92. Killing Rasputin

How did Lucknow become the final battleground of the 1857 Uprising? Who was Begum Hazrat Mahal, and how did she hold together a rebellion against overwhelming odds? How did the 1857 Uprising lead to the fall of the East India Company, and the rise of the harsher British Raj? In t ...  Show more

How did the British finally break into Delhi during the 1857 Uprising? Why did a sudden solar eclipse change the fate of the siege overnight? Why is the British victory considered one of Delhi’s greatest tragedies? In Episode 7 of the series, William and Anita discuss the bloody ...  Show more

The legend of Rasputin's death goes that he survived poisoning, being shot in the head before being thrown through a hole in the ice in the Neva River, where he finally died by drowning. But Rasputin biographer Douglas Smith, Dan's guest today, says that isn't what happened. H ...

Rasputin’s story is a familiar one – an illiterate Siberian peasant who managed to secure the confidence of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, while indulging his legendary sexual appetite and love of hard drinking. Rasputin was so revered by his acolytes that they would collec ...  Show more

TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE (AND ALL FUTURE BONUS CONTENT) SUBSCRIBE HERE ---> Takeoverpod.supercast.com ----- The mysterious life of Grigory Rasputin, the infamous Russian mystic and advisor to the Romanov family. We parse the enigmatic and often scandalous events that surrounded R ...  Show more

Russian history is defined by the rise and fall of favourites. Peter the Great had Menshikov, and Nicholas II had Rasputin. It's part of the architecture of Russian regimes that those close to the ruler enjoy immense power and influence. But sometimes, they overstep the mark.< ...