Last of the Czars - 02 - The Shadow of Rasputin (1996)

st petersburg 1905 russian workers are up in arms factories are closing every day calls for the removal of the tsar are becoming more and more strident the passive and out-of-touch emperor tsar nicholas ii was under serious threat reluctantly he had agreed to sign an order which limited his powers and created a parliament the duma how shameful it is to live through such a crisis in the eyes of the whole world but this is god's will and i must endure all troubles until the very end three hundred years of absolutist rule were over but the conflict between czarist russia and her growing legions of radicals was not as desperate as the political situation was the tsar and his empress alexandra remained absorbed in their own family life and the past glories of the romanovs and as the tides of history swelled into a tidal wave they found themselves right in its course struggling to remain afloat it was in 1904 after having four charming daughters that the emperor and empress of russia were blessed with a male heir nicholas ii was determined that his son would be better prepared for the tsar's mantle than he had been from an early age alexei was introduced to public life and expected to take part in official occasions he was the living proof of the regeneration of the romanov dynasty an inspiration to an entire generation we were learning french using the same textbook as the youngest ramona and on the second page there was his picture for us it was even an incentive at that time that the heir to the throne used the same textbook as us how could we fail to do well of course we all spoke a wonderful french francis was usually dressed in a silver suit and i also wore a similar sailor suit we were the same age and i would always compare my soul with him it was a fashion for boys to be dressed in the same way as but alexei's innocent beauty concealed an awful truth he had been born with an incurable illness the boy was a hemophiliac and was unlikely in those days to reach adulthood hemophilia a hereditary disease was passed through the mother this had a devastating effect on the empress alexandra when the child was born with that illness which was obviously inherited from her from the mother who who awaited the birth of veneer finally the boy was born and he had him a feeder that destroyed her nature gave four daughters as if it meant to tell him be careful don't don't don't from that moment on she lived only to ensure that the boy would survive and would reign one day nicholas and alexandra's desperate concern for their son's well-being was to dominate their thoughts and shape their destiny the first clue that a savior for the little boy might have come can be found in nicholas's diary november the 1st 1905 we have got to know a man of god gregory from tobolsk province when gregory rasputin arrived in saint petersburg his reputation as a mystical faith healer had preceded him the tsar and the empress were intrigued by this man and my grandmother introduced rasputin to the tsar grandmother and her sister realized that this man was a typical russian style healer they thought it could be useful or interesting for the tsar and the empress to know him but they never thought it would go that far and it would become an exclusive relationship for nicholas and alexandra rasputin symbolized the simple soul of the status the holy man of russian folk tradition they believed that god had at last answered their prayers rasputin was to worm his way into the hearts of the imperial family from an early age alexandra had wanted her son to lead as normal a life as possible a sailor named daravenko was assigned to protect the fragile alexei he was the young boy's constant companion but by necessity he was also something of a warden my mother as a child in the crimea used to play with the children of the emperor she was three years older than the young sadevich whom she remembers as a very spunky energetic little boy who wanted to do all sorts of things that he was prevented from doing because they were so afraid that he would fall and and again get sick from hemophilia so the sailor who took care of him had a terrible time it was a constant struggle to provide alex say with a normal happy childhood and still keep him alive at the imperial palace of levadia in the crimea the empress organized family and friends into helping with her charity bazaars in the nearby resort of yalta both the emperor and the tsarevic alexei were expected to do their bit to help alexandria there were round white monkeys with stoves and literally two steps away from me was air he turned out to be a very jolly boy he was pulling prizes out of large socks filled with oats and presenting them to the winners he thrust his hand inside and cried oh i can't find anything i can't find anything searching for a gift but of course they were filled with gifts and then he said oh this one's heavy so he can't lift it he wanted to tease an elderly gentleman standing there the and then he pulled out a bottle of champagne as alex say grew up severe bruising and hemorrhaging continued to appear without warning often threatening his life the doctors were at a loss in may of 1905 gregory rasputin arrived at alexay's bedside and uttered a few soothing words to everyone's amazement bleeding in the suffering yangtzarevich stopped to the empress it was a miracle she was blind to rasputin's public image of depravity and deceit my father saw him rush out onto the sort of balcony and draw attention to himself in no uncertain terms and