via historytoday
There are plenty of historical figures in the world that are extremely interesting, right? While some of these figures have stories that have been greatly fictionalised, many of them have real stories that are so insanely odd that they creep us out.
Knowing this, we naturally decided to start a series about weird historical figures, both in Egypt and all over the world! Grigori “The Mad Monk” Rasputin is this week’s historical figure, for several reasons. Not only was he horrendous in every possible way, but he was also very interesting and lived a life that proved it!
If you only know Rasputin from the famous Boney M song, let us just tell you—what you’re about to learn will knock your socks off!
Rasputin’s Origin Story
Born and raised in Russia to a poor family, Rasputin was highly religious. So much so, in fact, that he decided to become a priest in his teenage years and went to Siberia to become a ‘holy man’. However, no one really liked his views on religion as he was not exactly as holy as he claimed to be.
Failing to achieve his dream of becoming a priest didn’t matter much, though, as Rasputin soon became a very important man to the last Czar of the Russian empire. He also managed to dupe the entire country, royal family included, that he was a magnificent ‘healer’ after he ‘cured’ Alexei, the heir to the Russian throne, of his haemophilia by hypnotising him.
Rasputin’s reputation didn’t hold up, though, and soon enough, many people started seeing him as a sinister figure entrenched within the royal family’s ranks. It’s said that his reputation was a catalyst in the overthrowing of the Russian monarchy.
Rasputin’s Death
Perhaps the only thing stranger than Rasputin’s life is his death. He survived multiple assassination attempts throughout his life, as several people tried to kill him because of the crimes and sins he’d been accused of. He was also accused of being the queen’s lover, which only added to the number of people after his head.
These assassination attempts included an attempt in which he was stabbed and another in which he was poisoned. The ‘Mad Monk’ survived the former after undergoing surgery and wasn’t at all affected by the latter, as he was immune to poison. Yes, you read it correctly.
As if he wasn’t odd enough, Rasputin was also immune to poison, as he used to consume poisons (mainly cyanide) every single day to lessen their effects on him, should someone ever attempt to poison him. Talk about foresight, right?
Failed assassinators also tried drowning and shooting, but, as you probably guessed, he just wouldn’t die. In the end, the sinister ‘healer’ met his demise when a member of the nobility shot him in the head after punching him several times. In this case, the sixth time was the charm.
