Speaker 1: Welcomed unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky.
Speaker 1: He was a peasant, born into a family of peasants,
Speaker 1: but soon his fame would spread across the great empires
Speaker 1: of the modern world. He would be known for his
Speaker 1: mysterious power, a power gained in the shadows. He had
Speaker 1: studied the butcher's trade. He had studied medicine, but he
Speaker 1: abandoned both. Those would not be the pathway to immortality,
Speaker 1: and he was after more than earthly things. Maybe you
Speaker 1: see what he did gain was the power to heal,
Speaker 1: a mystical power born of an invisible force. He studied
Speaker 1: the occult and mysticism, and soon was treating patients with
Speaker 1: psychic fluids and astral forces, and he had a potent
Speaker 1: effect on women. When writers caught wind of him, they
Speaker 1: called him the Cagliostro of our Age, after the Italian
Speaker 1: magician and psychic healer of a century before. Are clearly
Speaker 1: he was taking his place in history, and that was
Speaker 1: all before he met the Romanovs. To anyone in the
Speaker 1: court circles of Imperial Russia in those years, it would
Speaker 1: have been no surprise that Melitsa made the introduction. She
Speaker 1: had married into the branching Romanov family tree and brought
Speaker 1: her dark fascinations with her. Now she was taken with
Speaker 1: this occult healer, and by all accounts she insisted that
Speaker 1: her cousin, Nicholas, the Czar of Russia, meet the man,
Speaker 1: And we know that in nineteen o one Nicholas did
Speaker 1: just that. In fact, in his diary for that day,
Speaker 1: Nicholas called him remarkable. The man's other worldly powers brought
Speaker 1: him back to the powers of this world. After all,
Speaker 1: for a peasant with mystical talents, it was the opportunity
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. Soon Nicholas and Alexandra were meeting with
Speaker 1: him together. Sometimes Melissa joined them, or even widened the
Speaker 1: circle to other close relatives. In fact, it wouldn't be
Speaker 1: long before you would say that the Imperial couple of
Speaker 1: Russia were obsessed. They would gather around this occult teacher
Speaker 1: and hang on his every word. They would listen for hours.
Speaker 1: One historian even writes that the Czar and Czarina of
Speaker 1: Russia reached the height of religious ecstasy in his presence.
Speaker 1: In fact, in their private conversations, Nicholas and his wife
Speaker 1: Alexandra started to refer to him secretly as our friend,
Speaker 1: and then they introduced him to their daughters. He started
Speaker 1: to pray with them in their bedroom. By now you
Speaker 1: can probably guess the man's identity. A royal favorite and
Speaker 1: a cult healer in the court of the last Romanovs.
Speaker 1: That's right, I mean Philippe Nazir Vakad. And if that
Speaker 1: name is a surprise, it's because once we peel back
Speaker 1: the layers of legend and myths around the history we think,
Speaker 1: we know there's always something far more dark and far
Speaker 1: more fascinating to reveal underneath. And if there's one time
Speaker 1: in place to find hidden and destructive energies humming behind
Speaker 1: a veil of lies, it's the doomed court of the
Speaker 1: last Romanovs. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. They called
Speaker 1: her Sunny. She was a bright spark in her family's life.
Speaker 1: She was raised with tenderness and whimsy, and all of
Speaker 1: that seemed to flow out from the little girl too.
Speaker 1: She was also determined and independent. Before she was six,
Speaker 1: little Alex was already driving horse drawn carriages. It was
Speaker 1: like she was born to take the reins. After all,
Speaker 1: she was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria she had her
Speaker 1: mother's name, Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Alice, married into German nobility.
Speaker 1: In the heart Alice became Alex when the name was
Speaker 1: handed down to the newborn. Along with her dimpled cheeks
Speaker 1: and radiant curls, the sunshine of her personality was needed
Speaker 1: in the family. When Alex was still an infant, her
Speaker 1: older brother Fretty, had fallen out from a window. He
Speaker 1: might have survived the bumps and bruises, but he had hemophilia.
Speaker 1: Any small injury could take his life. After the fall,
Speaker 1: they lost him. It was the darkness in which Sonny
Speaker 1: grew up. By all accounts, her parents weren't lavish people,
Speaker 1: despite their social rank. In fact, one thing that is
Speaker 1: often said about her mother is that she took a
Speaker 1: deep interest in nursing, and not just from the death
Speaker 1: of her son. In fact, when she was still a girl,
Speaker 1: she had been inspired by Florence Nightingale as Princess and Hessa.
Speaker 1: She found a hospital and even worked with Nightingale herself
Speaker 1: to train the nursing staff. Her daughters followed along on
Speaker 1: the visits to patients. If young Alex had a strong will,
Speaker 1: she also had a natural curiosity. No doubt those early
Speaker 1: trips stuck with her. But if her earliest years were
Speaker 1: a bright dance of childish curiosity and simple pleasures, even
Speaker 1: greater tragedy would eclipse those years. A tragedy called diphtheria.
Speaker 1: It burned through the Hessa household, and before its murderous
Speaker 1: work was done, her mother and one of her sisters
Speaker 1: were dead. Little Alex was just six years old. In
Speaker 1: the years that followed, Alex went from one house of
Speaker 1: grief to another. A royal life was a mobile one,
Speaker 1: and Alex traveled frequently, not least because now that her
Speaker 1: mother was gone, it was her grandmother who directed her upbringing.
