Murder Of Rasputin Opened The Way To Millions Of Deaths – OpEd
By Paul Goble
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.