Romanovs Part 4: The Fall

PART 4/6. You guys have been patient so TODAY we're talking about none other than Rasputin! Covering the back half of the Tsar's rule this episode will track from 1905 - 1915, looking at Bloody Sunday, the rise of Rasputin, the ideas of communism and the beginning of WW1 (plus so much more). If you want to watch the rest of our Romanov content you can find it here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1rxk28oArv73AsShJ1Xvq8?si=_Ot0slGOQk-WEWnGP5VGGA&nd=1&dlsi=cff2eb270e8f44dd. Shout-out to our incredible researcher Gracie McCamish and editor Jamie Rose for pulling this together. If you like this series, make sure to subscribe and follow along so you don't miss the episodes as they drop, starting with part 2 next Tuesday and 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, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history ! 'Til next week, Ainslie x

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• 1:00Speaker 03

  Hi, guys. I hope you are enjoying our series on the Romanovs. I know I am loving covering it for you, guys. It's like eight or nine hours at this point of so much Romanov, Russian, Rasputin, revolution juiciness. I do have a favor to ask of you, though, if you wouldn't mind doing me a solid. I would love it if you guys could follow, subscribe, share, comment, whatever it is that you can do to show this show love. We are entirely self-funded. We are entirely self-produced. And all of our support comes directly from you, guys, which we are always so thankful for. Plus, my divas, I heard a stat the other day that men are statistically more likely to subscribe to their favorite podcasters and YouTubers than women,

• 1:44Speaker 03

  which I simply cannot abide by. So if you can hit that subscribe button below, if you can hit follow, if you can hit share, I would be deeply grateful. But let's roll the medieval whimsical tune and get into the Rasputin of it all.

• 2:12Speaker 03

  Hi, guys, and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Mainzley Harvey, your hot historian here today, ready to dive back into our series, guys. We are like at part four out of six now, I think. We are in the thick of it, talking about the last hours of Russia, the Romanovs. So today's gonna be a big one. So if you need to pee, go pee. You need a coffee, go get one, because we are locking the fuck in, starting by rewinding back to where we left off last week on August 12, 1904, where Zarina Alexandra brings the long-awaited Romanov heir, Alexei, into the world.

• 2:55Speaker 03

  Everyone in the palace in Russia, abroad in Europe, really, guys, is overjoyed by this news. With the birth of four daughters up until this point leaving the Romanovs in dynastic crisis and increasing tensions over the disastrous war with Japan causing strikes and all matter of discontent from the Russian people, the birth of a son, an heir, a Tsarevich, was essential in not only calming the dynastic waters, but saving political face for the Tsarans' arena, who finally were able to escape from the crushing pressures of a male heir. However, while Alexei made the impression at first of a strong and healthy child, this was a farce,

• 3:38Speaker 03

  with the six-week-old baby boy suffering from uncontrolled bleeding where his umbilical cord was cut, which actually wasn't noticed at first because his nannies were wrapping him so like in his nappies so tightly. It's called swaddling. And at first, it's kind of recognized in the initial hours. They're going, this is fairly benign. But when the bleeding continued day after day, Alexandra knew that her worst fears had been realized. For the Tsarevich of Russia, her long-awaited son had hemophilia, the royal disease. Now, this was something that Alexandra was no stranger to. She was very familiar with it as her own brother and former heir of her family's throne in Germany had actually died from the affliction,

• 4:21Speaker 03

  which was passed down from Queen Victoria to her own mother, Princess Alice. Which always kind of made me think, guys, like if Victoria and Alice and Alex had hemophilia, why didn't they die? Like, why are all these men dying? So I wanna do, I'm gonna step away from Hot History for a minute. Take a bit of the Hot History hat off, right? We're gonna put our sexy scientist hat on and get a bit technical here in the science chat, because I want you guys to fully understand the kind of realities behind this disease and the probability of Alexei as the sole son and heir getting this. So let's get a bit sciency here for a second. Now, the specific strain and the type of hemophilia

• 5:04Speaker 03

  that we're talking about is hemophilia B. And this is caused by a mutation in the F9 gene on the X chromosome. And the reason it didn't affect Victoria, or Alice, or Alex, is because women usually have two X chromosomes, meaning if one is affected with hemophilia, there's a second one to balance it out. But men have an X and a Y. So if they inherit a hemophilia-affected X chromosome from their mother, there is no others to offset it, because the other is a Y, right? As such, the affected person will be deficient in clotting factor nine, which means the blood doesn't clot properly. And every bump, knock, or cut can be life-threatening. Which begs the question, then,

• 5:47Speaker 03

  how exactly does it work from Queen Victoria to Alexei? Well, as we said, Alexandra, as a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was a carrier of a hemophilic X chromosome, meaning every son she conceived had a 50% chance of inheriting that specifically-affected X chromosome and a 50% chance of inheriting the unaffected X chromosome. So a real roll of the dice, which, again, perhaps like one of the biggest what-ifs in Romanov history really is, what if this poor boy had received Alexandra's unaffected X? Now, I don't wanna spend too long in the science here. We've gotta put our hot historian, you know, hats back on. But just to show you how fateful Alexei's condition was,

• 6:32Speaker 03

  I wanna explain how the condition actually passed down. Because not every one of Victoria's female descendants was a carrier, which is a big misconception in all of this. So out of Victoria's nine children, one of her sons, Leopold, was afflicted and died of hemophilia in 1884 at age 30, passing on the gene to his own daughter, who in turn became an automatic carrier, passing the disease on to her son, Prince Rupert of Tech, who also died. Interestingly here, guys, her daughter, Mary of Tech, did not inherit the gene, which is just as well, because she was the one who ended up marrying King George V of the UK. So if she had inherited it,

• 7:15Speaker 03

  we could have had a lot of dead British royals on our hands. As for Victoria's other children, her youngest daughter, Beatrice, passed the mutation into the Spanish royal family, with two of her sons being afflicted. And as we know, guys, Alice, her other daughter, was also a carrier, who passed the gene on to Alexandra and her sister Irene. So not even all of Alex's own sisters were carriers, just she and one other. Which, again, guys, like, I know throughout this whole series there's been this underpinning of talk about superstition and omens and divine timing and all of that. But even at a cellular level, it's hard to deny that this family wasn't doomed. With a 50% chance that Queen Victoria, as a carrier, would pass the disease to her own daughter Alice,

• 8:00Speaker 03

  who then had a 50% chance of passing it to Alexandra, who then had a 50% chance that she herself, the third afflicted in the line at this point, would pass it on to Alexei, who had no other X chromosome to protect him. So you have at least three genetic occurrences with hemophilia all happening before you get to Alexei, which means the retrospective probability of Queen Victoria's hemophilia mutation traveling down to Alexei was 12.5%. Yeah, a 12.5% chance that the only male heir to the Tsar of Russia is affected by this life-threatening and dynasty-ending disease,

• 8:44Speaker 03

  which in this whole saga always gives me the biggest goosebumps, because hemophilia does genuinely seem like a curse against monarchy itself. Or, to be specific, guys, against primogeniture-based monarchy, which, I do have to admit, I am like just off the back of my research and episodes about witchcraft. If you haven't watched them, there's a two-part series. Definitely go and do it. But the worst of the witch trials happened in Germany, which is where Queen Victoria came from. So was there a bit of like juju curse going on? I don't know. But either way, this royal disease seems sure to end dynasties which rely on only men being in power. Which, for the Romanovs, guys, who very much exist within

• 9:28Speaker 03

  this system, Alexei's diagnosis is the single worst piece of news the couple could be given. With the dynastic crisis they believed they'd freed themselves from only restarting once more. It's heartbreaking, guys. And again, like, we talk over and over about humanizing these people. In this moment, I do feel really terrible for Alex in particular, who took on immense levels of guilt blaming herself for passing this disease on to her son, which, like, of course, it's not her fault, it's just genetics, but it's a really terrible situation, which is not only shocking and devastating to kind of receive this news,

• 10:07Speaker 03

  but Alex and Nikki now realise they have to live in constant panic that, one, Alexei's going to injure himself and potentially die, and, two, which is most importantly here, guys, that people would find out. Because this was now, in no uncertain terms, the most important secret in Russia. Held so tightly by the imperial family that Nicholas didn't even tell his mother in the early days, only revealing it to her once it became impossible to hide through the swaddling. Which is the other really crushing element here. Hemophilia is hard to keep secret, as it is highly visible. For example, when Alexei was three and a half, he tripped, lightly knocking his face on a wall, and

