Featured Who's on these pins? One looks like Rasputin.

Just found these in my junque pile. I swear the one dude is Rasputin. He's wearing the right clothes and he's scary enough. (holy Halloween jewelry, Batman!) Not sure who the other one is. The second guy looks like a color-enhanced tintype.

 

I know the second guy is probably just somebody's hubby/son, but I figured since they were found together he might be someone identifiable.

 

Either a Greek Orthodox Priest or a Rasputin Fan Club pin (campaign button). Seriously-I'd look up late Czarist Romanov Russia (esp-1906-1915) and see if the Rasputin Cult had commemorative pins.

 

That would be...strange, but whack jobs have attracted fans before and since. (NOT mentioning any American political names.) But the clothes are right.

BTW - I didn't know the Mad Monk had kids. One wonders if he knew either. That would mean some woman had sex with him, which sounds... well I guess some would.

 

The 'Original' Svengali-who could resist those bulging mesmerizing eyeballs !

 

He was a fairly regular Russian peasant before he 'saw the light'. He married and had a daughter. Then he went on pilgrimage, as many did, and had a spiritual experience.
He was never a real monk, btw, he wasn't educated.

Not sure if your long-haired guy is Rasputin though, his brow looks too wide.

 

Me neither. He does not look like Rasputin. Rasputin had lower forehead, he also looked more fierce. This guy is calm and peaceful, I don't see anything fierce in his look, IMO. The face and outfit are typical for an Orthodox priest, it can be anybody.

Rasputin was a favourite of tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna (the wife of Nikolay II). The reason was that she was sure he was the only person to help her son, tsarevich Aleksey, who suffered from haemophilia and was often in pain. Tsaritsa claimed that only Rasputin could bring relief to her son. Nikolay II was very much in love with his wife and accepted all her quirks.
Rasputin was known for his lust and had many relations with women from the high society. Actually, this is how he was lured into the trap by his assassins - with a promise to see a high society woman in the house of knyaz Yusupov, one of the culprits. Yusupov has written memoirs, very interesting book where he explained a lot about Rasputin and his murder. Yusupov managed to escape the revolution and spent his life in Paris. I have the book in Russian, no idea if it was translated to English.

 

It was. Everything connected with the last Tsar has been of great interest to many people in the West, so this book is considered an important addition to the list.

 

Thanks, Any. It is logical.
Another interesting book where Rasputin is dealt with, is "The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II"
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Tsar-Life-Death-Nicholas/dp/0385469624

 

True AJ & Iva-Rasputin fascinates us Americans too.He has that evil insane charisma that Genghis Khan & Hitler have.
I grew up in a Croatian family and know a lot of Yugoslavians and Russians.Rasputin has the Slavic cheekbones and pronounced brow ridges that many of us have.
So many English language movies have been made featuring Rasputin,even the Disney animated movie 'Anastasia' that it'd be hard to list them all.
PS-Interesting footnote-look up the 'WWII Yugoslavian Partisans'.My great Uncle Mike was killed fighting with them.

 

Rasputin was not a monk neither a priest (Orthodox priests can get married, b.t.w, not the monks, only the lowest level priests), and he was married and had three children - a son and two daughters. Only one of the daughters, Matrena/Maria, survived as she managed to emigrate, the others from his family perished in Siberia in the 1930th.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Распутин,_Григорий_Ефимович
Rasputin was hated by the Orthodox Church and later by the bolsheviks, too.

 

Are there any living Romanov's ? They must have had tons of relatives.
PS-How I'd like to pick that Estate !

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Vladimirovna_of_Russia

 

Yes, there are living Romanovs - all who managed to escape from the bolshevik revolution in 1917. According to wiki, in 1917 there were 65 Romanovs of which 32 male. 18 Romanovs were killed by the bolsheviks (out of which 13 male), 47 survived by emigrating. In the links below there are many details about the different living clans of Romanovs and where they are now.
В начале 1917 года династия Романовых насчитывала 65 членов[11] (в том числе 32 представителя мужского пола), 18[11] из которых (в том числе 13 мужчин) были убиты большевиками в 1918—1919 годах в Екатеринбурге, Алапаевске, Петербурге. Спасшиеся 47 человек оказались в изгнании за границей (в основном во Франции и США).
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Романовы#Романовы_после_1917_года
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov

Don't think they have any archives or estates with them though. They had to escape quickly and could not take any possessions with them, everything was left to the bolsheviks. Bolsheviks sold much of their treasures for dollars afterwards.

There is a story written in Yusupov memoirs: Maria Feodorovna, the tsaritsa-mother of Nikolay II, who was a sister of the British Queen-consort (the mother of George V) and was accepted to live with the British court after managing to escape from Russia, once was shown a precious box for jewelry (decorated with diamonds and rubies, etc.) by a member of the British aristocracy and was told that the box had been bought at an auction. She told that person that she new the box very well, as it belonged to her once. It was an awkward situation but still the British person said that she had bought it legally so it was legitimately hers. The tsaritsa-mother Maria Feodorovna was the grandmother of Yusupov's wife Irina (who was a niece of Nikolay II and a member of Romanovs family) so he was told the story by her personally.

Another story by Yusupov - he escaped with his family but his butler was detained by the bolsheviks and was tortured to reveal where the treasure of Yusupov family was hidden as bolsheviks could not find it in the main house of the family (they used to have several houses). The butler did not tell anything but the bolsheviks ruined the whole house and found them hidden below the main staircase. And took them.

Yusupov was enormously rich before the revolution but he could not take anything when emigrating and had to work for his living in Paris. His wife - too. Their daughter claimed some family's estates in Russia after 1990 but was refused. In Russia there was no restitution of property taken by the communists.

 

It would be ironic if Yusupov had to spend the rest of his life earning a living as a Butler ! Kind of like a reincarnation lesson without dying.

 

The late HRH Prince Phillip's dna was used to ID the Tsar's remains when the familys' skeletons turned up after the Revolution, so I'm not surprised there were other family members still kicking around somewhere.

 

They are all mixed, the royal families in Europe. Also George V was first cousin of Nikolay II, they even had visible resemblance, their mothers were sisters, daughters of the Danish king. Alexandra Feodorovna (aka Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt) by her mother's side was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Alix/Alice was raised by her grandmother in the British royal court after her mother's early death and could not speak German although she was a German princess.

IMO, Rasputin was just a brilliant performer having the good luck to be presented to the Tsaritsa and taking advantage of her maternal feelings. Can't blame the Tsaritsa that she did everything to help her son and relieve his pain and suffering.
Alexander III was famous for his love affairs and infidelity while his son, Nikolay II, was known as a loving and faithful husband and father. Bad fate...

 

Meanwhile, George V's father was famous for cheating on his wife, Alexandra. George V, the Kaiser and the Czar were all cousins and looked very much alike. One of those things that always weirded me out a bit about WWI.

 

Family rivalry, LOL!

 

Family quarrels are the worst. WWI being case in point?