Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: How did Rasputin die?
Some writers – including Oleg Shishkin, Andrew Cook,[79] Richard Cullen, and Michael Smith[80][81] – have suggested that agents of the British Secret Intelligence Service (BSIS) were involved in Rasputin's assassination.[82] According to this theory, British agents were concerned that Rasputin was urging the tsar to make a separate peace with Germany and withdraw from the war, and that this would allow Germany to transfer a large number of troops to the Western Front.[82] The theory suggests, in other words, that British agents played an active role in Rasputin's assassination in order to keep Russia in the war and force Germany to keep defending the Eastern Front. While there are several variants of this theory, in general they suggest that British intelligence agents under the command of Samuel Hoare, and in particular Oswald Rayner – who had attended Oxford University with Yusopov – were directly involved in planning and carrying out the assassination, [83][84] or that Rayner had personally shot Rasputin.[85] However, historians do not seriously consider this theory. According to historian Douglas Smith, "there is no convincing evidence that places any British agents at the murder scene."[86] Historian Keith Jeffrey has stated that if British Intelligence agents had been involved in the assassination of Rasputin, "I would have expected to find some trace of that" in the MI6 archives, but that no such evidence exists.[81]
Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, another nurse for the royal children, was at first a devotee of Rasputin, but later was disillusioned by him. She claimed that she was raped by Rasputin in the spring of 1910. The Empress refused to believe her and said that everything Rasputin did was holy. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that Vishnyakova's claim had been immediately investigated, but "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was dismissed from her post in 1913.
During the summer of 1912, Alexei developed a hemorrhage in his thigh and groin after a jolting carriage ride near the royal hunting grounds at Spala, which caused a large hematoma.[41] In severe pain and delirious with fever, the Tsarevich appeared to be close to death.[42] In desperation, the Tsarina asked Vyrubova to send Rasputin (who was in Siberia) a telegram, asking him to pray for Alexei.[43] Rasputin wrote back quickly, telling the Tsarina that "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much."[43] The next morning, Alexei's condition was unchanged, but Alexandra was encouraged by the message and regained some hope that Alexei would survive. Alexei's bleeding stopped the following day.[43]
Rasputin re-appeared as a ghost while his revived pawns attempted to restore the vampire Vladimir Giurescu to life. Rasputin directed Ilsa Haupstein, a loyal member of Project Ragna Rok, to abandon her efforts to revive Giurescu and instead place herself within an enchanted iron maiden under the notion that she would be infused into the relic so she can endure the Ogdru Jahad when they burn the world. Leaving Ilsa, unaware that she died spiritually and only become a vessel for the goddess Hecate after her previous physical form was destroyed by Hellboy, Rasputin targets Abe Sapien and prophecies that Abe will suffer the same death as he did. After the unintended destruction of Project Ragna Rok's base, Rasputin pays a visit to Baba Yaga at Yggdrasil. While offered to stay with her, Rapustin says that he'll go on and continue to try to make himself a god.
According to Rasputin's daughter, Maria, Rasputin did "look into" the Khlysty sect, but rejected it. One Khlyst practice was known as "rejoicing" (радение), a ritual which sought to overcome human sexual urges by engaging in group sexual activities so that, in consciously sinning together, the sin's power over the human was nullified.[50] Rasputin is said to have been particularly appalled by the belief that grace is found through self-flagellation.
From the start there were persistent murmurs and snickers behind Rasputin's back. Although some of St Petersburg's top clergy accepted Rasputin as a living prophet, others angrily denounced him as a fraud and a heretic. Stories from back home in Siberia chased him, such as how he conducted weddings for villagers in exchange for sleeping the first night with the bride. In his apartment in St Petersburg, where he lived with his two daughters and two housekeepers, Rasputin was visited by anyone seeking his blessing, a healing or a favour with the tsarina. Women, enchanted by the healer's crude mystique, also came to Rasputin for more "private blessings" and received a private audience in his bedroom, jokingly called the "Holy of Holies". Rasputin liked to preach a unique theology that one must first become familiar with sin before one can have a chance in overturning it.
Valentin Rasputin was born on 15 March 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda in Irkutsk Oblast of Russia. His father worked for a village cooperative store, and his mother was a nurse. Soon after his birth the Rasputin family moved to the village of in the same Ust-Uda district, where Rasputin spent his childhood.
Both villages, then located on the banks of the Angara River, do not exist in their original locations any more, asthe Bratsk Reservoir flooded much of the Angara Valley in the 1960s, and the villages were relocated to higher ground. Later, the writer remembered growing up in Siberia as a difficult, but happy time: "As soon as we kids learned how to walk, we would toddle to the river with our fishing rods; still a tender child, we would run to the taiga, which would begin right outside the village, to pick berries and mushrooms; since young age, we would get into a boat and take the oars..."
