Rasputin: Dynasty ending BDE

You guys have been asking for him, so today we are spending a full hour (and a bit) on Ra Ra Rasputin! From a Siberian village to the centre of imperial Russia, how did the ‘mad monk’ bring the 300 year old house of Romanov crumbling down? We cover it all from horse whispering to sex sects, pesky rumours to miraculous events and of course, assassinations and 12 inch penises! If you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:16Speaker 00

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian, ready to chat about the mad monk himself. You guys have been asking for him, so today we are going to spend a full hour deeping rah rah Rasputin, the Russian mystic, whose healing power and giant penis helped the 300-year-old house of Romanov come crumbling down. So let's get straight into it today by rewinding all the way back to the 21st of January 1869 in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  Located along the Tura River in what is now Russia's Taiman region, Rasputin's birthplace was a small, isolated settlement typical of a rural Siberian town. At the time, it was hit by incredibly harsh winters, slowed down by thick, muddy roads, and ultimately a place where life revolved around three things: farming, superstition, and deep religious beliefs. This was the world that Grigori Rasputin was born into on January 21st, 1869. So who was Rasputin's family? Well, his father, Yefim Rasputin, was a farmer and at times worked as a courier for the local government, transporting goods and officials between settlements.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  Now, this role gave the family a slightly more stable position than many of their neighbours, though they were absolutely by no means well-off, guys. To be honest, even being amongst the upper echelon of these small rural villages was still a life of struggle and peasantry. So much so, the childhood in Pokrovskoye was rather dangerous. Infant mortality rates were sky-high, with Rasputin being the only child of seven in his family to actually survive into adulthood.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  But what about Rasputin's mum? Who raises this man? Well, her name was Anna Perishkova. And the thing to know about her, guys, is that she was a deeply religious woman. Again, like I said, superstition was a large part of the Orthodox system, and the Rasputin household was no different. They grew up surrounded by icons, prayers and rituals, which is where Gregori's fascination with spirituality, suffering and divine purposes largely began. So that's his family life, guys. But what about his childhood itself? What did he do? How did he spend his time? Well, typical of standards around this time,

• 3:02Speaker 00

  Rasputin received little to no formal education. Instead of any schooling, his upbringing centered on manual labour and physicality, engaging in farmwork and helping out with normal village life. He tended animals, he worked the fields and participated in the rhythms of the average Russian peasant existence. But he was never quite average. Noticeable to everyone throughout the earliest stages of Rasputin's life, he was always considered highly unusual. Local accounts, although the validity of these is largely questionable,

• 3:45Speaker 00

  given the literacy rates of the time, suggest that Rasputin displayed strange and charismatic behaviour very early on in his life. He was described by villagers and his own parents as intense, observant and sometimes prone to emotional or spiritual episodes. Defined initially as a second sight, Rasputin was renowned for being very good with animals, almost communicating with them and bending them to his will, especially horses, who he could calm in his presence, just by touching them with his hands. He also had, of course, the piercing blue eyes, which seemed to bear into his neighbours as though he could silently read their souls or sense kind of wrongdoings.

• 4:30Speaker 00

  As I said, these tales of course are difficult to verify and most likely come down to mysticism and propaganda, but one thing is for certain. Villagers viewed the youthful Rasputin less with awe and more as a devil child to be avoided, which led him down a very isolated path to trouble and tricks. By pretty much sticking his nose where it didn't belong and pickpocketing his neighbours, Rasputin became notorious. He eventually did settle down though with Proskovia Dobrovina, a fellow peasant woman from a neighbouring village in 1887, with the couple having seven children together,

• 5:15Speaker 00

  three of whom survived into adulthood. By all accounts, Rasputin was a pretty decent enough husband and father in his early years, working the land like his father had and participating in village life at church and markets. But, there was a point in the late 1890s that the early signs of his restlessness and dissatisfaction began to manifest into full-blown erratic episodes. He became a heavy drinker, constant cheater, fighter, gambler, and as it turned out, a horse thief, after which, instead of returning the horse or facing punishment, he hopped on, rode like the wind to a local monastery and ended up staying with the Christian brothers

• 5:59Speaker 00

  there for several months, who convinced him to turn to God and basically change his evil ways, or as Rasputin himself put it, "He experienced a deep and profound spiritual awakening where he was plagued with visions of the Virgin Mary." It was here, at this monastery, that he encountered a monk named Maharay, who became his spiritual guide and convinced Rasputin to join the Brotherhood and go on pilgrimage. So, at 28 years old, having been married for 10 years with an infant son and another child on the way, Rasputin became a wandering holy man, leaving his village for months to years at a time.

• 6:43Speaker 00

  Wandering from destinations like Athens in Greece to the Russian Far East, Rasputin travelled far and wide, experiencing a great variety of Orthodox religion with each region he passed through, which is where he is said to have become involved with the notoriously outlawed and secret sect called the Kleists. Now, this underground movement was an illegal offshoot of the Orthodox Russian Church and was reported as a fringe anti-church cult, with no priests or no leaders. And it really is no wonder, guys, because their primary belief centred around the idea of sinning to repent, which involved meeting in private locations like crypts or cellars or basements,

• 7:29Speaker 00

  where devotees then used feverish dancing to work themselves into a frenzy which they called ecstasy. As the dance movements became more frantic, the believers would reach a trance-like state of spiritual transcendence, resulting basically in a huge orgy where you would sin in order to repent and then be more holy. This sounded fucking fantastic to Rasputin. He was wild. He had an unbridled zest for trouble and a notoriously large... spirit. And he embraced this belief of sinning for salvation enthusiastically throughout his life.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  However, I do want to make clear here, guys, while Rasputin believed in this sin for salvation-based method, he was not a member of this specific sect. According to historian Joseph T. Furman, the claims of Rasputin being a Kleist are false. He says repeated investigations failed to establish that Rasputin was ever a member of the sect. So, basically, he took what he learned from them and just like ran his own race, right? There was no organisation or behind-the-scenes power or group controlling him. He was a free agent, if you will.

• 8:48Speaker 00

  Now, during this time, Rasputin was, of course, obviously transformed spiritually and physically. Across his travels, he learned to read and write. He began to look incredibly dishevelled with his hair, clothes and skin often torn and dirty. He also became a vegetarian, swore off alcohol.