Speaker 1: Even when she was at home in Darmstadt. Every aspect
Speaker 1: of her training and education was selected and overseen through
Speaker 1: a massive string of letters from England. Under Queen Victoria's
Speaker 1: watchful eye. Alex was polished and pruned in the English style.
Speaker 1: So it was no small thing when Queen Victoria cut
Speaker 1: wind of a romance in her family which she did
Speaker 1: not approve of. Alex's older sister Ella had fallen for
Speaker 1: a cousin. That wasn't the problem, though. It's who the
Speaker 1: cousin was. The Russian Grand Duke Sergey, Alexandrovitch. Nothing that
Speaker 1: Victoria could do would stop the marriage, though, But the
Speaker 1: match between Ella and Sergey wasn't the only one struck
Speaker 1: at their wedding, because that's where twelve year old alex
Speaker 1: first caught the eye of another Russian prince, Sergey's nephew Nicholas.
Speaker 1: That only sixteen he had been seated with Alex and
Speaker 1: her sister's over dinner, and if his diaries are anything
Speaker 1: to go by, she made an impression. All it took
Speaker 1: was one meeting for her to become his little darling.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a secret though. Just a few days after
Speaker 1: their meeting they exchanged letters, the first of many that
Speaker 1: would follow. It would be a long five years before
Speaker 1: the pair would see each other again, but a lifelong
Speaker 1: passion had begun. Not that they had an easy road,
Speaker 1: you see, if Queen Victoria objected to one granddaughter marrying
Speaker 1: into Russia, there was no way she could be pleased
Speaker 1: by her face of her returning in the same direction.
Speaker 1: Here's historian Helen Rappaport to tell us more. Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: was pretty adamant initially at the thought of her precious
Speaker 1: granddaughter Alexandra Alicki, as they called her, marrying into the
Speaker 1: Russian throne. Queen Victoria was absolutely against the idea of
Speaker 1: Alicki marrying Nikki young Nicholas at Saryevitch of Russia because
Speaker 1: she felt that Russia was very unstable, very unsafe, I mean,
Speaker 1: even then by the eighteen eighties and nineties there was
Speaker 1: his history of political assassination and um, you know, Nicholas's
Speaker 1: own grandfather had been murdered by revolutionaries, so they had
Speaker 1: to overcome quite a lot of obstacles. Victoria was right,
Speaker 1: of course, but her foresight about royal life in Russia
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to change Alex's mind. After all, she was young,
Speaker 1: bald end soon enough in love. Victor Maria did everything
Speaker 1: she could, more and more often. She invited Alex to
Speaker 1: visit England to stay with her there to spend time
Speaker 1: with her British cousin Eddie. But Alex wouldn't be tempted
Speaker 1: by Queen Victoria's throne or air. She followed her own
Speaker 1: instincts wherever they would lead, like one visit when she
Speaker 1: was traveling through Wales with Queen Victoria and they stopped
Speaker 1: to survey the coal mines. It was the place where
Speaker 1: England's empire turned the earth into raw fuel of the
Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution. It was, in a sense, the birthplace of
Speaker 1: the empire's raw power. Alex's grandmother hoped the girl would
Speaker 1: fill her head with thoughts of inheriting the English crown,
Speaker 1: that all this power could be hers, But Alex was
Speaker 1: intrigued by something else instead, the minds themselves. She insisted
Speaker 1: on seeing more than the surface. On her demand, she
Speaker 1: was taken down to walk grimy tunnels, to feel the
Speaker 1: cool air underground, to experience the darkness, or herself never
Speaker 1: forget who you are. Those can be inspiring words. They
Speaker 1: can lift us up in moments when we feel confused
Speaker 1: or at a loss. They can be a reminder to
Speaker 1: hold fast to what is good and true about our
Speaker 1: place in the world. For Nicholas, they were a warning.
Speaker 1: They came to him from his mother in the days
Speaker 1: when he was finally becoming a man. But what she
Speaker 1: meant was, do not forget that one day you will
Speaker 1: be emperor. You see, his father had just become Czar
Speaker 1: of Russia. Nicholas was now the tsar vich the crown prince,
Speaker 1: the next in line. The problem was that Nicholas loved
Speaker 1: nothing more than being just one of the guys. In particular,
Speaker 1: he loved the closeness and camaraderie of the military. As
Speaker 1: a colonel in the horse Guards, he loved the drills,
Speaker 1: the meals together with his fellow officers, and not to
Speaker 1: mention the after hours the knights out on the town.
Speaker 1: There was a comfort and a sense of belonging there,
Speaker 1: belonging that he had never felt growing up in his
Speaker 1: father's shadow, and that shadow was long. You see, Nicholas's father,
Speaker 1: Alexander the Third, was an enormous man. His feats of
Speaker 1: physical strength were his calling card. He was commanding and severe,
Speaker 1: and unlike the Romanovs that came before him, he was pious,
Speaker 1: strictly devoted to his marriage and family. In his huge
Speaker 1: hands and by his huge personality, he bent Russia to
Speaker 1: his will the way he bent iron pokers and toward
Speaker 1: decks of cards for fun. Aggressive power was his style,
Speaker 1: and that's where young Nicholas did not feel at home.
