For the first time, 33-year-old Rasputin, well versed in the Gospel and possessing the undoubted gift of a seer, appeared in St. Petersburg in 1903. The Siberian peasant acquired his extraordinary gift after he was severely beaten by fellow villagers, who were jealous of local girls. Gregory could die, but survived, after which he passionately believed in God and discovered in himself the abilities of a hypnotist and a prophet.
It is curious that the initial patronage of the energetic wanderer who arrived in the capital to collect money for the construction of the church was made by the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Father Sergius. This pious church hierarch is also famous for the fact that in 1943, at the suggestion of Stalin, he headed the patriarchal throne. The future "Stalinist patriarch" was surprised by the knowledge of the unusual guest and introduced him to the circles of the St. Petersburg nobility.
And already two years later, the "holy elder" was introduced to the royal family.
Tea drinking with crowned persons
It must be said that from his first appearance, "the man of God" showed himself to be an extraordinary person, who saw and guessed what was hidden from others.
Arriving at the "ordinary" tea party in Tsarskoe Selo, "father" Gregory immediately felt that the emperor and his wife had planned something unprecedented. And he was right - the tsar and tsarina, frightened by the scale of the 1905 revolution, wanted to leave the country and flee to England. Rasputin listened carefully to the tsar and, looking into the eyes of the monarch, persuaded him not to do so. And the sovereign of the sixth part of the earth agreed with the arguments of the semi-literate peasant (Rasputin learned to read and write only upon his arrival in Petersburg), they were so logical and far-sighted. But if Rasputin had not been at the dinner table at that moment, it is difficult even to imagine what would have happened to the Russian Empire after the escape of the royal family! It could have ended in a fratricidal massacre or in a sudden revolution. After the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the army was extremely embittered.
Very little time passed, and Rasputin twice more warned the catastrophe that threatened Russia.
In 1909, Austria-Hungary annexed Serbia, after which Germany, an ally of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, actually presented Russia with a choice - either it recognizes the annexation as legal, or a declaration of war follows! The tsar, spurred on by the unceremoniousness of such statements and the advice of patriotic confidants, was already ready to send an army to the Balkans if Rasputin had not intervened. He once again reminded the tsar that Russia was not ready for war, that to fight a "German" at that moment was suicide, after which the tsar hesitated. And when Alexandra Feodorovna got involved in the case, agreeing with Rasputin, the tsar completely abandoned the war.
It is difficult even to imagine what would have happened to Russia if it had not been for the wisdom of the Siberian peasant, who this time rendered Russia an invaluable service! The unwillingness of the army and the Russian economy would lead to an early defeat. And then to the revolution …
But three years later the "Balkan question" arose again. This time nothing helped - the king was extremely belligerent. And then Rasputin resorted to an extreme measure: he fell to his knees in front of Nikolai, begging him to stop.
And again, the gigantic military machine of the Russian state was stopped at the very last moment by the prudence of the "Siberian elder". Subsequently, Count Witte, in his memoirs, wrote about the role of Rasputin as follows: “He pointed out all the disastrous results of the European fire, and the arrows of history turned in a different way. The war was averted. " In the mouths of such an astute and intelligent person like Witte, this looks like confirmation of Rasputin's true merits.
There is no doubt that Rasputin would have tried to save Russia from entering the First World War. But it did not work out - and the “holy elder” had his own reasons for that.
Miraculously survivor
Presumably, by the beginning of 1914, Grigory Rasputin had great political weight and was able to influence
any government decision. He had a lot of acquaintances - from government officials to representatives of the highest rank clergy (by the way, one of Rasputin's patrons was Bishop Germogen, the former rector of the Tiflis seminary, who expelled the seminarian Dzhugashvili-Stalin from the educational institution). And nevertheless, the "Siberian elder" did not stop Russia from being drawn into the world slaughter. Why?
The explanation is simple: on June 15, 1914, Archduke Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo, and two weeks later on June 29 of the same year, the Syzran bourgeois woman, Khionia Guseva, who was sick with syphilis, arrived in the village of Pokrovskoye and stabbed Rasputin in the stomach. The blow was so strong that, according to the testimony of witnesses, "the guts were visible." There is no doubt that the half-mad woman became the instrument of those
Grigory Rasputin and his children of
forces who did not want Rasputin to once again keep the tsar from war.
