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Rasputin: Faith, Power and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith.
It's difficult to decide how to review this book. It's biography, but it spends a lot of space telling stories about Rasputin that, as the author assures us, are completely false. It's an important part of the Rasputin story. But isn't biography supposed to be more about the subject than about the fictitious stories about the subject? Maybe it could better be called social history?
Rasputin was not quite the person we learned about in high school. But there was enough of that scandalous person in him to cause all kinds of problems in the decade plus between the Russian revolution of 1905 and February Revolution in 1917.
Rasputin's road to infamy began innocently enough with pilgrimages to religious sites in western Siberia where he lived as an ordinary peasant. Not exactly a great family man, in his early 30s Rasputin spent months every year on pilgrimages away from his wife and children. Pilgrimages were nothing exceptional for the Russian Orthodox faithful. But the number of journeys Rasputin undertook was high and put him in a special class for someone who was neither a priest nor a monk. Nor did he ever become a priest or a monk. At some point in his journeys, he decided to become what the Russians call a starets (pronounced like star-yets), a notable, religious, old man most of whom were famous monks. A starets was known for his piety, humility, and for his ability to give advice to others based on his experience and knowledge of the Bible. Rasputin probably had the faith and Bible knowledge to become a starets one day, but his age, personal experience and humility were all somewhat lacking when he started out in his chosen vocation. What he did have going for him was charisma.
An important side note to Rasputin's rise was the popularity of mysticism and spiritualism in the western world including Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Seances, fortune telling, mystical belief in the power of symbols were all part of the life of high society. Russian royalty was no exception. A French medium known as Monsieur Philippe, spent several years in Russia and enthralled Nikolas and Alexandra, predicting the birth of their son and the coming of a second important spiritual guide for them. They, of course, accepted Rasputin as that guide.
Rasputin's rough and practical teachings drew favorable attention from some of the local clergy as well as the faithful. Some of the clergy saw him as a nearly uneducated oaf, but others saw his charisma as a means to further their own advancement. In a pattern that would repeat itself over and over to the very throne room, ambitious people would recommend and introduce Rasputin to the next higher level of society with the belief they would get something tangible from it. The problem was that Rasputin was so simple that he did not understand he was supposed to be obligated to those who recommended him. But he was always crafty enough to keep moving himself higher. He made enemies both from those who always saw his religious advice as crude and false and from those who had been his allies on the way up. The husband of the Grand Duchess who introduced Rasputin to the Tsar and Tsaritsa, was the first head of the Russian Army in World War I, Nikolay Nikolayevich. When the Tsar suggested that Rasputin visit his headquarters, Nikolay Nikolayevich said if Rasputin showed up he'd hang him on the spot. Nikolay Nikolayevich was one of those who never liked Rasputin and his wife was one who would become disappointed in what she got from introducing him to the Tsar's family.
What was wrong with Rasputin? Some at the top hated him because he was a peasant, nearly illiterate and too close to the throne. Many of all classes were just jealous of him. But Rasputin's behavior and manners did not help him. He would say that he kept his awful table manners because it was part of his image as a true Russian peasant. In his days wandering between pilgrimage sites he was purposely quite dirty, changing to a new shirt only when the rags of the old one fell off as an act of humility. People would describe him as dirty for the rest of his life. But once he started up in social circles he kept himself clean, wearing fresh peasant garb, mostly keeping his hair combed and only letting his beard get scruffy to keep up that image of a simple peasant which the nobility had in their own minds. His behavior toward people was very strange. He was described as either never looking one in the eye or constantly and unnervingly staring, particularly at women. This probably depended on how hostile he knew the person was to him. He frequently startled people by starting out conversations with people he'd just been introduce to by talking about their specific problems, which they certainly hadn't mentioned to him. It should be remembered that every step of his rise, someone he already knew introduced him to the next person higher. He was very good about remembering the troubles mentioned in passing about someone, so he'd have something to say to them immediately when he met them. Some people were amazed when he did it, others saw through it and saw him as cunning rather than wise. It was often reported that he insisted on touching women (mostly on the hands and shoulders) as he spoke to them, and hugging and kissing them when he departed whether they had just met or not. That kind of behavior was considered acceptable for a typical wizened starets 70 years of age or so, but not for a self-declared starets who was younger than 40! Some women apparently didn't care, but there were many who did.