• 9:13Speaker 00

  Did he? And prayed and sang fervently. It was also during these pilgrimages that Rasputin honed his stare. I am so serious, guys. If you are watching this, you'll understand. If you're not, go and look up a photo of Rasputin's eyes. Actually, I'll post them on the socials. You can look at them there. They are piercing light blue with an ability to either like be really wide and round or cat shaped, like he was staring into your very soul. Honestly, just looking at the like grainy photos that we have. I feel like he's looking back at me, guys. It is scary.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  Now, by this point, it's the early 1900s. And Rasputin, with his stare and his sinning for salvation and his, you know, holier than thou persona, has developed a small circle of followers. Primarily, these were family members and other local peasants who prayed with him on Sundays when he was back in his village. He built a makeshift chapel in his father's cellar. Again, remember, cellar's basement's underground spaces is where Rasputin holds these prayer meetings, which soon became the subject of suspicion and hostility from other village priests who dismissed Rasputin's more alternative practices as mystic garbage.

• 10:42Speaker 00

  After all, his path to God was hardly a straight one. But with their outrage, word spread and rumors of this charismatic holy man traveled throughout Siberia in the months and years that followed. Like, just imagine if this guy had TikTok. I think about it all the time.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  I mean, to be fair, he would probably be banned. He wouldn't be able to be monetized across anything. He'd be on Discord or one of those other freaky channels. Now Rasputin remained in Siberia until 1902-ish, where he traveled to the city of Kazan, impressing the region's bishop, who gave him a letter of recommendation to go and join the Alexandernevsky monastery in St. Petersburg. So guys, Rasputin's headed to the big city, the window to Europe, a place of art and culture and wealth, and most importantly, the city of the Tsars.

• 11:36Speaker 00

  But was this always his goal? Well, by all accounts, yes, it was. Remember the monk Maharay who first introduced Rasputin to the Orthodox Church? Well, it turns out, he was the former spiritual advisor to Zan Nichols II and Empress Alexandra, which many believe gave Rasputin a glimmer of what his future as a holy man could be. We pair this with the fact that those visions from the Virgin Mary that Rasputin spoke about earlier were largely centred around the fact he was told to go to St Petersburg to assist the imperial family. And we begin to see a pattern here, guys.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  A clear intent that Rasputin saw an out from life in Siberia via his religious practices.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  So in 1903, Rasputin arrives at the Alexandernevsky monastery and he was introduced to church leaders, including Bishop Theophan, one of the most important religious figures in St Petersburg. He was well-connected and legitimising, serving as confessor to the imperial family and friend to many of the aristocracy at the time. While initially shocked at Rasputin's filthy appearance and pungent goat-like smell from his travels, Theophan was convinced the irreverent and outspoken Siberian mystic had healing powers. And as such, invited him to stay in his home before introducing him to the aristocratic ladies who held St Petersburg's famed salons.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  From low-level aunts and uncles of minor titles to the rich and famed Yusupov family, as well as lower members of the imperial family itself, Rasputin became a favourite curiosity for any successful soiree. His invitations boomed, as did his reputation as St Petersburg was firmly fixed in the middle of a fascination with alternative religion.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  This is super important to remember and really, really important context for this time because we look at it and go, "Y'all are crazy." But it was considered in many ways really fashionable amongst the aristocracy of the time to be curious about the occult and the supernatural. Seances and communes with the dead often featured at evening salons, especially for women. So to this crowd, Rasputin's unorthodox ideas, his piercing eyes and strange manners made him the toast of the town, which, when paired with the fact he was a native Russian, meant

• 14:24Speaker 00

  his presence was hot property. Now, accounts vary of what happened with Rasputin between 1903 and 1905. Some say he returned to Siberia, while others say he remained at the Alexandernevsky monastery. To be honest, we don't really know. Prepping this episode was a fucking nightmare because this man was here, there and everywhere. The timeline is so hard to piece together. But what we do know for certain is that by 1905 Rasputin was definitely in St Petersburg and had formed enough friendships within the aristocracy to be introduced to the Black Princesses. So who were they?

• 15:05Speaker 00

  Well, Melitza and Anastasia were Montenegro princesses who both married cousins of Zaniklas II. As two of the few members of foreign royalty who married into the Romanov family, they were often treated as outsiders with the nickname "Black Princesses" or "Black Pearls", referring to the Montenegro region they hailed from, the Black Mountain. Only 18 months apart, the sisters were close and had an innate interest in spirituality and the occult, often hosting a lot of the high society kind of seances and soirees at the time. And it was "they" who developed a keen interest in Rasputin, becoming instrumental in introducing him. To the Tsar.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  Speaking of whom, let's quickly put a pin in Rasputin for a minute and come over to the Romanov family. So, we have Tsar Nicholas II. He's the ruler of Russia, which is an absolute autocracy at this time. It's just him. He's the number one authority and number one ruler. His mother is the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, and she is beloved throughout the empire. Her sister as well is also Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India. So Nicholas's aunt is Queen and his cousin is the future King of the UK too. Again, all very important context, which you'll soon see why. Now Nicholas marries a young German princess, Alexandra of Hess, largely thought to be Queen

• 16:33Speaker 00

  Victoria's favorite grandchild. And unlike the majority of royal matches at the time, these two are a love match. First meeting at an earlier ball, they communicated constantly, finally marrying in November 1894, and finding soon after that the future and fate of the Romanov dynasty was firmly fixed on their shoulders. So they get to work, guys, right away on starting their family, with Alex giving birth first to Olga in 1895, then Tatyana in 1897, Maria in 1899, and Anastasia in 1901.

• 17:12Speaker 00

  And while they were all gorgeous, healthy, beautiful babies, they were girls, and the Russian throne cannot pass to female descendants. So with each year that passed, the pressure only mounted further for the young couple, until finally, to the rejoice of all, the long-awaited son and heir, Alexei, arrived in August 1904.

• 17:44Speaker 00

  But there was a problem.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  The adhemophilia. Known as the royal disease, it is a genetic bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly, making the smallest of bumps potentially fatal. Inheriting the condition from his mother, Empress Alexandra, who in turn inherited it from the original carrier of the family, Queen Victoria, Alex was not only heartbroken, of course, by the prospect that her only son could be struck down, but felt extreme guilt that it was her own fault.

• 18:20Speaker 00

  This, of course, is unfortunately just how genetic diseases work, and if anyone's to blame, not that they are, Queen Victoria shouldn't have married all her offspring to the royal courts of Europe. In fact, it's actually estimated that 10 to 15 of her descendants died from the royal disease. So the fate of the Romanov dynasty hangs in the balance, and with rising revolutionary fever resulting in the failed but still very scary 1905 revolution, which nearly saw the Tsar toppled then, they couldn't show any signs of weakness. So the reality of Alexei's condition had to be a strict royal secret, so much so that Nicholas's own mother was not told about her grandson's condition.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  Now, Alexei's first serious, life-threatening bout of bleeding came around 1905, when a minor injury led to alarming and prolonged internal bleeding that went on for weeks. He grew weaker and weaker as the bleeding continued, and while it eventually stopped, Nicholas and Alex in particular turned to religion and spirituality for its healing powers, which is the first time that Rasputin meets the Tsar. Introduced by the Black Princesses, Rasputin first met Nicholas on November 1st, 1905, at the Peterhof Palace. We know of this meeting because the Tsar recorded it in his diary,

• 19:49Speaker 00

  writing that he and Alex made the acquaintance of a man of God, Grigori from Tbilisq province.

