Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron
Speaker 1: Minky the spiritual touring actor Grigory Rasputin. That's what the
Speaker 1: Moscow Gazette called him, But that was just the headline.
Speaker 1: Things only got worse for Grigory from there. Apparently the
Speaker 1: writer knew all the favorite talking points from the elite salons.
Speaker 1: He was a cunning Siberian charlatan, a predatory letcher, a hypnotist,
Speaker 1: and a false teacher who used his ideas about holy
Speaker 1: love to get far too up close and personal with
Speaker 1: his followers. They called him a pseudo prophet and damned
Speaker 1: him for teaching spiritual delusions that were opposite of the
Speaker 1: traditions of the Orthodox Church. But the article didn't stop
Speaker 1: at condemning Resputant's delusions and false holiness. It also attacked
Speaker 1: other areas of his life. It accused Grigory of being
Speaker 1: a lazy, deadbeat, a man who had abandoned his family
Speaker 1: in Pokrovsko, whose children were fatherless and unruly, and the
Speaker 1: thor even said that in investigating his piece, he had
Speaker 1: spoken with a church leader who called Gregory a heretic
Speaker 1: and a sexual predator. As far as the press goes
Speaker 1: this was about as damning as it gets, and digging
Speaker 1: behind the article we can see why, like so many
Speaker 1: others in Russia, the journalist who wrote the Peace believed
Speaker 1: that the church was in trouble and needed to be reformed.
Speaker 1: Like our command right theo fan, the writer looked to
Speaker 1: Russia's wandering holy men as a source of hope. In
Speaker 1: some ways, Gregory seemed like exactly the kind of person
Speaker 1: he was looking for, a peasant who had formed a
Speaker 1: bridge between the Czar and the peasant class, bringing the
Speaker 1: voice of the so called ordinary Russian to the ear
Speaker 1: of the Czar himself. But here's the problem. Rasputant's dark
Speaker 1: side was actually giving all of Russia's holy men a
Speaker 1: bad name, claiming to be a holy leader while using
Speaker 1: his position to feed on the vulnerabilities of his followers.
Speaker 1: It's easy to see why anyone would think this left
Speaker 1: their approach in tatters. If they were going to hold
Speaker 1: onto the idea that Russian holy men could revitalize the
Speaker 1: faith and life of the Empire, they had to figure
Speaker 1: out how things had gone so wrong with Grigory. If
Speaker 1: condemning Rasputant as a heretic and a letger sounds familiar.
Speaker 1: That's because it was the message our command right theo
Speaker 1: Fan was spreading far and wide. In fact, theo Fan
Speaker 1: himself might be the churchman who worked with the author
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. But regardless of who the hidden sources
Speaker 1: were for the writer, the fact is that defenders of
Speaker 1: the Church and defenders of the Czar alike swarmed to
Speaker 1: the takedown like it fed their starving souls. Other papers
Speaker 1: across Russia instantly copied the article and reprinted it. They
Speaker 1: knew when there was blood in the water, and what
Speaker 1: sells a paper better than a sex scandal at the
Speaker 1: crossroads of the Church and the Crown. Once again, the
Speaker 1: paper had taken the public's temperature. Letters flooded into the
Speaker 1: Moscow Gazette. New stories of Grigory restputants bad behavior were
Speaker 1: piled onto the first reports, and as the accusations mounted,
Speaker 1: it led the editors of the Gazette to trumpet one
Speaker 1: question above the clamoring throng. If Grigory Resputin was such
Speaker 1: a dangerous conman, why didn't the Church or the Crown
Speaker 1: rise up and do something to root him out? The
Speaker 1: monarchist newspapers thought they might open Nicholas's eyes to the
Speaker 1: dangers of Resputin and separate the monarchy from the mystic.
Speaker 1: But the reformers and revolutionaries across Russia were only too
Speaker 1: happy to point out that Resputin and the Romanovs seemed
Speaker 1: to be inseparable. They followed the monarchist press in denouncing Rasputin,
Speaker 1: not to save the imperial family, but to condemn it.
Speaker 1: Their answer to the question of why Nicholas didn't do
Speaker 1: something was that the Romanovs themselves were hapless fools and
Speaker 1: needed to be thrown out along with their court soothsayers.
Speaker 1: Issue after issue delved into Resputant's background, his heretical teaching,
Speaker 1: and his violence against women. To the leftist press, all
Speaker 1: of these were the fault of Nicholas and Alexandra. None
Speaker 1: of these press reports got the story right, though monarchists
Speaker 1: and revolutionaries alike layered rumor and insinuation over every kernel
Speaker 1: of truth. But all the reporting was eaten up by
Speaker 1: a public hungry for more news about the secret inner
Speaker 1: workings of the Romanov's domestic world. And then there's this
Speaker 1: deep irony to contend with. Russia at the time was
Speaker 1: an empire divided. Not only were revolutionary groups and monarchist
Speaker 1: brigades battling each other for the future of Russia, but
Speaker 1: they were often fighting within their own ranks. Each faction
Speaker 1: rarely managed to maintain their alliances for long, and yet
Speaker 1: in Rasputin they were now finding a common cause, or
Speaker 1: better put, a common enemy. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the attacks on Rasputin went international. If the Russian papers
Speaker 1: thought they were cleaning house and taking down Rasputin, they
Speaker 1: couldn't foresee just how far the stories about him would
Speaker 1: travel and how long the legends they were creating would endure.