Eventually, after years of silence and waiting, Rasputin was approached by Heinrich Himmler, head of Hitler's SS. Recognizing this as an opportunity to acquire the resources needed to establish a stronger connection to the Ogdru Jahad, Rasputin joined forces with the Nazis and soon assembled a team of Nazi occultists, consisting primarily of Ilsa Haupstein, Leopold Kurtz, and Prof. Doktor Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. This team was known as Project Ragna Rok. On December 23, 1944, Rasputin and his colleagues opened a doorway into the void, and Hellboy was brought forth, albeit unbeknownst to the Nazis (but not to Rasputin). After this apparent failure, the Allies won World War II and Rasputin and his allies scattered. Rasputin himself traveled to a hidden temple in the distant Arctic dedicated to the Ogdru Jahad. Inside, he sat at the foot of a statue of Sadu Hem for almost fifty years until he was disturbed by Professor Bruttenholm, providing a catalyst for his, and Sadu Hem's, sudden re-awakenings. Ilsa, Kroenen and Kurtz relocated to the frigid north of Norway and cryogenically froze themselves until Rasputin's return, though they did not revive themselves until after Rasputin's failure at Cavendish Hall.
In the film, Rasputin was sucked into the portal and was seemingly destroyed, not to be seen again for 60 years. Only 2 members of the Nazis occultist team, Ilsa Haupstein and Kroenen survived.
Even before Rasputin's arrival in St. Petersburg in 1903, alternative religious movements such as spiritualism and theosophy had become increasingly popular among the city's aristocracy, and many of them were intensely curious about the occult and the supernatural more generally.[49] While fascinated by him, the Saint Petersburg elite did not widely accept Rasputin. He did not fit in with the royal family, and he and the Russian Orthodox Church had a very strained relationship. The Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices. Because Rasputin was a court official, though, he and his apartment were under 24-hour surveillance, and, accordingly, there exists some credible evidence about his lifestyle in the form of the famous "staircase notes" – reports from police spies, which were not given only to the Tsar but also published in newspapers.
On 12 July[O.S. 29 June]1914 a 33-year-old peasant woman named Chionya Guseva attempted to assassinate Rasputin by stabbing him in the stomach outside his home in Pokrovskoye.[52] Rasputin was seriously wounded, and for a time it was not clear that he would survive.[53] After surgery[54] and some time in a hospital in Tyumen,[55] however, he did recover.
According to Yusupov, he invited Rasputin to his home shortly after midnight and ushered him into the basement. Yusupov offered Rasputin tea and cakes which had been laced with cyanide. At first, Rasputin refused the cakes, but then began to eat them. To Yusupov's surprise, Rasputin did not appear to be affected by the poison.[64] Rasputin then asked for some Madeira wine (which had also been poisoned) and drank three glasses, but still showed no sign of distress. At around 2:30 am, Yusupov excused himself to go upstairs, where his fellow conspirators were waiting. Taking a revolver from Dmitry Pavlovich, Yusupov returned to the basement and, referring to a crucifix that was in the room, told Rasputin that he'd "better look at the crucifix and say a prayer," then shot him once in the chest. Believing him to be dead, they then drove to Rasputin's apartment, with Sukhotin wearing Rasputin's coat and hat, in an attempt to make it look as though Rasputin had returned home that night.[65] Upon returning to the Moika Palace, Yusupov went back to the basement to ensure that Rasputin was dead.[66] Suddenly, Rasputin leapt up and attacked Yusupov, who – with some effort – freed himself and fled upstairs. Rasputin followed and made it into the palace's courtyard before being shot by Purishkevich and collapsing into a snowbank. The conspirators then wrapped Rasputin's body in cloth, drove it to the Petrovsky Bridge and dropped it into the Malaya Nevka River.[67]
The little that is known about Rasputin's childhood was passed down by Maria. Maria expressed her ideas about their surname; Rasputin. 
According to her, he was never a monk, but a starets. (As he was not an elder he would be referred to as a pilgrim.) For Maria, her father's healing practices on Tsarevich Alexei were based on magnetism. According to Maria, Grigory did "look into" the Khlysti's ideas.
A group of men led by Prince Felix Yusupov decide to murder Rasputin and invite him to the Yusupov palace in December, 1916. Felix feeds Rasputin cakes and wine laced with lethal amounts of cyanide, but is horrified when it seems to have no effect. Felix then shoots Rasputin, who still does not die. Rasputin stumbles through the courtyard to the palace gates before being shot four more times, finally collapsing and dying. His body is thrown from a bridge into the icy Malaya Nevka River.
