David Cameron thought he was nicely set up with a rich and titled wife, family connections at the top level and a strategist who seemed to have some bright ideas.

Then reality set in. His father in law Lord Astor, who comes from a long line of philanderers, had an affair. But just to complicate matters this was no ordinary bit on the side arrangement. The partner was Rachel Whetstone, a long time political colleague and personal friend of Cameron.  Naturally he had to side with his wife and he told Whetstone he would never speak to her again.

Unfortunately, reality stepped in again. Because it seems the busy Rachel was also friendly with Cameron’s chief adviser, Steve Hilton. So much so that they got together after the affair and married.

Who’s the beach bum?

Next it was Steve Hilton’s turn to rock the Cameron boat. He launched a series of mad ideas including abolishing maternity leave and consumer rights. He encouraged Cameron to ignore European laws and go his own way, a move that would have led to the Prime Minister being prosecuted. Then there was his unconventional dress sense, which had an Obama aide asking “Who’s the beach bum?” Hilton did not fit into the Conservative mould and his worryingly different style won him the nickname Rasputin, after the wild Russian monk who advised the Czar’s wife Catherine and was murdered. By a British secret agent. It was all very strange for an Etonian Prime Minister.

It so happens that one of Cameron’s pet projects is a high speed rail link that is meant to lessen the dramatic economic differences between the north and south of the UK. The problem is that it will cut through prime British countryside and upset the wealthy locals. More importantly it will intrude on the hunting territory of  Lord Ascot. He has led the local hunt for years and sees his son in law’s plans as a personal attack.

“Waste of tax payer money,” he trumpeted, as one who avoids paying as much as he possibly can. “Supported by Northern Labour MPs who love the idea of destroying the Berkshire countryside.” This was getting much closer to the heart of the matter. Lord Ascot is a class warrior who believes in keeping the lower orders in their place. As does his son in law, although he can’t speak so bluntly.

So Cameron is caught, stuck with his rampaging father in law and wacky adviser – who are on a collision course. They didn’t tell him at Eton that life could be so complicated.

To begin at the beginning, the problem started when David Cameron discovered his father-in-law, the 4th Viscount Astor and a key political fixer for the Conservatives, was having an affair.

This was upsetting for his mother in law, his wife and embarrassing for Cameron. Especially when he was told that the Viscount’s mistress was none other than a long term political colleague, Rachel Whetstone.

Further complications set in after he realised his chief political adviser – Steve Hilton - was also involved with the busy Rachel.

So just who is this 4th Viscount Astor who was potentially upsetting the smooth, carefully constructed Cameron front? He is the 4th Viscount because his great grandfather William Astor was from one of America’s richest families and had moved to England in the 19th century. He then bought his way into the English aristocracy by making gifts to charity.

The Astors remain one of the most influential families in the UK, despite having shown support for Hitler during the 1930 pre-war period. They argued that he only got a bad press in the UK because so much of the media was controlled by Jews.

Then the family name got mixed up in a very messy 1960 sex scandal.

The Astor home is the Cliveden estate, a very upmarket country house that has long been the scene of expensive showbiz and celebrity affairs. But things got out of hand when the Conservative Defence Minister of the day, John Profumo, started an affair at Cliveden with a London call girl, Christine Keeler. The big problem there was that she was also sleeping with a Russian diplomat who was a KGB spy.

At the same time, the third Viscount Astor was having an affair with a friend of Keeler, call girl Mandy Rice Davies. Cliveden became notorious for sex and drugs parties. The involvement of a top politician, call girls and a Russian spy alerted the secret services. Then when Profumo was questioned about the affair he lied to Parliament and denied it. The truth came out and nearly brought down the government.

Now the Conservatives are again very nervous about their image at a time when the world is in financial crisis. Sex scandals and rich living must be carefully concealed. That is why Cameron’s involvement with Rupert Murdock’s CEO Rebekah Brooks has to be played down. And unfortunately Cameron’s highly influential adviser Steve Hilton is a controversial figure.

He has already been called “the pint sized Rasputin” by a leading Tory supporting national paper. A publication that is always on the lookout for people who don’t fit easily into their rigid ideas about lifestyles. Hilton insists on dressing very informally, in shorts and cycling gear. He is short, bald and round, fanatical about riding his bike.

“Who’s the beach bum?” enquired one of Obama’s staff when he saw him.

That all sounds very dangerous to the Conservative establishment who have already noted he isn’t one of them. His parents were immigrants from Hungary and took their name from the hotel chain. Not at all impressive to people with names that go back several hundred years. 

The Assassination

On 28thJune, 1914, Franz Ferdinand Este, the heir presumptive of the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated along with his wife in Sarajevo, the capital of Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovania, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Black Hand, A Serbian nationalistic organization formed with a objective to reunite and liberate Serbian territories from the Austro-Hungarian empire by violent means. Austria-Hungary responded by issuing a July Ultimatum to Serbia, whom it blamed for the assassination. The ultimatum contained ten demands, out of which Serbia was able to meet only eight. Not satisfied, or, as many argue, intent on using this opportunity to invade Serbia, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28th July, 1914.

The Chain of Events it precipitated

Bound by its treaty to Serbia, Russia was obliged to intervene, by announcing that it would mobilise its forces in support of Serbia. On the contrary, Germany was bound by its treaty to Austria-Hungary, and keen to limit the Russian influence, it responded by declaring a war on Russia on 1st August. The treaty of France to Russia dragged it into war with Germany, which declared war on France on 3rd August and invaded neutral Belgium with the intention of attacking France on its own soil. On 4th August, Belgian King made a plea to Britain referring to a 75 year old treaty that obliged Britain to come to the aid of Belgium. Britain responded by declaring war on Germany.

The entry of Britain to the war extended the conflict to Asia, Africa, North Africa and Australia. It involved all of the British colonies, especially Australia, Canada, India and South Africa, all of which played an important part in the war. Japan, which had a treaty with Britain, also joined soon thereafter, by declaring war on Germany on 23rd August, 1914. During the same month a secret alliance was signed between Germany and the Ottoman empire, after which the Ottoman army attacked British communication lines through Suez Canal on one hand and attacked the Caucasian territories of Russia on the other.

Italy and United States stayed away for a while, but were gradually dragged into it. Italy was bound by treaties to Germany and Austria-Hungary, but instead chose to join the ‘Allied Forces’ consisting of Britain, France, Japan and all their allies, in 1915. America resisted becoming a part of this war till 1917, when it had to finally enter the fray, after German naval attacks on its merchant ships. Bulgaria chose to side with Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, together known as ‘Central powers’. All these events resulted in an immense war that spread throughout the world, known as the ‘Great War’ at that point of time and later on, began to be referred to as ‘World War One’ or ‘WWI’.  This war, which involved 42 million armed soldiers on the side of Allied forces against 25 million soldiers of Central Forces, resulted in total casualties of over 38 million people, including nearly 10 million dead. It finally ended with ceasefire by Germany on 11th November, 1918, known as the ‘Armistice Day’. However, by the end that happened, the world had changed for all times to come.

