Rasputin the Holy Devil

by René Fülöp-Miller

Rasputin was the most mysterious figure of old Russia who swayed men and nations by the power of his eyes. Contents: Rasputin; The Cellar Preacher; Before the High Priests; The Fateful Idyll of Tsarskoe Selo; The Friend; The Penitential Journey of the Great Sinner; In the Holy of Holies; The Revolt Against the Holy Devil; The Murderer with the Guitar; The Death Ship; Bibliography; Index.

Genres: Biography, History, Russia, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

René Fülöp-Miller, born Philip René Maria Müller (17 February 1891 – 17 May 1963) was an Austrian cultural historian and writer. He was born to an Alsatian immigrant and a Serbian mother in Karánsebes, Austria-Hungary (now Caransebeş, Romania) and died in Hanover, New Hampshire.

His father was a pharmacist and his mother was born a Brancovič, a family which played an important role in the military border region of southeastern Banat. He studied pharmacy, anatomy and psychiatry in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and Lausanne from 1909 to 1912. His teachers included Forel, Babinski and Freud. After his study, he worked in his father's pharmacy, but did not stay long. During the First World War he served on the Russian front. At this time he met the well-known Budapest opera singer Hedy Bendiner and married her. After the war, he worked as a journalist in various languages: he wrote in Hungarian for newspapers in Budapest and Kronstadt, he published German articles in Hermannstadt and Temeswar, and in Bucharest he worked for a respected Romanian press.

Curiosity and a thirst for knowledge led him to the Soviet Union to study its cultural life. His first success as an author was with The Mind and Face of Bolshevism: An Examination of Cultural Life in Soviet Russia, published originally in German in 1926. This book is notable for the fact that at this date, Stalin does not appear to figure at all in the cultural life of the USSR. The book is still relevant as a deep analysis of the shipwreck of a state-censored culture. He followed this book with two more in quick succession, Lenin and Gandhi and Rasputin: The Holy Devil. The first book contrasted the violent revolutionary and the peaceful rebel and the second, the contradiction of a holy man who was a magnet for women. His most successful book was The Power and Secret of the Jesuits, which was still being reprinted after 1945. Through his travels in Europe and his work in renowned newspapers and on radio throughout the German speaking areas, Fülöp-Miller became a respected author in the time of the Weimar Republic.

In the 1930s, he went into self-imposed exile in America. He defined "Americanism" as a counter-cultural spirit to the world of faith. In Die Fantasiemaschine: Eine Saga der Gewinnsucht ["The Fantasy Machine: A Saga of Greed"] (1931), together with Joseph Gregor, he looked at the history of American theatre and cinema for evidence of the distorted image of the consumer world. This theme was continued in his English language essay, Dehumanization in Modern Society (1955). His first work of fiction was Katzenmusik ["Caterwauling"] (dated 1936 but 1935; trans Richard Winston as Sing, Brat, Sing 1947), a satirical tale of a four year old musical prodigy. His later fiction includes The Night of Time (trans Richard and Clara Winston from manuscript 1955) and The Silver Bacchanal (trans Richard and Clara Winston from manuscript 1960), two surreal tales set in the fictional city of Drohitz. He gave lectures on the history of European culture at Dartmouth College in Hanover and Hunter College in New York. Like many authors of the Weimar Republic and the exile generation, he has long disappeared from the public memory.

Reviews

[Dollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having read Nicholas and Alexandra many years ago and recently, August 1914, in which Rasputin’s name was mentioned several times, I found a biography of Rasputin and his rise from a peasant holy man to advisor to the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. He had made the acquaintance of the Tsar and Tsarina and quickly convinced them that he was the only person who could keep their son, Alexei, from dying of hemophilia. He seemed to have put quite a spell on them, as they eventually thought of him as their only true friend and they trusted him wholeheartedly. He had them believe that if anything happened to him, it would be the end of the royal family. His power with the royals gained him lots of enemies throughout Russia and at least one attempt was made on his life before he was eventually murdered by several conspirators, including the Tsar and Tsarina's nephew, the Grand-Duke Dimitri. I found this book to be extremely interesting, although at times I found it hard to understand, especially since the author chose to call Rasputin other than just his name, Grigori Efimovich. Fulop-Miller also called him a monk, the muzhik, the starets and Father Grigori. And all of the Russian names! There were so many and they were all so long and each person seemed to have two or three different names and titles! I thought this book would take me forever to finish. To some, Rasputin was considered a healer, a saint and a martyr, but to others he was considered a loathsome peasant devil. After reading about him, I was impressed with his intelligence and cleverness, but (and maybe I’m naïve) I feel he was a rapist who took advantage, or tried to, of every woman he met. He held drunken orgies, to which he wife never seemed to be invited, and reveled in his debauchery. I got the impression from this book that he must have been really quite gross. So, now that I know a bit more about Russian history, I’ll soon be reading a novel I recently purchased, Nadine Brandes' Romanov.

[Emma Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Picked it up years ago from a charity shop and it's just been sitting on my shelf. I'm pleased I made the effort to read it. The author thoroughly researched the subject, including the use of letters from the Tsar and Empress. There isn't really a threat of spoilers as we all know what happens to Rasputin in the end! The book was extremely readable, and read largely like a novel, rather than just a potted history.