So at the time of the fatal decision, Father Grigory was in the hospital. He was saved by a miracle - if not for the good health of the "elder", he would not have survived!
Promotional video:
The divine body of the "Siberian elder"
Having barely appeared in the imperial capital, the "Siberian elder" amazed numerous admirers not only with unusual speeches and religious knowledge, but also with his erotic abilities.
Physical strength, unusual appearance and blue eyes, radiating magnetism, attracted a variety of women to him.
And soon a whole circle of women formed around “father” Gregory, ironically called “libertines” … In fact, it was a real harem, which differed from its eastern counterpart in that women came to the circle voluntarily. There were many married women among them. One of the most active "rasputinoks" was the wife of a real state councilor (by today's standards of a general) Olga Lokhtina. “Whoever surrenders to this god himself becomes divine by touching his body! "- often used to say this forty-year-old" libertine ", whom the" Siberian old man "was treating for" intestinal neurasthenia "and other disorders. What this treatment consisted of is well known from the memoirs of the St. Petersburg publisher Filippov. One morning, when he went to Rasputin on business, he witnessed a very "painful" (as the publisher defined it) scene: Lokhtina,holding the "holy elder" by the genitals, she shouted: "You are God!" and demanded immediate copulation. The annoyed “elder” began to beat the “general”, but she continued to shout: “I am your sheep, and you are Christ! ". Filippov tried to reason with Grigory, but he brushed it off, saying: “She pesters, you bitch, she demands to sin! ".
From this episode, one can see the whole unhealthy atmosphere that has developed around the "Siberian elder". Dozens of women, many of whom were real high society lionesses, longed to be embraced, or even in bed, to a semi-literate peasant with a mourning border under his nails. Nothing could stop them - no loss of reputation, no moral standards, no status. Moreover, some husbands, who know that the "elder" heals wives not only with words, but also takes them to his alcove (the "holy of holies" was the name of the bed on which the "sex guru" "tested" his followers) themselves pushing their wives into the arms of the "preacher". So often Rasputin did not have to do anything - women fell at his feet like overripe apples. And the husbands, having learned about their “fall”, boastfully declared to their friends: “Yesterday mine was with this terrible Rasputin! ". In addition to invitations to the "office", where "Father" Gregory and his next victim were waiting for the "holy of holies", Rasputin liked to invite ladies to the bathhouse. This was also a kind of test for "loyalty" - the "elder" argued that washing together in the bathhouse is in the tradition of the Russian people and is a kind of cleansing from sins.
Researchers of Rasputin's life claim that the backbone of this circle consisted of twelve (almost 12 apostles!) Women from high society - the "general" Lokhtin, Princess Shakhovskaya, Lyubov Golovina, the wife of a wealthy Moscow merchant Vera Dzhanumova, the wife of the notary Patushinskaya, the maid of honor of the Empress Anna Vyrubova and some others.
Surprisingly, almost all of them to the end of their lives carried fidelity to the "teacher" and died in the consciousness of their own piety, in that they were marked by a "higher spirit." As one of the "rasputinoks" said: "He makes everything holy … do not torture him … yield to him …" And they did not "torture"..
Barely regaining consciousness, Rasputin begins to bombard the tsar with telegrams calling for an end to the war. He understands what awaits Russia as a result of this massacre. He informs the tsar about this in one of the telegrams: "They will lay down to the last person."
Returning to Petrograd, he saw that things had gone too far, but still continued to ask the tsar to conclude a separate peace with Germany. And if the tsar obeyed, Russia would have a good chance to save face, and millions of lives, and territory. But the positions of those who wanted to continue the war to a victorious end were too strong.