Historical Consequences

The chain of events that began with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand Este, not only lead to the Great War of 1914-17, it also changed the power balance of the world in ways that redefined the history of mankind, in a way that no one could have envisaged at that fateful day of 28th June, 1941. Notably, it is not only the destruction of the war that makes this event so critical, but also the change in long term trajectories that the empires, nations and civilizations underwent as a result of the chain of events precipitated by an assassination. These long term changes were brought about by a combination of severe and widespread destruction of man and material, inflation of nationalism across the world, a permanent change in balance of power and change of political boundaries in and around Europe.

Break-up of Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Great War (WWI) was particular damaging to two great empires, which largely disintegrated by the end of this war.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken into separate nations by the treaties of Saint-Germaine and Trianon, creating new states of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Parts of its territories were annexed by Allied powers, particularly Romania.

Breakup of the Ottoman Empire

The most radical consequences of the war were faced by the Middle East, many of which continue to haunt the mankind till date. As a result of the war, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. It all began with the attack by Enver Pasha, the supreme commander of Ottoman forces, attacking Russia in December, 1914. Just like Napoleon before  him and Hitler a couple of decades later, the Russian misadventure cost him 86% of his 100,000 armed men in the battle of Sarikamish, severely weakening its might. Its final defeats though, came at the hand of British in the Middle East, losing Jerusalem in December, 1917 and finally defeat in the Battle of Megiddo in September, 1918 and the occupation of Istanbul by Allied forces in November, 1918.

Radical Reformation of the Middle East

This chain of events had many important long term consequences on the future of the Middle East. First, the occupation and division of the erstwhile Ottoman Empire by Allied powers, particularly Britain and France led to a series of confrontations that finally resulted in  several small states like Armenia, Turkey (Anatolia), Iraq (Mesopotamia), Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Arab states, Cyprus, Syria and Lebanon. Second, it resulted in the ascendancy of the Arabs in the Middle East, which had been under the control of Mongols for several centuries till then. Third, it created a nexus between Arab states and Allied forces that in one or the other has continued till now. Last, and most important of all was the persecution and expulsion of religious minorities across the Middle East and adjoining areas that virtually changed the identity, culture and demography of the region for ever. The worst sufferers were the Christian Armenians and Assyrians who were seen as a threat by the Ottomans. The Armenians were deported en-masse from Anatolia to Syria between 1915-17, leading to massive loss of lives, the estimates of which vary from one to five million. The Assyrians had an even worse fate, as two third of their population was massacred by Ottoman forces, causing 500,000 to 750,000 deaths during 1915-17. During the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-22, massive population exchange took place between the two warring states, with Greeks living in Turkey getting exchanged for Turks living in Greece. It would not be wrong to say that World War One and its consequent events led to severe ethnic cleansing of the Middle East and changed it from a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural region to an ethnocentric Muslim dominated region. In short, the Middle East was never the same again. 

Rise of Pan-Islamism

The break-up of Ottoman Empire was an event that led to very severe resentment among the religious scholars of the region, who saw it as a defeat of Islam at the hands of Anglo-Saxon-Zionist forces. Much of the subsequent rise of Pan-Islamic aspirations had their root in it. The ascendancy of Arab world allowed the Wahaabi school of Islam to dominate the, while the ethnic cleansing and the psychological scars of the war further resulted in the society being led to a conservative social philosophy that even today, finds it difficult to adopt modern values of secularism, democracy and individual rights. In short, much of what we observe in the Middle East today is a result of what happened on the fateful 28th June, 1914 in Sarajevo.

The Russian Revolution

Another great consequence that resulted from the assassination of Ferdinand and the Great War was the Russian Revolution. The War of 1914-17 led to its by its various impacts of Russian society. As the war progressed, Russia suffered huge loss of manpower. By the end of October, 1916, it had lost around 1.8 million soldiers who were dead. In addition, another two million had been taken as prisoners of war and another one million were missing, taking the total to nearly five million. Such widespread losses, including some humiliating defeats at the hand of Germany led to severe criticism and resentment of the Tzar Nicholas II, the ruler of Russia. However, the economic effects of war were even more important. To finance its war effort, the Government decided to print money, a great blunder that led to sever inflation, with prices increase by four times between 1914 and 1917. Unfortunately, while the prices were rising in the markets, the peasants were not the major beneficiaries, as most of the profit was cornered by the middlemen.  Labor also did not get corresponding raise of wages, leading to severe financial distress. Lastly, after a few debacles, the Tzar Nicholas II decided to commander the army himself and left for the front leaving the administration in the hands of the Empress Alexandra, whose rule was deeply resented because of poor governance, her German origins and her closeness with a unsavoury mystique named Rasputin. Many historians also claim that the clandestine support extended by Germany to the revolutionaries may have also played an important role. Together, their overall consequence was the overthrowing of Tzar and a period of Civil War that ultimately led to creation of Communist Soviet. Europe and the world were never the same again.

Treaty of Versailles & rise of German Nationalism & Hitler

Another important consequence of the war that began with assassination of Franz Ferdinand, was the humiliation of Germany at the end of the war along with the imposition of ‘Treaty of Versailles’ with Germany on 28 June 1919, which held Germany and its allies responsible for all loss and damage suffered by the Allies and imposed reparations of 132 billion gold marks on Germany. The economic impact created by this reparation is cited as one of the major factors that led to the German nationalism and fascist Hitler, culminating in another great war two decades later. The world had changed forever.

League of Nations & Great Depression

The war that began on that fateful day of 28th June, 1914 led to several other consequences too, each of which deserves a claim as a historical milestone in its own right. One of them was the formation of the League of Nations, as part of the Treaty of Versailles signed between Allied forces and Germany on 28 June 1919. This became the precursor of what is known today as the United Nations. Another impact, for which there is lesser consensus and greater division of views, is the role of First World War in leading to the Great Depression that began just after the war. The huge destruction of man and machine throughout the globe by the Great War of 1915-17 can be cited as one of the reasons of it.