Speaker 1: You see, he was an intelligent boy. With his tutors,
Speaker 1: he learned French, German and spoke English so well some
Speaker 1: historians have said that he could have fooled an Oxford professor.
Speaker 1: He was witty and fun and not at all the
Speaker 1: kind of person his colossus of a father could respect.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why Nicholas found some solace among the horse guards,
Speaker 1: at least through military serve us. Maybe he could impress
Speaker 1: his father, he could prove that he was more than
Speaker 1: just the kind of person unsuitable for rule, an intellectual.
Speaker 1: But when he was so drunk that the other officers
Speaker 1: had to carry him home after a night of carousing,
Speaker 1: that's where his mother's voice came in. Never forget who
Speaker 1: you are. He might sit, probably atop his horse, shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder with other cavalry officers, but one day he
Speaker 1: would need to be ready to take the reins of
Speaker 1: the Russian Empire. But it wasn't just his parents who
Speaker 1: were hammering this message into Nicholas. He was getting that
Speaker 1: message loud and clear from the tutors who cultivated his mind.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was taught by the Church authorities who
Speaker 1: had also instructed his father. And while Nicholas was given
Speaker 1: to languages and writing and everything that came with it,
Speaker 1: he was always pursued by the warnings that had steered
Speaker 1: his father's court away from an intellectual culture. You see.
Speaker 1: In the late eighteen hundreds, the Church authorities were teaching
Speaker 1: that reliance on human mind made Russia vulnerable to human delusion.
Speaker 1: What wasn't delusional aristocratic rule that was real. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was the command of God himself, and it was
Speaker 1: God himself who chose the tsar's to do. Anything that
Speaker 1: would limit the complete power of the Russian Empire's ruler
Speaker 1: would be simply put the spit in the face of God.
Speaker 1: You see, the Russian authorities believed that humans were so weak, selfish,
Speaker 1: and vicious that they couldn't be trusted to rule themselves.
Speaker 1: In fact, they couldn't even be trusted to think. The
Speaker 1: right thing to do. Couldn't be discovered by thinking through
Speaker 1: your problems, like say, the problems that might arise if
Speaker 1: you were governing a massive empire. No, Instead, the way
Speaker 1: forward would be revealed by God. The only hope for
Speaker 1: humanity was to obey the czar. Must obey God, of course,
Speaker 1: and in political terms this meant that the people must
Speaker 1: obey the czar. As he would later put it to
Speaker 1: his Prime Minister, Nicholas believed that the heart of the
Speaker 1: czar is in the hand of God. For the young
Speaker 1: Nicholas growing up under this instruction. This meant that he
Speaker 1: learned to mistrust the ideas and arguments of the people
Speaker 1: around him. Instead, he taught himself to rely on mystical knowledge,
Speaker 1: hunches and impulses, ideas that came to him through instinct,
Speaker 1: ideas that he took to be the voice of God
Speaker 1: in his life. It was one reason that over his
Speaker 1: lifetime Nicholas would ignore the advice of his counselors over
Speaker 1: and over again. But of course, his heart wasn't just
Speaker 1: in the hands of God. It was also in the
Speaker 1: hands of the German princess raised by the British Empress.
Speaker 1: It was set on Alex. It was death that opened
Speaker 1: the door. It was the fall of Nicholas returned home
Speaker 1: to Russia. After a long visit with Alex, he found
Speaker 1: that the colossus was brought low, his father was dying.
Speaker 1: They tried all sorts of things. First, they went to
Speaker 1: the imperial hunting town of Spala in Poland, but when
Speaker 1: the doctors insisted they moved him to the warmer climate
Speaker 1: of Crimea. Nicholas sent for Alex immediately, and she was
Speaker 1: on the next train. She met Nicholas's father in time
Speaker 1: for the all important moment, he gave her his blessing.
Speaker 1: The engagement between Nicholas and alex was official. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just the Czar whose preferences had delayed the engagement, it
Speaker 1: was alex herself because there was a major change that
Speaker 1: she would have to make before she could join the
Speaker 1: Russian Imperial family. Alex you see, was Lutheran. Here's Dr
Speaker 1: Helen Rappaport again. There is no way she could have
Speaker 1: retained her Lutheran German Lutheran faith and be a future
Speaker 1: Sari Saris of Russia. So this was a hugely challenging
Speaker 1: period for her because she loved Nikki Art, she did
Speaker 1: not want to abandon her Lutheran faith. Alexandra had all
Speaker 1: been always been pretty religious and pious and very observant.
Speaker 1: So it was a really, really difficult period because eventually
Speaker 1: it was her sister Ella who helped the suade her
Speaker 1: because Ella, too, like alex Alexandra, married a Russian. She
Speaker 1: married granddukes so gay but without all the agonizing about
Speaker 1: adopting the russtional thoughts faith. Ella embraced it pretty much
Speaker 1: immediately and then persuaded Alexandra to also do likewise, without
Speaker 1: her older sister Alex would never have taken the plunge.
