Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
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22 January 1869 – 29 December 1916. Rasputin was a Russian mystic who is perceived as 
having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa 
Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the 
"Mad Monk", while others considered him a "strannik" (or religious pilgrim) and even a 
starets ("elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be a 
psychic and faith healer.

It has been argued that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to 
the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously 
as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet and, on the other side of the coin, 
as a debauched religious charlatan. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life 
and influence, for accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, 
and legend.