Were Magic Tricks Revealed By The Great Rasputin?

I had to write this paper once on the Russian Revolution for my history class. I was really intrigued by this Rasputin character. He was some weird magician, and he is rumored to have shown all his magic tricks revealed to his one special mistress. He drank a lot of vodka, and lived in the forest. But for some reason, perhaps it was his psychic ability, or his mentalist skills, everybody respected him as if he were the ultimate authority in peoples lives. He was truly an amazing character. The one thing I remembered from studying him was how long it took to kill him. He was one tough guy, I’ll give him that much.