How Rasputin helped doom the Romanovs

Rasputin, the Siberian peasant healer who exerted extraordinary influence over the family of Russia's last czar, has fascinated the world for more than a century. In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Anthony Beaver speaks to Danny Byrd about his new book, Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs, which explores the man behind the myth and the rumour. From Rasputin's humble origins in Siberia, his hold over Nicholas II and Alexandra, to his dramatic assassination at the hands of the imperial couple's own relatives, Anthony explores the extraordinary contradictions of a figure who helped doom the Romanovs and their empire. When people hear the name Rasputin, they tend to picture a dark, almost cartoonish villain shrouded in myth and scandal. What drew you to his story, and is there anything you want your readers to unlearn about him from the get go?

Well, Raz Putin, in fact, was an incredibly influential character. Alexander Kerensky, the leader of the provisional government after February 1917 and the revolution, said, without Rasputin there would have been no Lenin. And therefore one has to see and understand how a virtually illiterate peasant from Siberia could have more to do than anyone else in bringing down the greatest autocracy that the world had ever known. So from that point of view, yes, a phenomenally fascinating period and character of history, but one who's very, very important to know, and the other thing is that rumour played such a huge part in this, rumors about Rasputin, and in what we're seeing today, we underestimate

the power of rumor and the effect that it can have, and historians have tended to underestimate it in the past. And as you reference there, Rasputin has an illiterate peasant background, but he goes straight to the heart of imperial power, and that is an extraordinary story. What was it about his personality, beliefs, or timing that made that rise possible? Petersburg society at that time was pretty corrupt and in fact became even more corrupt when the war began. But the vital thing was that they were fascinated by a so-called man of God who had arrived, and Rasputin obviously did have extraordinary qualities.

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