Speaker 1: Within a few weeks, the splashy articles were being distributed
Speaker 1: across Russia. The Austrian ambassador wrote back to Vienna about
Speaker 1: the unfolding scandal, and, of course, for the royals across Europe,
Speaker 1: the question of how Nicholas and Alexandra could take a
Speaker 1: heretical priest into their confidence was a real puzzle, and
Speaker 1: the ambassador offered his view. The royal couple were simply
Speaker 1: unwilling to see that their relationship with Grigory Rasputin was
Speaker 1: a problem. It was a real flash of insights. He
Speaker 1: saw that in the eyes of Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin
Speaker 1: was untouchable. But it wasn't just the stories about the
Speaker 1: Romanov's spiritual advisor that slipped the borders of Russia. It
Speaker 1: was the Romanovs themselves. In the years after the nineteen
Speaker 1: oh five Revolution, and with all the changes that were
Speaker 1: shaking Russian society, Nicholas and Alexandra often found time to
Speaker 1: get away from it all. Not that this was anything new.
Speaker 1: Hunting lodges and holiday homes were always the privilege of
Speaker 1: the European royals. Nicholas and Alexandra were no exception, and
Speaker 1: of course family visits double as political meetings when the
Speaker 1: family are all heads of states. For example, ever since
Speaker 1: their marriage began, Nicholas and Alexandra had regularly traveled back
Speaker 1: to her old stomping grounds in Germany, and Nicholas even
Speaker 1: had a Russian Orthodox chapel built for Alexander there. Often
Speaker 1: they stayed with Alexandra's brother Ernie at his summer retreat,
Speaker 1: or visited relatives in the Danish royal family, and these
Speaker 1: visits didn't slow down as their family grew. As things
Speaker 1: heated up at home. I can only imagine that they
Speaker 1: were too happy to slip the troubled borders of their empire,
Speaker 1: leave the trouble some issues in the hands of a
Speaker 1: prime minister like stoile Epan, and try to find some
Speaker 1: cleaner air. Of course, there was a more personal reason
Speaker 1: that the Romana family would have wanted to retreat from
Speaker 1: the turmoil of their empire into some sort of tranquility.
Speaker 1: You see, Alexandra was sick, and the truth was she
Speaker 1: had been sick for years. Here's historian Helen Rappaport to
Speaker 1: tell us more. I think Alexandra clearly was plagued with
Speaker 1: sciatica from her teens, because when it was announced she
Speaker 1: was going to marry Nikki in April eighteen nine four,
Speaker 1: one of the first things Queen Victoria arranged was to
Speaker 1: get her treatment for this crippling scietic pain she suffered from.
Speaker 1: So she was sent to Harrogate for a water cure,
Speaker 1: and that was the first probably of money later on
Speaker 1: in her life, after she'd tapped the children, they she
Speaker 1: went more than once, I think, to bad Noihan in
Speaker 1: Germany for again for wat cures. So she had always
Speaker 1: had the scietica and I cannot imagine how painful her
Speaker 1: pregnancies must have been suffering from sciatic pain and carrying
Speaker 1: you know, ten eleven pound babies to term. She must
Speaker 1: have been dreadfully consumed by pain at times, and she
Speaker 1: was often had to be lying down. She genuinely had
Speaker 1: terrible ear infections and me grains, and oh gosh, there
Speaker 1: wasn't almost any complaints she didn't at sometime suffer from.
Speaker 1: So that kind of colored family life, I think more
Speaker 1: than perhaps we realize. Even when they weren't traveling for treatment,
Speaker 1: abandoning the pressure of court, life in Russia was itself
Speaker 1: an enormous relief, and there's perhaps no trip that the
Speaker 1: Empress liked better than a holiday to the islands around
Speaker 1: Finland in the Tsar's personal Yat when life in Russia
Speaker 1: got tense or threat to the Czar made their routines dangerous,
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexander would take to the water. They're surrounded
Speaker 1: by a loyal crew, with warships from the Imperial Fleet
Speaker 1: bobbing in formation on all sides. Nicholas and Alexandra felt
Speaker 1: their most carefree, prying eyes were left far behind. The
Speaker 1: naval officers who served them on board were kind and obliging,
Speaker 1: and all the guns pointed outward. But even those floating
Speaker 1: fantasies came back to earth, and when they did, the
Speaker 1: troubles of Russia proved they couldn't be left behind. Take
Speaker 1: their visit to England in nineteen o nine. Along the way,
Speaker 1: the Romanovs stopped to see Alexandra's sister Irene and made
Speaker 1: an appearance for the President of France. And then they
Speaker 1: were on towards England, where their royal cousins were eager
Speaker 1: to greet them. Not so the English people, though, you see,
Speaker 1: word had spread of the fact that Nicholas used his
Speaker 1: Cossacks against the Russian people in nineteen o five. The
Speaker 1: violence of his autocratic control over the Russian Empire was
Speaker 1: no secrets. Socialist rallies in London were held as the
Speaker 1: Romanov's yacht sailed toward British soil. The Young British Labor
Speaker 1: Party collected resolutions from a cross Britain condemning the blood
Speaker 1: on the hands of the Czar, the terrorism of his
Speaker 1: supporters like Iliador, and the actions of the Russian secret police.
