The Rasputin File

Rating:
Summary: Translation or Talent?
Review: The story of a fascinating, mysterious character � devil or angel � the life of Rasputin his personal involvement with the last Czar, his wife and children at a time when the whole world was looking to Russia and holding its breath should be the stuff of classic story telling, history writ large and stranger than fiction and yet� alas, disappointment.

I have read several books about the crazed monk and have been disappointed by them all. Perhaps the time, the events, the tragedies are on such a scale that no contemporary history writer has the talent to do the story justice.

�The Rasputin File� is a miss and not a near one. Perhaps it is the translation but somehow I doubt it. I could never get comfortable with this book � it is a difficult read with out having to be and only the character�s and the time make continued reading compelling.

Perhaps a work of historical fiction would be a better approach. In any event where oh where is a Dostoyevsky or a Tolstoy when you need them. I guess those kind of guys don�t pop-up very often.

Rating:
Summary: Peculiar writing style - but brilliant read
Review: This book is riveting from reading the cover to the grand analysis of Rasputin's death.

Initially, the eccentric way of writing can be most distracting. Radzinsky wil (for example) leave you hanging between sections - sometimes for up to 2 chapters, or will adopt Rasputin's reputed habit of using nicknames (which has you scrambling backwards to find the definition of someone's nickname) or just calls people 'him' 'her' etc - despite starting to refer to that person several paragraphs or a section beforehand...

However, Rasputin's life is fascinating, even though Radzinsky does his best to make Rasputin more of a real man with human failings. The only thing I wish he had expanded on more was Rasputin's relationship with Alexei, the heir, as that seems to have been the crux of the Tsarina's belief in Rasputin - and it is hardly touched in this book. Apart from that though, the book is a brilliant read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a more realistic interpreation of Rasputin (although it does dent the fairy tale...)

Rating:
Summary: Manuscripts Don't Burn
Review: This book is worth reading simply because of the new documentary evidence in the file that Radzinsky unearthed. In the immortal words of Mikhail Bulgakov (in _Master and Margarita_), "Manuscripts don't burn." The evidence in the file offers compelling support for the author's conclusions about the most likely facts regarding Rasputin's dramatic life and still more dramatic death. Finding such source material must be every historian's dream.

Because Radzinsky has a playwright's rather than a historian's sensibility, however, the book is frequently a frustrating read because he doles the new information out to us bit by bit, amongst other solidly researched but more conventional materials. Therefore I recommend this book without hesitation but warn the prospective reader that the book can be slow going. Persevere.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not great
Review: This book was very entertaining in a "lite" popular style but not very significant as a serious historical work. Since I have very little knowledge of Russian history, I had no way of judging the accuracy of his constant definitive pronouncements (he never seems in doubt of anything, but is sure he knows the real truth of everything); however he made one statement that the Tsaravitch's hemophilia was due to "weak blood vessels that broke down from the pressure of his blood." Since this is a totally incorrect description of hemophilia (it's a clotting disorder that has nothing to do with the blood vessels or blood pressure) it makes me a little leary of the accuracy of his other statements. Also his habit of taking a clause that modifies part of the previous sentence and using it as a stand alone second sentence drove me nuts. For example, he might write something like "The Prince was accompanied by Joe Schmoe, who was the secret lover of the Princess." Only it would read: "The Prince was accompanied by Joe Schmoe. Who was the secret lover of the Princess." Can't believe his editor let him get away with this.

Rating:
Summary: So So
Review: This is a book by a Russian author who has a television show. The book started out as a presentation on television of the life of Rasputin a controversial religious figure associated with the court of the Tsar Nicholas, the last of the Romanovs. The author has also written a book on the life of Nicholas and his wife Alexandra. He is thus familiar with the context of Rasputins life.

Rasputin does not seem to be a very substantial figure. He was a Russian peasant who experienced some form of religious conversion in his thirties. He became a faith healer and religious mystic. The male heir of the Romanovs suffered from haemophilia and Rasputin was introduced to the family. In their view he healed their son and nursed him through a large number of bouts of ill health. Rasputin became a figure of some notoriety and had a number of friends and followers from well to do families.

His main importance as a historical figure probably was not so much to do with himself. Rather groups in society hostile to the autocracy used his friendship with the Royal Family as a means of ridiculing them and attacking their legitimacy. It was possible to do this for two reasons. The first was that Rasputin was a peasant and it would seem barely literate. To attack his closeness to the Royal Family played on the popular prejudice of the Russian ruling classes. The second was that he appeared rather dissolute. He was seen frequently with prostitutes and in his later years he drank to excess and there were a number of minor scandals. Prior to the revolution his friendship with the wife of the Tsar led to constant rumour and innuendo about a sexual relationship.

