Myth

On the night of the 29th and 30th December 1916 Grigori Rasputin was assassinated in Saint Petersburg.

The assassins were Prince Felix Yusupov, Vladimir Purishkevich and the Tsar's cousin, Grand Dmitri Pavlovitch Romanov. However, things didn't go entirely to play and it was necessary to poison, shoot, stab, hang, castrate and eventually drown Rasputin in the frozen river Neva. All in all, not a good night out.

Reality

First the assassins tried to poison Rasputin using potassium cyanide laced pastries. However, given they cooked the ingredients and Rasputin was a renowed heavy drinker the effects were zero. Either as a result of achlorhydria (an absense of stomach acid due to alcoholism) or simple that the cyanide was rendered non-toxic during the preparation of the food. "Death by pasties?" not in this instance.

Seeing things running not according to plan the conspirators opted for option two, shooting him. Where they only managed to puncture his liver. Being somewhat canny Rasputin played possum in order to try escape later. However, on the way towards the river Neva he tried to escape and was first shot in the lung by the assassin and then finished off by a British Secret Agent by a shot to the head delivered from a nearly bush. His body was then dumped in the frozen river Neva.

Tags: Grigori Rasputin