Speaker 1: And it should be pointed out if we remember the
Speaker 1: way the Czar's Cossacks ran down protesting workers in nineteen
Speaker 1: o five. We have to say the British workers who
Speaker 1: rallied in Trafalgar Square had a point. Maybe that's why
Speaker 1: everyone from schools to evangelical societies to trade unions all
Speaker 1: signed on to condemn the Romanov's visit. Nicholas may have
Speaker 1: been surprised by how well British radicals knew the inner
Speaker 1: workings of Russian politics, but the creeping fear he felt
Speaker 1: when he heard they were discussing his assassination would have
Speaker 1: been all too familiar. It was the feeling he fled
Speaker 1: when the family took to the sea, so Nicholas and
Speaker 1: Alexandra made their visit a short one. The coastal towns
Speaker 1: were flooded with English and Russian police, who choked them
Speaker 1: to a standstill. It could have only confirmed to the
Speaker 1: Czar's critics that Russia was ruled with an iron fist.
Speaker 1: At night, the romanov was retreated to their floating fortress.
Speaker 1: When they visited Sweden, Nicholas and Alexandra didn't even dare
Speaker 1: to set foot on land. So the imperial family didn't
Speaker 1: have the best reputation beyond the borders of their empire,
Speaker 1: let alone among the people they held under their power
Speaker 1: at the time, and that was all before the press
Speaker 1: sank their teeth into the story of Grigory Rasputin. Resputant
Speaker 1: had his defenders, of course, and maybe no one was
Speaker 1: more energetic in his defense than the mad monk himself,
Speaker 1: the terrorist preacher Eliodor. Not to be outdone by the
Speaker 1: inflamed accusations of the newspaper, Eliodor began to fabricate some
Speaker 1: stories of his own. Resputin was not a sexual predator,
Speaker 1: said Eliodor, so much the opposite, in fact, that Gregory
Speaker 1: had mastered his sexual urges so much that he no
Speaker 1: longer made love to his own wife. He lived with
Speaker 1: special holiness. He was Russia's saving grace. Anyone who wrote
Speaker 1: attacks against Resputant should be bound and beaten bloody, that
Speaker 1: was Eliador's message. Not a pleasant fellow, really, But Eliodora's
Speaker 1: bloodthirsty defenses of Resputin were nearly as effective as Resputant's
Speaker 1: own technique to disappear. Throughout most of nineteen ten, there
Speaker 1: were several points where even the Russian secret police, the Okrana,
Speaker 1: had no idea where Resputant was. His disappearance was all
Speaker 1: about giving the scandal time to blow over and for
Speaker 1: newspapers to find something else to blow up about. And
Speaker 1: there was one man in Russia willing to oblige. That's right,
Speaker 1: Eliodor himself. Do you remember how I told you that
Speaker 1: Resputant had orchestrated a one on one meeting between Eliador
Speaker 1: and the Empress. She had forced a few promises out
Speaker 1: of the man. Maybe he agreed in the moment, but
Speaker 1: he swiftly changed his mind. Soon enough, he was back
Speaker 1: in his pulpit, letting fly against the Czar, the government
Speaker 1: of the Duma, the Prime Minister, and just about everyone
Speaker 1: else he considered a part of Russia's decline, and that
Speaker 1: included leaders in the church. Now, obviously they didn't take
Speaker 1: too kindly to that, and they sent an order. The
Speaker 1: monk Iliodor was being reassigned once again. This time he
Speaker 1: was supposed to leave his base in the city of
Speaker 1: Tzaritsin and go where he couldn't make so much trouble,
Speaker 1: the remote monastery of Novozil. But leaving his influential position
Speaker 1: on the banks of the Volga River was the last
Speaker 1: thing Eliador wanted to do. His first course of action
Speaker 1: was a frantic message to Siberia he was calling on
Speaker 1: help from Rasputin. Of course, after all, Grigory had been
Speaker 1: able to arrange a one on one meeting with the
Speaker 1: Empress the last time he got in trouble. Why couldn't
Speaker 1: he use the same get out of jail free card again?
Speaker 1: And while he waited for an answer, he took some action.
Speaker 1: Gathering his closest disciples around him, Eliodor retreated into his
Speaker 1: monastery compound and barricaded the doors. Douglas Smith writes that
Speaker 1: Iliador even started blasting out messages in his typical bombastic
Speaker 1: style that he wouldn't leave unless every of the monastery
Speaker 1: was covered in his own blood, that he would see
Speaker 1: his home become his grave before he would be sidelined
Speaker 1: by the church, you know, the usual stuff. Now, we
Speaker 1: don't know if Rasputin was involved in what happened next,
Speaker 1: but it's clear that the news made its way to
Speaker 1: Nicholas and the Tsar was having none of it. Naturally,
Speaker 1: he sided with the leaders of the Russian Church. They
Speaker 1: should do what they needed to do to tamp down
Speaker 1: this violent dissenter. After all, it's not like Eliador had
Speaker 1: been cultivating goodwill with anyone among Russia's elite. All this
Speaker 1: back and forth made its way into black and white.
