Mystery Files TV - Charlotte Zeepvat - Brian Moynahan - Yakov Yurovsky - Andrew Cook - Derrick Pounder -
December 17th 1916 St Petersburg Russia: Grigori Rasputin, self-styled mystic and confident to Tsar Nicholas II, is fatally shot. His assassins fear Rasputin’s control over their ruling family had gone too far. Mystery Files: Rasputin
But to a sceptical aristocracy Rasputin appears to hold the Royal Family in a strange hypnotic grip. His influence over the Romanovs is even openly debated in parliament. ibid.
By the end of October 1915 the war had taken a terrible toll on Russia. Approximately one and a half million soldiers are dead or wounded. Rasputin, a man committed to peace, allegedly urges Tsar Nicholas to withdraw Russian troops and consider making peace with Germany. It’s now that Rasputin’s leverage with the Romanovs attracts the attention of the British Secret Service. Based at their headquarters at the Astoria Hotel in central St Petersburg, British agents are increasingly anxious to gauge the stability of their Russian allies. ibid.
On December 16th 1916 [Felix] Yusupov lures Rasputin to a party here at his palace ... Yusuopov is never charged. ibid.
There was a huge appetite in St Petersburg for spiritual experience and spiritual stories. And it’s this void he steps into. Charlotte Zeepvat, historian and author
He arrives in St Petersburg like some medieval rocket from the past. Brian Moynahan, author The Russian Century
Nikolai Aleksandrovich, your relatives have tried to save you, but they had not to. And we are forced to shoot you by ourselves. Yakov Yurovsky, attributed
Yusupov’s account is essentially modelled on a Gothic horror story, in particular the story of the beast that will not die. Dr Andrew Cook, author To Kill Rasputin
When I first saw the Rasputin photographs I was really surprised that they existed. It was a shot to the centre of Rasputin’s forehead, and this is a typical coup-de-grace shot. Professor Derrick Pounder, forensic pathologist