But, back then, the Rasputin family were peasants, and Maria ultimately changed her name in an attempt to climb Russia's social ladder. During her early childhood, her father was a starets ...

Rasputin is of peasant stock and a Siberian. In the summer of 1914 he was reported to have been mortally wounded at Pokrovsky by a woman who accused him of blasphemy. He recovered. A year later ...