Great Moments in History
Rasputin was this weird mystical dude who had mystical powers over the last Tsarina of Russia. He had this weird scraggly beard, too; unfortunately the prop that I used had hair too thick so it’s not realistic. (It was a rental so I couldn’t rip out half the hairs as I would have liked.)
This guy is kind of mysterious. He was supposedly some combination of mystic, priest, healer, hypnotist, manipulator. Pretty much a perfect topic for the late-night Coast to Coast radio program with George Noory.
During WWI, Rasputin claimed that the Russian army would not win unless Tsar Nicholas II took command of the army. That was pretty much asking for it because the Tsar didn’t know anything about that stuff. But maybe he just wanted more power, ’cause he exerted an undue influence on the Tsarina while Nick was at the front. And got more power.
To make a long story short, a lot of people didn’t like him, and he got assassinated.
You forgot to mention that he came back to life. But Anastasia got him in the end by crushing his magical glass cylindrical thingy. I know this because it was in a documentary made by Disney.
Reply to l3rucewayneI wrote a short story involving a big tomcat named Rasputin.
I’m sure you were wondering.
Reply to Derek SlaterRasputin is actually a pretty good chess player and now coaches at our club: http://www.raychess.org/about.htm
Reply to Tom Panelassomeone defaced the tower defense scoreboard group.
Reply to bum@l3rucewayne: Thank you. Make sure this is updated in Wikipedia.
@Derek: Yes, thank you; you’ve sated my curiosity. The burning question is, of course, do you still have the short story? That would be cool.
@Tom Panelas: A-ha, so he didn’t die! Does he actually teach the kids himself, or would that be a problem?
@bum: Surely you mean the one who dubbed himself KnightsDLM = patzers. So was it John Jacobs? Or maybe Jeremy Silman?
Reply to Donnie@Donnie There were some bureaucratic hurdles to jump in order for R to be able to work inside the school, and some parents had misgivings, but in the end everyone agreed that kids from the South Side of Chicago could take care of themselves with an old white guy with a beard.
Reply to Tom PanelasYeah, but did they know Rasputin’s a wizard or something?
Reply to Donnie