Speaker 1: It was at another family wedding that spring, with the
Speaker 1: many branches of Queen Victoria's family tree drawn together, that
Speaker 1: Nicholas had finally proposed to Alex, and with the gathering
Speaker 1: family around her urging her aunt, she accepted. Whatever Alex
Speaker 1: may have felt, we can imagine in Nicholas's relief. One
Speaker 1: historian remarked that the Tsarovitch cried like a child. He
Speaker 1: wrote to his mother that nature, mankind, everything all seemed
Speaker 1: good and lovable. His tears were tears of joy. Of course,
Speaker 1: the same camp be said on a deathbed. In that case,
Speaker 1: the only thing to come is the grave. On November one,
Speaker 1: the czar's illness took him. It was time for the
Speaker 1: Tsarovitch to take up his mantle. It was time for
Speaker 1: him to not just remember who he was, but to
Speaker 1: become the next ruler of the Russian Empire, and Nicholas
Speaker 1: was terrified. We even have his desperate questions. He asked
Speaker 1: to his brother in law in the first desolate moments
Speaker 1: after his father died, and they definitely don't ring with
Speaker 1: the determination of a new leader. What am I going
Speaker 1: to do, He asked, what is going to happen to me,
Speaker 1: to you, to alex to mother, to all Russia. I
Speaker 1: am not prepared to be czarre. I never wanted to
Speaker 1: become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.
Speaker 1: Helen Rappaport agrees now that the problem from for Nicholas
Speaker 1: right from day one was that he should probably had
Speaker 1: another twenty years to prepare for becoming zare. So he
Speaker 1: hadn't learned the tools of the trade. He hadn't learned
Speaker 1: state's craft, state craft. He was timid and frightened and
Speaker 1: terrified of the enormous responsibility of becoming Zar in his trenches, when,
Speaker 1: of course he would have expected becomes are maybe in
Speaker 1: his forties. But in the end Nicholas's on rushing destiny
Speaker 1: was unavoidable, and he marched into it like a soldier
Speaker 1: marching to war. He took it very, very seriously, and
Speaker 1: in a very kind of dogmatic and rather narrow way,
Speaker 1: in that he simply decided or declared rather from them
Speaker 1: and when she became czar, but he would preserved the
Speaker 1: autok Chrissy handed to him by his father, Alexander the
Speaker 1: Third exactly has passed down to him. The future before
Speaker 1: him wasn't all terrible destiny, though, because it also had
Speaker 1: alex It was on the first of November that the
Speaker 1: Tsar died. The very next day, alex took her first
Speaker 1: communion in the Russian Orthodox Church. She was now consecrated
Speaker 1: to her new faith, and it was at the end
Speaker 1: of the same month that Nicholas and alex were married.
Speaker 1: But if it was a transformation for Nicholas from Tsarevich
Speaker 1: to tsar, the transformations for alex were all the greater.
Speaker 1: Not only did she leave her childhood faith to embrace
Speaker 1: the church of her new empire, but she left her
Speaker 1: name behind as well. The German name alex was gone,
Speaker 1: the Russian Alexandra Fyodorovna took its place. She was a Romanov. Now.
Speaker 1: During the wedding itself, something dire and morose hung over
Speaker 1: the day. Alexander would later called that the sacred rituals
Speaker 1: joining her to Nicholas seemed to be just one more
Speaker 1: day in church after a month of funeral ceremonies. There
Speaker 1: was just one difference, she said, now her dress was
Speaker 1: white instead of black. Still, all her wedding day felt
Speaker 1: like just one more mass for the dead. It took
Speaker 1: time for things to change. The coronation of the news
Speaker 1: Are would not come until the spring of eighteen six,
Speaker 1: but the responsibilities of rule didn't wait for that day.
Speaker 1: It fell to the couple swiftly and severely, And when
Speaker 1: the day of coronation did arrive, it brought burdens of
Speaker 1: its own, burdens like the heavy chain of the Order
Speaker 1: of Saint Andrew that Nicholas wore into the cathedral, and
Speaker 1: that was meant to be passed from him to Alexandra
Speaker 1: during the ceremony. But as Nicholas climbed toward the altar,
Speaker 1: the clasp holding this symbol of sacred power gave way.
Speaker 1: The chain fell from Nicholas when it thundered to his feet.
Speaker 1: The fall reverberated across the gathered crowd and down through time.
Speaker 1: In the silence that followed, the whispers began where the
Speaker 1: news Ours shoulders broad enough to bear the burden of
Speaker 1: an empire. But that wasn't the only burden carried out
Speaker 1: of the capital. The other was far more gruesome, because
Speaker 1: the thing that Nicholas meant to be his crowning act
Speaker 1: of generosity turned into a maccab dance of death. You see.
Speaker 1: He had advertised that every peasant in St. Petersburg would
Speaker 1: get a gift from the news are a kerchief of
Speaker 1: gingerbread and a mug, and for that mug there would
Speaker 1: be free beer. The posters went up everywhere, and the
Speaker 1: crowds came in. And when I say crowds, I mean
Speaker 1: half a million people. And when they were called forward,
Speaker 1: they all pressed forward at once. It became a stampede.
Speaker 1: Thousands who came for a gift from the Czar were
Speaker 1: caught in the crush, and hundreds were trampled and killed.
