He Was Eerily Prescient About His Murder’s Aftermath
In December of 1916, shortly before his murder, Rasputin sent Tsar Nicholas a message that proved eerily prescient: “I feel that I shall leave life before January 1st. I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa (the Tsar), to the Russian Mother (the Tsarina) and to the Children what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, the Tsar of Russia, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years.
But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood for twenty-five years and they will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no peace in the country. The Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigory has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then none of your children will remain alive for more than two years. And if they do, they will beg for death as they will see the defeat of Russia, see the Antichrist coming, plague, poverty, destroyed churches, and desecrated sanctuaries where everyone is dead. The Russian Tsar, you will be killed by the Russian people and the people will be cursed and will serve as the devil’s weapon killing each other everywhere. Three times for 25 years they will destroy the Russian people and the orthodox faith and the Russian land will die. I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, and think of your blessed family ”
Rasputin was killed at the end of 1916 by boyars and nobles, and the murderers’ ranks included relatives of the Tsar’s own family. True to Rasputin’s prediction, less than three months after his murder, the Russian Revolution began in Saint Petersburg on March 8th, 1917. Troops sent to quell the revolt rebelled, turned their rifles on their own officers and joined the revolutionaries. Within a week, the Russian Empire and the rule of Romanov Dynasty, which had lasted for three centuries, collapsed with the abdication of Nicholas II.
Tsar, Tsarina, and the imperial family were imprisoned by the new Russian Provisional Government in a palace on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, but within a few months were evacuated to the Urals for their own protection. In October of 1917, however, the Bolsheviks seized power, and the imperial family’s hitherto decent treatment came to an end. Under the Bolsheviks, conditions of imprisonment became more strict. As the Russian Civil War raged, the imperial family were put on soldiers’ rations and deprived of the loyal servants who had followed them into confinement.
On July 17th, 1918, with anti-Bolshevik armies nearing the town in which the imperial family was imprisoned, the Bolsheviks decided to eliminate the possibility of a rescue, and had the former Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and all their children, executed. As Rasputin had predicted, their murders came less than two years after his own at the hands of boyars and nobles.
Sources For Further Reading:
Time Magazine – 5 Myths and Truths About Rasputin
History of Yesterday – The Mystery of Rasputin
Russia Beyond – No, Rasputin Wasn’t The Russian Queen’s Lover
Buffalo News – Beware Of Everything You Think You Know About Rasputin
Owlcation – Rasputin: Satanic Interpretations Versus Modern Interpretations
History of Yesterday – How Blind Faith and a Mother’s Love Destroyed an Empire