0:10

You're listening to the second and final part

0:13

of Unexplained, Season seven,

0:15

episode fifteen, in

0:17

his eyes a flaming glow. The

0:27

Russian Empire was built

0:29

on the notion of absolute autocracy,

0:32

placing unbridled power in the hands

0:35

of a single supreme ruler known

0:37

as the Czar. Even

0:39

as the empire was forced to gradually

0:42

adapt over time, that

0:44

founding principle remained. But

0:48

by the mid to late nineteen hundreds, Tsar

0:51

Nicholas, the second of the Romanov

0:53

dynasty, whose family had ruled

0:55

since the early sixteen hundreds, had

0:58

become a supporting player in his

1:00

own kingdom. The

1:02

name on everyone's lips, the

1:04

one man that nobody could

1:06

stop talking about was

1:08

Grigory Rasputin. Every

1:12

single person in Saint Petersburg

1:14

had an opinion about Rasputin,

1:17

or Father Grigory, as his

1:19

supporters called him. The

1:22

enigmatic mystic monk arrived

1:24

in the city seemingly out of

1:27

thin air, and in the space of

1:29

just a few years had become

1:31

one of the Tsar's most trusted advisers.

1:34

To some, Rasputin was

1:37

a revered and inspirational figure,

1:39

a financially impoverished farmer

1:42

who'd used faith to pull himself

1:44

up from his humble beginnings,

1:47

endured many hard years

1:49

as a wandering holy man, and

1:51

had now earned his place in the

1:53

winter Palace next to Czar

1:56

Nicholas the Second. To

1:58

others, Mutine was

2:00

anything but holy, perhaps

2:04

even demonic. His

2:06

disheveled appearance and long, greasy

2:09

hair suggested to some that

2:11

although Rasputin no longer

2:14

lived in the wilderness, evidently

2:17

the wilderness still lived in

2:19

him, and that was

2:21

nothing compared to the apparent filthiness

2:24

of his private life. Rumours

2:26

abounded of Rasputin's womanizing,

2:29

his regular visits to brothels, and

2:32

his addiction to sin. Some

2:35

believed he was a high ranking member of

2:38

the Clerste, a clandestine

2:40

religious sect which split from

2:43

the Russian Orthodox Church during

2:45

the seventeenth century. The

2:47

Klerste sought religious enlightenment

2:50

through what they described as ecstatic

2:53

rituals orgies.

2:57

According to the rumors, Rasputin

2:59

was said to have adapted the Cleistay's

3:02

doctrine into his own hedonistic

3:04

belief system, which promoted

3:07

sinful to baucherous behavior

3:09

as a means of getting closer to God.

3:13

It was said, too, that he'd even

3:15

extended this practice to

3:17

include the Czar's wife, Alexandra.

3:21

Ever since Rasputin had seemingly

3:24

miraculously healed the royal

3:26

couple's only son, Alexey,

3:29

he'd become a palace fixture. Both

3:32

Nicholas and Alexandra appeared

3:35

to spend more time with Rasputin

3:37

than with each other, so

3:40

naturally, with all the rumours about

3:42

his womanizing ways, many

3:45

drew their own conclusion. Regardless

3:49

of whether any of these rumors were

3:51

true or not, what was undoubtable

3:54

was Rasputin's unusual hold

3:57

over the royal couple. To

3:59

some, it was as though he'd

4:01

put a spell on them,

4:10

Despite his general air of unkempt

4:12

wildness. What made Rasputin

4:15

so captivating was his gaze.