Speaker 1: This was no small matter. In fact, Nicholas was sick
Speaker 1: that such a horrible tragedy was caused by his desire
Speaker 1: to make a good impression. For a moment, he thought
Speaker 1: about calling off the cell librations. But the rest of
Speaker 1: his family, oh, they wouldn't hear of it. While they
Speaker 1: danced at the coronation ball, the police picked through the
Speaker 1: field of bloated bodies wearing their festival clothes, smashed together
Speaker 1: under the weight of desperate neighbors. And when the Romanovs
Speaker 1: traveled home after the festivities, they were passed by a
Speaker 1: procession of wagons, wagons that were filled with mangled corpses.
Speaker 1: Ella was deeply disturbed. Her sister Alexandra had married Nicholas
Speaker 1: under the shadow of the old Czar's death, and more
Speaker 1: tragedies had followed close on their heels. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: the depths of a few thousand peasants that upset Ella. No,
Speaker 1: all of that was in the past. Stranger things had
Speaker 1: crept into the court at St. Petersburg, things that terrified
Speaker 1: Ella far more than the deaths of the St. Petersburg poor,
Speaker 1: although maybe she should have thought quite a bit more
Speaker 1: about what drove people to climb over their neighbor's dead
Speaker 1: bodies for a gift basket of in your bread. But
Speaker 1: Ella was like the rest of the Romanovs. She had
Speaker 1: been in Russia long enough to care about only a
Speaker 1: very small circle of aristocratic issues. And this is where
Speaker 1: we come back to the spiritualist mystic Monsignor Philippe. He
Speaker 1: was the twenty nine of August of nineteen o two.
Speaker 1: Ella was writing to Nicholas's mother. She knew all about
Speaker 1: this mystical healer, she said, the man who was glued
Speaker 1: to her younger sister's side. In fact, this occult counselor
Speaker 1: Horror of horrors. Wasn't even Russian, he was French, and
Speaker 1: in Ella's eyes, he was influencing Nicholas and Alexandra to
Speaker 1: a terrifying extent. Ella knew why too. She credited his
Speaker 1: place at court to the women she called the cockroaches,
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexandra's closest friends, the sisters Stana and Melitza.
Speaker 1: Those weren't the only nicknames they had, though. Whispers of spiders,
Speaker 1: crows and worse followed them through the St. Petersburg salons.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't enough to separate them from the Empress.
Speaker 1: You See, like Ella and Alexandra, Stana and Melitza had
Speaker 1: married into Russian nobility, and sure they had made some enemies,
Speaker 1: but they had also gotten cozy with some important people
Speaker 1: at court. For instance, the Tsar's cousin and confidante, Nikolasha.
Speaker 1: Six ft five and brimming with violence, Nikolasha shared the
Speaker 1: Tsar's desperate devotion to the army. But where Nicolas was meek,
Speaker 1: Nikolasha was all ferocity. He loved lording his position and
Speaker 1: his physical might over the soldiers under his command. The
Speaker 1: old Tsar had torn packs of cards to show his
Speaker 1: strength Nikolasha went further. When he wanted to show off
Speaker 1: the sharpness of a sword, he cut one of his
Speaker 1: dogs in half. If there was a Roman off in
Speaker 1: the mold of the old Tsar, it was Nikolasha. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's why Nicholas held him so close. Soon enough, Stana
Speaker 1: held Nikolasha close as well. So when Alexandra was first
Speaker 1: coming to grips with what it meant to rule her
Speaker 1: new empire and embrace her new faith, it was Nikolasha, Stana,
Speaker 1: and Melizza who were speaking into her ear. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: it was natural for Alexandra to follow the lead of
Speaker 1: friends who knew what it was like to sail into
Speaker 1: the Russian nobility as an outsider. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Melissa's Russian Christianity was far more orthodox, and her sister
Speaker 1: Stana followed in her wake. So in the days when
Speaker 1: they put their heads together, one of the things Stana
Speaker 1: and Melissa managed to pass on to Alexandra was a
Speaker 1: deep interest in the crossroads of Orthodoxy and the occult,
Speaker 1: especially the teachings of mystics and holy men. Here's historian
Speaker 1: Douglas Smith to tell us more. These two sisters, who
Speaker 1: were the King of Montenegro, who had married into the
Speaker 1: extended Romana family, and they were utterly obsessed with the
Speaker 1: occult and Rosicrucianism and mysticism. And they learned about this
Speaker 1: Messieur Philippe through travels to France, and they helped introduce
Speaker 1: him to Nicholas and Alexandra Um and he made his
Speaker 1: way to the court in St. Peter's and they were
Speaker 1: utterly taken with him. They were convinced he was a
Speaker 1: prophet um, that he could divine the future, and that
Speaker 1: he had insights into the nature of rule and power
Speaker 1: and how Nicholas should govern Russia. Of course, Alexandra wasn't
Speaker 1: the only one looking for guidance. Nicholas was also searching
Speaker 1: for a beacon to lead him, and if he held
Speaker 1: to the teachings of his childhood, he was looking less
Speaker 1: for the statesman and theorists of the day to lay
Speaker 1: out a plan of action, and more for the voice
Speaker 1: of God, not least because one of the problems that
Speaker 1: preoccupied both Nicholas and Alexandra was one over which no
Speaker 1: counsel of scholars or schemers could hold sway. They needed
Speaker 1: to produce an air. Not that their marriage didn't bring
Speaker 1: them children. It did first Olga, then Tatiana, then Maria
Speaker 1: and finally, in nineteen o one, Anastasia. But if they
Speaker 1: took joy in their daughters, they also grew increasingly fearful,
Speaker 1: and of course the burden fell heaviest on Alexandra. Here's
Speaker 1: Helen Rappaport again. Her role, essentially once she was Itza
Speaker 1: was to produce a male heir, because in Russia the
Speaker 1: throne was passed down by male children only. So the
Speaker 1: pressure on Alexandra from day one, first of all, was
Speaker 1: to produce children, but particularly to produce a boy. And
Speaker 1: I think it's almost impossible to imagine the enormous emotional
Speaker 1: and psychological pressure on her over a period of ten
Speaker 1: years to produce a boy and to keep having girls. Uh,
Speaker 1: and not only that difficult pregnancies, big babies. I mean,
Speaker 1: she must have suffered physical agonies producing those four girls
Speaker 1: in in fairly quick succession. So when Stana went to
Speaker 1: mon Senior Philippe for headaches, and then Melitza got his
Speaker 1: help on treating her six son, of course they would
Speaker 1: see the possibility of helping their friend the Empress as well.