• 10:51Speaker 03

  the swelling was so bad that his whole face blew up to the point he couldn't even open his eyes. You pair that with the fact that blood is, you know, bright red, and he's constantly bleeding after injury, and this secret becomes pretty hard to hide, leaving the imperial family no real choice but to hide Alexei away. With Alex becoming so depressed that she too became a relative recluse in the months after his birth, hauling up at the Alexander Palace, where, according to historian Orlando Fiers, who we love to quote throughout this, he's an incredible Romanov and Russian historian, he said she largely turned her back on society, which increased the already existing idea that she was cold and arrogant.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  But, guys, as large as this discovery looms, this terrible news, it was dwarfed by the fact the nation was well and truly in peril. For, according to the BBC, at this point, over three quarters of the Russian population were unhappy with their position in the empire, and began expressing themselves in a series of riots, strikes, and protests against their horrific living and working conditions, alongside the thing everyone fucking hates, the tax system, which had no form of income tax for the rich, instead relying on taxes from peasant-farmed produce. So, the aristocracy, right, with all their mansions and estates and land and diamonds aren't being taxed for their personal fortunes, but a percentage

• 12:17Speaker 03

  of the grain and the oats and the barley being farmed by the peasants was being chipped off to fund things like the 1903 Romanov War we spoke about last week, and the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. Of course, amongst other things, it's never always quite so black and white as, you know, every single cent is going to excess and grandeur, and it's important we talk about that, but all of the cents were coming from other sources, including the state vodka monopoly, peasant redemption payments, where freed serfs had to pay back the government for fronting the cost of their freedom, land and property taxes, which did include the aristocracy, although they were given large tax breaks under charters brought in by Catherine the Great, and of course, the standard taxes

• 13:00Speaker 03

  on produce sold, with zero personal taxations of the aristocracy in.

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• 14:07Speaker 03

  ...site. So the people are rightfully pretty fucking pissed that they're giving all this dosh to the Tsar, who's spending it on balls, wars, and god knows what else. So, at this point, we have real problems with the taxation system relating to peasants and the way they were able to live after they were liberated by Nicholas's grandfather. But we also have the workers, right? We spoke about them in last episode, and how kind of industrialisation has come through, and given people massive, massive working hours in extremely dangerous conditions for very minimal pay, which, to the surprise of no one, and very rightfully so, meant that you now had huge factories of discontented people

• 14:52Speaker 03

  lobbying for change. Although, there was no actual real avenue to do this, because trade unionism was also banned. So at this point, around this 1904-1905 period, okay, there is a ticking time bomb in Russia between the peasants and the workers, which was also exacerbated by Jewish people being sanctioned, zemstovs, which were the local councils that we spoke about last week, losing a lot of their power, critics of the government disappearing and being murdered, and the Russo-Japanese War going horribly wrong. And that is before we even get to radical groups like the People's Will, who assassinated Alexander II, who

• 15:34Speaker 03

  are still more prevalent than ever. So in essence, my divas, uh, everything's fucked, right? And really, really dangerous, with Nicholas's minister for the interior being assassinated months earlier. So the people decide, if the Tsar wouldn't grant the workers actual pay, they'd have to take it for themselves, which led to January 1905, where 100,000 workers, led by a priest named Father Kapon, went on strike, marching to the Winter Palace to present their petition to Nicholas directly. In this, they believed that in appealing firsthand to the Tsar, the father of the nation, right, their great protector, rather

• 16:15Speaker 03

  than his ministers, they would be able to pledge their allegiance to him as their protector while calling for change, which all went down on Sunday, January 22nd, 1905, a day that would forever be known as Bloody Sunday. Now, despite the protest giving peace and love, and even being fit for a family outing, with some children attending with their parents, holding portraits of the Tsar and singing hymns, the protesters ultimately knew that this was risky, with the government urging Kapon to call it off on January 7th, when they first caught wind of the plan. One marcher, Ivan Vasilev, left a note for his wife, who was sleeping, saying, "If I fail to return and am killed, do not cry. Bring up venira

• 16:59Speaker 03

  and tell him I died a martyr for the people's freedom and happiness." This, as it turned out, would be correct. Pevanya never returned home. You see, the big mistake here, and really the kind of key thread that we see throughout here, is that the workers put their faith in Nicholas to be reasonable. They see him constantly throughout this tale as a man of God, and believe that their cause was justified, so he would see reason. But it would all be for naught, because the Tsar wasn't even in St Petersburg.

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, you see, guys, hearing of the planned demonstration, Nikki decides, best thing for me to do, fuck off, right? And leave this mess to my 12,000 police and military men to manage, who tried and failed to disperse the group, firing two warning shots into the air, before then unloading a third with a shrill ring, straight into the peaceful crowd. Instantly, people began screaming as the guards opened fire, with 40 protesters killed in seconds. What followed was a hysterical mess, with children being hit and killed, women lying injured and bleeding in the streets, and modern estimates saying that 100 to

• 18:13Speaker 03

  200 people were dead almost instantly. Father Kapon was also in the middle of this, crying to the skies, saying, quote, "There is no God any longer. There is no Tsar." It was brutal. Guys, it was banal. It was as bloody as it comes. After which, there was nothing but blind rage, as protesters went around the streets of St Petersburg, smashing windows, beating up police, and throwing rocks at soldiers, which Fiers says was, quote, "the turning point of the whole revolution," for their mood suddenly changed from disbelief to anger. And let's be, like, so fucking for real in this, guys. This is 100% justified.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  The Tsar knew about this planned peaceful protest, and instead of either trying to stop it by meeting with delegates ahead of time for a constructive plan, or remaining and letting them come to the palace, he just leaves. Again, like, the fundamental flaw with Nicholas, there are many, but the fundamental flaw with Nicholas, he has a malignant inability to read the fucking room. It is so preposterous that it genuinely borders on insanity. Like, again, just for context, fucking back in here, okay? You are losing a foreign war, the peasants can barely eat while you're still taxing them, the workers are demanding

• 19:38Speaker 03

  change, which they've blown up one of your ministers to try and enact a few weeks earlier, and, although no one knew this at the time, your brand-new heir is riddled with a pretty much terminal disease, and you still don't think you need to change.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  And not just that you don't need to change, but that you don't even need to be there to hear what they've got to say, to see what's going on. It's just like idiocy on an industrial level, guys. And while I do think in the early days, like in the last episode where we were covering those first few years of the rule, I do think we can cut Nicholas a bit of slack. Like, again, terrible man, terrible decisions, terrible advisory, but he is very young. He is surrounded by very, very bad advisors. He's incredibly unprepared, so I do think we can give him some slack in situations in the like events from last episode. But this, all on you, Diva. Okay?

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Not the shooting as such, because he didn't necessarily order that, but his mismanagement of this situation because of his fundamental belief, again, in his divine right to rule, I don't need to change because God said that I'm a good boy and can rule, is fucking abominable.

• 20:56Speaker 03

  Okay? Like, he won't even hear what they've got to say. I, I cannot fathom it. And it's no wonder that Father Gapon, who went into exile afterwards, later wrote to Nicholas, saying that the Russian people had totally lost faith in him, which is evident in the weeks after Bloody Sunday, when 400,000 workers continued to strike, becoming the largest ever labour protest in Russian history. So, absolute disaster with what is largely considered the Tess Revolution in 1905. So how does Nicholas, if at all, respond to this after the fact? Well, firstly, I want to reiterate here that he did not personally order troops to fire on the crowd. Like, that wasn't his kind of directive or order. And when he found out about this, he did write, quote, "Lord, how painful and sad."

