinking
Speaker 1: more and more over the past few years, but after
Speaker 1: the attack on his life, it took over. If Rasputin
Speaker 1: had been consuming alcohol before, now the alcohol was consuming him.
Speaker 1: He was rarely sober. His wealthy followers kept up a
Speaker 1: regular supply of Madeira wine, so when he was huddled
Speaker 1: at home in his apartment, he always had a drink
Speaker 1: at hand, all the more when he would decide to
Speaker 1: throw caution to the wind and go out on the town,
Speaker 1: like the night that he hopped on a train from
Speaker 1: Petrograd to Moscow and wrote one of the most sordid
Speaker 1: chapters of his personal legend. Here's Douglas Smith to walk
Speaker 1: us through it. The so called incident at the Yar
Speaker 1: is one of the iconic UH moments in the biography
Speaker 1: of Respute, and it's in every book on him, UM
Speaker 1: and it's sometimes told in in somewhat different versions, but basically,
Speaker 1: the the standard story is that Uh, in March of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, Respute and took the train from uh Petrograd
Speaker 1: as Petersburg was now called, down to Moscow where you
Speaker 1: met with some friends. And one night they went out
Speaker 1: to this famous restaurant called the Jar, which had this
Speaker 1: uh gypsy choir and chorus and everything. That he got
Speaker 1: outlandishly drunk. He started chasing the girls in the gypsy choir. Uh,
Speaker 1: he started being rude and vulgar Uh. And then it's
Speaker 1: sort of culminated in him jumping up on the table,
Speaker 1: exposing himself, dropping his trousers, waiving his member around and
Speaker 1: and claiming in front of the astonished guests at the
Speaker 1: r restaurant that this was the the altar at which
Speaker 1: the Empress worshiped, at which point the police were called
Speaker 1: and they dragged him, snarling and screaming and cursing out
Speaker 1: and put him into jail. Now, this is the standard
Speaker 1: story that you'll read over and over and over, and
Speaker 1: indeed agents tracked Respute and from Petrograd to Moscow on
Speaker 1: the train in March. They followed him around literally by
Speaker 1: the minute, and indeed he did go to the r restaurant.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting is you read the policeman's report of
Speaker 1: what happened there. There's no talk of drunkenness. There's no
Speaker 1: talk of chasing chorus girls, gypsy chorus girls, there's no
Speaker 1: talk of you know, dropping his trousers and waving his
Speaker 1: member around, and there's no talk of any arrest. In fact,
Speaker 1: they had dinner, he went back to someone's house. Uh.
Speaker 1: He did get drunk the next day and drove around
Speaker 1: with some friends, and then the agents followed him back
Speaker 1: to the train station and he went back to Petrogratte.
Speaker 1: End of story. The report of the simple truth didn't
Speaker 1: satisfy Grigory's enemies, and that's a problem when those enemies
Speaker 1: include the head of the Okrana. When the initial report
Speaker 1: reached him the simple narrative of resputants tripped to and
Speaker 1: from Moscow, he sent word back down the line. Clearly
Speaker 1: there was a mistake somewhere. Something must have happened worth
Speaker 1: reporting something terrible. Of course, the police in Moscow knew
Speaker 1: how to read between the lines. They knew what was
Speaker 1: being asked of them, so they put their heads together
Speaker 1: and they drafted a second report. This time they brainstormed
Speaker 1: the bizarre and disturbing story that would become a mainstay
Speaker 1: of resputants legend. They literally, you know, quote unquote sex
Speaker 1: it up if you will, to make it more out amish,
Speaker 1: and add all sorts of crazy elements to it, not
Speaker 1: only sexual stuff, but in fact that he was meeting
Speaker 1: with various shady figures who are involved in in vast
Speaker 1: graft and corruption schemes to defraud you know, the the
Speaker 1: National Treasury of all sorts of millions and millions of
Speaker 1: roubles and what have you. And so finally they create
Speaker 1: this outlandish story on official police letterhead, and Alexandra says,
Speaker 1: this is this is total nonsense. And here Alexandra was right,
Speaker 1: this is a pack of lies, and I refused to
Speaker 1: believe it. Uh. And so it again is then taking
Speaker 1: as proof that nothing can damage resputing in the eyes
Speaker 1: of Nicholas and Alexandra, and he can go to any
Speaker 1: lengths he he wishes, and his place is secure. But
Speaker 1: in fact he really never did anything wrong. That night
Speaker 1: at the r restaurant, the fights went on and on.
Speaker 1: Church officials, a Krona, officers and journalists took aim at
Speaker 1: resputing members of parliament open he condemned him within the Duma.