4:18

His eyes were eerily pale,

4:21

and his stare was penetrating, almost

4:24

hypnotic. With

4:27

huge sways of the city's population

4:29

attending seances, having

4:31

their palms read, or seeking

4:33

medical help from spiritual healers,

4:36

it wasn't at all hard for people to

4:38

believe that Rasputin was

4:41

quite literally hypnotizing the Czar

4:43

and Czarina. How else

4:45

to explain his unprecedented

4:47

access to the couple and his

4:50

unnervingly quick ascent into

4:52

their inner circle. Rasputin

4:55

himself did little to dispel

4:57

these rumors. At parts,

5:00

he would brag about his influence over

5:02

the couple and openly claim

5:05

that he had the supreme ruler under

5:07

his command. Despite

5:10

Rasputin's apparent lack of tact

5:12

when he was out on the town, it

5:15

seemed the Royal couple were

5:17

either oblivious to how all of this looked

5:20

or simply didn't care to

5:23

addict it to the validation

5:25

he offered them. Ever

5:27

since the First Russian Revolution in

5:30

nineteen oh five, Nicholas's

5:32

power had been steadily waning. He'd

5:35

managed to stave off an all out revolt

5:38

by passing the October Manifesto,

5:41

which granted civil liberties to citizens

5:44

and vastly weakened his autocratic

5:46

rule. At the time,

5:49

he'd felt he had no other choice,

5:51

and the decision had haunted him

5:54

ever since. Within

5:56

only a few years, political

5:58

unrest was made again. By

6:02

the early nineteen tens,

6:04

Russia was once again overwhelmed

6:07

by strikes and protests as

6:09

more and more of its citizens began

6:12

to question the system, but

6:14

Resputin encouraged the Tsar

6:17

to ignore it. He should

6:19

have confidence in himself and in

6:21

his authority. He told him. He

6:24

also reminded him that the will

6:26

of the people was inconsequential,

6:30

he had been chosen by God for this position.

6:34

The Russian Orthodox Church was

6:36

also emphatic on this point. Its

6:39

doctrine stated that the tsar

6:41

was appointed by God, so any

6:44

challenge to the czar was in

6:46

effect an insult to the

6:48

Lord. Nicholas

6:51

was emboldened by Resputin's unwavering

6:54

conviction, trusting

6:56

no one else, He began to

6:58

consult him directly on political

7:00

matters, asking for his guidance

7:03

on what ministers to appoint to

7:05

his inner circle. Rasputin's

7:08

rise to power seemed as

7:11

unstoppable as it was inexplicable.

7:15

Effectively, he seemed to be

7:17

secretly running the country. To

7:20

everyone outside, Nicholas

7:22

was seen increasingly as a weak

7:24

and indecisive leader whose

7:27

every move was being orchestrated

7:29

by a dangerous Charlatan

7:31

puppet master. Something

7:35

had to be done about it. In

7:44

June of nineteen fourteen, Rasputin

7:47

traveled back to his home village of Boklovskoy

7:50

to visit his wife and children, where

7:53

he received a hero's welcome. After

7:56

all, it wasn't common for people

7:59

to ever leave this remote Siberian

8:01

village, let alone make

8:03

it all the way into the royal court.

8:07

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles

8:09

away, one young farmer wasn't

8:12

so pleased. Thirty

8:15

three year old Keyonya Guseva

8:17

met Rasputin several years

8:19

before during his traveling

8:22

pilgrim days, and had been impressed

8:24

by him. Keonya's face

8:27

was striking, not least of all

8:29

because her nose had been almost

8:32

entirely eaten away by disease.

8:35

But unlike so many others, Father

8:38

Grigory seemed not to notice

8:40

it. It was all the proof she

8:42

needed that he was indeed blessed

8:44

with religious powers. That

8:47

was until another priest, a

8:50

rival of Rasputin called Iliodore,

8:53

took Keyonya under his wing and

8:56

opened her eyes to the truth. Rasputin

9:00

was a false prophet, he said, a

9:02

sinner and a violator of women.

9:06

She'd been hearing stories about him

9:08

ever since, about its

9:10

womanizing, his debauched

9:12

parties, is occult powers.

9:16

Over time, she became fixated

9:19

on Rasputin in a different

9:21

way. One

9:23

night, in a small wooden

9:25

shack hundreds of biles from

9:28

Pukroskoy, Keanya

9:30

sat reading a familiar passage

9:32

in her Bible under the dim light

9:35

of a solitary candle. Then

9:38

fire from the Lord came down

9:40

and burned the sacrifice. When

9:43

all the people saw it, they fell

9:45

down to the ground, crying,

9:48

the Lord is God, The Lord

9:50

is God. Then Elijah

9:53

said, capture the prophets

9:55

of Bar. Don't let any of them

9:57

run away. When the

9:59

false prophets were captured, Elijah

10:02

led them down to the Kishon Valley,

10:05

where he slaughtered them all. Then

10:08

Elijah said to Ahab,

10:11

now go go eat

10:13

and drink, because a heavy

10:15

rain is coming.

10:18

Key read the story over

10:21

and over again. With

10:23

each reading, the words seemed

10:26

to burn brighter and brighter on

10:28

the page. It was all

10:30

becoming clear to her. She knew

10:32

exactly what she had to do. On

10:45

June twenty ninth, nineteen

10:47

fourteen, the day after he arrived

10:50

in Pokrovskoy, Rasputin

10:52

left his family's home and walked

10:54

out into the afternoon sunshine.

10:57

As the gate closed behind him, he

11:00

turned his head to see a woman

11:02

in black walking quickly towards

11:04

him. The woman's face

11:07

was hidden behind a white cloth, so

11:09

that only her eyes were visible. Assuming

11:13

the woman wanted some kind of blessing,

11:16

Rasputin stopped and locked

11:18

eyes with her. The woman

11:21

stopped too, seeming suddenly

11:23

a little hesitant. Then

11:25

she bowed to him. For

11:28

a brief moment, Rasputin

11:30

saw the cloth fall from

11:32

the woman's face to reveal

11:35

a shocking wound where her

11:37

nose should have been. Something

11:40

glinted in the sun. Then

11:42

Rasputin felt a cold,

11:45

sharp pain in his stomach. He

11:48

looked down to see the woman's hand

11:50

against his cassock and what

11:53

was clearly a dagger disappearing

11:55

into his body. Rasputin

11:58

screamed in pain as the woman

12:01

withdrew a fifteen inch blade.

12:05

In terror, he turned and ran

12:07

as the woman chased him with the

12:09

bloody dagger. Within

12:11

seconds, a crowd had descended on

12:14

the scene. As several

12:16

onlookers tackled the woman, now

12:19

revealed to be Keyonya Gusiva.

12:21

Rasputin collapsed to the ground

12:24

from blood loss. That

12:27

night, as Rasputin continued

12:30

to lie unconscious, a doctor

12:32

performed emergency surgery. Keyanya's

12:36

blade had damaged several

12:38

of his internal organs, and

12:40

although the surgery was a success,

12:43

the doctor warned Rasputin's

12:45

family that he would be lucky to

12:47

survive the night. Rasputin

12:50

spent the next few days dipping

12:53

in and out of consciousness, barely

12:55

breathing. Whenever he did

12:58

come too, he was completely delirious.

13:01

A priest arrived to administer

13:04

his last rites. Newspapers

13:07

across the nation ran headlines

13:09

announcing the assassination attempt.

13:12

They said Rasputin was on his deathbed

13:15

with no hope of survival. But

13:18

then one morning, Rasputin

13:21

opened his eyes and sat up

13:23

in bed. The

13:26

following day he was deemed

13:28

well enough to be transferred to a hospital

13:30

in Tumin, the nearest major

13:32

city. In the

13:35

end, despite immense blood

13:37

loss and internal injuries, Resputin

13:40

made a full recovery. He

13:43

had survived a mortal wound.

13:46

As words spread of his remarkable

13:48

recovery, more rumors began

13:51

to fly that the legendary

13:53

healer had healed himself.

13:57

Resputin was unkillable.

14:00

Some weeks later, he returned to Saint

14:03

Petersburg, a legend, where

14:05

he was greeted with open arms by

14:07

the Czar and Czarina. They

14:09

couldn't have been happier to see him return.

