Who was he - a saint, a demon, or just a depraved charlatan? Today, Grigory Efimovich Rasputin would probably be called a psychic and welcomed everywhere and everywhere in the same way, but then, at the beginning of the 20th century, a Siberian man with a reputation as a great healer reached the very top, becoming the personal doctor of Tsarina Alexandra and her son with hemophilia ...
The treatment consisted mainly of relaxation techniques and the rejection of aspirin, at that time the newest drug, which was tried to treat everything and which is contraindicated in hemophilia. For the royal family, Rasputin was a savior. The rest treated him differently - some with respect, some with disgust, but everyone agreed that he had too much influence on the royal family, not limited to “healing” and getting into everything. In addition, Rasputin behaved in accordance with his speaking surname and debauched recklessly, believing that it is useful for a believer to sin - because the more you repent, the purer you become.
By the beginning of the First World War, society was already set against the tsar and against Rasputin, seeing in them all the troubles of Russia. Attempts began on the life of the “holy elder”, but each time he managed to mystically survive, and only in December 1916 another attempt to kill him was successful. An interesting fact: after the execution of the royal family, medallions with a photograph of Rasputin were found on the chests of all women. Apparently, he had to protect and heal them even after his death, and they prayed to him as a saint. What was this man's secret? 
brutal murder
As unusual and amazing as Rasputin's life was, his death became just as insane. A group of conspirators - all from high-ranking families - under the leadership of Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich decided to put an end to Rasputin's influence on the queen, the tsar and the entire Russian government. On December 30, 1916, they lured him to a late dinner, promising sex with the wife of Felix Yusupov (and the elder, unlike Felix, was eager for women). At dinner, they tried to poison him with potassium cyanide, mixing the poison into cakes and wine. There was so much poison that Rasputin had to die on the spot, but it seemed that he had no effect on this man ... Felix Yusupov got tired of waiting and shot Rasputin in the back - he fell. But the shot only provoked Rasputin - he rushed at Yusupov, trying to strangle him and saying: "Bad boy." His rich noble friends came to the aid of the prince: they shot several more times at Rasputin. He managed to get up and run out into the street, but they caught up with him and beat him with sticks, and then, as if that was not enough, he was castrated (!). Then they wrapped the body in a carpet and threw it into the hole - but after opening the found corpse, it turned out that he got into the water while still alive and tried to get out, but he got cold and drowned.
Numerous attempts on life
This was the last, but not the first attempt on Rasputin's life, just the previous ones were unsuccessful. So, in 1914, Rasputin was visiting his native village of Pokrovskoye near Tobolsk, and one day, right on the street, a woman with a dagger and shouting: “I killed the Antichrist!” rushed at him! She really almost succeeded: a blow to the stomach was strong, just a little more - and she could have gutted Rasputin like a fish. However, he managed to grab the shaft lying on the ground and hit the woman on the head. The attacker's name was Khionia Kuzminichnaya Guseva, and she was under the strongest religious influence of the Black Hundred Hieromonk Iliodor. Iliodor (another gift) was a sharp opponent of Rasputin and threatened to kill him many times, declaring that he already had 120 bombs prepared for this purpose. He did not use these bombs, but - it was the case - he ran after Rasputin with an ax, threatening to castrate him. However, not by Iliodor alone! There was also such a holy man named Mitya Blessed - so he also attacked Rasputin, trying to tear him to pieces.
The story of Rasputin's severed genitals
Even after his death, Rasputin continued to influence people's minds - at least some part of his body. Rasputin's severed 30cm penis was rumored to have been found by some lady and kept in a safe place, and later "surfaced" in Paris as a fetish of a group of Russian aristocrats who used it as an amulet. Rasputin's daughter, Matryona, heard about this and demanded that the saint be returned to her. It is said that she kept her father's genitals as a great treasure until her death in 1977. Then the things of Matryona Grigoryevna were sold and later a certain person named Michael Augustin tried to sell the dried “Rasputin’s penis” at auction, but it turned out to be a sea cucumber. Then, already in 2004, the head of the prostate research center at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Igor Knyazkin, opened the museum “for adults” named after I. Rasputin. So, he claims that among the exhibits of the museum there is also a jar with the preserved reproductive organ of the “mad monk”, bought from a certain French collector.
