Mystery, Miracle, and Authority: The Riddle of Rasputin

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Mystery, Miracle, and Authority The Riddle of
Rasputin
2
Rasputin and Popular Culture
3
Arc of Inquiry
4
Scholarly (Mis)treatment

• What does Rasputins name mean?
• Was he a member/advocate of the Khlyst sect?
• Did the tsarevich suffer from a blood clotting or
  a platelet disorder?
• Was Rasputin a mesmeric fraud or a healer?
• What was Rasputins influence on the tsars
  foreign policy during WWI?
• Who killed Rasputin and why?

5
Source base

• Correspondence, letters, telegrams
• Diaries of Romanovs
• Writings of Rasputin
• Memoirs
• The Rasputin file (testimony collected by
  Extraordinary Commission for the Investigation of
  Illegal Acts by Ministers and Other Responsible
  Persons of the Tsarist Regime, 1917)
• Newspapers, transcripts of Duma debate
• Police (Okhrana) reports

• Letters burnt by Olga Vyrubova
• Forgeries written by Schyogolev and Tolstoy under
  Bolshevik auspices
• Prince Yousoupoff, Olga Vyrubova, Rasputins
  daughter, Mariia
• Rasputin file disappeared, mysteriously
  reappeared and procured for Radzinsky at
  Sothebys auction in 199?
• Police reports reliable?

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The Last Romanovs

• Unwillingness to be tsar, apocalyptic
  presentiment of catastrophe
• Continual disasters of reign
• Famine, 91-92
• Khodynka field, 1896
• Russo-Japanese War, 1894
• Revolution, 1905
• Tsarinas unpopularity as German princess,
  dislike of aristocratic society
• Happy family, but no male heirs until Alexei,
  1904

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The Life of an Experienced Wanderer

• Conversion experience
• He turned kind of strange and stupid
• Exposure to the teachings of the Khlysty
  (Flagellants)
• Sect emerged in seventeenth century
• Christs and Mother of Gods egalitarian
• Stringently ascetic, except for rejoicing
• Overcome sin by means of sin and suffering,
  expiation
• Arrived in capital in 1903

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Miracle and Authority

• Spread of atheism, Orthodox church compromised
• Spiritual searching of all sectors of society
  mysticism, sects, socialism
• Tsarinas conversion to Orthodoxy search for
  miracle men for conception of male heir

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Discussion Questions

• 1. Radzinsky is not a professional historian, but
  rather a popular historian, a famous playwright
  and t.v. personality. Think about the way in
  which he uses evidence and constructs his
  narrative. How is it different than that of a
  professional historian, or is it? Is his use of
  evidence appropriate and credible? What narrative
  devices does he use to impart a more literary
  flavor to his narrative?
• 2. What is the portrait of Rasputin that emerges
  from Radzinsky's narrative?
• 3. What explanation does Radzinsky give for
  Tsarina Alexandra's (Alix's) fanatical devotion
  to Rasputin?
• 4. According to Radzinsky, what fatal mistakes
  does Rasputin make in this period of his
  ascendancy?