• 21:42Speaker 03

  So I'm not saying in any way, shape or form that he's some kind of murderous Napoleon in the street, shooting people up with cannons. In fact, his diary entry from January 22nd reads, quote, "This is a painful day. There have been serious riots in Petersburg." So he does seem to be genuinely concerned and knew this couldn't go unchecked. So he dismissed the Minister of the Interior, again, just shifting blame, and I'm not even going to attempt to say this guy's name, it's so like fucking long and I'm trying my best with my Russian, but please, just know he was Minister of the Interior. And he did eventually agree to meet delegates of this union at Sarskoisello, who told him of their plight. In response, he said, quote, "The life of a worker is not easy." But then, in that exact same breath, said, "What they did is a criminal act," saying

• 22:27Speaker 03

  they were a, quote, "rebellious mob." So even in this meeting, guys, where these delegates and their friends, like, have been shot and killed, Nicholas expresses just the right amount of polite sympathy, but still insists on pushing his autocratic excellence, which again, reveals the heart of the issue here. Nicholas is incapable of understanding exactly what's going on in his own country. He cannot comprehend what these workers' lives are like and why they were trying to achieve change, which is his great flaw throughout all of this. And he largely, in this instance, dismisses the psychological impact that seeing a bunch

• 23:07Speaker 03

  of soldiers shoot up a crowd of people holding crosses and children and portraits of himself has on the status quo. He kind of just glazes it over. But despite his belief, this would absolutely not be the last of the violence, which we see a few weeks later when Grand Duke Sergey, Nicholas's uncle, and Alexander III's brother, is assassinated with a nitroglycerin bomb by revolutionaries who blamed him for being Nicholas's handler. And to be honest, guys, they're not really wrong here. This is the guy, after all, who urged for a public wedding of the Tsar's arena after the death of Alexander III. He told Nicholas to go ahead to the ball of the French ambassador despite the stampede at Kadinka. I mean, this guy was in charge of Kadinka.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  And passionately battled with reformers such as Sergey White, the finance minister we spoke about in the prior episode, who increasingly argued that if the Tsar made concessions, the revolutionary fervour would die down. Instead, Sergey told Nicky this was a senseless strain, reinforcing Nicholas's belief in autocracy as his father would have wanted, effectively in this process, keeping the ghost of Alexander III on the throne, which many Russians saw as the great problem, calling Nicholas their little father, who was a fundamentally good ruler, but ultimately being misled by these bad overlords. So in removing the biggest of these influences, perhaps they'd give the Tsar the chance to see reason. But guys, they give the Tsar too many chances.

• 24:33Speaker 03

  He's basically the whole, like, essence of the Romanov saga. But this is not how Nicholas and Alexandra saw it. For them, the assassination of Sergey was an act of treason relative to they themselves being blown up. And as a result, paranoia came in thick and fast, which, to be fair here, Nicholas's grandfather had been assassinated and now every other month, one of his right-hand men are also being killed. So there is reason for him to become cautious here. But instead of this being a reason and kind of a wake-up call for him to reevaluate his position and make change, he almost totally loses his grip, spending most of his time away in 1905, not only from St Petersburg, but like, totally out of rule.

• 25:19Speaker 03

  He's playing sports, he's hunting, he's spending time with his family, which only increased discontent within the nation, who are still striking throughout all of this. Eventually, it got so bad that Nicholas was forced to go back to work, where he got a visit from Count White, the finance minister, in October of 1905, who basically at this point just lays it all down the line to Nicholas and says to him, "Mate, you've got to reform and effectively move towards what would be some form of constitutional monarchy, or you appoint a military dictator and assert some control over this situation." Because as far as I see it, and as far as everyone else sees it, this whole thing is heading straight off a cliff.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  And again, White isn't wrong. Initially, Nicholas, to the surprise of absolutely no one here, chose the second path, electing his second cousin, Grand Duke Nikolai, as military dictator, who not only refused him, this is one of my favourite stories, guys, he not only refuses to be a military dictator when Nicholas asks him, but he pulls out a gun and told Nicholas to accept White's plans for reform, or he was going to shoot himself in the head.

• 26:33Speaker 03

  Like, talk about power moves in very appropriate historical moments. This guy, I'm obsessed. This then left Nicholas with no other choice. Again, love it from this guy. And he really has to go in and chat with White and be like, oh, fine, let's reform, and comes up with a plan which became known as the October Manifesto, a body of work which included the establishment of a duma, which was basically an elected parliament of peers without whom no laws could be passed, the loosening of censorship, encouragement of free speech, and basically just your average package for greater civil liberties, a parliament and broader political participation, which Nicholas signed into action on October 7th, 1905, according to the old calendar system.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Which probably at this point leaves you asking, hang on, you've said parliament, you've said elected peers. So does that mean that Russia was a constitutional monarchy for a little bit? Well, yes, but also not really. You see, the 1905 October Manifesto meant that Russia now had three executive branches. You have the Tsar, who is still absolutely head of the government and has the ability to dissolve this parliament, appoint ministers, control foreign affairs, run the military, and ultimately has to approve everything that goes on. Then there was the duma, which was the lower elected house representing sections of the Russian population through an electoral system, which could debate and approve legislation

• 27:59Speaker 03

  and budgets, but could not independently govern Russia without Nicholas. Then you had the State Council, which effectively became the upper house, whose members were half-appointed by Nicholas and half-appointed by institutions and privileged groups such as the nobility, the Orthodox Church, universities and commercial interests. Plus, on top of all of this, you then have the Council of Ministers, who was headed up by Sergey White, which functioned increasingly like a cabinet for Nicholas, whose responsibilities were 100% to him and him.

• 28:32Speaker 04

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• 29:02Speaker 00

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• 29:31Speaker 03

  Alone. Now, this may sound a lot like a constitutional monarchy, à la Britain, for example. But it was not. For while Nicholas could no longer legislate entirely by himself, the government was still loyal to him, not to Parliament. Which, again, we talk about the what-ifs, right? And the moments that change history. If, at this point, after Bloody Sunday in 1905, Nicholas had handed over power, but kept his titles and lands and life in the palace and really acted kind of as King Charles does now, a figurehead, I think we'd maybe still have a Russian Empire today.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  Or at the very least, if the monarchy was all that abolished, they would have kept their lives. Something which, again, like, all in retrospect, so largely unhelpful, but I think is fascinating to chat about because there is a real sense of irony that this is the kind of job Nicholas was made for. He was never a grand political animal with all these aspirations for kind of empire-building, or even Russification like his father. He just did what he was told and believed what his uncle said because that's what he'd always known. So if he'd given over power and remained the kind of, you know, fancy-looking czar with the beautiful young family

• 30:51Speaker 03

  who kept ties with the international community and reflected kind of this great grandness of Russia, history could have been very different. But he didn't. So let's put a pin briefly in the politics and kind of, you know, the state after signing the October Manifesto and turn back for a moment to the imperial family. What's going on with the divas by the end of 1905? Well, first and foremost, Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, aka Otma, as they began to call themselves, are healthy, happy, young children. Split up, as we've mentioned before, into the big pair, with Olga and Tatyana being nine and eight, and the little pair, with Maria and Anastasia being six and four.

• 31:33Speaker 03

  They were, throughout all periods of their life, exceptionally close, sharing rooms, tutors, and making all sorts of mischief for one another, much to the chagrin of young Tatyana, who, if you remember from last episode, was known as the family organizer. Still, it was good for them all to have fun. And despite being grand duchesses of Imperial Russia, they were relatively normal girls. In fact, that was actually Alexandra's exact goal here. For despite all the flourishings and the Faberge and the kind of fanatic furnishings, she was determined not to raise little Marie Antoinette's. And gave the girls a lot of responsibility for their own entertainment, hence the constant play contest between the four of them, and, most importantly here, responsibility over their own space.

• 32:18Speaker 03

  When you think about how grand duchesses, who like are basically princesses, are living, this is not actually how the Romanov daughters lived. Instead, they had a pretty standard day-to-day. As we said, they shared rooms and slept on narrow-style camp beds, which could be moved when the family traveled and as such were notoriously hot. Their clothes too, which we can see in images and film we have available, were often relatively simple garments meant for movement and for recycling, with Maria and Anastasia often wearing Olga and Tatyana's clothes, which is basically just like sister behavior regardless of the century here. Of course, this sense of "ordinary" or "mundanity" is all relative. After all, they were still living in palaces surrounded by servants and security,

• 33:03Speaker 03

  not the children of peasants or workers. But they managed to grow up level-headed and with a spirit of adventure, something they shared with their younger brother. Speaking of whom? What is going on with the young Tsarevich? Has his bleeding stopped? Is he in good spirits? How is everything panning out? Well, thankfully, yes. His bleeding from the belly button did stop with hemophilia causing impaired clotting rather than no clotting altogether. And despite several more bumps and bruising as he began to crawl, Alexei actually became a happy, active and very, very cheeky child. To the point that he had to have multiple handlers who had him under constant supervision,

• 33:46Speaker 03

  including Derivenko, who was a sailor in the Imperial Russian Navy, assigned to the young Tsarevich as a personal attendant to kind of really, you know, watch him as he played and enforce the strict restrictions imposed by his doctors and Alexandra, who was worried constantly over the young boy. This bond between Derivenko and Alexei is seen on multiple occasions, including in this footage here where he is seen carrying an older Alexei, something that was common for the young boy, especially in the midst of a bleed. There was also Nagorni, who we're going to talk a little bit more about on Friday, who was another soldier and attendant that kind of took on increasingly prominent roles within the imperial family as Alexei grew.