then he attempted i don't know whether he was taken away by then to um show his vital parts and it's reputed to have said this what rules russia and that's it as rasputin elbowed his way up the social ladder photographs found their way into the newspapers with captions full of suggestive innuendo romancing the romanovs in the family circle throughout st petersburg rasputin quickly became notorious though in truth he did not spend much time in the imperial household he was often thousands of miles away in his native siberian village of pokrovskaya with his wife and three children and while rasputin lingered in his homeland his enemies in the capital were compiling sexually compromising pictures of him the pictures found their way to the chairman of the new parliament or duma rodzianco horrified he requested an audience with tsar nicholas i showed him the photographs and i said and what if something were to happen to the heir to the throne i implore you my sovereign banished this dirty interloper from the court the czar was silent and then said no i cannot promise you that my grandfather didn't like rasputin at all he knew all about him he studied his life he had means to study and he considered him as the evil spirit of course rasputin was an impostor tragic figure he never was a monk but he sometimes pretended to be one no matter how grotesque the evidence the tsar could not take from his wife her one hope for alexei's survival alexandra was becoming increasingly hysterical and paid little attention to public opinion fear for her son's life made the empress turn ever more to god in august 1912 the new cathedral built at alexandra's instigation near the family home in saskatchewan the tsar's village was ceremoniously opened it was named the fyodorovsky cathedral and it was here that she spent many hours in silent prayer for her son the cathedral still stands an empty shell to the memory of alexandra fyodorovna's faith the imperial couple hid their fears about the air in a public display of official engagements outside their closest circles the nature of alexay's illness was not known the strain of keeping up appearances took its toll on nicholas and alexandra whenever they could they took pleasure in normal family life far away from the formalities of the court even when he wore the black armband of court mourning nicholas loved horsing around when off duty the tsar loved photography and took pictures of his adored family at every opportunity surviving 70 years of bolshevik rule thousands of these photographs are today held in the moscow archives it's not for nothing that nicholas's contemporaries said that had nicholas ii not been tsar he would have made a wonderful photographer every evening and for nicholas this was the most pleasant part of his day he would stick these photos in sign them sort through them and the whole family would join in in the fall of 1912 the imperial family gathered at spalla a hunting retreat in poland it was a place meant for enjoying outdoor pursuits and all the family participated except for alex say he had to be content with gentle boat trips on a nearby lake one day while climbing into the boat he tripped and fell a terrible hemorrhage appeared on alexey's thigh and groin the seven-year-old was in agony his strength seeping from his body the doctors who rushed in from saint petersburg pronounced the case hopeless rasputin was far away in siberia gilliard the children's tutor was in the dark about alex say's malady which was a closely guarded secret but he knew something was terribly wrong i found myself in the corridor opposite alexei's room from which a moaning sound came distinctly to my ears suddenly i noticed that serena running towards me there was a terror-stricken and distracted look on her face nicholas has so often in moments of despair wrote to his mother the days between october the 6th and the 10th were the worst the poor darlings suffered intensely the pains came in spasms and recurred every quarter of an hour i was hardly able to stay in the room but of course had to take turns with alex for she was exhausted by spending whole nights by his bed for the first time since alexey's birth public bulletins were issued admitting that the heir to the throne was seriously ill desperate the empress gave instructions for a telegram to be wired to rasputin his reply came by return from siberia god has seen your tears and heard your prayers do not grieve the little one will not die do not allow the doctors to bother him too much within a day of the telegram's arrival the hemorrhage stopped for the empress it was simple a miracle had been worked spaller was to prove a dramatic turning point from now on rasputin's power over the empress was to grow unchecked in february 1913 despite the now limited powers of the tsar the romanovs were grandly celebrating 300 years of their dynasty they made a pilgrimage through the empire arriving in moscow in may there was an appeal to welcome so i went along climbed up onto a tree and saw the taran serena with their cavalry escort riding through moscow the sirens arena were boring to their people it was all white light and gold the procession was headed by the tsar in serena and i was rather surprised because the zarina looked so much more imposing bigger somehow than the tsar despite all the splendor the romanov dynasty was troubled public discontent bubbled beneath the surface and now a new weakness appeared in the royal family newsreels had come into vogue and in them the young alexei could be seen obviously ill and being carried everywhere