Speaker 1: The introductions went swimmingly he was exactly what Nicholas and
Speaker 1: Alexandra had been looking for, not least because as a
Speaker 1: spiritualist he could channel the voices of the dead for Nicholas.
Speaker 1: That meant Philip's seances were a way to make up
Speaker 1: for lost time. When he needed advice on holding the
Speaker 1: reins of Russia, he could ask the person who knew
Speaker 1: the job the best, his dead father. And to Alexandra
Speaker 1: he offered something even more valuable. Philip claimed that there
Speaker 1: was a certain magnetic electric energy that emanated from his fingertips,
Speaker 1: and by passing them over uh the Empress's belly once
Speaker 1: she was pregnant, he could make sure that the next
Speaker 1: child she had would be a son. And obviously this
Speaker 1: is something that was high on their list of priorities,
Speaker 1: and that gave Philipp this great um hold over Nicholas
Speaker 1: and Alexander for quite some time. But if that was
Speaker 1: a joy to Stana and Melitza, it was a horror
Speaker 1: to Ella and to the Dowager Empress, Nicholas's mother, But
Speaker 1: they did more than send letters back and forth pouring
Speaker 1: scorn on the Montenegrin sisters. Soon enough, Nicholas's mother had
Speaker 1: the palace commandant on the case, investigating the French mystic
Speaker 1: who had lived for two months in a small house
Speaker 1: near the palace, and he went further to working with
Speaker 1: the head of the Czarist secret police in Paris to
Speaker 1: collect information on Philippe. What did they hear back That
Speaker 1: the man was a Charlatan, He was a dabbler in
Speaker 1: black magic, and plenty worse too, including anti Semitic smears
Speaker 1: and conspiracy theories that made him out to be a Satanist.
Speaker 1: If this report was meant to turn Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 1: away from their new friend, their royal favorite backfired. Any
Speaker 1: valid criticisms of Philippe were mingled with racist slander, plenty
Speaker 1: of reasons for Nicholas and Alexandra to throw it aside.
Speaker 1: Russian secret police were fired, and rumors flew that it
Speaker 1: was because the Tsar was furious, maybe even that Philippe
Speaker 1: had identified his enemies and was tightening his grip on Nicholas.
Speaker 1: At the Zar's prompting, Nikolasha even went out and got
Speaker 1: Monsignor Philippe a medical degree from the Russian Military Medical Academy,
Speaker 1: complete with uniform and no wonder The Czar and Czarista
Speaker 1: refused to hear either just critiques or malicious gossip about
Speaker 1: their spiritual adviser. After all, they had been harboring a secret,
Speaker 1: a triumph they credited to the powers of Philippe. Alexandra
Speaker 1: was pregnant. Months passed. If Alexandra felt vindicated in the
Speaker 1: face of her royal mother in law's criticism, Over time,
Speaker 1: that thrill turned to caution and then to worry. The
Speaker 1: pregnancy didn't seem to be progressing the way she expected.
Speaker 1: Philip had promised that the baby was a boy, their
Speaker 1: son and heir. He also told Alexandra not to let
Speaker 1: doctors examine her. Ella tried over and over to get
Speaker 1: her sister to change her mind to let go of Philippe.
Speaker 1: After the investigation into the occultist word was spreading and
Speaker 1: important secrets, they only drove more interest and curiosity about
Speaker 1: the hidden life of the Czarina would turn idle questions
Speaker 1: into malicious stories. Ella wanted her sister to see that
Speaker 1: it was a prophetic moment from Ella, but Alexander was
Speaker 1: listening more to Stana and Melitza than her own sister.
Speaker 1: It would take the tables turning before Alexandra would relent,
Speaker 1: But the tables did turn. In August of nineteen o two,
Speaker 1: after months of protting, Alexandra agreed to a check up
Speaker 1: with Russia's leading gynecologist. The whole family was stunned by
Speaker 1: what he found. She was not carrying a son. Instead,
Speaker 1: she was suffering a molar pregnancy. Philippe had been dead wrong,
Speaker 1: and if she had not been following his advice to
Speaker 1: keep things secrets, the doctors could have helped her long before.
