A lesson learned from RASPUTIN: THE DOWNFALL OF THE ROMANOVS, by Antony Beevor

Accepting immorality and corruption at the highest levels eventually damages the whole society.

    Antony Beevor's study of the infamous Russian monk Grigory Rasputin is a fascinating page-turner, one that is aided by Beevor's general expertise with Russian history (I cannot recall reading his previous books, but nearly all of them center on Russia). Of all the sordid tales of the Russian Revolution and the atrocities connected with it, few have intrigued the public more than the centuries-old Romanov Dynasty being partially brought down by its decision to put so much power in the hands of a semi-illiterate peasant monk with a shady reputation, partly because of all the myths and legends that have been spread of his supposed powers and resiliency. Beevor has some fun deflating those myths, but he also does not miss the deeper story of the Russian Empire's fall, a cautionary tale that we would all do well to study and remember today. As Beevor notes, it was not so much Rasputin's power that brought down the Romanovs (although his sleazy lifestyle and decisions certainly did not help), but rather he was a symbol of a thoroughly rotten and debased government that allowed him into a position of power in the first place.

    Beevor doesn't spend much time on Rasputin's early years, partly because there's little historical evidence about them. Rasputin came of age in a Russia that was economically falling behind the rest of Europe, partly because it had a series of reactionary Tsars who clung to a concept of absolute power at a time when the dynamic reform movements were sweeping across the world. Rasputin himself traveled the country as a healer and holy man who believed himself to have a greater destiny, and he appeared to have some genuine talent both as a medicine man and as a counselor; at the same time, at a young age he became notorious for his womanizing and alcoholism, and his often-predatory practices of demanding women keep him "company" in return for his services. Rasputin became an important figure solely because he earned the love and admiration of the Russian Empress Alexandra; because he so effectively treated her ailing son Alexei, she became convinced that he was a true holy man with a direct connection to God. Eventually, she granted him massive power over the affairs of the Russian state as the nation plunged into the bloodbath of World War I, and he increasingly became a symbol of the entire failure of the Romanov Dynasty.

    Reading Beevor's account of Rasputin's rise, one of the fascinating elements of his story was that it was not simply Rasputin's influence that led to disaster. Much of Rasputin's advice to the king and queen was foolish (such as his insistence they cling to power and authority regardless of how much dissent bubbled up from the Russian people), but he also could be right on occasion (such as his prediction that WWI would bring great suffering to ordinary Russians who would bear the brunt of its cost). Rather, the mass failing was the system that allowed a man like Rasputin into the pinnacles of power in the first place. Everyone knew Rasputin and all in his circle had a sleazy and debauched reputation, yet nothing could persuade the empress and her infamously weak-willed husband that he had to be removed from power. As a result, people lost all respect for the government and for any standards of competence. When people saw what Rasputin and his group were allowed to get away with, it bred a standard for corruption that seeped through the entire Russian government, and lead to a collapse of any sense that the Russian leaders had any moral authority or were due respect. By the time some angry Russian nobles finally assassinated Rasputin, it was a desperate act to save a government that had already lost its credibility.

    It is that larger historical lesson that resonates to our modern era, where we hear dark tales of the corruption and sleaziness that is now tolerated at the highest levels of power, and elite government officials acting without fear that any failures on their part will ever lead to consequences. Beevor's book is generally a light read that's accessible to ordinary amateur historians, and it has a lot of fun details about how much Rasputin's legend was exaggerated. (For example, the famous death story of Rasputin was that he survived getting poisoned, shot multiple times, and tossed into an icy river only to finally die of drowning-; as Beevor points out, the assassins were so amateur and incompetent that they likely didn't even test to make sure their poison was effective, and Rasputin was almost certainly dead of the gunshots by the time he hit the water). However, far more fascinating and terrifying is Beevor's story of a society that had become too rigid and tolerated too much corruption at its highest levels, and as a result sowed the seeds of its own destruction.