Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 37 стр.

        The rise of Gregory Rasputin would have been impossible in any      and forty-four when he died. His birthplace was Pokrovskoe, a village
country other than Russia. Even in Russia, pungent, shaggy, semi-           on the Tura River in western Siberia. It was a hard, windswept land
literate peasants did not normally take tea with prime ministers.           where the temperature in winter dropped to forty below zero and to sur-
Rasputin appeared in St. Petersburg as a starets – a Man of God who         vive took great strength and hard physical work. Climate and isolation
lived in poverty, asceticism and solitude, offering himself as a guide to   had their effect on the mind, and more mystics, more holy men and
other souls in moments of suffering and turmoil. Sometimes, as in his       more outlandish sects came out of Siberia than any other part of Russia.
case, the starets might also be a strannik – a pilgrim who carried his             Rasputin’s first appearance in St. Petersburg occurred in 1903
poverty and his offerings of guidance in wanderings from place to           and lasted for five months. Even in the capital, remote and sophisti-
place. These were types that all Russians could recognize. Through          cated, his reputation had preceded him. He was said to be a strange Si-
Russian history, armies of impoverished pilgrims had walked across the      berian moujik who, having sinned and repented, had been blessed with
stepps from village to village and monastery to monastery, living on        extraordinary powers. As such, he was received by the city’s most fa-
whatever the peasants or monks might choose to give them. Many as-          mous churchman, Father John of Kronstadt. John was a saintly figure
cetics walked barefoot in the winter or wrapped their legs with heavy       noted for the power of his prayers, and his church at Kronstadt was an
chains. Some preached, others claimed powers of healing. If the Ortho-      object of pilgrimages from across Russia. He had been the private con-
dox church caught them preaching heresy, they went to prison, but their     fessor to Tsar Alexander III and had sat with the family by Alexander’s
poverty and self-sacrifice often made them seem holier than the local       bed at Livadia while the Tsar was dying. To be received and blessed by
priests.                                                                    this most revered priest in Russia was an impressive step in Rasputin’s
        All Russians listened to these holy men. Even educated Russians     progress.
treated them with respect. Dostoyevsky wrote in The Brothers                       In 1905, Rasputin was back in St. Petersburg. This time, he was
Karamasov, « The starets is he who takes your soul and makes it his.»       taken to meet the aged Archimandrite Theophan, Inspector of the St.
Before his death, Count Leo Tolstoy visited the revered starets of Opt-     Petersburg Theological Academy and former confessor to the Empress
ina Poustin for counsel.                                                    Alexandra. Like Father John, Theophan was struck by the apparent fer-
        Rasputin was a fraudulent starets. Most were saintly old men        vor of Rasputin’s faith and arranged for him to meet ranking church-
who had left all temptation and worldly goods behind. Rasputin was          man, Bishop Hermogen of Saratov. With all of these priests and bish-
young, he was married and had three children, and his powerful friends      ops, Rasputin’s approach was the same. He refused to bow and treated
later bought him the grandest house in his village. His mind was impure     them with jolly, spontaneous good humor, as if they were friends and
and his moral behavior was gross. His head was filled with Scriptures,      equals. Put off balance by his egalitarianism and simple sincerity, they
and his deep, powerful voice made him a compelling preacher. Besides,       were also impressed by his obvious gifts as a preacher. He was a phe-
he had wandered the length and breadth of Russia and twice made pil-        nomenon, it seemed to them, which had been given to the Church and
grimages to the Holy Land. He presented himself as a humble penitent,       which the Church, then trying to strengthen its roots among the peasants,
a man who had sinned greatly, been forgiven and commanded to do             could put to valuable use. They welcomed him as a genuine starets.
God’s work. It was a touching symbol of his humility, people said, that            The truth about Rasputin’s effect on the Tsarevich will never be
he kept the nickname «Rasputin» which he had earned as a young man          precisely known. Few medical records of these episodes were kept and
in his native village. «Rasputin» in Russian means «dissolute.»             none survived the Revolution. There were those who, in regard to
        Rasputin was born Gregory Efimovich, the son of Efim, a farmer      Rasputin,expressed scepticism that his presence had any effect at all.
who once had been a coachman in the Imperial Mail. The year was             Pierre Gilliard [Swiss tutor of the Tsarevich Alexis] mentions the theory
1872; thus he was thirty-three when he first met the Imperial Family,       that Rasputin was a clever cheat who had an accomplice in the palace.

                                   73                                                                          74