Grigori Rasputin is one of history’s most mysterious and reviled figures. Born in a small Siberian village, Pokrovskoye, in 1869, Rasputin was the only one of his seven siblings to survive early childhood. He received no formal education and didn’t learn to read or write until he was an adult. Married at the age of 17, he seemed destined for a life of anonymity in the Siberian hinterlands. But when Rasputin heard the call of God in 1897–or, according to some accounts, fled town to escape punishment for horse theft–he set out on an unlikely path that made him the most notorious man in Imperial Russia.

After spending time at a monastery in the Ural Mountains, Rasputin embarked on a series of religious pilgrimages, perhaps making it as far as Athos, Greece, the center of Eastern Orthodox monastic life. By the early 1900s, he had gained a reputation as a starets, or holy man, whose mystical abilities could cure physical and spiritual ailments. Rasputin’s travels eventually took him to St. Petersburg, where he impressed local church leaders and gained the support of the Montenegrin princesses, who were married to members of the Romanov dynasty. The two sisters introduced Rasputin to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, who asked him to pray for the health of their hemophiliac son, Alexei. On numerous occasions, the mystic’s presence appeared to ease the boy’s pain and stop his bleeding. The Tsarina became convinced that Rasputin was the only person who could cure her son’s illness, and his influence over the royal family grew quickly.

Meanwhile, gossip about Rasputin’s licentious behavior swirled throughout St. Petersburg. He drank heavily, visited brothels, and was rumored to seduce society ladies by preaching that only through sin could they find salvation. He ran afoul of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Tsar received secret police reports documenting his debauchery. Nicholas refused to banish the holy man from the royal court, however. “Better ten Rasputins,” he told his prime minister, “than one of the empress’s hysterical fits.” The situation grew perilous in 1915, when Nicholas left St. Petersburg to command the Russian Army in World War I. Alexandra took charge in her husband’s absence and allowed Rasputin to appoint his cronies as church ministers and other public officials. Sensing that the monarchy was in grave danger, a group of nobles plotted to assassinate him. They invited Rasputin to a party and, according to one of the conspirators, served him cakes and wine laced with cyanide. When the poison had no effect, they shot him multiple times and threw his body into an icy river. The murder could not save the Russian Empire, however. In March 1917, Nicholas abdicated his throne; a year later, he and his family were murdered by their Bolshevik guards.

In death as in life, Rasputin remains an enigma. Was he a misunderstood spiritual seeker, as many in modern-day Russia believe? Or a wicked con man who brought down an empire? These eight surprising facts prove that in Rasputin’s case, truth really is stranger than fiction.

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