Rasputin: The Man, The Mystery

Introduction

Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin is known as the Siberian Mystic Healer, whose life has been retold numerous of times and almost each time it is told it is retold in a different way. Since Rasputin lived in a civilization not that advanced, little is know of his first forty years of life. So most information on the man are normally from stories families have passed on. Some say he is a holy monk with great powers, on the other hand he may be known as a phony with a false connection to God.

The Beginning

Rasputin was born between 1864 and 1865 in his own home of Pokrovskoe. It is now known as Tiumen’ Oblast. It is located in Siberia on the Toura River. This was a small city located near the Ural Mountains. At the center of the village stood a large white church with a guilded dome, which was a symbol of Russia’s strong religious background.

At the age of eighteen Rasputin went through a religious transition. He eventually went to the monastery at Verkhoture. At this place he became aquatinted to the Khlysty sect. After spending some time at this monastery he did not become a monk. When he came to this monastery he had no intentions of becoming a monk. But this even eventually leads to fame and power for Rasputin.

At the age of nineteen, Rasputin returned to his home in Pokrovskoe. There he fell in love and married Praskovia Fyodorovna. Together the two had three children. They had Dimitri in 1897, Maria in 1898, and Varvara in 1900.

Marriage wasn’t enough to keep Rasputin in one place. He continued to wander to places of religious significance suck as Mt. Athos, Greece, and Jerusalem. He was a self-proclaimed holy man. He had the power to heal the sick and the power to predict the future. His fame grew greatly. Soon people traveled from long distances in search of his well heard about abilities and insight. For Rasputin’s help, people would repay him with food, presents, and money. Rasputin has had no long period of religious or spiritual training. He also had very limited education so he was left illiterate. This made his theatrical abilities become very useful.

One day while Rasputin was plowing in the fields he had a revelation. The story states that a Heavenly Mother touched him. She told him of young Aleksei, the tsarevich and she instructed him to appear at the boy’s side to stop his bleeding. His bleeding was a result of his hemophilia. ...

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...sants, you, Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear, remain on your throne and govern, and you, Russian Tsar, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for twenty-five years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no noblers in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigory has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death then no one of your family, that is to say, none of your children or relations will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people...I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family.

This letter was written to Tsarina Alexandra on December 7, 1916. Twenty-three days later Rasputin was killed and nineteen months later after Rasputins death the Tsar and his family lay dead.