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In Reply to: Are you saying he actually was small and weak? posted by Victor Khomenko on April 16, 2010 at 15:53:27:
PHOTO: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
Victor!,
I suppose it's the fascination of the mysterious, but on another level I find Rapsutin interesting as a cult figure. You're right, he was crude, brutal, and hated by many who felt challenged by an unwelcome outside influence. I'll wager there were plenty in the Bush administration who resented Karl Rove's influence on policy and political logistics- because Rove was so extremely good at his work.
Rasputin though relied not on analysis but a shrewdness and a mysterious, hypnotic quality that supposedly landed him in the bed of hundred's and some plum jobs advising the Czar through Alexandra. Alexandra saw him as a prophet and miracle healer - What his name's Hemophilia- and so on. I don't know current thinking, but I'd read somewhere there were rumours that Rasputin had added Alexandra's knickers to his trophy cabinet. In all that, Rasputin was an early iteration of a celebrity TV evangelist only without the Platinum Rolex- and Rasputin didn't have have to pay for the sex.
Certainly, Rasputin was a reprehensible figure, but his personality and the Svengali-like cult of celebrity that grew up around him is a reminder that empty, ambitious, manipulative, stupid and/or evil people can rise to the top in any era.
However, I'm convinced we have never gotten the real picture. Rasputin's history was shaped entirely by his enemies and is heavily skewed. In this portrait, Rasputin was pure evil, a gluttonous, smelly, Satanic Angel/Devil that seduced 1000's of 12 year olds- and 12 year old Scotch- that had to be stopped for the noble causes of the murderers- who stood to lose power and/or money. Possibly true, but there are also those diametrically opposed accounts of Rasputin believed he was helping, being generous, liked by children, and kind, never greedy for money, was cheerful, and a bit shy!
This is why I'd like to see a good movie treatment of Rasputin- his story needs the complexity he seems to have had. "The Grigori the Great Teddy Bear Story: Episode Three: Cuddles at the Winter Palace", or what do you think of "The Evil and the Cuddly"
Rasputin, as a character for study is also useful as a symbol of the decadence of the Czarist era. Rasputin is backwards-looking, representing the Old Russia that Peter the Great tried to eliminate: not the feudalism, but the superstition, moral/ethical remoteness of the ruling class, wearing beards, and religious zealotry. These were all the things the Revolution wanted to abolish again and 250 years later.
Rasputin was a timely prophet of the Czarists' doom, murdered on December 29, 1916. At that point Nicholas and Co. and the 500+ year Czarist era had only a couple of years left.
There's an old Russian Proverb I'm sure every Russian knows, "Если только богатые человек имелии уродских дочеи, то царь бы былдревесин-тюнером" > "If only rich men had ugly daughters, the Czar would be a wood-turner."
I don't understand it either. I'll have to wait for the movie.
Cheers,
Bambi B
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Follow Ups
- No! BIG and STINKY! - Bambi B 23:55:45 04/16/10 (1)
- Alexandra was not his best catch - Victor Khomenko 05:57:13 04/19/10 (0)
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