Speaker 1: Soon enough, the papers were saying that Eliador had rallied
Speaker 1: his terrorist followers to his cause. And it wasn't a
Speaker 1: small movement either. By one reckoning, thousands of people had
Speaker 1: traveled the Volga to gather around Iliador. It looked more
Speaker 1: and more like a fight was brewing. The twists and
Speaker 1: turns and the story were complex. It was a story
Speaker 1: of espionage, secret agents, and back room deals. To sum
Speaker 1: it up simply, though, a plex bargaining process began. While
Speaker 1: Nicholas sent negotiators to hash out the situation with Iliador,
Speaker 1: Rasputin rushed back into the Romanov's lives once again to
Speaker 1: discuss things with them behind the scenes. The situation was explosive.
Speaker 1: Realizing that Grigory was out of hiding, the Prime Minister
Speaker 1: met with Nicholas. He wanted to convince the Czar that
Speaker 1: Grigory was bad for the throne and bad for the empire.
Speaker 1: He put all of Russia at risk. Nicholas, though, wasn't convinced.
Speaker 1: He essentially met the Prime Minister with a shrug and
Speaker 1: he said, why don't you just meet with Rasputin yourself?
Speaker 1: So finally, after months of ducking the secret police, Nicholas
Speaker 1: had to arrange it. Grigory met face to face with
Speaker 1: Prime ministers Stoi Leepin and Stoi Lepin, came armed for
Speaker 1: the encounter. When they faced off, he showed Grigory a
Speaker 1: file packed with reports from the Russian secret police. He
Speaker 1: said they proved that Rasputant was a heretic who had
Speaker 1: betrayed the Russian Church. Stoy Leepin believed that by threatening
Speaker 1: Grigory he could get the man to back down and
Speaker 1: disappear from the Imperial Court, but he didn't know just
Speaker 1: how much Resputant believed that he was on a mission
Speaker 1: from God. Grigory dared Soy Leapin to show the file
Speaker 1: not to Nicholas, but to Alexandra, and then when they
Speaker 1: went their separate ways, Gregory wasted no time. He told
Speaker 1: the Empress about the police reports himself. All that the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister earned from the encounter was Alexander's fury raspute,
Speaker 1: and was right. The Romanovs were on his side. This
Speaker 1: swirl of activity around the Romanovs did nothing to shake
Speaker 1: Iliador from his fortified monastery. The mad monk was still
Speaker 1: sending Rasputin messages asking for help and lane plans to
Speaker 1: grow his power. At one point he even pretended to
Speaker 1: cooperate for a while and took to the road, but
Speaker 1: in the end it was only just buying time for
Speaker 1: him to gather more die hard believers to his cause.
Speaker 1: He circled back to his headquarters with even more supporters
Speaker 1: in tow In fact, he had gathered an army men
Speaker 1: and women had marched to his fortress by the tens
Speaker 1: of thousands, all of them hung on Iliador's every word
Speaker 1: as he called for the new representative government of Russia
Speaker 1: to be torn down in a shower of blood, and
Speaker 1: for people like Prime Minister Stoilepen to be beaten in
Speaker 1: the streets. And even as it got more and more hypocritical,
Speaker 1: Eliador and his followers still held onto the idea that
Speaker 1: all of this was actually helping the Czar. It was,
Speaker 1: as Dr Heather Coleman puts it, a naive monarchism. Historians
Speaker 1: have pointed to a great phenomenon of naive monarchism of
Speaker 1: of ordinary people who who believed that the that the
Speaker 1: government um was the problem and if only they could
Speaker 1: get to the Tsar, that Ssar was was faithful to
Speaker 1: the to the to the to the little guy and um,
Speaker 1: and that you know. The problem was the bureaucrats in between.
Speaker 1: As these ideas grew more powerful and il Door added
Speaker 1: to his numbers, Nicholas had a choice to make turn
Speaker 1: the full might of his imperial forces on rebellious monarchists
Speaker 1: or give them free reign to undermine his government. The
Speaker 1: choice he made was a fateful one, because in the
Speaker 1: end Nicholas backed down. He issued a full pardon for Eliador.
Speaker 1: The mad monk had gone up against the Czar and one,
Speaker 1: but that victory sowed the seeds of his own downfall.
Speaker 1: In beating the Tsar, these self defeating monarchists proved once
Speaker 1: again that the Czar could be beaten. This very public
Speaker 1: battle between the Tsar and the terrorist preacher had distracted
Speaker 1: the press from the story of Rasputin, but it hadn't
Speaker 1: distracted the rest of the Romanov family. Knowing that meetings
Speaker 1: with Grigory had happened behind the scenes, the other Romanovs
Speaker 1: believed that Resputant was really the one behind Nicholas's decision
Speaker 1: to fold in the face of Eliadora's growing forces. So
Speaker 1: at one point Nicholas's mother, the Dowager Empress, decided it
Speaker 1: was time to take her son in hand. She met
Speaker 1: with Nicholas and al Alexandra in the palace. She gave
Speaker 1: her boy a good tongue lashing. She demanded that Nicholas
Speaker 1: and the scandal sever the friendship and send respute in away.
Speaker 1: Alexandra fought fire with fire. As the Czarina, she refused
Speaker 1: to be pushed around by her mother in law no
Speaker 1: matter what anyone thought, and in the end the Dowager
Speaker 1: Empress left defeated. Throughout the fight with his mother and
Speaker 1: wife trading ferocious arguments, Nicholas, it said, sat in silence.