The world was never the same again

What happened on28th June, 1914 was not just an act of terrorist nationalism. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand Este by the Serbian nationalistic organisation actually led to a series of events that resulted in over 36 million casualties during the World War One. More importantly, it set into motion certain changes that redefined the political boundaries, especially in the Middle East, gave rise to Pan-Islamic nationalism, and began the Communist experiment, with the end of Tzar Nicholas II and his Russian empire. The repercussions of the events of war paved the way for the World War II and sowed the seeds of United Nations.

It would not be wrong to claim that 28th June, 1914 was the first great turning point in the history of twentieth century. It changed our lives forever!

2. Michael Myers-This name just conjures up too many cheap horror flick memories (Halloween anyone?) and thus should be avoided. Every time I hear this name, this facecomes to mind. Is that really something you want your kid’s classmates to conjure in their minds? If you want your child to be socially outcasted though, then be my guest & use it, but don’t be surprised if you are then scorned by them.

3. Never name a boy Sue, we learned from the old country song by Johnny Cash that can have consequences years later that are best avoided altogether. Even if you have good intentions like helping your kid get a thick skin.

4. Rasputin-It has been said that he contributed to the overthrow and eventual deaths of the Romanov family, so needless to say, this is a name best avoided. No man of virtuous character would be caught (living or dead) with this unfortunate designation.

5. Last but not least we have Cain, the world’s first murderer, which is pretty self explanatory.

At the time of the revolution the country was in pretty bad shape. The majority of the population were incredibly poor and many lived in extreme poverty. Most of the country’s money went to the nobility or rich land owners who made up little over 1.5% of the population. The largest group of people living in Russia were the peasants. Often peasants worked on the land, producing food and crops for the wealthy landowners yet having hardly enough for themselves to survive. Prices were far too high to be able to afford the necessities with their minuscule wages and so many had to go without shoes, proper meals and decent accommodation even through the harsh winter months.

The conditions that workers lived in were as bad if not worse than those of the peasants. Several families would share a single room often housing as many as thirty workers, the only form of privacy being a flimsy curtain or screen. Many people had to share beds if they worked in the twenty-four hour factories, one person would sleep during the night the other during the day. Conditions at work were just as terrible. Hygiene and safety had been ignored and workers had to brave the horrific conditions to earn meagre wages.

Eventually a Duma or government was set up to give the people a voice. The Duma had little to know power and could be dissolved by the tsar whenever he saw fit as he did on several occasions. The Duma did not seem to be fulfilling its purpose; the tsar often manipulated the people in the Duma to be those that would support him and his decisions. By doing this he made it clear that he didn’t want to hear the opinions of his people which considering the lack of support from the worse of part of society was probably a bad idea.

Of course there is also the Rasputin factor. Rasputin was the ‘holy’ man who spent his time healing, giving advice and seducing women. The Romanov’s already diminishing reputation was further damaged by accepting Rasputin into their lives. The family had their reasons for keeping him around, the main one being the welfare of their youngest child Alexis. Alexis suffered from haemophilia, resulting in painful, uncontrollable and on a few occasions near fatal blood loss. Apparently however, simply by touching him, Rasputin could stop the bleeding and ultimately saved Alexis’ life. This did nothing for his public reputation though, and the royal family’s support shrank considerably, there were even accusations that Rasputin’s relationship with the tsarina went deeper than mere friendship.

Throughout his time as ruler the Tsar had made many mistakes but the worst of all would have to be the slaughter of hundreds of his own people. At the beginning of 1905 a peaceful strike made its way towards the Tsar’s winter palace in the hopes of speaking with the Tsar about proposed changes to be made in Russia. They never saw the Tsar though as they were promptly shot down and hacked to pieces by the army and the Cossacks. This was the final straw as far as the people were concerned; if their Tsar would not listen to them then something had to be done.

By the time the First World War began Russia had hit breaking point. The country had united against the Tsar and was ready to begin the revolution. In this respect the war was a god send for the Tsar. For the first time in years Russia and the Tsar were united, if Nicholas had handled the situation correctly he could have turned his predicament around, however it seemed that no matter what happened Nicholas was doomed to fail. And fail he did, by the end of 1914, less than a year into the war, one million Russian men were dead. By March 1917 this figure had risen to a staggering eight million. The soldiers that had survived had done so by living in appalling conditions. Short of guns and ammunition, at least one third of the Russian army had to wait for their comrades to fall before being able to obtain a weapon and fire against the enemy. Boots and first aid supplies were also in short stock. A soldier lucky enough to survive being wounded would be taken to the local army hospital, consisting of state of the art straw mattresses and hygienic dirt covered floors, where they would only have to wait for five days before being treated.

It is of no surprise then that when the revolution finally began the army almost immediately switched sides and fought with the people against the Tsar.

The army were not the only ones affected by the war. Conditions back home were worsening by the minute. Shortages of supplies meant that prices were rising dramatically whereas wages did not,  not to mention the fact that many factories were closing forcing hundreds of people into unemployment and poverty, so if it was difficult to buy food before it would be hell to afford it now. Food was not the only thing Russia was short on, coal was hard to come by and during those cold Russian winters it was important that houses could be kept warm, without heating however this became increasingly difficult.

Coming back to the question ‘was the first world war the main cause of the revolution?’ my answer is no. I believe that although the war did have a part to play, it only sped things up. Russia was already heading towards revolution due mainly, I think, to the Tsars inability to rule. War or not the same outcome would have eventually come to be.

Image via Wikipedia

How did the disaster at Chernobyl happen?  Could it have been prevented?  The disaster at Chernobyl was caused by faulty planning in the design of the nuclear reactor, which was not protected in the case of overheating.  The cooling was turned off for testing, but as a result the reactor overheated and exploded.  It could have been prevented, but Soviet Russia was very much about rapid efficiency without regard to health or human consequences.

How was Stalin’s moustache iconic? Stalin created a cult of personality, and his moustache seemed to be at the center.  On posters depicting perfect Soviet families, the men always had moustaches similar to Stalin’s.  However, in later years, moustachioed men in Russian movies were symbolic of Stalin, but not necessarily in a positive way.

When did Russians first buy televisions?  Russians first bought television during the Soviet era.  However, most televisions in Russia didn’t work–they were basically just boxes with fuzzy gray screens of nothing.  But the Russian people would pay tons of money to buy them, partially because they were new and exotic, and partially because it was a status symbol to have a television, even if it didn’t work.

Is it true that some Russian peasants turned to cannibalism during the Soviet era?  Surprisingly, yes.  During the Soviet era there were many famines, and it was impossible for some peasants to find food.  Although it wasn’t something everyone did, there were accounts of children’s bones and heads being found outside of people’s homes.  This has happened in many countries over the course of history.