Speaker 1: But if you think this revelation could change Nicholas and
Speaker 1: alex Andrew's mind, then you don't know the Romanovs. Yes,
Speaker 1: they told the family the truth through the shame and embarrassment,
Speaker 1: and their next stop was Philippe himself. Not to express
Speaker 1: their anger with him, though they went back to him
Speaker 1: for comfort. The rest of the family was furious and
Speaker 1: Ella was proved right. Stories started finding their way to
Speaker 1: the press. The tempest poured out of the teacup and
Speaker 1: into the atmosphere, false stories mixed with the truth that
Speaker 1: these are was being influenced by a French occultist and
Speaker 1: taking advice on matters of state. In the darkness of
Speaker 1: seance to Nicholas and Alexandra, Philippe was a personal friend
Speaker 1: and spiritual advisor to the public, though he was now
Speaker 1: the Satanic power behind the throne. As the year passed,
Speaker 1: the rest of the royal court urged them to realize
Speaker 1: that the rumors could be false, but the damage of
Speaker 1: the scandal could be all too real. In the end,
Speaker 1: Nicholas came around. If he was going to be the
Speaker 1: caretaker of Czarism that he wanted to be, he needed
Speaker 1: to make a change. It was painful, but to ease
Speaker 1: the break, Monsignor Philippe gave Alexandra gifts. First, he gave
Speaker 1: her a small bunch of dried flowers. They had been
Speaker 1: touched by the hand of Christ himself, he told her. Second,
Speaker 1: he gave her a bell. He said that by an
Speaker 1: unseen force, it would ring whenever someone who was not
Speaker 1: a friend came near. No doubt, Alexandra felt grateful to
Speaker 1: have it in such an unfriendly place, and we know
Speaker 1: she treasured both of them. Philip also left the pair
Speaker 1: with one more thing, a prophecy that was also a
Speaker 1: set of instructions. Follow them, and Alexandra would finally conceive
Speaker 1: a son and heir. At the end of nineteen o
Speaker 1: two and into nineteen o three. The pair did just that,
Speaker 1: they had to fight the Church and have a long
Speaker 1: dead holy man canonized as a saint. They had to
Speaker 1: make a pilgrimage to the monastery at Sarov, where they
Speaker 1: needed Alexandra to bathe in the spring. There. The imperial
Speaker 1: couple had thrown off advice from many quarters, but they
Speaker 1: followed these instructions to the tea. They won their battle
Speaker 1: with the Church, and on the nineteenth of July, Nicholas
Speaker 1: himself took part in a holy procession to carry the
Speaker 1: relics of their new saints into Sarov Cathedral. That night,
Speaker 1: these are and Zarina, along with others, lowered themselves into
Speaker 1: the river Sarova. The water was frigid, but Philip's promises
Speaker 1: warmed their courage. So did the pilgrims who joined them
Speaker 1: on their trek to Sarov. Some accounts say that it
Speaker 1: was one hundred and fifty thousand people, others say it
Speaker 1: was twice that. Regardless of the actual number, there was
Speaker 1: one thing that Alexandra and Nicholas took to heart. The
Speaker 1: Russian people were with them, so it seemed was the
Speaker 1: guiding hand of God, because within a month Alexandra was
Speaker 1: pregnant again, and this time it was real. Here's Helen
Speaker 1: Rappaport once again, finally in this longed for boy. Now,
Speaker 1: of course the church fells rang and gun salutes with
Speaker 1: fars all over Russia, and everyone was celebrating the Saryevitch,
Speaker 1: and then this horrendous tragedy befallsome. Now, this longed for
Speaker 1: beautiful child, and he was a very beautiful baby, turns
Speaker 1: out to be him Ophelia. Once again. For Alexandra, joy
Speaker 1: was quickly overshadowed by terror, because when the baby was
Speaker 1: just a week old, Alexandra noticed blood seeping from his
Speaker 1: belly button and unaccountable bruises blooming over his body. The
Speaker 1: realization dawned that her son, the new Tsarovich Alexei, had
Speaker 1: the same condition that had killed her brother Fretty all
Speaker 1: those years before. From there on out, protecting Alexey would
Speaker 1: become a central preoccupation of Alexandra's life, hardly less for
Speaker 1: Nicholas too, And they went back to their first familiar
Speaker 1: line of defense. They wrapped the boy's illness in secrecy.
Speaker 1: It was the difference between Czar and Zarina, all of
Speaker 1: this pressure for Alexandra to bear his son, and so
Speaker 1: little respect for who she was as a ruler, a thinker,
Speaker 1: a person. Nicholas at least could put on his military
Speaker 1: medals and parade with the troops. The scrutiny of the
Speaker 1: Czarina was so much more personal, so much more invasive,
Speaker 1: and there was hardly the expectation that she brought anything
Speaker 1: more to the table. It hadn't always been this way
Speaker 1: in Russia, though, after all, Catherine the Great had governed
Speaker 1: the empire for over three decades. But Catherine's son had
Speaker 1: hated her. He had poisoned that well when he changed
Speaker 1: the laws and tried to make sure that no woman
Speaker 1: would rule Russia again. That legacy shut the door on Alexandra.