the invincible romanovs were vulnerable after all in the summer of 1914 the family set off on their annual cruise on the imperial yacht standart it was a relatively carefree summer as the romanovs danced away the northern white knights they seemed blissfully unaware that their whole world was about to be swept away cursed by world war and then by revolution on the 28th of june archduke franz ferdinand of austria was assassinated in sarajevo by serbian nationalists the germany of kaiser william ii saw in this the opportunity it had been seeking to expand its empire when the austrians appealed for support in a retaliation against serbia germany agreed the germans anticipated that the russian tsar might well come to the assistance of his slav brothers the serbs this would give germany the pretext it needed to declare war on russia but the kaiser was the first cousin of the german-born russian empress alexandra in the close-knit world of european royalty willie as he was known in the family was also a distant cousin of nicholas nicholas ii couldn't believe in 1914 that a european war was going to break out couldn't really believe it in his heart and i think that had something to do with the fact that he'd known william ii since they were children william had sat in the next door room when nicholas and alexandra were engaged william had fallen in love with alexandra as a young man very hard to believe that your cousin willy he's actually going to start a war which is going to turn europe upside down but blood counted for little when empires were on the march willy and nicky were soon to find themselves on opposite sides of the divide and the russian people would come to see their tsar's beloved empress as an interloper a german spy and the source of all the country's misfortunes news of germany's declaration of war on russia reached nicholas at home in the alexander palace in sarskayas alone alexandra began to weep as her confidante isabex hoverden remembered she was the empress of russia russian always in heart and soul once during the war she said to me it is the country of my husband and my son i love this country with all my heart word of the war spread like wildfire russia appeared to rally to the cause and even to her czar at that time when the tsar arrived we all made for winter palace square we were curious to see him and hear what he would say people were carrying the charge portrait and crosses reserve soldiers took their uniforms out of mothballs put them on and were singing god save the czar this was our official answer we went out onto the balcony which was higher than the balcony of the emperor and we saw him come out and everyone on the square in front of us everyone got down on their knees and sang god save the czar name at this point a telegram arrived from rasputin in siberia let papa not plan for war for with war will come the end of russia and yourselves you will lose to the last man the tsar read it tore it into shreds and gave the order for general mobilization people brought icons and placed them by the wheels people were crying and we young people were thinking that we haven't seen anything of life yet and now we will die each time someone was called up everyone would get together they'd comfort one another and everyone would see the recruits off they'd be drinking and music people were playing harmonicas and accordions though support for the war may have seemed strong the last russian defeat in 1904 had resulted in the country's first brush with revolution as a precaution the czar's secret police the akrana made it their job to neutralize those who did not support the war by exiling them to siberia the revolutionary members of the duma stood clearly against the war they staged a walk out and were promptly charged with treason and imprisoned meanwhile the modern and well-equipped german army was feeling lucky paris for lunch and st petersburg for dinner was the confident kaiser's cry the tsar's army was larger than the germans the biggest in the world in fact but it was not as well equipped or as well led nicholas appointed his uncle grand duke nikolai commander-in-chief of the army nikolasa as he was known was the obvious choice his physical stature alone set him apart as a natural leader of men the emperor was the shortest man of the whole extended amount of family unfortunately he inherited his mother's jeans instead of his father's and all the grand dukes were from six foot two to six foot six and he was something like five foot seven my grandmother was his first cousin told me once that he told her who wants to take orders from a dwarf but whatever personal doubts or insecurities haunted nicholas the tsar was god's anointed and he did his duty traveling the front lines and boosting his soldiers morale the capital saint petersburg was renamed petrograd in a spirit of slavic unity news from the front began to drift in a russian victory against the austrians was offset by crushing losses at the hands of the germans and as always war brought misery fear and tragedy the attack was a nightmare we were supposed to march in ranks our rank was scattered behind me was another rank five ranks in all and the germans had the same it was us against them if i don't kill him he'll kill me and the horses just kept going unconcerned whether you are on your feet or have fallen to the ground and the cavalry with their sabers slicing to the left to the right and then we for instantly had to clear it all away somewhere without heads some without arms some just rooney did the war roused the fervor of