Rasputin (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780752452425)

Accessible and authoritative, this biography covers the truth behind the shadowy figure of Gregory Rasputin. Rasputin features in Russian history as a malign and destructive force, a man with an unhealthy influence on the Empress Alexandra and undue power in Russian politics. Yet his purposes were ostensibly beneficent. An uneducated peasant, he left Siberia to become a wandering "holy man" and soon acquired a reputation as a healer. The empress was desperate to find a cure for hemophilia from which her son Alexei suffered, and in 1905 Rasputin was presented at court. His positive effect on the heir's health made him indispensible. But his religious teachings were unorthodox, and his charismatic presence aroused in many ladies of the St. Petersburg aristocracy an exalted response, which he exploited sexually. Shady financial dealings added to the atmosphere of debauchery and scandal, and he was also seen as a political threat when he was assassinated in 1916.

Author: Harold Shukman
ISBN-10: 0752452428
ISBN-13: 9780752452425
Publisher: History Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2009
Pages: 128
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.36lbs
Size: 7.78h x 5.28w x 0.40d