Final Days of Rasputin

Summary

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal Episode: Final Days of Rasputin Release Date: January 2, 2025

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Introduction: The Mysterious Final Night

Timestamp: [02:06]

The episode opens with Anthony Delaney setting the scene for Rasputin's final night in St. Petersburg. On a cold December evening in 1916, Rasputin arrives at the Grand Duke's palace, greeted by Prince Yusupov. Despite assurances of privacy, Rasputin unknowingly steps into a meticulously planned assassination plot. As he indulges in poisoned wine and cakes, the tension builds, culminating in an attempted murder that seemingly ends Rasputin's life—only for the notorious figure to defy death itself.

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Who Was Rasputin? Unraveling the Man Behind the Myth

Timestamp: [05:06]

Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney introduce Douglas Smith, a Russian history expert, to delve into Rasputin's complex persona. Pelling emphasizes the necessity of understanding Rasputin beyond popular lore, seeking to uncover the true nature of this enigmatic figure.

Douglas Smith provides a nuanced portrayal:

“He was a man who was never as evil as he was portrayed, who in fact, in many instances tried to do right and tried to do the good for the czar and for Russia, but was made to be a scapegoat for all of Russia's problems and ultimately was murdered by misguided Russian patriots who thought in killing him, they were somehow saving Russia.”
[06:10]

Smith highlights Rasputin's origins in Siberia, his transformation into a holy pilgrim, and his deep-rooted connections to his family and village—contrary to the image of a detached mystical figure.

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Rasputin's Rise to Power: Charisma and Influence

Timestamp: [12:04]

Anthony Delaney probes into Rasputin's interactions with Russia's religious and social institutions. Douglas Smith explains the dichotomy of the Russian Orthodox Church's bureaucratic nature versus Rasputin's fervent spirituality:

“The church becomes very bureaucratic, kind of frozen in time, official, and I would say, lacking in religious fervor. And this is something that Rasputin learns... he becomes his own sort of preacher...”
[14:14]

Rasputin's ability to breathe new life into religious discourse made him a magnetic figure, attracting both the peasantry and the elite.

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The Royal Connection: Nicholas and Alexandra

Timestamp: [19:55]

The discussion shifts to Rasputin's intimate and codependent relationship with Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. Douglas Smith elaborates on how Rasputin became indispensable to the royal couple:

“Alexandra saw just how weak Nicholas was, ineffectual. And she came increasingly to find in Rasputin an advisor, a guide, a guru...”
[21:56]

This bond was intensified by the plight of their son, Alexei, a hemophiliac, leading Alexandra to rely heavily on Rasputin's counsel, which in turn fueled public suspicion and resentment.

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Public Perception and the Birth of a Myth

Timestamp: [25:20]

Anthony Delaney and Douglas Smith explore how Rasputin became a target for public scorn. Smith notes the role of the burgeoning free press post-1905 Russian Revolution in shaping Rasputin's notorious image:

“The first so called Russian revolution... free press. And they have this flourishing of Russian newspapers... story after story about Rasputin.”
[31:57]

Economic turmoil and military failures during World War I provided fertile ground for Rasputin to be scapegoated, simplifying complex societal issues into blame directed at a single individual.

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Debunking the Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction

Timestamp: [37:49]

In a critical analysis, Douglas Smith dismantles the legendary account of Rasputin's murder as narrated by Prince Felix Yusupov. He reveals that much of the dramatic narrative—such as surviving poison and multiple gunshots—is a fabrication:

“What always struck me as utterly bizarre is that this story was concocted, sold by the man who killed him.”
[38:05]

Smith emphasizes that official records show Rasputin was dead upon being dumped into the icy Neva River, contradicting the sensational tales of his supernatural resilience.

---

Aftermath and Legacy: The Final Resting Place

Timestamp: [44:12]

The hosts discuss the chaotic aftermath of Rasputin's death. Douglas Smith recounts how Rasputin's body was initially buried near the imperial palace but was later exhumed and likely cremated by the Provisional Government after the Romanovs' fall:

“He was buried in a church that was being built sort of underneath it... likely thrown into one of the furnaces and cremated...”
[44:12]

This final disposition underscores the tumultuous end of the Romanov era and Rasputin's enduring mystery.

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Conclusion: Myth vs. Reality

Timestamp: [37:49]

Maddy Pelling wraps up by highlighting the stark contrast between Rasputin's true demise and the folkloric stories that have immortalized him. The episode underscores the importance of historical accuracy in understanding figures who have become larger-than-life symbols in cultural memory.

