TO KILL RASPUTIN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GRIGORI RA (English, Hardcover, ANDREW COOK)

Grigori Rasputin is probably one of the best known but least understood figures in the events that ultimately led to the downfall of the Russian Tsars some nine decades ago. His political role as the power behind the throne is obscured today, as it was then, by the fascination with his morality and private life. Andrew Cook’s re-investigation of Rasputin’s death reveals for the first time the real masterminds behind the murder of the ‘mad monk’. 

Why does the story of a peasant from a distant Siberian village becoming the all powerful favourite of the last Russian Tsar excite us more than almost any other episode in Russian history? Why are there more lies and concealment than truth in the story of his murder? Was this extraordinary man an evil demon who brought down the Royal family, or somebody who could have been its saviour. To Kill Rasputin finally provides the answers to many mysteries surrounding this pivotal moment in Russian history.

About the Author
ANDREW COOK worked for many years as a foreign affairs and defence specialist and the contacts he made enabled him to navigate and gain access to classified intelligence services archives. As well as carrying out extensive research in 

Russia , he is only the fifth historian to be given special permission under the 1992 ‘Waldegrave Initiative’ by the Cabinet Office to examine closed MI6 documents that will never be released. He was the historical consultant for the recent BBC Timewatch documentary on Rasputin, but the key discoveries came after the screening and appear for the first time in To Kill Rasputin. 

He is author of critically acclaimed Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly and M: MI5’s First Spymaster. He is a regular contributor on espionage history to The Guardian, the Times and History Today. He lives in Bredfordshire. 



The murder of Rasputin on the night of 16-17 December 1916 has always seemed extraordinary: first he was poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river by Russian aristocrats fearful of his influence on Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.