• 34:29Speaker 03

  So Alexei's got constant and pretty persistent supervision and pandering, which I'm sure you can imagine frustrated the young boy to no end, who, again, despite his illness, wasn't naturally a kind of sickly or withdrawn child. He was incredibly boisterous, like undoubtedly mischievous and physically adventurous. He loved to climb, he loved to run, he loved to wrestle and chase after his sisters, which meant he needed to be watched. But all the padding and the attendance in the world couldn't save Alexei from his condition. In fact, nothing could, except for perhaps an act of God,

• 35:11Speaker 03

  which is where one Siberian mystic enters the picture. That's right, my divas. You have all been also patient for episodes before we get to talk about Gregori Rasputin. Now, for my diehard hot historians, you've probably already listened to our almost two-hour deep dive on Rasputin himself, which, again, I've linked in the Romanov playlist in the show notes for you guys. But if you haven't seen that, or if you're new here, in which case, hi, love you, don't worry, because we are going to do a rough rundown on everything you need to know. So let's rewind quickly back to January 21st, 1869,

• 35:55Speaker 03

  to the Siberian village of Pokrovsky, where Yefim Rasputin and Anna Parishkova bring a baby boy by the name of Gregori into the world. As a farming family with some administrative roles within the community, the Rasputins lived a relatively standard life for Siberian peasantry, working the land, living in a small farmhouse and attending church, with rural villagers being incredibly orthodox with the church as the real beating heart of the community. As such, Gregori grew up with the teachings of orthodoxy, with his mother always telling him about the miracles of spiritual holy men, whose gifts were derived from God. This, as we're about to find out, guys, was seminal to Rasputin's view of not only the world, but of himself.

• 36:40Speaker 03

  Now, from a young age, he was always a little different, a bit strange, a bit aloof and rather rough around the edges, with local accounts, although the validity of these is largely questionable given literacy rates of the time, suggesting that Rasputin displayed strange and charismatic behavior very early on. Described by his own parents as intense, observant and sometimes prone to emotional or spiritual episodes, Rasputin's mother believed he was blessed with a second sight, thanks to his renowned talents with animals, especially horses, who would calm in his presence as though he was almost communicating with them. His own appearance too fit this bill of second sight, with piercing blue eyes which seemed to bore into his neighbors

• 37:23Speaker 03

  as though he could slightly read their souls or sense wrongdoings. This, of course, most likely comes down to mysticism and later propaganda. But one thing was for certain. The villagers viewed the youthful Rasputin less with awe and more as a devil child to be avoided, which led him down a path of trouble and tricks as he became a heavy drinker, constant cheater, fighter, gambler, and, as it turned out, guys, 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 there for several months, who convinced him to turn to God and change his evil ways. Or, as Rasputin himself put it,

• 38:04Speaker 03

  "He experienced a deep and profound spiritual awakening where he was plagued with different visions." It was here at this monastery that he encountered his spiritual guide, who convinced Rasputin to join the Brotherhood and go on pilgrimage. So, at 28 years old, Rasputin became a wandering holy man, traveling from Athens in Greece to the reaches of the Russian Far East, where he became involved with the kleists, an underground illegal offshoot of the Orthodox Church with no priests or leaders, whose primary belief centered around the idea of sinning to repent, which involved meeting in private locations such as crypts and cellars, where devotees used feverish dancing to work themselves into a frenzy, which they called ecstasy,

• 38:48Speaker 03

  which basically then just resulted in a huge orgy where you would sin in order to repent and be holy again. This suited Rasputin's wild and unbridled zest for trouble and his notoriously large spirit. And he embraced the belief of sinning for salvation enthusiastically throughout his life, including in 1903 when he arrived at the Alexandanovsky monastery in St Petersburg to meet Bishop Theophan, one of the most important religious figures in the Russian orthodoxy. Here, the quote "goat-smelling Siberian mystic" made quite the impression with both Theophan and the aristocratic ladies of Petersburg, who were obsessed with the occult.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  From low-level aunts and uncles of minor titles to members of the imperial family itself, Rasputin became a favorite curiosity for any successful soiree, which is where he met the black princesses, Malitza and Anastasia of Montenegro, who married into the Romanov family and became enamored by Rasputin, insisting on introducing him to the imperial couple, which brings us back up to our original timeline, 1905, where we left with Alexandra believing the only thing that could save her son was an act of God. Now, we already know, at this point, the Romanovs have had experience with holy men, namely Monsieur Philippe, we spoke about last week.

• 40:09Speaker 03

  So, interacting with these religious and spiritual figures isn't uncommon. But after the blowback from the whole kind of Monsieur Philippe phantom pregnancy thing, there was absolutely caution in making the acquaintance of another holy man so soon and so publicly. So, the Black Princesses arranged for Rasputin to meet Nicholas and Alexandra in private at the Peterhof Palace on November 1st, 1905, which Nicholas recorded in his diary saying, quote, "We made the acquaintance of a man of God, Gregori, from Tepolsk province." Looking back retrospectively, guys, this feels so fucking eerie here.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  Because it is such this like, short, sharp, relatively insignificant note, like just made in passing and kind of as a scribble. But it really is something that would go on to change the Romanovs' lives and alter history. But we are getting ahead of ourselves because this was a pretty benign kind of first encounter, after which Rasputin returned to Siberia until July of 1906. So, we're putting a pin in him for about a year. And let's come back to kind of check in with how this new version of the Russian monarchy is going after the October Manifesto and Nicholas's kind of grand promises of parliament and elected officials and working collaboratively,

• 41:33Speaker 03

  which to the surprise of no one, guys, he largely regrets. Yeah, you see, while making preparations to open the First Duma on May 10th, 1906, Nicholas was already trying to backstep on a lot of the things he promised by issuing the fundamental laws of 1906, which confirmed that Nicholas had allowed an elected administration to be formed, but ultimately retained the utmost authority over it, outlining his powers as, and I quote here, "The Emperor of all the Russians who possesses supreme autocratic power." So, you want an example of one step forward, three steps back? Here you are. He's literally about to open this new parliament, but does so by showing how it's basically powerless.

• 42:18Speaker 03

  An event which also coincided with Sergei White leaving Nicholas's service that same spring. Yeah, guys, the great kind of industrialist and the reformer and the one who I think really could have paved the way for Nicholas to continue to rule throughout the 20th century, has had enough. He's had a gutful, okay? He's worked so hard to bring this October Manifesto to life, to coach Nicholas through 1905, through Bloody Sunday, and he's kind of got this Duma that's about to open. And then Nicholas turns around with two big old middle fingers and issues the fundamental laws, which directly combats what he himself had helped put into action.

• 43:02Speaker 03

  It's devastating, like it's really such a spit in the face. And there are a lot of people in this story who, yes, made terrible decisions and hindered and influenced Nicholas and Alexandra very poorly, but there are also a couple of key figures who really tried to set them on the right path. And White is one of them here. A loss that Nicholas, like kind of, you know, spent no time crying over as he never particularly liked or trusted him, especially when Alexandra in particular reaffirmed Nicholas that White was responsible for pushing this October kind of manifesto and directing Nicholas away from his sacred autocratic kind of destiny.

• 43:43Speaker 03

  To make matters worse here, which I fear this whole series is just a big old matter of like, "You think it's bad? Let me pull the lid off this other terrible thing that happened." But it really is the reality. For after this point, White was replaced by the conservative Peter Stolopin as head of the government. So, basically by this point, guys, the Duma and the October Manifesto and the hope for a constitutional monarchy are all but ornamental. And after just 72 days, Nicholas dissolves the Duma. Which, for context, guys, that is how long Kim Kardashian and Chris Humphries were married for.

• 44:25Speaker 03

  So, clearly, a trend of perceived mistakes reaching a breaking point and needing immediate amendment around this 72-day mark, which in Nicholas's case here with the Duma, guys, is pretty fucking ballsy. After all, let us not forget, the whole reason he approved this parliament in the first place was because of the 1905 uprising. So, how did he then know that this decision wouldn't trigger another revolution? Well, the truth is, he didn't. But he couldn't stand the inconvenience and the annoyance of this parliamentary body. Like, I cannot tell you enough how much he disliked the Duma. It was the mosquito in his ear buzzing all night long.