What was Rasputin's hold on the Tsar's family? The Tsar liked Rasputin, but apparently wasn't actually dependent on him. His wife was a different story. Tsar Nikolas said something to the effect that it would be better to have ten Rasputins than one Empress's hysterical fits. Alexandra was probably both high strung and high maintenance, and in order to keep peace with the woman he most certainly loved, Nikolas refused to listen to anything bad about Rasputin. Most of us have heard the stories of Rasputin and the amazing recoveries of young Alexy from his dangerous bouts of hemophilia. The book has no clear explanations about that, suggesting that perhaps Rasputin convinced Alexandra to keep the doctors from giving Alexy aspirin for his pain, which they did not understand would worsen his bleeding. My guess would be that Rasputin was able to calm the overwrought, hovering Alexandra enough that Alexy could calm down and get the rest he needed to heal. It is certainly not the case that Rasputin was there every time Alexy was in danger from his condition. So I can believe that the promise of Rasputin's distant prayers was sometimes enough to settle Alexandra down.
Some of Rasputin's enemies were far worse people than he, and he was not the best of men. The lies they told usually involved sex, orgies and drunkenness. Rasputin tried to seduce many women, and was sometimes successful. But reports are that unlike with his habit of kissing, if he was told 'no' he would stop his sexual pursuit and leave the woman alone. But this may have been something that developed over time. Alexy's young nanny told Alexandra that Rasputin had raped her, which she unfortunately did not believe, at all. The nanny was close to being let go anyway because Alexy was getting too old, but she was dismissed immediately. This is the only case we know of a woman accusing him of raping her, and not some third hand report of him being a serial rapist, and general sex fiend. The fact is that Rasputin had mistresses and he hired prostitutes. It's all recorded in dry, secret police reports. The author, Smith discovered that at some point that there were some *5000* men tracking Rasputin and investigating every person he had contact with, reporting back to government ministers who had no love for Rasputin. There were no reports of any orgies. Those who knew Rasputin and were honest about it said that in his last years Rasputin would often get drunk, but that he was one of those people who act very soberly when drunk.
There were plenty of reasons for people not to want Rasputin around the Tsar's family. The tsar's children adored Rasputin. But, as the daughters grew up it was scandalous to have him in the children's quarters no matter how innocent his visits were. Rasputin did not actually spend much time with Alexandra and never went to the palace unless he was summoned. He spent months of every year back with his wife and family in Siberia. Rasputin did not control the choice of every Russian government official as some then claimed. But Alexandra did pressure Nikolas to appoint people she thought were Rasputin's allies, whether Rasputin cared about it or not. It is often said that Rasputin in effect ran the government once Nikolas took personal command of the Russian army during the war. It would seem that away from Alexandra, Nikolas actually had more backbone and more often refused her requests. Unfortunately he wasn't exactly a good judge of character and by 1916 Russia was so far gone from poor government, it was almost inevitable there would be a revolution. As Smith says, "Nearly every Russian had become delusional in his understanding of what had happened to his country, who was to blame, and how Russia could be saved." Rasputin was no saint, he should never have been a close adviser of the Tsar, but he wasn't the reason Russia fell apart.
The book is very long and in some places very intense. It's full of early 20th century Russian newspaper stories about Rasputin that would have surely been judged as libelous in a country with a better legal system than pre-revolution Russia. There are so many of the stories that sometimes I got lost and confused over what Smith was trying to say was fact and what was nasty fiction. I think someone who hasn't had some experience with Russian history could get totally lost in the mass of Russian names in the book, which English speakers often find confusing anyway. It would have been a huge help to have a list of the main personages in the book listed with their government posts, and perhaps a short family tree to sort out all the Grand Dukes. Smith did attempt to refer to many of the extended royal family using their family nicknames, but without some list to refer to, that got to be yet another layer of confusion. I would say that the book is mostly for specialists, but it does serve as a warning of how 'public opinion' can get out of hand when dealing with an unpopular figure in very trying times.
