Grigori Rasputin, a barely literate peasant from Siberia, is one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in modern history. In a bizarre reversal of the Great Man Theory of History he had no official position and no mass following, yet unintentionally he became the major contributor to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world.
The Empress Alexandra’s infatuation with Rasputin, the only person who could heal her son, made the Tsar appear a weak or complacent cuckold. Scandalously false rumours that Rasputin was even sleeping with their daughters proved stronger than the truth. In Russia’s deeply patriarchal society such impressions shattered the myth of Romanov power built up by Nicholas’s father Alexander III. By the time of the popular uprising of February1917, the Tsar had lost so much respect that hardly a single officer from the Imperial Life Guard regiments was prepared to raise a sword in his defence.
Using eye-witness accounts and the vast resources of the Russian archives at a difficult time, Antony Beevor has woven a fascinating story of human perversity.
