Rasputin

acording to the german wikipedia entry about this guy (which btw is far more detailed than the english one) this song is NOT very accurate!

He became famous when the tsar family called him to cure the bleedings of their son (who suffered from Haemophilia). Since they kept the illness of their son a secret, people found no explanation why such a simple man had such apparently deep connections to the tsar family and the tsarina (who thought him to be a godsend protector of her son).

Critics, the press and people of higher standing/royals grew suspicious over time and saw a threat to their influence or just wanted to use his person to undermine the reputation of the tsar family.

They started campaigns against him in the press and in the "higher social circles", claiming all kinds of lapses:

• said he belonged to the sect of the Khlysts: FALSE, spread by the church after some conflicts between them and him

• excesses with lots of alcohol (partly true, more later)

• orgies (more later)

• exercise of influence in political matters (FALSE, the tsar IGNORED all of his suggestion [rasputin warned him several times about the war - WW1 - and how it could be the end of russia])

• betrayal of state secrets in WW1 to the germans (more later)

• others (later)

After several massive defamation campaigns against rasputin, the tsar family send him back to his village several times, but invited him very often to heal their son again (in fact, they needed him; and the tsar only regarded him as a tool to keep their ill son alive).

He was under constant surveillence from several different sides. Which leads to the point of "orgies": the secret service and others came to the conclusion that he NEVER had ANY affair with woman of higher standing, but only with woman of lower standing, prostitutes and supplicants. It was never proven that he actually used "magic like abilities to influence these woman" or even rape them!

One day after the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand there was an assassination attempt on rasputin (June 28, 1914). He never fully recovered after that and gave himself into alcoholic excesses which were widely "discussed" in the press (though his enemies "forced" some of these excesses to have more material against him).

The french ambassador (who let his people monitor rasputin) came to the conclusion that rasputin "had nothing of a spy" and described him as a "country bumpkin, a crude nature-boy of glaring nescience". That much for "betrayal of state secrets".

He also became a target because of his view regarding jews: while most parts of the russian leadership indulged themselves in anti-semitic agitation, he was of the opinion that both jews and christians shared the same god. It didn't help that his secretary was a jew.

There are also claims that his name meant "licentious" or "dissolute" and that he "obtained" that "nickname" for his outrageous deeds. Those claims are actually FALSE (see wikipedia)

The murder of rasputin: The police was informed by several sides about the upcoming assassination attempt, even rasputin himself had been warned (and as it turned out later, lots of people in the higher circles knew about it and even the british secret service had information about it [no lie])

The meassures of personal security were strengthened and rasputin was adviced to stay in his house. Rasputin accepted an invitation of Felix Jussupow though (the husband of a niece of the tsar, and one of the few who rasputin still trusted) and got murdered in his palace.

Most books about rasputin contain a strange story based on a description by Jussupow: it speaks of masses of potassium cyanide in cake and wine that rasputin ate. This is WRONG! There was no cake or potassium cyanide found in rasputins stomach after the autopsy! In fact rasputin didn't even eat or drink ANYTHING sweet because of stomach problems after the failled attempt of murder in 1914!

What they did find were that his right eyes was beaten out of his head and his whole body was full of crushes and effusions of blood (especially in the stomach region and abdomen), indicating massive torture (probably to get a confession of his "crimes" and his supposed intimate relationship to the tsarina).

The murderers and backers were found quickly, but due to pressure from influential families all but 2 were "found" not guilty and left unharmed by the tsar. The other 2 received minor punishment. The people, who saw rasputin as one of their own kind, overthrew the tsar less than 3 months after the murder.

You can't blame these inaccuracies on Turisas though, since they only covered the song.

Also, please excuse any mistakes in grammar and/or spelling since i am german and english is not my mother tongue.