One day, while working in the fields, Rasputin said he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who according to Grigory, ordered him to become a pilgrim, so he left his family in Pokroskoiev and went on a journey, walking some two thousand miles. He arrived to the Orthodox monastery of Mount Athos in Greece. When he returned he was a different man and won fame as a man of God, altough his preaches were not precisely Orthodox, but a mixture of Orthodox and heretec principles. Nevertheless he ebcame a convincing preacher among the poors of Pokrovoie and he had the great ability to manipulate the people around him.
The other side of Rasputin's contradictory personality was his fond for sex. he enjoyed to sleep with one or more naked women; his sexual apetite was insaciable.
Rasputin first appeared in St. petersburg in 1903, a year before Alexis' birth. He was received by several important Orthodox priests like Father John of Kronstand, the old archmandrite Teophan, who was Alexandra's conffesor, and Bishop Hermoguen of Saratov; all them were amezed by Rasputin religious fervour and his ability of preacher. They blessed them and considred him a starets. Rasputin began his life in St. Petersburg under the protection of the "Montenegrin princesses". This two sisters were Grand Duchess Militsa and Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughters of King Nicholas I of Montenegro, who were respectivly married to two brothers, Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievitch and Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievitch, who were Alexanders III's cousins. These two ladies were who took rasputin Tsarkoe Selo on November 1st. 1905. Nicholas II wrote on his dairy: "We had tea with Militsa and Stana (Anastasia). We made acquaintance of a man of God -Grigory, from the Tobolsk region" (Maylunas).
It is unknown when Rasputin cure Alexis for the first time but it is belelieved that it was around 1907. His increasingly influence among the Tsar and the Tsarina was not inmediate but gradual. Little by little he began to be accepted at Tsarkoe Selo in the intimacy of the Imperial family. He usually arrived an hour befor e dinner; he used to sit among the family and told them Russian tales and legends. All the children liked him as well as Nicholas and Alexandra. He referred to them as Batiushka and Matushka (Father and Mother of the Russian peasants).Little by little, Alexandra got convinced that Rasputin was a messanger of God; he represented the union of Tsar, Church and People, and above all he was capable to help her son. She sincerely beleived that his ability to cure Alexis came from prayer, so she turned to Rasputin as the only wasy of saving her son.
According to Robert K. Massie, the posssible medical explanation for Rasputin's ability to cure the haemophiliac Tsarevitch is hypnosis, although it is not historically proved. In fact he took lessons of hypnotism but it was until 1913, several years after he began to cure the boy. It has been proved that the loss of blod in haemophiliacs camn be aggravated by a state of emotional stress such as angry or anxiety.On the contrary it is possible that a decrease in emoptional stress has a benefical effect on bleeding; the patient's capillary blood fluid wil decline when calm and well-being return to him. Rasputin had the power to calm Alexis with his tales and his commanding and deep voice. So if ti was not hypnosis, it was this power of suggestion that Rasputin had on the boy.
There is a testimony from Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna , Nicholas' sister, in which she related how Rasputin cured her nephew on one of his crisis: "The poor child lay in pain, dark patches under his eyes and his little body all distorted and the leg terrible swollen... Alicky sent a message to Rasputin... he reache the palace about midnight. By that time I had reached my appartments. Early in the morning Alicky called me to Alexis's room... The little boy was not just alive but well.He was sitting up in the bed, the fever gone, the eyes clear and bright, not a sign of any swelling in the leg. I learned from Alicky that Rasputin had not even touched the child but only stood at the foot of the bed and prayed". (Massie).
When Rasputin first arrived in St. Petersburg, he had a dirty aspect. He had long and greasy hair, hanguing in thin strandsto his shoulders; his beard was tangled and encrusted with debris; his hands were dirty and his nails black. He slept and rose with his peasant clothes. After his succes in Tsarkoe Selo, his cloth changed. Now his shirts were of silk, some of them made by Alexandra's own hands. He wore around his neck a beautiful golden cross, a gift from the Empress. Only his greasy hair and his tangled baerd remained the same.