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Notable Quotes

• Douglas Smith on Rasputin's Complexity:

  “He was amazingly complex, contradictory, sort of like trying to nail jelly to the wall...”
  [06:10]

• Douglas Smith on Rasputin's Role:

  “Rasputin is going to be that backbone for him [Nicholas].”
  [21:56]

• Douglas Smith on the Myth of Rasputin's Murder:

  “What always struck me as utterly bizarre is that this story was concocted, sold by the man who killed him.”
  [38:05]

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Final Thoughts

The episode expertly navigates the labyrinth of Rasputin's life, separating historical facts from the embellished myths that have persisted over time. With Douglas Smith's scholarly insights, listeners gain a deeper understanding of how Rasputin's true character and actions were overshadowed by a potent mix of propaganda, public fear, and political intrigue. This nuanced exploration not only demystifies Rasputin but also serves as a cautionary tale about the power of myth-making in shaping historical narratives.

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Stay Tuned:
Next week, "After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal" will delve into the final days of the Romanovs, offering another gripping exploration of history's shadowy corners. Subscribe to History Hit for more illuminating episodes and access to hundreds of hours of original documentaries.

Transcript

[Anthony Delaney]

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[Maddy Pelling]

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[Anthony Delaney]

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[Anthony Delaney]

St. Petersburg one evening in December 1916, or so the story goes, the holy man, Rasputin, arrives at the Grand Duke's palace. The temperature hasn't reached above zero for weeks, and there is barely the sun to speak of. Rasputin, one of the most influential people in Russian society, has been invited to meet the Princess Irina. With neatly combed hair and beard, an overcoat and beaver cap, he climbs from the car with his host, Prince Yusupov, who had come to fetch him. It is past midnight, and even as they enter the palace through the side door, the holy man seems to carry the darkness in with him. From inside come the sounds of chatter, the clinking of glasses and the shuffle of feet, accompanied by the unmistakable Yankee Doodle went To town on the gramophone. Rasputin turns abruptly to the prince. What's all this? Is someone giving a party? He inquires. He has been assured no one else would be present at the palace. The prince responds. His wife is entertaining some friends. She will be with them soon. Then he leads his guest away from the noise and down to the basement dining room. This room is comfortably furnished, with light seeping from coloured glass lanterns and the log fire crackling in the fireplace. Chairs are kicked back from the table. The space has clearly only recently been vacated by revellers. Rasputin and the Prince sit at the table, making small talk about people they are both acquainted with and discussing the supposed conspiracy against Rasputin. The holyman takes a tea and is offered Crimean wine and sweet cakes served neatly on a platter. He turns these down at first, but takes a wine when pressed. The princess has not yet appeared, but will be with them soon. So Rasputin is told. While he waits, he requests a glass of Madeira. He drinks it slowly, then requests another. The prince shifts in his chair, glancing at his guest. How much wine has Rasputin consumed now? How many cakes has he eaten? Rasputin sits languidly in his chair, aware of his host's agitation, frustrated at being brought here and then forced to wait, but completely oblivious to the fact that with every bite of cake and every sip of wine, he is being poisoned.

[Maddy Pelling]

Hello and welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddie.

[Anthony Delaney]

And I'm Anthony.

[Maddy Pelling]

And today, as you may have gathered, we're talking about the story of Rasputin, the man who just wouldn't die. Or so the story goes. Now, we've just met him on a night that will be his last, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First of all, we need to find out who this man is. Now, joining us on our journey to do that is Douglas Smith. Douglas is an expert in Russian history and a myth dispelling extraordinaire. Douglas, welcome to After Dark.

[Douglas Smith]

Thank you for having me.

[Maddy Pelling]

We are absolutely thrilled that you're here. For anyone who doesn't know Douglas's work, his biography of Rasputin is truly extraordinary. And you're going to get a flavour of it over the course of this episode, but do check it out if you can. Now, I think it's probably sensible, Douglas, to start at the beginning because I think most listeners will bring something of their own knowledge to this episode. We all know the song, we all know a little bit about Rasputin, but let's try and get to the man Himself. So who was he?

