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In the course of history there have been many people who made a difference, but were, and still are, known for being outrageous and sometimes even crazy, for example Emperor Gaius who made his horse consul, but Rasputin probably defeats them all. Rasputin was born a peasant and at a very early age became involved in religion. At age 18, he joined a monastery for three months were he became a member of the Khlysty religion. After leaving the monastery, Rasputin met Makari who influences Rasputin to follow his ways. Rasputin learned more about the strange religion and started preaching and healing. He was well known for healing but his fame roused when he was asked by the Royal Family to heal Alexei from hemophilia.
He later became Tzarevich's personal advisor and was responsible for Russia's economic downfall. He was blamed for the downfall and later was murder in an unusual way. Rasputin's religious beliefs and lifestyle, not only caused his death, but also changed the history of Russia and the world. Gregory Efimovich Rasputin was born as a peasant in a small Siberian village called Pokrovskoye on January 11, 1869. There he became involved with religion at a very young age and started preaching at the age of eleven. When he was around the age of eighteen, he went to the Verkhoturye Monastery where he studied religion for three months.
There, he joined the Khlysty religion, which was a sect in the Russian Orthodox Church. After leaving the monastery, Rasputin encountered Makari, who lived near the monastery. Makari was a healer, a wise man, and very religious, he taught Rasputin a lot about healing. Makari had an enormous impact on Rasputin, so much so that Rasputin followed in his foot steps. At age twenty in 1889, Rasputin married Praskovia Fyodorovna and had three children with her. At age 32 in 1901, he felt that he needed to get in touch with the earth, so he decided to leave his home in Pokrovskoye to visit places of inspiration.
On his journey he visited Greece and Jerusalem, two very inspirational places. After two years of wandering he finally arrived in Saint Petersburg in 1903 were he officially declared himself a holy man. That is when he began to heal and started his career as a healer. He then became known as a powerful healer. Now that Rasputin was known as a healer, some people thought of him as saint and others mistrusted him and fear his diabolical appearance.
Surprisingly in 1904, while Rasputin was wandering around one day, he was asked by Royal Family member, Tzarevich, to heal Alexei's hemophilia. Rasputin was the final option and he was hired by the Royal Family because of his reputation in healing. Rasputin accepted the offer and successfully healed young Alexei which earned him the Royal Family's respect. The family even considered him a friend. This only made Rasputin's enemies jealous. Rasputin's healings fascinated Tzarevich so much that they became good friends.
To Tzarevich, Rasputin was a hero and his fascination for Rasputin increased when Rasputin saved Alexei from a bee attack in 1905 in which he eligibly ran to Alexei and yelled "sting him, and you will die" to the bees which caused the bees to leave Alexei alone. The act of heroism made the Royal Family pronounce him a man of God. Though Rasputin and Tzarevich were happily bonding, others were not happy because their bonding demonstrated a bond between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Leadership. Rasputin was doing much more than just bonding with Tzarevich, he was also bonding closely with his female followers.
Rasputin became a very controversial person, especially when people found out about his unusual believes. Rasputin had about twenty followers and all but three of the followers were females. Rasputin used to pick up prostitutes in the streets and he would tell them that if they sleep with him, they will be free of sin. He claimed that his holiness was so great that having sex with him would serve as a sin cleanser. Besides picking up prostitutes, he would also get drunk very often and he would arrive home in the morning very drunk. His careless life style and his drunkenness gave him a bad temper and he would take his anger out on anyone that passed in front of him.
Bad hygiene was also a problem, because of his busy schedule with drinking and having fun with women, Rasputin barely had time to take showers and take care of his vanity. His bad behavior and his carelessness destroyed his religious reputation. In a result of Rasputin's bad behavior, he was removed from the Russian Orthodox Church and banned for life. Rasputin's beliefs were the real cause of his downfall. Rasputin believed that we, as humans, sin and it's alright to sin as long as we confess and pass through a state of humiliation and only by humiliation we would be able reach God.
Rasputin believed that to reach God you should sin as much as possible and later confess to your sins. That is why he drank a lot, had fun with multiple women, and sinned his heart out. He claims that he sinned his heart out everyday to be in touch with God. These beliefs only brought Rasputin trouble. Another problem that got him in trouble was that he was accused of being unpatriotic because he was a spy for Germany once.
This gave his enemies a better reason for assassinating him. But the biggest problem occurred during the beginning of World War One in which Rasputin announced to Grand Duke Nicholas that he will bless the troops before the war started. The Grand Duke then threaten to hang Rasputin if he ever visited his troops. Rasputin then claimed that he had a vision that Russia would never be successful in war unless Tzarevich took control over the troops. The Grand Duke, with mistrust towards Rasputin, agreed to let Tzarevich take control.
This seemed great at first, but later it became a very big problem. Now that Tzarevich had even more power because of Rasputin's vision, Tzarevich made him his personal advisor. Tzarevich also gave Rasputin his own office and he has given the privilege to choose his office members, unsurprisingly he chose only female office members. During his position in office he slept with many women in exchange for demands. Rasputin's bad influence over Tzarevich caused Russia's economy to decrease.
Both Tzarevich and Rasputin were blamed for Russia's decreasing economy. Rasputin's negative influence caused people to join up and plan to assassinate Rasputin. This plan turned serious at a speech given by Vladimir Purishkevich in which he announced that Rasputin's relationship with Tzarevich was bringing Russia's economy down. Felix Yusupov attended this speech, there he asked Vladimir to join him completed his plan to assassinate Rasputin. Without thinking about it, Vladimir agreed to the assassination. Rasputin was later invited to a party at Felix's houses were they planned to assassinate him.
When Rasputin arrived there, he was serve many pastries, not knowing that each pastry contained cyanide, he ate many and showed no sign of the poison taking effect. Furious, Felix shot Rasputin and left him on the floor. When he went to check up on the body a half an hour later, he saw that Rasputin was running outside for his life. Felix and his crew chased him and stabbed him multiple times, but Rasputin kept on running. Then Felix and his crew clubbed him unconscious and tied him up to a chair and threw him in a river.
Three days later, his body was found ashore untied as if he somehow untied himself. That was the end of Rasputin's legacy and strange life. Rasputin moved on from being a peasant to being a trusted friend of the Royal Family because of his holy powers. This started a problem when people's mistrust and envy towards Rasputin caused them to plan his assassination. His enemies were even more fired up when Tzarevich made Rasputin his personal advisor and he also gave Rasputin an office. But Tzarevich and Rasputin's relationship were causing Russia's economy to decrease.
Angry at Rasputin's negative influence on Tzarevich, people planned to assassinate him at a party hosted by Felix Yusupov. It was during this party that his enemies planned to kill him. First they poisoned the food he was eating, since it had no effect they shot him, half an hour later he was running for his life so Felix chased him and stabbed him multiple times. As if that wasn't enough, he was clubbed and tie to a chair and thrown in a river. Three days later his body was found and pronounced dead, since then Rasputin's negative influence and effects toward Russia's economy was never forgotten. Bibliography Atchison, Bob. "Rasputin." Non-Fiction. 1995 - 2004.
Alexander Palace. 10 January 2005. < web >. Kindersley, Dorling. "Russian Revolution." Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. 1998. Vogel-Jorgensen, T. "Rasputin: Prophet, Libertine, Plotter." New Hyde Park, N. Y. : University Books, 1970.
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