Not only was Rasputin popular among the Imperial family but among some high-society-ladies from St. Petersburg. He interested them because of his spiritual nature as well as because of his sensuality. He preached his doctrine of redemption through sin among these ladies and they were anxious to go to bed with him, which they considered an honour, in order to practice the doctrine. Rasputin organized parties in his apartment, full with sex and heavy drinking and soon his activities began to spread around St. Petersburg. It was also said that he was Alexandra's lover as well as her daughter's.
In 1910 a woman named Vishniakova, nannay of the Imperial children, went, on Alexandra's advise, on a holiday to Pokrovskoie with Rasputin. One night Rasputin introduced himself into Vishniakova's room and seduced her. On her return to Tsarkoe Selo, the woman told the Empress about her awful experience with the starets, but Alexandra refused to beleive it. The children's governess, Sofia Ivanovna Tiutcheva disliked Rasputin's presence in the Grand Duchesses' room when they were going to bed, and asked Alexandra to forbid his entrance, telling her about the rumours about him. Alexandra answered she did not believe such slanders that-she said- came from bad-intentioned people who wanted to ruin "Father Grigory". Nicholas interfered calling Titutcheva to his presence. When she told him what was happening, he asked her: "So you don't beleive in the sanctity og Grigory?... "abd what if I told you that all these difficult years I have survived only because of his prayers?" Tiutsheva replied: "You have survived because of the praers of the whole Russia Your Majesty". Nicholas told her he didn't believed such stories about Rasputin arguing that "the oure always attract everything dirty". Tiutcheva was dismissed and then went to Alexandra's sister, Grand Duchess Elisabeth, to persuade he rto talk to the Empress. When Elisabeth tried to advise Alexandra against Rasputin, it only caused a distance between the two sisters.
The first Duma of 1905 couldn't get along with the Tsar. Its members were demanding universal suffrage, a radical reform to the possesion of the land, the release of political prissoners and the dismissal of all the ministers appointed by the Tsar, that would be replaced by ministers approved by the Duma. Terrified, Nicholas ordered Minister Ivan Goremikyn (Witte's succesor) to reject all what the Duma was demanding. Goremikyn was hissed by the members of the Duma who shouted that the executive power should bow before the legislative. Nicholas decided that the Duma must be dissolved but he thought Goremikyn was not the adequate man to face such a diffuclt situation. The Minister resigned in July 1906 and was replaced by Piotr Arkadievitch Stolypin. Stpolypin dissolved the Duma and created a second one in February 1907, but it also attempted to challenge the government and three months later it also was dissolved. A third Duma was created in the autumn of 1907. This time its memebers were absolutely conservative; there were 45 Orthodox priests among them. At last, the Duma and ther government could work in harmony.
The period of Stolypin's ministery (1906-1911) was of great progress for Russia. He decresed terrorism by establishing marcial courts all around the country, that hangued terrosits three days after being arrested. He ended the inefficient syste, of communal working of the land and introduced the concept of private property. During Stolypin's period, Russia was favoured with mild weather conditions and good crops. There was an improvement in the railroad system and in the production of coal and iron. Such was the progress in Russia that the exile Bolchevique leader, Vladimir Ilitch Ulianov Lenin, began to fear would be never set up in Russia.
Nevertheless, not everything was good. In August 1906, Stolypin was victim of an attempt against his life; a bomb exploded in his house at the outsides of St. Petersburg. He was unhurt, but his son and daughter were severely injured. Stolypin received a letter from Nicholas: "A few days ago I received a peasant from the Tobolsk district, Grigory Rasputin, who brought me an icon of St. Simon Verkhouturie. He made a remarkably strong impression both on Her Majesty and on myself... he has a strong desire to see you and to bless your injured daughter with an icon. I very much hope that you will find a minute to receive him this week" (Maylunas). Rasputin indeed visited the girl, but Stolipyn disliked him deeply.
