Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, born on January 9, 1869, and died on December 17, 1916, was a peasant from the village of Pokrovskoye in the Tobolsk province. He became known worldwide due to his friendship with the family of Russian Emperor Nicholas II. In the 1910s, certain circles of Petersburg society regarded him as the 'Tsar's friend,' 'elder,' seer, and healer.

The negative image of Rasputin was actively used in revolutionary and later Soviet propaganda. To this day, his personality and influence on the fate of the Russian Empire provoke numerous debates.

Rasputin influenced the imperial family, especially Alexandra Fyodorovna, due to his help with her son, the heir Alexei, in his struggle against hemophilia, a disease that medicine was powerless against.

In his prophecies, Rasputin mentioned 'divine retribution,' 'bitter water,' 'tears of the sun,' and 'poisonous rains' until the end of the century. He predicted that deserts would expand, and the earth would be inhabited by beings that would be neither human nor animal. Thanks to 'human alchemy,' flying frogs, hawk butterflies, crawling bees, giant mice, and ants, as well as a monster called 'dog' would appear. Two princes from the West and East would fight for world domination. Their battle would take place in the land of four demons, where the western prince Grayug would defeat the eastern enemy Vyuha, but would also fall. After these calamities, people would turn back to God and find 'earthly paradise.' The most famous prediction was about the downfall of the Imperial House: 'As long as I live, the dynasty will live.' On June 29, 1914, an assassination attempt was made on Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye. He was stabbed in the stomach and severely wounded by Khionia Guseva, who had come from Tsaritsyn. This event became international news. Newspapers in Europe and the USA reported on Rasputin's condition; The New York Times featured this story on its front page. The Russian press paid more attention to his health than to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.