[Douglas Smith]

Well, that's the ultimate question, isn't it? Which I spent many, many years trying to get to the bottom of. I mean, if nothing else, he was amazingly complex, contradictory, sort of like trying to nail jelly to the wall, something that slips through your hands. I came away after years and years of studying him and going to archives all over the world and Siberian places with the notion that he was a man who was never as evil as he was portrayed, who in fact, in many instances tried to do right and tried to do the good for the czar and for Russia, but was made to be a scapegoat for all of Russia's problems and ultimately was murdered by misguided Russian patriots who thought in killing him, they were somehow saving Russia. He was born in Siberia, in western Siberia, into a peasant family in 1869, little village called Pokrovskaya on the Tura River. And he literally, the first 30 years or so of his life are a black hole. We know very little about those years of his life, but he appeared to have sort of, you know, the typical life of a Russian peasant, chiefly illiterate, working the land, living with his parents and in the larger community there. He married young, started his own family, and at some point around the age of 30 or so, he had some sort of religious experience and decided that he was going to become what the Russians call a strandnik or a holy pilgrim. And he began wandering all over the vast Russian Empire, from church to church, monastery to monastery, in search of religious enlightenment. And he did this for many, many years. And I like to think of this as Rasputin's University, if you will. He came to know the Bible, he came to know scripture, he came to know the teachings of the Gospels and the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church. And he also learned about Russian society itself from the lowest depths, if you will. Criminals and beggars and thieves and rapists, all the way up to the Russian clergy, townspeople, the growing middle class and up into the nobility and aristocracy. And he learned all about Russian society, and he learned also about human psychology, which would be crucial to his advance as he eventually made his way into the Winter Palace.

[Anthony Delaney]

What he didn't probably learn an awful lot about Douglas, I suppose, when he's on this journey of self discovery, is his wife and three children, because they exist too, don't they? In leaving this world that he knew that kind of more peasant existence that you described in his early years, he's also left that bit of his life behind as well.

[Douglas Smith]

Well, what's Interesting. Again, everything about him is sort of contradictory and doesn't fit a nice neat pattern. Talking about these holy pilgrims, these straniki, who sort of walked barefoot all across Russia at the time. There's literally almost a million of them in the late decades of the 19th century who were on these religious journeys. Typically, those were people with no families who never returned to any sort of home, if you will. Rasputin was different in that he would go off and be gone for months or maybe even a year, but he would always return to Pokrovskaya. He would return to his wife, he would return to his three children, and he would tell them the stories of what he'd experienced, and then he would work the land again for a number of months or years, and then off he would go again. So he. One of the things that's fascinating about him is he never left his home. He never left the connection to his family and his village. And right up until his final days, he maintained a home in Pokrovskaya, and he maintained those connections. So he never fully turned his back on his roots, if you will.

[Maddy Pelling]

I can see already that he's a mass of contradictions and hard to pin down and doesn't fit into any of the categories that, from a modern perspective, we might want to put onto him, but also in his own time, that he doesn't fit the profile of the people around him. You mentioned, Douglas, that we don't know anything about the first few years of his life, about his childhood before his marriage. Do you think that's part of the reason why he's so mysterious, that there's that big gap in that early part of his life?

[Douglas Smith]

I mean, I think one of the things I came away thinking is that because that, you know, first several decades of his life are this blank slate, if you will, that made it easy for his enemies later to create all sorts of wild, outlandish stories about his early years, because there was basically no real evidence to refute that. So one of the most popular stories was that he was a horse thief as a teenager, which to modern sensibilities doesn't seem all that horrible, but it'd be, you know, like being a notorious carjacker, maybe in our world today was one of the worst things you could accuse somebody of that was clearly made up. There's no evidence of that. And so I think this lack of real written record of those early years was. Was useful for his enemies. I did find in my research in an archive in Tobolsk in Siberia, which is the biggest town close to the village where he was from. When I was doing my research, one document that it eluded historians, which was interesting, was that when he was around the age of 15, he was thrown into the Huskow. Was thrown into the little village jail, if you will, for two days for offending the honor of the local mayor. So there is a suggestion of a certain rowdiness, maybe there, a certain temperament that is actually, you know, historically based in fact. But beyond that, that's really about all we can say.

[Anthony Delaney]

And tell me this, then, in terms of some of the findings that he comes across, there's religiously, now I'm speaking. There's two ways to look at this, I suppose. There's the. The cultural side of the religious institutions and the social side of the religious institutions that he encounters. And then there's the spiritual side that he takes and makes quite personal in many ways. If we could start with the social and cultural institutions that he encounters, how does he view them? Does he think they're working well? Is he ingratiated into them quite easily? Or does he find them an imperfect fit for him and his beliefs?