Predicting one's own death
Rasputin established his reputation as an omniscient seer when he predicted his own doom. Shortly before the murder, he wrote a will with terrible prophecies and sent it to Tsar Nicholas. In particular, it says: “If hired assassins, Russian peasants, my brothers, kill me, then you, Russian Tsar, have nothing to fear. Stay on the throne and reign. And you, Russian Tsar, do not worry about your children. They will rule Russia for hundreds of years. If the boyars and nobles kill me, and they shed my blood, then their hands will remain stained with my blood, and for twenty-five years they will not be able to wash their hands. They will leave Russia. Brothers will rise up against brothers and kill each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no nobility in the country.”
He was illiterate... and wasn't even a monk
Somehow, Rasputin managed to spend several years in a rural school, and then a couple of years in a monastery, without learning to read. It's true: the man who practically "ruled" the Russian government in 1914 and 1915, while the tsar disappeared at the front, and the tsarina was completely under the influence of the "old man", was indeed illiterate. Of course, we understand that the village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk province, was hardly a center of science and culture, but one had to be a very self-confident person in order to spin at the very top with such baggage. By the way, Rasputin was, in fact, not a monk either: there is unverified information that he was a novice in the Verkhoturye Nikolaev Monastery for two years, but left it at the age of 19 and went to wander around Mother Russia and “help people ".
Altruism and bribery
Leaving aside his personal life, we can say that Rasputin was a fighter for the social justice of his time. In 1914 he opposed the war. He also advocated equal rights for everyone (including Jews, which was then extremely unpopular, to say the least), for the support of the poor, against the death penalty. There were several cases when Rasputin defended people from Jewish business circles from state persecution. For example, in 1913 in Kyiv there was such a high-profile trial, accompanied by an anti-Semitic campaign - the Beilis case, when the Jew Menachem Mendel Beilis was accused of the ritual murder of a 12-year-old student of the Kiev-Sofia Theological School. Rasputin spoke on the side of the defense. Beilis was acquitted. However, Rasputin would not be himself if he did not know how to receive material benefits even from his convictions. So, if he was asked to put in a good word at the imperial court in order, say, not to send his only son to the army, it cost 200 rubles (a lot of money!).
Russian love machine
The song of the group “Boney M” about Rasputin does not lie: this man really was downright tireless womanizer. There were rumors that he was in love with the queen, but this seems unlikely, given her extreme hypocrisy. This woman even ordered the bath to be covered when not in use, so that this item would not embarrass anyone. But it seems that she was practically the only aristocrat in St. Petersburg who did not succumb to the insane charisma of Rasputin. In general, he had many admirers - they gathered in crowds on the street in front of his house and waited for him to come out to them. Sometimes they waited for several days just to look at the “holy old man” and hand over their gifts to him. He invited the chosen lucky ones to his place for a private conversation. It seems that the sofa in his office has seen so much in its lifetime that we never dreamed of.
Indecent behavior in society
Most historians are inclined to believe that Rasputin did not have an intimate relationship with Tsar Alexandra, but this did not stop him from boasting and saying that he really was. Once Rasputin was in a restaurant with a large crowd of people and, as usual, began to boast about the strong influence he has on the king and queen, and that he slept with the “old woman”. People at the neighboring tables, interested, asked if he was really the same Rasputin. In response, he got up and pulled down his pants, exposing a huge 30-centimeter cock for everyone to see - apparently, this evidence was enough. When such rumors were passed on to the queen, she refused to believe in them and claimed that these were the tricks of some kind of impostor running around the city and posing as Grigory Efimovich.
Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of Nicholas II, was an enemy of Rasputin and resented his influence on the queen. It just so happened that Tsar Nicholas was not a particularly strong man and often succumbed to pressure from his wife. It went so far that the Grand Duke threatened to hang Rasputin. That is why, in 1915, Rasputin advised Nicholas II to remove Grand Duke Nicholas from the post of commander of the Russian army. In fact, he, using the position of a “holy man”, predicted that Russia would not win the war until the tsar himself led the troops - and the tsar was not ready for this task. This decision was decisive. The Russian army numbered more than a million people, and Europe was already in the fire of the First World War. Nevertheless, the tsar followed Rasputin's advice and took command of the army himself. He left the government of the country to the queen, and she practically handed over the reins of power to Rasputin, completely trusting him. A very short-sighted move, I must say. It was the problems associated with the war and economic problems that led to an increase in the popularity of Bolshevik sentiment in Russia. 
