Rasputin's Importance To History, Part 6

Slightly edited and updated with a Word History October 17, 2014

With the Tsar gone from the capital for long periods of time, the Tsarina took over the day-to-day governance of the country. She read reports, was briefed by ministers* of the various departments of the government, signed official papers, etc. All the while she and her daughters continued to nurse wounded soldiers at their palace on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. As I mentioned earlier, Alexandra earned the dislike of many in high society by her choice to associate with, and count as friends, people who were only minimally connected to the Russian nobility. Two of her closest friends were Anna Vyrubova and Lili Dehn. Vyrubova literally had a house on the Romanov grounds. She was a close friend and supporter of Rasputin, who frequented her house, as well as the palace, and Vyrubova often set up the meetings between the Tsarina (and including at times, the Tsar) and Rasputin at her house.** One rumor that spread among the public was that Rasputin also had sexual relations with Vyrubova, while another rumor had the Tsarina and Vyrubova in a lesbian relationship, while still another rumor had the two women being ravaged by Rasputin. It should be noted that there has never been any evidence of any of these rumors being true. For one thing, Alexandra was surrounded by the various people who tended to her and who took care of the palace. For her to have a sexual affair or affairs with either Rasputin or Vyrubova, or both, seems highly unlikely. Besides, her fanatic religiosity would no doubt have preempted any such relations. From all that is known and that was testified to by Alexandra's many attendants, she deeply loved Nicholas.*** The point, however, was that as the rumors continued to mount that Alexandra was in league with her cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm, and these added rumors of infidelity and her continued association with Rasputin, only solidified public hatred of her.

Then came the dizzying dismissal of ministers and other officials from the government. How much Rasputin actually had to do with all of this is a matter still debated by historians, but there's no question that he at least granted his blessing to many of the dismissals when Alexandra pressed her husband for the Tsar's official approval, as only the Tsar could actually agree to these changes in the government. It is also likely that Rasputin instigated at least some of the dismissals, as his mere dropping of a name to the Tsarina of some official disliking him would have gotten her immediate attention, and the likely action of her contacting Nicholas to get him to think of replacing that official. More rumors circulated in the public that Rasputin had drugged the Tsar and that Rasputin and Alexandra were totally running the country. To be fair to the Russian public, while there was a certain degree of freedom of the press, it was very limited by western democratic standards, so they didn't have access to much first-hand information. In a system with so much power vested in the Tsar, it was not seen as appropriate that the Tsar (or the Tsarina, for that matter) should have to make public statements to counter the rumors. It was considered to be beneath them. The rumors continued to swirl.

Many of the dismissed officials were known to be hostile to Rasputin. Again, whether Rasputin proposed to the Tsarina that they should be dismissed is certainly possible. It is also possible that the Tsarina herself took matters into her own hands, and chose to try to rid the government of any anti-Rasputin officials in an effort to protect the man who "kept her son alive." Several of the replacements were pro-Rasputin, especially later the powerful Minister of the Interior, Alexander Protopopov, who controlled the police, and whose very sanity was questioned by some in the Duma (the Russian parliament). At any rate, by 1916, the country was spiraling downward, as the war grew more and more unpopular, food prices continued to rise, and the rail transportation system began to grind to a halt, thus limiting the amount of food and other products getting into the cities. War weariness and hunger can be a powerful force. More and more the public talked about the need to rid the country of Grigory Rasputin.

To be continued in "Part Seven" ....

* In the U.S., we call Federal department heads "secretaries," as in the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of State. In Europe, government department heads are called "ministers," but the term has nothing directly to do with what we Americans think of as a "minister;" that is, a religious official heading a church congregation, such as the "minister of the First Baptist Church."

** The public reaction to the scandal stories and Rasputin's reported visits to the Romanov palace became so intense, the Tsarina, sometimes accompanied by the Tsar, chose often to meet with Rasputin at Vyrubova's home, which was just a few hundred feet from their palace.

*** A further rumor among some in the public was that Rasputin molested the Tsar's daughters, but again there seems to be no evidence of any such behavior. The children liked him, and he visited fairly often, but it was in the palace, where the children too were surrounded by caretakers and servants. Accounts note that Rasputin was careful to be sober when he visited the palace, and while his judgment may not have always been good, he would have risked his whole lifestyle with any misbehavior, let alone any advances to the by then teenage Romanov daughters. I have to say once again though, it was not whether the stories were true or false, but rather the public belief in many of these stories that hurt.

WORD HISTORY:
Bribe-The origins of this word are uncertain and it its meaning has changed a good deal from its earliest known appearance, but not necessarily illogically so. It first appears as a verb in Old French as "briber," meaning "to beg." and as a noun as "bribe," meaning "a piece of bread" ("seemingly," from the notion of "bread given to a beggar"), but where French got the word is unclear. The noun form then extended that meaning to "anything given to beggars, alms, charity,'' but then came to be applied to the act of begging for charity itself; thus "begging, living from begging." The verb form seems to have gradually changed meaning from just "beg," to "steal," which then led the noun in the same direction and the meanings "stolen goods, robbery, theft." English borrowed both the noun and verb during the 1300s with the "steal" and "theft" meanings, respectively. Gradually the meaning of "extort" (noun, "extortion") began to develop, and by the 1500s it began to often be used in reference to judges or magistrates "asking (there's the begging notion) for money or other valuables to get a favorable ruling or verdict (there's the steal, extort idea)." The meaning has since broadened to include the act of anyone asking for money or goods to obtain special treatment.