WEBVTT - S4 – 7: Great Will Be the Ruin 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.360 Welcomed unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.800 He swam back to consciousness. The line of fire burned 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.320 across his belly where the knife had slashed him open. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.119 But Grigory Rasputant's mind was already charging ahead to what 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.520 came next after the attack and who was behind it. 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.640 In fact, when he came to Rasputin told the people 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.919 around him that he knew who was to blame, the 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.800 mad monk Iliodora. After the two men finally severed their friendship, 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.080 Grigory must have known it was only a matter of 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.760 time before one of Iliodora's followers would follow his signature 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.320 command for violence. As time would reveal, Rasputin was right. 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.920 The woman who had attacked him in the street outside 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.440 his house was a follower of Iliodora's violent teachings. She 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.639 had even met Rasputin before, when the two teachers were 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.519 still traveling together. Now, like so many others in Russia, 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.880 she had come to believe that rasputants prophecies were false 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:00.000 and his spirit was polluted with vile habits and selfish ambitions. 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.480 She believed that it was Rasputin who had turned on Iliador. 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.760 So she set out to avenge her chosen leader with 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:11.000 a fifteen inch dagger on a white bone handle. In fact, 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.360 she had come to see Resputant as the Antichrist. She 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.120 tracked him to Crimea a year earlier, but by the 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.840 time she arrived, he had already set out elsewhere again, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.120 so she followed him first to St. Petersburg and then 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.160 on to Siberia. When she arrived at Pokrovsko, she rented 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.959 a room and waited until she judged the time was right. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.039 Now she had left the resputant family in a panic, 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.080 calling for doctors. A surgeon from the hospital in the 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.440 nearby city raced by horse and carriage to Pekrowsko to 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.480 try and save Resputant. When he arrived, he could see 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.880 how grave the situation was. Grigory was on the verge 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.640 of bleeding out. There wasn't any time to waste. The 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.040 resputant family boiled water, and the surgeon held chlorophone to 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.760 Grigory's face. He set to work. Resputant's wife and the 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.600 other women in the house were pressed into service as nurses. 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.880 When he looked into Gregory's abdomen, he found the wound 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.040 was worse than he thought. The knife had cut the intestines, 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.000 and when Grigory held them in they had tangled in 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:14.959 his belly. The surgeon worked feverishly to save him, cutting, untangling, cleaning, clamping. 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.800 All the gauze and antiseptic that he carried from the 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.360 hospital was put to use. When he was done, he 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.400 sutured the cut closed with knotted silk, and then it 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.600 was time to wait. A medical orderly was assigned to 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.440 the house, and he joined Rasputant's wife and their guests 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.080 in the anxious questions. Had they done enough to save him? 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.600 Had they acted quickly enough to stave off a lethal infection? 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.600 As they waited. I can only help but wonder if 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.440 they saw the irony in it all. After Grigory's years 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.720 of cultivating a following among vulnerable women, not to mention 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.560 his support for violent cheerleaders like Iliador, it seemed the 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.440 sharp end of his project had finally come back and 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.320 caught him in the gut. Now only time would tell 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.600 whether the attacker had done enough to put an end 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.520 to his hunting habits. So they waited, and while the 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:03.760 doctor went back to his post in the city hospital. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.320 It didn't take long for news of the attack to travel. 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.880 In fact, in under a day, the St. Petersburg Courier 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.480 was shouting the story in the headlines, and it was 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.359 mere hours before the word passed beyond Russia's borders. English 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.360 and American papers were making it known that the evil 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.360 genius behind the throne of Russia, the mystical monk in 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.200 the ear of the Czar, had been stabbed in the street. 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.480 All of that is a bit overblown, of course, most 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.440 newspapers in Russia and abroad got the basic facts wrong, 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.760 and in the big picture, Rasputin had far less power 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.160 than the rumors about him said. But when has that 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.320 ever stopped a good story from finding an audience? And 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.480 this was an assassination attempt with all the mystery and 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:50.080 drama anyone could desire. But as the readers across Europe 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.640 and Russia were about to learn, the only thing that 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.560 could top the story of a failed assassination attempt was 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:17.800 a successful one. This is an obscure yard. I'm aaron mankey. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.880 It was a ceremonial stop. The journey into town went 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.120 as you might expect, at least at first. The family 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.559 sat in the open back seat of the car coming 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.200 second in their motorcade. The streets were lined with happy faces, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.600 waving hands, and cheers filled the air. It was all 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.520 going to plan, but as the royal motorcade approached City Hall, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.599 something changed. The driver spotted something taking flight from the crowd. 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.440 Nothing natural, though, This was a dark object thrown into 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.520 the air by an anonymous hand. As it arcd high 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.320 over the line of onlookers, the driver realized it was 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.800 headed right for them. He slammed on the gas pedal. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.120 The car lurched forward, and it was a moment of 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.600 quick thinking and quick action that saved the family's life. 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.080 Rather than dropping into their laps, the bomb bounced off 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.440 the rear of the car and skidded into the car 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.440 behind them. That's where it detonated. The explosion ripped through 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.000 the following members of the Imperial entourage. By the Imperial 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.000 family was unscathed, that is until they were on their 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.920 way out of town. Because there was some confusion about 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.359 the route, a new winding way was drawn up, maybe 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.040 to avoid further assassination attempts, or, according to some accounts, 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.360 to visit the injured guards in the hospital. Regardless, the 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.679 confusion began immediately. The driver of the first car forgot 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.120 that there was a route change. He turned down a 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.800 street that was on the first plan in the Imperial 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.040 car followed, But when the officials screamed, not that way, 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.560 you fool, the royal driver slammed on the brakes. His 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.400 alertness and quick thinking had saved the lives of his 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.640 sovereigns earlier in the day. Now a brief lapse and 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:07.039 attention would doom them. As the driver shifted gears and 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.960 tried to turn the car, he made them sit. They 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.560 had ground to a halt five ft from the crowd. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.800 That's when a wiry nineteen year old jumped forward from 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.200 his side. He raised a pistol, rammed it into the car, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.680 and fired twice. Later the shooter would say that he 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.120 even turned his head away while he pulled the trigger, 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.359 but the shots came from point blank range. It didn't 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.880 take any skill to take a life. The Archduke Franz 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.680 Ferdinand had been shot and killed alongside his wife Sophie. 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.960 Today we might know this as the assassination that started 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.560 the First World War, and fair enough, but at the time, well, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.200 it was sort of seen as politics as usual in 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.880 the region. In fact, it was seen first not as 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.080 an attack that began a war, but rather an assassination 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.880 that followed from a war. Here's Dr Joshua Sanborn to 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.599 tell us more. This isn't assassin the nation, that is 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.640 not random. Franz Ferdinand is in Sarajevo to oversee military 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.279 maneuvers that have just recently annexed the territory. And you 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.440 have these young radicals who are inspired both by nationalism 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.000 but also by the Russian revolutionary movement now looking to 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.440 change the dynamic on the ground. The people that kill 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.040 Franz ferinand are not sponsored by Russia. They're not even 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.480 sponsored by the top Serbian leadership. They are sponsored by 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.600 the head of military intelligence, who was trying to run 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.440 his own sort of radical paramilitary revolutionary movement at the 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.880 same time that he's that he's heading military intelligence. It 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.360 was a complex and chaotic political moment A few years 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.120 before nationalist revolutionaries fought to shatter the grip of the 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.800 Ottoman Empire, and with support from nearby imperial powers Russia, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.520 say or Russia's German cousins, they succeeded. That fight had 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:53.640 been what we might call a decolonizing war. Siberia, Bulgaria, 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.920 Greece and Montenegro had all formed an alliance the Balkan League, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.200 and fought a bloody war to read claim power. In 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.240 the wake of this bloodshed, the movements leading the fight 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.080 struggled to become governments, and it was a bloody process. 