Speaker 1: He put Russia behind him. After all, it was true,
Speaker 1: the scandal did need time to blow over. So Grigory
Speaker 1: Rasputin set out to the one place he always wanted
Speaker 1: to go. He wanted to refresh his soul, to commune
Speaker 1: with God, so he went to the Holy Land. But
Speaker 1: if that conjures up stories of Grigory's early religious life,
Speaker 1: of his wanderings and his lonely struggles on the road,
Speaker 1: that might give us the idea, because this wasn't quite
Speaker 1: the kind of lonely pilgrimage to Jerusalem that a holy
Speaker 1: man might make on a shoestring and a prayer. Quite
Speaker 1: the contrary, Resputant was doing something popular. It turns out
Speaker 1: that the trip sounds a lot like the kind of
Speaker 1: Holy Land tourism that people are still doing today. Here's
Speaker 1: historian Douglas Smith to explain. It's not as exotic maybe
Speaker 1: as it first seems that, you know, a Russian in
Speaker 1: nineteen eleven would be going to the Holy Land. There
Speaker 1: were actually packaged tours that Russians would go on that
Speaker 1: would take them to see the places connected to the
Speaker 1: life of Jesus. And this is essentially what he did
Speaker 1: as he went on one one of these package tours,
Speaker 1: if you will. But he was profoundly moved by the experience,
Speaker 1: and he wrote about it, and he sent letters back
Speaker 1: to Nicholas and Alexandra about the meaning it had for him.
Speaker 1: One of the things that he came back with was
Speaker 1: a renewed um conviction that the only true form of
Speaker 1: Christianity was Russian orthod docsy. That was just the kind
Speaker 1: of message that would be welcomed with opened arms by
Speaker 1: friends that Rasputant had left behind, and he made a
Speaker 1: bee line for none other than Iliador awash in the
Speaker 1: glow of victory, the mad monk welcomed Grigory to his
Speaker 1: monastery on the Volga, and they hit the road as
Speaker 1: a kind of double act. Soon enough, they were trailed
Speaker 1: by supporters as they went from town to town together.
Speaker 1: The documents tell us that sometimes it was dozens and
Speaker 1: sometimes it was hundreds of women who followed in their wake.
Speaker 1: Iliodor introduced Rasputin as his beloved brother. For his part,
Speaker 1: Grigory recounts his adventures in Palestine in a particularly nationalistic mode.
Speaker 1: Here's more from Douglas Smith. He had nothing but horrible
Speaker 1: things to say about the other branches of the Christian faith.
Speaker 1: And he came to believe that pilgrimage to the Holy
Speaker 1: Lands should be encouraged among Russian society as a way
Speaker 1: of instilling greater faith in the Church, and by extension,
Speaker 1: and by instilling greater faith and loyalty among Russian Orthodox
Speaker 1: believers and subjects of the Crown in the sanctity of
Speaker 1: the throne itself. That this was a way you could
Speaker 1: further bind Russians to the autocracy, was through these trips
Speaker 1: to the Holy Land. And and he would come back
Speaker 1: and speak about his experiences there, and this definitely sort
Speaker 1: of gave him a greater sense of religious authority in
Speaker 1: the eyes of his believers. When they ended their speaking
Speaker 1: tour back at Eliodor's monastery, the monk gave rasput And
Speaker 1: a lavish send off. It seemed to Grigory that their
Speaker 1: friendship was secure and that he had made a successful
Speaker 1: return to Russian society. Maybe he even believed that the
Speaker 1: bad press and the bad days were behind him. He
Speaker 1: was friends with Eliodor and friends with the Czar. What
Speaker 1: could go wrong. But if he only saw smooth sailing ahead,
Speaker 1: then he hadn't been paying attention to the way that
Speaker 1: Eliador treated his friends, So it seems Gregory didn't have
Speaker 1: his guard up. A few months later, when he arrived
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg, he heard that Eliodora was also in
Speaker 1: the capital, purchasing a printing press for his monastery. Eliodor
Speaker 1: invited Grigory to travel with him to meet with a
Speaker 1: member of the Holy Synod, their supporter, germy Jin. Naturally,
Speaker 1: Rasputin agreed, but he was walking into a trap. When
Speaker 1: the pair arrived, they found that germy Jan was not alone.
Speaker 1: As they stepped into the room, Gregory realized that he
Speaker 1: was also faced by two other men, a Cossack officer
Speaker 1: who was one of Eliodora's violent monarchist allies, and another man, Mitya,
Speaker 1: who Gregory knew well. In fact, Resputin and Mitya had
Speaker 1: spent quite a lot of time together. They were fellow mystics,
Speaker 1: fellow holy fools in the eyes of many, and had
Speaker 1: been friends for long enough to know that they hated
Speaker 1: each other. So when he stepped into the room with them,
Speaker 1: Gregory finally realized what he was in for. He tried
Speaker 1: to reach tread out the door, but they grabbed him
Speaker 1: and forced him into a chair, and they laid into him.
Speaker 1: If the Prime Minister had tried to make Resputant back
Speaker 1: down by threatening him with a few documents, this crew
Speaker 1: took a more direct, more violent approach. As Iliodor would
Speaker 1: later tell the story, they took turns screaming and Rasputant's
Speaker 1: face about his sins. He had deceived them, he had
Speaker 1: fooled everyone. He was an impostor, a hypocrite, and a predator,
Speaker 1: and now he deserved to be condemned. Resputant tried to
Speaker 1: answer back, but this wasn't a conversation. Germy Jan, dressed
Speaker 1: in his priestly robes, grabbed Resputant by the head. In
Speaker 1: his other hand he held a gold cross and he
Speaker 1: smashed it down on Resputin. He called him a devil.
