Rasputin's Importance To History, Part 3

Slightly edited and updated with a Word History October 16, 2014

One of the difficult things about Rasputin's life is trying to sort out fact from fiction. He was not a monk, as many have referred to him, nor was he any true official of the Russian Orthodox Church, nor was he in later life any kind of official in the Russian government. Rasputin derived any power he had, real or perceived, by his association with the Imperial couple, especially Alexandra, and then by way of her influence with her husband. Since he was not in any official capacity, there are scant records on him. The records available come from people who knew him, or who were associated with him at one time or another, or from police surveillance records.

One of his daughters wrote a couple of books about him, and the problem here is one of credibility, as she naturally defended her father (it does seem that Rasputin was seen by his children as a good father). His daughter tried mightily to fend off all of the negative stories about her father by saying that there was a plot by many in the Russian government, in Russian high society, and in the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy to discredit her father because he was close to the Tsar and Tsarina. Now, there's undoubtedly some truth in this, as many in Russian high society were jealous of the fact that Rasputin was a frequent visitor to the Tsar's palaces (especially at Tsarkoe Selo, which was in what we'd call today, "suburban" St. Petersburg, which was the Russian capitol). Further, officials in the Orthodox Church clashed with Rasputin at various times during his life, and I'm sure his daughter felt they wanted to "get even" with her father. Likewise, Russian government officials feared for their positions because of Rasputin, and his daughter tried to explain away their opposition to Rasputin for this reason. Again, all of these things probably have "some truth" to them, but they don't explain all of the scandalous stories about Rasputin. Another thing to remember is, by most accounts, when Rasputin was around the Imperial family, he was on his best behavior, and undoubtedly his own children did not see the Rasputin that was written about in the newspapers. For the most part, his family remained in western Siberia while he was off for long periods in St. Petersburg and elsewhere. From a historical point of view we'd like to know what was true about Rasputin, but also a part of that historical truth is the fact that the actual truth about him in those times in Russia didn't matter, rather it was what people THOUGHT was true that mattered, and many Russians believed the scandal stories, which led them to speculate that he slept with the Tsarina, molested her children, and drugged or hypnotized the Tsar.

The Tsar held absolute power until the autumn of 1905. A revolution had broken out during 1905 and continued into 1906. While it didn't succeed, and it was not really a truly nationwide revolution,* it was serious enough that the Tsar felt forced to sign a basic constitution (in this case called a "manifesto"), thus making the monarchy a constitutional monarchy, but only of sorts, as Nicholas began to try to take back or circumvent some of the rights he had granted. Part of that "constitution" granted a degree of freedom of the press. As Rasputin grew ever closer to the Tsarina, and to some extent, the Tsar, the newspapers began to print more and more stories about this Siberian peasant** who made frequent appearances at the Tsar's palaces. The stories began to really get the public's attention and the newspapers found that running stories about Rasputin was a profitable venture, as the public couldn't get enough about him.

More in "Part Four" ...

* During this revolution, the army remained loyal to the government, while elements, but certainly not all, of the navy rebelled, as did parts of the peasantry. Much of the violence took place in the countryside or at naval ports, thus I said that it was not truly a nationwide revolt, but the Tsar and his family remained pretty much confined to their palace just outside the capital for security reasons. Just a note, as this event naturally remained in Nicholas's mind throughout his life: as a young teenager, Nicholas had witnessed the death of his grandfather, Tsar Alexander II, who was assassinated by revolutionaries. One threw a bomb at the Alexander's carriage which killed one of his guards, and wounded the driver. Alexander made the fatal mistake of leaving the carriage (which had a certain amount of metal plating for protection) to see the wounded guard. Another bomb was thrown, which landed right at his feet. One of his legs was blown off and the other almost so, along with other serious injuries, but he remained alive, and he ordered that he be carried into his palace, where he later died with his young grandson present.

** Rasputin was actually his family name. His given name was "Gregory/Grigory," or "Grigorii," in the non-Cyrillic Russian version. Russian peasants had something of a society of their own, with a segment of the peasantry literally being "dirt poor," many living in huts, but another, smaller segment, being a bit better off, with better housing and more possessions. Rasputin's family belonged more with the latter group, having a decent house and more personal possessions.

WORD HISTORY:
Borscht-This word for a common Eastern European derived soup, most often made in modern times from beets, goes back to Indo European "bharsh," which had the notion "sharp pointed." This gave Old Slavic "borsh(ch)," which was used for the name of a common plant with "bristles," a plant whose root was a type of "parsnip." This gave Ukrainian, a Slavic language, "borshch," with the same meaning, and later the name for a type of soup which used that particular parsnip as the main ingredient. Yiddish^ borrowed the word as "borscht/borsht," and it was borrowed by American English in the 1880s, when Jewish immigration from the old Russian Empire (which included modern Ukraine and much of Poland) to America increased significantly.

^ There came to be a significant Jewish population in what are today western Ukraine, eastern Poland, and Lithuania, all once part of the Russian Empire. Yiddish developed about 1000 A.D. among German Jews living in the Rhineland area from some High German dialects back then. It also used Hebrew, and, over time, spread throughout Europe's Jewish communities, incorporating some vocabulary from several Slavic languages/dialects in eastern Europe. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet, but it is classified as one of the Germanic languages, as its base is dialectal German, thus making it a close relative of English.