Rasputin and the Last Czar (Part II)

  Recap;  Europe is embroiled in a devastating world war, Russia is suffering great loss, Czar Nicholas II has gone to the war front to rally his troops, he has left his wife (Alexandra) in charge of the government, and her personal advisor is a corrupt, illiterate priest who has no government experience.  What could go wrong?

      Only this.

     The combination of Nicholas’s military decisions at the front, Alexandra’s lack of government experience, and Rasputin’s influence as a key advisor led to major economic problems back home and devastating losses in the war.  Those within the Romanov family circle blamed Rasputin for most of the issues, and despite a number of unsuccessful attempts on the Mad Monk’s life (one by a disfigured prostitute who nearly stabbed him to death), knew that they would have to do the job themselves.  The planning came down to a prince named Feliks Yusupov.  

      Yusupov, and some other dukes related to the czar, invited Rasputin to a dinner at his house.  According to legend, they offered him a number of tea cakes and glasses of wine, each laced with enough cyanide to kill a man.  The night grew increasingly awkward as the poison apparently had no effect.  The men grew restless, to the point that they decided to shoot Rasputin and finish the deal.  After shooting him several times, Rasputin apparently lay on the floor, still breathing, eventually getting up and making a run for it.  The assailants chased after him, desperately catching him, binding him, and throwing him off a bridge into the frozen Neva River, where he either froze to death or drowned.

       Not to be Captain Buzzkill, but there have obviously been some who questioned the accounts given by Yusupov about the assassination.  Time magazine reported that the autopsy did not show any poison in Rasputin’s system, and that he was dead from one bullet to the head long before he was thrown in the river.  You make the call.

       This would not be the end of Rasputin’s story.  According to newworldencyclopedia.org, Rasputin wrote a letter just weeks before his death and left it with his secretary.  It ran through a number of scenarios where, if he died, Nicholas and his family would not be held responsible.  But, the letter ended with, “ If it was your relations who have wrought my death, then no one in the family, that is to say, none of your children or relations, will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people.”  The prophecy proved to be true.

      In March of 1917, a food riot by the citizens of Russia was joined by the soldiers sent to quell it, leading Nicholas to abdicate the throne, and putting the family under house arrest in the palace. Germany, anxious to get Russia to drop out of the war so they could focus back on the west against France and Great Britain, sent an exiled Russian revolutionary named Vladimir Lenin back to St. Petersburg.  This had the political effect of throwing a political Molotov cocktail into a fireworks factory.  The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and a young Josef Stalin, took over the Russian government by force in the October Revolution, also in 1917.  This created a civil war between the Bolsheviks (Reds) and pretty much everyone else (Whites).  It also led to Germany’s wish of a quick Russian exit from the war.

      The royal family continued to he held hostage, but were moved to a more remote location.  Knowing that as long as there was one member of the royal family still alive that they could lay claim to the throne, the Bolsheviks were anxious to kill each and every one of them, but held onto them to keep the Whites at bay.  When the Whites started closing in on the town of Yekaterinburg, where the family was held, the Bolsheviks rushed the royal family to the basement for what they claimed would be a quick picture for proof of life.  Instead, armed men burst into the room and gunned down and/or stabbed the entire family.  

     The events surrounding the deaths of the royal family have been the subject of many movies, books, and even songs.  The Rolling Stones even made reference to the deaths in their history laden Sympathy for the Devil, where Mick sings, “I killed the czar and his ministers.  Anastasia screamed in vain.”

     The bodies were buried in the Ural Mountains, where they would not be found until 1991.  The problem was that Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of the children were accounted for, but two of the children were not.  This helped fuel the rumors of the escape of Anastasia, which even led to a (not great) Disney movie.  Positive DNA tests on the found bodies proved the authenticity of their being the royal family, but two were still missing.

      In 2007, two more bodies were found, and bone fragments were sent to our local UMass Memorial Health Center to be positively verified.  According to CBS.com, in 2008, the DNA analysis proved that Alexei and one of his sisters had finally been found, and could finally be put to rest, along with the tragic story of Rasputin and the Last Czar.