1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: The boy was gone. Death had come for the baby, 3 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 1: sudden and remorseless. All the hopes and desires and celebrations 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: of fatherhood and the family's future were smashed in one 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 1: searing moment of pain that went on and on and on. 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: It was the fear of every parent that something would 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: happen to their beloved child, and this was his firstborn 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: son that he had lost at just six months old. 9 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: His faith taught him that suffering like this was a 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,239 Speaker 1: kind of mystery. It had guided him this far, but 11 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,559 Speaker 1: faced with so much loss, he could only ask, in 12 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: a world governed by justice, how could his baby boy 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 1: be taken from him this way? It was a terrible 14 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: and costly question burning its way into his heart. The 15 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: rhythms and responsibilities of his life, and the teachings and 16 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: traditions of his youth, they offered no answers. Blind with 17 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: pain and grief and loss, he set out from home. 18 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 1: He left his devastated wife behind, and he took to 19 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: the road. He went looking for answers. He traveled by foot. 20 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 1: The questions would have plagued him for the weeks that 21 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 1: it took to reach up into the ural mountains, that 22 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: stone spine that split the Russian Empire in two, and 23 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: he followed roads and tracks that stretched higher and higher 24 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: for more than three hundred miles. But he wasn't lost. 25 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:32,959 Speaker 1: He knew where he was going. He would bring his 26 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 1: burning questions to one of the holiest places in Russia. 27 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,759 Speaker 1: He would bring them to the Monastery of St. Nicholas. 28 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: It wasn't the only sacred place in its small town. 29 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,840 Speaker 1: In fact, it was surrounded by churches, but it was 30 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: by far the most renowned. It had stood for centuries, 31 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: and it's holy men were legendary. Miracles had been worked 32 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: there in the mountainous upper air. It was a place 33 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: where God reached down and revealed himself. And for two generations, 34 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: a great cathedral reached up from the rocks, the Cathedral 35 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: of Transfiguration, where the massive bell spire and the bones 36 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,639 Speaker 1: of saints welcomed pilgrims from the four corners of the Empire. 37 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: But it wasn't the cathedral that called to the grieving Father. No, 38 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: in the face of a lost son, that grand display 39 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: of power was as hollow as the home he had 40 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,560 Speaker 1: left behind. His eyes turned away from the church spire, 41 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: to the outskirts of the monastery grounds, to the border 42 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: of the forest. It wasn't to the monks and the 43 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: priests that the question would go. No, it was to 44 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: the swineherd. It was in a small hut at the 45 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: tree line that the hermit Macarey lived, and that is 46 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: where the questions drove him to the man renowned for holiness, simplicity, 47 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: and spiritual wisdom. Seekers would later remember that Maccari's greatest 48 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,080 Speaker 1: delight seemed to be the chickens who shared his hut, 49 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: and the words the hermit whispered to his small flock 50 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: would have been amicael if they weren't filled with so 51 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: much power. So what was it that he said? Well, 52 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: we know at least one thing Maccari would tell his 53 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:13,640 Speaker 1: visitors about his own suffering, the sorrows and misfortunes of 54 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,119 Speaker 1: my life, as he called them. If there was one 55 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: thing that a grieving father could understand, it was sorrow 56 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: and misfortune. So maybe it's no surprise that an encounter 57 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: like this could change a man's life when he was 58 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: at his lowest point. Witnessing Macaary's devotion to God could 59 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: become the model for a new way of being. His 60 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: old life and its place in Russia could be left 61 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: behind for a new way, the way of the pilgrim. 62 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: And in this encounter with Maccary he felt the power 63 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 1: of suffering to bring people together. Maybe that's what laid 64 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: the cornerstone of the relationships that would later make this 65 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: grieving father the most infamous religious wanderer in Russia and 66 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: the world, because having lost his son, he suffered what 67 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: the Czar and Czarina most feared, the death of the 68 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: Imperial air. Because yes, the man who climbed mountains to 69 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: find peace in the company of a religious hermit was 70 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: named Gregory. He was a broken man, and over time 71 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: he would be remade in Macaari's image. That encounter in 72 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: the mountain monastery after the death of his son was 73 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: only the first time that Grigory would seek Macaari's wisdom. 