Alexandra reads a note left behind by Rasputin, revealing his prior knowledge that he would be murdered, and that should the murderers be nobles, the Imperial Family would die within two years.
Rasputin first met the Tsar on November 1, 1905, at the Peterhof Palace. The tsar recorded the event in his diary, writing that he and Alexandra had "made the acquaintance of a man of God – Grigory, from Tobolsk province."[29] Rasputin would not meet the Tsar and his wife again for some months: he returned to Prokovskoye shortly after their first meeting and did not return to St. Petersburg until July 1906.[31] On his return, Rasputin sent Nicholas a telegram asking to present the tsar with an icon of Simeon of Verkhoturye. He met with Nicholas and Alexandra on July 18 and again in October, when he first met their children.[32] At some point, the royal family became convinced that Rasputin possessed the power to heal Alexei, but historians disagree over when: according to Orlando Figes, Rasputin was first introduced to the Tsar and Tsarina as a healer who could help their son in November 1905,[33] while Joseph Fuhrmann has speculated that it was in October 1906 that Rasputin was first asked to pray for the health of Alexei.[34]
It was whispered in society that Rasputin had seduced not only the Tsarina but also the four Grand Duchesses. Rasputin had released ardent, though by all accounts completely innocent in nature, letters written by the Tsarina and the four grand duchesses to him. They circulated throughout society, fueling rumors. Pornographic cartoons circulated depicting Rasputin having relations with the empress, with her four daughters and Anna Vyrubova nude in the background. Nicholas ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg for a time, much to Alexandra's displeasure, and Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Despite the rumors, the imperial family's association with Rasputin continued until Rasputin was murdered on 17 December 1916. "Our Friend is so contented with our girlies, says they have gone through heavy 'courses' for their age and their souls have much developed", Alexandra wrote to Nicholas on 6 December 1916, a few weeks before Rasputin was killed. However, as she grew older, Olga was less inclined to see Rasputin as her friend and was more aware of how his friendship with her parents affected the stability of her country. Olga wrote in her diary the day after the murder that she suspected Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed and the man she had at one time been expected to marry, was the murderer of "Father Grigory." Dmitri and Felix Yussupov, the husband of her first cousin Princess Irina of Russia, were among the murderers. In his memoirs, A. A. Mordvinov reported that the four grand duchesses appeared "cold and visibly terribly upset" by Rasputin's death and sat "huddled up closely together" on a sofa in one of their bedrooms on the night they received the news. Mordvinov reported that the young women were in a gloomy mood and seemed to sense the political upheaval that was about to be unleashed. Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on the reverse side by Olga, her sisters and mother. However, Olga was the only member of the family who did not attend Rasputin's funeral, according to the diary of her first cousin once removed Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia. According to the memoirs of Valentina Ivanovna Chebotareva, a woman who nursed with Olga during World War I, Olga said in February 1917, about a month after the murder, that while it might have been necessary for Rasputin to be killed, it should never have been done "so terribly." She was ashamed that the murderers were her relatives. After Olga and her sisters had been killed, the Bolsheviks found that each was wearing an amulet bearing Rasputin's image and a prayer around their necks.
Alexei falls at the Spała Hunting Lodge, which leads to another bleeding attack. It is presumed he will die. The Tsarina writes to Rasputin, who responds with words of comfort. Alexei recovers and Rasputin returns.
In 1912, Alexei suffered a life-threatening haemorrhage in the thigh while the family was at Spała in Poland. Alexandra and Nicholas took turns at his bedside and tried in vain to comfort him from his intense pain. In one rare moment of peace, Alexei was heard to whisper to his mother, "When I am dead, it will not hurt any more, will it, Mama?" Devastatingly, it seemed to Alexandra that God was not answering her prayers for her son's relief. Believing Alexei would die, Alexandra in desperation sent a telegram to Rasputin, who immediately replied: "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much." Alexei recovered after Rasputin's advice was followed. From 1912 onwards, Alexandra came to rely increasingly on Rasputin and to believe in his ability to ease Alexei's suffering. This reliance enhanced Rasputin's political power, which would come to seriously undermine Romanov rule during the First World War.
As millions of Russians soldiers die in World War I, citizens place the blame on Alexandra and Rasputin. Rasputin stops seeing the Virgin Mary, causing Alexandra and his fellow monks to desert him.