What was the cause of childhood venereal disease in pre-Soviet Russia? This fact doesn’t only apply to Russia, but the sanitary conditions in Europe at the time were pretty bad all-around.  However, there wasn’t very much knowledge of what caused diseases in Russia at the time, so when children came down with syphilis, nobody knew how it happened, since the kids hadn’t been molested or raped.  At least not that the parents knew of–at the time it was common to suck on a baby boy’s penis or touch a baby’s genitals while the baby was crying from a toothache or headache.  It wasn’t seen as sexual, but it spread sexually transmitted diseases among children. (The Keys to Happiness, Laura Engelstein)

What did women like about Rasputin? Although Rasputin was known for being rude and strange, women were drawn to him, probably because he created a legend around himselves.  Even women who valued their sexual virtue would sleep with him because they believed that having sex with Rasputin would “purify” them.

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Did the Russian people know about Stalin’s purges? While the Russians had an idea of what Stalin was doing when he killed off all the people who he thought were plotting against him, they didn’t know for sure, and more importantly, the world didn’t know, until after Stalin’s death, when the new Soviet leader, Khrushchev, gave a shocking midnight “secret speech” to all the Communist world leaders in which he exposed all of Stalin’s wrongdoings.

Image via Wikipedia

Whatever happened to Czar Nicholas’ family?  Did any of them survive? People like to say they did, but I think it’s dubious.  So one of the bodies of his children disappeared, but most likely it was just placed elsewhere.  People have come forth pretending to be Princess Anastasia, but so far they’ve all been hoaxes.  I have a feeling we would have known by now if someone had survived.

The Tsar, on being informed of the tragedy was advised not to attend the French Ambassadors Ball being given in his honour, out of respect for the dead, he refused. It was a mistake, from early in his reign this new Tsar was perceived as being indifferent to the pain of his people. It was to stain his character for the rest of his life. In the subsequent inquiry into the tragedy the Imperial Authorities were found to have been negligent though no individuals were held to be accountable. The Khodynka Field affair damaged the reputation of the Tsar and no amount of aid provided to the families of the victims would repair it. 

The Tsar of All the Russias

It was an event that seemed to herald all that was to come in the ill-starred reign of Tsar Nicholas ll. The new Tsar of all the Russia’s was an autocrat. He believed in his divine right to rule, and whereas he understood the necessity of delegating power, he was never willing to share it. He was also a militarist, an imperialist, and an enthusiastic anti-Semite. He openly endorsed and encouraged the anti-Jewish pogroms that swept the Pale of Settlement between 1903-06, that were to leave thousands dead. He firmly believed in the Global Jewish Conspiracy as expounded in the pages of that erroneous book “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (as indeed did Adolf Hitler) and kept his own much-thumbed copy. He also led Russia into two disastrous wars and did nothing to reduce the vast disparity between rich and poor.

The Russo-Japanese War 1904-05

Was a fierce conflict that was the precursor to the brutal trench warfare of World War One, and was to prove to be a humiliation for Russia. Her aggressively expansionist policies in the Far-East had brought her into direct conflict with the emerging Japanese Empire. Having behaved with a breathtaking arrogance in reneging on a series of deals over Manchuria, the Japanese unable to trust the Russians any longer, decided to strike. On 8 February, 1904, they launched a surprise attack upon and laid siege to Port Arthur on the Liaotung Peninsula. The Russians could only reinforce their forces in Manchuria via the as yet incomplete Trans-Siberian Railway. Outnumbered 2 to 1 they suffered a series of heavy defeats culminating in the surrender of Port Arthur on 2 January, 1905; withdrawal from Manchuria altogether after the Battle of Mukden in late February,1905: and the utter-destruction of her Baltic Fleet in the Straits of Tsu-Shima on 25 May.

The war which had been hugely unpopular in Russia had cost 125,000 casualties some 49,000 ofwhom had been killed. The defeat now sparked a revolution. The country was paralysed by a series of strikes and Workers’ Soviets were established in all the major cities. The revolution had to be crushed by force and more troops were mobilised to suppress the very workers than had been used in the recently concluded war. Even so the Tsar was forced to issue his October Manifesto, in effect a constitutional charter, and allow for the formation of a Duma (Elected Assembly). It heralded the end of Tsarist absolute power in Russia and was the beginning of the downfall of the Romanov’s. Nicholas may have had an inkling of this for he regretted signing the document saying that he felt “sick with shame at this betrayal of the dynasty”. But still the revolution continued. The Moscow Soviet (which first saw the emergence of the young Trotsky) however,continued to hold out. It was only crushed after fierce street fighting between 5 and 7 December left over a thousand workers and troops loyal to the Tsar dead. When called upon to do the same 12 years later those self- same troops were to prove to be less loyal.

Bloody Sunday, 22 January, 1905

Russia had designs on becoming an economic powerhouse. A rapid programme of industrialisation financed by western, mostly French, money was well underway; but little if no provision was made for the workers. Conditions in Russian factories were appalling. Expected to work an average 11 hour day, 6 days a week, for low wages in filthy unsafe conditions, they were prevented from organising in their own defence or forming trade unions. Any attempt to do so would result in instant dismissal.

In 1904, inflation and a scarcity of goods oppressed wages even further. A priest, Father Georgi Gapon, who had considerable influence among the workers of the Putilov Iron Works organised a petition on their behalf to be presented to the Tsar. It was deferential in tone and was designed as an appeal to the Tsar to intercede on the workers behalf. On 22 January, 1905, a bitterly cold Sunday with snow thick on the ground, he led a march on the Winter Palace. The crowd, perhaps 150,000 strong, many carrying religious icons and portraits of the Tsar, were optimistic that he would listen to their pleas. As they approached the Palace, however, police and troops who were blocking their way opened fire. As the demonstrators fled in panic Cossacks rode them down. More than 180 were killed and 300 wounded. Tsar Nicholas wrote in his diary for that day “There have been serious disorders in St Petersburg because workers wanted to come up to the Winter Palace. Troops had to open fire in several places in the city. There were very many wounded and killed. God, how painful and sad”.

The Lena Goldfields Massacre, 4 April, 1912

The Lena Goldfields were situated to the north-east of Lake Baikal on the Lena River in Siberia near Irkutsk. The environment was harsh, wages low, and the working day could be as long as 16 hours. Moreover, a large proportion of the workers wages were paid in coupons that could only be exchanged in the Company’s own stores. The goods for purchase in these stores were often over-priced and of poor quality. The food rotten and inedible.

On 29 February, 1912, a spontaneous walkout became a full-blown strike. The workers quickly organised and by 4 March, they were able to publish their list of demands: an 8 hour day, 30% wage increase, elimination of company fines, and improved quality of food. The Company refused to meet these demands or even to discuss them. The strike escalated. In response on 3 April, the Authorities arrested the strike leaders. On 4 April 2500 miners and their families descended on the Chief Prosecutors Office demanding the release of their comrades. Troops sent by the Tsar to restore order barred their way. When the miners refused to disperse, Captain Trenschenkov in command, gave the order for the troops to open fire, 270 miners were killed and a further 250 wounded. Many leading industrialists, high-ranking Government officials, and members of the Imperial family were on the Company’s Board of Directors. The massacre created an outcry and helped revive revolutionary activity following the repression of 1905. An Inquiry was held but no one was punished or held to blame.

The Empress Alexandra

World War One

Like the other combatants in 1914, Russia entered the war enthusiastically and with confidence of a swift victory, but she was ill-prepared for war. The much-vaunted Russian Steamroller with its immense and limitless manpower was greatly feared; but it was unable to equip its men. Many were sent into the frontline without firearms, mobilisation was painfully slow, the rolling stock did not exist to transport men, munitions, materiel, and goods, munitions manufacture was inadequate to the task, and Russian tactics were the same as they had been against Napoleon. After some early success catastrophic defeats at the Battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes saw them embark on a long and relentless retreat in the face of their German enemy.

By the summer of 1915, Russian losses were a staggering 1,400,000 killed and wounded and 97,000 taken prisoner. In the face of this never ending cycle of defeat, the Tsar dismissed his cousin Nikolai Nikolaievich, and took personal command of the army. It was a merely symbolic gesture, it being felt that the troops would fight better for their Tsar, but it was to have dire consequences. Isolated at Army Headquarters in Mogilev he was too distant and remote to influence events in St Petersburg (renamed Petrograd). His German born wife, Alexandra, believing that she should act on her husbands behalf and rule in his absence interfered relentlessly in the Government of the country. She was loathed by the people, much more so than the Tsar, and was believed to be under the sway of the rogue Rasputin. With the Tsar now being blamed directly for the failures of the Russian army the long-held sense of deference began to break down. In February, 1917, a wave of strikes swept St Petersburg. Despite the severity of the weather and their near starvation tens of thousands took to the streets. Carrying Communist and Anarchist banners and chanting revolutionary slogans these were not the deferential icon bearing workers of 1905. They demanded bread, that the Tsarina be tried for treason, the war brought to an end and, for the first time, that the Tsar should abdicate. When the demonstrators refused to disperse troops were ordered onto the streets to restore order. There then occurred a breakdown of deference of frightening proportions. Ordered to fire on the demonstrators the troops refused. Some regiments returned to barracks, others killed their officers and joined the demonstrators. Time was running out for the Tsar.

Rasputin

The Mad Monk

On the evening of 16 December, 1916, Grigory Rasputin, the spiritual healer, the lover of the Tsarina, the Mad Monk, was murdered. Not by the mob, or a lone assassin, but by a small group of feckless aristocrats, who lured him to the home of one of their number, the homosexual transvestite Prince Felix Yusupov, whose own advances towards the enigmatic, unwashed, Rasputin had been spurned, on the false pretext that a wild party was in the offing. Once there he was poisoned with cakes laced with cyanide. When these failed to kill him, his murderers panicked and fled. On their return they discovered that Rasputin had gone. In their absence he had managed to crawl from the house into the courtyard. There they found him and in some distress proceeded to strangle, beat, and shoot him. Finally they threw him into the frozen Neva River, where still alive he drowned. Just a few weeks before his death Rasputin had told friends that he would not survive the year. He had previously written to the Tsar warning him that. “If it is your relatives who wrought my death, then no one in the family, that is to say, none of your children or your relations will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people”. His assassins were indeed related to the Tsar. Less than two years later not one of the Tsar’s children remained alive. The Tsarina hearing of Rasputin’s murder went into a paroxysm of grief. She demanded that the Tsar put the murderers on trial and have them executed. The Tsar, though furious, would not hear of it.

The Abdication

By early February, 1917, all authority had effectively broken down and many of Russia’s major cities were in turmoil. Workers were on the streets, factories had ceased production, and shops were closed or had been looted. Soldiers expected to restore order remained in their barracks, many regiments handed their arms over to the rebels, or simply joined them wholesale. Even the Tsar’s own regiment of lifeguards went over to the other side. Mikhail Rodzianko, Chairman of the Duma, dispatched numerous increasingly frantic telegrams to the Tsar begging him to form a new Government as the only way of saving the dynasty. They went unanswered. In the vacuum that resulted from the Tsar’s silence the Duma formed its own Provisional Government to work alongside, if not exactly in tandem, with the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers and Workers Deputies. Its first act was to place the Cabinet and Royal Family under house arrest. On hearing of the news Tsar Nicholas made haste for Petrograd. Informed that the route he was taking was controlled by the rebels, he changed railways lines to one controlled by Nikolai Ruzzki, Commander of his Northern Armies. Upon arrival at his Headquarters, however, he received a frosty reception. General Ruzzki curtly informed him in no uncertain terms that he only took orders from the Provisional Government. On 15 February, Tsar Nicholas sent a telegram to the Executive Committee of the Duma, and its new leader Prince Grigori Lvov, granting his permission for them to form a new Cabinet. In return he received a telegram from the previously loyal Rodzianko, demanding his immediate abdication. The Tsar, declaring that he had been betrayed by those he had previously believed to be loyal, refused to sign the abdication document. On further reflection, realising that all power had already been wrenched from his hands and fearing for his family, he agreed to abdicate in favour of his son, the Tsarevitch. This was refused. So instead he abdicated in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Michael. His brother, however, refused to touch the poisoned chalice until the decision had been endorsed by the people in a popular vote. Even so, the abdication stood. The Romanov Dynasty that had ruled the Empire of all the Russia’s for more than three centuries had ceased to exist.

Imprisonment

The Tsar and his Family

The ex-Tsar and his family were placed under house arrest. The Provisional Government, now dominated by the ambitious young lawyer Alexander Kerensky, evacuated the Romanov’s to Tobolsk in the Urals, supposedly for their own safety. But the truth was they didn’t know what to do with them. The ex-Imperial Family were at first well treated retaining their servants and many trappings of the Court. Nicholas himself was confident that his cousin King George V, would grant him and his family asylum in Britain. It was a bitter blow when this request was refused. Kerensky’s determination to continue to prosecute the war was to have disastrous consequences. The catastrophic offensive of July, 1917, when the Russian army simply melted away, discarded their arms and went home, was to lead directly to the overthrow of the Provisional Government in October. The October Revolution and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks changed everything for the Romanovs. The Bolsheviks were professional revolutionaries untainted by sentiment, to them the Romanovs were criminals and would be treated as criminals. As long as they remained alive they would be a rallying point for the forces of reaction. In April they were removed to the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. Here they were under constant surveillance and their every move supervised. They were denied luxuries such as cigarettes and coffee and forced to eat soldiers rations. The Romanov daughters were constantly the butt of sexual innuendo and were forced to endure lewd remarks and drawings. The Tsar himself, though, was treated with greater respect. By mid-July, 1918, the Czech Legion of the reactionary White Army was closing in on Ekaterinburg. Gunfire could be heard in the distance. The prospect of the Romanov’s being liberated sealed their fate.