[Douglas Smith]

What's hard for us to keep in mind when talking about Russia in this period is that the official Russian Orthodox Church is basically a branch of government that basically, since the reign of Peter the Great in the early 18th century, the church is completely forced into a servile role, if you will. And so much of the church clergy, basically, in a sense, civil servants. And so the church becomes very bureaucratic, kind of frozen in time, official, and I would say, lacking in religious fervor. And this is something that Rasputin learns through his years as a holy pilgrim, visiting monasteries, getting to know the clergy, as he views so much of official religious life as dead, as lacking in spirit, in the original fire, if you will, of the teachings of Christ and that sort of thing. And so he becomes his own sort of preacher, and he gives the scripture his own interpretations and has a way of speaking about the life of Christ and religious matters and religious teachings in a way that comes across to many who hear him as fresh, as new, exciting, alive, and meaningful in a way that the official Russian Orthodox priest simply can't do. And this is one of the things that really, really attracts people to him.

[Maddy Pelling]

The picture that's emerging already. Douglas is someone who's incredibly charismatic, who goes against the grain and offers, I suppose, an alternate worldview, or certainly he has his own alternate worldview that other people find tantalizing. It's 1903, isn't it. When he arrives in St. Petersburg, what draws him there? Because the world that he's come from that you've described seems to me very provincial, that he's from this peasant background. And even with the religious epiphany he has, there's nothing other than his charisma, really, to mark him out as leading an extraordinary life at that point. So is it the move to St. Petersburg and what happens afterwards that changes the course of his life and history?

[Douglas Smith]

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, what really brings him there is a gradual process that through his wanderings, through his learning, and basically, it seems he almost knew the New Testament by heart and could speak about it and speak about it in this sort of peasant manner that it was imbued with, you know, riffing on nature and things like that, the beauties of the Russian countryside. He goes from one village to another village. People hear him and they start to talk about him. And so his name starts to spread, and he is then invited to ever larger and larger cities, including Kazan and places like that. And it's there that people say, oh, you need to go to Petersburg. You need to go to the capital. The people there need to hear you speak. And this is what brings him to St. Petersburg in the early years of the 20th century. And I think part of it is just him as this truly unique figure in terms of his abilities, if you will. Also, what is really, I think, significant is that Russia at that time, in a way, could be viewed as two separate worlds. You have the peasant society, which is the vast majority of the country, and then you have this Westernized, Europeanized urban elite. And in the late 19th, early 20th century, people in the elite become fascinated by this whole peasant Russia that they know nothing about. And they are looking for people from that world to interact with almost as if they were visiting from another planet or something like that. And so there's this general fascination with peasant holy men, because Rasputin was not the only one. There were others doing this sort of thing, but he was particularly gifted. His talent and skills set him apart from these other peasant holy men. And so he would go to one salon and then another salon, and then, you know, they were. He was always being invited somewhere else. And this is kind of what draws him to Petersburg. I would also say another factor here is his own ambition. He had a great sense of his gifts and his talents. And I think he was driven to try to go as far as these aspects of his character would take him.

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[Douglas Smith]

We were attacked by some kind of animal.

[Anthony Delaney]

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[Douglas Smith]

My husband was infected.

[Maddy Pelling]

What is happening to me?

[Unknown]

Daddy, is that you?

[Douglas Smith]

Run.

[Maddy Pelling]

Hurry. Mommy, he's coming.

[Douglas Smith]

Don't you lay a hand on her.

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[Maddy Pelling]

And of course, we know what's going to play out in St. Petersburg over the course of his life and that career. We're going to jump now, forward in time and head to that night that Anthony described for us at the beginning.

[Anthony Delaney]

The sound of the party upstairs continues to filter down, but the prince's attention has become focused on the ticking of the clock. It is 2:30am Now. It has been hours and several poisoned chalices. But there is still no change in his guest. The Prince stands, apologizing to Rasputin for the wait. He is going to find where his wife has gotten to. Up the stairs. He turns not towards the princess rooms, however, for she is in Crimea, far away from this endless evening. Instead, he seeks out his co conspirators. If this man, his guest, is not going to succumb to the poison, he will need a pistol. Returning down the stairs alone, then the prince finds Rasputin losing consciousness, his breathing labored. Could this be the poison finally taking effect? No, not quite. Rasputin lifts his head and requests another glass of Madeira wine from his host. Gripping the revolver behind his back, the prince obliges, entering into conversation about a crystal crucifix that his guest has just spotted. The prince advises Rasputin that he ought to set his intentions to the crucifix. Say a prayer, perhaps. The prince prays too. Then he raises the pistol and shoots his guest in the heart.