74 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: Through wandering and revelation. His voice would echo down the 75 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,720 Speaker 1: mountains and into the ear of a royal couple desperate 76 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: to keep their own fragile son alive. All of that, though, 77 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: would come in time, but to get there there would 78 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: be many more dark days spent on winding roads on 79 00:04:42,040 --> 00:05:05,839 Speaker 1: his way to becoming resputant. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. 80 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:15,160 Speaker 1: It was a place for changing horses, at least if 81 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: you were in a coach rattling along the Toura River 82 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: between two Mean and Tobolsk. Anyone going that way, whether 83 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,680 Speaker 1: in search of prosperity or to some darker destination, was 84 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,160 Speaker 1: likely to make a stop, stretching their weary legs, and 85 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:31,880 Speaker 1: make sure their beasts of burden could carry them the 86 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: rest of the way. A dead horse goes nowhere, after all. 87 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,599 Speaker 1: So Pakrovska was the place of which journeys through Old 88 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,159 Speaker 1: Russia were made. But from a stop on the road, 89 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: procro Scott grew into a town, A small town anyway. 90 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: It was a community of hunters, fishermen and farmers, raising livestock, 91 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: raising families, and scratching out a life from thy Siberian earth. 92 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: All the better if you had something to offer the 93 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: baggage trains traveling to and from Siberia's oldest city, and 94 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: many of Prokoska's families still found their living in the 95 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 1: shipping trades. Men like Yafim and his son Grigory. They 96 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,680 Speaker 1: had done fairly well in their work too. On his 97 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: land were the dozen cows and eighteen horses that he 98 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 1: had pulled together over the years. He started as a 99 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,960 Speaker 1: laborer among laborers, cutting hay and loading the boats that 100 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 1: passed by on the river. But when he became a 101 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: coachman himself, hired by the state to make the trips 102 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: between two men and Tobolsk, things turned around. By peasants standards, 103 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: at least life was good. Things also turned around at home, 104 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 1: you see. Similarly, things started off with a kind of 105 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: tragedy that was all too common. None of his first 106 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: four children lived more than a few months. We can 107 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:51,520 Speaker 1: only imagine the pain that their mother, Anna felt to 108 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:56,280 Speaker 1: bury so many babies. But in January of eighteen sixty nine, 109 00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: Yefim and Anna had a son who survived. It was 110 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: the stay of Saint Gregory of Nissa, so in honor 111 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: of that ancient Christian mystic, they named their son Gregory. 112 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,280 Speaker 1: In the twists and turns of a difficult life, he 113 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: was a divine blessing, the kind of miraculous gift that 114 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: can't be explained and can only be received with gratitude. 115 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,559 Speaker 1: Why does one child live when four others have died? 116 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: If Yafim and Anna couldn't answer that question, they could 117 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: at least give thanks their son was growing up and 118 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:31,280 Speaker 1: growing strong. Sure he had the typical struggles of a 119 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: peasant boy. That one time he turned his teenage attitude 120 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: against the local magistrates. It got Grigory thrown in jail. 121 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: That must have put honest heart and advice. But the 122 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: boy was freed after just two days. After all, he 123 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: was just fifteen. But it was also an early sign 124 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:50,360 Speaker 1: that Gregory would not be cowed by people with power. 125 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:55,119 Speaker 1: Other omens of his later life were likewise appearing around town. 126 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 1: He got a bit of a reputation as a bit 127 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: of a troublemaker, a heavy drinker, someone for young women 128 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: to steer clear of and for parents to whisper warnings about. 129 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: But every town had one or two, right, It was 130 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: hardly a story to write down in the history books. 131 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: After all, he was just a young laut who worked 132 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:17,400 Speaker 1: with his father in the carriageman's trade. No doubt, he 133 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: helped his father break horses, handled the tech, and learned 134 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: the power of a bit and bridle. The means of 135 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: managing horses wasn't the only set of rules he learned 136 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: in his teenage years, he was already making pilgrimages to 137 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: the monasteries near his hometown, honoring the faith of his family, 138 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 1: despite shrugging off its commands to temper his urges and impulses. 139 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: If his mother hoped that a strong faith might help 140 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,480 Speaker 1: Grigory to grow out of his youthful indulgences, all the better. 