Grigory Efimovich Rasputin--drinker, thief, womanizer--arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past ... tattered, black-clad, muttering. By the time of his sensational murder thirteen years later, the peasant had become the "beloved friend" of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, with a seemingly supernatural power to stop the bleeding attacks of their hemophiliac son, Alexis. Drawing on confidential police reports, cabinet meeting memos, and many documents only now available, Brian Moynahan sheds new light on Rasputin's life and disputes some of the widely held details of his death. The Washington Post Book World called the book "balanced and well-researched" and hailed its "shrewd analysis of the ways in which Rasputin's manipulative abilities meshed with the emotional needs of isolated, superstitious members of the czarist aristocracy." It is an unforgettable portrait of an age as well as of a man.--Publisher.
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