When the Great War began, political parties in Russia, as in the other belligerent nations, pledged unity for the sake of the war effort. But the war went badly, the civilian economy suffered, and corruption and incompetence seemed to be the order of the day in the Russian government. The Imperial couple’s well-known but perplexing attachment to the peasant mystic Grigori Rasputin seemed only to be making matters worse, until at last political tensions reached the boiling point.
Listen:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
Russian Easter Festival Overture
Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888. Public domain.
Performed by The Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing War Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
I have seen a suggested naturalistic explanation for Rasputin’s positive effect on Prince Alexei: the first thing he would order is that the Prince immediately stop all medications given by the “legitimate” physicians. Well, one thing they were giving him was aspirin, then a brand-new painkiller and wonder drug. No one knew then that it was also a blood-thinner, and thus the _last_ thing you’d want to give a hemophiliac–
Funny you should mention that. See episode 172. 🙂