the already patriotic empress she put on a nurse's uniform and her two eldest daughters olga and tatyana followed suit alexandra supervised the establishment of 85 hospitals in the petrograd area alone even the ground floor of the winter palace was given over to hospital beds the well-meaning empress and her daughters struggled to do their part caring for patients i know that the wounded soldiers did not like that because they were still unskilled nurses and after their departure it was often necessary to change the bandages and this was a painful procedure the suffering she saw made a deep impression on alexandra as she wrote to her husband after attending to a soldier with a shattered groin scarcely a man anymore so shot to pieces perhaps it must be cut off as so black but hope to save it terrible to look at i won't describe any more details as it's so sad but being a wife and mother i feel for them quite particularly alexandra wrote daily reams to her husband at the front in our archives her letters alone number over 600 and two-thirds of them were written in the years of the first world war she sometimes wrote two or three letters a day nikki and alex wrote to each other in english their best common language in a style all of their own frozen in time my own sweet nicky love make god help me to repay you hundred-fold for all your sweetness yes verily i doubt there being many such happy wives as i am my beloved sonny when i read your letters my eyes are moist it seems that you are lying on your sofa and that i am listening to you sitting in my armchair by the lamp i don't know if i could have endured it all if god had not decreed to give you to me as a wife and friend i kiss you and the children tenderly ever your old hubby nikki in march 1915 the russian army captured a key fort at paramitial poland but their joy was short-lived from now until the summer they were to suffer defeat after defeat that summer of 1915 nikki had his hands full at the front and so his wife began to try to lighten his load by helping with the affairs of state in the capital that help eventually included conferring with rasputin over political appointments one of their joint decisions was to target the head of the army nicholas uncle the grand duke nicolasha please my angel i have absolutely no faith in nicolasha i am haunted by our friend's wish and know it will be fatal for us and for the country if not fulfilled you know nikolaj's hatred for gregory is intense nobody knows who is emperor now it is as though nikolasa settles all makes the choices and changes at the end of august 1915 nicholas summoned his council of ministers and told them he was going to replace nikolai if the tsar would have replaced uncle nicolas that would have been absolutely normal the mistake was of taking up himself the high command but his idea was a mystical idea he felt he was a sacrificial victim of the lamb sacrificed on the altar to the god to the god of war he wanted to take part in the tragedy of the russian soldiers my own beloved darling sunny thank god it's all over and here i am with this new heavy responsibility on my shoulders fancy my wifey helping hussy went away what a pity you did not perform that duty long ago it was a extremely deep relationship husband and wife a deep physical bond you know it's very strange they were they were lovers really and as a consequence he had total confidence in her judgment in her wisdom but the poor woman was deluded my very own beloved one you have fought this great fight for your country and throne alone and with bravery and decision it is the beginning of the great glory of your reign our friend said so and i absolutely believe it i am near and with you forever and ever and none shall separate us your very own wife sunny in nicholas's absence power in the capital moved more and more into the hands of the empress and with the passing months the shadow over the russian state grew longer and longer the russian army's headquarters have now moved to safer ground at mogilioff not far from moscow the tzarevich alexey now joined nicholas there who wrote reassuringly to alexandra it is very cosy sleeping side by side i say prayers with him every night and read your letters aloud to him he kisses your signature his company brings light and life to all of us here the tsar had arranged for alexei to continue his studies his tutor juliart was there to teach french and to take a few snowballs the zarevich obviously in high spirits was in a giddy mood when he found he had been caught on camera then after months of relative good health he suffered a severe nosebleed in december of 1915. he was hastily sent back to saint petersburg where he once more came under the care of rasputin the startups was now living in an apartment at number 64 gorokhov street in the capital and the legends about him continued to grow in early winter my husband and i were walking arm-in-arm when suddenly i realized i was not feeling well i was losing consciousness and i fainted in the snow my husband got a flight and said what's the matter what's wrong with you he turned round and his eyes met the green eyes of a mushrik a peasant with a big bushy beard my husband guessed who it was immediately rasputin his sexual passion was so strong that he could make you lose consciousness even when he was behind you rasputin was always careful to appear devout and serval with the empress leading her to believe that all rumors of debauchery were just that rumors feeling the power of imperial protection rasputin now tried to influence government appointments