One cell. November night in nineteen oh seven Saint Petersburg, Russia. Most of the lights inside the winter Palace were out. It was past midnight, and everybody was in bed. Everybody that was, except for the Czarina. Alexandra had been pacing the floor outside the room of her three year old son Alexey for hours. Inside, her son was desperately ill in bed, his leg horrifically swollen from internal bleeding caused
by hemophilia that no doctor could stop. And inside with him, kneeling beside his bed was an unkempt stranger, muttering something quietly under his breath, even when on his knee. The man's broad frame loomed over the boy's slight and fragile body. The man, a healer and mystic of some kind, had been recommended to the Czarina by her aunt Olga, But when he arrived earlier that evening, she could have been forgiven for thinking what on earth she was letting herself
in for. Exactly with his strange mannerisms and lank hair, he promised he would heal Alexe And with all other options exhausted, Alexandra had no choice but to let him At least try her. Last glimpse of her son had been disturbing, the haunting dark patches under his eyes, his face twisted in agony, and his legs so large it looked as if it might burst. After what felt like an eternity, the strange man finally emerged from the nurse
and quietly closed the door behind him. Alexandra walked towards him, heading straight for the room, when the man held up his hand to stop her. A little shocked by the gesture, she couldn't help but allow it. There was something magnetic about his eyes, his gaze, and almost physical weight. It was as though he could see directly into her. Leave him now, said the man, rest assured, you'll find him much improved in the morning. Alexandra reluctantly did what she
was told. After a fitful sleep, she awoke to find the pale light of dawn outside her window. Hurriedly, she pulled on her robe and headed towards Alexey's room. She opened his door and stopped in her tracks. Alexey was sitting up in bed, tied and smiling, his fever broken and the swelling of his leg almost completely gone. It was a miracle. The stories about the Healer had seemed too good to be true, a farmer turned holy man who'd suddenly arrived in Saint Petersburg just when they needed
him most. But Alexey's smiling face was all the proof she needed. The man, it seemed, was everything they said he was, and its name Grigory Resputin. Of course, Rasputin was born sometime in the mid nineteenth century, the son of farmers living in the Siberian village of Boklovska, with a population of around one hundred. The village was perched on the bank of the Tura River, which flows eastward
from the Ural mountains where Europe and Asia meet. To some, Siberia was an inhospitable, wild and lawless place where, for hundreds of years, those deemed criminals by the Russian state had been frequently exiled. However, like many penniless and landless Russians at the time, Rasputin's ancestors went to Siberia willingly
seeking a brighter future. To them, lawlessness meant freedom. In Siberia, they could throw off the shackles of serfdom, in which you were forced to work someone else's land for pittance and keep their hard earned money for themselves. Resputin's parents scraped a living through manual labour, and after many years they saved up enough money to afford a small plot of land. Buoyed by their newfound financial security, they tried to start of family, but several years of heartbreak followed.
The couple had four children, all of whom died within a few days. But in January eighteen sixty nine, their luck changed. Arna gave birth to a son and named him Grigory. From day one, there seemed something different about the boy. He seemed possessed with a clear and indomitable will to survive. Rasputin's early life is largely a mystery. The little that is known is ambiguous and heavily contested, but Rasputin's upbringing was undoubtedly a brutal and isolated one,
surrounded by desolate landscapes and hardened laborers. He quickly developed a tough shell. As soon as he was strong enough, he began helping his father out with manual labour around the farm. But Rasputin was restless, and with little to occupy his young mind, he soon started getting into trouble. According to some reports, he was charged with stealing horses and often accused of unruly behaviour. As he grew older, he became more and more rebellious and began drinking heavily.
Even his neighbors gave him a wide berth. He drooled constantly and always seemed to be covered in dirt. But despite his unappealing appearance, there was a mystique building around Resputin. There were rumors that the boy had mystical powers, that he could heal animals, and that he had even had divine visions. Back in six Deen thirty six, in a small hut at the back of a churchyard, a widow named Maria was fast asleep. The place was a balach
on the bank of the Yatish River in Siberia. As Maria slept deep inside her unconscious mind, three faces appeared to her. One she recognized as Theotokos be eased, an Orthodox term for the Virgin Mary, and the others were saints. Then a voice began to speak, ordering her to tell everyone what she'd seen and to request another church be built in the churchyard dedicated to the Virgin Mary. But Maria, too scared and confused by the dream, kept it to herself.