Speaker 1: He hit Grigory again and commanded that he never again
Speaker 1: entered the Imperial Palace. Another blow fell, and he forbade
Speaker 1: Grigory to ever meet with the Empress, and the beating
Speaker 1: went on. It's a dramatic story. Eliodor said that Resputant
Speaker 1: left the room that night, shaking, pale and covered in blood,
Speaker 1: promising that he would never enter the Romanov's palace again.
Speaker 1: He kissed an icon pressed on him by German Jin
Speaker 1: to seal the promise, and dragged himself out into the night.
Speaker 1: The Cossack officer remembered it a bit differently. He told
Speaker 1: other government officials that Resputant had fought all three of
Speaker 1: them before overpowering them and escaping into the street, swearing revenge.
Speaker 1: Whether it went one way or the other, one thing
Speaker 1: is clear. In an instant, Eliador and Resputant had gone
Speaker 1: from allies to enemies. Iliodor was hot off the heels
Speaker 1: of his very public victory. He knew he was on
Speaker 1: the rise, and he felt untouchable all along. To this point,
Speaker 1: Rasputin had been the one standing between him and the Romanovs.
Speaker 1: It seems the Iliador thought he could finally do away
Speaker 1: with Grigory and step into his place. And powerful men
Speaker 1: in the church, like German Jin, saw Rasputin as a
Speaker 1: stain on their religion. They were only too happy to
Speaker 1: turn Eliodor against his fellow preacher. But if they had
Speaker 1: been able to turn the tables on the Tzar, they
Speaker 1: found that Resputant would be a tougher target. In fact,
Speaker 1: their attack on Gregory backfired. Just a month later, German
Speaker 1: Jin got news he was being stripped of his position
Speaker 1: in the church after being booted from the Holy Synod.
Speaker 1: He was exiled from the capital, and of course he
Speaker 1: had been Eliodor's strongest ally. With him gone, the other
Speaker 1: members of the Holy Synod came for the terrorist preacher.
Speaker 1: Exile orders came down, and so did the command that
Speaker 1: he was no longer a monk. Iliodor was defrocked. On
Speaker 1: the way out the door, both men pointed their fingers
Speaker 1: at Grigory. All of this was retaliation for their attack
Speaker 1: on him. It's more likely that their battle with the
Speaker 1: Czar and the Church, the battle they thought they won,
Speaker 1: was finally catching up with them. But regardless, they had
Speaker 1: no trouble blaming their defeat on Resputin, and in his
Speaker 1: fury at having the tables turned on him so severely,
Speaker 1: Eliador decided to make his final play. He would unleash
Speaker 1: the weapon he had kept under wraps and finally drive
Speaker 1: a wedge between Resputant and the Czar. The letters were stolen.
Speaker 1: They had been prized possessions, after all, they came from
Speaker 1: the Empress, along with the shirt that she had sewn
Speaker 1: for him. It was her letters that had the most
Speaker 1: meaning for Gregory. In them, she poured out her prayers,
Speaker 1: her fears and her joys, the struggles of her chronic pain,
Speaker 1: the uncertainty of life in the Russian court. It was
Speaker 1: all stitched together in the messages that she would send
Speaker 1: to her personal friend and spiritual adviser at his home
Speaker 1: in Siberia, built with the money given to him by
Speaker 1: his many followers. Grigory gave these gifts from the Empress
Speaker 1: a place of pride, and, by some accounts, in a
Speaker 1: moment of weakness or arrogance, he would take them out
Speaker 1: of his desk and show them off, like the time
Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine when his friend Iliador visited him
Speaker 1: in Pokrovsko. It was just after the first time that
Speaker 1: Rasputin had arranged for Eliador to meet with the Empress.
Speaker 1: With the fires of conflict burning low, Grigory had invited
Speaker 1: Iliador out to his home in Siberia to retreat and
Speaker 1: think over what came next. The precise details of the
Speaker 1: visit are unclear, and the only person to describe what
Speaker 1: happened is Iliodor. Knowing the way he later turned on Rasputin.
Speaker 1: He's far from a reliable source, but he describes the
Speaker 1: trip to Siberia as a revealing one. He says that
Speaker 1: as they traveled into Grigory's hometown, Rasputin told him wild
Speaker 1: stories of his degenerate youth and boasted constantly of his
Speaker 1: close ties with the royal family. He bragged that his
Speaker 1: influence went beyond the spiritual. They consulted with him about
Speaker 1: faith and love, yes, but also about the Duma, the ministers,
Speaker 1: the government, the future of Russia. Eliodor writes that Rasputant
Speaker 1: got so boastful in his claims that he even said
Speaker 1: that Nicholas and Alexandra had bowed at his feet, and
Speaker 1: that the Czar could not even breathe without him. Now
Speaker 1: we have to take all of that with the grainess
Speaker 1: alt Iliodor wrote it down after he and Rasputin had
Speaker 1: become enemies. But what does seem to be true is
Speaker 1: that at some point on their visit, Rasputin showed Iliador
Speaker 1: the letters. Some were from Alexandra, some were from the
Speaker 1: Romanov children, and there were notes from other important people
Speaker 1: there too. And somehow, when Iliodor left Pakrosco, some of
Speaker 1: Rasputin's letters went with him, and a few years later
Speaker 1: Eliador's change of heart about Grigory made them a powerful tool.
