The True Story Of Rasputin

Description: This documentary is about Rasputin, a Siberian peasant who worked his way into the innermost circles of Russian royalty, then fell from an idealized holy man to a corrupt villain. Born in 1869 in Siberia, Rasputin was a young rogue with an eye for the ladies When he was 28, he joined a monastery where he became influenced by a religious sect that believed that to attain salvation, one had to sin, and Rasputin sought salvation often -- by indulging in orgies. In 1903, he went to Russia's capital in St. Petersburg where he worked his way into affluent society. Russians were titillated and disgusted by him. In 1905, he ingratiated himself into the royal family after he apparently used hypnosis to save the life of their young son, a hemophiliac. Legend has it that Rasputin endeared himself to Alexandra and that they had an affair. By World War I, certain Russians began to tire of Rasputin's antics and he was murdered in 1916. Eighteen months after his death, the royal family was executed by Bolsheviks.