[Maddy Pelling]

It's quite a dramatic scene, and it's one that I always associate with Rasputin. This is the moment that I know about him. But let's rewind a little bit, Douglas, and try and understand why we're at the point where a prince of Russia is wanting to shoot Rasputin. So he comes to St. Petersburg, and we know that he strikes up this relationship with the royal family. So what can you tell us about that relationship he has with the Tsar and Tsarina? Because it's very intimate and unusual and codependent, isn't it?

[Douglas Smith]

Extremely codependent. So Rasputin's reputation reaches such heights that through members of the extended Romanov family, he is introduced to the Tsar and the Tsarina, to Nicholas and Alexandra in November of 1905. And they sit and talk with him for hours, and they are completely bewitched by him. Nicholas writes in his diary about meeting, you know, a man of God from Siberia and what an enormous impression he had made on the two of them. And he becomes a figure in their life that is irreplaceable. They refer to him as our friend. They are very much drawn to him and his counsel, his advice. They look upon him as sort of this personification of this vast peasant Russia over which they rule. Now. I mean, one of the things that I found in my research that I think is different than the way we've often thought about Rasputin and his relationship to the royal couple is the older telling is that all hinges on the fact that the young son and heir to the throne, Alexei, was a hemophiliac and that Alexandra looked to Rasputin as somebody who could keep him alive. And while that does play a role, what I came away from my research realizing is that more important was the relationship of Rasputin to Alexandra and Nicholas as rulers. Alexandra loved her husband deeply, but she saw just how weak Nicholas was, ineffectual. And she came increasingly to find in Rasputin an advisor, a guide, a guru, a quasi minister, if you will, to counsel her husband on how to rule. And you see this in the letters between Nicholas and Alexandra. She is always saying, listen to our friend. Do as our friend says she will. Even at one time, she sent Nicholas a comb that Rasputin has used on his beard and says, use this comb before you speak with your ministers. It will give you the strength of our friend. So I think crucial to the relationship really, was this idea that Alexandra had that my husband, the Tsar, the emperor of all the Russias, needs a strong backbone, and he lacks one. So Rasputin is going to be that backbone for him. And this then leads so many people in Russian society to come to this mistaken notion that the true ruler of Russia is now no longer Nicholas, but is, in fact, Alexander and Rasputin. And all of this is happening in the context of World War I, which breaks out in the summer of 1914 and goes horribly bad for Russia losing to Germany and Austria, Hungary. And many Russians come to this view that the only way we can be losing is if there's treason at the highest levels. And the empress, as we all know, is a German by birth. Russia's fighting Germany. Alexandra must be a spy and a traitor, working together with Rasputin. And so the only way we win the war, the only way we root out these spies and traitors at the very heart of the regime, is by killing Rasputin.

[Anthony Delaney]

Douglas. I think one of the things that I find quite fascinating about this particular period, this moment of scandal, let's say, where tensions begin to rise, is that people are kind of collecting a dossier, aren't they, on Rasputin and some of what they claim are his dodgy religious practices or dodgy sexual leanings. Can you tell us a little bit about how they try to highlight his ineptitude, his moral ineptitude, and the ways in which he's unsuitable to be at that level of society or the way they see that he's unsuitable to be there?

[Douglas Smith]

