Grigori Rasputin: Encyclopedia II - Grigori Rasputin - The spirit of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin - The spirit of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

After his death, his secretary Simonovich realized that Rasputin had moved a lot of money into his daughter Maria's account, and generally set all his affairs in order.

Weeks before he was assassinated in December 1916, according to his secretary Simanovich, Rasputin wrote the following:

"I write and leave behind me this letter at St. Petersburg. I feel that I shall leave life before January 1. I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa, to the Russian Mother and to the Children, to the land of Russia, what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for twenty-five years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no nobles in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigori has been killed, you must know this: 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. I go, and I feel in me the divine command to tell the Russian Tsar how he must live if I have disappeared. 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. -Grigori"

Why he wrote this prophetic letter, if it was not made up by Simonovich, is a mystery. Some speculate that Rasputin had a spiritual vision foreshadowing such an event. Others believe that Rasputin knew that he was widely reviled by the Russian people at the time he wrote the letter and that some wanted to kill him.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The spirit of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki