The Curse of Grigory Rasputin

Before his death, the elder made an evil prophecy to the king

The royal family revered Grigory Rasputin as a righteous man and “God’s man”, and their subjects called him “a devilish figure.”

The debate about who he is – a saint or a sinner – has not subsided to this day. One thing is clear: Rasputin was a psychic with a gift.

He could heal people, read minds and predict the future. On the eve of his assassination, the elder gave the tsar a letter in which he accurately described the fate of the imperial dynasty and Russia.

The image of Rasputin excites the minds even 92 years after his death. Films and books about this man are full of legends – “sexual maniac”, “lover of the Empress” …

And only now Russian researchers have been able to get closer to the truth, having unraveled the mystery of Grigory Rasputin. Director Stas Libin, who made a new television film about Rasputin, The Conspiracy, studied many memoirs and documents.

“Most of them are hardly true,” says the director. – I think this is a PR campaign: then criticism of the royal family was banned, but criticism of close people was not.

According to Libin, Rasputin became a convenient target: using his name, before the revolution, it was easy to discredit the family of the last Russian emperor for political purposes. British intelligence organized an attempt on his life because Rasputin was an ardent opponent of Russia’s participation in the war with Germany.

“Agony”

As a sinister old man who manipulated the tsar, Rasputin was presented in the film Agony by director Elem Klimov. By the way, his first name is “Antichrist”. Started in 1966, the film took eight years to shoot and was banned three times. And they only released it in the mid-80s. Miraculously, it was shown at the international festival in Venice and received a prize.

For the role of Grigory Klimov tried Mikhail Ulyanov, Anatoly Papanov, Evgeny Lebedev, but took the debutant Alexei Petrenko. Here is what actress Valentina Talyzina told Life (she played Akilina in Agony):

– Alexei Petrenko was 35 years old. Klimov doubted for a long time – the actor was much younger than the hero. Will it work? Played brilliantly! Petrenko later admitted that he fell in love with Grishka Rasputin during filming.

Klimov invited psychics to the tests, among whom was the great Wolf Messing. As the director expected, they confirmed the correctness of his choice. Klimov considered the image of Rasputin mystical. It got to the point that he demanded from Petrenko a literal transformation into his hero: “On the set, I almost killed him. He was an inexperienced man, for the first time starred in a big role. And I just drove him. At that time I did not know one law: if you demand a great return from an actor, then you need to let in a huge and very dangerous energy, you must be able to protect him. Especially when it comes to the paranormal. It is dangerous to deal with such matters without having the means to protect yourself and those people with whom you have associated yourself.

Elem Klimov, while working on the film, experienced tremendous stress, which almost caused a tragedy.

“Every shooting day,” Klimov said, “he accumulated despair and dissatisfaction with the way things were going. Twice I myself “stood on the edge” – I almost committed suicide: once I almost rushed into the Moika, and another time I was about to throw myself from the seventh floor.

During the decade that the film lay on the shelf, a real tragedy occurred in the director’s life: his beloved wife Larisa Shepitko died in an accident.

Ivan Okhlobystin, together with director Stas Libin, decided, in fact, to rehabilitate Rasputin by removing the villain mask from him. Okhlobystin, himself a clergyman, received a blessing from the Patriarch himself to play the role of Rasputin.

“We watched a lot of artists,” says the director. – But for some reason, the actors mostly played the “black” Rasputins, a variant of Petrenko. We had an idea to make Rasputin different, not in the same color. Okhlobystin turned out to be the most humane. Although he is not too similar to Rasputin, he has an unusual energy.

Not without mysticism on the site. On the first day of filming, in the scene of Rasputin’s murder, the gun pointed at the actor-priest misfired four times! The pyrotechnician checks – normal. Shooting begins – misfire! And only when Father John prayed did everything work out as it should.

According to Okhlobystin, during the filming of the film, Rasputin saved his life.

“I was crossing the street and almost got hit by a tram that I didn’t notice,” he says. – But then I heard a voice – a baritone – shouting: “Ivan, beware!” It must have been him.

The Conspiracy movie is already out on DVD. The TV premiere is yet to come. The picture is based on information released by Scotland Yard:

– Both Prince Yusupov and the British had reason to kill. But it was the British that Rasputin was unfavorable because he offered the tsar to end the war with Germany, says director Libin.

Prophecy

Here is Rasputin’s last letter to the Tsar, published recently:

“I feel like I will be gone before January 1st. I want to tell the Russian people, dad (tsar), mom (tsarina) and children what they should do. If I am killed by ordinary murderers and my fellow peasants, you are the Tsar of Russia, you will not have to be afraid for your children. They will reign for many more centuries. But if the nobles, aristocrats destroy me, if they shed my blood, then their hands will be stained with my blood for 25 years and they will leave Russia. Brother will rise on brother. They will hate and kill each other, there will be no peace in Russia for 25 years. King of the Russian land, if you hear a bell ringing that tells you that Gregory is killed, know that one of yours set up my death, none of your children will live more than two years … And if they live, they will pray to God for death, for he will see the shame and shame of the Russian land, the coming of the Antichrist, pestilence, poverty, destroyed temples of God, spat on shrines, where everyone will become a dead man. Russian Tsar, you will be killed by the Russian people, and the people themselves will be cursed and become an instrument of the devil, killing each other and multiplying death throughout the world. Three times for 25 years there will be black robbers, servants of the Antichrist, to exterminate the Russian people and the Orthodox faith. And the Russian land will perish. And I am dying, I have already died, and I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family.” And the Russian land will perish. And I am dying, I have already died, and I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family.” And the Russian land will perish. And I am dying, I have already died, and I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family.”

Is it a prophecy or a curse? All the evil predicted by Grigory Rasputin has come true…

Monument

Petersburg doctor Igor Knyazkin, who wrote a book about Rasputin, and sculptor Alexander Modyakov proposed to erect a monument to the mystical old man. The layout has already been made.

Dr. Knyazkin, head of the prostatology center, keeps Rasputin’s penis in his office. According to him, after the death of Rasputin, a member was cut off and delivered to France by one fanatical follower. The only grandson of Rasputin’s daughter Matrena, the American John Nekmerson, arrived in Russia, was horrified when he saw this piece of flesh of his ancestor.

Valentina Talyzina considers Rasputin a phenomenal psychic who used his gift for the benefit of people:

“He had great power, which was for good. He predicted the death of the royal family, the revolution, the death of the empire. When a person can predict or treat (after all, he stopped the blood of a prince with hemophilia), then this person has a huge inner potential. And it is not aimed at destruction! How did he treat women? As a man, of course, if he had such strength…

The patriarchy categorically rejects the requests of some believers for the canonization of Rasputin. Priest Alexei Moroz, a psychologist, candidate of pedagogical sciences, who is well acquainted with the biography of Rasputin, explains the position of the church as follows:

– Canonization cannot be because there is no convincing evidence of his holiness. On the contrary, Rasputin was a sorcerer. It is known that he often used magical methods: for example, he wrote a note about what he wanted, put it under his pillow and began to “work” in this regard. These are purely magical techniques. Rasputin rarely went to confession, he was rarely seen praying. He is a gifted figure, interesting as a person, but one cannot speak of holiness. And his portraits, which are worshiped by some believers, cannot be considered icons…