Speaker 1: When their words had no effect, they added outlandish lies
Speaker 1: to their observations about resputants real wrongdoings, and those outlandish
Speaker 1: lies gave the Empress the very excuse she needed to
Speaker 1: ignore the charges altogether. As each new twist and turn
Speaker 1: in Grigory's life gave his enemies new ammunition, the struggle
Speaker 1: to control rasputants relationship with the Romanovs took on a
Speaker 1: stranger and stranger shape. He was hacked down in the
Speaker 1: street and his reputation was ripped apart by the police.
Speaker 1: But somehow Resputant endured in this little war behind the
Speaker 1: big war, rasputants enemies never seemed to win. It was
Speaker 1: supposed to be Nikolasha's our. He was always the man
Speaker 1: who exuded power. His violence was legendary, his physical strength
Speaker 1: was an echo of the old Czar. It was only
Speaker 1: right that he be made the commander in chief of
Speaker 1: Russia's armies. At first, Zar Nicholas had wanted to take
Speaker 1: the role on himself. He held a firm and almost
Speaker 1: mystical belief that the czar's place was with his troops,
Speaker 1: and the memory of his younger days spent among the
Speaker 1: officers only strengthened his belief that he should command, But
Speaker 1: his ministers talked him out of it. Any losses that
Speaker 1: his inexperienced and unready army suffered as the conflict began
Speaker 1: should not be placed at the feet of the czar.
Speaker 1: So it was agreed his cousin Nikolasha should take the reins.
Speaker 1: He had, the war lord's frame and the war lord's pedigree,
Speaker 1: ferocious and imperious, or those qualities what they needed to
Speaker 1: lead a fight. Nikolasha himself seemed to think so. But
Speaker 1: despite his confidence and his personality, there was one thing
Speaker 1: at least that Nikolasha did not have experience. He had
Speaker 1: never actually commanded in battle, not to mention that modern
Speaker 1: warfare was more of a clash of logistics than heroics,
Speaker 1: and however strong Nikolasha was, that was not his strong suit.
Speaker 1: As the first brief burst of victories gave way to
Speaker 1: a string of astonishing defeat Nikolash's officers were devastated when
Speaker 1: the Russian second Army was destroyed at the Battle of Tannenburg.
Speaker 1: The Empire lost one and ten thousand men. The commander
Speaker 1: of the destroyed forces went off into the woods and
Speaker 1: took his own life, and even worse losses were to
Speaker 1: come even steeper and more devastating. In the summer of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, for example, the Russian army was in retreat.
Speaker 1: Russian forces fled the Carpathian Mountains. Withdrawal from Ukraine followed
Speaker 1: after that, as German attacks blue holes in the Russian lines,
Speaker 1: Nikolasha and his officers failed to bring up enough reserves
Speaker 1: to reinforce them. The surviving soldiers fell back in fear.
Speaker 1: Soon they had abandoned all of Poland. They fled Lithuania,
Speaker 1: they fled Belarus. The Empire was drowning in her own blood.
Speaker 1: Nikolasha and his armies ran so far that their withdrawal
Speaker 1: was given a name a Great Retreat. The Russian spirit
Speaker 1: was broken and the Romanovs were in despair. As a
Speaker 1: prophetic pen had written to Czar, the Russian Empire was
Speaker 1: in ruins. That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured.
Speaker 1: Stick around after this short sponsor break for a preview
Speaker 1: of what's in store for next week. He had already
Speaker 1: been spending as much time as he could at Stavka,
Speaker 1: the Russian military headquarters. The camp where battle plans were
Speaker 1: laid was established off the Moscow Warsaw Road, nestled between
Speaker 1: the trunks of pine and birch trees and surrounded by
Speaker 1: ring after ring of centuries. Nicholas found all of that
Speaker 1: invigorating to him. It was a masculine place, a place
Speaker 1: for a rugged, disciplined life, a place where every second
Speaker 1: counted and every man was about his work. The urgency
Speaker 1: in order reminded him of his fondest memories his younger
Speaker 1: years in the cavalry, before he had taken up the
Speaker 1: responsibilities of the czar, But in the summer of nineteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: it was the responsibilities that he shouldered. The czar's place
Speaker 1: was with his troops. Niko Us believed it so strongly
Speaker 1: that it was almost mystical. He even made up his
Speaker 1: mind in the church. It was while he was standing
Speaker 1: in the cathedral with his eyes fixated on an image
Speaker 1: of Jesus, that he felt a voice speak in his mind.
Speaker 1: Unobscured was created by me Aaron Manky and produced by
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick Alex Williams and Josh Thane in partnership with
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, with research by Sam Alberty, writing by
Speaker 1: Carl Nellis, and original music by Chad Lawson. Learn more
Speaker 1: about our contributing historians, source materials, and links to our
Speaker 1: other shows over at grim and mild dot com, slash Unobscured,
Speaker 1: and as always, thanks for listening.