Rasputin is on my mind because I am deeply engrossed at the moment in Nicholas and Alexandra – sent to me off my Wish List from MikeR – Yeah! It’s a story I am highly familiar with, because of my other reading: toppling of autocratic regimes by OTHER autocratic regimes … the history of Russia, in general, etc etc. I read some other book years ago, just focusing on Alexandra – but it wasn’t very good, as I recall. Really the one to read is Nicholas and Alexandra.
Now I can see why.
The author, Robert Massie, began writing a book, originally, about hemophilia, and the history of hemophilia. He has a son who is a hemophiliac (an hemophiliac?) and so, naturally, he was drawn to the history of various royal families, since they all seem to have major problems with hemophiliacs popping up in every other generation. It’s called “the royal disease” for that reason.
But slowly, as his research unfolded, and as he came to know these people a bit more, he realized a couple of things:
Their story had not been fully told yet, as amazing as that is.
Apparently, when he and his publishers were deciding what to call the book, and his suggestion was the plain-and-simple “Nicholas and Alexandra”, the publishers rejected it because they didn’t think anyone would know what the names meant or referred to. Of course, historians knew – but general public? No. It was a different time. Because of Massie’s book, primarily, which has continued to sell and sell and sell, over the years, “Nicholas and Alexandra” entered the langauge.)
And he also realized the multiple layers of the Russian revolution – the what came before and how essential that was.
His contention is that the hemophilia of the Tsar’s son and heir, combined with the mystical hold Rasputin had over the Empress Alexandra – were the primary reasons that the “empire” fell apart. One could not have happened without the other. And Lenin just took advantage of a disintegrating process that was already occurring.
Alexandra seems … how to say this … a little bit nuts, quite frankly.
Massie quotes extensively from her letters. He makes it clear that she wrote so many letters, and in such a florid overblown style, that they are very difficult to get through, it is hard to know where to start, and her overblown emotionalism make them almost unbearably boring and repetitive. Researchers get lost in her prose, and it is very hard to analyze. Or even make sense of it.
But what Massie pulls out of the pile of letters (found in a suitcase in the Siberian basement where the family was massacred) is quote after quote after quote having to do with Rasputin.
Government positions were filled based on the sole factor of whether or not this person got along with “Our Friend”.
“Is he not Our Friend’s enemy?”
She clearly had an enormous hold over her husband’s will, and Rasputin insinuated himself in between the two.
What an absolutely disgusting (and yet riveting) character Rasputin is. He seems almost mythical – like he can’t have been really real. And the role he played in the crashing of the empire was so perfectly planned – it almost seems like he was created solely for historical purposes.
What amazes me is how duped she was by him. Massie goes on and on about Rasputin’s hypocrisy, his nastiness, his double-sided character (pious with the Tsar and Tsarina, and then a raving drunken maniac with everyone else) – Everyone else seems to have caught on except for Alexandra. Rasputin had arrived at key moments during her son’s hemorrhages, and appeared to stop the bleeding, merely by speaking softly to her son. And so she had this intense (I would say, fervent and fanatical) belief in his powers. He was a Man of God. If he approved of so-and-so as Ministry of Interior, then that so-and-so was blessed by God. Even if the so-and-so had never held a government position in his life.
Alexandra ignored the signs. Willfully. When confronted with evidence of Rasputin’s true character, the rapes, the binges, and also the nasty things he said in public about her and his hold over her, she refused to believe it.
Scott Peck, in his chilling book People of the Lie defines evil as (and sorry, I’m paraphrasing): people who refuse to look inward, people who refuse to change. It takes an act of will to stay the same. Peck calls this “evil”.
There seems to be a lot of People of the Lie stuff going on with Alexandra. She believed totally in autocracy, pretty much because she wanted to make sure her son’s legacy was fulfilled. Without autocracy, her son would be nothing, nada. She was filled with these vague and mystical “feelings” about things, which she would then pass onto her husband, who more often than not based his policies, his policies of food distribution and even his military tactics during World War I, on Alexandra’s gut “feelings” about something. She even wrote to him once telling him that he should stop the Russian offensive because “Our Friend” [Rasputin] had a dream foretelling doom.
It is astonishing. Truly. The level of impact he had.
It baffles me. I guess I would like to meet him (well, that is, if he hadn’t been shot multiple times, bashed over the head, and then drowned – yes, none of the rest of that stuff killed him, it was the drowning that got him), just to see for myself what the big deal was. Even people who hated him attested to his great magnetism. People who were repulsed by his power still acknowledged this “thing” that he had. One of the members of the Duma describes vividly having to actively resist being hypnotized by Rasputin, during a conversation.
Fascinatingly vile character.
Massie is an excellent writer. It’s been a long time since I’ve read ‘Nicholas and Alexandra’ but I remember enjoying it immensely.
I’d be satisfied if everyone just started pronouncing Rasputin’s name correctly.
My information is that it rhymes with “machine”, and the stress is on the first syllable. I base this on the fact that there is a Russian pop song (with English lyrics!) that includes this passage:
“Ra! Ra! Rasputin!
Russia’s Greatest Love Machine!
It was a scandal how he carried on!”
He is a good writer. What is so cool about the book is that, yes, he does get in all the Russian history – but he also manages to write that original history of hemophilia. Just with a different context. I didn’t know all that stuff about hemophilia – and the royals, etc. It’s amazing.
RE: “Ra Ra Rasputin”
It occurred to me that I hadn’t thought about that song since the pre-Google (actually, pre-WWW days), when I read about it being performed in a Moscow nightclub.
I tried googling it, and while I still have no doubt it has been performed in Moscow nightclubs, I begin to doubt whether it is actually a Russian composition. The evidence gleaned here:
http://www.groovecave.com/boneym/lyrics/bl_ntv.2.htm
suggests otherwise. (Or not???)
