The ideas of the man making the times, or the times making the man, has been debated for centuries. Often times we find that it is a mix of both the times and the man. In Grigory Rasputin's case, he was thought to be the man making the times of early twentieth century Russia. The problem was that the times in which we speak of were times of great chaos and strife across the Russian countryside.
Rasputin was thought by many in the Russian government to be the source of the problems that Russia was facing in its government in the early 1900's. This simply was not true. Rasputin is merely a manifestation, rather than a cause itself. He was a scapegoat.
Grigorij Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin, the famous Russian mujique (1864...
Rasputin and his admirers, 1914 This image has bee...Rasputin did possess great power and influence over the Tsar, Nicholas II and more importantly over the Tsarina, Alexandra. This power though, was not taken advantage of, in order to rule and manipulate the Russian government. It was simply used by Rasputin to serve himself and that alone. Rasputin had no aspirations to rule Russia. He was an evil man, but as far as Russia's problems being on his shoulders alone is preposterous.
The great power that was possessed by Rasputin was due to the seemingly magical healing powers that he possessed. After the Tsarina had given birth to a series of children that were all girls, she finally gave birth to a son. This son, Alexis, would be the heir to the throne and next Tsar. The only problem was that Alexis was born with the recessive disorder of hemophilia. Hemophilia is a rare bleeding disorder, in which the blood does not clot properly (What is Hemophilia). This proves problematic in that the slightest cut or bruise can cause a child inflicted with the disease...