1
00:00:07,107 --> 00:00:10,247
On a cold winter night in 1916,

2
00:00:10,247 --> 00:00:15,016
Felix Yusupov anxiously prepared 
to pick up his dinner guest.

3
00:00:15,016 --> 00:00:19,046
If all went as planned, 
his guest would be dead by morning,

4
00:00:19,046 --> 00:00:24,306
though four others had already tried
and failed to finish him off.

5
00:00:24,306 --> 00:00:27,476
The Russian monarchy 
was on the brink of collapse,

6
00:00:27,476 --> 00:00:30,335
and to Yusupov 
and his fellow aristocrats,

7
00:00:30,335 --> 00:00:35,118
the holy man they’d invited to dinner 
was the single cause of it all.

8
00:00:35,118 --> 00:00:36,438
But who was he,

9
00:00:36,438 --> 00:00:41,945
and how could a single monk 
be to blame for the fate of an empire?

10
00:00:41,945 --> 00:00:46,370
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin 
began his life in Siberia,

11
00:00:46,370 --> 00:00:49,730
born in 1869 to a peasant family.

12
00:00:49,730 --> 00:00:53,445
He might have lived a life of obscurity 
in his small village,

13
00:00:53,445 --> 00:00:56,877
if not for his conversion 
to the Russian Orthodox Church

14
00:00:56,877 --> 00:00:58,687
in the 1890s.

15
00:00:58,687 --> 00:01:01,797
Inspired by the humbled monks 
that wandered endlessly

16
00:01:01,797 --> 00:01:03,988
from holy site to holy site,

17
00:01:03,988 --> 00:01:08,076
he spent years on pilgrimages 
across Russia.

18
00:01:08,076 --> 00:01:13,466
On his travels, strangers were captivated 
by Rasputin’s magnetic presence.

19
00:01:13,466 --> 00:01:18,658
Some even believed he had mystical gifts 
of prediction and healing.

20
00:01:18,658 --> 00:01:23,208
Despite Rasputin’s heavy drinking, 
petty theft, and promiscuity,

21
00:01:23,208 --> 00:01:27,409
his reputation as a monk 
quickly spread beyond Siberia

22
00:01:27,409 --> 00:01:32,305
and attracted both laypeople 
and powerful Orthodox clergymen.

23
00:01:32,305 --> 00:01:35,285
When he finally reached the capital, 
St. Petersburg,

24
00:01:35,285 --> 00:01:38,229
Rasputin used 
his charisma and connections

25
00:01:38,229 --> 00:01:42,997
to win favor with the imperial family’s 
spiritual advisor.

26
00:01:42,997 --> 00:01:44,957
In November 1905,

27
00:01:44,957 --> 00:01:50,017
Rasputin was finally introduced 
to Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

28
00:01:50,017 --> 00:01:54,794
Nicholas and his wife Alexandra 
devoutly believed in the Orthodox Church,

29
00:01:54,794 --> 00:01:58,244
as well as in mysticism 
and supernatural powers,

30
00:01:58,244 --> 00:02:02,143
and this Siberian holy man 
had them transfixed.

31
00:02:02,143 --> 00:02:06,844
It was a particularly tumultuous period 
for Russia and their family.

32
00:02:06,844 --> 00:02:09,912
The monarchy 
was barely clinging to control

33
00:02:09,912 --> 00:02:12,592
after the Revolution of 1905.

34
00:02:12,592 --> 00:02:16,902
Their political struggles 
were only intensified by personal turmoil:

35
00:02:16,902 --> 00:02:19,188
Alexei, the heir to the throne,

36
00:02:19,188 --> 00:02:22,984
had a life-threatening blood disease 
called hemophilia.

37
00:02:22,984 --> 00:02:27,114
When Alexei suffered 
a severe medical crisis in 1912,

38
00:02:27,114 --> 00:02:31,620
Rasputin advised his parents 
to reject treatment from doctors.