141 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,559 Speaker 1: In eighteen eighties six, when he came home from celebrating 142 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: a Holy Day feast and brought his family joyful news 143 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: he had met a peasant girl named Prescovia, and something 144 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: had drawn the two together. By February of eighteen eighties said, 145 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,840 Speaker 1: even Gregory and Prescovia were married, living in his hometown, 146 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:07,560 Speaker 1: in his father's house. Actually, Gregory now had a path 147 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: laid out before him, a life of faith, family work, 148 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: and maybe something less palatable around the edges, the life 149 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,000 Speaker 1: of a Siberian peasant laborer. If he was lucky, his 150 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: life would be as fortunate as his father's. Eighteen horses 151 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 1: was nothing to sneer at. But Gregory's misfortunes also followed 152 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:30,720 Speaker 1: his father's. His little son died of scarlet fever. If 153 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: Yaphim and Anna had somehow made their peace with the 154 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: grief of losing children. It seems the pain sent Gregory 155 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,960 Speaker 1: out the door and on his search for answers. That 156 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: journey was the first step on his new path, but 157 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: it was far from the end of his old life. 158 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,400 Speaker 1: He would later say that for a while his life 159 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: continued on as before, and by all accounts it's true. 160 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: At the monastery in the mountains he was comforted by Maccarie, 161 00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 1: but he went back to his family, his hometown, and 162 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: his life there. He went back to work too, sometimes 163 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:07,959 Speaker 1: as a coachman, sometimes fishing the rivers, sometimes farming. It 164 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:11,680 Speaker 1: was a peasant life, but a pleasant one too. Gregory 165 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: and Praskovia even had more children together. As time passed. 166 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:19,239 Speaker 1: It seemed like maybe Grigory's renewed faith from his monastery 167 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: pilgrimage had prepared him to endure the life he was 168 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: born into. It seemed like maybe Grigory would follow in 169 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: his father's footsteps. But after more than a decade of 170 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:35,680 Speaker 1: this life, something changed. He had an awakening. The story 171 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: is unclear, and it's wrapped in contradictory legends, as anything 172 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: is about this man. Some say that he took another 173 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: religious pilgrimage accompanying a young priest, and the man convinced 174 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 1: Gregory to take up the life of a holy pilgrim. 175 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:53,640 Speaker 1: Some say that Resputant went on the run from the 176 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:57,839 Speaker 1: law for stealing horses. His daughter Maria would later put 177 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: it this way. One day, when he was plowing a field, 178 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:03,719 Speaker 1: he came to the end of a row, looking up. 179 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,880 Speaker 1: A stunning light blinded him as the figure of the 180 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,640 Speaker 1: Virgin Mary passed in front of the sun and looked 181 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: down on the man. He blinked to try to clear 182 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,679 Speaker 1: his head, but she only smiled and raised her hand 183 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: gesturing to the horizons. She told Grigory what he needed 184 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,680 Speaker 1: to do, leave his little Siberian town and put his 185 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: feet on a new path. Resputing himself in his only 186 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,760 Speaker 1: published book, would say that he was simply restless, tired 187 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:35,959 Speaker 1: of peasant life, and feeling a growing thirst for spiritual knowledge. 188 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:40,439 Speaker 1: Whatever the motivation, the change was sudden and real. He 189 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:44,959 Speaker 1: stopped drinking, stopped smoking, and stopped eating meat. In every 190 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 1: aspect of his life, he trying to follow the path 191 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:51,320 Speaker 1: of men like Macary. Even more important for his family. 192 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,559 Speaker 1: He left home with only the clothes on his back 193 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: and the shoes on his feet. Grigory Resputant set out 194 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,440 Speaker 1: to cross the Russian Empire, from chapel to chapel and 195 00:12:02,559 --> 00:12:05,439 Speaker 1: town to town, to plumb the depths of the great 196 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:11,520 Speaker 1: spiritual mysteries. He started to wander, and then he started 197 00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:19,480 Speaker 1: to teach. He learned it on the road. A lot 198 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: of what he saw reminded him of home. Peasants everywhere, harvesting, building, plowing, 199 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: and planting. He crossed Siberia on foot, and it was grueling. 200 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: He would go days without food, weeks or months without 201 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:36,200 Speaker 1: a change of clothes. He was sometimes robbed of what 202 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:38,640 Speaker 1: little he had. He would later say that he had 203 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,439 Speaker 1: even been hunted by wolves. But to Gregory, these were 204 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 1: not the worst enemies he faced. No like other saints 205 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 1: and mystics before him, Gregory says that he was hunted 206 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: by spiritual enemies. The devil attacked him over and over, 207 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: and demons opposed him at every step. They tried, he 208 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,720 Speaker 1: would say, to pull him away from God, to make 209 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: him give up, to make him give in to temptations. 210 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,120 Speaker 1: But Gregory had the weapons to battle them too. He 211 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: beat himself to fight off the temptations of the flesh, 212 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 1: and wrapped his legs in chains to slow his walk 213 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: a reminder and a punishment for his sins. In Gregory's mind, 214 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:23,520 Speaker 1: the road became a battlefield. But it's not like Gregory 215 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 1: only met enemies through his wandering. In fact, there were 216 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: plenty of people who would have welcomed him along the way. 217 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 1: He found friends and allies in his quest for revelation. 