Rasputin (was Musings on the underground)

[James Palmer]

There's also a decentish made-for-TV movie called "Rasputin," with Alan
Rickman in, that does a good job of giving historical background.

James

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"Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger."

- W.B. Yeats, "The Apparitions."

On Tue, 23 Feb 1999 grendel at pangea.ca wrote:

> > >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.
> > 
> Not to long ago, I was on a mailing list called Arcana (sadly defunct,
> now) which dealt with historical records of the paranormal in a
> scholarly fashion. There was a long, long, long thread on Rasputin, his
> life, his influence on the Russian court, his death, and his legacy. Not
> having been too familiar with the man, I learned a lot.
> 
> The main thing I learned is that serious scholars of Russian history
> apparently don't agree on the accuracy of _ANYTHING_ having to do with
> the mad monk. I have seen so many conflicting stories, with extensive
> citation of various primary and secondary sources, that about all I
> really know about the whole mess is that Boney M did a song about him
> and Boiled in Lead covered it on their Antler Dance album.
> 
> Having firmly established my lack of academic knowledge on the subject,
> I know will speak about it. Some of the stories that came out of the
> list included the clawing at the ice story of his death, or one where he
> was pulled out of the river and found that he had in fact drowned,
> despite the massive quantities of both lead and poison in his system.
> Other sources state that he was killed by the first shot to the head,
> and some say that he died of syphillis. The legends of his sexual
> prowess are balanced by an equal number of tales of his celibacy. The
> scope of his influence in the Russian court is also open to heated
> debate, as is his relationship with the various members of the royal
> family.
> 
> Short answer: no one really knows too much about the man.
> 
> There is, however a movie called Dark Forces, starring Sam Neill, that
> retells the most popular legends, setting them in the US presidential
> family. Not a great movie, but kinda fun.
> 
> Rick Neal
> 
> "It is always best to be a little improbable." --Oscar Wilde
> 
>