Right. Well, I mean, one of the thing that really outrages sort of elite society is the fact that Nicholas and Alexandra lead a very sort of bourgeois, domestic, private life, and they do not allow the elite of society in to be near them. They keep them at bay. But all of a sudden, this quote unquote, unwashed dirty peasant from Siberia shows up and they're happy to give him entree to the palace to go to the nursery where the four daughters and son are. And they're outraged. And so there's all this gossip that begins that often then just sort of veers off into slander and rumor and outright lies. We do know that he was. He became a drunk. Of this there's no doubt he drank heavily, especially in his later years. We do know he was a lech. Any woman within arm's length, especially once he'd been drinking, was going to be pawed, groped, maybe even more. We don't know if he had raped any women. It's possible. But there were enough truly kind of nasty aspects to his behavior for the rumor mill to get going. So there were investigations into him first around his behavior like that. And then also there was some concern and talk that he was a member of an underground religious sect. This sect called themselves the Christs Christi. And it was said that they engaged in all sorts of bizarre rites and rituals, including self flagellation with whips. And thus they were known as the Khlisti, a sort of a pan anchrist Christ, which are the whips. That they would engage in these strange orgiastic rites, spinning hallucinogenic states, orgies and all this kind of thing. And there were two investigations into Rasputin trying to determine whether or not he was indeed a member of one of these underground religious sects. And basically the evidence came back that he was not. But in a sense, by putting that label on him, it would be sort of analogous to, say, the United States in 1950s and calling someone a communist. It was kind of, you know, the ultimate way to slander someone's reputation. So all of this stuff is brewing and bubbling. I came away realizing through my research that the most important Rasputin to history is not really the true man, not really what he was doing and saying, but what everybody thought he was doing and saying. It became the myth of Rasputin in his own lifetime. That was the truly decisive and determinate thing in shaping other people's behavior and what ultimately led to his murder.

[Maddy Pelling]

And we're going to pick apart the distance between truth and myth a little bit at the end of this episode. But, Douglas, tell me a little bit about his relationship or the rumours of his relationship with the Tsarina and her children, because, you know, you speak there about his at best inappropriate behaviour and at worst, criminal behaviour, especially around women. And there are claims made amongst the court and the royal family and their servants that he's not only possibly attacking women working for the royal children, but he has access to the nurseries where the princesses are, you know, in states of undress in their sort of childhood shifts to get ready for bed. And of course, one of the sort of surviving big narratives of Rasputin is that he possibly has some kind of sexual relationship with the Tsarina herself. Do you see that as an important element in this story, alongside those rumors about his religious extremism?

[Douglas Smith]

Yes, those rumors obviously were huge, especially sort of in the last couple years of his life. In the summer of 1915, Tsar Nicholas decides that he is going to take charge of the Russian armed forces and lead the war effort. So he leaves the palace and goes off to be at military headquarters in Mogilev. And it is at that point that Rasputin is often alone in the palace, at times with Alexandra. But even before that, he had been shown into the nursery, as you say. And many people begin to talk that he's taking some sort of creepy advantage being around the young girls and that he is, of course, you know, the lover of the Empress Alexandra. This all belongs purely in the realm of myth. There is nothing to suggest any kind of sexual relationship here. And this was, again, part of the way that the critics wanted to slander the royal house, both from the political left and from the political right, if for different reasons. But first of all, Alexandra was the kind of woman who was not going to take a lover. It just wasn't in her temperament, particularly not from someone that she viewed as our friend, our religious advisor. There's that. And also, Rasputin revered the royal family. He was a true monarchist. He's not somebody who, from my reading of him, would have ever tried to physically take advantage of someone in the family. He had plenty of other women around him for those sorts of needs of his, and that is not the thing that drew him to the royal family and kept him so thoroughly engaged with their lives. I just think that's clearly stuff that belongs again, to this world of slander and gossip and rumor that was used as a weapon against the Romanovs.

[Anthony Delaney]

How then do they talking about this slander and this using his name to take blame for certain things. I'm intrigued as to how he somehow becomes blamed for the economic decline that we see in Russia at this time. It doesn't really seem that he would have much authority over the purse strings of Russia, or am I mistaken? How did these accusations come about?

[Douglas Smith]

If you go through all the sources there at the time, you'd think like anything that ever went wrong in Russia was the fault of Rasputin. You know, and one of the factors that is interesting, considering how the myth of Rasputin takes off and how it becomes so big and so powerful and all consuming, is that in the revolution of 1905, so the first so called Russian revolution, which the Romanov regime was able to put down, Nicholas as the czar, had to agree to certain political concessions. And one of those concessions was basically allowing for a free press. And so after 1905, for the first time in Russia, you have a true free press. And you have this flourishing of Russian newspapers and journals and magazines and editors have to fill their pages. And they're motivated by profit. And one of the best things you can do to sell your newspapers and make some money by 1910 and on is to write stories about Rasputin. I mean, he would come to town and the paparazzi would be chasing him trying to get his photograph. So there was story after story about Rasputin. So in a way, it's part of the world of the sort of the popular press at the time, and it sort of, it grows and grows from there. And then I think there's something else about the Rasputin story that I think for me kind of transcends this particular time and place, is that Russia faced all sorts of very complex problems, especially once the war started. Economically, militarily, politically, socially, you name it. The problems were so complex that no one could wrap their mind around them, probably. So it was easy to blame it all on one person. It was easy to face these overwhelming challenges and say, well, if only we could just get rid of this one person, everything would be fine. This idea that very complicated issues can be dealt with in very simple ways, which we have seen in other settings at other times. And I think this is crucial to understanding how it is that a Rasputin can be blamed for everything from losses at the front to economic collapse to, you know, you name it.