• 19:57Speaker 00

  Now while we don't get a lot of description about what was spoken of, nor do we have sources from Rasputin's side, it is understood the Romanovs did not reveal the truth of Alexei's illness initially, rather, meeting with Rasputin for his reputation as the Russian homegrown mystic, you know, a bit of patriotism, a bit of homegrown talent. We do know though, that after this first meeting, Rasputin returned to Prokotskoye and did not come back to St Petersburg until July 1906, where he met the Tsar and his wife again, before meeting the children several months later, I believe it was the October. Now historians do tend to agree that Rasputin was not told about Alexei's health initially,

• 20:41Speaker 00

  like I said, and the first time he was even asked to pray for the young boy was this meeting. And I do tend to agree here, like, there's no way they would have revealed it any sooner to this man. And I still don't think even at this first meeting with the children, they would have come out with the whole truth. But, you know, asking for a prayer for his health? Pretty standard after all, what royal family doesn't want the, you know, their heirs' health to be run up ladder to the big man and blessed? From these meetings in 1906, right through to 1907, Rasputin became more and more linked to the imperial family. In particular, the Tsarina, whose own piety and guilt over her son's illness made Rasputin the perfect tonic for her nerves.

• 21:26Speaker 00

  Many, including Boney M in the absolute banger that is

• 21:34Speaker 00

  claimed that the closeness between the Tsarina and Rasputin was sexual, with increased propaganda in the years that followed about their relationship circulating. And while historian Mark Fierro does say that the Tsarina had a passionate attachment to Rasputin, it was one granted in the belief that he could genuinely heal her son, with no evidence to suggest any kind of romantic or sexual relationship between the Empress and Rasputin. But, as Harold Shookman wrote and many at the court of the time observed, Rasputin became an indispensable member of the royal entourage. And the reason for that was because of Alexei's fall in spring 1907.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  Suffering a small cut, the young Zarevich had a massive internal hemorrhage, almost resulting in death. It was super, super precarious, guys. Alexandra was certain that he would die and as such summoned Rasputin to pray at her son's bedside. Going into a deep trance-like stare while praying over the boy, Rasputin captured the worried imperial couple's hearts. And when Alexei woke up no longer bleeding the next morning, they believed this was proof that Rasputin was a holy man. From that moment, he became indispensable to the royal couple,

• 22:59Speaker 00

  which is when he delivers his big, grand crescendo, guys. The eternal promise, well, more like eternal warning to be honest, telling the couple, he was sent a vision by God who told him Alexei would die if he was not there to heal him. Now so much has been said of whether Rasputin was a con man or a genuine mystic healer. And to be honest, so much of his appeal, both at the time and now, lies in the gray between both of these accusations. Is he a mystic? Or is he fucking crazy? Right? Are his hands magic or just used for nefarious purposes?

• 23:45Speaker 00

  And am I willing to risk not being healed by making this judgment? Which leads to the big question we certainly have now and many of the imperial family and their advisors had at the time.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Is this a con man who took advantage of a desperate family trying to save their son, their heir, their empire, their dynasty? Or was he a true vessel for God's power?

• 24:15Speaker 00

  We don't know, guys. But what we do know is that this man lived it up. With almost constant access to both the palaces and the imperial family, Rasputin was granted gifts, an apartment. Uh, he was showered with praise and, you know, the ability to, to correspond and interact with the imperial children whenever he wanted. We have so many letters between the children and Rasputin. But the one key thing that he got out of being an associate of the Romanov family was his actions outside of the royal court ignored.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  See no evil, hear no evil, be no evil, or whatever the saying is. I am not talking, guys, about like smoking a little weed or having the occasional tipple. Outside of court, Rasputin continued to preach that sinning with him was salvation. And as such, he engaged in drunken psychedelic drug-fuelled orgies with a wide range of women, from high society ladies to innkeepers. He also gambled, beat women, got into fights with men, and by 1909 made enemies of almost everyone except the royal family. First, the local clergy in Prokotskoye denounced Rasputin as a heretic, leading the church to launch an inquest into his activities.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  Even the prime minister and the okhrana, the Tsar's secret police, launched their own investigation into Rasputin's whereabouts and activities and beliefs. Finding, he visited bathhouses for orgies and would approach women on the streets demanding sex. Honestly, the sheer volume of evidence against Rasputin made this a clear-cut case. He was a debauched, sinful man. But still, Nicholas refused to limit his influence or exile him from court. Genuinely guys, imagine being given a huge binder or like booklet on your children's nanny

• 26:26Speaker 00

  or teacher or coach, which proves they're a dangerous miscreant and being like nah, he said God told him that if he wasn't here, our son would die. So these are obviously just lies. Genuinely, we hear from the Tsar's sister who tells us Alexandra refused to believe any claims and said that everything Rasputin does is holy. What?

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Like, sorry, are you insane? Despite the black and white evidence from both the secret police, the clergy and women themselves who accused Rasputin of assault, rape and indecency, Nicholas and Alexandra did not believe. More than that, they just flat out refused to. And continued to grant Rasputin unlimited access to their children, including their four daughters, something which almost all of the female staff and members of the family found deeply inappropriate. Even after one of the girl's governesses, Sofia, shared her concern with the Tsar upon finding Rasputin in the nursery while the girls were in their nightgowns, Alexandra refused to do anything about it.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  Nicholas appears to have felt differently, having asked Rasputin to end his visits, but Alexandra found out about this and swiftly had the governess fired and Rasputin's access reinstated, which only further fuelled rumours of inappropriate behaviour with the eldest Romanov daughters, Olga and Tatiana, and the Empress herself. Now, while we have no proof of this, let us not forget, this is a man who believes salvation is found through sex and sin and was granted constant access to hordes of young women who accused him of indecency. So the fact Nicholas and Alexandra ignored these bright burning red flags is actually criminal.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Like genuinely, I get he said your son would die if he wasn't around.

• 28:25Speaker 00

  But why is he in your daughter's nursery when they're in nightgowns? What the fuck?

