But enough of the inspirational stuff about me, you’re here to read about history. And I think I picked quite an interesting event for this week.
My sophomore year of high school my Advanced Placement European History teacher put up a picture of Rasputin up in the front of the classroom to watch us. He is definitely a creepy looking man with a colorful history.
On December 30, 1916 Rasputin was murdered. Rasputin was born in Siberia to peasants. Early in life he became a self-proclaimed holy man. Rasputin won the favor of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra because he had the ability to stop the bleeding of their hemophiliac son.
Through this Rasputin gained a lot of trust from the royal family, especially Czarina Alexandra. When Czar Nicholas abdicated and left to fight in WWI, Rasputin was helping run the country with the Czarina.
Here is the interesting part of the story; at this point the noble class got annoyed at how much power Rasputin had. The only way to get rid of the problem was to kill Rasputin. He was first fed a large amount of poison, however he did not die. Next, the nobles shot Rasputin, twice to no avail. Finally they tied him up and dumped him in the river. Only then did the man die.
My history teacher also claimed (although this has no back checking) that Rasputin was a large man, over six feet tall, and also quite the lady’s man. Personally, I think he is not the most attractive person I’ve ever seen.
I’ve also been forgetting one main goal of my blog these last few months: to link the past to the present. Another thing I’ve heard about Rasputin was he claimed so long as he was alive nothing bad would happen to the Prince. After Rasputin’s death the noble class went a step further and brutally murdered the royal family.
In a strange overlapping of fate, on December 30, 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, was established under soviet leader Lenin. I hope I don’t need to spell out the rest of this history for you.
On another note, I wanted to conclude my blog for this year by highlighting some events I think will become history from this year.
First, the mining rescue from Chile: I did not follow the story too closely, but came on just in time to watch the last miner being rescued. This event was important because it was a positive news story; these men banded together and worked to survive. The country of Chile banded together to rescue the men with the aid of the world sending supplies and engineers. Many countries and people worked together to successfully rescue those men.
The death of the Georgian Lugar Nodar Kumaritashvili at the beginning of the Winter Olympics: This is one of the sad events from 2010.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: This oil spill only made me angrier and angrier the longer it went on. If a solution can be found to bring men home from the moon after a crisis with a space ship (Apollo 13) then surely some solution to this oil spill could have been found sooner than it was. Another bleak point of 2010, however something I hope we can learn from for the future.
The Icelandic Volcano Eruption: This caused most of European air travel to stand still, and disrupted air travel for over a month after the eruption.
Prince William and Kate’s engagement: speaks for itself.
So that is what I’ve brainstormed for this week. I am very excited for the New Year this year. I’m going out with some friends, and am quite certain I will have a blast ringing in the New Year. Make your resolutions, enjoy the holiday, and as I always finish my blogs: Happy History!
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