OSHER 716 - The Murder of Rasputin: The Whodunnit of the 20th Century

On the night of December 16, 1916, a group of conspirators murdered Grigori Rasputin, Russia's "Mad Monk". While meant to strengthen the Romanov dynasty, this murder brought on its downfall merely two months later and ushered in a year of two revolutions that ended with the Bolshevik takeover of Russia and the eventual murder of the Tsar and his family. In many ways, Russia and the rest of the world are still dealing with the consequences of that murder. Unlike most books, films, and even songs about the subject, this lecture will set aside myths and fabrications and will shed new light on what actually happened that fateful night, based not only on memoirs but also on forensic evidence available. Who were these men who assembled on that fateful night in the Yusupov Palace in Saint Petersburg and what motivated them to commit that heinous crime? Who fired the fatal shot? And how did these men's lives unfold after the murder of Rasputin? Our story will take us not only to the magnificent Yusupov Palace in Saint Petersburg, where the murder was committed, but also to the Yusupovs' estates outside of Moscow and in Crimea, as well as to Oxford, Malta, and Paris.