In his own lifetime, the subject of Rasputin was so prominent in the popular Russian imagination that his contemporary Teffi said there were houses in St Petersburg with signs above the fireplace that read “In this house we do not talk about Rasputin”.

The story of Rasputin has attracted countless writers, film-makers and historians. It is easy to see why: sex, power, faith, murder and the end of an empire are just a few of the elements. The first accounts of Rasputin’s life were published almost immediately after his death, and not a decade has gone past without new biographies appearing. Some, such as The Mad Monk of Russia (Sergei Trufanov, an ex-monk and sworn enemy of Rasputin’s, New York, 1917) or the memoirs of his murderer Felix Yusupov (La Fin de Raspoutine, Paris, 1927), are deeply unreliable, but nonetheless cemented the image of Rasputin in the popular imagination. Ironically, Yusupov successfully sued MGM Studios when its 1932 production Rasputin and the Empress implied that Rasputin had slept with his wife, and the huge damages he received were the source of much of his wealth in emigration. The case also directly engendered the now familiar “All characters are fictional …” disclaimer clause.

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