Figure 1.--Here is Rasputin with the royal family, invcluding the Tsarina Alexandra and all five children. We are not sure about the ladt at the bottom right. She might be a governess. Alexis wears a sailor suit. The girls as was common wear white dresses. The Tsarina believed that Rasputin was able to help Alexia cope with his pain he experienced from his haemophilia condition. The photograph was taken in 1908.

Grigori Efimovich Rasputin was an uneducated Siberian mystic healer. He is one of the most picturesque figures of the 20th century. Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and early adult life. He was born in Pokrovskoe to a peasant family. The date of his birth is unknown, but there are many varied estimates (1864-72). This was a small, rural village in Tiumen Oblast. Pokrovskoe is in western Siberia on the Toura River near the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Pokrovskoe had only a few unpsaved streets. It was dominated by a large white church with a guilded dome. The gleaming church in the middler of a drab villsage must have affected the boys in the village. It certainly did young Grigori. Little is known about his education. Many Russians at the time received little or no education. Rasputin's education must have been very limited as he was illiterate. At a young age he developed a reputation for debauchery. Rasputin in Russian means the 'debauched one'. He also developed a reputation as a mystiqe and faith healer. And it it this reputation that unbelievably brouht him from Siberaian peasant poverty to the Tsar's household in St. Petersburg to save the Tsarevich Alexis.

Created: 9:00 PM 8/15/2009
Last updated: 9:00 PM 8/15/2009