Speaker 1: But she had shown them, Yes, she had her son,
Speaker 1: even on their terms, she had won. Through it all,
Speaker 1: it was clear that Alexandra had few friends in the
Speaker 1: Imperial court. She would have to look beyond the halls
Speaker 1: of power to find the kind of support, personal and
Speaker 1: spiritual that she was desperate for. She would win on
Speaker 1: her terms, too, And that's where the story really begins,
Speaker 1: because this season on Unobscured, we're exploring the story of
Speaker 1: one of the twenty centuries most notorious schemers, The man
Speaker 1: who had come to stand beside the Empress Alexandra as
Speaker 1: the days darkened and the fires of war came on.
Speaker 1: He was a peasant standing at the crossroads of history,
Speaker 1: a man who became a legend in his own lifetime.
Speaker 1: As one age was swept away by war and revolution
Speaker 1: and something new emerged. The stories of his life were
Speaker 1: repeated and remade into the inhuman sorcerer we know today
Speaker 1: as Grigory Resputant. He was a preacher, a monster, a healer,
Speaker 1: and a friend to the most powerful family in the world, until,
Speaker 1: that is, their whole world came crashing down around them.
Speaker 1: The reports that held the details of his life and
Speaker 1: death were locked away, and in the shadows of a
Speaker 1: fallen order, Legend after legend sprang in to fill the
Speaker 1: void and placed the weight of the empire's destruction on
Speaker 1: his shoulders. In those early days of her reign, though
Speaker 1: before the romanovs ever met the peasant preacher from Siberia,
Speaker 1: Alexandra's strength of will was clear for everyone to see,
Speaker 1: as was her loneliness in the vast Russian Empire. Even
Speaker 1: in her own family, the men whispered after her. She
Speaker 1: was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and shouldn't her hold
Speaker 1: over the British Empire have put an end to the
Speaker 1: Snyder arguments about whether women were capable of commanding empires.
Speaker 1: Maybe it could have, but some men in Alexandra's family
Speaker 1: seemed to have missed that lesson men like her brother Ernie.
Speaker 1: Maybe he was thinking of her early years when she
Speaker 1: was guiding teams of horses as a tiny child, that
Speaker 1: he twisted the experience back on her in disgusting terms.
Speaker 1: The Czar is an angel, Ernie said, But he doesn't
Speaker 1: know how to deal with alex What she needs is
Speaker 1: a superior will which can dominates and bridle her. Obviously,
Speaker 1: these would be heinous words coming from anyone, but from
Speaker 1: her own brother they use menace and condescension. It's a
Speaker 1: reminder of just how difficult it was for any women
Speaker 1: of the era to command respect. When he looked at
Speaker 1: Nicholas's reputation for weakness and Alexandra's strength of character, he
Speaker 1: only saw flaws. No wonder Alexandra would be willing to
Speaker 1: shut out the toxic voices of those around her. But
Speaker 1: of course it seems Alexandra it was never truly numb
Speaker 1: to the venomous treatment she received, no wonder she would
Speaker 1: treasure the witness of Monseigneur Philippe's ringing bell. She knew
Speaker 1: that even at the Reins, she was valued more for
Speaker 1: her womb than her mind, her strength, or her faith,
Speaker 1: and anyone could be an enemy. But that didn't break
Speaker 1: her will. It only made her more determined, more dead
Speaker 1: set on showing them, showing everyone who she was Empress
Speaker 1: of Russia. And there was one final promise left by
Speaker 1: Monsignor Philippe that she held onto. It gave her courage
Speaker 1: in the moments when she felt alone, when he was
Speaker 1: comforting her through the painful separation. As he left Russia
Speaker 1: for the last time, he dried her tears, saying, be calm,
Speaker 1: your majesty, Another friend will come. That's it for this
Speaker 1: week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor
Speaker 1: break for a preview of what's in store for next week.
Speaker 1: It was a life of work and wandering, and a
Speaker 1: life of little rest. Later, he would write, everything was
Speaker 1: interesting to me, good and bad, and he had so
Speaker 1: much to learn. He wasn't seeking knowledge from books and
Speaker 1: from stages. No, that was the worst way to answer
Speaker 1: the questions that he was trying to answer the learned,
Speaker 1: Grigory wrote, do not go to God. They study everything
Speaker 1: by books, and that knowledge confuses them. It was just
Speaker 1: one of the many reasons that he didn't want to
Speaker 1: become a priest. After all, he said, he met many
Speaker 1: who failed to live up to their responsibilities. He had
Speaker 1: thought of becoming a monk, but the rigid orders, days
Speaker 1: of studying theology, and cycles of trying and failing to
Speaker 1: hold to monastic discipline were the opposite of what he wanted.
Speaker 1: On the road, Gregory was hunting more than the abstractions
Speaker 1: of theologians and the rationalizations of corrupt clergy. Like other
Speaker 1: religious teachers, seekers, and believers of his day, he rejected
Speaker 1: those things. Now he was hunting for spiritual revelation. He
Speaker 1: was looking for something earthier, the crossroads where the work
Speaker 1: of God met people in their ordinary life. And in
Speaker 1: that quest he had lots of examples to ponder. Unobscured
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Josh Thane in partnership with Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: with research by Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and
Speaker 1: original music by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians,
Speaker 1: source materials and links to our other shows over at
Speaker 1: grim and mild dot com, slash Unobscured, and as always,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Four