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.680 As with many decolonizing wars, this just opens up a 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.640 new question of regional power and you get these new 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.880 nations states starting to act like many empires themselves, most 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.400 notably Serbia in this case. And this is what causes 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.640 the Second Balkan War between Serbia and Bulgaria over the 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.320 question of Macedonia. In other words, nationalism doesn't just come 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.440 when the empire leaves. That just opens up the more 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.920 interesting phase of politics, honestly, and the more and the 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.560 more violent phase frankly, of the politics of decolonization. And 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.960 so you have these first two Balkan Wars and the 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.360 third war, as we all know, is triggered in the 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.640 Balkans in Sarajevo with the assassination. So arch Duke Franz 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.960 Ferdinand's assassination look like a third link in a long 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.360 chain of violence. Yes, the killing appalled the world leaders 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.120 who looked on, but few expected the fighting to spread 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.920 beyond the cauldron where it began, but things escalated quickly, 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.120 everyone expecting what came next to just be more Balkan 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.000 politics as usual. It was in for a shock. By August. 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:11.359 Alliances were secured, diplomacy failed, sides were taken, armies mobilized, 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.400 and soon even Holy Russia was entering what would become 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.880 one of the bloodiest wars the world had ever seen. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.760 They were on their yacht. Of course, the splendid isolation 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:28.000 of life on open water kept the Romanovs refreshed. But 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.680 the messages came fast, and whatever tranquility they had enjoyed 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.120 that year was burned away. The Archduke France Ferdinand had 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.000 been assassinated swiftly. On the heels of that message, they 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.760 learned that their friend Grigory Rasputin had been gutted in 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.160 the street. Their kingdom was suffering violence, and if they 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.120 didn't act fast, violent men would take it by force, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.440 or at least that's what Nicholas came to fear, so 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.040 it was time for him to act. Gregory's daughter Maria, 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.840 had sent a telegram to the royal family just after 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.200 the attacks, and it set them in motion. Nicholas got 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.600 hold of the Russian Minister of the Interior and told 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.160 him to put his attention on Grigory's life. Rasputin is 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.680 a man much honored by us, Nicholas wrote. Gregory's life 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.800 was deeply valued by the imperial family. They wanted their 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.800 government to serve his welfare. Gregory and Alexandra exchanged letters. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:22.560 He assured her that he was recovering, but the knife 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.960 that wounded Resputant had cut into the Czarina's heart. Our 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.120 grief is beyond description, she said in her reply. And 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.520 with the Empress that invested in Gregory's health, the Russian 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.320 government had little choice but to comply with the orders 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.360 coming from the Romanov yacht. The Minister of the Interior 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.680 and his deputies set their own constant watch on Resputin. Yes, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.680 it was protection, but it was surveillance too. If the 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.400 Russian papers thought that Gregory was an evil influence on 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.760 the imperial household, well, the officers of the Russian government 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.440 could only have agreed. In fact, the Minister of the 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.360 Interior and his deputies had long hated Rasputin, and why 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.040 not they were being told to spend their precious time 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.520 holding his hand. So for agents tailed Restputant as he 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.400 was carried down the river and placed on board a steamer. 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.000 It carried him to the city of Human where he 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.920 was admitted to the hospital. The surgeon who had performed 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.320 his emergency surgery could watch him there, now surrounded by 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.520 all his assistants, including the new doctors who were sent 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.319 by the royal family to attend him. As the doctors 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.120 came in, more telegrams came out. Gregory assured the Empress 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.520 that he would pull through. In fact, he downplayed how 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.360 serious his injuries really were. In truth, the first surgery 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.480 wasn't enough to save him. They went in again and again, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.560 trying to repair the damage. Gregory had lost so much 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.440 blood that things were looking dire, but even as they 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.800 tried to heal him at seeing the doctors had respute 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.480 and once again on the brink of death. But somehow 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.199 he pulled through. The News of the attack on him 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.000 had been so widespread that anyone who heard he was 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.960 still alive had to be surprised, and that made people 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.880 start asking questions. The whispers that followed were the first 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.040 hint of another rumor that would grow stronger over the years. 