• 28:33Speaker 00

  That governess thought the exact same thing, Sophia, the one who was fired. She was so uncomfortable and concerned, she went to the girl's aunt, Nicholas's sister, Grand Duchess Senior, who was horrified by the story. Now, we know this because she wrote on the fifteenth of March, nineteen ten, that she could not understand the attitude of Alex and the children to that sinister Grigori, whom they considered to be almost a saint, when in fact he's only a clist. He's always there, going into the nursery, visiting Olga and Tatiana while they are getting ready for bed, sitting there, talking to them and caressing them. They are careful to hide him from Sophia and the children don't dare talk to her about him.

• 29:16Speaker 00

  It is all quite unbelievable and beyond understanding. Now, I'm gonna be really honest with you guys. I find the Romanovs to be one of my greatest historical moral quandaries. Like, being really honest, it is very easy to romanticise them. These beautiful, shiny, grand people who lived in palaces and wore beautiful clothes and jewels and had great balls. It's all very civilised. Then they die young in a violent, unnecessary way, replaced with Bolsheviks and communists and Stalin and the Iron Curtain and Putin and...

• 29:58Speaker 00

  You know, there's this constant question of what could Russia become if it was still a monarchy?

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Even today, the Romanovs are saintly martyrs within the Russian Orthodox Church, their bodies exhumed and rightfully buried. You have Anastasia the Musical and the movie, both of which, guys, I fucking love. And it is so easy and simple and neat and tidy to blame it all on Rasputin. This evil, titanic con man who led this beautiful young family astray.

• 30:36Speaker 00

  But that's just not the truth. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. And Nicholas and Alexandra lapped that shit up. Despite all the warning and the evidence and the red flags, they continued to give Rasputin endless access to the very heart of imperial power and their children. Four daughters, the eldest of whom was 15 and the youngest of whom was nine. I actually saw a meme the other day. I'll try and find it and reshare it about the Anastasia movie, which said like, "The Romanovs died because Rasputin put a curse on them, no other reason." You know, don't worry about it.

• 31:20Speaker 00

  Or Dimitri says like, "We're going to see your grandma in Paris because for no particular reason, she can't come back to Russia. Don't ask any questions." At the end of the day, guys, we can blame Rasputin all we want and tap our feet along to the bang that is "In the Dark of the Night", but the buck stops with Alexandra and Nicholas. That's of course before you even look at the fact it's estimated over 2 million people died during Nicholas II's rule from either direct brutality or just his own stupid carelessness. And the dealings with Rasputin are the perfect example of the latter. Oh, anyway, guys, let's, let's get back to the history. Let's check in with our timeline.

• 32:05Speaker 00

  1905, Rasputin first meets Cezar in Zoryna. 1906, he first meets the children. 1907, he first heals Alexei, after which he's granted access and privileges, leading to investigations and accusations, including from Sofia here in 1910. Now that year did not get better for Rasputin or the Romanovs, with absolutely scathing press starting to roll out about him.

• 32:33Speaker 00

  In February, the Moscow Gazette publishes a lengthy article under the title, "The Spiritual Touring Actor Grigory Rasputin." In April that year, Leopold Graf, the Austrian ambassador, writes to Vienna with news of the growing scandal and concern amongst the Tsar's court, causing outcry and gossip amongst the European royal families. A month later, the liberal newspaper Speech runs ten articles about Rasputin in one month, ten, followed by the Ziritsin Thought, which runs a story under the title, "The End of Rasputin." Again, people are like, "Oh, the Romanovs didn't know what was going on. They didn't know what their reception was. They were locked away."

• 33:16Speaker 00

  Ten articles in one month. Read the fucking papers, Jesus Christ. At this point in time, Rasputin also meets one man we're about to talk a lot about in a little bit, Felix Yusovov. The pair first exchanging pleasantries on August 20th, 1910, but more on that later. Around this time, Rasputin also released ardent letters written to him by the Tsarina and her daughters in an attempt to re-establish his authority and stature. However, their circulation only fueled more rumours, leading to pornographic cartoons depicting

• 33:58Speaker 00

  Rasputin and the Tsarina, her four daughters, and ladies in waiting. And at this point, the Tsar had to do something. It's no longer just church investigations or general gossip and discontent. It is cold, hard, black and white print. And the real tipping point came when Rasputin claimed to a fellow monk named Iliadore to have kissed the Tsarina. This, of course, got back to the imperial family and the Tsar, who, much to the discontent of his wife, ordered Rasputin to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where he shall pray for himself and the family. He agreed, Alexandra is obviously Devo, and spent almost six months travelling through Istanbul and Jerusalem, returning in June 1911.

• 34:46Speaker 00

  But guess what guys, it turns out, no matter how many pilgrimages you do, you just can't keep a bad guy down. Spotted with more sex workers who he reportedly would take to bathhouses and beat with his belt, Rasputin was on the thinnest of thin ice. And one man had enough. The Prime Minister, Kakhovstov. He wanted Rasputin out. He was fucking sick of him. And told the monk, if he did not leave St Petersburg himself, he would have him dragged out and banished. So on February 15th, 1912, Rasputin agrees to leave. Everyone's kind of surprised, to be honest.

• 35:25Speaker 00

  And he departs the city on February 22nd, but not before sending a letter to the Tsar. Again, he, the other shoe drops. It reads, strap in guys. "My dearest Mama and Papa, how strong the devil is getting. May he be condemned and the doomer serves him. There are many revolutionaries here. What do they care? Only to get rid of gods of anointed? What kind of inquiries can there be about Gregori? This is a devil's prank."

• 35:57Speaker 00

  So Rasputin, nasty little dibbitdaber, who accepts his banishment in order to play the victim. But Nichols isn't quite having it anymore, guys. He gave Rasputin the opportunity to go to the Holy Land, spend some time away, let the scandals die down, and come back better, but he didn't. So the Tsar doesn't really say, well, come back. And he also doesn't say, stay away. He just kind of leaves Rasputin to his own devices until October 1912. Now, remember when Rasputin said, God told him, you know, Alexei would die if he wasn't there to heal him? You and me, we hear that and we go, this fucking horseshit, like as if.

• 36:43Speaker 00

  Well, the Tsar and Tsarina around this time are also starting to think this is starting to catch on. Common sense is prevailing. After all, Rasputin's been away for almost a year and Alexei's had no incidences. So maybe this guy is the false prophet. Well, that's all about to go out the window. Because while the Romanov family were staying at Spala in present day Poland, Alexei suffered his most severe internal hemorrhage to date after a minor injury, likely from a jolt like while getting in a boat or carriage, he's knocked himself. The bleeding quickly became life threatening as blood pooled internally in his thigh and abdomen, causing intense pain, swelling and fever. The poor boy couldn't even move and reportedly spent days crying out in agony,

• 37:29Speaker 00

  with doctors doing very little to be able to aid him.

