biography
| name: |
Rasputin, Grigoriy Yefimovich
|
pronunciation:
[raspyootin]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (?1871–1916)
|
| biography:
| Peasant and self-styled religious ‘elder’ (starets), born in Pokrovskoye, WC Russia. A member of the schismatic sect of Khlysty (‘flagellants’), he was introduced into the royal household, where he quickly gained the confidence of the emperor (Nicholas II) and empress (Alexandra of Hesse) by his ability to control through hypnosis the bleeding of the haemophiliac heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexey. He created a public scandal through the combination of his sexual and alcoholic excesses, and his political influence in securing the appointment of government ministers. He was murdered by a group of right-wing patriots, led by Prince Felix Yusupov, a distant relative of the Tsar, and his body dumped in the frozen R Neva. |
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