It is said she had the same dream four times, but still she would not share it. The day, while traveling to Tubolsk in Siberia, she suddenly found herself lost in fog. From out of the thick swirling cloud, a grand looking figure emerged, who she took to be Saint Nicholas. Pointing at Maria, he told her again to share her dreams with the people, and so finally she did. Two hundred and fifty years later, in the summer of eighteen eighty six, a seventeen year old Rasputin left his family's
village for the first time. He traveled more than one hundred miles northeast to the village of a Baralak on the banks of the Irtysh River. He went to see the Holy Snamensky Monastery, a religious complex born from the dreams of a widow named Maria, or so the story goes. There he visited the monos famed icon of the Virgin Mary, which was believed to have healing powers. What he was looking for there exactly is unclear, but during his time there he met a young woman from a nearby village,
Prascovie du Brovina. After a few months of courtship, Just after Rasputin's eighteenth birthday, he and Prascovie were married. The couple went on to have seven children together, but only three of them survived longer than a few days. Having returned home, Rasputin continued working on his family's farm, but soon grew tired of his mundane existence, Convinced he was destined for much greater things. However, unable to see how he might ever achieve this, he took to drinking more heavily.
Over time, his mental health deteriorated. He began to suffer from insomnia and an unwelcome reoccurrence of bed wetting, which had plagued him since his childhood. Until one night everything changed. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard mc lane Smith. One summer night in eighteen ninety seven on his farm, Rasputin awoke with a start. He tossed and turned frustrated at the prospect of another sleepless night, when he suddenly
became aware of a presence in the room. Turning his head, he was startled to see some one standing next to his bed with their back to him. Rasputin looked on aghast as the figure apparently then turned round and revealed itself to be Saint Simeon, the Russian Orthodox patron saint of the Ural region where Resputin lived. In the Orthodox faith, Saint Simeon is regarded as a healer of both the body and soul, a miracle worker who alcoholics often pray to as they try to get sober. Then, as Resputin
would later have it, Saint Simeon began to talk. Rasputin claimed to have listened in wonder as the figure told him that he could cure all of his ailments and exalt him to a higher plane of existence. All he had to do in return was give up everything he had and devote himself entirely to God. From that day forward, Rasputin stopped drinking and smoking, and refused to even eat meat. A second vision apparently followed soon after, this time of the Virgin Mary telling him to go wander and cleanse
the people of their sins. There was little Rasputen's wife, Prascovia, could do, pregnant with another of their children, when he told her he had to leave and that he didn't know when he'd be back, And so, at the age of twenty eight, Rasputin left his village and his family behind. He set out in the early morning, traversing his way
through the rugged and sparse landscape surrounding his hometown. His only plan to head west toward the ural mountains, which lined the horizon before him and seemed to be beckoning him closer and closer. His final destination was Verkatordia, the home of Saint Simeon, more than three hundred miles away. There he visited the Saint Nicholas monastery and seemingly continued his religious awakening. But it was that day's long walk
that really set the tone for Rasputin's next chapter. On the move, he felt happier than he ever had in his entire life. Suddenly it all seemed so clear the reason he wasn't happy at home. He wasn't a laborer destined to be chained to the land. He was a wanderer. Now, at twenty eight years old, he felt his life was finally beginning. Rasputin spent months at the monastery in Verkatoria, where he became more and more convinced of his own powers of healing. That was his true destiny. He believed
there would be no returning to life as a farm worker. Now, he spent the next decade as a traveling pilgrim, moving around the country, spending time in different towns and villages. It wasn't an easy existence. He regularly walked up to thirty miles a day and often went for days without food or water, but it was worth it to him, not only because he felt free, but also because, for
the first time, he felt powerful. Each time he arrived at a new village, he introduced himself as a holy man, and despite the fact that Resputant had never been ordained or trained as a priest, people bought it. More than that they flocked to him. His confidence in his own abilities was dazzling, as was his deep and fluent knowledge of scripture, his story telling ability, and its clear commitment to life as a holy wanderer. But Rasputin wasn't content
to simply travel the country. He wanted to see more of the world. He traveled to Mount Athos in Greece, a holy site that houses more than a dozen monasteries and monastic settlements. On his travels, he relied on the kindness of strangers, often taking shelter in their homes overnight. Through this, he came into contact with all kinds of people, from fellow farm workers to priests, nuns, soldiers, and even nobility.
