As Rasputin’s influence grew, so did public outrage. Few understood the real reason the Romanovs protected him: his apparent ability to ease the suffering of the heir, Alexei. Instead, rumors of ...

In “Rasputin,” the biographer Antony Beevor delves into the mysterious life of the last czarina’s mystic adviser. By Sophie Pinkham Sophie Pinkham is the author of “The Oak and the Larch: A Forest ...