• 37:33Speaker 00

  It seemed almost certain, and I know I've said this like three times now, but it really seemed certain, he was going to die. Alexandra was beside herself crying, unable to sleep, unable to stand. She prayed and prayed and cursed the gossiping crowds who had driven Rasputin from her side. In her desperation, despite her husband's orders, she wrote to him. In response, Rasputin told her to remain calm and trust in God, assuring her that Alexei would live. Shortly afterward, his condition began to improve, likely because his own mother was calmed by Rasputin's words and her son in turn did the same.

• 38:17Speaker 00

  Or, as modern historians have very aptly pointed out, Rasputin told Alexandra not to let the doctors bother her son, and we know aspirin was prescribed around this time for pain, without the knowledge it was also a blood thinner. And therefore, in stopping the doctor's treatment, his blood actually had a chance to clot. Again, but none of this, none of this modern science, none of this reason for Alexandra. She believed this was a miracle and confirmed her belief that she held all along, that Rasputin not only had divine healing powers, but if he was kept away, her son would die.

• 39:02Speaker 00

  From that point on, there would be no rumour, no disgrace, no debauchery or sin so great to keep Rasputin away. And after this, Alexandra became almost solely dependent on him, not just for spiritual and medical advice, but for matters of state. In the year that followed, other governesses and carers of the children were dismissed, as Rasputin continued to visit the family, during which he was still frequently seen with prostitutes, was found drunk and high, and even travelled parts of the empire, including Crimea on orders of the Tsar. So he's not only back to living it up, but he's doing so with a renewed vigour.

• 39:46Speaker 00

  Now claiming any and all women who had sex with him would be purified, effectively figuring out a way to sanction his own affairs by God.

• 39:58Speaker 00

  His hygiene too also rapidly decreased, not that it was ever overly great, but Rasputin bragged about not changing his underwear for six months, while also preaching everyone should have sex with him so that they can be saved. Guys, can you imagine the bacteria?

• 40:15Speaker 00

  The smell? Like, I cannot deal. Wash your pecker, mate. This man is rumored to have a 12-inch penis, 10 inches of which had to be 100% gonorrhea. Meanwhile, he's going to bathhouses every day to have orgies. Get in the water, son. Lift it up, scrub it up, dub. Douse it in vodka, put a fresh pair of Calvin Klein's on, my god!

• 40:40Speaker 00

  But his penis isn't the only thing that was nasty. Rasputin was renowned for piling food into his mouth with sauce and flakes of fish hanging out of his beard. Like, I get freaked out when people get that white frothy stuff in their mouths when they talk, but people are looking at this man and going...

• 41:01Speaker 00

  Like, how are these kids not terrified? This is crystal meth Santa Claus. Like a nasty man. And just as before, with his influence came a great number of enemies. Chief amongst them in 1914 was that monk, Iliadore. Yeah, there's drama in the rectory, guys, because Rasputin and Iliadore used to be best buds. It's giving young Raenira and Alicent running around the Red Keep, but Iliadore becomes disillusioned with Rasputin accusing him of moral corruption, sexual misconduct, and hypocrisy. After the claims about this arena and the letters from her and her daughters were released. The split between these two men then turned public and explosive, so much so that Iliadore

• 41:46Speaker 00

  began writing pamphlets and campaigning against Rasputin. Now that I'm saying this out loud, this literally is the plot of House of the Dragon. Including this. The next step in Iliadore's plan is to assassinate his former friend. Confirmed in his own biography, Iliadore had one of his followers, a former sex worker named Keonia, travelled to Rasputin's village. She had a very, very hard life, this poor girl. A former client beating her so badly, her entire nose was removed. And when Iliadore told her that Rasputin was going around beating sex workers, she goes, stands out front of the local post office, waits for Rasputin to come out, he walks up to her, stabs him in the gut.

• 42:31Speaker 00

  Several times, actually, she was so desperate to kill him, she stuck her hand inside his stomach and tried to pull out his intestines. Like, it's yucky, so gross. While it was not clear if he would survive at first, his guts are literally hanging out of him. Rasputin did undergo emergency surgery and spent the weeks that followed in hospital receiving letters from the Empress, who said, "Thoughts and prayers surround you, our sufferings inscribable, hoping for God's mercy." She went on to claim as well that his survival was just further proof he was protected by divine forces, like loco. Now, this failed assassination attempt on Rasputin is lesser known,

• 43:11Speaker 00

  but still a very significant event on an even more significant date, June 28th, 1914. While Rasputin was lying in a pool of his own blood, gasping for life, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were also assassinated and killed by a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb who aimed to break Serbia away from Austria-Hungary. This event, of course, is one of, if not the, most defining moments of the 20th century, because it marked the beginning of the First World War. So you have this, this massive European assassination on the same day as the Tsar's Oremas advisor is almost killed, and again, for the very superstitious and mystic Romanov

• 43:55Speaker 00

  family, this was a sign that evil was in the air and Russia must go to war.

• 44:04Speaker 00

  But Rasputin doesn't agree, guys. He wrote to the Tsar while he was recovering, urging him not to engage, saying, "Dear friend, I will say again, a menacing cloud is over Russia. It is dark and there is no lightning to be seen. A sea of tears, immeasurable, and as to blood, what can I say? There are no words. The horrors of it is indescribable. Terrible is the destruction and without end." The grief, now again, I think Rasputin's just a con man. But does he not perfectly sum up the First World War in that letter? Sent in early July before the war was even declared, like it is a bit uncanny. To the shock of all, though, including me, Nicholas doesn't listen to Rasputin.

• 44:48Speaker 00

  Instead, pulling on his family ties with the British, following the advice of his generals, and egged on by people in the streets who were cheering him on to defend Russia's honour. And so he ordered the general mobilization of the Russian army on July 30th, 1914, which Germany saw as a direct threat and responded by declaring war in return a day later. And as such, World War One begins. Now, by August, Rasputin is strong enough to return to St Petersburg and meets with Nicholas and Alexandra several times, despite still being unable to eat solid foods, before Nicholas leaves for the front to be with his troops. Oh, and he also has sex with a sex worker during this time for like 30 minutes.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  You know, life's all about balance. Love that for him. The Tsar was reportedly feeling really uneasy about leaving his family and heading to war, writing in his diary, "Only under the influence of Gagarin's calming talk did my soul return to its normal balance." But still, he did leave for large periods of time throughout 1914, travelling to and from various outposts to muster morale and be with his troops. And at first, it was a real wave of patriotism and Nicholas's hands-on approach was praised. But this quickly faded as the army suffered devastating losses, poor leadership and shortages of weapons and supplies during its first year alone.