Execution

The man who shot the Tsar

“We must shoot them all tonight” (Yakov Yurovsky) In the early hours of 28 July, 1918, Yakov Yurovsky, in charge at the Ipatiev House, sent for the Tsar’s doctor, Botkin, and ordered that he rouse the Royal Family. Earlier that day ten members of the Cheka, the Bolshevik Secret Police, had arrived at the house. Yurovsky informed the Tsar that they were being taken to the basement for their own safety. They were also to have their photograph taken to show the world that they were alive and being taken good care of. Once they had all gathered in the basement the Tsarina asked for a chair for herself and the Tsarevich. Chairs were provided, and the daughters all carrying small pillows gathered around their mother. As soon as they were all together, Yurovsky called in the Cheka execution squad and addressing the Tsar, announced that they were all to be shot on the orders of the Executive Committee of the Urals Soviet. No one among the Royal Family or the servants, who were also to be shot, uttered a sound. Pausing for a moment, Yurovsky then gave the order to open fire. Nicholas and Alexandra died almost immediately. The children, however, did not. They had sewn jewels into their clothing which prevented the bullets from piercing their bodies. So they were beaten, bludgeoned and bayonet to death. The last to die was the young Tsarevich who was dispatched by Yurovsky personally with three shots to the head. The bodies were then taken from the house to a nearby forest where they were placed into pits and doused in sulphuric acid in a crude attempt to dispose of the evidence. They failed and the remains were removed from the pits and thrown down a mineshaft before finally being being sealed in a tomb. It is very easy to feel sympathy for the Tsar and his family. They were, after all, murdered in cold blood without even the semblance of a trial and with no opportunity to defend themselves in open court. But it should also be remembered that the Tsar was the supreme arbiter of all things. He believed his power to be a gift from God. He cannot be divorced from events. The responsibility for military incompetence, social oppression, and domestic neglect was his. His culpability is without question.

Postscript

In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church, canonised the Tsar. He is now acknowledged as Saint Nicholas.

Those who died in the Ipatiev House

The Tsar of all the Russias and Family

1/ Tsar Nicholas II

2/ Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna

3/ Olga (aged 22)

4/ Tatiana (aged 21)

5/ Maria (aged 18)

6/ Anastasia (aged 17)

7/ Tsarevich Alexei (aged 13)

8/ Botkin (the family doctor)

9/ Trupp (the tsar’s valet)

10/ Demidova (the maid)

11/ Kharitonov (the cook)

 Allan Pinkerton  (The First “Private Eye”)

This is a real success story but not one that is particularly well known.  Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1819.  He was a cooper to trade and hard working.  He was interested in politics and so joined the British Chartist movement which worked for political and social reform.  His activities brought about a warrant for his arrest so he and his wife, Jean Carfrae, headed for America in 1842.  The couple settled in Chicago and then in Dundee in Kane County where he opened a cooper’s shop.  His house was a staging post in the Underground Railway passing escaped slaves north to Canada.   One day, when cutting wood on an island he came across and later captured a gang of counterfeiters.  This and other similar feats led to his appointment as Deputy Sheriff of Kane County in 1846.  His career had taken off.  He became Sheriff of Cook County, working out of Chicago.

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Then, in 1850, he left the Chicago Police and set up the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and worked on many famous cases, including the capture of the leaders of the robbery of the Adams Express Company worth $700,000 in 1866.  The business logo was a wide open eye and underneath it was the slogan “We never sleep”.  This gave rise to the phrase we all know – “Private Eye”. He thwarted a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.   He developed methods that are still in use today – shadowing,  undercover work, etc.  During the Civil War he worked for the Union.  He and his operatives worked undercover as confederate soldiers and sympathizers in order to gain military intelligence; the forerunner of the US Secret Service.

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After the war he resumed his detective work and with the rise of organised labour often he and his operatives were hired to infiltrate the unions  and he found himself working against the very ideals he believed in.  For example, the Spanish Government hired him to suppress a revolution in Cuba whose aim was to end slavery and give everyone the right to vote.

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For someone who had lived such an exciting and fulfilling life his death was ironically silly and banal.  Towards the end of June 1884 he slipped on a pavement when in Chicago.  He jarred himself and as he did so he bit his tongue.  Although it was a severe bite he didn’t bother with treatment and it became infected (and according to some authorities gangrene soon set in) causing his death on 1st July 1884.

Lon Nil  (Eaten)

On March 18th 1970 King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia was on a foreign visit to Beijing, China.  Prince Sirik Matak helped Prime minister Lon Nol in organising a vote in the National Assembly to overthrow Sihanouk as Head of State and to take power himself.

Image by alex.ch via Flickr

Lon Nil was the brother of Lon Nol and he himself was a politician.  He had been given the job of monitoring some of the villages deep in the countryside. It was his ill-luck that he was in the village of Kampong Cham when Sihanouk made a public appeal to all Cambodians to join with the Khymer Rouge and revolt against the government.  Villagers siezed him, killed him and immediately tore his liver from his body.  They took it to a nearby Chinese Restaurant where they forced the owner to cook it and slice it up.  At this point some say it was divided among the poor who ate it ravenously while others say the mob ate it themselves.

Aeschylus

Aeschylus was born in 525 B.C. in the city of Eleusis.  He was brought up in the traditions of the city and the religious rites of the Mother Goddess and Demeter.  Once as a young boy he was sent to the countryside to watch grapes ripening.  He dozed off and in a dream Dionysus told him to write tragedies.  He began the next morning and found the task “quite easy”.
Before Aeschylus, a play consisted of a chorus exchanging dialogue with a single actor who displayed various characters by using masks.  Aeschylus introduced a second actor which began a leap forward in drama.
Legend has it that he met his death in an almost comical fashion.  A passing eagle had a tortoise in its talons and intended dropping it on to a rock in order to smash its shell.  Unfortunately, the eagle mistook his bald head for a rock and he was hit smack on the head by the falling tortoise.  A comical death for a writer of tragedies!