Despite his lack of formal education, these experiences gave Resputin a sophisticated understanding of Russian society and of human psychology. He seemed to know everything about someone before they did met, not least of all their vulnerabilities, and swiftly earned their trust. On occasion, Rasputin returned home to his family. His children, Maria and Dmitri, were enthralled by his stories of his travels and begged their father to take them with him
next time, but he never did. Rasputin's life as a wanderer was far from child friendly, and not just because of all the physical challenges involved. Many of Rasputin's most devoted acolytes were said to be young women, whom he paid special attention to. He took meetings alone with his female followers, often at public bathhouses, during which some decidedly
unholy acts took place. Before long, Rasputin's reputation began to precede him, upsetting the more established local priests and other men of God, who accused him of being a charlatan, and soon the rumours began to fly too. Some claimed that Rasputin forced his female followers to ceremonially wash him, and that he was teaching his acolytes mysterious, possibly blasphemous rituals. But in spite of it all, Rasputin's fame only seemed
to grow. Aside from his charm, his worldly air, and his unnerving ability to get inside people's heads, Rasputin's fame was also built on his seemingly miraculous healing powers. He began describing himself as a healer early in his pilgrimage years. The specifics of his so called miraculous healing abilities are murky. Certainly, there are no reliable witness accounts describing how they manifested exactly.
But regardless of the lack of evidence, many came to consider Resputine a faith healer, a self declared holy person able to cure someone's disease simply by laying hands on them, acting as a physical conduit for divine intervention. The notion of faith healing dates back millennia and remains popular to this day. According to a twenty sixteen survey, almost ninety percent of Americans have turned to healing prayer at some
point in their lives. Almost a quarter have practiced a traditional laying on of hands as it is caught in a bid to cure illness. For years, Rasputin traveled from place to place, bestowing his blessings and famous health hands on whoever wanted them. Many were impoverished, sometimes hundreds of miles from medical care. Having such a renowned, supposedly wise holy man paying attention to them would have, no doubt felt extraordinary. But Rasputin, ever restless, had his sight set
on a new life. By nineteen hundred, then in its thirties, he'd spent the better part of a decade as a traveling pilgrim, and he was tired. The adulation and gratitude he received from acolytes was no longer enough to make up for the physical demands of his lifestyle. Walking miles and miles a day was not going to be an option for much longer, And though he'd never let his followers know it, Rasputin considered himself far superior to most
of the people he encountered. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life skulking around tiny villages, giving out charity to the poor and needy, so that year he set out for one place he'd never been before, Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire in the early nineteen hundreds. The city of Saint Petersburg was a bustling hub of activity when it was founded by Czar Peter.
The first two decades earlier, it was dubbed Russia's window on Europe thanks to its direct access to the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Between its stunning neoclassical architecture and its many interlaced rivers and canals, Saint Petersburg was the kind of place that made life feel beautiful. Few people in and that magnificent metropolis had any sense that these were the last days of the Russian Empire. Soon after arriving in the city, Rasputin quickly began to ingratiate
himself in aristocratic social circles. At the time, interest in spirituality and the dark arts was hugely popular. Seances, hypnotism, and chiromancy, the practice of reading someone's future through the lines on their palm, were all gleefully and openly practiced by the wealthier elements of society. This belief in the mystical had infiltrated the very highest echelons of Russian society.
