How did Rasputin rise to power?

[Spiderman]

How did Rasputin get such control over the Czar and influence the government so much? What was the attraction to him? Does it seem like he had some special powers or something?

Supposedly he could stop hemophiliac bleeding.

Seeing what a hedonist he was, I can't see why he was so popular.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Boney M will explain.

Oh those Russians.

 

[Nakosis]

How did Rasputin get such control over the Czar and influence the government so much? What was the attraction to him? Does it seem like he had some special powers or something?

Supposedly he could stop hemophiliac bleeding.

Seeing what a hedonist he was, I can't see why he was so popular.

Wasn't the prince a hemophiliac? Supposedly stopping it through the power of prayer. Maybe he got lucky or maybe he was able to reduce the prince's stress which helped to reduce the blood flow.

 

[Flame]

Most of that can be put on Empress Alexandra.

 

[Father Heathen]

For a disheveled madman, he certainly had a high charisma level.

 

[Spiderman]

He doesn't look happy cute or charming. I have not seen one picture of him where he was smiling.

 

[Twilight Hue]

For a disheveled madman, he certainly had a high charisma level.

His biography is a pretty fascinating read.

 

[Valjean]

A real, wild, strannik wanders out of the taiga into downtown St Petersburg? Who could resist such a creature? The mystical monk became a public sensation.

The royal family, especially the Tsarina, became captivated with his healing powers. Later, after his prayers from afar seemed to save her dying son, he became practically a pet.

 

[Shad]

Boney M will explain.

Oh those Russians.

First thing I thought of. RA RA RASPUTIN!

 

[Shad]

Wasn't the prince a hemophiliac?

Yes. It was a hereditary issue many royal families of the era faced due to European royalty's almost suicidal breeding and marriage habits. Victoria of England was the carrier and passed it on to Russian, Spanish and Germany royalty when she married her children off. The princess' mother was the granddaughter of Victoria.

European royalty for centuries bred all sorts of genetic defects into their families due to the extremely limited gene pool created due to the old concept of blood imbuing status like nobility and political marriages. Madness was common to the Habsburg family line due to these ideas.

 

[Shad]

How did Rasputin get such control over the Czar and influence the government so much?

The Tsaran simply put. She alienated Russians as she hated Russian culture. She had few real friends and no allies of power in government. Her indoctrinated royal position (keep in mind women's role and the era) from childhood shifted complete responsibility for her son's early life into her hands. So isolation from politics and social circles creates depression which caused her to look at alternative namely religion, mysticism, spiritualist aka snake oil salesmen. All common stuff people turned to when traditional ideas failed. Toss in her son's condition she was willing to listen to anyone that could demonstrate any improvement for her son. Rasputin was such a person. Her power and absolute faith in him blinded her thus he could use her power for himself. The Tsar hated Rasputin but accept him due to his wife and son.

What was the attraction to him?

He did the seemingly impossible in backwards era in the most backwards of the Great Powers.

Does it seem like he had some special powers or something?

Nope. He just had enough charisma to con the gullible and desperate. None of his tricks works on others people not convince of his "power"

Supposedly he could stop hemophiliac bleeding.

Nothing special really. It is only amazing due to the era.

Seeing what a hedonist he was, I can't see why he was so popular.

He draped himself in religion in an era which the masses were uneducated fools. He would be nothing but a modern day healing televangelist touching people and yelling "Be Healed!"

 

[Jumi]

He was a faith healer of the sort villages had those days instead of doctors. Obviously he had some skill and was also a manipulative ambitious man.

 

[PureX]

How did Rasputin get such control over the Czar and influence the government so much? What was the attraction to him? Does it seem like he had some special powers or something?

Supposedly he could stop hemophiliac bleeding.

Seeing what a hedonist he was, I can't see why he was so popular.

He was not popular. He was just very influential because he had managed to convince the czarina that he was able to control their son's hemophilia. And being basically a peasant and a hedonist, he used that influence to serve is rather legendary base desires.

Eventually the czar's council had had enough of him, and determined to kill him. But Rasputin had long since anticipated their doing so, and even expected that they would use poison to do it, so it's said that he took small doses of poison to create a kind of tolerance, or immunity to it, so that when the council did finally poison him, he survived. If I recall, they had to try three times by three different methods before they finally managed to kill him. I don't know if all of this is true, but the story sure has the makings of a kind of folk hero legend. Especially in a country that loathed it's wealthy autocrats as much as the Russians did at that time. And they soon wiped them out, and replaced them with the same Bolshevik bully-boy class from which Rasputin had come. And the winners, of course, get to rewrite the history.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

Actually, he did not influence the Czar. No-one influenced the Czar! It would have been better if Rasputin had been able to influence politics, for he was strongly opposed to the Great War. Just before Russia declared war on Austria, when most Russians were baying for blood, he wrote a newspaper article saying that Russia should be trying to broker a peace between Austria and Serbia rather than going to war in support of a state that sponsored terrorism.