Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin, (c. 1872-1916). Russian monk and political figure. An uneducated peasant, he visited Greece as a young man and on his return to his native village in Siberia claimed to have divine and i clairvoyant powers. After settling in St Petersburg (1905) he gained favour with fashionable society and the Imperial court. He had considerable influence over the Tsarina Alexandra, who believed that he could cure her son’s haemophilia; while Tsar Nicholas II was pre-occupied with World War I Rasputin used this influence to gain virtual control of domestic affairs. Hated by politicians and the nobility for his power and debauchery, he was assassinated by a group of them in 1916. He survived their attempts to poison and shoot him but was finally drowned.