However, in addition to calling for the end of hostilities, Rasputin also took part in the planning of some operations, sometimes making surprising warnings. So, in November 1915, through Alexandra Fedorovna, he advised Commander-in-Chief Nicholas II to start an offensive in the Riga region. The military refused his offer, launched an offensive in the southwest, which subsequently led to the loss of Riga and the entire Baltic front. The same story happened in 191, and in the Kovel direction - despite Rasputin's warning, the Tsar's brother Nikolai Nikolaevich continued the offensive, which ended in gigantic human losses.
The fact that Rasputin's influence was quite strong is also evidenced by another fact: the Germans scattered leaflets over the trenches of the Russians, on which Kaiser Wilhelm leaned on a bayonet, and Tsar Nikolai - on Rasputin's sexual organ! Undoubtedly, the Germans understood well who they were dealing with, even if they tried to discredit Rasputin together with the Russian autocrat even on propaganda leaflets.
Of course, the "Siberian elder" made certain mistakes. For example, he advised the tsar to lead the army, which was unacceptable in those conditions - after all, if the Romanov dynasty was defeated, the Romanov dynasty would surely collapse. Although it cannot be ruled out that in this way Rasputin wanted the tsar to see the war, its blood, unnecessary sacrifices with his own eyes, and, dropping military claims, returned to his traditional peacemaking.
Judging by what happened next, Nicholas II was close to reconsidering the original positions. This can be judged at least by the fact that Rasputin was killed in December 1916. Moreover, the killers, according to authoritative historians, were led by the British intelligence agent Oswald Reiner - the British understood that Russia, through the efforts of Rasputin, was about to conclude a separate peace with Germany.
So the "Siberian elder" did not have time to fulfill his last saving mission. And Russia collapsed, as befits a giant to fall - with blood and gigantic destruction.
The Queen and her "beloved teacher"
The relationship between the wife of the last Russian sovereign, Alexandra Feodorovna, and the "friend" of the imperial family, Grigory Rasputin, are still shrouded in secrecy.
There are different opinions about the degree of closeness between the almighty empress and the semi-literate Russian peasant. But the fact that these relations took place is an indisputable historical fact … Having first arrived in Tsarskoe Selo, Rasputin had a very strong influence on the empress. And it can be understood: the best European doctors could not do anything with the disease of Tsarevich Alexei, who is suffering from hemophilia. Before the eyes of his mother, who adored him, the boy literally faded away, and then a bearded man with an unblinking gaze appeared - and the prince comes to life just before our eyes. It is not surprising that the queen was amazed at the miracle that had happened, and soon the "elder" Gregory became a close friend of the royal family.
Alexandra Feodorovna was an extremely devout and impressionable person. She indulged in religious mysticism with a morbid passion and saw "signs" and "signs" everywhere. And there is nothing surprising in the fact that a clumsy, rude man, who appeared from mysterious Siberia, about which the German empress had a vague idea, entered her life as a powerful and incomprehensible spontaneous phenomenon, as a heavenly sign that could change her personal life and her life. families. How far could she go in adoring her idol? In a sober state, Rasputin rudely suppressed any hints of his intimacy with the empress. But one day, having drunk in the Moscow restaurant "Yar", the "elder" Grigory took off his pants and shouted to the whole audience: "Yes, I do what I want with the tsarina!" »You can write off this on drunken bragging, or you can assume something else.
Of course, no one can say for sure how far the relationship between the Siberian peasant and the Russian empress has gone.
But after the death of these outstanding characters, historians found a letter from Alexandra Fedorovna to Rasputin, who addresses him like this: “My beloved and unforgettable teacher, savior and mentor, how painful it is for me without you …, you sit next to me, and I kiss your hands and bow my head on your blessed shoulders. Oh, how easy it is for me then! Then I wish one thing: to fall asleep, to fall asleep forever on your shoulders, in your arms. Oh, what happiness even to feel your mere presence near me … Where are you? Where did you go? And it is so hard for me, such longing in my heart ….
Apparently, this is written by a woman who has lost her head from love. True, some historians suggest that this letter is a forgery.
Figures and facts
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (Novykh) - was born on January 10, 1869 in the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province. Killed on December 17, 1916.