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[Maddy Pelling]

It'S very clear from what you're saying Douglas, that his time was running out and that he was made a scapegoat in so many ways. And it's completely fascinating to see how all those elements that occupied his life all were twisted and turned and conspired against him really in lots of ways. But at the heart of that there was also a complex man with a dark side to him I suppose. So lets head now to the night that is his last and hear the final part in that story.

[Anthony Delaney]

With the sound of the gun, the Prince's co conspirators rush downstairs. Though the gramophone continues to play, the rest of the party sound dies away. It was a fabrication. All the time Rasputin lies on his back, blood spreading across his silk. Blood allows. The doctor among the conspirators declares the bullet to have hit the man's heart, sure to be fatal. Three of the five conspirators take a round trip to Rasputin's house to give the appearance of him having traveled home. The remaining pair sit upstairs, waiting for the return to move the body. The Prince, however, has misgivings. He heads back downstairs to inspect the corpse. Rasputin's dark hair and beard have lost their earlier neatness. His silk blouse is almost entirely red. Now the Prince draws closer to the man he has killed. This all powerful demon, Sosom said, now finally slain. An eyelid flickers is sure of it, a quiver. Then. Then both green eyes snap open and Rasputin roars to his feet, foaming at the mouth and rushing towards his would be murderer while the Prince struggles out of his grasp, knocking him to the ground, and runs back upstairs to his co conspirator. Together they go back to finish the job. But opening the door to the basement, they see Rasputin disappearing into the Courtyard, through a door. On the stairs, the men give chase, shooting at his back. And once again, Rasputin falls. Could this then finally be the end of Rasputin?

[Maddy Pelling]

Now, I said, dear listener, that there was a distance between truth and the story that we've inherited of Rasputin. Douglas, we've been telling the story over the course of this episode of Rasputin's final night. Is any of it true?

[Douglas Smith]

Well, it is true that he was killed.

[Anthony Delaney]

Other than that, I've been lying to other people's apologies.

[Maddy Pelling]

Anthony's been making it all up. How do we know anything about this night? Where does this evidence come to us from?

[Douglas Smith]

Well, one of the things that's so amazing about, you know, the Rasputin phenomenon is that everybody has some idea about the murder, right? You know, this was the man that was impossible to kill. From poison in the, you know, the Madeira to the poison in the cakes, to being shot, you know, still alive, thrown in an icy branch of the Navarre river and dies, you know, drowning his hands up, making the sign of the cross and all this kind of stuff. It's quite a tale. You know, it makes a great movie. But what always struck me as utterly bizarre is that this story was concocted, sold by the man who killed him. So the story of Rasputin's murder comes from the memoirs of Prince Felix Yusupov, the man who put the murder plot in motion, found the co conspirators who set the stage, who lured Rasputin to his palace so that he could murder him in cold blood. As far as I know, very little of this is true. We have in a museum in Petersburg the sort of official investigation into the murder of Rasputin that includes a series of police photographs. And one of those photographs shows a close up of Rasputin's head after they pulled him from the icy river with a very large round bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. There was no way he was alive when they dumped his body into the river. And you can pick apart all sorts of elements to the story down to the poison. Now, there was a politician named Maklakov who apparently was willing to give Yusupov capsules of potassium cyanide to kill Rasputin, but then later changed his mind and gave Yusupov ground aspirin, not poison. Yusupov's memoirs, which are the basis for the story, are basically an entire series of lies and obfuscations and self aggrandizement and self justification. There's really only one line in the entire book, that is truthful. And that's where, at one point, he does refer to what he did as a cowardly crime. And that, indeed, is what it is. Yusupov lured an innocent man into his home, saying that he was going to have a chance to meet his wife, the Princess Irina. It was all put up. She wasn't even in Petersburg. She was in the Crimea at the time. He was shot three times. Once in the chest, once in the back, and once in the forehead. Probably that final shot was delivered in the courtyard outside the palace because there is a trail of blood leaving from a small door out into the courtyard. Yusupov wrote these memoirs when he was in exile in France. He had lost the family fortune, obviously due to the revolution. He needed money, and he realized that the only way this memoir is going to sell is if I sex it up pretty damn good. And that is exactly what he did. And in fact, he wrote the memoir twice. And in each retelling, it gets more outlandish. Yusupov becomes more heroic. I mean, he literally becomes the Archangel Michael doing battle with Satan in the. In, you know, in Revelations. And in fact, he. He refers to Rasputin as having satanic strength, which, again, only this is another form of self aggrandizement for Yusupov, that he, of all people, could kill Satan. But it's a great story. And what's interesting is I feel like on some levels, maybe I come across as a buzzkill, I don't know, for trying to take away a story that so many people know and so many people really, really hold on to.