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.200 The idea that Grigory Rasputin was very hard to kill. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.760 But even as Resputin recovered, the empire around him was 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.840 coming down with a bad case of war fever. Not 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.760 that it was new. Some observers in Russia had followed 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.520 the Balkan Wars with pleasure. They had cheered on the 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.640 Balkan League through the years of violence. People that is, 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.720 like Nicholas, along with many others across Russia. The Czar 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.520 saw the fighting through the lens of his religion. In 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.520 his writings, Nicholas called it the war between Christians and Turks, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.160 and he said he gave it great attention. Others added 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.880 a layer of ethnic prejudice to the mix. To them, 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.720 the Balkan League was more like a Slavic lead. The 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.200 war on the western border of the Empire wasn't just 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:54.760 Christians against Turks, but also Slavs against Germans. And while 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.320 Russia wasn't sending troops into the region during those first 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.880 years of fighting, they certainly were growing their forces. Russia's 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:04.800 armies were modernizing and expanding. The Romanov government was pouring 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.720 money into its army and navy and calling it the 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.280 Great Program. But it was a slow process, and Nicholas 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.400 thought they would not be ready for war until at 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.160 least nineteen seventeen. But the crowds in the streets weren't 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.040 paying attention to military logistics, and Nicholas himself had his 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.559 head turned by the open moves from Austro Hungary. They 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.280 were backed by his German cousin Wilhelm, and they had 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.600 just declared that they would overrun Siberia and crush the 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.200 pro Slavic groups that they said were responsible for the 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.240 death of the Austro Hungarian air But a statement like 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.240 that echoed farther than Siberia. In fact, it resonated all 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.920 across Russia. If anyone wanted to crush the Slavs, they 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.200 would have to face the world's greatest Slavic power, Russia. 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.319 So when Austria Hungary began lobbying shells into Belgrade that July, 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.800 Nicholas felt he had no choice. The Russian military went 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.200 on the march to the Austrian border. A sense of 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.320 Russian patriotism and slav pride swept the country. The Duma, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.760 which had so recently been tearing into the Romanovs, saw 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.679 which way the wind was blowing. They pledged full support 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.880 of the Czar in the Romanov's household. The children's French 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.760 tutor wrote that the enthusiasm of the masses was obvious. 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.160 Of course, we know that ethnic violence had flamed up 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.119 across Russia for years in groups like Eliodora's terrorist supporters. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.200 But to the tutor writing in the Royal Palace, this 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.240 new desire for Slavic soldiers to smash German enemies felt 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.280 like a spontaneous fever. The targets of their political violence 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.040 had shifted to enemies outside the Russian Empire. Nicholas and 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.800 Alexandra felt that finally they had the whole country behind them. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.840 They were united for bloodshed. Telegrams flew out to the 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:50.480 German Kaiser, Wilhelm convinced the Austrians to back down, Nicholas demanded, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:52.760 but the fact that Russian troops were on the move 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.400 infuriated the man that Alexandra knew as cousin Willie. The 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.680 response that Nicholas got from him was kind of a 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.640 back yourself to on first. But after so many years 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.480 of trouble, and with flags waving in the streets lifted 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.320 on cheers of war, Nicholas did not want to look 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:14.080 weak again. His forces continued to march in Germany, declared war. 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.920 Grigory Resputant spent forty six days in the hospital. He 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.720 was surrounded by well wishers, friends and family. Journalists tried 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.120 to get to him too, and at least one photographer 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.480 managed to snap a photo of Resputin in his hospital bed, 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.920 even though police were stationed outside to hold back onlookers. 