‘’if I am murdered by 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’’
And it was.
Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye . His father, Yefim, was a peasant farmer and church elder who had been born in Pokrovskoye in 1842 and married Rasputin's mother, Anna Parshukova, in 1863. Yefim also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between Tobolsk and Tyumen.The couple had seven other children, all of whom died in infancy and early childhood
Religious conversion
In 1897, Rasputin developed a renewed interest in religion and left Pokrovskoye to go on a pilgrimage he had a vision of the Virgin Mary or of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye,
his visit to the St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturye in 1897 transformed him.There, he met the Saint Makary. Rasputin have spent several months at Verkhoturye, and here he learned the reading and writing, but he later complained about the monastery, claiming that some of the monks engaged in homosexuality and criticizing monastic life as too coercive. He returned to Pokrovskoye a changed man, looking disheveled and behaving differently. He became a vegetarian, gave up alcohol, and prayed much more fervently than he had in the past.
Rasputin spent the years that followed as a strannik (a holy wanderer or pilgrim), leaving Pokrovskoye for months or even years at a time to wander the country and visit a variety of holy sites.It is possible he wandered as far as Mount Athos—the center of Eastern Orthodox monastic life
By the early 1900s, Rasputin had joined the Khlysty.these group held secret prayer meetings there. These meetings were the subject of some suspicion and hostility from the village priest and other villagers.
Word of Rasputin's activity and charisma began to spread in Siberia during the early 1900s until he had been recommended to Bishop Sergei, the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and arranged for him to travel to St. Petersburg.
Rasputin In the Palace
His lechery didn’t stop Rasputin from rising to very top of Russian society. In fact, it was his claims of magical healing powers that led to his introduction to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra, as they were looking for someone to cure their sickly son.
Traditional doctors had been unable to treat the young Alexei – who suffered from haemophile, meaning his blood wouldn’t clot properly whenever he was injured – so a desperate Alexandra turned to unorthodox healers. When Rasputin supposedly managed to stop a bad bleeding episode in 1908, through prayer, the Tsarina fell under his spell. Rasputin became “Our Friend” to the Romanov family and was summoned whenever Alexei needed faith healing. In 1912, the prince’s condition deteriorated so badly that he received the last sacrament. On hearing the news, Rasputin sent a telegram to Alexandra, reading: “The little one will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much.” Alexei recovered, Rasputin’s bond with the royals strengthened and his name spread throughout Russia.
Assassination attempt
On 12 July 1914 a 33-year-old peasant woman named Chionya Guseva attempted to assassinate Rasputin by stabbing him in the stomach outside his home in Pokrovskoye. Rasputin was seriously wounded, and for a time it was not clear if he would survive. After surgery and some time in a hospital in Tyumen,he recovered.
Death
A group of nobles led by Prince Yusupov, Dmitri Pavlovich, and Vladimir Purishkevich decided that Rasputin's influence over the tsarina threatened the empire, and they concocted a plan in December 1916 to kill him, by luring him to the Yusupovs'
Yusupov invited Rasputin to his home shortly after midnight and ushered him into the basement. Yusupov offered Rasputin tea and cakes which had been laced with cyanide. Rasputin initially refused the cakes but then began to eat them and, to Yusupov's surprise, appeared unaffected by the poison. Rasputin then asked for some wine (which had also been poisoned) and drank three glasses,but still showed no sign of distress. At around 2:30 am, Yusupov excused himself to go upstairs. He took a revolver from Dmitry Pavlovich, then returned to the basement and told Rasputin that he'd "better look at the crucifix and say a prayer", referring to a crucifix in the room, then shot him once in the chest. The conspirators then drove to Rasputin's apartment, with Sukhotin wearing Rasputin's coat and hat in an attempt to make it look as though Rasputin had returned home that night. Upon returning to the Moika Palace, Yusupov went back to the basement to ensure that Rasputin was dead.Suddenly, Rasputin leaped up and attacked Yusupov, who freed himself with some effort and fled upstairs. Rasputin followed Yusupov into the palace's courtyard, where he was shot by Purishkevich. He collapsed into a snowbank. The conspirators then wrapped his body in cloth, drove it to the Petrovsky Bridge, and dropped it into the Malaya Nevka River.
At the beginning of 1917 hungry women, who represented more than half of the workforce in St. Petersburg, expressed their dissatisfaction. On March 8, 1917, around 10,000 women went to the streets of St. Petersburg, demanding better working and living conditions, cheaper food, and an end to the rule of the Romanovs. Other residents soon joined the demonstrations. The Russian army slowly refused to obey orders and instead of opposing the protesters, some soldiers joined them. Members of the Russian Duma organized the Provisional Government, and Tsar Nicholas II abdicated.
Several of the Romanovs were killed in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. After his abdication, Emperor Nicholas and his family were under house arrest near St. Petersburg. The decision was made to liquidate the whole family, the family doctor, the three servants, and even the family dog. Thus, the reign of the Romanovs finally ended.
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