218 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:35,559 Speaker 1: There were people who would open their doors to him 219 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: and asked him to share what he had learned. After all, 220 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:41,720 Speaker 1: he was just one of many Russian wanderers that God 221 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:45,679 Speaker 1: had sent out into the world. Here's historian Helen Coleman 222 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,679 Speaker 1: to tell us more. There was a great tradition in 223 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: Russian life of welcoming pilgrims, of welcoming holy people who 224 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,760 Speaker 1: traveled to shrines, who traveled from village to villa, living 225 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: on donations. These were people who were religious searchers, who 226 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,920 Speaker 1: were trying to become a person that God had made 227 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,320 Speaker 1: them to be, and so there was great respect for 228 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: that sort of religious traveler. It was a life of 229 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: work and wandering, and a life of little rest. Later, 230 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,440 Speaker 1: he would write, everything was interesting to me, good and bad, 231 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:27,400 Speaker 1: and he had so much to learn. He wasn't seeking 232 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: knowledge from books and from stages. No, that was the 233 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: worst way to answer the questions that he was trying 234 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:37,560 Speaker 1: to answer. The learned, Grigory wrote, do not go to God. 235 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: They study everything by books, and that knowledge confuses them. 236 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:44,920 Speaker 1: It was just one of the many reasons that he 237 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:48,000 Speaker 1: didn't want to become a priest. After all, he said, 238 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: he met many who failed to live up to their responsibilities. 239 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: He had thought of becoming a monk, but the rigid orders, 240 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: days of studying theology, and cycles of trying and failing 241 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 1: to hold to monastic discipline were the opposite of what 242 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: he wanted. On the road, Gregory was hunting more than 243 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: the abstractions of theologians and the rationalizations of corrupt clergy. 244 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: Like other religious teachers, seekers, and believers of his day, 245 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:19,520 Speaker 1: he rejected those things. Now he was hunting for spiritual revelation. 246 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,200 Speaker 1: He was looking for something earthier, the crossroads where the 247 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 1: work of God met people in their ordinary life. And 248 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: in that quest he had lots of examples to ponder. 249 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: Here's Dr Coleman once again. Ordinary people, peasants, s lower 250 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: class people in the cities often did things differently from 251 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: how the priests would have liked them to do. Things 252 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,560 Speaker 1: They had local sites of pilgrimage that were not necessarily 253 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:57,600 Speaker 1: approved by the powers that be. Local communities would often have, 254 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: for example, icons that they regarded as miraculous that had 255 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 1: not been officially approved. Official approval was never Gregory's goal 256 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: from the time he had gone to the monastery to 257 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: seek wisdom from Macquarie rather than the monks. It's clear 258 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,480 Speaker 1: that he was more interested in the faith of peasants 259 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 1: than those in power, and Gregory's journey to find answers 260 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,480 Speaker 1: outside the walls of the church started in a place 261 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,280 Speaker 1: that was more promising than most. After all, he was 262 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: in Siberia and in Restputant's day. That meant that there 263 00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: was a certain independence to the people whom he met. 264 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 1: Back in the seventeenth century, the official Orthodox Church began 265 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,160 Speaker 1: to to modernize and it began to reform and try 266 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: to standardize religious practice. And this was very upsetting to 267 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: many Orthodox believers because as I as I just mentioned 268 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: right orthodox he means right practice and the physical practice, 269 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:04,040 Speaker 1: the way that one worships is considered to be critical 270 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:08,479 Speaker 1: to reaching salvation. And so in the late seventeenth century 271 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:12,919 Speaker 1: you have large numbers of people who left the church 272 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:16,960 Speaker 1: and became known dubbed as the old Believers. It was 273 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: illegal to be an old Believer, and so many of 274 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: them fled to Siberia and to the farther reaches of 275 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:27,119 Speaker 1: the Empire. And through all his encounters, the trials with 276 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 1: enemies and the comfort of friends, visiting shrines, debating with monks, 277 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:36,520 Speaker 1: and rubbing shoulders with old believers, Grigory Rasputant started to 278 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 1: harness his idea of what it meant to be human. Eventually, 279 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: his steps did return home. His daughter remembered one day 280 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:47,640 Speaker 1: when a bearded man who seemed like a traveling peddler 281 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:51,719 Speaker 1: slowly made his way to their door. She didn't recognize 282 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: her father until he spoke in his familiar voice. He 283 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,720 Speaker 1: had been gone from his home and family for two years. 