It's difficult to decide how to review this book. It's biography, but it spends a lot of space telling stories about Rasputin that, as the author assures us, are completely false. It's an important part of the Rasputin story. But isn't biography supposed to be more about the subject than about the fictitious stories about the subject? Maybe it could better be called social history?
Rasputin was not quite the person we learned about in high school. But there was enough of that scandalous person in him to cause all kinds of problems in the decade plus between the Russian revolution of 1905 and February Revolution in 1917.
Rasputin's road to infamy began innocently enough with pilgrimages to religious sites in western Siberia where he lived as an ordinary peasant. Not exactly a great family man, in his early 30s Rasputin spent months every year on pilgrimages away from his wife and children. Pilgrimages were nothing exceptional for the Russian Orthodox faithful. But the number of journeys Rasputin undertook was high and put him in a special class for someone who was neither a priest nor a monk. Nor did he ever become a priest or a monk. At some point in his journeys, he decided to become what the Russians call a starets (pronounced like star-yets), a notable, religious, old man most of whom were famous monks. A starets was known for his piety, humility, and for his ability to give advice to others based on his experience and knowledge of the Bible. Rasputin probably had the faith and Bible knowledge to become a starets one day, but his age, personal experience and humility were all somewhat lacking when he started out in his chosen vocation. What he did have going for him was charisma.
An important side note to Rasputin's rise was the popularity of mysticism and spiritualism in the western world including Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Seances, fortune telling, mystical belief in the power of symbols were all part of the life of high society. Russian royalty was no exception. A French medium known as Monsieur Philippe, spent several years in Russia and enthralled Nikolas and Alexandra, predicting the birth of their son and the coming of a second important spiritual guide for them. They, of course, accepted Rasputin as that guide.
Rasputin's rough and practical teachings drew favorable attention from some of the local clergy as well as the faithful. Some of the clergy saw him as a nearly uneducated oaf, but others saw his charisma as a means to further their own advancement. In a pattern that would repeat itself over and over to the very throne room, ambitious people would recommend and introduce Rasputin to the next higher level of society with the belief they would get something tangible from it. The problem was that Rasputin was so simple that he did not understand he was supposed to be obligated to those who recommended him. But he was always crafty enough to keep moving himself higher. He made enemies both from those who always saw his religious advice as crude and false and from those who had been his allies on the way up. The husband of the Grand Duchess who introduced Rasputin to the Tsar and Tsaritsa, was the first head of the Russian Army in World War I, Nikolay Nikolayevich. When the Tsar suggested that Rasputin visit his headquarters, Nikolay Nikolayevich said if Rasputin showed up he'd hang him on the spot. Nikolay Nikolayevich was one of those who never liked Rasputin and his wife was one who would become disappointed in what she got from introducing him to the Tsar's family.
What was wrong with Rasputin? Some at the top hated him because he was a peasant, nearly illiterate and too close to the throne. Many of all classes were just jealous of him. But Rasputin's behavior and manners did not help him. He would say that he kept his awful table manners because it was part of his image as a true Russian peasant. In his days wandering between pilgrimage sites he was purposely quite dirty, changing to a new shirt only when the rags of the old one fell off as an act of humility. People would describe him as dirty for the rest of his life. But once he started up in social circles he kept himself clean, wearing fresh peasant garb, mostly keeping his hair combed and only letting his beard get scruffy to keep up that image of a simple peasant which the nobility had in their own minds. His behavior toward people was very strange. He was described as either never looking one in the eye or constantly and unnervingly staring, particularly at women. This probably depended on how hostile he knew the person was to him. He frequently startled people by starting out conversations with people he'd just been introduce to by talking about their specific problems, which they certainly hadn't mentioned to him. It should be remembered that every step of his rise, someone he already knew introduced him to the next person higher. He was very good about remembering the troubles mentioned in passing about someone, so he'd have something to say to them immediately when he met them. Some people were amazed when he did it, others saw through it and saw him as cunning rather than wise. It was often reported that he insisted on touching women (mostly on the hands and shoulders) as he spoke to them, and hugging and kissing them when he departed whether they had just met or not. That kind of behavior was considered acceptable for a typical wizened starets 70 years of age or so, but not for a self-declared starets who was younger than 40! Some women apparently didn't care, but there were many who did.