14:13

They needed him now more than ever, because

14:16

war was on the horizon. That

14:25

summer of nineteen fourteen, the

14:28

mood in Saint Petersburg was restless.

14:31

The city ground to a halt amid

14:33

hundreds of workers strikes. Another

14:36

uprising seemed inevitable,

14:39

or, as one newspaper put it, we

14:42

are living on a volcano.

14:44

But Czar Nicholas was distracted

14:46

from the domestic chaos by an

14:49

even larger looming threat.

14:52

The longstanding tensions between Russia

14:54

and its neighboring empire Germany

14:57

were at boiling point. The

14:59

German and Kaiser Wilhelm, the

15:01

second was Nicholas's cousin,

15:04

and they'd always maintained a relatively

15:06

friendly relationship, now

15:09

though it seemed family ties

15:12

were no longer enough. In

15:15

June, the assassination of Austria's

15:18

Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparked

15:20

the outbreak of war. As

15:23

nations mobilized their militaries

15:26

all across Europe, Russia

15:28

found itself caught between its close

15:31

ally Serbia, and the hostile

15:33

empires of Germany and Austria

15:36

Hungary. By August,

15:38

the German government had declared war

15:41

on Russia. But

15:43

first this proved to be a political win

15:46

for the Czar. War

15:48

as a way of stoking up patriotism

15:51

even among those previously indifferent

15:54

to such things when your immediate

15:56

survival is suddenly all

15:58

that matters. And so for

16:01

the most part, the Russian people

16:03

forgot about revolution as

16:05

they rushed to defend their borders.

16:08

Shortly after the declaration of war,

16:11

Czar Nicholas and Czarina Alexandra

16:14

made an appearance on the balcony of

16:16

the Winter Palace. There

16:19

they were greeted by a huge exuberant

16:21

crowd, who chanted God

16:24

save the King. Together. After

16:27

years of mounting resentment from

16:29

the public, the Czar felt beloved

16:31

and powerful again. War

16:34

had reinvigorated him, but

16:37

not everybody shared the public's enthusiasm.

16:41

Britain's King George the Fifth, another

16:44

cousin of the Czar, sent a letter

16:46

pleading with Nicholas to demobilize

16:49

the Russian army in the hope

16:51

of de escalating the conflict and

16:54

avoiding an all out world war.

16:57

He, like many other allies, was

16:59

concerned that the Tsar's judgment

17:02

was compromised, he had

17:04

become dangerously over confident

17:06

in his and Russia's capabilities,

17:09

and that the malign influence of

17:11

Rasputin was to blame. But

17:14

the Tsar refused to take heed.

17:18

After all, was it King George

17:20

who'd survived certain death, or

17:23

Father Grigory, who

17:25

better to trust than a clear

17:27

vessel of the Lord himself. But

17:31

now that Russia had entered the war,

17:34

the stakes had never been higher, and

17:36

the rumors about the mysterious

17:38

mystic monk, as Rasputin

17:41

came to be known, grew ever

17:43

wilder. Soon,

17:46

an allegation began to circulate

17:48

that he had in fact been planted

17:51

inside the royal court as

17:53

a double agent and was leaking

17:56

secrets to Germany. These

17:58

rumors spread like wildfire

18:01

among the Russian nobility, the

18:04

church, and the general

18:06

public. Over

18:14

the years, Several of the Tsar's

18:16

allies tried to make him see

18:18

what a mistake he was making. They

18:21

told him that his dependence on Rasputin

18:24

was affecting his reputation, that

18:27

giving the mystic monk so much

18:29

influence over policies and appointments

18:32

was eroding the public's trust in him.

