Comparative historical case study: the character political assassinations of Catherine the great and Grigorii Rasputin

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The study of character attacks and character assassinations are ever timely in global politics. Today, as in all ages before, attacks against the individual as a means or influencing the public discussion remain a common tool of those seeking power. Russian history is no exception to this rule and has a strong tradition of character attacks and character assassinations. By having a deeper understanding of how and why attacks and assassinations were used, it is hoped that the eras of Tsarina Catherine the Great and Grigorii Rasputin can be understood in a new light.

Defining "character attacks", versus "character assassination", versus "negative advertising", versus "comparative advertising", is not a simple endeavor to undertake. A careful review of existent political science research on the subject shows that there are no universal norms in defining these terms and that the range of opinions on the matter vary considerably. As we will see, the use of terms is very loose.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary, defines character assassination as being either "The act of saying false things about a person usually in order to make the public stop liking or trusting that person," or "the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person."1 Whereas Cambridge Dictionary states that it is, "an intentional attempt to spoil the reputation of a person by criticizing them severely, especially unfairly, in the newspapers or on television".

The definition according to US Legal is that, "Character Assassination refers to the slandering or vicious personal verbal attack on a person with the intention of destroying or damaging that person's reputation or confidence. In other words, it is malicious verbal assaults designed to damage or tarnish the reputation of a person. Once done, these acts are often difficult to reverse or rectify. Therefore, it is likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for historical figures and important personalities, for many centuries after their death.

"It involves a deliberate attempt to destroy a person's reputation, especially by criticizing them in an unfair and dishonest way when they are not present. It can also involve exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person, double speak, spreading of rumors, innuendo or deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the subject's morals, integrity, and reputation. It is a form of defamation".

Though character assassination is not commonly studied in political science, we will used the term as applied, we will use the definition offered by Shiraev and Smart in Character Assassination Throughout the Ages, that a character assassination attempt is the "Serious and direct accusations, claims, charges, statements, or other information that is based on certain known facts." It continues that the outcome is one where the Attacks should result in an immanent moral damage and unavoidable political defeat of the opponent".

Grigorii Rasputin. The illiterate Grigorii Efimovich Rasputin was born on January 10, 1869 in rural Pokrovskoe, Siberia, Russia, to a poor peasant family. Though he lacked actual ordination as a monk or priest in the Orthodox Church, his rise to international infamy began when Tsar Nikolai's wife, Tsarina Alexandra, thought that their son, Prince Alexei, who suffered from the blood disease hemophilia, was saved by the monk following a near fatal falling incident. As a result of his "miraculous" recovery, the Tsarina became a devoted and fervent follower of Rasputin's, which in turn led to his becoming more involved in the royal household [1]. Given the rising unpopularity of the Romanovs, Rasputin's reputation for depravity led many to view him as a fundamental threat to the monarchy and of the Empire. This perceived threat lead to his eventual physical assassination at the hands of conspirators during the winter of 1916 [2, 3].

As the Independent writes about Rasputin, "When it comes to lechery, he is in the premier division, a beast among beasts. Stories of Rasputin's drunken and orgiastic exploits lodge themselves in the imagination with a vividness that outshines even the most squalid rumor to waft out of the White House." [4] Grigorii Rasputin, also known as the "mad monk," [5] was a frequent target of character attacks that have been continuously passed on for the past century. These attacks were initiated by those in Russian society who sought to destroy Rasputin's reputation in order to lessen his ability to influence the royals. The nature of the attacks varied, but his supposed immorality, debauchery and blasphemy were among the most common points used by those who wished to destroy him. Like most character attacks, once a rumor is repeated enough that people believe it; it becomes easier to pin further such rumors on the accused - even with less evidence.

