What Rasputin Believed

What Rasputin Believed

A Memorial Day Sermon to Countryside Church, Unitarian Universalist

May 29, 2022

The Rev. Dr. C. Scot Giles

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

Memorial Day is a time to remember and to put departed people into context. We do this to honor them and to learn from them. 

This morning I want to talk about a person who died long ago, but who I have learned from - so this is a bit of a self-indulgent sermon. I want to remember someone who might surprise you; Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. It’s probably not going to be what you think.

You undoubtedly have an image of who Rasputin was drawn from the stilted history you may have picked up in school, or from the lurid movies made about him. The image of him in popular imagination really fills the eye, and he makes a convenient foil for all sorts of things.

You may have seen the first Hellboy movie, where Rasputin appears as an immortal, risen-from-the-dead villain serving Old Gods that writer H.P. Lovecraft would recognize. Rasputin also recently showed up in the humorous action movie The King’s Man, where Rasputin is portrayed as a covert agent of an evil mastermind trying influence the outcome of World War I.

There is a West German musical group called Boney M, that created a catchy rock tune called “Ra, Ra, Rasputin” in 1978. Lately it has shown up on YouTube as the background for videos about the war in the Ukraine.

The reality is far different. In fact there is an academic movement to rehabilitate and reconsider Rasputin’s reputation and role in history. In Slavic nations (Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and elsewhere) Rasputin has come to be honored as a spiritual man who was a patron of Slavic national identity. 

You can actually buy religious icons of Rasputin these days (I have a collection) and there are Orthodox Churches where his icon is displayed prominently at the altar. In 2004 there was an effort to formally canonize him to make him Saint Rasputin. It didn’t happen because world events interfered, but I will not be surprised if he is elevated to sainthood within Christian Orthodoxy during my lifetime. So, he was not the person you might think at all. It’s been said that reputation is about what others say about one, while character is about who one is. I’m speaking to Rasputin’s character today. His reputation stinks, although there is improvement.

His Story

Born on January 21, 1869 in a Serbian village, Rasputin would grow to be a big man, standing 6 feet, 4 inches tall. At the age of eighteen he married a childhood sweetheart, Praskovya Dubrovnik who adored him and remained his wife even after he moved away to assume a role with the Russian government. She would bear him seven children, three of which lived: Maria, Varvara and Dmitri. She died the same year he did, probably of a broken heart - what we would now call emotional cardiomyopathy. Keep in mind his long and successful marriage when you hear comments about him.

Rasputin was assassinated by agents of the Russian aristocracy on December 30, 1916 in St. Petersburg.

The legend is that they poisoned him with pastry but he didn’t die from the poison. So they shot him in the head and threw his body in the river. But the autopsy was said to have found water in his lungs, meaning that he actually was not killed by the gunshot, and died by drowning. Quite a testimony to his vitality.

Like so many of the stories about Rasputin, this story is not true. His daughter Maria would write that her father ate only simple food - fruit, vegetables, fish and bread. Any photos you might see of Rasputin surrounded by lavish food represented gifts from admirers that he never touched. He hated sweats and would never have eaten the pastry. The actual autopsy report with became available to scholars after the fall of the Soviet Union showed that he did die of the gunshot, and no poison was found in his system.

I will not take up time to talk about the other sensationalistic things said about Rasputin. There are claims that he returned from the dead, that one of the organs of his body was severed and used in secret rituals, that his children formed a secret society. All of that is nonsense that you can debunk in a few minutes using Google. 

You can also find photos of the mentioned severed organ which is on display in the Museum of Erotica in St. Petersburg, Russia, if you are into such things. However, physicians determined that it actually turns out to have come from a farm animal.

At some point Rasputin spent time training with a heretical branch of the Russian Church who called themselves the Khlysty. They did not honor any sort of clergy and were organized as insular groups of people, with communication between these groups being maintained by traveling messengers called “Flying Angels.” The Orthodox church tried to suppress this form of religious practice, and so the Khystry maintained their faith underground - sometimes literally in caves and basements.

The Khlysty practiced a form of worship they called “rejoicing,” and it involved estatic dancing and speaking in tongues. They also apparently practiced group sex as a form of worship. However, as far as can be determined, scholars can find no evidence that Rasputin was formally a member of the Khystry, although he may have had sympathy for some of their methods. 

The stories that are told about people often take on a life of their own, which pushes away truth. 