Pausanias: Starved to Death

Pausanias was the nephew of the great Spartan King, Leonidas 1. He became a regent to the king’s son after Leonidas and his famous three hundred were wiped out by the Persians at the Battle of Thermopalae.  Later, at the Battle of Plataea, when the Persians were finally chased out of Greece by a united Greek army, Pausanias commanded the Spartan contingent as General.  He conquered Byzantium and stationed the Greek fleet there in order to guard the seaways.

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He was so successful and for so long that he began to believe that he had a God-given right to do anything he wanted – hubris.  His fellow Greeks found him to be quite unbearable and incredibly high-handed in his attitude to others.  As a result he was despised and hated.  He was officially replaced as General and recalled in disgrace to Sparta.  To show his superiority he delayed his return and when he did arrive back in Sparta he lived in huge splendour.  He plotted and planned coups and takeovers to the extent that the Spartans accused him of treason.  He was tried but acquitted.

Unfortunately for Pausanias his central plan was revealed.  He had plotted with the Helots (they were hereditary slaves in Sparta who did all the essential work) to overthrow the Spartan authorities.  He fled to  a temple in Athens for sanctuary.  He was put to death by the people, who walled up the temple, blocking him in until he starved to death.  It is said that his mother laid the first stone.

Edward II of England

Edward II’s great misfortune was to be the son  of Edward I of England.  Edward I was a man of imposing stature, great bravery in battle, great competence in organisation and great cruelty, ( he would go to bed thinking of new methods of torture).  Edward II, his son, was none of these things.

For the times, he was  over interested in the arts and as far as his father was concerned was too soft and gentle. Edward’s great mentor was a French knight, Piers Gaveston, but he was exiled by Edward I because of the bad influence he believed Gaveston had on his son.  Edward I died in July 1307 and his son became king Edward II was recall Piers Gaveston from exile.  He encouraged Edward’s spending and extravagances; the Barons and nobles were outraged.  Edward’s incompetence was shown at Bannockburn where he met the brilliant Robert  De Bruce in fullscale battle;  De Bruce destroyed Edward’s much larger and much better equipped army and won Scotland’s independence. The barons now controlled power in England and Thomas of Lancaster emerged as the real authority.  He, too, was essentially incompetent and England collapsed into near anarchy.

To cut a long story short, Edward  was morally incapable of avoiding having favourites and so there was huge opposition to Edward.  His wife Isabella had been sent on a diplomatic mission to France but there she became the mistress of an exile Roger Mortimer.  They invaded England and found almost no resistance.  Edward was deposed in favour of Isabella’s son who was crowned Edward III.  Edward II was imprisoned in a dungeon in Berkeley castle.

The historian and philosopher David Hume describes how two paid assassins killed him - 

“threw him on a bed, held him down violently with a table, which they flung over him, thrust into his fundamental a red-hot iron which they inserted through a horn, and though the outward marks of violence upon his person were prevented by this expedient, the horrid deed was discovered to all the guards and attendants by the screams with which the agonising King filled the castle while his bowels were consuming.”

Modern historians admit that although it is probable that he was murdered in his dungeon they point out that there is no evidence that the red-hot poker was used.

Manius Aquillius: Molten Gold

Manius Aquillius had a glittering career.  He was in the service of Gaius Marius and when Marius ran for Consul for the fourth time he left Aquillius in command of his army.   Aquillius distinguished himself and as a reward Marius put Aquillius on a joint ticket for the election of consul in 101BC.  A slave revolt in Sicily was starting to cause famine in Rome and the newly elected Consul Aquillius was sent to subdue it.  He completely crushed the insurgents and returned to Rome in triumph.  He was accused of maladministration in Sicily and had to stand trial.  Even although there were strong indications of his guilt he was found not guilty because of his service to Rome in the Sicilian war.

In 88 BC he was sent to take charge of the war against Mithradates VI of Pontus.  Here he suffered  a crushing defeat at the Battle of Protostachium.  He escaped to Mytilene but there he was betrayed and handed over to Mithradates. He was tortured, and finally put to death by having molten gold forced down his throat. 

Francis Bacon: Died Deep-Freezing a Chicken!

Francis Bacon was a typical Renaissance man; he was a statesman , philosopher, scientist, lawyer and author.  He rose through the political ranks to become both England’s Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor although his political career ended in disgrace.

It was his dedication to both philosophy and science which have caused his name to survive the centuries.  He championed the new idea in science that the investigator should first ponder the problem and then work out a reasoned method of experimenting to find out if the ideas are correct.  This idea of introducing inductive philosophy into science was revolutionary at the time and many of Bacon’s ideas are still useful today.

It appears that it was his fascination for experimental science which caused his death at the age of sixty-five.  In his book “Brief Lives” John Aubrey describes how Bacon died.  He does so with the authority knowing personally some of Bacon’s friends and speaking to them.  He describes how Bacon is travelling through  snow in London and suddenly realises that the flesh of dead animals in snow seems not to rot nearly so quickly as otherwise.  Could snow actually be used to preserve meat?  Aubrey has him jumping from his coach and buying a fowl from an old woman.  She disembowelled it and he stuffed it full of snow.  It was his intention to study the bird and see how long it remained fresh enough for eating.  Unfortunately, straight after stuffing the chicken he caught a severe chill which developed into pneumonia and died.  John Aubrey writes, “The snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his lodging …. but went to the Earle of Arundel’s house, where they put him into … a damp bed …. which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr.(Thomas)  Hobbes told me, he died of suffocation.”

So Francis Bacon was a martye to scientific experimentation and died stuffing a chicken with snow !

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (22 January 1869 – 29 December 1916) is a shadowy character about whom the first forty years are still a mystery.  Many of the stories about his life as a child and young man are contradictory and it is impossible to know the truth.  The myths about him, however, suggest that people believed he had supernatural powers even when very young.

At eighteen he entered the Verkhoturye Monastery for three months – this was a regular way of dealing with minor thefts.  On his release he claimed to have a vision of the Mother of God and that along with is experience in the monastery turned him into a religious mystic.  There were rumours (never proved) that he had links with cults which used impassioned services ending with wild sexually ecstatic behaviour.  He travelled to Greece and Jerusalem before settling in St Petersburg in 1903.  Here he slowly gained a reputation as a Holy Man (Starets) with healing and prophetic powers.  This was what brought him into contact with the royal family.

Rasputin was asked to help cure Alexei, the son of the Tsar and Tsarina, when he suffered internal bleeding after falling off a horse.  Alexei suffered from haemophilia but this condition was neither known nor understood then. Rasputin claimed to heal him by prayer and the fact that every time Rasputin treated him the bleeding eventually stopped and Alexei recovered, seemed to prove that the prayers worked.  Rasputin came to have tremendous influence over the Tsarina and she believed that God spoke to her through Rasputin.

