SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE Nearly a century after his murder, Rasputin remains as divisive a figure as ever. Was he really a horse thief & a hard-drinking ruffian in his youth? Was he a a devout Orthodox Christian, or was he in fact a just a fake holy man? Are the stories of his enormous sexual drive, debauchery, & drunken orgies true or simply a myth? How did he come to know the emperor & empress & to wield so much influence over them? What was the source of his healing power? Was Rasputin running the government in the final years of his life? & if so, was he acting on his own or on the orders of more powerful, hidden forces? Did Prince Yusupov & his fellow conspirators act alone or were they other parties involved in Rasputin`s murder-British secret agents or even an underground cell of Freemasons, as has been claimed? & to what extent did Rasputin`s murder doom the Romanov dynasty? Drawing on major new sources hitherto unexamined by western historians, Douglas Smith`s book is be the definitive biography of this extraordinary figure for a generation.