That sort of exaggeration happened to Rasputin too. You probably have heard stories that he was a libertine who seduced Alexandra, the Empress of Russia. Serious historians doubt all that. 

Rasputin did hold solons, informal teaching gatherings, in his home. Many aristocratic women attended because they had little else to do in that society, and it was fun to attend because of Rasputin’s “bad boy” reputation. 

But there is no actual evidence of libertine practices or that he ever seduced the Empress, although no one really knows for sure. It was common in that society for aristocrats of both genders to have paramours and mistresses. So maybe; but it wasn’t that big a deal back then.

In reality what we do know is that Rasputin converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity, and stayed in a monastery as a married lay-monk in 1897 when he was 28 years old. In Orthodox Christianity, religious professionals below the rank of bishop can marry, and laity always can.

Rasputin became a Starets. A Starets is not a priest, deacon or bishop. They are not ordained at all. But they are religious workers. 

Probably the closest equivalent we have in our culture would be the Spiritual Director. A Spiritual Director is a person who helps guide people to deepen their spiritual lives, and they can be laity or clergy - it doesn’t matter.

Another parallel would be someone in our own society who was known as a spiritual practitioner, such as some of the more popular teachers of A Course in Miracles, or some of the famous motivational speakers like Tony Robbins. 

Apparently, Rasputin was really good in this role and soon because very popular despite his peasant upbringing and mannerisms - his table manners were awful. For example, he only ate with his fingers and never used a napkin.

His Work

Rasputin was an imposing man of powerful charisma who became known for doing spiritual healing, and that is what brought him to the attention of the Tsar.

The royal prince Alexi, suffered from hemophilia and his blood would not clot properly. At the time this condition was frequently fatal.

Somehow, Rasputin was able to help the boy. We do not know his method of healing, but what is said of it sounds a lot like some form of medical hypnotism to me. It appears he often based his patter in such sessions on nature and nature’s beauty, like a Whippoorwill’s song.

You can probably figure out why I find Rasputin of interest as I am a religious professional who is also a hypnotist. Although I am shorter. And bald. But you can’t have everything.

In fact, hypnotism was a common study among Orthodox clergy at that time, so it is quite likely that is what Rasputin used. There may even have been some sort of connection between Rasputin and the person known as Rexford North who was the founder of the National Guild of Hypnotists, the modern organization of which I am an officer. 

Rexford North, and historians now know that was not his real name, disappeared may years ago under mysterious circumstances. He was Russian. One theory is that the Russian Communist government hunted him down, because they did that to anyone who was connected to the Russian Imperial Court.

What Rasputin Believed

Rasputin used his influence with the royal family to get them to do things powerful people didn’t like.

The common story is the aristocracy thought Rasputin had too much influence on the Tsar of Russia and was causing the war to go badly. But historians suspect he didn’t really have that kind of influence with the Tsar who was making bad decisions all by himself. 

But when the Tsar went to the front lines and left the Empress in control of day-to-day living, Rasputin did have influence over her and she began to advocate for social reforms.

The aristocracy didn’t like that Rasputin, of peasant stock himself, was a regular and popular advocate for the poor, raging that it was sin that there was corn rotting in the Imperial warehouses while the common people were starving because they couldn’t pay the high prices the aristocrats demanded. 

One of the surest ways to get on the bad side of someone who is rich and powerful is to tell them they should be less rich and less powerful. But that is what Rasputin asked the Empress to do. 

Rasputin would also seek to help anyone who was getting a raw deal in that society. He had a pad of notes that he would give out asking people to lend a hand to anyone who presented one of these notes, which he signed adding a small cross under his name. His stature with the common people was such that this help was typically given.

Rasputin knew he could not single-handedly alter the Russian economy or system, but where he could put influence, he did. 

I have often thought that Rasputin would have agreed with the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, a Unitarian minister during the Civil War in America, who said words that I have used as an inspiration myself. 

Hale said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” 

Rasputin always tried to do the something that he could do.

Rasputin also persuaded the Tsar to discontinue the conventional medical treatments the physicians of the time were giving to Prince Alexi. And a good thing too, because we now know that treatments were at best ineffective and probably actually toxic. 

The boy simply may have gotten better because those treatments stopped, and Rasputin was able to get the boy to be calm and let his natural healing response take over.