Speaker 1: Here's Douglas Smith to describe what happened next. Alexandra wrote
Speaker 1: to Rasputin at a moment of extreme grief and sadness
Speaker 1: and emotional distress, and which she talks about, You know,
Speaker 1: I'm only able to, you know, feel at peace and
Speaker 1: at ease when i can rest my head on your shoulder,
Speaker 1: when I'm in your presence, when I feel your warmth
Speaker 1: around me. And Eliador basically held on to this letter
Speaker 1: as as as a weapon to use against Resputin when
Speaker 1: the time came, and he did just that. Copies of
Speaker 1: the letter were made, they spread throughout society, and it
Speaker 1: became the basis of this notion that there was a
Speaker 1: sexual relationship between Resputin and the Empress. There never was
Speaker 1: any such relationship. But again, this information was brought before
Speaker 1: for Nicholas, and he was presented with the actual letter,
Speaker 1: and he said, yes, this is Alexandra's handwriting, took the letter,
Speaker 1: put it in his destroyer and basically said, we will
Speaker 1: not speak of these matters further. But the letter and
Speaker 1: its implications didn't stop with Nicholas. It reached the aristocratic salons,
Speaker 1: where rumors from palace maids had prepared the way for
Speaker 1: the worst interpretations of the letter to take hold, and
Speaker 1: it reached members of the Duma, the Russian parliament, where
Speaker 1: politicians who opposed the Czar saw the opportunity to revive
Speaker 1: the outcry against Rasputin as a way of weakening the
Speaker 1: already weak Romanovs. So once again, the truth behind the
Speaker 1: letters almost didn't matter. What mattered was that it seemed
Speaker 1: to confirm the worst suspicions that were already in the air,
Speaker 1: and when it came to Alexander's private life. There were
Speaker 1: plenty of unanswered questions and court resentments that fed the flame.
Speaker 1: After all, Alexander had become a mysterious figure in Russian society.
Speaker 1: To the people around her, she seemed secretive and conniving,
Speaker 1: and in fact, she seemed to line up perfectly with
Speaker 1: their suspicions of people from outside Russia who took up
Speaker 1: positions of power there. Apparently none of these malicious prejudices
Speaker 1: had gone away. Of course, looking back, we now know
Speaker 1: that at least part of why Alexandra often retreated from
Speaker 1: company in the Russian court was because she was in
Speaker 1: chronic pain and suffered through the illnesses that she dealt
Speaker 1: with year after year. We would hope for a little
Speaker 1: more generosity and a little more mercy from people living
Speaker 1: through the things she suffered, but there was none of
Speaker 1: that in Imperial Russia. Here's Ellen rappaport to say a
Speaker 1: bit more time and again, I you know, I saw
Speaker 1: letters and comments or diaries from the girls or members
Speaker 1: of court. Oh, you know, the family would do to
Speaker 1: go to the theater or to something, and Alexandra would
Speaker 1: either drop out or go home early because she wasn't
Speaker 1: feeling well, and she was all the always the party pooper,
Speaker 1: you know, the one who you know was indisposed. And
Speaker 1: so time again you see Nicholas taking his girls to
Speaker 1: the ballet or to the opera without their mother, and
Speaker 1: Alexandra just wasn't a present socially at all. Alexandra, time
Speaker 1: and time again the girls would say a little note
Speaker 1: so in their diaries, Oh, mother couldn't come down to
Speaker 1: lunch because she had a headache and she wasn't feeling
Speaker 1: very well. So much of the Empress's private life was
Speaker 1: hidden from the eyes of even those nearby. In Iliadora's
Speaker 1: poisonous insinuations added to the rumors that filled in the
Speaker 1: blanks of it was a weapon that didn't just strike Resputing,
Speaker 1: even as Nicholas tried to blunt its edge, It hit
Speaker 1: Alexandra too. It becomes part of the basis for the
Speaker 1: myth that not only is Resputing offering spiritual sucker emotional comfort,
Speaker 1: but that in fact he's engaged in a sexual relationship
Speaker 1: with the Empress, which then later grows metastasizes to the
Speaker 1: point that he's also sleeping with the daughters of Alexandra.
Speaker 1: In fact, even gets one of them pregnant, and that
Speaker 1: there's talk that Alex Say, the heir to the throne,
Speaker 1: is in fact the bastard child of Resputing, and all
Speaker 1: the stuff just gets more outlandish and crazier as the
Speaker 1: years progress. And for someone like her who preferred to
Speaker 1: keep her private life private, the lies were monstrous, They
Speaker 1: were appalling, and they were absolutely crucially damaging, because not
Speaker 1: only within Russia was she hurried, prided and demonized and
Speaker 1: feet should in ugly sexual cartoons with rasput and some
Speaker 1: of them quite pornographic. In fact, these were in circulation
Speaker 1: in Russia, but of course this spread across the Western
Speaker 1: press in Britain and America. The gossip was appalling, you know,
Speaker 1: the talk that they were having a sexual relationship was
Speaker 1: utterly absurd, and when people ask me about it, I'll say,
Speaker 1: I'm just not going there because it's so ridiculous. But
Speaker 1: the trouble is all that scandal and gossip, and it
Speaker 1: was absolutely fetid based on the third fourth hand gossip
Speaker 1: and rumor and innuendo. There was not a grain of
Speaker 1: truth in any of it, but of course that kind
Speaker 1: of mudge if there's enough of it sticks in the end.