What was Rasputin's hold on the Tsar's family? The Tsar liked Rasputin, but apparently wasn't actually dependent on him. His wife was a different story. Tsar Nikolas said something to the effect that it would be better to have ten Rasputins than one Empress's hysterical fits. Alexandra was probably both high strung and high maintenance, and in order to keep peace with the woman he most certainly loved, Nikolas refused to listen to anything bad about Rasputin. Most of us have heard the stories of Rasputin and the amazing recoveries of young Alexy from his dangerous bouts of hemophilia. The book has no clear explanations about that, suggesting that perhaps Rasputin convinced Alexandra to keep the doctors from giving Alexy aspirin for his pain, which they did not understand would worsen his bleeding. My guess would be that Rasputin was able to calm the overwrought, hovering Alexandra enough that Alexy could calm down and get the rest he needed to heal. It is certainly not the case that Rasputin was there every time Alexy was in danger from his condition. So I can believe that the promise of Rasputin's distant prayers was sometimes enough to settle Alexandra down.
Some of Rasputin's enemies were far worse people than he, and he was not the best of men. The lies they told usually involved sex, orgies and drunkenness. Rasputin tried to seduce many women, and was sometimes successful. But reports are that unlike with his habit of kissing, if he was told 'no' he would stop his sexual pursuit and leave the woman alone. But this may have been something that developed over time. Alexy's young nanny told Alexandra that Rasputin had raped her, which she unfortunately did not believe, at all. The nanny was close to being let go anyway because Alexy was getting too old, but she was dismissed immediately. This is the only case we know of a woman accusing him of raping her, and not some third hand report of him being a serial rapist, and general sex fiend. The fact is that Rasputin had mistresses and he hired prostitutes. It's all recorded in dry, secret police reports. The author, Smith discovered that at some point that there were some *5000* men tracking Rasputin and investigating every person he had contact with, reporting back to government ministers who had no love for Rasputin. There were no reports of any orgies. Those who knew Rasputin and were honest about it said that in his last years Rasputin would often get drunk, but that he was one of those people who act very soberly when drunk.
There were plenty of reasons for people not to want Rasputin around the Tsar's family. The tsar's children adored Rasputin. But, as the daughters grew up it was scandalous to have him in the children's quarters no matter how innocent his visits were. Rasputin did not actually spend much time with Alexandra and never went to the palace unless he was summoned. He spent months of every year back with his wife and family in Siberia. Rasputin did not control the choice of every Russian government official as some then claimed. But Alexandra did pressure Nikolas to appoint people she thought were Rasputin's allies, whether Rasputin cared about it or not. It is often said that Rasputin in effect ran the government once Nikolas took personal command of the Russian army during the war. It would seem that away from Alexandra, Nikolas actually had more backbone and more often refused her requests. Unfortunately he wasn't exactly a good judge of character and by 1916 Russia was so far gone from poor government, it was almost inevitable there would be a revolution. As Smith says, "Nearly every Russian had become delusional in his understanding of what had happened to his country, who was to blame, and how Russia could be saved." Rasputin was no saint, he should never have been a close adviser of the Tsar, but he wasn't the reason Russia fell apart.
The book is very long and in some places very intense. It's full of early 20th century Russian newspaper stories about Rasputin that would have surely been judged as libelous in a country with a better legal system than pre-revolution Russia. There are so many of the stories that sometimes I got lost and confused over what Smith was trying to say was fact and what was nasty fiction. I think someone who hasn't had some experience with Russian history could get totally lost in the mass of Russian names in the book, which English speakers often find confusing anyway. It would have been a huge help to have a list of the main personages in the book listed with their government posts, and perhaps a short family tree to sort out all the Grand Dukes. Smith did attempt to refer to many of the extended royal family using their family nicknames, but without some list to refer to, that got to be yet another layer of confusion. I would say that the book is mostly for specialists, but it does serve as a warning of how 'public opinion' can get out of hand when dealing with an unpopular figure in very trying times.
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But still sounds fascinating. I'm getting it from the library--probably Bill will read it first, but hopefully I'll get my hands on it.