Rasputin | How Rumour Broke an Empire | Feat. Sir Antony Beevor
Legacy
Original Legacy Productions
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
How does a Siberian peasant mystic end up controlling the most powerful empire in Europe? Could the rumours that destroyed a dynasty have been entirely false — and did they matter anyway? And, without Rasputin, would there have been no Lenin — and would the 20th century have looked completely different? Peter sits down with Sir Antony Beevor — bestselling author of Stalingrad, Berlin, and D-Day — to dig into his new book on one of history's most mythologised figures: Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian wanderer who charmed the Tsarina, antagonised everyone else, and whose murder was so catastrophically bungled it reads like black farce.
0:00 From Siberia to the Imperial court — how a peasant mystic reached the centre of power
5:30 Holy fools, wandering pilgrims, and why Russia was always fertile ground for figures like Rasputin
10:00 The voice, the eyes, and the seduction: how Rasputin actually worked on people
13:00 The Tsarina's obsession — and why Antony Beevor is certain the rumours were fake news
17:30 How Rasputin's ministerial choices set the railways on fire and sparked a revolution
24:00 Rasputin was right about the war — and then made everything worse anyway
27:30 The assassination: poisoned cakes, Yankee Doodle, and a murder plot of spectacular incompetence
32:00 Putin, Nicholas II, and why historians should be wary of historical parallels
36:00 Without Rasputin, no Lenin? The counterfactuals Antony loves but won't fully follow
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Stay connected with Legacy:
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TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today's guest on Legacy is one of the world's most acclaimed historians and writers, |
| 0:04.6 | who books have shaped how millions understand war, revolution and the collapse of political systems. |
| 0:11.7 | Sir Anthony Beaver is a friend of mine, but also the best-selling author of works, including |
| 0:16.0 | Stalingrad, Berlin, The Downfall, 1945, Dede, the Battle of Spain, and Russia Revolution and Civil War |
| 0:23.1 | 1917 to 1921. His books have been translated into dozens of languages, won major international |
| 0:29.9 | prizes, and has earned Serenity a reputation for combining extraordinary archival research |
| 0:35.7 | with a novelist's eye for drama, atmosphere and character. |
| 0:41.0 | In his new book, Rasputin and The Downfall of the Romanovs, Anthony turns to one of the most |
| 0:45.9 | infamous and misunderstood figures of modern history, Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian peasant, |
| 0:51.9 | mystic, healer, charlatan, political operator, and Holy Man, |
| 0:56.7 | whose name became synonymous with decadence, corruption, and the final years of Imperial Russia |
| 1:02.5 | before the revolution. But the book is not just a biography of Rasputin himself. It's also the |
| 1:09.6 | story of a regime losing confidence, of a royal family |
| 1:13.2 | isolated by war, by paranoia, and of how gossip, scandal and conspiracy can bring down one of |
| 1:19.9 | Europe's oldest and greatest dynasties. At the heart lies a larger question that feels |
| 1:25.7 | strikingly modern too about what happens when political |
| 1:28.8 | systems become detached from reality, and when institutions stop functioning properly, |
| 1:34.3 | and when rumours become more powerful than truth. So thank you for joining us today on |
| 1:39.4 | Legacy with Sir Anthony Beaver on Rasputin. |
| 1:45.2 | Anthony, it's a joy to have you to come and talk to us about Rasputin. |
| 1:50.0 | We start the book in Siberia rather than St. Petersburg. |
| 1:54.7 | How important is it to understand where Rasputin comes from? |
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