It had even reached the House of Romanov. It was a heady, febrile environment, custom made for a man like resputins, strange and enigmatic death charms. In nineteen oh four, Czar Nicholas the Second and his wife, the Czarina Alexandra, received devastating news their infant son, Alexey, the heir to the Russian throne, was diagnosed with hemophilia. It's a rare condition where a person's blood doesn't clot as it should. It
can cause uncontrolled bleeding, both externally and internally. Today it's broadly treatable through blood infusions, but in the early twentieth century it was far more dangerous. In the year following Alexey's diagnosis, the royal couple had become increasingly desperate and increasingly disillusioned with the many doctors they'd sought advice from. They were beginning to fear their son was beyond help,
at least beyond and traditional help. Even before their son's diagnosis, the Czar and Czarina had a history of putting their faith in the other worldly. Several years earlier, they befriended a self styled French mystic named Philippe Nazier Vachot, who claimed to be able to predict the future. Nazier Vachot had predicted that Alexandra would finally give birth to a
male heir after several disappointments. When Alexey Julie arrived, they credited Nazier Vachow with helping their wishes to come true. But now the man was gone and the couple were in search of a new miracle worker. Soon, stories of a strange new arrival on the Saint Petersburg social scene
wormed their way to the Winter Palace. Both couldn't help but be intrigued by the story an impoverished farmer from a deprived corner of Siberia who had become a nationally renowned man of God, seemingly with no help from anyone save for the Lord himself. And when they learned of Rasputin's supposed healing powers, they summoned him immediately to the palace. When he stepped into the Tsar's chambers to meet with the Tsar and Czarina, it was hard not to be
impressed by him. He was certainly hard to ignore. He was six foot three with broad shoulders. His hands were unusually large, too, seemingly built for a lifetime of farm work. And yet there he was not a farmer, but a man whom many believed channeled nothing but divinity through them. Buttin had an uncannyability to read people, to see the truth of them, and tell them what they wanted to hear. And there in that first meeting he realized that Alexey's
illness was only one part of the Czar's trouble. In the early nineteen hundreds, political unrest was mounting across all of Russia. In January nineteen oh five, a peaceful demonstration ended in bloodshed when hundreds of protesters were shot dead by armed police. It became known as the Bloody Sunday massacre. It sparked a revolution among citizens across the country, many of whom had already been questioning the monarchy's authoritarian rule. That year, much of Russia ground to a halt amid
national strikes, military mutinies, and widespread protests. By the autumn, Czar Nicholas was compelled to take action. In a concession to the masses, he signed a document called the October Manifesto, which radically transformed Russian society. The Manifesto guaranteed basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech, and created a legislative body whose members would be elected by the people. Just overnight, Russia
went from an autocracy to a constitutional monarchy. Although it had the desired effect quelling the flames of revolution, Nicholas was deeply uncomfortable with the step he'd been forced to take. Upholding another generation of autocratic power was to him his sole duty, and he'd failed. It was shortly after enacting
the Manifesto that Nicholas was introduced to Rasputin. Resputin was, of course well aware of the political climate, and perhaps also sensed that the Tsar's fears about his heir's health were tied into something bigger, a looming sense of existential dread about the future of the monarchy. Either way, by the end of that first meeting, Resputin had convinced Czar Nicholas and Czarina Alexandra that he could heal Alexey, But
he also wove in reassurance of a different kind. He told the Czar that he was the rightful leader of Russia and that he should demand obedience and loyalty from its subjects. It was exactly what Nicholas and Alexandra wanted to hear. After years of mounting opposition and hatred from the public. Here was a man of the people, a lowly peasant, no less as they saw him, at least by birth, reaffirming their authority. Rasputin's impressive reputation, they agreed
later that night, seemed well earned. Sometime after his first introduction to the Czar and Czarina, Rasputin was summoned back to the Winter Palace to attend to Alexey, who'd fallen ill again. The boy, now three years old, had fallen in the palace gardens and hurt his leg. For most other children, this would be a scrape, but for alexe it set off an uncontrollable internal bleeding. His legs swelled up,
causing him to writhe an agonizing pain. Before he'd even set foot in the boy's room, Resputin commanded that Alexey's doctors cease all medical treatment. He told the Czar and Czarina that his abilities required a blank slate, and that any interference from secular medicine could interfere with the process of divine intervention. By then, the couple had lost all confidence in doctors anyway, so they didn't take much convincing.
Their medical team was summarily dismissed. Rasputin spent several hours with Alexey that night, during which he prayed at the foot of his bed. Finally, he emerged from Alexey's room in the early hours of the morning to find Alexandra waiting anxiously outside. He told her to go to bed and promised that Alexey would be better in the morning. Sure Enough, the next morning, Alexandra walked into Alexey's room find him sitting up in bed, his gaze clear and
the swelling in his leg almost entirely gone. She could barely believe her eyes. Even when medical treatments had worked in the past, it had taken days, sometimes weeks, for Alexey to be well enough to get out of bed. Rasputin had seemingly achieved what no doctor ever had. He had healed the air to the Russian throne in a single night. Rasputin had solidified his position in the csars in a circle, effectively making him one of the most
influential men in Russia. It was the beginning of a new life for him and for the royal couple who felt the weight of years of anxiety lifted from them. Yet unknown to them then it was also the beginning of the end. This triumphant, miraculous evening would be the ruin of them all. This episode was written by Emma Dibden and Richard McLain Smith. You've been listening to Unexplained Season seven, episode fifteen in His Eyes A Flaming Glow. Part one. The second and final part, will be released
next Friday, February sixteenth. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
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