The book is written in a style that is a bit strange. Some reviewers have suggested that the English translation is not as good as the Russian original and some other versions. Rasputin in life was followed almost daily by the Russian secret police. After his death there was a commission of inquiry into his life. There is thus an enormous mountain of documents about his life and the book is a sort of working through these to work out what sort of man he was.

The author suggests that he was rather strange. His dalliances with prostitutes did not involve sex but a form of mystic testing of his spiritual strength. His religious beliefs instead of being the same as the Khlysty sect as often thought were more orthodox. It is also suggested that Rasputin did not support Russian offensive wars and in act by interceding with the Tsar prevented one.

The conclusion that one has after reading the book is that it says a lot about a very minor figure whose importance was at the time rather overblown and now is of very little interest at all.

Rating:
Summary: The Rasputin File
Review: This is an excellent book for those familiar with Russian history and particularly the time of the Tsars. Very informative and well written. I do believe, however, that this would be a confusing book for someone interested in Russian history to begin with. One must have a good understanding of the mind-set of the Russian population at the time of the last Romanoff's to fully take in the events that unfolded. The whys, whens and wheres are confusing to a first time reader but a wonderful reading adventure to those who have some background of the Russian people, the tsars and the economic times of that era. I highly recommend The Last Tsar before reading this. I like the author's style and enthusiasm for the subject. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Not as great
Review: Though this is a fairly interesting book, it is horribly translated.You can kind of tell its the translation because every once in a while you read Radzinsky's unique writing style, that completly captivates you. After reading "The Last Tsar", by Radzinsky this was a fairly big dissapointment. It seems to jump around alot, and quickly change topics. The subject of how Rasputin managed to successfully treat Alexei was not even mentioned. However the book did managed to save itself by the very intresting chapters on what happened at the Yussepov Palace. If you're not already very familiar with the last Romanovs, I would not recommend this.

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Summary: Rasputin on file.......
Review: To Radzinsky, the Siberian peasant who exercised an abnormal influence in the palace of the Tsars "was the epitome of the Russian's staggering ability to live upright within while enveloped in unceasing sin." Was Alexandra not cognizant of Rasputin's forays into debauchery? If so, how could she continue to rely on him for his prognastications and to defend him against his many detractors? What becomes clear in Radzinsky's text is that the relationship between Rasputin and the Tsarina was symbiotic. The future that Rasputin predicted -- whether bright or dark -- almost never failed to differ from the desires of Alexandra. In return, Rasputin enjoyed privileged access at court and the protection he needed to indulge his baser self and thereby qualify for that sweet redemption so dear to the khlysty sect. Moreover, as Radzinsky shows, the enemies and friends of "our Friend," as Alexandra called him, had in common a stake in fostering the image of Rasputin as a spiritual force of uncanny capabilities. His supporters got their divine prophet, his enemies their evil incarnate.

Radzinsky, according to the brief bio provided, is a television personality and playwright. That may explain his flair for building suspense, and for keeping his readers aware of the many mysteries he claims to have solved by acquiring the long lost file of the commission investigating Rasputin's influential role in St. Petersburg and the circumstances of his murder. The book conveys a surplus of detail about Rasputin, such that it can be difficult at times to see the Siberian forest for the trees. Still, Radzinsky's Rasputin is well worth a read, if only as a reminder of how the imaginations of otherwise sensible and well-meaning men and women can create a pedestal upon which sit both their hope and fear.

Rating:
Summary: Translation & Editing Makes Book Unintelligible
Review: What a disappointment!!!!! I was so excited to find this book and eager to see what would be uncovered in the Soviet's files. But it really appears as if a computer did the translation. You can even see the direct translation, word by word, directly from Russian. Unfortunately, this doesn't work. Sentences have no verbs. Grammatical mistakes abound, e.g., a animal. I have studied Russian history for 25 years and I'll plod through this book (think Zhivago crossing the tundra) -- but the sentence construction may make it so that it takes equally long to finish this book.

Rating:
Summary: Unreadable
Review: Whatever nuggets of gold may be lurking in these pages are concealed by layers of the author's self-indulgent prose. He can't resist commenting on witnesses' testimony, usually clarion calls to the effect of "here comes a really amazing revelation". I don't see any new amazing revelations here, or else they are hidden beneath mounds of verbiage. This is an incredible mess of a book. It takes a special kind of literary ineptitude to write boringly about Rasputin.