Russia
Grigori Rasputin
1869–1916 Faith healer and confidant of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, 1905–1916
Born into a peasant family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye, Rasputin became a wandering holy man, or starets, and gained followers among the elite of Saint Petersburg. He met Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra in 1905 and won their trust as a healer for their son Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia. When Nicholas left the capital in 1915 to take command of the army, Rasputin and Alexandra gained still more influence, and as Russian defeats mounted both grew unpopular. On 30 December 1916 (17 December Old Style) a group of nobles including Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich killed him; his body was found under river ice two days later. Historians have argued that the scandal around him eroded the prestige of the autocracy.