39
00:02:31,620 --> 00:02:36,130
Alexei’s health improved, 
cementing the royal family’s belief

40
00:02:36,130 --> 00:02:39,243
that Rasputin had magical healing powers,

41
00:02:39,243 --> 00:02:43,694
and guaranteeing 
his privileged place on the royal court.

42
00:02:43,694 --> 00:02:47,170
Today, we know that 
the doctors had prescribed aspirin,

43
00:02:47,170 --> 00:02:49,684
a drug that worsens hemophilia.

44
00:02:49,684 --> 00:02:53,149
After this incident, 
Rasputin made a prophecy:

45
00:02:53,149 --> 00:02:56,834
if he died, 
or the royal family deserted him,

46
00:02:56,834 --> 00:03:01,382
both their son and their crown 
would soon be gone.

47
00:03:01,382 --> 00:03:05,853
Outside the royal family, 
people had mixed views on Rasputin.

48
00:03:05,853 --> 00:03:09,183
On one hand, peasants regarded him 
as one of their own,

49
00:03:09,183 --> 00:03:13,196
amplifying their often-unheard voice 
to the monarchy.

50
00:03:13,196 --> 00:03:17,286
But nobles and clergymen 
came to despise his presence.

51
00:03:17,286 --> 00:03:20,308
Rasputin never ceased 
his scandalous behavior,

52
00:03:20,308 --> 00:03:23,376
and they were skeptical 
of his so-called powers

53
00:03:23,376 --> 00:03:26,362
and thought he was corrupting 
the royal family.

54
00:03:26,362 --> 00:03:28,146
By the end of World War I,

55
00:03:28,146 --> 00:03:31,476
they were convinced 
the only way to maintain order

56
00:03:31,476 --> 00:03:35,296
was to eliminate this sham 
of a holy man.

57
00:03:35,296 --> 00:03:36,755
With this conviction,

58
00:03:36,755 --> 00:03:40,495
Yusupov began 
to plot Rasputin’s assassination.

59
00:03:40,495 --> 00:03:43,405
Though the exact details 
remain mysterious,

60
00:03:43,405 --> 00:03:48,435
our best guess at how it all unfolded 
comes from Yusupov’s memoirs.

61
00:03:48,435 --> 00:03:53,897
He served Rasputin a number of pastries, 
believing they contained cyanide.

62
00:03:53,897 --> 00:03:56,277
But unbeknownst to Yusupov,

63
00:03:56,277 --> 00:03:58,928
one of his co-conspirators 
had a change of heart,

64
00:03:58,928 --> 00:04:02,468
and substituted the poison 
with a harmless substance.

65
00:04:02,468 --> 00:04:07,348
To Yusupov’s shock, 
Rasputin ate them without ill effect.

66
00:04:07,348 --> 00:04:11,548
In desperation, 
he shot Rasputin at point-blank range.

67
00:04:11,548 --> 00:04:15,796
But Rasputin recovered, 
punched his attacker, and fled.

68
00:04:15,796 --> 00:04:18,586
Yusupov and his accomplices pursued him,

69
00:04:18,586 --> 00:04:21,956
finally killing Rasputin 
with a bullet to the forehead

70
00:04:21,956 --> 00:04:25,706
and dumping his body 
in the Malaya Nevka river.

71
00:04:25,706 --> 00:04:28,870
But far from stabilizing 
the monarchy’s authority,

72
00:04:28,870 --> 00:04:32,126
Rasputin’s death enraged the peasantry.

73
00:04:32,126 --> 00:04:33,876
Just as Rasputin prophesied,

74
00:04:33,876 --> 00:04:37,826
his murder was swiftly followed 
by that of the royal family.

75
00:04:37,826 --> 00:04:40,156
Whether the downfall 
of the Russian monarchy

76
00:04:40,156 --> 00:04:42,416
was a product of the monk’s curse,

77
00:04:42,416 --> 00:04:46,086
or the result of political tensions 
decades in the making,

78
00:04:46,086 --> 00:04:48,306
well, we may never know.