The Murder Of Rasputin

Rasputin’s influence over Alexandra allowed him to promote political allies to high-ranking state positions, leading to a massive reorganization of bureaucracy in 1915-1916 (Massie 389). Government officials soon believed that Rasputin’s presence was the source of too many of the troubles of the empire and posed a threat to the Romanov Dynasty. In December 1916, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov plotted Rasputin’s death. After inviting him to a dinner party, they brutally murdered Rasputin, shooting him several times, beating him, poisoning him with cyanide, and finally throwing him into the Neva River (Rasputin 235; King 182). The Romanov Dynasty would collapse in the following year 1917 in the February.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was an infamous Siberian ‘holy man’, whose ability to cure the Tsar and Tsarina’s son of haemophilia led to him becoming an important friend and spiritual advisor to the Romanov royal family (Duffy, 2009). Rasputin was a paradox, by day he was a supreme mystic at court and at night he obtained a reputation as a notorious drunk and philanderer (Rae & Thompson, 2014). By 1916 Rasputin was viewed by many as a malevolent puppeteer who infiltrated his way into the royal family, pulling the strings of the Tsar’s wife and manipulating the regime (Rae & Thompson, 2014). While his influence and status may have been overstated — Rasputin became an obvious scapegoat for Russian aristocrats, liberals and nationalists, synonymous with debauchery, lust and power — his presence brought considerable shame and discredit to the tsarist government (Moss, 2003). The dominant viewpoint that Rasputin was the sole reason behind the decay of the Romanov reign is presented by Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the Duma, who stated that “The appearance in [the royal] court of Grigory Rasputin, and the influence he exercised there, mark the beginning of the decay of Russian society and the loss of prestige for the throne and for the person of the Tsar himself”. However, although Rasputin’s company played a significant role in the increasing unpopularity of the Imperial couple, he was purely a symbol of Russian despotism and not a central character in the downfall of the Romanov

It was this relationship that politicians and civilians alike used to undermine the Romanov`s rule. Afraid that Rasputin would be the cause of the empire's fall, a group of conspirators murdered Rasputin in December of 1916. The Tsar was overthrown only two months later.

Alexandra had also reassured Nicholas to turn to Rasputin, a Serbian mystic to heal his son, Alexei who had inherited Haemophilia B. his success in healing their son saw Rasputin gain increasing influence over the Empress and therefor the Tsar.

“Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.” This is a direct quote from one of the most notorious men in history, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid 1920’s until his death. The period in which he ruled over the Soviet Union was known as the Reign of Terror because he was a malicious leader who was ready to do anything to maintain the level of power he achieved. He will forever be remembered as a cold blooded and heartless leader, who took the lives of millions without remorse. This research paper will cover this notorious and deceitful dictator and his early life, rise to power, his reign of terror, and the aftermath of his actions.

In the 1930’s, Germany was under the control of a totalitarian leader, known as Adolf Hitler; Hitler created a cult of personality, using censorship of the press and famous intellectuals of the time, propaganda, and violence to encourage discrimination against Jewish individuals. Discrimination against Jewish individuals was also known as anti-Semitism; hostility and prejudice towards the Jewish race; anti-Semitism can take many different forms, including: Institutional, verbal, or physical. Eventually discrimination, led to violence, and violence transitioned into genocide; the mass murder of a particular ethnic group. In total, over six million men, women, and children were systematically murdered, in one of the largest

Despite all the numerous horrible things that Stalin has done in his reign of terror as I liked to call it, there are some good things that he has done in his rise to power. Firmly believing that Stalin doesn’t deserved to be called Peter the great of the 20th century. To evaluate Stalin as a ruler, it seemed that he would be a ruler with an iron fist and with fear. Though it seems that he didn’t escalate his tactics for being in power. Until there was an assassination of Kirov that sent him into a downward spiral of paranoia. Thinking everyone is against him and to establish his power with fear and to make a cult of personality. To make people afraid to stand up to Stalin and not to a question his method or how he is ruling.

