Rasputin: Holy Man. Scandal. Unkillable.Episode 61:34
The Survivor Invited Into a Cellar
After surviving one assassination attempt, Rasputin accepts an invitation from the aristocrat determined to finish the job.
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Transcript
Rasputin was stabbed in an attempted assassination in July 1914—and murdered in December 1916.
The knife wound was serious, but Rasputin recovered.
Rasputin staggered into the street, bleeding, as a crowd seized his attacker.
Years earlier, by 1912, he advised the czar, and enemies feared his influence.
Prince Felix Yussupov believed Rasputin represented a danger to the monarchy.
Yussupov was sole heir to what one account calls Russia's largest fortune.
He was also married to Princess Irina, the czar's niece.
The silence gathers around him, heavy and cold.
He was one of several conspirators who planned the attack.
On December 30th, 1916, Rasputin accepted an invitation to a social function in the cellar of Prince Yussupov's Moika Palace.
The cellar offered a secluded setting for the evening’s meeting.
Dr Lazovert allegedly laced cakes and wine with cyanide.
In his memoir, Yussupov wrote, “I decided Rasputin had to die.”
The traditional narrative is largely based on Prince Yussupov's published memoirs.
It claimed poison came first, then shooting, bludgeoning, and drowning.
Where it leaves off
In the Moika cellar, the cyanide-laced cakes and wine were waiting—but the poison story would become the murder's first great contradiction.
Sources
- Introduction - Gregory Rasputin: Topics in Chronicling America - Research Guides at Library of Congressguides.loc.govsecondary
- The death of Rasputin—A forensic evaluation - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
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