18:36

The French magician Papus,

18:38

another of the Czar and Czarina's

18:40

trusted confidants, was unequivocal,

18:44

writing to the Czarina at the end

18:46

of nineteen fifteen. Rasputin

18:49

is a vessel like Pandora's

18:51

box and contains all the vices,

18:54

crimes, and lusts of the Russian

18:56

people. Should this vessel

18:59

break, we shall immediately see

19:02

these horrible contents spilled

19:04

all over Russia. When

19:07

Rasputin was informed of the letter

19:09

by the Tzarina, he concurred,

19:13

why I've told you that many a

19:15

time, When I die,

19:17

Russia will perish. Tzar

19:21

Nicholas ignored all the

19:23

warnings to him. The

19:25

benefits of Rasputin vastly

19:28

outweighed the costs, and not

19:30

only because he told him exactly

19:32

what he wanted to hear. Rasputin

19:36

also had a calming influence on Alexandra,

19:39

who was prone to anxiety. Better

19:42

ten Rasputins than one of the

19:44

Empress's hysterical fits,

19:47

as he once put it to Russia's

19:49

Prime minister. But what

19:51

Nicholas dismissed as hysteria

19:54

was, in actuality, an entirely

19:57

rational response to an increasingly

20:00

dangerous reality. If

20:02

Alexandra felt a sense of impending

20:05

doom, an unshakable

20:07

fear that everything was

20:10

about to fall apart, she

20:12

was right. In

20:14

the spring and summer of nineteen fifteen,

20:18

a wofully under equipped Russian

20:20

army suffered a series of

20:22

devastating losses, with thousands

20:25

of Russian soldiers killed or

20:28

taken prisoner by German forces.

20:31

With few other options, commanders

20:34

ordered a retreat and withdrew

20:36

the Russian Army from much of

20:38

the Eastern front. Sir

20:41

Nicholas was furious. Withdrawal

20:44

was a sign of weakness, precisely

20:47

the thing he'd been working so hard

20:49

to avoid. But when

20:51

officials tried to persuade

20:53

him that the Russian army had bitten

20:56

off more than it could chew, he

20:58

dismissed them angrily. In

21:01

August nineteen fifteen, Nicholas

21:03

made a fateful decision. Encouraged

21:06

by both the silver tongued Rasputin

21:09

and by the Czarina, he fired

21:12

his uncle, Grand Duke Nicholas,

21:15

the commander in chief of the Russian

21:17

armies, and so the Tsar

21:19

took control of them instead and

21:22

departed immediately for the front

21:24

lines. In his

21:26

absence, the Tzarina Alexandra

21:29

became the de facto reigning monarch,

21:32

with Rasputin by her side.

21:34

As always, to many

21:37

onlookers, it seemed the

21:39

so called mystic Monk had

21:41

finally achieved exactly

21:43

what he wanted. He was

21:45

now effectively ruling the

21:47

entire country through Alexandra.

22:00

All along the Eastern Front, freezing

22:03

and starving, Russian soldiers swapped

22:06

stories about the many things

22:08

they'd heard about Rasputin. Soon

22:11

word was spreading that he'd recently

22:14

tried to start a cholera epidemic

22:16

in Saint Petersburg using a shipment

22:19

of poisoned apples secretly

22:21

imported from Canada. The

22:24

soldiers wondered, why should

22:26

they die in the mud while such

22:28

a man reigned supreme

22:30

at the Winter Palace. It

22:33

was all just more fuel to the

22:35

growing public resentment of the royal

22:37

family and the wider ruling

22:40

classes. It was clear

22:42

to a growing number of the Russian nobility

22:45

that if the monarchy had any chance

22:47

of surviving, Rasputin

22:50

had to be stopped by any

22:52

means necessary. In

22:54

mid December nineteen sixteen,

22:57

Prince Felix Usupov, the

23:00

wealthiest man in Russia at the time,

23:02

invited Rasputin to dinner

23:05

at his home, the Usupov

23:07

Palace in Saint Petersburg. Rasputin

23:11

arrived a few nights later, the

23:13

sound of a party in full swing

23:16

coming from upstairs, indistinct

23:19

chatter and the distant strains

23:21

of Yankee Doodle Dandy being

23:24

played on a gramophone. After

23:27

greeting Rasputin at the door, Usupov

23:30

led him to the cellar and served

23:32

him a glass of Madeira wine

23:35

and a slice of cake. Unknown

23:38

to Rasputin, there was

23:40

no party upstairs, and

23:42

both the wine and the cake were

23:44

laced with a lethal dose of cyanide

23:48

Yusupov watched on eagerly as

23:51

Rasputin ate the cake and

23:53

drank the wine, and

23:56

when he'd finished, he simply

23:58

asked for another glass of the wine.

