Musings on the underground

[John Tynes]

>Rasputin may not have ascended (but see Kennedy above) but a
>man that resilient may well have been faking his own death
>once he realised he couldn't get out of the ice. So he lies
>there underwater in the frozen stream until Yussopov's bully-
>boys dig him out and deliver him to the Tsar for burial,
>gets buried, then quietly digs his way out of _that_ situation
>and goes on his merry way, quietly, seemingly dead, with no
>chance of anyone on his tail.

I recently saw a Soviet-era film called RASPUTIN, made in Russia in the 
early 1980s I believe. It wasn't a terribly good film, but interesting in 
places. It was *very* weird to see Rasputin talking on the telephone! 
Apparently the Czar had telephones installed at his court by the time 
Rasputin came along, if the film is correct. That's two memes that don't 
taste great together, you know? "Hello?" "Hi, this is Rasputin. A crow 
eclipses the sun! Bwadkjdfskjd!"

Anyway, the film ends with the burial of Rasputin. As they're putting the 
coffin in the grave, you can clearly him thrashing and kicking inside. 
The czarina stares at her husband in hatred and says something like "I 
hate this country." Roll credits.

I've never heard of anything about Rasputin kickin' at the lid 
historically, so maybe the filmmakers just made it up. Or maybe it's 
folklore in Russia. (Ken Hite? Are you reading this?) But clearly some 
folks think it possible that Rasputin could have survived.


<- John Tynes - rev at tccorp.com - http://www.John.Tynes.com/ ->
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