Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (AUDIO: The Wanderer) was a controversial Russian mystic with influence over Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra in the later days of Russia's Romanov dynasty. He was assassinated by Prince Felix Yusupov, along with his co-conspirators Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich in December 1916. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

In 1903, Ian Chesterton dealt with the eccentric Grigori, a pilgrim in his early thirties, whom he met near the village of Zarechny in Siberia. Rasputin, revealed to be the Mad Monk of historical infamy, gained knowledge of future events from a faulty machine. Things that he foresaw included Alexandra, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Bolsheviks, a great war, the revolution, armistice, Stalin, Nazis, Hitler, another world war, television, computers, space flight, Yuri Gagarin, the Cold War, Cuban missiles, the Berlin Wall, the tenth planet, aliens, invasions, a lunar space station, men on Mars, the Doctor's people, beings beneath the feet, creatures made of plastic, metal, calcium and silicon, Egyptian gods, werewolves, ghosts and vampires. He learned detailed information about Ian and Barbara Wright's discovery of the TARDIS in Totter's Lane in November 1963, the Doctor being woven through the tapestry of time, his protection of it and his future.

The increasingly insane and sickly Grigori desired to use his knowledge to become closer to God than any man in history — preventing Hitler and disasters such as the Blitz and the Holocaust, helping the Tsar and becoming a confidante and a superior to kings and emperors. The only way to save him was to take him into the Vortex and use the TARDIS' telepathic circuits to remove Rasputin's memory of recent and future events. He was left asleep in the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)

On meeting Rasputin in St. Petersburg, Russia in December 1916, the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and Liz Shaw realised that the legends about him were just that. He was not the evil manipulator that the history books had made him out to be. Liz reluctantly passed on Prince Felix Yusupov's invitation to dinner to Rasputin, knowing that he would be killed, but also realising that history must run its proper course. Jo posed as a maid in the kitchens at Yusupov's Moika Palace, where she disposed of poisoned cakes and wine intended for Rasputin and replaced them with untainted ones, unknowingly contributing to one of the last and most notorious chapters of his legend. When Rasputin devoured the cakes and remained unharmed, Yusupov became convinced Rasputin was possessed by the Devil and shot him in the back as he knelt in prayer. His accomplice, Vladimir Purishkevich, finished the job, shooting Rasputin repeatedly until he died and then beating his corpse in a fit of rage. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

By the 1970s, at least one film had been made about Rasputin while the band Boney M had written a song about him. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

The Teselecta once took the form of Rasputin, but with a green skin colour. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)

Behind the scenes
Tom Baker portrayed Father Gregory in the 1971 film (which also starred Michael Jayston as Tsar Nicholas II) and again voiced a character inspired by the real-life figure in Tsar Wars.