Rasputin, Grigory Yefimovich

Rasputin, Grigory Yefimovich (1869-1916), Russian mystic and court figure, whose pervasive influence over the imperial family was a scandal in prerevolutionary Russia. He was born in Pokrovskoye, Siberia. Rasputin was uneducated and lived as a peasant until about 1901, when he left his family to become a wandering holy man. He soon acquired a wide reputation for both his faith healing and his debauched behaviour. In 1905, during a visit to St Petersburg, then the site of the national capital, Rasputin was presented at court and made a deep impression on Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Because he was able to relieve the suffering of her haemophiliac son and heir to the Russian throne, Alexis Nikolayevich, Rasputin became the most influential person in the tsarina's entourage. After 1911 many high government offices were filled by his appointees, most of whom were incompetent. After the start of World War I, when Emperor Nicholas II went to the front to take command of the army, Rasputin became the decisive influence in the government. His famous orgies scandalized the people of Russia, and rumours circulated that he was conspiring with Germany. Called the Mad Monk, he became an object of hatred, and on December 29-30, 1916, a group of aristocrats assassinated him during a midnight party to which they invited him. Rasputin was in large part responsible for the rising tide of discontent that led to the Revolution in the following year and the downfall of the monarchy.