Speaker 1: The letter it was taken as an admission of guilt.
Speaker 1: The fiction was taken as fact. It was undoubtedly false,
Speaker 1: but it unleashed a flood of anger and fury against
Speaker 1: the Romanovs and against Rasputin. It became the enduring thing
Speaker 1: that people remember umber about Grigory rest Sputin embedded right
Speaker 1: in the lyrics of the bony m song of his name,
Speaker 1: that he was the lover of the Russian Queen. The
Speaker 1: Romanovs did what they could to answer the lie. They
Speaker 1: tried to claw back Alexander's reputation, but Eliodora's partying shot
Speaker 1: had struck home. The mad monk went on the run.
Speaker 1: He disappeared into the shadows, off the stage for a time,
Speaker 1: and yet the damage was done. Shots rang out. It
Speaker 1: was intermission at the opera house. Nicholas had taken two
Speaker 1: of his daughter's Olga and Tatiana, to see the Tale
Speaker 1: of the Czar Sultan. But he wasn't the only one.
Speaker 1: A revolutionary anarchist had come with murder on his mind.
Speaker 1: He meant to change the shape of the Russian Empire
Speaker 1: with his revolver at close range, and he did it too.
Speaker 1: The bullets struck home and killed the prime minister stoy Leapin.
Speaker 1: Nicholas later remembered that stoy Leapin had turned and made
Speaker 1: a sign of the cross in the air. As he
Speaker 1: grew pale, blood was smeared on the right arm of
Speaker 1: his jacket. It took four days for the Tsar's right
Speaker 1: hand man to die. This was one more active violence
Speaker 1: that was laid at Restputant's feet. The papers wondered whether
Speaker 1: Grigory had somehow been part of the plot of the assassination.
Speaker 1: It was pure fabrication, But what tragedies weren't being blamed
Speaker 1: on the holy man from Siberia. Nicholas was spurred into action.
Speaker 1: Things were spiraling out of control, so he threw caution
Speaker 1: to the wind. As publishers spun up the presses to
Speaker 1: run articles and booklets on the mystical sex maniacs supporting
Speaker 1: the Empress, Nicholas did everything he could to reverse the
Speaker 1: concessions he had made in nineteen o five. In his eyes,
Speaker 1: the freedom of the press wasn't working. The attempts he
Speaker 1: made to allow for representative government were falling short. His
Speaker 1: Empress was being derided, his ministers murdered, and even monarchists
Speaker 1: were fighting against him. It was time to reassert his
Speaker 1: god given authority. It was time for violence. The Moscow
Speaker 1: branch of the Okrana rated the printing office where a
Speaker 1: book against Resputant was being printed. They smashed the presses,
Speaker 1: seized the books, and shut down the operation. The author,
Speaker 1: with his original manuscript tucked away, went on the run.
Speaker 1: A message was sent to the governor of the city,
Speaker 1: silenced every mention of Restputan, not the barest whisper was
Speaker 1: allowed to reach the page. With the secret police rampaging
Speaker 1: throughout the city, the governor agreed. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the next few months, stories about Resputant brought on harsh reprisals,
Speaker 1: but the voices of Russian writers had been set free
Speaker 1: by the edicts of nineteen o five, and it was
Speaker 1: far too late to cage them back up again. Publishers,
Speaker 1: determined to hold onto their new found freedoms, continued to
Speaker 1: print stories about Resputin, and the more the Tsar's forces
Speaker 1: attempted to silence those stories, the more certain the people
Speaker 1: became grigory. Resputin, the devil of lust, had his grip
Speaker 1: on the Russian throne. That's it for this week's episode
Speaker 1: of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor break for
Speaker 1: a preview of what's in store for next week. The
Speaker 1: throne was in danger, the Church was in danger, the
Speaker 1: very state of Russia itself. No revolutionary or foreign missionary
Speaker 1: had done what rest Sputin had done. The Imperial family
Speaker 1: was stained. A vestige of the dark Ages had risen
Speaker 1: up and taken the Czar of Russia into his hands.
Speaker 1: That was the message that thundered out into the Russian parliament,
Speaker 1: the Duma, on March eighth of nineteen twelve. The speaker,
Speaker 1: Alexander Gukov, was a politician who had been working to
Speaker 1: reform the Russian government since the Revolution of nineteen o five.
Speaker 1: Now he was taking direct aim at the Czar, and
Speaker 1: Nicholas took it personally. After all, this speech was in
Speaker 1: open defiance of his power, and in a time when
Speaker 1: the press and the Church and even the supporters of
Speaker 1: the Empire had gone against the crown, this was a
Speaker 1: new low. Unobscured was created by me Aaron Manky and
Speaker 1: produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh Thane in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio, with research by Sam Alberty,
Speaker 1: writing by Carl Nellis and original music by Chad Lawson.
Speaker 1: Learn more about our contributing historians, source materials, and links
Speaker 1: to our other shows over at grimm and mild dot com,
Speaker 1: Slash Unobscured, and, as always, thanks for listening. The Boa