• 46:15Speaker 00

  The Russian economy also began to strain under the pressure of war, leading to rising prices and food shortages. So Nicholas made the devastating decision, arguably the worst he ever made, to dismiss his uncle, Grand Duke Nicholas, as Commander-in-Chief of the army, in September 1915, taking up personal command himself. With no experience, or expertise, or even a prior victory, he decided, "He's best equipped to lead and arm, you know, an already crippled Russia into war." Honestly, like when the meme where it's like, "What made you think you could do this delusion?"

• 46:53Speaker 01

  And what gave you the confidence?

• 46:56Speaker 00

  Um, delusion? Nicholas here, yeah. Not only was this a huge strategic blunder, but it meant Nicholas would be on the front permanently. Away from an already fragile and fractured St Petersburg, where revolutionary fever and borderline famine grew day by day. And the person he put in charge was Alexandra. Again, someone with zero experience and who was pretty widely disliked, not just for the propaganda with her and Rasputin, but she's a German princess, guys. She was treated with suspicion from day one and it only got worse now because the Germans are now the enemy.

• 47:37Speaker 00

  I genuinely do feel sympathy for Alexandra in this situation. Her whole life, she has been kept on the fringes of power with no training, or skill, or idea on how to actually run a country. From the beginning, her role was defined as the royal worm and mother. And at this, she was placed under such stress, having Alexei so late and then, of course, his hemophilia. Now she's just expected to lead a war-torn Russia? Like, it is impossible to imagine her doing anything but turning to her closest adviser in this moment. Rasputin. You know, so he's no longer just at the centre of power and rule. He becomes power and rules.

• 48:22Speaker 00

  He influenced the appointment and dismissal of several ministers, often recommending individuals he personally trusted, rather than those equipped for the job. This led to the great ministerial leapfrogging, where a rapid turnover in key government roles created fundamental instability that saw the collapse of any real efficiency. To add to this, Rasputin publicly continued to advocate for peace, believing that war was destroying Russia. And while he was absolutely right, you know, I believe peace and in hostility should always be the chief goal. Him rearranging ministers and officials in a time of war, where tens of thousands of men are dying for the sake of Russia,

• 49:02Speaker 00

  made the stance of peace deeply unpopular with the military, the nobility, and the politicians who viewed him, and therefore the Tsarina, as undermining all of their work. More than anything, though, Rasputin's presence in the palace day in, day out, damaged the last remaining semblance of the monarchy's positive public image. Rumours spread that he controlled the government and had influence over Alexandra, and they're not wrong. He literally did. Something had to be done. And revolutionary groups and leaders like Vladimir Lenin weren't the only ones trying to do something about it.

• 49:44Speaker 00

  Even Nicholas's mother, Maria Viderovna, and other close Romanov relatives, including his sister, began to see the monarchy could not survive under Nicholas and Alexandra. And as such, began plotting to replace him with his younger brother, Grand Duke Michael. Many members of the aristocracy, government, and like I said, the intimate family members, supported this plan. But ultimately, it would not come to pass for another group of conservative monarchists had a different plan. Which is when we come back to Prince Felix Yusupov. I told you guys we'd be chatting about him. So who is he? Felix Yusupov was born into the powerful Yusupov family, one of the richest noble families

• 50:29Speaker 00

  in all of Russia. And he became a prince when he married Princess Irina Alexandrovna. So she's a niece of Zaniklas II. Which meant that Felix had money, power, and access. And he was, above all else, which is very keen to remember here, pro-monarchical. He wanted the Romanovs and the various families, including his, which make up the aristocracy, to stay in power. And saw Rasputin as a real, ever-growing threat to this. Genuinely, I think it's pretty astounding. The public and the peasants and the aristocracy all hate Rasputin and still the Romanovs did nothing. Like, it's wild. He is the common denominator, the common enemy.

• 51:14Speaker 00

  So Felix decides to band together with the Tsar's first cousin, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, and pro-Tsarist politician Vladimir Perishkovich. P.S. Sorry to all the Russians about these pronunciations. I'm doing my best. They decide they're gonna deal with Rasputin once and for all. Take him off the chessboard. So plotting for an assassination begins. Now, Yusupov decides right from the get-go, it needs to occur in private, right? They need to avoid commotion. Uh, police can't be there, passersby can't spot them, because of course it will then get back to Alexandra, and he wants to stay in power.

• 51:55Speaker 00

  So he decides the best location was somewhere he could control all the variables, which made his own palace on the Moika River in Petrograd the perfect place. Now, how to get in there? Well, that would require a great deal of convincing, because by all accounts, Rasputin was very aware that members of the family were trying to kill him. Even though he survived his prior assassination attempt, there was no denying Rasputin's health was declining, and he wrote in his journal saying that he knew he would die soon and had made peace with the fact, as he believed, oh, I don't even wanna say it out loud, it's so delusional. Here we go, "He believed God would make a sacrifice of him for the salvation of the Russian people,

• 52:39Speaker 00

  like Christ died on the cross." So he just thinks he's like the Russian Jesus, basically. However, he did wanna make clear, while he accepted it, he knew how this would unfold, writing to the empress, saying, "If one of your relatives shall bring upon my death, then none of your family will remain alive for more than two years. They will all be killed by the Russian people."

• 53:06Speaker 00

  Now, like I said, it's highly likely Rasputin was aware of internal Romanov plots to depose or kill him, and said this to the empress as a warning or threat to be passed back down the family chain. But you can't help find the omnipotence in that statement, which, as we know today, would become a grave reality. He also said in that letter, "Tell your relatives, I've already paid for them in my blood." So like, he's on to everyone.

• 53:34Speaker 00

  Given these vibes, why would Rasputin then agree to meet Yusupov, a member of the family? Well, he made it irresistible for the sex-crazed, social-climbing monk with a god complex by using his own wife, the princess, as bait. Yusupov knew that Rasputin would take any chance to attend to senior members of the family, so he claimed that he and his wife were in an open bisexual relationship and invited him to join the couple to try and aid his wife's sex addiction. Now, none of this was true, and Arena herself confirmed she was not there at the time, instead, being tucked safely away in Crimea somewhere. But she was aware of her husband's plans and approved of them.

• 54:18Speaker 00

  So for Yusupov, he hopes this kind of outrageous, tempting sin-for-salvation story that Rasputin loved so much would be enough to lure him away from this arena. And he was right.

