Murder Of Rasputin Opened The Way To Millions Of Deaths – OpEd

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The murder of Rasputin, the monk who advised Nicholas II as a result of his work with the tsarevich’s hemophilia, was intended to stop the slide of the Russian Empire toward disaster; but instead, his killing 102 years ago today, legitimated murder for political goals and opened the way to millions of deaths, Leonid Mlechin says.

Rasputin was accused of giving the tsar bad advice and taking liberties with the imperial family, and many near the throne wanted him removed for one thing or another, the Russian historian says; but killing him backfired on its perpetrators and their supporters (echo.msk.ru/blog/mlechin/2343269-echo/).

Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Prince Feliks Yusupov, and Vladimir Purishkevich were treated as national heroes by many after they killed Rasputin, Mlechin continues. The only one in the elite who got it exactly right when he observed that “no one has the right to murder.”  Such actions never are self-contained.

And in Russia, they led to the falling of dominos and the murder of millions of people. “The Romanov dynasty outlived Grigory Rasputin only for a short time. The monarchy fell, the Bolsheviks came to power, the Civil War began and all of Russia was drown in blood” not only during the course of that conflict but throughout the decades that followed.

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

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