Rasputin+and+the+Last+Tsarina

=﻿Rasputin and the Last Tsarina=

Layla Nelson
Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Tsarina Aleksandra had tried for years to get pregnant with an heir. After they had 4 daughters, they began to get desperate. They called in many holy men to bless them with a baby boy. Finally, in 1904, Aleksei Nikolayevich was born. Unfortunately, the answer to their prayers was afflicted with heamophilia. Whenever the boy would bleed, it would not stop. The Tsar and Tsarina were greatly worried and they looked everywhere for a cure. Again, holy men were called in. Nothing worked until finally in 1908, Gregori Rasputin came to help Aleksei when he was having one of his bleeding episodes.

Rasputin was a peasant, born in Siberia in 1869. At age 18, he went through a religious transformation and spent three months in a monastery. He was married with three children, but he began to wander to Greece and Jerusalem, During these wanderings, he began to claim to be a //starets//, a holy man with healing powers and the ability to predict the future.

When Rasputin was summoned to the palace in 1908, he was finally able to prove his healing powers. Although nobody knows how he did it, Rasputin was able to help Aleksei unlike anyone before him. Some people say it was hypnotism, others disagree. Maybe he did have the powers he said he had. Having proven himself to Aleksandra, Rasputin was no longer just a healer for her son. He became her confidante and advisor. To the outside world, having a peasant advise a woman who had great influence over their king was unacceptable. On top of that, Rasputin was addicted to both sex and alcohol. Though to Nicholas and Aleksandra he was a saintly holy man, to Russia he was a sex-craved peasant who was ruining the monarchy. It didn't help that Rasputin was having sex with high society women in exchange for political favors and many people believed that he was convincing the Tsarina to make peace with Germany.

Russia knew that they needed to get rid of Rasputin. Many influential people tried to enlighten the royals of the danger they were in. They approached Nicholas and Aleksandra about the rumours circulating abour Rasputin. To everyone's dismay, they refused to listen. Rasputin had healed their son. The only solution seemed to be murder.