284 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 1: They found him a aged man. His daughter Maria would 285 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,159 Speaker 1: later write that he had greatly aged. He took on 286 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 1: suffering and fasted, sometimes making his family share in long 287 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,760 Speaker 1: hours of prayer, kneeling on the ground, and even beating 288 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,360 Speaker 1: his head against the earth. The stories in his hometown 289 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,320 Speaker 1: began to change the boy who had been a drunken creep. 290 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:22,720 Speaker 1: He had taken on something new. He had grown. He 291 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: was different now, and alongside the deep suspicions against him, 292 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: a sort of curiosity began to rise up. As his 293 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:35,159 Speaker 1: daughter would say, grigory began to inspire, not just suspicion, 294 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,920 Speaker 1: but wonder. The town's scoundrel had marched away in the dust, 295 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 1: and they were starting to whisper that he had come 296 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:45,439 Speaker 1: back a holy man. By the first years after nineteen hundred, 297 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:50,200 Speaker 1: Rasputin had something new in his Siberian town. He had 298 00:18:50,960 --> 00:19:00,439 Speaker 1: a following. It was a place of contradictions. Siberia was 299 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: a part of the Russian Empire. Yes, in fact, it 300 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:06,200 Speaker 1: was in many ways the place where the Empire drew 301 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: its power. On the map, it was marked out as 302 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:13,159 Speaker 1: a treasure trove of precious resources, especially of animal pelts, 303 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,639 Speaker 1: and most of all the Sable Expedition after expedition was 304 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:20,680 Speaker 1: sent across the mountains into the vast expanse of land 305 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: in search of that wealth, and the scale at which 306 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,600 Speaker 1: that wealth flooded back was enormous. The fox, Sable, and 307 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:29,960 Speaker 1: Martin firs that came back to the center of the 308 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,399 Speaker 1: Empire amounted to a full scale fur rush for a 309 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: nation with no natural gold or silver to draw up 310 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:39,639 Speaker 1: from the earth itself. It was the lethal harvest of 311 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,960 Speaker 1: this living wealth that built the imperial power. All the same, 312 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: the vast expanse of land separated from the capital by 313 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,360 Speaker 1: the Ural mountains was far from empty. When a Costic 314 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,359 Speaker 1: mercenary marched in with the soldiers under his command at 315 00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:56,840 Speaker 1: the end of the fifteen hundreds, he found a Mongol kingdom, 316 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: and he smashed it with musket fire. The clash came 317 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,639 Speaker 1: known as the Conquest of Siberia, despite the fact that 318 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,880 Speaker 1: exploring the rest of the massive territory, let alone crushing 319 00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:11,480 Speaker 1: its people, would be the brutal work of centuries. Year 320 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: by year, more towns and villages to the east had 321 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:17,280 Speaker 1: been gripped by the Empire and forced to pay tributes 322 00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: in furs and pelts to Moscow. At least that was 323 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: the idea, but even as the Russian Empire grew in power, 324 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: it still fell short of truly controlling the lands on 325 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:31,119 Speaker 1: the other side of the mountains. Messages, military marches, and 326 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,439 Speaker 1: the discipline of sharp edged steel all took years to 327 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:38,479 Speaker 1: transmit from the empire central cities to the farthest reaches 328 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: of Siberia, but that made it attractive to a whole 329 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:46,760 Speaker 1: different sort of people. Mercenaries traders and ruthless explorers set 330 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: their sights on Siberia. They saw it as an opportunity 331 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 1: to enrich themselves out from under the eye of the czars, 332 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:58,640 Speaker 1: and over time it gave them a reputation. Crime was rampant, 333 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 1: but we're not talking about petty theft. We're talking about 334 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,879 Speaker 1: mercenaries and traders who rigged the game, resorting to robbery, murder, 335 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:11,359 Speaker 1: bribery and extortion. Crime lords dealing in fur, ivory and 336 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: human lives demanded gifts for themselves and extracted harsh levies 337 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,960 Speaker 1: from the people under their power. For example, if you 338 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,640 Speaker 1: were a native man, you were expected to hand over 339 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:25,359 Speaker 1: somewhere between one and ten prime sable pelts each year, 340 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,240 Speaker 1: and that's before any extra gifts were demanded at gunpoint 341 00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,880 Speaker 1: by the violent man who got himself appointed as your 342 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: local official. Not that Moscow didn't see some part of 343 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: the problem. On the record, agents of the Czar and 344 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,440 Speaker 1: territorial governors were banned from scooping up the land's wealth 345 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: for their own gain or from torturing the local people 346 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: to force more fur from the land. But as long 347 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: as the steady stream of sable was flowing back over 348 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: the mountains. Who was going to stop them? It was 349 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: a distance and a rocky divide that made Siberia a frontier, 350 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,840 Speaker 1: and one historian notes the difference between imperial rule before 351 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 1: and after the Tsars. The Mongols, he writes, understood that 352 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,880 Speaker 1: ruined people could not pay tribute. Under the Czar's Russian 353 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:15,360 Speaker 1: frontiersmen showed no such forbearance. They came to plunder. If 354 