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.480 As he recovered his strength, Grigory was also collecting his thoughts. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.080 He closely followed the situation in Europe and the rising 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.320 tensions in the Balkans. People who had been hearing about 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.360 Rasputin as a power behind the throne assumed that he 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:54.440 shared the thirst for blood. Papers published all across Russia 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.200 and Europe speculated that Resputant was filled with Slavic fever. 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.640 They called, after all, he was Orthodox. What about all 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.480 those things he said when he came back from the 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:05.960 Holy Land, and didn't he champion the reign of the 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.320 czar over the Russian Empire? Surely he was committed to 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:13.000 uniting all Slavs under the Romanov dynasty. Maybe he was 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.240 even going to enlist in the army himself, As in 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.680 so many other times in Resputant's life. They actually got 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.480 the story dead wrong. The idea that he was cheerleading 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.360 for the war was pure fabrication. It was one more 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:29.040 way of stirring up controversy and criticism, but it certainly 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.200 wasn't a look at the truth. In fact, when news 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.840 of the fighting in the Balkans reach Resputants hospital bed, 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.920 the news hit him like a blow. Whatever else was 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.680 true about Gregory, he was not an engine driving toward war. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.120 When he considered the idea, he didn't see a glorious 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.520 future for the dynasty. Instead, as Douglas Smith says, for once, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:54.160 Resputant saw clearly the devastation it would bring. He foresaw 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.160 that if Russia were to go to war, that it 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:05.080 would lead to seas of blood, millions of innocent Russian 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.560 peasants killed, and bloody slaughter, and he pled with Nicholas 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.800 in the most powerful and prophetic of terms, to not 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.399 go to war. In fact, during the earlier fighting in 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:20.439 the Balkans, Rasputin had urged Alexandra to intervene. He wanted 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.919 her to convince Nicholas to hold back. Even then, Rasputin 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.080 believed war would be a disaster. Once in nineteen twelve, 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.480 when the Czar's cousin Nikolasha was trying to convince Nicolas 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.040 to send Russian forces into the Fray, Rasputin begged him 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.480 not to listen. A year later, in nineteen thirteen, when 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.880 he was asked to comment on fighting in the Balkans, 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.160 Rasputin actually said something that would have surprised his readers. 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.160 Going to war, he said, kills your own soul. Even 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.560 the vicious army will live in fear after it has 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.880 beaten its enemies into submission, because the violence of conquest 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.280 will breathe the violence of retaliation. And in some ways 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.560 this was really sharp insight the violence of that first 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:04.439 Balkan War. It led to the second, and on and on. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.639 Not that Resputin didn't share the ideas that fuel the 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.200 war's loudest cheerleaders, the idea that the Russian spirit and 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.320 even Russian Christianity were superior to all others. Well, he 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.119 had been clamoring that for years, but it was that 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.639 very Russian spirit he was most worried about, and no 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.679 one remembered this better than Grigory's own family, the people 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.720 around him as he recovered from his injuries. His daughter 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.320 Maria would later write, the Resputant was fixed on the 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.679 horrors and cruelty of war. His thoughts weren't on the 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:36.960 triumphs of the Czar, but on the people who would 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.840 be crushed by armies criss crossing the countryside. It seems 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.800 Grigory had a deep seated conviction that war and violence 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.359 were a violation of his Russian faith. Rasputin saw this 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.879 as the clear and simple problem at the center of 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:52.840 a clash between nations, and he wanted the Tsar to 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.560 see it too. As Douglas Smith says, he begged the 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.440 Tsar to back away from the coming storm, and one 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.360 letter he sent to Nicholas makes for an eerie warning 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:08.120 of the devastation to come. Rasputant wrote, dear friend, I'll 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.280 say again, a menacing cloud is over Russia, lots of 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.840 sorrow and grief. It's dark and there's not a ray 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:20.800 of hope, a sea of tears immeasurable. And as to blood, 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.000 what can I say? There are no words indescribable horror. