The Imperial Family Ignored His Depravities
Whether or not Rasputin had actually seduced the Russian Empress – and he did boast of having done so – there was no doubt that he had seduced dozens of aristocratic women while in St. Petersburg. In the presence of the imperial family, he kept up the act of a humble and holy peasant. Beyond the royal gaze, however, he soon fell back into his lecherous habits, preaching that physical contact with his person had holy healing powers. The strannik exerted a powerful animal magnetism, which many found inexplicable, upon the women of high society. Before long, the licentious healer had a cult following of wealthy and aristocratic women, young and old, maidens and matrons, throwing themselves at him like modern groupies at a rock star.
Rasputin set himself up in an apartment where people from all classes, but especially aristocratic women, flocked to visit him. Many of the lower classes virtually worshipped Rasputin, believed him to be a holy man, and frequently asked him for help or money. Many of Russia’s high society and aristocrats, aware that Rasputin had the ear of the Emperor and Empress and wielded influence at court, sought to gain his favor. Some even sent their wives or daughters to seduce him into putting in a good word for them at court, or their female kin did so on their own initiative to help their male relative.
And many admiring women visited him simply for sex. Lots and lots of sex. Rasputin was, by all accounts, what would be considered today a sex addict, with enviable stamina and staying power. Saint Petersburg’s authorities posted plainclothes policemen at Rasputin’s building, and their reports frequently described dozens of women, from prostitutes to high ranking aristocrats, visiting his apartment. The police reports then went on to describe loud noises of drunken revelry, partying, beatings, violent sex, and orgies that lasted until sunrise and beyond.
Although many reports of Rasputin’s unruly and unholy conduct – including the rape of a nun – reached Tsar Nicholas’ ears, he either dismissed them out of hand, or laughed them off with comments such as “the holy are always slandered“. The Tsar’s confessor investigated the reports of Rasputin’s misconduct, concluded there was truth in them, and advised Nicholas to distance himself from the strannik. The Tsar, at the behest of his wife who was fiercely protective of Rasputin, sided with the strannik and banished his confessor from Saint Petersburg, instead.
By 1911, Rasputin’s notorious misconduct had become a national scandal and turned the imperial family into a laughingstock. The Russian prime minister, P.A. Stolypin, sent the Tsar a detailed report of Rasputin’s misdeeds, which compelled Nicholas to banish him back to his village in Siberia. Within a few months, however, the Tsarevich Alexei suffered a severe bout of hemophilia. After his desperate mother telegrammed Rasputin asking him to pray for her son, who got better soon after Rasputin wrote back, the Empress forced her husband to bring the strannik back to Saint Petersburg. From then on the Tsar, anxious for peace at home, and convinced that Rasputin had a beneficial impact on his son, chose to ignore all future allegations of wrongdoing.