24:02

Usupov was stunned. Trying

24:04

his best to hide its confusion, he

24:07

poured Rasputin a second glass.

24:10

Surely this would see him off, he thought,

24:13

but Rasputin continued to

24:15

drink, seemingly completely

24:18

unaffected by the poison. With

24:21

no other choice, Prince Yusupov

24:23

was forced to lead Rasputin upstairs

24:27

to the supposed party. Rasputin

24:30

was then led into a room full

24:33

of men, not party

24:35

guests, but coke conspirators

24:37

of Usupov. As

24:40

the large, hulking frame of Rasputin

24:43

stepped into the room, the men

24:45

tried their best to hide their

24:47

dismay. This dismay

24:50

soon turned to fear. They'd

24:53

always dismissed the stories about

24:56

Rasputin's mystical powers,

24:59

especially his supposed infallibility,

25:02

And yet here he was, two

25:05

glasses of cyanide down, and

25:07

not a hint of discomfort on his face.

25:11

The men greeted him warmly

25:13

and invited him to join them. After

25:17

some time talking, Rasputin

25:19

finally complained of a burning

25:21

sensation in his stomach and a

25:24

heavy head Yusupov

25:26

offered him another glass of the poisoned

25:29

wine. Perhaps that might

25:31

help, he said. Rasputin

25:34

gladly accepted it. The

25:37

men watched on again with

25:39

barely concealed horror as

25:41

the mystic monk finished off

25:44

his third glass without any

25:46

complaint. Slowly,

25:55

As a few of the would be assassins continued

25:58

to engage Rasputin in colmonsation,

26:01

a small group of them quietly

26:03

excused themselves from the room. Moments

26:07

later, the men who'd left met

26:10

in a neighboring room to discuss

26:12

what on earth they should do next. The

26:15

conversation descended into angry

26:18

chaos. Finally, one

26:20

man hit his breaking point. He

26:23

strode back into the dining room, pulled

26:25

out a pistol, and shot Rasputin

26:28

at close range.

26:31

The bullet landed close to

26:33

his heart. A deadly blow,

26:36

Rasputin crumpled to the ground,

26:39

unconscious and bleeding profusely.

26:43

His breath grew labored and ragged,

26:45

until finally it stopped.

26:49

The men watched on with a mix

26:52

of shock and relief, the

26:54

smoke from the gun tailing off

26:56

into the air. One

26:59

of the men took tentative, stepped forward

27:02

and stood over the body, then

27:04

leapt back in horror as

27:06

Rasputin's eyes shot open.

27:10

As the men looked on numbly, a

27:13

wild eyed Rasputin staggered

27:15

to his feet and launched himself

27:17

at Prince Yusupov. It

27:20

was as though the devil himself

27:23

had entered him. He

27:25

grabbed for Yusupov, but was pulled

27:27

away by the other men. However,

27:30

despite having just been shot in the

27:32

heart, Rasputin was too

27:34

strong for them. He broke from

27:37

their grasp, stumbled out

27:39

of the room, and disappeared

27:41

down the darkened hallway. He

27:44

made it into the courtyard outside

27:47

before the group finally caught

27:49

up with him.

27:57

Outside in the freezing winter

27:59

air, under the pale light of

28:01

a waning moon, Prince

28:03

Yusupov and his men charged

28:06

into the courtyard to find

28:08

a man with lank, black hair

28:11

in a long black cassock, stumbling

28:14

away from them. His hand

28:16

was clutched to his chest and a

28:18

line of blood trailed

28:20

behind him on the icy ground.

