Rasputin

Rasputin: visionary, fraud or victim of history?
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘THE GOLD STANDARD OF NARRATIVE HISTORY’ DAN SNOW
‘ONE OF THE GREAT STORIES OF HISTORY, TOLD BY ONE OF OUR GREATEST HISTORIANS’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
‘THIS EXTRAORDINARY STORY HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER TOLD’ ANTHONY HOROWITZ
‘A STUNNING BANQUET OF A BOOK’ ROSE TREMAIN

How could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? Undoubtedly, the so-called ‘mad monk’ Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. Yet their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle, one that casts an intriguing light on the controversial ‘great man’ theory of history.

Rasputin was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. He had no official position, no forces at his command. Nevertheless, he contributed more to the fall of the Romanov dynasty than any other individual. So demoralised was the Tsarist officer corps by stories of corruption, to say nothing of the rumours of his debauchery with the Empress – and even her daughters – that when the February Revolution broke out, not a sword was raised in defence of the regime.