Grigory Rasputin, the "devil monk", is the most mysterious figure in the Romanov tragedy. Born a poor Siberian peasant, Rasputin became Alexandra's closest advisor due to his ability to alieve her son's sufferings. A powerful and a alcoholic, Rasputin attended orgies and church services with equal devotion. The police and family friends warned the royal couple about Rasputin. The Tsar did nothing. Alexandra dismissed the tales and their tellers as lies and liars. Because Alexis' illness was secret, St. Petersburg assumed Rasputin was or might be her lover. Of course whoever thought this must have been crazy, cause with a hideous monk like him, and a beautiful tsarista like Alexandra it MUST be a rumor!! The rumor was false (of course!). Rasputin influenced the Tsar's political decisions, and his meddling and advice crippled the Imperial government. With the Tsar's power in danger, the aristocracy (includes wealthy Russian politicians) acted. On December 30, 1916, the night before New Years Eve, Prince Yussoupov and his well-born friends invited Rasputin to a drinking party where they poisoned, then shot and finally drowned the monk. Rasputin's corpse was later recovered on the bank of the icy river.The damage Rasputin inflicted helped topple the Romanov dynasty two months later -- an event the monk foresaw and predicted in a letter addressed to the family and delivered to them after his death.

This is the letter Rasputin wrote before his horrible death he foresaw. He predicted that IF he should happen to die because one of the Romanov or Romanov relatives killed him, the entire Romanov family, including the children, would die within 1 or 2 years. Two months later, the Romanov family was murdered by the Bosheviks. No one knows how Rasputin's so-called curse worked, he had no affiliation with neither Lenin or the Revolutionists. Many Russian Gypsies thought Rasputin might have made a pact with the devil for the curse. Who knows? It may be true.... "I write and leave behind me this letter at St. Petersburg. I feel that I shall leave life before January 1...If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear, remain on your throne and govern, and you, Russian Tsar, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia...if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then no one in the family, that is to say, none of your children or relations, will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people...You must reflect and act prudently. Think of your safety and tell your relations that I have paid for them with my blood. I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living." Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family. Grigory