A unique interpretation of sin and atonement
Rasputin's ideas about sin and redemption are very unusual. He said that sin brings a person closer to God, and this philosophy he successfully put into practice every day. That is, the best way to be saved is to be in a state of constant sin. The more drunkenness and depraved orgies, the better, and after the pleasures, you just go and ask God for forgiveness, and the ideal situation is when you always ask for forgiveness for sins. According to the perverted philosophy of Rasputin, a woman who has entered into a relationship with a “holy man” takes on a part of his holiness and is thus cleansed. So intimacy with him is a holy, charitable deed. And this philosophy worked great! They say that Rasputin also had such a habit - to lead women into the forest, where they danced naked, burned incense, and then had an orgy.
Hypnotic abilities
Back in 1901, in Pokrovsky, a local priest accused Rasputin of belonging to the apocalyptic sect of “whips” who performed ecstatic rites of “zeal” tied to self-flagellation, intimacy and paganism. There is no evidence for this, and Rasputin himself denied it, but in St. Petersburg, for example, he began to arrange seances. He was credited with incredible hypnotic power, saying that he could make a person's pupils dilate at will. It was also said that such a strong influence on the royal family was due to nothing more than a hypnotic effect. In general, rumors about the healing powers of Rasputin circulated even during his youth, but his parents, for example, did not have a very high opinion of their son's abilities. Rasputin's father said that Grigory became a pilgrim only because he was extremely lazy.
Lack of personal hygiene
Do you think that if this man was so popular with women, then he was some kind of macho or metrosexual (God forbid)? No matter how. Take a close look at the picture. It looks like the dude didn't believe in personal hygiene and didn't try to keep it, but that didn't bother anyone. His long beard was always full of crumbs stuck after eating, he washed extremely rarely, and even boasted that once he did not change his underwear for six months. He smelled like a goat, and his teeth were like black stumps. It is not clear why all this did not become an obstacle in sexual life, but for some reason it did not.
Unusual rituals
But it must be admitted that Rasputin often went to the bathhouse - not necessarily for the purpose of washing, mainly for a slightly different purpose, as we understand it. He went there with women chosen by him from many admirers, and enjoyed life in every possible way. After the steam room, he was whipped with brooms, and then he usually went to church to repent. “There is no repentance without sin,” I remind you. In addition to personal rituals, Rasputin also had quasi-religious rituals of his own composition. According to the book of Matryona Rasputina, her father's admirers worshiped his penis in the literal sense of the word. Their meetings, as a rule, began with some kind of religious ritual, during which he began to caress the breasts of women, and ended with a total sin. Then Rasputin indulged in meditation for several hours.
Tireless drinker and party-goer
Another tireless passion of Rasputin, in addition to sex, was alcohol. There are eyewitness accounts of the last day of his life. The night before December 30, 1916, the day he was killed, Rasputin spent drinking somewhere. He returned home early in the morning and was "dead drunk". After sleeping for only a few hours (it is known that he slept very little at all), Rasputin set off on his usual bath-and-women route, and in between his entertainments he managed to consume another 12 bottles of 20-degree Madeira (for about 12 hours). In the evening, still standing firmly on his feet, Grigory Efimovich went to a party with Prince Yusupov - where, as he thought, fun, intimacy and alcohol would again await him. Well, the party went well.
Perfect marriage?
At the age of 18, Rasputin married a peasant woman Praskovya Fedorovna Dubrovina, who was three years older than him. They had three children. Praskovya remained to live in Pokrovsky, while her husband Grigory set sail for St. Petersburg to his glory and his death. Periodically, he visited her and - surprisingly - she was completely calm about his rampant lifestyle, knowing perfectly well about him. Or maybe she was just tired or she had no choice. They say she used to say: "He's enough for everyone." Praskovya remained faithful to her husband to the very end. By the way, with regard to Rasputin's love affairs: he never had any problems on the part of cuckold husbands, since he knew how to convince them that he was not doing anything wrong - only good.