In the years that followed Alexis's birth, Alexandra's health decline significantly. The worries for her son's health caused her a psychosomatic illness postrated her in bed for weeks. When Alexis had a crisis, Alexandra used to be by her side day and night and when the crisis ended, she had to layed in bed to recover her strenght. She also suffered form sciatica. Her bad health forced her to seclude in Tsarkoe Selo, and as her illness was kept a secret, just as Alexis's haemophilia, her isolation from St. Petersburg's society gained her unpopularity. She was only sorounded by a small and selected group of people: some fmily memebers, some officials, and some servants. As she was shy, she didn't make friends easy. Her only true friend was Anna Vyrubova, who was the daughter of a composer named Alexander Tanayev, who had also been head of the Imperial chancellory; her mother was a Tolstoi, Anna first met Alexandra at her father's home. When in 1901, she fell ill with typhoid fever, Alexandra included her in her ususal rond of hospitals visits. An obssesive adoration for the Tsarina sprang out in Anna.and when she recovered she was invited to have tea at Tsarkoe Selo; since then a great frienship began between the 29-year-old Tsarina and the 17-year-old Anna.
Alexandra pushed Anna into a loveless marriage to Alexander Vyrubov, who was a survivor of the battle of Tsushima, in the Ruso-Japanese war, and was menthally disturbed. They were married in 1907. When Anna discovered her husband's problem and besides that he was impotent, she obtained form the Holy Synod a decree of dissolution of marriage. Feeling blamed for Anna's misfortune, Alexandra invited her to accompany the Imperial family in their annual cruise through the Finnish fjords. The Empress found in Anna someone in whom she could trust giving nothing in change. By the end of the cruise their friendship had strenghtened.
Anna became a go between for Alexandra and Rasputin; she was also under Rasputin influence and this made her quite unpopular among the people, being ungfairly accused of parrticipating in Rasputin's orgies. Anna proved this accusations tro be false when in 1917, after Nicholas' s abdication, she submitted herself to an examination and she was publicly certified to be a virgin.
In 1911, a group of crlergymen, headed by Bishop Hermogen, who previously had been amazed by Rasputin, and a young monk named Serge Iliodor, confronted Rasputin with evidence of his sexual activities. Rasputin and Iliodor had once been friends and went together on a journey to a retreat on the banks of the Volga River. In front of Iliodor, Rasputin seized the women and kissed them on the lips, which the younk monk dissaproved. The starets also told to his friend about the power he had over the Tsar and the Tsarina; he said they said they bothe bowed down to him, kneeled to him and kissed his hands. He even said that Nicholas toughht him to be Crhist incarnated and that he frequently kissed Alexandra, even in fornt of her daughters. He then gave Iliodor a bunch of letters form the Tsarina.
After being confrontated by the priests, Rasputin hysterically accepted his culpability. They dragged him into a chapel and forced him to swear before an icon that he would leave women and the Imperial family alone. But two days later, Rasputin rushed into Tsarkoe Selo and told Alexandra his own version of the confrontation with the priests. Furious, Alexandra sent Hermogen to a monastery and ordered Iliodor to exile himself. The monk took his revenge by publishing the letters Rasputin had given him. The most significant letter said: "My beloved , unforgettable teacher, redeemer and mentor: How tiresome it is without you, My soul is quiet and I relax only when you, my teacher, are sitting besides me. I kiss ypour hand and lean my head on your blessed shoulder...I only wish one thing: to fall asleep, forever in your shoulders and in your arms... I am asking for your Holy Blesssing and I am j¿kissing your blessed hands. Mama" (King).
The whole St. Petersburg gossiped about Rasputin being Alexandra's lover. Minister Stoplypin, who has Rasputin's enemy, saw the opportunity of banishing him from the city and oredred a complete investigation of the starets's activities. He presented a report to Nicholas, who read it ans did nothing. Stoplypin, acting by his own, ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg . Alexandra protested but Nicholas supported his minister and Rasputin had to leave.
Alexandra began to hate the minister; he had deprived her from the only man who could relief his son from pain. On September 1911, Nicholas, Stolypin and the Finance minister, Vladimir Kokostov went to Kiev to unveil a statue of Alexander III. By casualty, Rasputin was in Kiev that day, among the crowd that had gathered to see the Tsar. When he saw Stolypin he exclaimed "Death follows his steps, death rides on his back". The folowing day, while attending to the Opera, Stolipyn was murdered before Nicholas's eyes, by a young revolutionary named Mordka Bogrov.