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.000 I know they all want war from you, evidently not 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.240 realizing this this means ruin. I'm gonna redo that little 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.920 bit there. I know they all want war from you, 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:43.000 evidently not realizing that this means ruin. Hard is God's 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.960 punishment when he takes away reason. It's the beginning of 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.159 the end. You are the czar, father of the people. 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.600 Don't allow the madness to triumph and destroy themselves and 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:58.640 the people. Yes, they'll conquer Germany, but what of Russia. 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.199 If one thinks than truly, never, for all of time 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.320 has once suffered like Russia drowned in her own blood. 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:13.640 Great will be the ruin grief without end grigory. As 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.679 the following years went on, the show, more prophetic words 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.440 have rarely been spoken, and for Resputin it was deeply personal, 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.280 because the lives of Russian soldiers weren't just abstract to him. 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.720 In fact, he was worried about his own son, Dmitri. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.320 The boy was of fighting age. If Russia went to war, 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.000 Rasputin's own son would be among those sent to the 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.480 front line. In his agitation about the coming catastrophe, Rasputin 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.600 even managed to tear open his wounds once again. Nicholas 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.639 and Alexandra were always concerned with the health of Alexei, 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.159 their son and heir, and Rasputin was no different, and 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.159 that concern made the prospect of marching into the looming 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.440 conflict deeper and more terrifying for him than it could 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.560 possibly be for the royal family. And as far as 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.600 we can tell, Respute the letter to Nicholas did nothing 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.760 to change his mind. Gregory may have hoped that, as 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.080 a spiritual adviser to the Romanov household, his words would 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.800 carry authority, but the Russian Empire had already marched too far. 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:21.719 Rasputant's letter landed on deaf ears. Unfortunately, it didn't have 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.680 enough of an in fact on the Czar. And I 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:26.880 always think it's one of those great what if moments 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.360 in the history of the twentie centuries. What if Nicholas 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.800 had listened to Respute and and not agreed with his generals. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.560 How the course of history might have been different. But 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.040 this wasn't resputants only attempt to change history. He sent 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.919 a series of letters and telegrams to the Czar. In 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.359 another shorter message, he simply wrote, let Papa not plan war, 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.040 for with war will come the end of Russia. Once 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:56.879 the fighting began, though Gregory believed disaster was inevitable, not 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.720 that he was completely alone either. There were other State 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.960 of shoals who argued against war. A few voices here 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.879 and there rose up to call the plans madness and 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.159 to dismiss the idea of Slavs fighting for Slavs as 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:13.160 a form of old fashioned romanticism. But these objections were 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.080 too few and too far between to catch the Tsar's ears, 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.760 and by now Nicholas was determined. When he received the telegram, 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.679 he was furious. Not only was respute and meddling in 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:26.760 matters beyond his authority, but he was also undermining the 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.600 very thing that was uniting Russia around the Czar. Besides 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.640 England and France appeared ready to join Russia in the fight. 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.320 There was a whole network of allies who were rising 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.199 up to crush Germany, and the Czar's army was so 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.360 huge that even without friends at their side, most Russians 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:44.280 believe that the war would be over in just a 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.000 few months. Officers in the army even planned to pack 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:50.520 their dress uniforms so that they would be ready for 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.320 the parades after their quick victory. The generals agreed, they 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.800 laid plans for a quick victory. A few supplies, weapons 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.080 and ammunition was all they really needed. Nicholas had been 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.440 trying to live up to his role as an absolute 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.280 monarch for his entire life. He was not about to 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:08.640 give up now, when the fighting on the western edge 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:11.520 of his empire offered him the chance to solidify his 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.359 role with the Russian people, a pact sealed with the 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:25.240 blood of their enemies. Gregory was released from the hospital 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.359 towards the end of August, but his wounds weren't fully healed. 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.159 In fact, he could barely stand. The pain in his 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.600 gut was constant. He wore loose robes because nothing else 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:37.679