According to C.Joybell C, “The unhappiest people in this world are those who care the most about what other people think” (Goodreads). I can see this in my life and also in Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich. The main character Ivan Ilyich is dying from and unknown disease and while suffering finds himself reflecting on his life choices. Ivan consistently questions himself in the text, such as in his statement “What if my life has all been wrong?” (775). He struggles with the idea that his life might have been a waste and that he really did not get to live. Ivan has always made decisions based off of society’s rules and not his own. In fact, he directly quotes this in the text,” It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false” (776). Ivan Ilyich was never a man who thought for himself or let alone went off impulse. He always thought about what people around him would do or think about his decisions.

The site includes many facts along with a quote that Stalin wrote himself. Holodomor is another name for the Stalin Genocide. Stalin ordered that what food along with other resources that could be found, was to be taken away from the peasants. Anyone who did not hand over their grain and resources willingly were labeled Kulaks. In an act of defiance the peasants slaughtered their livestock resulting in 26 million cattle and 15 million horses slaughtered. They also destroyed their crops. In a letter Stalin wrote, “We must break the back of the

Alexie was the youngest of the five children and only son of Nicholas II and Alexandra. Like his mother, he was born with hemophilia. Unfortunately, his mother's reliance on Grigori Rasputin, a holy man who had no medical training to treat the disease, helped bring about the end of the Romanov dynasty and start the February Revolution. This relationship with Rasputin and the Tsarina as well as the four Grand Duchesses was frowned upon by extended family members wildly and eventually to the Russian people. There were rumors that Rasputin had unsavory relations with all four of the duchesses and this caused a great rift between the Royal family and the people as a whole. Rasputin was murdered by the nobility in Russia on December 17, 1916. The fact that the Anastasia as well as some of her sisters attended his funeral and showed a decline in their behavior after his death fueled the rumors even more.

After WW1 Russia was undergoing huge economic disparities, from inflation, to huge unemployment, and depressions. The populous blamed Nicholas for all of these problems, This huge unrest caused the Duma to hold a coup to abdicate Nicholas from the empire. So in 1917, he abdicated and was brought to the Ural Mountains and placed under house arrest. In the fall of the same year, the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin executed him and his family.

In the year 1917, the war torn Russian Empire was falling to pieces, its people ravaged by war and stricken by famine, all while the royal family enjoyed the high pleasures of life. Russia’s people could no longer withstand it, so they revolted against the Russian Czar and his government alongside the Bolsheviks, who would take the Czar and his family hostage (Earle). These events occurred nearly one hundred years ago, when the Russian Czar Nicholas the II and his family were killed by revolutionists after being dethroned and held captive for over a year. The assassination of Czar Nicholas the II of Russia was just because he was an ineffective military leader, who persecuted certain groups of people, and chose the worse possible scenarios

Though it may seem natural to desire a better place in society, this improvement may come at a price. In Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses the various problems that arise in society to due capitalism and how to solve these problems through communism. Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich focuses on a man whose capitalistic desires end up causing his own downfall. Tolstoy and Marx would argue that some of the biggest problems with capitalistic societies are that they cause individuals to put on a façade and display a false persona for society while also prioritizing the more superficial aspects of life such as material goods and social status over family relations. The result of such a society is a working class that is

The elegant image of a bourgeois society with its emphasis on wealth and property, is only a mirage. Underneath it all is a different world of oppression—specifically, for women in the bourgeois class. In Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler and Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, both works depict female characters in the bourgeois class who face the societal oppression and cope with it in their own way. These oppressions are often set off by the male characters, constructed by the bourgeois society.

It was on the 22nd of August 1915 that the Tsar Nicholas the 2nd took control as head of the army and dismissed his uncle The Grand Duke Nicholai as the previous head. This meant hat the Tsar would be away from St Petersburg, which left the Tsarina and Rasputin in charge. This was mistakes for the Tsar as it made people see Russia’s army as weak and left numerous accusations of Rasputin and the Tsarina having a relationship.