• 54:32Speaker 00

  On December 12th, 1916 Alexandra and her four daughters had dinner with Rasputin at Alex's lady in waiting's house. This would be their last meeting. For two days later, the monk accepted Yusupov's invitation to attend Princess Irina, preparing to visit the palace in Petrograd that evening, with the prince agreeing to come to Rasputin's apartment and pick him up around midnight. According to Yusupov's later memoirs, Rasputin was then ushered inside to the basement, being told Irina had guests upstairs and would join them soon for their sexual escapade. Again, remember, basements, crypts, like, they love this shit.

• 55:14Speaker 00

  So Rasputin's not, like, why am I in a basement right now? To pass the time, Yusupov ordered tea and cakes to Rasputin, which had been laced with cyanide. Now, after initially refusing the cakes, much to Yusupov's disappointment, Rasputin began to eat them. And eat them. And eat them. And to everyone's surprise, he was totally fine. This deeply, of course, unnerved Yusupov, who, again, 90% believes this guy's a charlatan, but that, like, pesky 10% read its head when despite the volumes of cyanide consumed, nothing's happening. Feeling a little thirsty now, Rasputin asked for some Madeira wine, which had also been

• 55:58Speaker 00

  poisoned, and drank three glasses of it. But still, showed no sign of distress. So, fed up and pretty freaked out, Yusupov excuses himself to go upstairs at around 2:30 AM where his fellow conspirators were waiting. Reporting the failure of the poison, he decided to do things the old-fashioned way, taking a revolver from Pavlovich before returning to the basement, telling Rasputin, "You'd better look at the crucifix and say a prayer." He then shot him once in the chest. Needing to cover their tracks and avoid anything coming back to them, the conspirators then

• 56:37Speaker 00

  drove back to Rasputin's apartment, with one of them wearing the monk's coat and fur hat, you know, in an attempt to prove that Rasputin had made it home after visiting Yusupov's house. Smart, right? On the drive back to the palace, however... Something overcame Yusupov. He began to have this odd feeling. So when he arrived back to the house, he went straight to the basement to ensure that Rasputin was indeed dead. Leaning over the bloodied corpse, he goes to the floor.

• 57:18Speaker 00

  He reaches out for a pulse when in the blink of an eye Rasputin leaped up and attacked Yusupov, who after a struggle managed to, you know, get himself away and run up the stairs. But guess what? Rasputin's head on his heels. I mean, my God, nothing wants to keep this man down to assassination attempts and he's like running up the stairs. So Rasputin follows Yusupov into the palace's courtyards where the politician, Barishkovich, then finally shot him point blank in the head. He collapsed into a snowbank stained red by the blood Rasputin told the empress her relatives had already paid for.

• 58:01Speaker 00

  Becoming increasingly more messy and dramatic than they ever could have imagined, the conspirators then decide what they're gonna do is wrap his body in cloth, put it in the back of a car, drive to the Petrovsky Bridge nearby, and drop the monk's corpse into a broken bit of ice in the little Neveka River. Hardly criminal masterminds, however, they forgot to weigh him down. So the corpse just like floated underneath the frozen river, like he was like stuck in a snow globe, basically. Now, there are lots of different versions of the assassination of Rasputin. As I said, these are from the memoirs of the prince himself, but a modern analysis of Rasputin's

• 58:43Speaker 00

  death, published on the 100th anniversary of the event by Dr. Carolyn Harris of the University of Toronto, notes that the actual circumstances were less dramatic than Yusupov's account would have ever been. Basically, he dramatized it to make his heroism even greater, as though, you know, he literally defeated the devil who then came back as a zombie who they then killed and still, you know, didn't, didn't die and was drowned and it's all very dramatic. Rasputin's own daughter backed up these claims, stating that her father abstained from sweet food and would not have eaten the supposedly poisoned cakes to begin with. In the end, an autopsy account by the official surgeon

• 59:27Speaker 00

  showed no record of poisoning and records death by a single bullet fired into the head at close range. But other accounts of Rasputin's assassination still exist, including a version where he had water in his lungs, proving he was still alive when thrown into the river. And another where Yusupov arranged for Grand Duchess Tatyana to be present at the monk's death, claiming she was disguised as a lieutenant of the Chevalier Guard so that she could revenge herself on Rasputin, who had tried to violate her. The French ambassador to Russia also backed up these claims, detailing that Tatyana witnessed Rasputin's penis being cut off before his death, but he doubted the credibility of the rumor that reached him. What we do know for certain

• 1:00:13Speaker 00

  is that news of Rasputin's murder quickly spread. According to historian Dr. C. Smith, Porishkovich spoke openly about the murder to two soldiers and to a policeman, but urged them not to tell anyone else. An investigation was then launched the next morning with two workmen discovering blood on the railing of the bridge and a boot on the ice below, prompting a quick police search of the area, after which Rasputin's body was found, under the ice, like I said, approximately 200 metres downstream from the bridge. The ice was cut, the monk's frozen solid corpse was hauled out, and an autopsy found his penis intact. So sorry to all of those museums who claim to have

• 1:00:56Speaker 00

  Rasputin's giant penis on display, but it was attached to his body at the time of his death. Dmitry Korostov, the city's senior autopsy surgeon, also said Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three gunshot wounds, a sliced wound to his left side, and other injuries, but the cause of death was absolutely the one shot to the head. There was no signs of water in the lungs, poison in the system, or a detached penis.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Alexandra was devastated. And given Rasputin's prior warning to her about the threat coming from within the family, she saw his death as a grave crime against both the monarchy and God, pushing Nicholas to punish those responsible despite the family ties. The response, however, was mild. Yusupov and Irina were exiled and moved to Paris, ultimately saving them from the revolution. Dmitri II was sent away to the front, which also saved his life as he escaped to France and then Britain, you know, during the revolutionary times, otherwise he definitely would have been killed. He's a male descendant of the Tsar, of course.

• 1:02:09Speaker 00

  As for Rasputin, well, he was buried on January 2nd, 1917, at a small church near Zarskoye Selo. The funeral was attended only by the imperial family and a few of their intimates with Rasputin's wife, mistresses and children not being invited, although his daughters met with the imperial family later that day. It was all too little too late for the Romanovs, however, and Russia was nothing short of a powder keg. On the brink of collapse after years of strain from World War I, January 1917 brought food shortages, inflation and freezing conditions which made daily life unbearable, especially in cities like Petrograd.