• 45:09Speaker 03

  So, he took a gamble and dissolved it. And in the end, it kind of paid off. For while liberals and reformers were really pissed with around 200 cadets, aka constitutional democrats, calling for Russians to basically revolt and do basic things like refuse to pay taxes or provide military recruits, the truth was, the peasantry and the workers were fucking exhausted. So, no general strike or uprising to the scale of 1905 was launched. And crucially, the army remained sufficiently loyal to the regime. Revolutionaries, however, drew a different lesson from the dissolution of the Duma, with the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries just using this as further evidence

• 45:51Speaker 03

  that Nicholas would never voluntarily reduce his power or threaten his authority, which only upped the stakes for them to take action. As for Nicholas, well, the lack of uprising to this decision made him believe more than ever that he could continue to push his autocratic agenda without backlash. A false sense of security that led him further into his own beliefs, which were encouraged by Stolopin, who was a conservative reformer that fundamentally believed in autocracy, but really, um, kind of had this plan where he wanted to stop revolution by essentially making reforms to the conditions creating it, which included his grand plan, his kind of way that he can see Russia moving forward,

• 46:35Speaker 03

  is transforming Russian agriculture to create a prosperous peasantry who are loyal to the Tsar, which, you know, sounds pretty good. Like, I don't think that that's a bad plan, but it was never going to work on its own because the peasantry weren't strictly the problem here. You had the workers who are all fucked off about their conditions, the tax system which doesn't work, trust in the Tsar is broken by the constant flip-flopping around with the Duma, and revolutionary groups weren't just rebels. They were everyday people fueled by the outdated nature of autocracy. However, instead of seeing these plethora of issues as a symptom of the wider broken autocratic system,

• 47:15Speaker 03

  they see it as a disgruntled peasantry, an angry middle class and radical extremists. And as such, began setting up extraordinary courts with uncapped powers, who were capable of trying people accused of serious revolutionary violence without due process. Something akin kind of in many ways to the Patriot Act in the US, right? Where you can just be detained for kind of periods of time because of national security. So, it's really no wonder by this point, and I want to be clear, I don't think political violence is right and I don't believe what these people believe, but it's no wonder that these radical groups are beginning to grow. Which means, it is finally time for us to talk about communism.

• 47:58Speaker 03

  Now, up until this point, guys, we have talked about Lenin and the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks and their kind of differences. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they believed in communism.

• 48:13Speaker 03

  If you are unfamiliar with this term, I mean, I feel like everybody's heard it, but you're like, "Listen, diva, I don't actually know what the fuck that means." Then do not worry, because you are not alone. And to be totally fair to all involved here, no matter, like regardless of your kind of knowledge stage, communism as a concept and as a theory has been so malignified, right? And transformed into this like Hydra-esque 10-headed beast, which is so difficult to grapple with, it almost feels impossible to understand. So, I'm gonna break it down really, really easily to the point, some of you may be sitting there like eye-rolling because it's way too simplified, but- Communism. According to writer Seth Asriel, which is one of the best descriptions I've seen, is essentially

• 48:56Speaker 03

  the idea that society should be, one, classless, two, have collective ownership over resources, and three, have centralized control over production and distribution. So basically, guys, the opposite of capitalism, where, for example, one man owns a factory, he pays his workers poorly and he profits the cash. Under communism, that factory would be owned by the workers, who would be treated and paid fairly through this collective ownership system, which you may be sitting here thinking, hang on, I thought that was socialism, which is a fair flag to fly here, guys, and you are not entirely wrong, but socialism is a broad family of ideas pushing for collective and

• 49:39Speaker 03

  publicly controlled resources with the aim of reducing economic inequality before anything else. Communism, however, was aimed at eradicating classes primarily, but it all does get kind of confusing because technically communism does fall under socialism, but we're not going to weigh ourselves down in this, and I can absolutely do a deeper dive into all of these differences, which I've always found really fascinating, but for now, let's plug back into communism in the context of 1900s Russia, okay? Which was deeply rooted in the ideas of 19th century German philosopher Karl Marx, who believed that society was capable of reorganizing itself in a way when no one is richer or

• 50:22Speaker 03

  more powerful than anyone else, or, as he put it, "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs." Now, Karl's ideas, including this kind of overarching thesis, were published in the Communist Manifesto in the 1840s, which made its way around intellectual circles all over Europe, including Russia, where the Tsar and his buddies had kind of, you know, most of the nation's wealth, which made it a prime territory for communist thought to take hold. You want an example of what it can be? This is it, right? Which is where Lenin first heard of Marx's teachings, and, as we know, radicalized them through the Bolshevik Party. So we're all kind of following here, right? We get what communism is in theory, how it links to socialism more broadly, how it's

• 51:07Speaker 03

  inspired by Marx, and even why Russia was prime real estate for these teachings to take hold. But the one question I still have, okay? Is this all sounds great, but someone's still got to be in charge, right? Even if we go back to the factory example earlier, I love that the factory is owned by the workers, and I love that they're determined to pay, you know, fairly and have fair treatment, but who's making sure the pay is being made? And who is stepping in if the treatment is not fair? Which really is the million dollar question. And the point, guys, in which communism stops becoming theory and enters the world

• 51:47Speaker 03

  of practice, something far harder to execute while sticking to the values your platform runs on. Now, we'll get in to what actually happens with the revolution and how the communist state formed in the next two episodes, but as far as Lenin's plan was concerned for the revolution to succeed, it needed a disciplined vanguard party, aka the Bolsheviks, to organize and lead it, which was then led by a dictator himself, who would represent the majority to ensure the transition of power and the calming of the waters, after which there would then be a gradual institute towards a genuine communist society. Would that actually happen, though? Well, you'll have to come back on Friday to find out. For now, however, I will be accepting rounds of applause for the crash course on the early

• 52:32Speaker 03

  days of Russian communism, guys. You are welcome. Which lands us at the end of 1906 by this point, and we are going to start kind of lumping some years together, guys, just for the sake of brevity, but by December of 1906, the big headline is that Nicholas has survived the autocratic crisis and held on to power, but barely. For even with the dissolution of the Duma, which he definitely could do, he could not abolish the entire parliamentary system altogether, so he knew he had to institute a second Duma at some point in 1907, which he did in May, where he found a substantial number of socialists and radical deputies elected who demanded major reforms, which Nicholas and Stolopin didn't like.

• 53:17Speaker 03

  So, he dissolved the second Duma as well. Yeah. He also introduced a change at this point in the electoral law, which dramatically increased the political weight of landowners and wealthier voters, which became known as the coup of June 3. This basically then meant, guys, that the people who were on Nicholas and Stolopin's side, aka conservatives, had better chances to get into the Duma, which they did. And so Nicholas opened the third Duma in 18 months, which was considerably easier for him to work with because it's just a big old room of yes men, which, again, guys, I want to continue to harp on here, Nicholas II has so many opportunities to change his tone throughout his rule, okay?

• 54:03Speaker 03

  To look up, to read the room, and simply even follow through on one fucking thing that he said he would do, but he doesn't. He constantly flip flops and is crippled by the idea of losing the power systems his ancestors established, rather than making the necessary concessions to actually sustain rule, even if it is as a figurehead like the Brits. Speaking of which, they do actually pop up around now in 1907, not just as family members, but as political allies, with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Convention in August, which settled major imperial disputes concerning Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, which saw a major reshaping of the diplomatic landscape with France, Russia, and Britain allied to

• 54:47Speaker 03

  one another, which isn't necessarily so significant right now, but it's about to be, so, mental note there. But the big thing to come from 1907, and really the focus, okay, of what we're going to be looking at in the context of the family side of the Romanov enterprise, is the relationship with Rasputin. That's right, guys, all roads do lead back to the Siberian mystic, who had a few other brief meetings with the imperial couple throughout 1906, but the relationship between the family and Rasputin changes the following year, because Alexei is not, well, reportedly falling and injuring his leg. According to a later account attributed to his aunt, Grand Duchess Olga, the bleeding

• 55:28Speaker 03

  was instant and Alexei was left in terrible searing pain as the swelling increased. The imperial doctors swarmed the Alexander Palace and tried their best to bring Alexei relief, giving him all sorts of medicines and salves, but still, there was no change, leading Alexandra into an anxiety-fueled spiral as she spent every waking moment by the young Zarevich's bedside, until she came to the only conclusion which made sense to her. Again, God. We know she is an incredibly religious person who went to lengths to have this boy, you know, kind of blessed to her, we know. She took the water, she's meeting holy men, she's missing her grandmother's funeral,

• 56:08Speaker 03

  and having prayed intensely over the boy, Alex sent word to the Black Princesses for Rasputin to come to the Alexander Palace with haste. Which is significant here, guys, because it marks the first time that Alexei's condition was revealed to the monk, who knew exactly what to do.