For the villains, Bluth also did not take into consideration depicting Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and initially toyed with the idea of a police chief with a vendetta against Anastasia. Instead, they decided to have Grigori Rasputin as the villain with Goldman explaining it was because of "all the different things they did to try to destroy Rasputin and what a horrible man he really was, the more it seemed appetizing to make him the villain". In reality, Rasputin was already dead when the Romanovs were assassinated. In addition to this, Bluth created the idea for Bartok, the albino bat, as a sidekick for Rasputin. "I just thought the villain had to have a comic sidekick, just to let everyone know that it was all right to laugh. A bat seemed a natural friend for Rasputin. Making him a white bat came later - just to make him different." Composers Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens recalled being at Au Bon Pain in New York City where Rasputin and Bartok were pitched, and being dismayed at the decision to go down a historically inaccurate route; they made their stage musical adaption "more sophisticated, more far-reaching, more political" to encompass their original vision.
Rasputin's friendship with the imperial children was evident in the messages he sent to them. "My Dear Pearl M!" Rasputin wrote the nine-year-old Maria in one telegram in 1908. "Tell me how you talked with the sea, with nature! I miss your simple soul. We will see each other soon! A big kiss." In a second telegram, Rasputin told the child, "My Dear M! My Little Friend! May the Lord help you to carry your cross with wisdom and joy in Christ. This world is like the day, look it's already evening. So it is with the cares of the world." In February 1909, Rasputin sent all of the imperial children a telegram, advising them to "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework."
Tyutcheva took her book to other members of the family. Nicholas's sister Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was horrified by Tyutcheva's story. She wrote in her diary on 15 March 1910 that she could not understand the family's regard for Rasputin as "almost a saint" when she viewed him as only a "khlyst". Tyutcheva told Grand Duchess Xenia that the "starets" visited when Olga and Tatiana were getting ready for bed and sat there talking with them and "caressing" them. The girls hid his presence from their governess and were afraid to talk to her about Rasputin. Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, another nurse for the royal children, was at first a devotee of Rasputin, but later was disillusioned by him. She claimed that she was raped by Rasputin in the spring of 1910. The empress refused to believe her, Vishnyakova told investigators, and said everything Rasputin did was holy. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that Vishnyakova's claim had been immediately investigated, but "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was dismissed from her post in 1913.
Mikhail has made his reappearance and this time had allied himself with Sinister. The two were attempting to assassinate all of the members of the Rasputin family but one, so that the spirit of their forefather Grigory Rasputin may be concentrated and reincarnated in the last remaining member of the lineage. Mikhail teleported himself and his brother to another dimension that was a series of rocky caves. Not wanting to physically kill his brother, he decided to leave him in the rock dimension where he would die in a matter of weeks. However, away from Sinister for a period of time, he was able to overcome his mental manipulations and came to his senses, rescuing his brother. His final decision was to teleport to a world named The Dark Zone, a dimension from which it was impossible to return and also once entered, impossible to die in. This protected the rest of the Rasputin line from the depredations of Sinister as at some point Mikhail would have been the sole surviving Rasputin, which would then trap his ancestor in the dark zone. Colossus tried to persuade him to save himself, but Mikhail determined that it would be best for the possible problem and for his own insanity.
The Tsarina relied on the counsel of Grigori Rasputin, a Russian peasant and wandering "starets" or "holy man", and credited his prayers with saving the ailing Tsarevich on numerous occasions. Tatiana and her siblings were also taught to view Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to share confidences with him. In the autumn of 1907, Tatiana's aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was escorted to the nursery by the Tsar to meet Rasputin. Tatiana and her sisters and brother were all wearing their long white nightgowns. The children appeared to be friendly with Rasputin and comfortable in his company. Rasputin's friendship with the children was also evident in some of the messages he sent to them. In February 1909, Rasputin sent the imperial children a telegram, advising them to "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework." Eleven-year-old Tatiana wrote a letter asking Rasputin to visit her and telling him how hard it was to see her mother ill. "But you know because you know everything," she wrote.
Alexei's haemophilia was integral to the rise of Grigori Rasputin. One of the many things Rasputin did that unintentionally facilitated the fall of the Romanovs was to tell the Tsar that the war would be won once he (Tsar Nicholas II) took command of the Russian Army. Following this advice was a serious mistake as the Tsar had no military experience. The Tsarina, Empress Alexandra, a deeply religious woman, came to rely upon Rasputin and believe in his ability to help Alexei where conventional doctors had failed. This theme is explored in Robert K. Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra". 
According to historian Douglas Smith, Rasputin's youth and early adulthood are "a black hole about which we know almost nothing", though the lack of reliable sources and information did not stop others from fabricating stories about his parents and his youth after Rasputin's rise to fame.[6] Historians agree, however, that like most Siberian peasants, including his mother and father, Rasputin was never formally educated, and he remained illiterate well into his early adulthood.[4][7] Local archival records suggest that he had a somewhat unruly youth – possibly involving drinking, small thefts, and disrespect for local authorities – but contain no evidence of his being charged with stealing horses, blasphemy, or bearing false witness, all major crimes that he was later rumored to have committed as a young man.[8]