Grigory Efimovich Rasputin--drinker, thief, womanizer--arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past . . . tattered, black-clad, muttering. By the time of his sensational murder thirteen years later, the peasant was the "beloved Friend" of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, with a seemingly supernatural power to stop the bleeding attacks of their hemophiliac son, Alexis. How could it have happened? As on society lady of the time asked, "How could so pitiful a wretch throw so vast a shadow?"Drawing on confidential police reports, cabinet meeting memos, and many documents...
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin--drinker, thief, womanizer--arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past . . . tattered, black-clad, mutt...