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,680 Speaker 1: we're more familiar with America's Wild West, well that's only 355 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 1: because for Americans it's closer to home. Russia's Wild East 356 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:25,120 Speaker 1: wasn't all that different when it came to the way 357 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: the powers of the Russian Empire thought about the land 358 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: that stretched away in great plains and rocky mountains from 359 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,959 Speaker 1: the seats of their society. By Restputants day, things had 360 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,879 Speaker 1: begun to change, though. Increasingly farms replaced the hunting grounds 361 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 1: where the sable had been slaughtered. And if there was 362 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,080 Speaker 1: one thing Siberia would never run out of, it was land. 363 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 1: So more and more people ran to the frontier, not 364 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,399 Speaker 1: just for wealth, but also for independence, not just the 365 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,679 Speaker 1: freedom to build fortunes far from the Czar's hand, but 366 00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,120 Speaker 1: also to practice religious faith out of the Tsar's reach. 367 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,680 Speaker 1: So Iberia, you see, was in some ways a place 368 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:08,199 Speaker 1: of religious freedom. Here's Heather Coleman again, Russian religion was 369 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:13,120 Speaker 1: different east of the Earls. In Siberia you have much 370 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:18,199 Speaker 1: more old belief, much more religious sectarianism. Because the area 371 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:22,640 Speaker 1: east of the Earls was a place where religious dissenters 372 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: fled in the early modern period to get away from 373 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: the power of the state. There's a kind of a 374 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:34,200 Speaker 1: frontier atmosphere. The official church infrastructure was much less developed. 375 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:39,480 Speaker 1: We shouldn't exaggerate this. In western Siberia we have ancient diocese, 376 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: but there's there's very little by way of seminary education 377 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,120 Speaker 1: and and so on. So so certainly the church has 378 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: much more trouble regulating religious practice just because of distances 379 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:59,119 Speaker 1: and variety east of the Earls. Yes, the government sponsored settlers, 380 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 1: but these proved homesteaders made a place for themselves and 381 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:09,040 Speaker 1: founded their towns alongside runaway surfs, craftsmen, religious dissenters, revolutionaries, 382 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:15,080 Speaker 1: disgraced aristocrats, and criminal exiles. When exiles arrived in Siberia, 383 00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:18,400 Speaker 1: though they sometimes found themselves in a strange position at 384 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,119 Speaker 1: home in Western Russia, they were dangerous criminals in Siberia 385 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,240 Speaker 1: they were told that as educated and literate men they 386 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,879 Speaker 1: were made government officials. Of course, I can't help seeing 387 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,200 Speaker 1: hints of the history of Australia in that particular move. 388 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:37,119 Speaker 1: Like Australia, and like America's Great Plains, Siberia was a 389 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: place of immense size and beauty. It was also the 390 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: stage on which human greed and violence had played out 391 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: for centuries. The counter forces of fortune hunting and families 392 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: seeking a place to practice their religion in peace pulled 393 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 1: Siberia in different directions and brought up sons who clothed 394 00:24:54,240 --> 00:25:02,080 Speaker 1: themselves in contradictions, simplicity yet cunning, charm yet viciousness, devotion 395 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:10,679 Speaker 1: yet greed, Men like Gregory Rasputin. The steam rose up 396 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: between them. From their cups of tea. Gregory sat with 397 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,199 Speaker 1: the Father Superior of the Seven Lakes Monastery and a 398 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,280 Speaker 1: group of his theology students. The two men were talking 399 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,439 Speaker 1: about Rasputant's plans and the places he intended to go 400 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,920 Speaker 1: on his next trip. Resputant mentioned that his next journey 401 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: would take him to the capital. The Father Superior would 402 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 1: later remember thinking to himself that the city would ruin 403 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: the Siberian peasant. But what happened next was the thing 404 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 1: that convinced him. Grigory Rasputin was filled with divine power. 405 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,720 Speaker 1: Grigory looked into the man's eyes and seemed to read 406 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,040 Speaker 1: his thoughts. The city wouldn't ruin him, he said, after all, 407 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,879 Speaker 1: he went with the power of God on his side. 408 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,040 Speaker 1: After that encounter, the monastery's father Superior became one of 409 00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: Grigory's biggest supporters. His word care read some weight in 410 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: the nearby city of Kazan, and when Gregory stopped there, 411 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,119 Speaker 1: he took the city by storm. His bold preaching was 412 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:12,760 Speaker 1: shored up by well developed confidence, road hardened independence, and 413 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 1: an ignorance of social niceties, and it was a smash hit. 414 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,439 Speaker 1: He didn't hold back from speaking bluntly, even to the 415 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:24,160 Speaker 1: highest church leaders in the city. Challenging the father Superior 416 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,920 Speaker 1: of the monastery was only the least of it, and 417 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: word got around. Soon people from across Kazan were coming 418 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 1: to him for help, for comfort, and for advice, and 419 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: the stories came back out with them, stories of miraculous 420 