He walked the road alone. The clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet were the only things he carried with him. And he had a long way to go. After all, he was crossing an empire that stretched from dawn to dusk. He was wandering Imperial Russia, beaten, robbed, even hunted by wolves. His journey was filled with suffering. He even believed he was beset by demons and at war in the spiritual realm. But none of that would stop him, because Grigory was aiming for the empire's heart.
That's where the doors of the salons and palaces of the Russian aristocracy would be thrown open to him. Ears would bend to his teaching, and wealthy and sick alike would respond to his murmuring lips. That's right, Grigory Rasputin was going to Saint Petersburg, and as historian Douglas Smith describes,
they were hungry for his teaching. There. Elite aristocratic society in Russia at the time was fascinated with very spiritualist leaders, with gurus, and there was this desire to seek alternate ways of connecting with reality that traditional religion and the church were unable to explain to people who were seeking answers to sort of these life's questions that seem to
have this pressing urgency right around nineteen hundred. In this season of Unobscured, we will follow Grigory rasputants transformation from a peasant at the crossroads of history to a monster at the center of far too many legends, and in the process learn how he took the weight of a fallen empire with him to the grave. Join us as we make our way into the burning palaces of Imperial Russia to dig up the truth about Grigory Rasputin un Obscured.
Season four premieres Wednesday, October six. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you listen to podcasts.