Rasputin’s unparalleled influence over the royal family angered and frightened  many  of the elite of  Imperial Russia. He was accused of many things from insatiable sexual lust, to raping a nun. He was also accused of having complete political power over the Tsar.  He did, in fact, believe that divine grace could be achieved only through sin and repentance – two sides of the same coin.  Salvation then could only be achieved by yielding to temptation – by sinning – then you could repent and find salvation.  For Rasputin sin meant sex and alcohol and he had no difficulty in persuading his many women admirers of St. Petersburg’s ruling elite to join him.

The first attempt to kill Rasputin was in 1914 when Khionia Guseva, a prostitute, stabbed him in the stomach to the extent that his entrails could be seen hanging out. To everyone’s surprise he recovered and this helped his mystery grow.  On 16th December 1916, however, a group of nobles took it upon themselves to kill him.  

They lured him to the Moika Palace where they plied him with cakes and red wine laced with enough cyanide to kill five men – but he was completely unaffecteed.  (At this point it is necessary to add that Rasputin’s daughter disputes that they tried poison.)  One of the conspirators, Yusupov, drew his revolver, shot him, and Rasputin fell.  Delighted, the conspirators left the palace but Yusupov returned a short while later and to his horror found Rasputin still alive. Rasputin grabbed Yusupov and tried to strangle him.  At that point the other conspirators arrived and fired at him.  He was shot three times in the back at point blank range and fell sprawling on the ground.  When they examined him he was not only still alive but making a good attempt to get up.  They grabbed what heavy instruments they could find and tried to club him to death.  Then they wrapped him in a sheet and dropped him into the River Neva where there was a break in the ice.

Three days later the body was recovered from the river.  A post-mortem showed that there was  water in his lungs and that as a result he had clearly died from drowning not from poison or being shot four times or being badly beaten. But Rasputin still had one surprise left.

Empress Alexandra had the body buried but after the February revolution a group of workers dug him up and tried to burn the body.  They saw the body appear to sit upright and roar a curse.  Never having cremated a body before they didn’t realise they should have cut the tendons to prevent bodily movement.  The fire caused the gases in the body to expand and rush through the body causing the movement and on through the voice box causing the roar.  Right to the end Rasputin was unnerving his fellow Russians!

Isadora Duncan: Strangled

Isadora Duncan is regarded as the founder of modern dance.  Although she was American her career was based in Europe.  Her death was the result of a freak and tragic automobile accident.  On 14th September 1927 she was in Nice in the South of France and was a passenger in an Amilcar. driven by a particular favourite of hers, Benoit Falchetto.  She loved wearing long trailing scarves and on that day she sported a hand-painted silk scarf by Roman Chatov.  It was so long that as they were driving one end of it caught on the open spokes of a rear wheel.  It strangled her to death.

1. Grigori Rasputin

   

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   Rasputin was a very controversial Russian mystic who had some influence over the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family. This influence ultimately led to Rasputin’s weird and legendary death. In 1914, Rasputin had his stomach ripped open and his entrails spilled out when he was attacked with a knife by a former prostitute he had a relationship with. The prostitute screamed she had “killed the antichrist”, but Rasputin survived the attack.

   

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   In 1916 Rasputin was urging the Tsar to withdraw Russian troops from WW I. In December of 1916 Rasputin was allegedly poisoned at a dinner party with enough cyanide to kill 5 men but again he did not die possibly due to the fact that the cyanide may have been burned out of the food when it was cooked. His attackers then shot Rasputin with a pistol and he fell to the ground. When the shooter went over to Rasputin to see if he was dead, Rasputin lunged at him and started strangling him. The other attackers then started firing at Rasputin and shot him 3 more times. He fell to the ground but still did not die. So they beat him severely and then wrapped him in a sheet and threw him into an icy river where he did die. An autopsy was performed and evidence now exists that one of his attackers was a British secret agent who almost certainly delivered a final fatal shot to Rasputin’s forehead. The British wanted Rasputin dead because if Russia withdrew her troops from the Eastern front Germany would have had more troops to deploy against Britian on the Western front.

2. Boston Molasses Disaster

   

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   Also known as the Great Molasses Flood. In January of 1919 in Boston a large tank of molasses burst open and rapidly flooded several streets with a wall of molasses over 10 feet high and moving over 30 mph. People in the area were overwhelmed by this river of molasses and 21 people were killed, many of whom drowned in the molasses. Another 150 people were injured. Some of the dead bodies were not recovered for days and were so glazed over with the dried molasses they could not be recognized.

3. Martha Mansfield

   

   Martha Mansfield was a an actress in silent films. In 1923 she was on the set of the Civil War film The Warrens of Virginia when a fellow cast member flicked away a lit cigarette and it hit Mansfield’s costume causing it to burst into flames. Cast members tried desperately to put out the fire but Mansfeild suffered severe burns and died shortly after in the hospital.

4. Christine Chubbuck

   
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   Chubbuck was a morning talk show host in Florida. On July 15, 1974 she opened her show reading from a script and at the end of the script she said, “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first — attempted suicide.” Chubbuck then drew a handgun from under her seat and shot herself behind her right ear on live television. Many on the set thought it was a prank but it was not. Chubbuck was rushed to the hospital where she died 14 hours later.

5. Bando Mitsugoro VIII  

   

   Mitsugoro was a famous Kabuki actor in Japan. In 1975 at the age of 68 he went to a restaurant with friends and ordered four pufferfish (fugu) livers. The pufferfish is the second most toxic vertebrate in the world behind the Golden Poison Frog. The liver of the pufferfish is extremely toxic and the fugu chef did not want to serve four of them to Mitsugoro but the renowned Kubuki actor claimed to be immune to the poison and the fugu chef felt he could not say no to such a person. Mitsugoro ate the livers and died of paralysis from the poison 7 hours later. The fugu chef lost his license due to the incident.

6. Jeff Dailey

   
   Source (screenshot of Bezerk)

   In 1981, 19 year old Jeff Daily became what is believed to be the first person ever to die while playing a video game. Daily was playing the multi-directional shooter video Arcade game Bezerk and had just reached a score of 16,660 when he suffered a massive fatal heart attack.

7. Vic Morrow

   

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   Morrow was an actor and in 1982 while working on the set of the film Twilight Zone: The Movie was decapitated by a helicopter blade while shooting a scene. Two child actors also died in the accident. Morrow is the father of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.

For more see 12 Bizarre and Wacky Deaths and Inventors Who Died From Their Own Inventions.