Rasputin (was Musings on the underground)

[grendel at pangea.ca]

> >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