He Became the Power Behind the Throne
Nicholas’ decision to heed Rasputin’s advice and take direct control of Russia’s armies during WWI was made worse by the Tsar’s choice for running the Russian home front in his absence from the capital: his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra. The one good thing she had going for her from the Tsar’s perspective was loyalty to him and to the interests of the imperial family, comprised of her own children. The many bad things going against her included incompetence, compounded by stupidity of the worst kind: the type in which a stupid person, too stupid to grasp the extent of his or her stupidity, is deluded into believing that he or she is intelligent and cunning.
Left to run things in Saint Petersburg while her husband went off to war, it was not long before the royal airhead, convinced that Rasputin was guided by God, started soliciting the barely literate charlatan’s advice on matters of state and government. She then heeded his advice, or badgered her weak-minded husband into carrying out Rasputin’s recommendations.
Before long, government ministers and high officials were being appointed and dismissed based on what Rasputin thought of them. Those seeking to advance or secure their positions were soon flocking to offer him lavish bribes. Alternatively, ambitious officials and ladder climbers sent their wives and daughters to sexually seduce the strannik into putting in a good word for them with the Tsar and Tsarina.
By then, Rasputin was acting openly as Tsarina Alexandra’s confidant and personal advisor. He had no particular political platform and supported no specific political group. The one political constant was that Rasputin was a staunch opponent of anybody opposing the Tsar’s absolutist rule, or who ranged himself against or criticized Rasputin.
His influence during this period ranged from appointing high-ranking members of the church hierarchy, to selecting cabinet members and high-ranking government officials, many of whom proved incompetent opportunists. On occasion, he intervened in the conduct of the war by writing the Tsar, offering him advice on this or that general or this or that plan, based on religious visions and holy dreams.
Rasputin’s influence was exploited by opponents of the Tsar to challenge his competence, the integrity of the imperial dynasty, and the very concept of absolutist rule. The strannik helped his enemies and those of his imperial patrons with scandalous and notorious misconduct visible for all to see. In addition to his dissolute and licentious lifestyle, Rasputin engaged in drunken public brawls with church officials, bragged about his influence over the Tsar and Tsarina, and when in his cups, boasted of having slept with Tsarina Alexandra. Notwithstanding a mounting public clamor for his removal, Alexandra continued to fiercely defend Rasputin, insisted that he remain by her side, and compelled her husband to resist all calls for his banishment.