• 56:28Speaker 04

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• 57:27Speaker 03

  In this situation.

• 57:30Speaker 03

  He's very dramatic, Rasputin, okay? He knows how to like really lean into character. He would have been a great Broadway actor. Just picture this. Alexei, he's in the corner, right? He's kind of like this bloodied boy and his mother's crying and the Tsar's in the corner trying to look all stoic, but everyone knows he's like freaking out. Rasputin, he walks into the room, right? He's got his long beard, he's got his piercing blue eyes and he's in there. And he stands over Alexei and his weeping mother and goes into this deep, trans-like state, okay? And he's doing all of this praying, he's doing all of this humming and he's kind of saying all these things and his eyes are rolling around and he opens. And he tells the Tsar not to let any other doctors disturb him that evening.

• 58:14Speaker 03

  And if they do this, Alexei will be fine. And so the Tsarevich slept and woke up the next morning to find, guess what? The bleeding had stopped, the swelling had reduced and the pain was all but gone. Instantly, and of course, Nicholas and Alexandra are dumbstruck, believing this truly was a miracle from God. Like I said, Rasputin's an actor, okay? He'd be getting his EGOT, he'd invent some like nasty song and it would go like triple platinum in St Petersburg and probably my household too. So the Romanovs are convinced, yeah? Which Rasputin confirmed, telling them, quote, "He was sent a vision by God who told him Alexei would die if he was not there to heal him."

• 59:00Speaker 03

  And from that moment on, guys, Rasputin became indispensable to the royal couple, which is the next domino to fall. Now, a lot has been said of whether Rasputin was a calm man or a genuine mystic healer. And so much of his appeal, both really at the time and now, lies in the gray between both of these accusations. Okay, I mean, think about it. Is he a mystic or is he a crazy guy? Is he a charlatan who took advantage of a desperate family trying to save their son? Or is this man a vessel for God's power? I personally lean to the former, but the truth is, we don't know, guys. But what we do know is that under his imperial patronage, this man lived it up.

• 59:45Speaker 03

  With almost constant access to both the palaces and the imperial family, Rasputin was granted gifts and an apartment, showered with praise and given the ability to correspond with the imperial children via letters. Plus, guys, most importantly, without which Rasputin could not rise to power, his actions outside the court were totally ignored. And I'm not talking about smoking a little weed or having the occasional tipple, okay, guys? Outside of the Romanov court, outside of the Winter Palace, outside of polite society, Rasputin continued to preach that sinning with him was salvation.

• 1:00:26Speaker 03

  And as such, engaged in drunken psychedelic drug-fueled orgies with a wide range of women. He also gambled, beat women, got into fights with men and by 1909 made enemies of almost everyone except the royal family. Who spent 1908 to 1909 in relative political stability, thanks to Stolopin's combination of repression of radicals and agrarian reform. Plus, as we mentioned, the third Duma's conservative swing, meaning it could actually run without Nicholas dissolving it. To the Tsar at this point, it really seemed autocracy had survived its great crisis. So he does what any man does and takes a bunch of holidays, spending time aboard the Imperial Yacht Standard,

• 1:01:08Speaker 03

  meeting with his uncle, British King Edward VII, and his cousin, George V, where the Anglo-Russian bond continued to solidify. But by 1910, the Tsar was forced to turn his attention to the question of Rasputin. There was no denying, however hard he tried, that Rasputin was actively engaged in illicit behaviour. And after a church inquest found Rasputin visited bathhouses for orgies, many thought this would be a clear-cut case, with Stolopin and other members of the Romanov family wanting Rasputin gone. But still, Nicholas refused to limit the monk's influence or exile him from court. Which, guys, like, again, if you've listened to my Rasputin episode, you will have probably heard this argument before.

• 1:01:52Speaker 03

  But it is so fucked up. Like, god, so many points throughout Nicholas's political life. We go, what the fuck are you doing, right? But this particular element of his family life, to me, is just like the most irresponsible. You are going to let a known sexual predator around your four daughters and your wife and your young son?

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  Like, I just cannot make sense of this. No matter how many times I try and wrap my way around it, I get the Alexei hemophilia thing, I get the Alexandra angle. But I mean, come on, have a backbone. Again, exercise some sense of judgment, which I know Nicholas doesn't have a lot of, but... Jesus, like you'd think with this man's own family, he could pull it together. He doesn't though. But many of the female staff and members of the family do, finding Rasputin's behaviour deeply inappropriate. With the girl's governor, Sofia, sharing her concern with the Tsar upon finding Rasputin in the children's nursery while the girls were in their nightgowns. And while Nicholas asked Rasputin to not visit the children's nursery in the evening, Alexandra found out and swiftly had Rasputin's access reinstated,

• 1:03:04Speaker 03

  which only further fuelled rumours of inappropriate behaviour between Rasputin and the empress, with explicit pornography starting to circulate of the two. And while we have no proof of this relationship, guys, I'm not necessarily saying this happened. This is a man who believes salvation is found through sex and sin. And we know that Alex is in an incredibly vulnerable position, demonstrating her willingness time and time again to do whatever she believed was necessary to save her son. Again, no proof here, I'm not making insinuations, but I do think it would be remiss of me not to mention it. And, and like, if it's easy for us to see, it's not difficult for the Russian people to come to this same conclusion.

• 1:03:49Speaker 03

  It was even shared within the royal family themselves, with Nicholas's sister, Grand Duchess Zhenya, writing on March 5, 1910, that she could not understand, quote, "The attitude of Alex and the children to that sinister Gregori whom they considered to be almost saint. He's always there, goes into the nursery, visiting Olga and Tatyana while they are getting ready for bed, sitting there, talking to them and caressing them. It's all quite unbelievable and beyond understanding." Again, his own sister thinks this and Nicholas still isn't doing anything. Are we okay? Like, I can't with this man, like either of them, Rasputin or Nicholas. Like, fuck, I cannot stand them. Anyway, this sentiment even began leaching into the international community as well.

• 1:04:34Speaker 03

  When in April 1910, Leopold Graf, the Austrian ambassador, wrote to Vienna with news of the growing scandal around Rasputin and the liberal newspaper's speech ran 10 articles about Rasputin, followed by the Zirizin thought. So the Russian people are very aware of what's going on inside palace walls by this point. The key piece of information, of course, missing is that Rasputin is there to heal Alexei. It didn't matter though. It got so intense that Nicholas really did have to do something, ordering Rasputin to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to pray for Tsarevich. He agreed, much to the chagrin of Alexandra, who was certain her son would die without Rasputin nearby. Remember that, like, original prophecy? And he spent about six months travelling through Istanbul and Jerusalem

• 1:05:18Speaker 03

  before returning in June 1911, totally unchanged. Yeah, guys, like, straight away, as soon as he gets back, he's spotted with more sex workers whom he reportedly would take to bathhouses and beat with his belt. So, a real fucking nasty guy who learns nothing and is apparently very hard to get rid of. But the same protections as before would not be afforded to Rasputin because Russia had a change in leadership when Stolopin is assassinated at the Kiev Opera and replaced by a new prime minister called Kokovstov, who absolutely fucking hated Rasputin. Guys, I actually love Kokovstov for this. He goes up to him and he goes, like, literally, point blank, he tells him,

• 1:06:03Speaker 03

  "If you don't leave St Petersburg, I will have you dragged out and banished."

• 1:06:08Speaker 03

  Love that for him, at least someone's looking out for like the children in all of this. So on February 15th, 1912, Rasputin agreed to leave, but not before sending a letter to the Tsar, which read, quote, "My dearest Mama and Papa, how strong the devil is. May he be condemned, and the Duma serves him. There are many revolutionaries there. What do they care? Only to get rid of God's anointed? This is a devil's prank." Apparently, my, um, Rasputin voice is like a 12-year-old girl. Anyway, so in this we gather, Rasputin is a nasty little dibba-dobbler, who, Nicholas, I do think at this point is kind of looking around and going, "Look, I gave you a chance after chance to change, but you didn't.

