Rasputin, Grigory (Yefimovich)

orig. Grigory (Yefimovich) Novykh

(born 1872?, Pokrovskoye, near Tyumen, Siberia, Russian Empire—died Dec. 30, 1916, Petrograd) Russian mystic influential at the court of Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra. An illiterate peasant, he earned the name rasputin (“debauched one”) for his early licentious behaviour. After undergoing a religious experience, he gained a reputation among the peasants as a holy man, able to heal the sick. He became known to Nicholas and the susceptible Alexandra, and he proved capable of stopping the bleeding of their hemophiliac son, probably by means of hypnotism. He became a favourite at court, despite reports of his continuing and flagrant debauchery. When Nicholas left Alexandra in charge of Russia's internal affairs in 1915, Rasputin influenced her appointment of church officials and incompetent cabinet ministers. After several attempts to remove his harmful influence, a group of noblemen including Prince Felix Yusupov assassinated him by successively poisoning him, shooting him, and finally throwing him into the ice-filled Neva River. The Russian Revolution of 1917 followed weeks later.