38 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
38 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
|
||
Grolier
|
||
|
||
Rasputin, Grigory Yefimovich
|
||
--------------------------------
|
||
(ruhs-poo'-tin, gri-gohr'-ee yi-fee'-muh-vich)
|
||
|
||
The scandalous behavior of Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin, b. c.1865, d. Dec.
|
||
30 (N.S.), 1916, and the influence he wielded over the Russian imperial family
|
||
served to erode its prestige and contributed directly to the collapse of the
|
||
Romanov dynasty shortly after his own death. Originally surnamed Novykh, he
|
||
was born into a peasant family in Siberia and spent much of his youth in
|
||
debauchery,receiving the name Rasputin ("debaucher"). He entered the church,
|
||
however, and gained a reputation as a faith healer. Appearing at the imperial
|
||
court about 1907, Rasputin soon became a favorite of Empress ALEXANDRA
|
||
FYODOROVNA and through her influenced NICHOLAS II. Rasputin's hold over
|
||
Alexandra stemmed from his hypnotic power to alleviate the suffering of the
|
||
hemophiliac crown prince, Aleksei, and from her belief that this rude priest
|
||
was a genuine representative of the Russian people. Rasputin's conduct became
|
||
increasingly licentious and shocking to the Russian public, however. When
|
||
Nicholas took personal command of Russian troops in 1915, Alexandra and
|
||
Rasputin were virtually in charge of the government. Several conservative
|
||
noblemen, recognizing Rasputin's destructive influence on an already
|
||
deteriorating government, assassinated him. They first poisoned and then shot
|
||
him; when these efforts failed, they drowned Rasputin in the Neva River.
|
||
FORRESTT A. MILLER
|
||
|
||
Bibliography:
|
||
|
||
Rasputin, Maria, and Barham, Patte, Rasputin: The Man Behind the Myth, a
|
||
Personal Memoir (1977);
|
||
|
||
Rodzianko, Mikhail V., The Reign of Rasputin: An Empire's Collapse, trans.
|
||
by Catherine Zvegintzoff (1927; repr. 1973);
|
||
|
||
Wilson, Colin, Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs (1964).
|
||
|
||
|