[Bookygirls Magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Momentami była chaotyczna, a końcówka zbyt pospieszona. Poza tym, bardzo dobra biografia. Można ją fajnie uzupełnić serialem dokumentalnym "Ostatni carowie" oraz książką "Zabić Rasputina"

[Josh Langston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the hardback, 1928 version of the book, so I have no idea if anything was revised in the more recent edition.

The rating I gave it is based on readability more than anything else, and I found that to be fairly tough sledding. I have no reason to distrust the scholarship that went into it, but I suspect something may have been lost in the translation. I can imagine this book done as a novel, and I suspect it would garner more than a few readers in that format, owing largely to the title character's evident addiction to sex and the appalling corruption of Russian government and aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century. (I imagine the resulting revolution merely changed the players, not the game.)

Still, I learned a great deal about Russia and Rasputin. That the crude Siberian peasant rose to such a position of power based purely on his connection to the Tsar and Tsarina was stunning. The text leaves me convinced Rasputin was a slave to debauchery, and yet his political motives seemed quite noble.

The author would have one believe Rasputin actually wielded some sort of psychic power, and there's ample evidence to suggest his ministrations did indeed ameliorate the hemophilia that plagued the Tzar's son. If he was a charlatan, he was one of the all-time greats!

[Christopher Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absorbing read. This is the first book-length treatment of Rasputin I've read, so I can't evaluate it against the state of the art research about him. I'm curious whether the 1928 assertion that Rasputin was beyond doubt of the Khlysty sect is still regarded as valid. I hope so. (To my mind, Khlystyist cosmology seems definitely inflected by shamanism, and I'm wondering if there was a leakage of indigenous Siberian concepts into the doctrine. I'd love to find a book that addresses this directly.) I seem to have heard somewhere that Rasputin's sexual conquests extended deep within the imperial family itself, but if so then by 1928 this was not generally accepted yet. Also, there is not as much detail as I expected on the final successful murder, though plenty on some of the foiled plots. The best parts of this book by far are the ethnographic detail on sects in rural Siberia, as well as the chapter titled "Staircase Notes," consisting of excerpts from the detailed record made by the secret police of the comings and goings at Rasputin's St. Petersburg headquarters. Astounding!

Any recommendations for what the BEST Rasputin bios might be? I'm hooked.

[John Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book. If you've ever doubted the old saw about truth being stranger than fiction, this is the book that will convince you. Chock-full of strange characters, political intrigue, and human drama, this is a gripping tale of the end of the Russian monarchy. It is also remarkable since it was written prior to WWII and so Fulop-Miller looks at the First World War as the Great War; helps those of us who've grown up hearing only about the atrocities of the Second War remember that the First was nearly as horrific. Even if you don't generally go in for history, give this a try; it reads more like a novel, even though it's written with real feeling, not like a suspense novel.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read! An incredible biography and very well written. Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Russian literature and history. A bit hard to find in stores but you can get it through Amazon.

[Daniel Duval · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good historical account of his life and the events that surrounded it. It lacks any real analysis of the strange apparent super natural power he possessed. In an almost subliminal way it is a good study of 19th century Russian mass psychology.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a 9th grade book report many, many years ago. It fascinated me, and started me on my readings of Romanov history. I put my teacher to sleep during my lengthy report. Found a copy many years later at, where else, The Strand Bookstore.

[Christine H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic. Used primary sources to piece together the story, but provided repetitive detail about his debauchery and not enough context about the external political forces, perhaps because it was written only about 10 years after the events

[Kevin Gabriël · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intresting book

[Rob Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra a couple years ago, I was hoping for a similar magic with this book. It was interesting, well-written and full of details. I felt it dragged some with all the details from the spies about the day to day debauchery and dubious dealings at Rasputin's home. That said, the craziness of the situation does come across through all the interactions described so minutely. His influence boggles the mind without understanding the tenor of the times when so many people sought an oracle or a 'chosen one' to guide their decisions. The author makes an interesting choice to end the book by leaving the royal family alive on their way to exile in Siberia.

[Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una biografia di Rasputin molto intensa e piacevole da leggere. Come dice l'autore nell'introduzione, di biografie sul "santo diavolo" ne sono state scritte molte, ma quasi tutte di parte, che essa sia quella di chi lo ha visto come un santo oppure di chi lo ha avuto come nemico. Fulop-Miller tenta di mediare tra le due visioni, fondendo tutte le informazioni a sua disposizione per dare un ritratto nitido e veritiero il più possibile di un personaggio tanto complesso e controverso.
L'ho trovato un ottimo libro che mi ha permesso di avvicinarmi ad un personaggio del quale conoscevo solo determinati aspetti, di riviverne la vita che, comunque sia stata la sua morale, di sicuro è stata straordinaria.

[MQR · Rating 4 out of 5]

why hasn't everyone read this. yes, its definitely tough but its definitely NOT trash.

[Kabir · Rating 3 out of 5]

marvellous