[Anthony Delaney]

No, we love. We love debunking myths here. Keep them coming, Douglas. This is exactly what we're all about.

[Maddy Pelling]

I mean, I think the real story of his death is just as gruesome in a lot of ways. I feel like this is a strange sentence that I'm going to say, but, Douglas, tell me about Rasputin's penis, because there were some rumours that it was cut off his body, that it was kept as a relic. In the body that was actually found and pulled out of the river, was there a penis still attached?

[Anthony Delaney]

What a question.

[Douglas Smith]

Yes, I get that one all the time. Again, some of these stories that sort of refuse to die. Well, there was this museum at. Under the current system that Putin has created in recent years, which has become quite utterly bizarre and fascistic, There was a museum in Petersburg that claimed it had Rasputin's member in a jar of formaldehyde. I think it was The Museum of Sexology or something like that. I forget what it was called. There are these stories that there was a group of women in Paris in the twenties, and they kept his dick in a little box, maybe it was a big box, and they would worship this and, you know, there's all this kind of stuff and. No, the autopsy report, again, in the. In the Petersburg museums, makes no reference to any missing appendages. Arms, feet, legs, hands, penis. It was all. It was all in place.

[Maddy Pelling]

I'm glad to hear it.

[Anthony Delaney]

Well, now that we've cleared that one up, Douglas, let's end, then by giving us a glimpse into that final chapter, I suppose, in Rasputin's life, his funeral, the aftermath of his life. Because even in death, there is unsettlement, there is discontent. Can you just give us a brief roundup of what his funeral in the aftermath was like?

[Douglas Smith]

Yeah. So when they discovered the body a day or two after the murder, Alexandra was shattered. Nicholas was profoundly moved, but not to the extent that Alexandra was. Interestingly enough, they didn't consult Rasputin's widow and his children about where to bury the body. Nicholas and Alexander decided to bury him just outside the imperial grounds at their palace at Tsarska Silo outside St. Petersburg. And he was buried in a church that was being built sort of underneath it. And then with the collapse of the Romanovs In March of 1917, the new Provisional government decides they want to dig up Rasputin's body, and they do. They bring it back into the city, and then it is loaded onto a truck, and a group of men, sort of late at night, drive out north of the city to get rid of the body once and for all. And at this point, we lose any real trace of what happens. There's some accounts, according to which it was taken out into the woods and burned. And then there's another story that it probably went to the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, which had these giant furnaces, and was likely thrown into one of the furnaces and cremated, which I think is the more likely to go out into the deep snow in winter and fully consume a body in flame. From what I know, no personal experience, but just having read about this is not so easy. So chances are, you know, he ended up in one of these giant furnaces at this Polytechnic Institute outside Petrograd. And it's kind of a macabre end to remarkable life. But there is no grave site you can visit. There's a memorial. There used to be a memorial again at this Imperial palace park outside Petersburg. I visited, but those are really the only places left if you want to go pay your respects to Rasputin. That's that's about it these days.

[Maddy Pelling]

I think it's so fitting for a man who was so many things to so many different people in life that we can't really pin down even what happened to his body or where he's laid to rest. Of course that would be the case. Well, you heard it here folks. Next time the death the murder of Rasputin comes up in conversation, as it inevitably does, you can tell people his penis was still attached and there was a gunshot in the middle of his forehead. Thank you so much for listening to After Dark. If you've enjoyed this brief visit to Russia, then you'll be excited to know that we're going to be covering the final days of the Romanovs very soon as well. You can find all of the final days of episodes in our back catalogue wherever you get your podcasts, and there are many, many more to come. If you want to get in touch or suggest a topic, you can do [e-mail] See you next time.

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