• 1:06:51Speaker 03

  So, you know, you gotta take your own medicine," which is rich coming from him, I know. Alexandra, on the other hand, is devastated. Again, that ringing of Rasputin's vision from God of Alexei dying if he is not there to heal him is sounding in her ears, and she really becomes even more introspective and even more withdrawn in this period, as were the revolutionaries. That's right, we actually haven't heard much from these divas in a while, and with good reason. For Stolopin's version of the Patriot Act and the establishment of the more conservative Third Duma largely silenced them. However, in April of 1912, they got a surge of new

• 1:07:33Speaker 03

  energy, when about 3,000 gold miners marched out of the Lena River Basin, where a company of soldiers who warned them not to come closer, opened fire, which killed, according to Fiaz, 500 workers, although other sources do place the death toll to around 270. Regardless of the number, the bodies are piled high. The other workers were arrested, and revolutionary fervor sparked anew, with Lenin calling the Lena River massacre "the event which inflamed the masses with revolutionary fire," and he wasn't wrong. Over the next two years, 3 million workers were involved in 9,000 different strikes, marching increasingly under Bolshevik slogans. But, to be honest, Nicholas has far bigger

• 1:08:17Speaker 03

  issues to worry about than this, because now we have reached the Spire incident. Now, some of you guys may have heard of this, some of you may not, and it's totally fine. But at this point, we are in late 1912, and Rasputin had been away from the imperial family for almost over a year, with Alexei having no incidents during that time, which led Alexandra, probably for the first time since she met Rasputin, to consider that perhaps he is a charlatan, right? That this prophecy of Alexei's death without him was a sham. But, when Alexei suffered his most severe internal hemorrhage to date after a minor injury,

• 1:08:57Speaker 03

  the situation quickly became life-threatening, as blood pooled internally in his thigh and abdomen. The eight-year-old was in intense pain, with swelling taking over his lower body and fever keeping him bedridden, where he reportedly cried out in agony for days on end. Right now, it seemed almost certain that Alexei, the heir to the Romanov throne, was going to die.

• 1:09:25Speaker 03

  So when I said Nicholas had bigger issues than kind of small-scale strikes after Lena River, I do mean potentially dynasty-ending issues, which was unimaginable for a Tsar, but also for a father. Alexandra too, of course, was beside herself, crying, unable to sleep, unable to stand, unable to forgive her husband for sending Rasputin away, and so despite his emphatic orders, she wrote to the monk. In return, he replied, telling her to remain calm and trust in God, assuring that Alexei would recover, which, after a while, he did, likely because his own mother was calmed by Rasputin's words, and her son in turn did the same. Or, as modern historians have aptly

• 1:10:09Speaker 03

  pointed out, Rasputin told Alexandra not to let the doctors bother her son, and we know aspirin was prescribed for pain, which is also a blood thinner, so in stopping that, that kind of his blood has a chance to clot again, right? Science, like I said, we're doing double today, hot history, sexy science, and just like basic common sense. There's nothing divine in this predicament, which is the absolute turning point, guys. For now, there would be no rumour, no disgrace, no debauchery or sin so great that it would keep Rasputin away. And as such, Alexandra became almost solely dependent on him, not just for spiritual or medical advice, but for matters of state.

• 1:10:53Speaker 03

  By 1913, other governesses and carers for the children were dismissed as Rasputin continued to visit the family, and now advisers are on political matters, all while still frequently being seen with prostitutes, something that no one can make any sense of. Truly, guys, members of the court, the army, the Duma, and even members of the imperial family itself cannot comprehend why, on God's green earth, Nicholas and Alexandra would have this man back in their lives, and give him even more power. Because let me remind you again, they don't know about Alexei's condition. And so the Romanov's reputation is well and truly

• 1:11:34Speaker 03

  down the toilet at this point, okay? With this debauched looney tune being brought back into the fold, workers' strikes and revolutionary fervor spiking, and the Tsar just generally looking like a big old floppy cock, which is when, in typical Romanov fashion, they decide that what they need to do is throw another party. That's right, because we know for certain that the people just love it when the aristocracy spend big on parties while there's a million tiny fires burning throughout the empire. I mean, do these people literally learn nothing? What's that saying about idiocy, whereas you do the same thing multiple times and expect a different result, then it's like the definition of insanity

• 1:12:18Speaker 03

  or something? Hello, it's literally the entirety of Nicholas II's reign is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Anyway, there's a ball happening, what's this one for? Well, guys, similar to the 1903 ball, this 1913 celebration was for 300 years of Romanov rule, aka the Tursentennery, which began on February 21st, 1913, where a church was built, over 1.5 million jubilee medals were issued alongside stamps, brooches, glasses, Faberge eggs, and mandates that every church and cathedral in town had to host a procession, which concluded with a prayer for many years to Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich. I'm sure that's exactly what people were thinking by this point.

• 1:13:04Speaker 03

  The day also had a 21 cannon salute, 4,000 guests who attended a religious ceremony and a grand procession, where the imperial family travelled from the Winter Palace in carriages and horses to take part in a prayer service, and the Tsar also wanted to make sure, I guess kind of having learned from the coronation disaster, that he could give back to the people, and as such ordered that all civil debts be pardoned, including the serf-reparation debts, which he celebrated by hosting a dinner, where the royals ate off golden plates while dancing, drinking, singing, and even hosting comedians took place, with Princess Olga saying it was "one of the funniest nights of her life." The family were keen to take the celebrations on the road as well, going on a tour of Russian

• 1:13:49Speaker 03

  regions, including the ancient towns of Novgorod and Muscovy, which were associated with the foundation of the dynasty as we spoke about in part one. They also travelled on luxury steamships along the Volga River to Moscow on May 25th, 1913, the site of the first Romanov crowning, where they were greeted by all sorts of dignitaries and large crowds who gathered to see their Tsar. For while revolutionary fervor was absolutely gathering, guys, we know the Russians love a party, which Fiaz said was yet another, quote, "round of pageantry and gastronomy," showing that the Romanovs, as always, partied like the world was going to end, something which it almost did, because come 1914, the clouds

• 1:14:32Speaker 03

  of war are covering the earth, as Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is shot and killed in Sarajevo on the 28th of June, 1914. A month later, Austria-Hungary, backed up by Germany, declared war on Serbia, who was backed up by Russia, which was awkward, guys, because Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Zaniklas II of Russia were second cousins. More than that, though, they were also exceptional friends, attending each other's weddings and partying with Queen Victoria and the British royals, who also wound up in the fight allied with Russia. Oh, and Willy, as he was known, was also Alexandra's first cousin, with both of their mothers being Queen

• 1:15:12Speaker 03

  Victoria's two eldest daughters. So this, safe to say, guys, is a serious family feud on the horizon, one which the pair tried to avoid in the days following Franz Ferdinand's assassination, writing what historians call "the Willy-Nicky letters." In these, Nicholas wrote to the Kaiser, quote, "I beg you in the name of our old friendship to do what you can to stop your allies from going to war." Willy came back, asking the same thing, neither budging on his stance nor totally threatening war. But given Russia's alliance with Serbia, Nicholas ordered the partial mobilisation of his troops on July 28th, 1914, writing again with haste to the Kaiser at 1 o'clock the next morning, saying,

• 1:15:53Speaker 03

  quote, "In this serious moment, I appeal to you to help me. I foresee that very soon I shall be overwhelmed by the pressure forced upon me and be forced to take extreme measures, which will lead to war." So very explicit here at this point from the Tsar, who was staring down the barrel of a conflict that no one at the time would expect to be so brutal, so bloody, and so history-altering as World War I. But that's exactly what happened, with Nicholas calling for the general mobilisation of the Russian army on the 31st of July, and the Kaiser following suit the next day, plunging Europe and soon the world into war. Something which,

• 1:16:39Speaker 03

  for literally any rational person listening, seems impossible to comprehend that Nicholas would be dealing with a rise in revolutionary fervour and mass content within his country, gossip and whispers about Rasputin within his own palaces, and then massive, like industrial level, foreign conflict within Europe.

