Q 01/05

Rasputin gained his influence through his friendship with the family of which ruler?

A) Alexander II

B) Nicholas II

C) Alexander III

D) Nicholas I

Answer · why

B) Nicholas II

Nicholas II. Russia's last tsar brushed off most warnings about Rasputin: the more the press and the public attacked the healer, the more firmly the i...

Q 02/05

In which region of Russia was Rasputin born?

A) Karelia

B) The Caucasus

C) Siberia

D) The Black Sea coast

Answer · why

C) Siberia

Siberia. He was a peasant's son from a village on the Tura River, and that was part of his pull: the tsar prized him as a plain man who spoke for ordi...

Q 03/05

What was the name of Rasputin's home village?

A) Borodino

B) Yasnaya Polyana

C) Pokrovskoye

D) Gorki

Answer · why

C) Pokrovskoye

Pokrovskoye. Fame never uprooted him: he kept going back to the village on the Tura River for long spells, and it now has a museum devoted to him.

Q 04/05

A popular myth says the surname Rasputin was a nickname meaning what?

A) Mad monk

B) Debauched one

C) Holy fool

D) Miracle worker

Answer · why

B) Debauched one

Debauched one. The Russian word rasputnik means a libertine, so the story spread that he had earned the name, but it was simply the family surname he ...

Q 05/05

Which feature of Rasputin did people who met him most often single out?

A) His voice

B) His hands

C) His laugh

D) His eyes

Answer · why

D) His eyes

His eyes. Witness after witness described a piercing, almost hypnotic stare, which is one reason some historians think hypnosis lay behind his apparen...