We put at the head of this book the name of Rasputin, of this fantastic, almost legendary figure, because in the last decade of the regime. Tsarist, Rasputin is the one who personifies more intensely its madness and criminality, and because the date of his death coincides, a few days apart, with that of the end of this regime. The reign of the last of the Romanovs, which lasted twenty-three years, is marked by a series of acts that seem a perpetual challenge to the Russian people. All that the country possessed in terms of ability and honesty was discarded by the power, and around the throne was pushed an ever-growing crowd of careerists, adventurers, prostitutes, thieves and swindlers of all kinds and all classes, thaumaturges and wizards, a diverse crowd of strange beings, lawless and faithless, who dug a gulf, deeper and deeper, between the emperor and his people. The expression that, better than any other, characterizes the relations that, since the beginning of this reign, were established between the Court and the people, is the expression that was commonly used in the emperor's environment: "We and they". We, that is, the Court and its two props: the inept bureaucracy and the depraved police. They, i.e. all the rest of Russia, the immense people of one hundred and sixty-three million souls, in whom one saw an enemy, momentarily subjugated, but whom one must never forget to treat as an enemy. The most outstanding, the most extraordinary, the most dramatic figure of this Court, unique in the history of modern times, was, as we have said, Rasputin. Much has already been written about this all-too-famous character; however, neither his complete biography, nor the specific and precise character of his action, nor all the details of his death have yet been brought to light. Today, we have documents that allow us to partially fill this gap. We have the newspaper of one of Rasputin's first victims, the wife of General Loktin, who followed the famous staretz step by step, and noted the most picturesque and strangest details of his very bumpy life. We also possess another paper, that of the priest Heliodorus, who was at first a fervent friend of Rasputin, and later became the most ardent of his enemies. And finally we now have the complete file of the judicial inquiry made after Rasputin's assassination. Thanks to these elements we can trace a complete biography of the character or at least give the most essential notions. But in order to understand the part played by Rasputin in the history of the last few years, in order to understand how this illiterate, uncouth, repugnant peasant, called unclean by all those who approached him, could be for some time the true dictator of Russia, instead of the emperor, we need to briefly say what Russia and its ruler were.