across the board people like my grandfather at the time when he was governor of petersburg used to receive little notes short notes uh from rasputin all his notes always started in the same way dear friend they always said please appoint so-and-so to to whatever has put in the thought governor zinoviev threw them into the trash in fact it is doubtful that rasputin's little notes had much impact on ministerial appointments at all what is truly important about rasputin is not what the man did but what he was perceived to have done or be doing by russian society and it's how he was perceived and the way that that destroyed the prestige of the dynasty that is really important in the history of the russian revolution if rasputin was damaging the tsar's name in the capital the war was testing his subject's loyalty throughout the rest of the empire wounded soldiers recuperating far from their families were torn by the letters that started to arrive from home as a boy kolya izachik read such letters aloud to soldiers bulleted in his school they were writing that for example ivan had also been drafted that one of them had had to sell their cow that the horse couldn't work anymore that there were no men left in the village all had been driven away to this carnage and that we women are sowing and gathering in the harvest and doing the work of horses life had become very hard there were no supplies left no cotton or cloth barely any kerosene the tsar the little father tried to keep morale at the front high his own morale was far from high as news from petrograd of strikes and shortages filtered through and to those who saw their czar at this time his face betrayed his sense of isolation when he raised his hand in greeting to us in his face was i can't describe it i saw such a look of terrible despair as though he were asking us what shall i do often when i was in church i found that some icons would remind me of the tsar such a look of resignation in his face and even now i can see him before my eyes that winter of 1916 the whole family were again reunited with nicholas at headquarters at the front in december 1916 rasputin wrote to the tsar i feel that i shall leave life before january the first tsar of the land of russia if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that gregory has been killed you must know this if it was your relations who have wrought my death then no one in your family that is to say none of your children or relations will remain alive for more than two years they will be killed by the russian people gregory in petrograd rasputin's supposed political influence was grist to the mill of the tsar's enemies and in the duma one member finally had the courage to say what others were thinking vladimir putin was a prominent monarchist the tsarist ministers are puppets whose strings are held tightly in the hands of gregory rasputin that evil genius of russia and the tsar and the empress alexandra a german woman who's been left on the throne the tsar's reluctance to read himself in russia of this corrupt man is putting russia into an abyss from which there will be no way back those closest to the tsar felt it was now time to act the tsar's first cousin grand duke dimitri was to take up the challenge if nicolas would not put an end to rasputin's influence then he would the plan was to be masterminded by prince felix yusupov married to the tsar's niece he was one of the richest men in russia and known for his flamboyant behavior a more unlikely assassin would have been hard to find prince yusuf now enrolled the support of purish kievich who was to supply the murder weapon grand duke dmitry something of a socialite determined the time of the plan's execution his first free evening wasn't until the 16th of december the date was set rasputin was invited to the usupath palace for midnight and led down to the cellar whatever happened that night has been obscured by time and imagination the story goes that his hosts poisoned him with cyanide shot him three times at point-blank range and beat and kicked him still he pulsed with life the astonished assassins dragged him outside to the icy river neva and threw him in the waters closed over his body and all was still at the alexander palace zarina was frantic upon hearing the dire rumors about rasputin she wrote to nikki you can imagine our feelings thoughts our friend has disappeared i cannot and won't believe that he has been killed god have mercy three days later one of a pair of galoshes belonging to rasputin was found on the petrovsky bridge the police began to search the river and soon made a grisly discovery the autopsy report discovered years later reported no traces of poison in the body and no water in the lungs whatever the cause of death the mad monk was no more alexandra was inconsolable it was her wish that rasputin be buried in the gardens of the alexander palace where she could take courage from his spiritual presence nicholas returned from the front to comfort his grief-stricken wife who was by now despised by her subjects and bereft of her source of hope for nicholas it was one step closer to the abyss tsar of the land of russia you must know this if it was your relations who have wrought my death then no one of your family will remain alive for more than two years they will be killed by the russian people gregory you

Channel: Charles Atencio

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Keywords: 02, The, Shadow, of, Rasputin

Id: Hx2zMUCsdM0

Length: 51min 33sec (3093 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 04 2013