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:42,320 Speaker 1: healing of burdens lifted, of a powerful teacher whose words 421 00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:47,119 Speaker 1: cut to the bone. Other more unsettling stories circulated to 422 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:49,800 Speaker 1: about the way he treated the women who came to 423 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: hear his teaching or for healing. He was seen holding 424 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,760 Speaker 1: their hands, kissing women in public, going with them to 425 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,159 Speaker 1: bath houses. In later years, it was even reported that 426 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: he was found laying in bed with women who came 427 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: to him for spiritual teaching. And there was the way 428 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,640 Speaker 1: he talked. Yes, he was playful with just about everyone, 429 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: but with women, well, the nicknames he came up with 430 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 1: were less creative and more suggestive. Apparently the love he 431 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: received from God only went so far in satisfying his 432 00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,679 Speaker 1: hunger with men too. He was known to be what 433 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: we might call tasteless and insolent, but it's hard to 434 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,440 Speaker 1: feel anything but a creeping disgust at the whispered stories 435 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,879 Speaker 1: that began about how he translated his spiritual influence into 436 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 1: sexual coercion. He wouldn't be the first, and he was 437 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,560 Speaker 1: far from the last, but it's mystifying all the same 438 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,280 Speaker 1: that these early stories could grow right alongside his reputation 439 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 1: as a mystic. Maybe it lent his reputation and element 440 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,800 Speaker 1: of risque danger. Maybe it made him a bad boy 441 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,320 Speaker 1: of the road. But of course, even his increasing disregard 442 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,480 Speaker 1: for the sexual boundaries of the people around him wrapped 443 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,120 Speaker 1: in the language of spirituality. And it was this language 444 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,440 Speaker 1: and this teaching that he used not just to convince 445 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,160 Speaker 1: the women around him to follow his lead, but also 446 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:13,600 Speaker 1: to convince the spiritual leaders in Kazan that not only 447 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,960 Speaker 1: was he not violating church teachings, but had in fact 448 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 1: his relationships with women were an expression of divine love, 449 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: not only pure but even purifying. For one, he convinced 450 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,440 Speaker 1: the father superior of the monastery just outside the city. 451 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,119 Speaker 1: In fact, when they sat down together to talk theology, 452 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: Rasputin won him over, and soon enough they were friends. 453 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,400 Speaker 1: Of course, that could be because of who else Rasputin 454 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,239 Speaker 1: was close to in the city. One story says that 455 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: what brought him to Kazan in the first place was 456 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,200 Speaker 1: the wealthy widow of a merchant who was grieving the 457 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: death of her husband. Rasputin would have had his reasons 458 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: to get close to her. Some lingering legends recount that 459 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: Grigory was a paid escort on her own pilgrimages. It 460 00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: may have even been through her that he met the 461 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: head monasteries and the our command rights of the city 462 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,440 Speaker 1: as well. And no doubt, it pays to have wealthy 463 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: and powerful friends, all the better if they carry the 464 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 1: enormous authority of the Russian Church. That seems to have 465 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,000 Speaker 1: been one of the lessons respute and learned on the road. 466 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, his time wandering among peasants seems to have 467 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: solidified his belief in the divine order of the Czarist regime. 468 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,160 Speaker 1: But Resputin it became clear to honor God everyone should 469 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: stay in their place. Of course, if you were a 470 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: wealthy merchant or an our command right, well it could 471 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: be nice to hear these things said right into your ear, 472 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,920 Speaker 1: and from a peasant. No less, if that came with 473 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: some rude jokes and maybe a few unseemly encounters on 474 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,000 Speaker 1: the side, well that could be excused. After all, what 475 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 1: do you expect from a peasant. No one seems to 476 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:55,080 Speaker 1: have understood this dynamic, with all its limitations, opportunities and 477 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: blind spots, as well as Rasputin did himself. But he 478 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: wasn't going to stay in Kazan, No, he was going 479 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 1: to go further. He was going to go to St. Petersburg. 