Grigori Rasputin - Bizarre, dissolute religious con-man whose close ties to the Imperial family allowed him to become a major political player, with tragic consequences. A Siberian peasant, he was a wild youth - after a religious conversion he became an itinerant holy man, evidently influenced by the sexually-charged khlyst heresy. He arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 - his down-home religious style and powerful personality made a strong impression and he soon began to penetrate high society - literally so, for he enjoyed sexually humiliating his upper-class followers. From about 1906 he developed a close, but non-sexual, rapport with the Imperial family, presenting himself as a pious man-of-the-people and successfully faith-healing the ailing Czarevitch. When objections arose to his growing influence, he protected his position by increasingly interfering in state affairs, developing a taste for power and becoming a major political influence by 1911. This odd situation did much to destroy any remnants of respect for the crown. After the Czar left to take direct command of the army in 1915 during WWI, Rasputin virtually ruled Russia through the Czarina, installing incompetent and corrupt favorites in key positions. On Dec.29/30.1916, he was murdered by a group of well-connected conservatives - the Russian monarchy fell a few weeks later.
