Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: ????????? ????????? ?????????) (1870(?) – December 16, 1916 (O.S.)) was a Russian mystic with an influence in the later days of Russia's Romanov dynasty.

Assassination

Prince Felix Yusupov, Duma member Vladimir Purishkevich, and the Tsar's cousin, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch Romanov, important members of the Saint Petersburg elite, finally took the lead in the decision to murder Rasputin because they viewed him as a source of major disgrace for the Tsar and his family. They killed him on the night of December 29/December 30, 1916 (16 December according to the Julian calendar still used in Russia at the time).

Related Topics:
Felix Yusupov - Duma - Vladimir Purishkevich - Dmitri Pavlovitch Romanov - December 29 - December 30 - 16 December - Julian calendar

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Exactly how Rasputin was killed is not clear. There was no police investigation after his death, so we know only the assassins' version. According to their story Yusupov invited Rasputin to his palace on the pretext that his wife Irina needed the attentions of the healer. In a dining room in the palace basement, Rasputin was served wine and cakes laced heavily with potassium cyanide. When the poison proved ineffective, they shot Rasputin three times in the chest, back and head, and beat him around the head with a dumb-bell handle until he was unconcious. They then tied him up in a sheet and dropped him through a hole in the ice into the Neva River. Rasputin drifted under the ice, still fighting to free himself.

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It is unclear why Rasputin survived potassium cyanide, if he indeed swallowed it. One possiblity is that he was a heavy drinker and thus suffered from achlorhydria (an absence of stomach acid, which is required to transform harmless potassium cyanide into lethal hydrogen cyanide). This would mean that the poison had no effect on him. Alternatively, the sugars in the wine and cakes may have inhibited the cyanide, or the chemical used may have been non-toxic, either deliberately or accidentally. A book by Edvard Radzinsky suggests Yusupov may have deliberately fluffed the murder, because he was in love with Rasputin. Nonetheless, even with poison, bullets and bruises, there is evidence that Rasputin still managed to move about under the freezing ice water before finally dying. Alexandra had the body drawn from the river three days later.

Related Topics:
Achlorhydria - Hydrogen cyanide - Edvard Radzinsky

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It is also possible that the story of his death may be a myth to diffuse the blame of the killers, especially Yusopov. Rasputin also seems more evil if he was hard to kill, furthering the cause of the assasins. But followers took the story of his death as verification that he was indeed a man of God.

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All three killers died much later from natural causes.

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There is some evidence that the British Secret Intelligence Service, worried that Rasputin might influence the Tsar to make peace with the German Empire thus freeing up German troops for the Western Front, was also involved.

Related Topics:
British - Secret Intelligence Service - German Empire - Western Front

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Supposedly, Rasputin's penis was cut off and preserved after he died. A Russian museum of erotica displays an object they claim to be his penis http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/04/28/rasputin.shtml, though there is no credible verification, which could be obtained in the form of DNA comparison. The object on display (presumably flaccid) is unusually large, though this contradicts the memoirs of one of his friends who saw him in a banya and claimed that his body looked pretty ordinary (except that he appeared much younger than his age). Additionally, there are questions whether it is possible there has been distortion of the spongy tissue from the preservation process; early reports of the preserved penis refer to it as dried, not preserved in formaldehyde. It is also possible the object on display belongs to another species, or is merely a part of a sea creature or mushroom.

Related Topics:
Penis - Unusually large - Banya

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