• 1:16:59Speaker 03

  Like even the most talented statesman would find this almost impossible to manage, something Nicholas, clearly as we've seen, is certainly not. So he's really in a pickle here, which perhaps leaves you asking, and again, guys, rightfully so, why did he even go to war anyway? And it's a good question, and one which is fundamental to understand the fall of the Romanovs, because World War One essentially created the perfect conditions for the all-out revolution we are gonna see on Friday. So firstly, guys, the key thing to really understand is that Nicholas is actually in between a rock and a hard place with this decision to go to war. Okay? It wasn't something he just went running into like with the Russo-Japanese War for

• 1:17:40Speaker 03

  a quick win and a bit of glory, but rather he entered into it as part of a wider signed alliance programme. Fies speaks on this, saying that if he went to war, he ran the risk of defeat and revolution, but if he didn't, it may have resulted in complete loss of political control within Europe. So he is kind of backed into making this decision, which in the early days, the Russian population seemed to get behind. Workers stopped striking and even socialist movements paused for the benefit of Mother Russia, as millions of men answered the call, drawing both active soldiers and reservists into action, with estimates today putting Russia's mobilisation efforts in World War

• 1:18:20Speaker 03

  One at roughly fifteen million men, which is pretty fucking wild, guys. And did in the early months breed this strong sense of patriotism and unity. But eventually, the impact of calling millions of working-age men out of villages and agriculture took its effect, as production slowed down, rural farming and family life came to a halt, and ultimately, a lot of these conscripted men were killed quickly.

• 1:18:49Speaker 04

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  With their limited skills. Resources also became an issue, not just on the home front, but in the war itself. Having such a huge population you can mobilise really means nothing if you can't supply them with arms, food, clothing, and whatever other supplies they may need to go to war, which FYI, was being made by factory workers who were also being conscripted. And while this did improve significantly later on, when women, okay, divas, stepped into key roles, the early failures badly damaged confidence in the government. But there was one force, okay, despite these difficulties which bonded the Russian people

• 1:20:31Speaker 03

  together, and that was a passionate dislike for the Germans. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all of the Russian population began to turn against anyone and anything German, smashing windows of German shops and attacking the German embassy. With things getting so bad that, according to Fies, some Germans in the country even changed their names to sound more Russian. But one person whose name had already been changed and whose German heritage no one could hide was Alexandra, whose reputation, thanks to Rasputin and her largely hiding away after the birth of Alexei, was already poor amongst the people, but her lineage just increased their disdain tenfold.

• 1:21:15Speaker 03

  But still, everyone was on the side of Russia, which meant everyone wanted the Tsar to succeed. And in the early stages of the war, that happened, with their first major win on the southwestern front, when the Russians broke through in Grecia, forcing the Austrians into retreat. But the reality is, guys, no one was winning in the Great War. For even though ground was gained and the odd battle may have been won, the death toll was enormous. Hundreds of thousands of men were killed and many more maimed. Corporals, captains, and generals were committing suicide over the scenes they'd witnessed, including Russian General Samsonov.

• 1:21:56Speaker 03

  And despite having a massive population, who in theory could replenish the fallen Russian forces, in the end, it turned out only about five percent of the Russian population was able to be mobilised for military service. Eventually, the blood and the gore and the lack of resources ate away at any patriotic stance, both in Russia and at the front, with an agent who served in the rear garrisons recalling the Russian peasant soldiers, saying, quote, "What devil has brought this war on us?". The answer to which was Zanikola II, whose next move, really, guys, in my opinion, is the most important domino to fall in this whole saga.

• 1:22:39Speaker 03

  The one decision, the one action, the one event which sent the Romanovs over the edge. And that was when, after a year of fighting, Nicholas decided to take over as commander-in-chief of the Russian Imperial Army.

• 1:22:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, guys, you see, despite having a big fat donut for military wins, in fact, he'd had a loss with the Russo-Japanese War and no real experience or aptitude for military strategy, the Tsar thought it would be a really good idea for him to dismiss Grand Duke Nikolai, who had been commanding the army and generally was well-liked, and take over himself.

• 1:23:18Speaker 03

  Which probably has you asking, certainly has me asking, guys, why the fuck would you volunteer for that job?

• 1:23:26Speaker 03

  Like, of all of the jobs available in the war effort, that's a suicide mission. After all, by this point, soldiers were reportedly cutting off their own fingers to get themselves discharged, and you're absolutely right in thinking this is stupid, because it is. But again, like, this should be no surprise at this point, we're talking about Nicholas. This man is delusional and fundamentally believes that his presence would raise morale, which it very well may have, but you've still gotta do the job of leading the army at the end of the day, which Alexei Brusilov, a Russian general, said, quote, "Everyone knew that Nicholas understood next to nothing about military matters, but he couldn't be told.

• 1:24:09Speaker 03

  So Nicholas took command, closed the Duma, and headed out to work his imperial magic on the soldiers, which, let's just say, my divas, he was no Marilyn Monroe in Vietnam. What he found was a cold and angry force now looking to him for direction, which he didn't know how to give, leaving the army and the war effort in a terrible position, while the throne back in St Petersburg was ruled by his wife." That's right, guys, the woman with no experience in actually ruling, who was riddled with a nervous disposition, is in the clutches of Rasputin and rightfully so, spent every waking hour worrying about her children, was now leading Russia.

• 1:24:50Speaker 03

  Oh, and just like cherry on the top here, she's German, so everyone fucking hates her twice as much, with soldiers on the battlefield being told stories of the German spy sitting in the Winter Palace, which Fies writes was "the vital psychological moment of the revolution", when their loyalty to the monarchy finally snapped. And I don't blame them, guys, because this really was a total betrayal of what they've ever been told. It's just, like, all terribly, incandescently, monumentally fucked. You know, I do, in many ways, of course, and I've brought them up throughout this and tried to have discourse about it, I do feel sorry for Alexandra in this whole saga.

• 1:25:32Speaker 03

  After all, guys, she is a young, naive woman who is plucked from her homeland with the pressures of a three-hundred-year-old dynasty on her shoulders, but by this point, she can't use any of that as an excuse. I'm sorry, you are the Tsarina. You are a woman who has lived in this country for near on twenty years, has had five Romanov children, and at the end of the day, like, I don't, I don't care how much anxiety you have and how nervous you are, it's your job to know the people's will. Like, again, I'm happy to give concessions in, like, the early years, especially for

• 1:26:12Speaker 03

  her, because she isn't a ruler like Nicholas, but by this point, there is just no defending what she does, even if she never should have been doing it because her husband should have been ruling rather than playing toy soldiers. But there she is, and my, my, my, does she fuck it up. Firstly, Alex had a substantial amount of power in her selection of ministers, which, between September of nineteen fifteen, guys, take note of this, September nineteen fifteen and February nineteen seventeen, the nation had four prime ministers, five ministers of the interior, three foreign ministers, three war ministers, three ministers of transport,

• 1:26:56Speaker 03

  and four ministers of agriculture, because Alex and Rasputin kept dismissing and reappointing them, something which many historians believe was intentional to prevent any one person from gaining enough power. Although there are other schools of thought that believe she intentionally chose the dumbest and least qualified people to take the blame for the failures. In reality, though, guys, it's probably a mix of all of these, but largely not a scheme of her own creation, and rather that of Rasputin's. Yeah, like a bad, bad bout of gout Rasputin cannot be rid of. With Nicholas away, he became Alexandra's almost sole confidant, giving her instruction on which ministers to pick, what bodies to dissolve,

• 1:27:38Speaker 03

  and most importantly, what to say back to the Tsar, who still expected reports from his wife on the state of the nation. This relationship, as you can imagine, did not help her PR, with people growing increasingly crude and violent in their betrayal of the Empress, who, like many of the divas we cover here at Hot History, was a victim of intense slut shaming, as pornography of her with Rasputin and her lady-in-waiting, Anna Virebova, circulated. This fed the masses. And soon, the German-born Alex and mad monk Rasputin became the perfect targets for growing revolutionary feelings, with many believing that if they could get rid of one of them, perhaps Russia could be saved. But who, and how, and when?

• 1:28:23Speaker 03

  Well, for that, you're gonna have to tune in on Friday, guys, where we will be back with the war effort in its final years, the Romanovs in a bout of sickness and grief, revolutionary fervour well and truly bubbling up, and, most importantly, a plot to murder in the works. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History, guys. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this massive episode today. I know it's a lot. We are absolutely past halfway now, and the fall of the Romanovs is all but certain as they go down the slippery slope towards one place: the end, which is what we're gonna cover on Friday. So make sure to come back for that, guys. If you do want some more Hot History before then, though,

• 1:29:05Speaker 03

  you can follow us on Instagram and Substack at Hot History Club and on YouTube and TikTok at Hot.History. As always, guys, it has been a pleasure getting down the journey in time with you, and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

• 1:29:24Speaker 03

  This episode of Hot History was recorded on Derekland. Always was, always will be. Aboriginal.

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