I don’t believe the russian society women slept with Rasputin. I think it was fake news. Everything in Russia was highly politicized, just like it is today in the US. Remember the FBI releasing a totally fake ass memo about emails right before the 2016 election in order to make sure the Witch Heretic Non-cookie-Baker Bitch couldn’t the be president, despite what the people wanted? Same deal. Rogue agents spreading shit sandwiches all around the dining room in 1916 Russia.
Russian secret police had agents in it who hated the German Alexandra & wanted to take her & her friends down. In early 20th century Russia there were ultra conservatives, ultra monarchists, parliamentarians, socialists, communists, ultra Russian orthodox, western-leaning Russians, imperialists, colonialists, secularists, boyars, populists, German agents, British agents — everybody was angling for a piece of the piroshka at that time. It was a mess. The Russian empire was too big, there wasn’t enough arable land to feed the people, land was being stolen from Jews & peasants, everything was extremely capitalistic. Money & power were everything. The French, British, US & Japanese wanted Russia to stay in the war. The Germans, the starving Russian peasants and the socialists wanted Russia out of the war.
I think the rich Russian aristocratic women believed in Rasputin the same way that women today believe in astrology, ouija boards, sèances, Lawn Guyland mediums, telephone psychics, Hat men, malevolent spirits in hotel rooms, ghosts, etc. Remember, at the time — late 19th & early 20th century — spiritualism was a big fad in Western Europe & the US. Russians were just as superstitious as the rest of Europe & the US and they believed there were people who were “closer to God,” than others ...people who could intervene with God & the spirit world. Rasputin was someone who took advantage of those beliefs. I think the women did shower him with money & jewels, but not with sex. I think he used his position within the aristocracy to fuck gypsies & young, poor women. He was a celebrity, like Donald Trump.
Alexandra was very unhappy. She didn’t “get” Russia. She was a stern, Germanic Lutheran woman who lost her mother & favorite sister at a young age. She was very shy & nervous & known since childhood for breaking out in a rash in social situations. She would’ve been fine as a minor Saxon princess or married to some boring Duke, but she happened to fall in love with Nikolas Romanov & he with her. It was really bad juju.
Alexandra tried & tried to have a son. Finally, after years of trying, she had a son & he immediately began to bleed. She believed this was her fault. Hemophilia was in her family - her brother died of it. She believed she passed the disease onto her son & that she was the cause if his terrible pain & disability. She felt guilty because of it and turned to religion to beg god to help her son. She became more orthodox than the patriarch, expecting that god would answer her prayers and stop punishing her son for whatever sins she had committed.
Rasputin was able to calm the boy and slow the bleeding. When the boy was in pain, his mother & sisters were extremely upset, which affected the boys heart rate, blood pressure & clotting cascade. When Rasputin showed up, he demanded everyone leave the room & assured the boy he was now going to be well, so long as they prayed together. It was a form of hypnosis/suggestion.
Anyone would want the bleeding and pain of a child to stop. Since Rasputin was the only one who could do this, Alexandra trusted him and began to suspect that anti-Rasputin men in her husbands retinue were hoping for the death of the heir to the Russian throne for their own nefarious reasons.
It was a tragedy due to ignorance on virtually every side of the story. These kinds of tragedies are only able to be dissected once they’re over & done with.