• Rasputin had three children: two daughters and a son. After the revolution, his daughter Matryona emigrated to France, and his widow, daughter Varvara and son Dmitry were repressed and exiled to the Tyumen north.
• The most famous prediction of Rasputin that after his death the monarchy would fall in two months came true.
• After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government, through a newspaper, invited women who had suffered from Rasputin's sexual claims to testify. Nobody responded.
In search of the holy fool
The solution to the "phenomenon" of Rasputin should be sought not in the "demonic" talents of the "Siberian wanderer", but in the atmosphere of the family of the last Russian emperor, which, like two opposite poles, was electrified by two circumstances - the incurable illness of Tsarevich Alexei and the boundless mysticism of the wife of Nicholas II Alexandra Fyodorovna … So, even without Rasputin's efforts, the atmosphere of the royal court in the early 1900s was filled with poisonous fumes of suspicious teachings and beliefs. It was enough to bring up a match for everything to flare up and catch fire. And it was not Rasputin who brought up this match: on the contrary, figuratively speaking, the “old man” Gregory came to the royal palace with a bucket of water, and a whole fire engine should have been sent there, and with the calculation to boot! Until the royal family in the person of Rasputin found someone who gave her peace and temporary consolation,friends and associates of the emperor day and night looking for someone who could play the role of a "lightning rod" at court! The candidates were one more exotic than the other! At one time, Alexander Fyodorovna and Nicholas II, even before the birth of the tsarevich, were used by a certain Nizier Veshal from Lyon, better known as Master Philip. One of the most miraculous methods of his "treatment", used for the correct conception of an unborn child, was as follows - Monsieur Philip went to bed next to the emperor and his wife. This, in his opinion, ensured the "correctness of the birth of the heir"! We must pay tribute to the cunning master - without waiting for his methods to be questioned, the Frenchman saved up some money and drove home. At one time, Alexander Fyodorovna and Nicholas II, even before the birth of the tsarevich, were used by a certain Nizier Veshal from Lyon, better known as Master Philip. One of the most miraculous methods of his "treatment", used for the correct conception of the unborn child, was as follows - Monsieur Philip went to bed next to the emperor and his wife. This, in his opinion, ensured the "correctness of the birth of the heir"! We must pay tribute to the cunning master - without waiting for his methods to be questioned, the Frenchman saved up some money and drove home. At one time, Alexander Fyodorovna and Nicholas II, even before the birth of the tsarevich, were used by a certain Nizier Veshal from Lyon, better known as Master Philip. One of the most miraculous methods of his "treatment", used for the correct conception of the unborn child, was as follows - Monsieur Philip went to bed next to the emperor and his wife. This, in his opinion, ensured the "correctness of the birth of the heir"! We must pay tribute to the cunning master - without waiting for his methods to be questioned, the Frenchman saved up some money and drove home.was like that - Monsieur Philip went to bed next to the emperor and his wife. This, in his opinion, ensured the "correctness of the birth of the heir"! We must pay tribute to the cunning master - without waiting for his methods to be questioned, the Frenchman saved up some money and drove home.was like that - Monsieur Philip went to bed next to the emperor and his wife. This, in his opinion, ensured the "correctness of the birth of the heir"! We must pay tribute to the cunning master - without waiting for his methods to be questioned, the Frenchman saved up some money and drove home.
While the place of the "healer" was empty, a whole cohort of all kinds of crooks lined up in line for this position. There was also a certain Papus, a disciple of the escaped master Philip, the Austrian physician Schenk, the Tibetan healer Badmaev, the Russian soothsayer Kolyaba Kozelsky. The methods of their influence on the royal couple, in principle, did not differ much from the methods of the French master, except that no one climbed into the royal bed. But in their originality, seers and soothsayers were in no way inferior to their predecessors. For example, the same Kolyaba Kozelsky, trying to convey a particle of the "holy spirit", chewed bread crumb, after which he put the "chew" in the mouth of the "tsar-father" and "empress-mother". Looking at such techniques, one might think that the royal court was occupied by madmen.
The fact that Rasputin eventually took the post of "folk healer" at court can be considered a blessing in some way.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 10-C, Yegor Schwartz