• 1:02:54Speaker 00

  Workers from these regions travelled to larger cities and went on strike, demanding bread and better conditions, while morale in the army plummeted. By February, tensions exploded into mass protests, when the price of bread doubled, leading thousands of women to take the streets demanding bread from the Tsar. The date of this, February 23rd, AKA International Women's Day. It's funny, if you actually listen to the Where'd the Money Go episode a couple of weeks back, you'll know the French Revolution also started by a women's march up the gals. Within days of this initial march, over 200,000 people also took to the streets to join the women.

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  At first, the Zaryna and the government tried to restore order. Troops were sent in, and some protesters were shot. However, the situation escalated when soldiers began to refuse orders and then mutiny, joining the crowds instead. This was the turning point. The end. The blood Rasputin promised, and once the army in Petrograd sided with the protesters, the Romanovs were done. By February 27th, government buildings were seized, prisons were opened, and the city was effectively under revolutionary control, with the provisional government rising to power.

• 1:04:22Speaker 00

  Throughout all of this, Alexandra and the children were at the Alexander Palace in Zarskoye Selo, just outside Petrograd. So not in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, which, you know, did keep them safer than they perhaps would have been otherwise. At the time, several of the children, including Alexei, was seriously ill with measles, which kept the family confined to the palace, and reports of the unrest were patchy and delayed at best. During this time Alexandra also lost contact with Nicholas, who was away at military headquarters, and while he did attempt to return to the capital, he found his path blocked.

• 1:05:05Speaker 00

  In the end, I think Alexandra just gave up. Her children were sick, her country in tatters, her adviser dead, her husband god knows where, and I think she basked in these final few moments of ignorance. I don't know that I can really blame her.

• 1:05:24Speaker 00

  Nicholas, however, was not so lucky. His route home was blocked by rebellious troops, forcing him to stop on the train in Peskov. There, senior military leaders and advisers told him the situation was hopeless and that abdication was necessary as he had lost the army, which had been his main support. So, on March 2nd, 1917, Nicholas signed a formal abdication document. Initially first abdicating in favour of his son, Alexei, but quickly changing his mind fearing for the boy's health and safety. Great, now you're gonna think about that, awesome. Instead, he named his brother, Michael, a successor.

• 1:06:06Speaker 00

  He, however, did not want to helm a burning ship and refused the throne unless he was confirmed by an elected assembly in a democratic process. He was not picked, and 300 years of Romanov rule came to an end. Shortly after the abdication, one of the first things the new government did aside from take the imperial family into custody, was to exhume and burn Rasputin's body, with the detachment of soldiers also destroying any sign of a burial place, so that his grave would not become a rallying point for supporters of the old regime. I doubt it would have, but you know, I appreciate the thought here, I understand where they come from.

• 1:06:53Speaker 00

  Which brings us to the end of Rasputin. The end of the Romanovs, the end of Imperial Russia. A time that today feels so distant and so foreign to the Russia that we've known throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Replaced again by Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in October of 1917, leading to the execution of the Tsars, Orenya and their children. The USSR then fought again with the Allies in World War II against Germany, after which the Berlin Wall went up and the Iron Curtain closed. The Cold War escalated global tensions between communists and capitalists with

• 1:07:34Speaker 00

  the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, bringing a renewed hope for the Great Russian Bear to walk into the 21st century with a renewed place in modern geopolitics. That, however, would not be the case. Oligarchs replaced dukes and princes, the KGB replaced the okhrana, and presidents replaced czars. There are many people who, in light of this modern Russia, and indeed its last 100-year history, long for the days of Romanov rule. As I said at the top, it's very easy to romanticise them because they seem familiar. Right?

• 1:08:19Speaker 00

  They're a family, a monarchy, a civilised group of people. Look at the British royal family, although I'm not sure civilised is really the right word there, moral certainly isn't, but we're used to this system and largely attach this modern version of monarchy to the Romanovs. Oh, you know, wouldn't it be so nice to have a young, beautifully dressed, charismatic family representing Russia? All would be well. But that is not the kind of monarchy the czars had. They, unlike Charles or any British royal since 1215 really, possessed total unchecked power, all of which passed down to whoever came out of the womb of whatever princess or duchess or royal was married into the family.

• 1:09:04Speaker 00

  And the problem with that, besides the fact democracy is amazing, we should all have it, is that by having power rest with a few intimately related people, you have the ability for individuals like Rasputin to impact the fate of an entire nation.

• 1:09:22Speaker 00

  To bring down 300 years of history out of, what, superstition and sentiment?

• 1:09:30Speaker 00

  There are so many discussions and POVs in my comments about Romanovs. You guys can go and read them. There's everything from, you know, whose fault it is? What defines us romanticising? How badly can you feel based on X, Y, Z? What's the role of Rasputin? Do we really have anything better now, right? And all of these are valid and important questions. But honestly, the key takeaway for me from the entire Romanov saga, start to end, is how easily tragedy can occur and how easily tragedy can be prevented. You look at the reign of Nicholas II and I reckon it all boils down to maybe five

• 1:10:14Speaker 00

  key decisions which changed history, bore terror and resulted in the deaths of millions, including his own children, who eventually paid for the short fallings of their parents. Bad decisions, despite guidance to act otherwise. And in the case of Rasputin here, guys, cold, hard evidence ignored again out of sentimentality and spirituality. Which reveals the unabashed truth, and when you say it out loud, it's very obvious. Yes, Nicholas, Alexandra, Rasputin, Yusupov, all played a role in the end of the House

• 1:10:53Speaker 00

  of Romanov, but the biggest factor in their downfall, in their failure, in their end, in that violence, is monarchy, period. They can never, and I largely suspect will never, succeed in a modern world, even with a fraction of the power they once had, because at the end of the day, an entire nation is left reliant on a genetic potluck, where you never know what you're gonna get. No skill, no need to prove yourself or work for it, just privilege and pedigree. And in a world where discernment is the key to future leaders, relying on family ties,

• 1:11:37Speaker 00

  and in Alexandra and Nicholas's case, and to be honest, Queen Elizabeth II in the form of Prince Andrew's case, right? Sentimentality is how you let foxes like Rasputin into the henhouse and bring a whole nation down with you.

• 1:11:56Speaker 00

  Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. Guys, thank you so much for following along with me on this episode. And make sure to tune in next week because we are talking about the most successful pirate in human history. It's not Blackbeard or William Kidd, it's not even Captain Jack Sparrow, but Qing Shi, the pirate queen of the South China Sea who was so successful that the Qing Dynasty paid her to retire. As always guys, if you're looking for some more hot history, then you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at Hot Dot History. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and I will speak to you all

• 1:12:41Speaker 00

  next Friday. Thanks guys, love you, bye.