28:24

Stop. They yelled, but

28:27

the man, seemingly possessed,

28:30

continued to stagger forward. A

28:34

volley of gunfire rang out as

28:36

a hail of bullets flew into Rasputin's

28:39

back. Finally, he

28:42

collapsed again, and this

28:44

time he did not get back

28:46

up. But Prince Yusupov

28:49

was leaving nothing to chance. They

28:52

bound Rasputin's hands and feet

28:54

with thick rope and wrapped

28:56

his body in a sheet of linen.

28:59

They bundled him into a car and

29:01

drove out to Petrovsky Island in

29:04

the west of the city. Together,

29:06

the assassins threw Rasputin's

29:09

body into the freezing waters

29:11

of the Neva River. They

29:13

watched somberly as it slipped

29:16

beneath the surface and into the

29:18

black waters below, until

29:20

the ripples gradually receded

29:23

and the body could no longer

29:25

be seen. Finally,

29:28

having survived a stabbing, a

29:30

poisoning, and a seemingly

29:32

fatal gunshot wound, Grigory

29:35

Rasputin was dead. The

29:39

temperature dropped below zero that

29:41

night, and the river froze

29:43

almost solid as

29:46

a result. It took many days

29:49

for the police to find Rasputin's

29:51

body. When the icy

29:54

corpse was finally recovered, an

29:56

autopsy was conducted soon

29:58

after, where in water

30:01

was found in Rasputin's lungs,

30:04

after all that he'd still

30:06

been breathing when he hit the

30:09

water. When

30:16

news of Rasputin's death reached

30:19

the public, people celebrated

30:21

in the streets among

30:23

their compatriots. Prince Yusupov

30:26

and his fellow assassins were

30:28

held up as patriotic heroes

30:30

who'd done what had to be done to

30:32

save the Russian Empire. For

30:35

a while, the ruling classes

30:38

hoped that getting rid of Rasputin

30:40

would mean the Czar began listening

30:43

to their advice again, but

30:45

the damage had already been done.

30:48

In fact, Rasputin's murder

30:51

only added to the sense of chaos

30:53

and decline that had surrounded

30:55

the palace for years and fueled

30:58

the public's anger. By

31:00

then, the war had been raging

31:03

for more than two years and

31:05

had taken a devastating toll on

31:08

Russia's economy and infrastructure.

31:11

The nation's morale was obliterated,

31:14

and with hundreds of thousands living

31:17

in poverty and starvation. Anti

31:19

monarchy sentiment came

31:22

roaring back. In

31:24

March of nineteen seventeen, the

31:27

Russian Revolution began. The

31:30

streets of Saint Petersburg were consumed

31:33

by violent riots, and Czar

31:35

Nicholas was forced to abdicate

31:37

his throne. At

31:39

long last, the Romanov dynasty

31:42

had fallen, and with it

31:45

the Russian Empire. It

31:47

was seemingly just as Rasputin

31:50

had predicted, when I

31:53

die, Russia will

31:55

perish. As

31:57

furious hordes closed in on the winter

32:00

Alice, Nicholas, Alexandra,

32:02

and the rest of their family made

32:04

a desperate attempt to flee the city,

32:07

but they were captured by the revolutionary

32:10

forces and held prisoner

32:12

in Siberia. On

32:15

July seventeenth, nineteen eighteen,

32:18

Nicholas, Alexandra, their

32:21

five children, and several

32:23

members of the Imperial Entourach

32:25

who had been imprisoned alongside them

32:28

were executed On

32:31

the night they were slaughtered. Each member

32:33

of the family had an ambulet around

32:36

their necks. When they were

32:38

removed from the bodies later

32:40

that day, each were

32:42

found to contain a small prayer

32:45

and a photograph of Grigory

32:48

Rasputin. This

32:56

episode was written by Emma Dibden

32:59

and Richard mcla Unexplained

33:02

as an AV Club Productions podcast

33:05

created by Richard McClain smith. All

33:07

other elements of the podcast, including the

33:10

music, are also produced by me

33:12

Richard McClain smith. Unexplained.

33:15

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33:17

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