In short, he was an earthy and compassionate man of faith. Tsar Nicholas II would write that Rasputin was “a good, simple, religious Russian man. In moments of doubt and spiritual torment I love to converse with him and after such conversations my soul is always light and calm.” He would also write, “Better ten Rasputins than one of the empresses’s hysterical fits.” Apparently, the Tsar thought his wife was something of a piece of work.

So there you have the first, second and third thing that Rasputin believed. 

First, that the rich have an obligation to help the poor.

Second, that we should all do what we can to help others, even if we can’t completely see how to fix whatever is systematically wrong.

Third, that natural healing was often best, and soothing away emotional pain often, the finest medicine. 

I give an unqualified yea-saying to all of these beliefs.

When Stuck

All of us will face problems that defy solution. We can’t get the damn computer to work. No matter how hard we try, the relationship fails. We really thought this was the right job but now we find it isn’t fulfilling and we don’t know what do to. We may have a temptation that we find we can’t resist, even though we know nothing good will come of it. We’re stuck and don’t know how to proceed. 

Rasputin believed a way to address these things was to try harder and harder until you became sick of it. Then, he believed you’d get over yourself and see a better way.

It was how he taught people to get over inappropriate romantic and physical attraction - give it to them until you got sick of them. That’s the reason for his sensational reputation. 

Yet the basic idea is when you can’t figure out how to achieve something, you need to reset your thinking somehow so that new ideas can flow. This is the fourth thing that Rasputin believed and I agree - although I suggest a different method.

Rasputin’s core idea was to free oneself from the temptation to sin by engaging in sin until it lost its hold on you. 

To understand that, think about someone who smokes cigarettes. Often such people get started smoking in adolescence because they think smoking is “cool.” It makes them seem adult and sophisticated and they really, really want to do it. However, as the years turn into decades the smoking behavior stops seeming “cool” and may even become embarrassing and something the person wants to stop.

One of the techniques used by therapists today is called Implosion. Now, this is a problematic technique that I do not recommend but some therapists use it. They help you stop smoking by first requiring you to smoke three times as much. After you’ve done that for a while you are so sick from nicotine poisoning that tobacco loses its hold on you.

Got a problem resisting eating ice cream? Try living on nothing else for two months and see how much you like it then. 

This seems to me a little extreme, but it is a fairly common belief in the Christian community that if one commits a sin, but seriously regrets it, God will forgive one for having sinned. I fact there is a priest who said to have written, “I love sinning. God loves forgiving. God and I get along just fine.” 

Rasputin called such experiences “purifications,” and believed that once the intensity of the thing you thought was important fades with repetition, you will see a different way more clearly.

Let me suggest a method that seems to me more reasonable when you feel at your wits end, and are stuck on a problem you can’t solve. It will work better in our society, and I’d like to believe Rasputin would approve of it if he were trying to function in our world, because he clearly was not a stupid person.

The Stoic Point

There is a principle in ancient philosophy called “The Obstacle is the Way.” It was first expressed my Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest emperors of ancient Rome. 

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

What he meant by this is that when you confront something in your life that brings your progress, goals or dreams to a halt, that is not a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing because discovering that something isn’t working is valuable, as it serves to point the way to correction. 

The correction comes in two forms. First, you might figure out another way to achieve your goal. Second, the obstacle might show you that you really don’t want that goal as much as you thought you did.

Clement Stone, one of my guides in life, said in a book, “Got a problem? That’s good.” It’s good because perhaps you can find a way around that problem instead of just doing more of what isn’t working.

I think a far better way is to realize that often our obstacles show us the way instead. Either we need for find a different path forward, or realize the path forward was not really a path we should be on.

This is much less likely to land you in trouble.

So, what Rasputin believed - four things.

If you are well off, you should use some of your resources to help others. Be compassionate;

Do what you can to help others - even if there is a limit to what you can do as a single person;

Natural healing is often best, and soothing away emotional problems is the best therapy; and 

When you don’t know what to do, find some way to reset your thinking rather than doing more of what isn’t working. Find a different way to your goal or decide that you need a different goal. The Obstacle is the way. A reframing of Rasputin’s fourth belief.

Not bad ideas, from the mind of a man who was not himself bad, but who had a really bad reputation. And so I remember him on this Memorial Day. I hope you find his counsel of interest.

And that’s my sermon, in these troubled times.

Happy Memorial Day.