Publisher's Synopsis
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, Russian peasant, monk and mystic, exercised extraordinary and malign power over the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia and their haemophiliac son. His drunkenness, sexual excesses and nepotism - and rumours he was a German agent - finally led to his murder by a group of noblemen in December 1916. Variously regarded as mad monk or mystic, shaman or sham, his enormous influence is one of history's great enigmas, and this biography sets out to unravel it.;Edvard Radzinsky has gained access to a range of previously undiscovered material, in particular the proceedings of a Russian government investigation in 1917 which includes interviews with people who had dealings with Rasputin. Finally, his murder is described from a new angle, re-examining the various conspiracy theories and describing the moments leading up to the murder against the backdrop of pre-Revolution Bacchanalia in the imperial city.