Thus, the correct pronounciation of “Rasputin” remains unresolved.
==============
There lived a certain man in Russia long ago
He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
He could preach the bible like a preacher
Full of ecstacy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher
Women would desire
RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on
He ruled the Russian land and never mind the Czar
But the kasachok he danced really wunderbar
In all affairs of state he was the man to please
But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze
For the queen he was no wheeler dealer
Though she’d heard the things he’d done
She believed he was a holy healer
Who would heal her son
RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on
(Spoken:)
But when his drinking and lusting and his hunger
for power became known to more and more people,
the demands to do something about this outrageous
man became louder and louder.
“This man’s just got to go!” declared his enemies
But the ladies begged “Don’t you try to do it, please”
No doubt this Rasputin had lots of hidden charms
Though he was a brute they just fell into his arms
Then one night some men of higher standing
Set a trap, they’re not to blame
“Come to visit us” they kept demanding
And he really came
RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen
They put some poison into his wine
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia’s greatest love machine
He drank it all and he said “I feel fine”
RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen
They didn’t quit, they wanted his head
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia’s greatest love machine
And so they shot him till he was dead
(Spoken:) Oh, those Russians…
© 1978 by Far-Musikverlag, Berlin
Ash – how completely wonderful and totally bizarre.
Here’s what I am curious about:
No doubt this Rasputin had lots of hidden charms
Though he was a brute they just fell into his arms
What was it about this guy? He is so obviously a rapscallion, in retrospect – but there must have been something about him. Because everyone in Moscow is obviously not just an idiot.
Or maybe it was such a vain and out-of-touch culture at that time that he flattered their vanity – they were already out of touch with reality and real people, so were unable to recognize what a foul human being he was.
Anyway, it’s interesting to contemplate.
Legends of men and women with magnetic “mesmerizing” abilities run through much of history.
Other than that, I have nothing intelligent to say. I have also pondered the mysterious Rasputin.
Oh, one other thing: in the Disney film “Anastasia”, Rasputin appears as an evil wizard who caused Communism through an evil spell. I look forward to the day, when my kids are older, that I get to explain to them that, no, Communism wasn’t REALLY caused by an evil wizard…
Legends of men and women with magnetic “mesmerizing” abilities run through much of history.
Duh. I know that. But it’s still interesting to contemplate.
And about the “Anastasia” movie: So funny. So true!
My friend Hunter found himself re-educating my 12 year old cousin Emma about what “really” happened to Anastasia at a Thanksgiving dinner – and was horrified about it later. She MADE him tell. Hunter said something like, “I just didn’t feel that ‘sulfuric acid’ was appropriate for the dinner table.”
Duh. I know that.
I didn’t doubt it. After I wrote it, it seemed so commonplace that I wrote the next sentence.
But it’s still interesting to contemplate.
One of the things making R’s case most interesting is that it is not something out of legend or the misty past. It is historical, and people of repute, well-known authorities of their time, attest to th Rasputin legend. Wierd.
I mean – the man apparently stank to high heaven, and girls would run out of his apartment crying that he had tried to rape them when they had just gone to him for prayers and benediction …
He must have been some actor.
What was it about this guy? He is so obviously a rapscallion, in retrospect – but there must have been something about him.
Dunno, but it gives lots of us some hope.
Fascinating book, about the end of a fascinating period of a fascinating country. Imperial Russia never fails to enthrall (and horrify) me.
I’ll have to read it again.
Massie makes these people live, in a way I haven’t encountered much before – and I have read a ton of biographies. Nicholas and Alexandra just leap off the page, they seem like I could have known them. It’s kind of extraordinary.
I’m glad you took this where you did.
I was afraid that you were thinking of Rasputin because you’d seen the article with the photo – the one of his penis in a jar.
I like your way of thinking better.
(nods in mute, horrified agreement, while slowly doubling over)
Everything Massie has written is worth a good read. After Nicholas and Alexandra, you might want to read The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. It’s a short book that tells what happened to the Royal Family’s remains after the fall of Communism. It also catches up on some of the survivors. Odd note: the guy who genetically is closest to the throne used to the mayor of Palm Beach Fla.
Although, of course, Frinklin, due to intrafamilial Romanov squabbles about whose marriage was sufficent to meet the strict succession rules of the Pauline Law, the Palm Beach mayor isn’t even among the leading handful of claimants to the imperial throne.
As for Rasputin…I don’t even know where to start. He is someone who, as you rightly note, it is literally difficult to believe was real: even for Russia, he’s a stretch. Didn’t you forget poisoning and freezing as well among his failed causes of death? Look into his eyes in any photograph from the time and it’s just way creepy.
More broadly, if somewhat of a tangent, the parallels that Nicholas and Alexandra share with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have always amazed me. At so many points along the way, different decisions probably could have prevented utter catastrophe. In both instances (unfortunately, IMHO), it wasn’t to be.
DaveJ:
Yes, you’re right, I left off a couple of things. “Oops, forgot to mention that they threw a grenade at him and stabbed him with bayonets and bopped him on the head with a frying pan and set wild dogs on him … and STILL he lived!!”
Also, I am now at the part where Nicholas abdicated.
Again, this story is familiar to me from other reading – but your last comment rings so true. At so many times along the way – the disaster could have been averted. And it’s a multi-headed hydra-like phenomenon – it’s not just ONE thing. It was all of those elements mixed together … It’s really quite fascinating.
I feel bad for the children. Their faces haunt me.
The older sisters sort of blend into indistinguishabel historical figures for me, but it’s Anastasia and Alexei that seem like very real children, people you actually almost know personally. Horrible, just horrible, all of it.