Metropolitan Bishop Grigori Rasputin
While serving as close confidant and faith healer to the Tsar and his family, Rasputin had made many enemies. Prince Felix Yusupov had once tried to assassinate him, though he could never prove the young aristocrat’s guilt. Thankfully, his assigned Okhrana agent was able to escort him to the hospital when he succumbed to the poison he was slipped on that cold December night in 1916. While he was in recovery, he was visited regularly by the Tsarina, who had a hard time disagreeing with his assumption that Yusupov may have poisoned him. Nonetheless, without proof the best she could do is order him to face house arrest. In an effort to protect him from the hazards of the capital, Tsar Nicholas II gave his son’s savior a special title for his service, one that would require him to leave St. Petersburg. He announced the necessity for the Metropolitan Bishopric of Yekaterinburg, a secondary office to the Bishop of Moscow that would serve as the spiritual representative of the eastern empire, which had gained a severe boost in population thanks to the economic activities of the Okhotsk Techno-Union. While the ecclesiastical body was furious at this appointment, they also saw this as an opportunity to reduce his influence on the Tsar’s day-to-day affairs and relented. Grigori Rasputin left St. Petersburg on March 29th, 1917, leaving one of his disciples to look after the young Tsarevich. This was the last time he saw the Imperial family.
Amid the civil war, Rasputin was in support of Alexander Mikhailovich’s claim to Tsar, as he feared the influence the Patriarch and Yusupov would have over his new domain in Yekaterinburg. When the Grand Duke retracted his claims, he additionally requested that Rasputin’s status not be revoked, in an attempt to keep the mystic as a powerful ally. This allowed Rasputin to remain in power, even after Felix Felixovich Yusupov was made regent. This has allowed him to keep the throne out of Felix’s hands, as anytime someone attempted to nominate the regent for Tsar, Rasputin would counter them with other candidates, or by burying the attempt in filibuster and bureaucracy.
His newest ‘claimant’ as of the 1930s is the apparently resurfaced Tsarevna Anastasia Romanova. He has publicly stated that she had survived the explosion and Alexander Palace, and had been wandering through the countryside until he found her in 1930. As there is no way to prove her legitimacy, many of his political opponents decry this as an imposter he has dressed up for rule. That said, Rasputin’s cult of personality has a firm grip over the boyars in and around Yekaterinburg, and if anyone were to challenge him directly they would possibly rise up in rebellion. These supporters of the Bishop Rasputin have been referred to as the Nastyeviks, a reference to the demeaning pet name their leader uses when referring to the Tsarina in waiting.
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