480 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,040 Speaker 1: Parsing Rasputant is no simple task, but a century of 481 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:18,040 Speaker 1: legends has sent generations of people looking for answers, and 482 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,840 Speaker 1: some of them have started by trying to dissect each 483 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,600 Speaker 1: and every part of Grigory's life. His family name is 484 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:28,560 Speaker 1: no exception. Even in his own day, some people were 485 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: saying that the name Rasputin came from the Russian word 486 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: rasput nick. After all, it means depraved, and what could 487 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,479 Speaker 1: be more fitting for the man, at least in the 488 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: eyes of his enemies. Surely it was a label he 489 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: took as a young man for his predatory habits in 490 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,960 Speaker 1: his hometown. Or maybe it was his father who was 491 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 1: a predator and he inherited the name and the habits both. 492 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: Not to mention that for years the rumor mill went 493 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 1: round the clock trying to pin the label of horse 494 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: thief on both Grigory and his father, a terrible accusation 495 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: in any intier community. Most historians, though, would see this 496 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,640 Speaker 1: as idle speculation. After all, anyone who has looked at 497 00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: the records can see the name in Siberia going back 498 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:14,120 Speaker 1: into the sixteen hundreds, And in her father's defense, Maria 499 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: Resputant says that nearly half of the people in their 500 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: hometown and the surrounding regions had the name in their 501 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:23,640 Speaker 1: family tree. So if the name meant scoundrel. Well, it 502 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: was a widespread accusation, but there's a more likely route. 503 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,760 Speaker 1: It seems that Rasputant probably comes from the Russian word rasputa, 504 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,719 Speaker 1: which meant something more like crossroads and for people who 505 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,440 Speaker 1: built their town along a carriage route between major cities. Well, 506 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,560 Speaker 1: that makes sense. But there's a deeper and darker aspect 507 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: of that heritage too, you see. One of the historians 508 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,360 Speaker 1: who has studied Rasputant's life, Douglas Smith, notes that there 509 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,840 Speaker 1: were some odd beliefs about crossroads that were still hanging 510 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:59,120 Speaker 1: around in Grigory's day. Going back a long way, It's 511 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,680 Speaker 1: not like cross were just a neutral kind of geography. Now. 512 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 1: They were a place of meetings and not least a 513 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,360 Speaker 1: place of spiritual encounter where humans were in danger of 514 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:12,720 Speaker 1: coming face to face with a spirit traveling from a different, 515 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: darker place, a place where the spirits you've met could 516 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:20,160 Speaker 1: be evil. We can't make too much of it. If 517 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,480 Speaker 1: the name Rasputant refers to a crossroads, well what did 518 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: that have to say about Grigory? Maybe not too much, 519 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: But hindsight lets us see a man who straddled worlds, 520 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: who unintentionally was part of toppling them. With his road 521 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,080 Speaker 1: leading him to the capital. Gregory was about to cross 522 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: paths with the most powerful people in the Russian Empire, 523 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,480 Speaker 1: and his fateful meeting with the Romanovs would give us 524 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,360 Speaker 1: the host of legends and rumors that we still know today. 525 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,920 Speaker 1: But when Grigory Rasputant set his sights on St. Petersburg, 526 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,960 Speaker 1: he wasn't the only one. After all, the first years 527 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 1: of the nineteen hundreds would see Nicholas and Alexandra facing 528 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,840 Speaker 1: opponents on every field, both foreign and domestic. War and 529 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: revolution came to the Empire, and before the year nineteen 530 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,920 Speaker 1: o five was out, the land ruled by the czars 531 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: would already be slipping from one world into the next. 532 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: So it wasn't just Grigory Rasputin whose life was at 533 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,960 Speaker 1: a crossroads. It was the Romanov family as well, and 534 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:24,760 Speaker 1: in fact, the entirety of Imperial Russia. That's it for 535 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 1: this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this short 536 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: sponsor break for a preview of what's in store for 537 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: next week. When the crowd arrived at the palace, the 538 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:43,520 Speaker 1: infantry opened fire and the cavalry charged. It was a massacre. 539 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,960 Speaker 1: Over one thousand of the marchers were killed, and two 540 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,680 Speaker 1: thousand were left screaming in the street. Nicholas wrote in 541 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:55,040 Speaker 1: his diary, how sad to the rest of Russia. Though 542 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: it was more than sad, it was an outrage. They 543 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,200 Speaker 1: called it their own bloody Sunday, and they rallied to 544 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:06,000 Speaker 1: the call. Riots and bombs exploded across the empire. Over 545 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:10,439 Speaker 1: one thousand government officials were killed. Grand Duke Serge, who 546 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,960 Speaker 1: had married Alexandra's older sister, was hit by a blast 547 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:17,320 Speaker 1: that scattered his carriage over the roofs of the surrounding buildings. 548 00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,640 Speaker 1: Was it enough to challenge the power of the czars? 549 00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:24,880 Speaker 1: Nicholas's sister continued to see the Romanov way it was, 550 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:42,440 Speaker 1: she said a Lack of Authority. Unobscured was created by 551 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,279 Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 552 00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 1: and Josh Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio, with 553 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 1: research by Sam Alberty, writing by Carl Nellis, and original 554 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:58,200 Speaker 1: music by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our contributing historians, 555 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: source materials, and link to our other shows over at 556 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:06,240 Speaker 1: grim and Mild dot com, Slash Unobscured, and as always, 557 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:07,760 Speaker 1: thanks for listening.