2011 Books – The Rasputin File

The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky is an interesting read. Radzinsky who’s a famous playwright in Russia was able to get access to files that up to then had been sealed since the revolution and murder of Tsar Nicholas II. The “File” contains testimonies of people who had been questioned after the death of the royal family. It doesn’t contain all of them – since many had been destroyed, but there’s enough there to give a broader picture of the mystery man, Rasputin.

Radzinsky was also able to interview people who had been alive during that upheaval and had access to other private diaries that most people hadn’t yet been able to see.

We learn a lot about Rasputin, but we also learn a lot about Anna Vyrubova, the maid of honor to Empress Alexandra. In most of the other works I’ve read on the royal family, Anna always came off as being this dimwitted, love sick woman (in love with the Tsar), and utterly loyal to the Empress.

But through diaries, interviews and the File, we learn that Anna wasn’t so stupid. She was quite manipulative and very instrumental in making sure Rasputin was never out of favor with the Empress. In return, she was well paid by Rasputin (allegedly).

Radzinsky makes a lot of suppositions throughout the book, but he does divulge a lot of information contained in the File that seems to back him up. Some, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt. For example, he will say how Person A is a lying, untrustworthy person, but then uses that person’s testimony to back up one of his suppositions. So you have to wade through a lot and believe what you will.

The most fascinating part of the book revolves around how Rasputin dies. Legend has it that he had been given so much poison in pastries and in his wine, it should have been enough to kill an elephant. He had also been shot several times. And he was still alive when they dumped him into the icy river. The official autopsy report states that his cause of death was by drowning.

That’s the myth (minus the autopsy report, which is true). But here’s some of the pieces that Radzinsky puts together.

One – Rasputin never ate sweets. Even when he was utterly drunk, he never touched sweets or meat. This was backed up by followers of Rasputin’s as well as his family.

Two – the wine was most likely poisoned and Rasputin was a heavy drinker, but it seems most likely that the poison was so diluted, it wouldn’t have been enough to kill him.

Three – Rasputin was shot (there are pictures in the book of Rasputin’s body when he was pulled out of the river and you can clearly see the bullet wounds), but all of that (who shot him and when) is pieced together by examining testimonies of those who had been there, the police reports and neighbors.

Most likely the “myth” of what happened was created to make Rasputin seem more evil than he was and that it took all of these measures to kill the demon. Still pretty interesting stuff.

Another interesting thing is that early on, Rasputin was truly believed to be a holy man. There are testimonies by people who had been children at the time, of seeing him standing for hours in a field and praying. Of his generosity to others (it’s believed that hundreds of thousands of “dollars” was given to him yearly but he gave most of the money away to anyone who asked).

Then as situations changed, he began drinking – and drinking heavily. But everyone that was interviewed says that no matter how drunk he was, if he got a call from the royal family that he was needed immediately, he’d be completely sober by the time he got to the palace.

There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding him, but Radzinsky does blow away some of the fog. It’s a good book if you’re into the topic, but you do have to be wary of how Radzinsky uses testimonies to back his arguments. And you also will find out, rather quickly, that he pretty much hated the Empress and more or less blames her for the downfall of the dynasty. But I’m sure that’s all related in his other book, “The Last Tsar”… which I may read at some point down the line.