Rasputin! He was a very odd fellow. He held the Romanov family in his mystical yet greasy grip. Although he often looked like he could really use a shower, he apparently had a certain charisma that endeared him to the Tzarina (The Tzar's wife). Not only that he was reported to have "powers" that could "heal".
The Tzar in question was the doomed "last Tzar" Nicholas Romanov II (the one who ultimately was gunned down along with his whole family). Anyway, those loyal to the Czar and Mother Russia had decided to get rid of Rasputin for the welfare of the Romanov royal family. Little did they know it would turn out to be harder than they thought.
A group of conspirators met and hatched a plan. On December 16-17 at 12:30 a.m. the killers, along with Rasputin, met in a cozy little basement dining room in the Yusupov palace. There, poisoned pastries and wine awaited the mad mystic. After first refusing, he decided to eat up, and ate enough cyanide to kill ten men. Two hours later, he was showing no ill effects.
Time to go with plan B. It was decided, after the shock and awe of his seeming imperviousness to lethal poison, that perhaps shooting him would be quick, fast, and easy. So, a guy named Prince Felix Yusupov (one of the conspirators) came in and shot Rasputin in the chest. After a while they decided he was dead, and ready to be dumped into the nearby Malaya Nevka river. Though they figured they better wait for a while til it got later, you know, to avoid being seen.
When Felix went down to look at the body, he was surprised that it was actually still warm. He was also surprised to see Rasptin's eyes begin to open and shut. Then he was REALLY surprised when Rasputin got to his feet and lunged at his assailant! Yep, he was still alive! The other conspirators rushed down to the basement to see that Rasputin had escaped into the courtyard, running for his life.
What followed next was another assault. During it, Rasputin was:
Shot in the back. (he was still crawling)
Shot in the head. (he was still crawling)
kicked repeatedly in the head. (he was finally still)
Then the conspirators dragged Rasputin's seemingly lifeless body back into the palace. There it was noticed that, yep, he was STILL ALIVE. So, they savagely beat him in the head with a dumbell. Rasputin, the mad monk, sat there, propped in a chair, a gory mess. Convinced he'd expire any second along the way, they decided to go ahead and dump his body in the pre-planned spot (off the Great Petrovsky Bridge). Rasputin's blood splattered carcass was wrapped in aheavy cloth and wound up tight in rope. He was trundled off in a car trunk to the river side. There the conspirators heaved his body into the icey Malaya Nevka River. Unfortunately they hadn't weighed the body down. They watched a moment as the huge hellish bundle just, more or less, floated away.
They figured they got away with it, but a few days later his body was recovered from the frigid waters of the Malaya Nevka River. Investigators soon rounded up all those responsible.
The conspirators ultimately got off with slaps on the wrist, but rasputin's killing was not popular with the masses. It was seen as another abuse of power by an out of control aristocracy.
Czar Nicholas later abdicated, then was slaughtered, and then the Marxists took over control of Russia. The rest, as they say, is history.
One more thing. Rasputin's body, when it was found, was frozen in a way that revealed that he had managed to free his arms and was attempting to untie himself before he died.
After being poisoned, shot three times, and bludgeoned, his official cause of death was listed as drowning.
Click here for a post-mortem picture of him
No comments:
Post a Comment