2. The Religious Charlatan’s Contribution to The Collapse of Imperial Russia
Before long, Empress Alexandra was soliciting the barely literate Rasputin’s advice on matters of state and government. She then heeded the charlatan’s advice, or badgered her husband into carrying out his recommendations. Soon, officials were being hired and fired based on Rasputin’s say so, and those seeking to advance or secure their positions showered him with bribes. Others sent their wives and daughters to seduce Rasputin into putting in a good word for them with the royal couple. Rasputin’s 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 Emperor, 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 Emperor to challenge his competence, the integrity of the imperial dynasty, and the very concept of absolutist rule. Rasputin helped his enemies and those of his royal patrons with scandalous behavior visible for all to see. In addition to his dissoluteness and licentiousness, Rasputin got into drunken public brawls with church officials, and bragged about his influence over the Emperor and Empress. While drunk, he even boasted of having slept with Empress 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. That undermined public respect for imperial rule, and prepared the ground for the institution’s overthrow in the Russian Revolution of 1917.