And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 132, the Life and Murder of Grigory Rasutin, part two. Last time we went over the early years of the Strannek, Grigori Rasputin and how he came to be at the court of the

Tsar and Zar of of Russia despite his being a functionally illiterate

peasant.

In today's podcast, we'll go over the events that led to the conspiracy and murder of

Rasputin by members of the Russian aristocracy and of a foreign

power that was also likely involved.

I'd like to go back a little bit and discuss one of

Rasputin's early allies then turned enemy, the monk Iliador.

Iliador by 1911 had ended his relationship with Grigori and began a slander and blackmail campaign against his former friend.

But all was not well with Iliadour as he was getting the reputation as being the mad monk. He wrote a semi-autographical slash

biographical work about Rasputin entitled

Mad Monk of Russia, Ileador. Memoirs in Confessions of Sergei Mikhailovich Trufonov, which was supported by one

Maxim Korky, whose intention it was to besmirch the reputation of the Tsar and the Romanov dynasty.

His book, though, is somewhat fictional, but does contain a lot of facts, especially about West Putin.

Born Sergei Mikhailovich Trufanof on October 19, 1880, Iliador would eventually renounce

his membership in the Russian Orthodox Church,

and even in his belief in God,

and would offer his services to Vladimir Lenin

before immigrating to New York City in 1922. Because of this behavior I was quite surprised how many historians

actually believed in everything he said in his book. In 1911 the monk Iliador, Bishop Hermogen, and two other men tried to humiliate

Rasputin in a meeting, going so far as to try to smother him.

Grigori sent a distressed telegram to the Emperor telling him of the event.

...