However, before his days in the Tsar's Court, the attacks against Rasputin had already begun. In 1907 the first of the attacks against Rasputin began in rural Siberia with accusations of supporting a heretical sect, and of having kissed and bathed with some of his female followers. An Orthodox tribunal investigated and found that the accusations lacked merit, and so Rasputin was spared any punishment [6]. Sputnik News reports that, "The case was fabricated so clumsily that it 'works' only against its own authors. No wonder the documents were never published. Nothing but allusions were made to its existence."

Why would someone be motivated to attack Rasputin? According to the same Sputnik article, the local members of the clergy had an axe to grind with the Rasputin's unorthodox Orthodox preaching. Specifically, the argument was "...of a most principled nature. Rasputin believed that once someone had become a man of the church, that person had to give all of his soul to serving God. Rasputin vehemently renounced a purely mechanical, formal service of God. So exacting an attitude couldn't but set against him those clergymen, who tended to regard the Church as no more than an organization providing them with employment and a steady income" [6].

Given that the rumors about Rasputin began as a result not of his actual actions and misdeeds, but as a means to destroy his reputation because of his differing theological views, these attacks are clearly an attempt at character assassination, as the intent of the rumor was purely to defame the target as a means of "killing the messenger" of the differing theological viewpoints. Unfortunately for Rasputin, rumors about him only became more elaborate and painful.

In fact, by the time that Rasputin had made his way out of Siberia, and into the Russian capital of St Petersburg, there was evidence to suggest that impersonators were used to go in public, cause a ruckus, and cause the royal family embarrassment. The objective of this was to so soil Rasputin's image and reputation, that the royal family would be forced to cut ties with him. The most famous of these incidences was the one at the Yar Restaurant where Rasputin, in a drunken excitement, exposed his penis to the wealthy and powerful patrons [7].

Was this really Rasputin? Sputnik News casts doubt on this incident and others like it by observing that, "Rasputin look-alikes were used as a trump-card in this smear- campaign." Though this initially sounds too fantastic to be true, it is supported by the official records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Imperial Russia, which was the then domestic security apparatus of the government, which records that the meeting occurred in the city of Kharkov, Ukraine, Russian Empire in 1912. The misbehavior of the look-alikes was consistent with the rumors that were circulating of what Rasputin was engaging in. Reportedly, "the hired actors organized drunken brawls in restaurants and taverns, called on prostitutes, bragged about their proximity to the Royal family, etc." [6].

Whether impersonators were involved is debatable, but what is not debatable is that, like with many other leaders in history, images were also used to defame him. There were pictures showing the sinister monk caressing the breast of the Tsarina, [8] implying that their relationship was more than that of spiritual discernment and direction. Different images played on the idea that Rasputin acted as a decision maker to whose command the Tsar danced [9], another showed Rasputin between the Tsar and Tsarina with the quote "three heads think better than one" [10]. The attack was that Rasputin's influence was far greater than simply that of a spiritual adviser, and in fact was calling the shots.

The worst of the attacks - which were very similar to the attacks made against Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna - was that Rasputin was in cahoots with the enemies of Russia and was causing the country to lose in the First World War. Allegations about Rasputin varied from that he was a member of the radical Austrian nationalist group, the Green Hand, to the fact that he was causing the Romanian losses. All of the rumors dictated that Rasputin was a "double agent", serving the interests of the foreign enemy.

John Scale, a British intelligence officer working Petrograd at the time, wrote that the "German intrigue was becoming more intense daily. Enemy agents were busy whispering of peace and hinting how to get it by creating disorder, rioting, etc. Things looked very black. Romania was collapsing, and Russia herself seemed weakening. The failure in communications, the shortness of foods, the sinister influence which seemed to be clogging the war machine, Rasputin the drunken debaucher influencing Russia's policy, what was to the be the end of it all?" [11].

These attacks, regarding Rasputin's apparent influence over the royal family in pushing them to pursue military and national strategies that were detrimental to the war effort, were the most damaging. Though being a debauched charlatan was bad - much worse was that he was misappropriating his position of trust to steer the Tsar to catastrophe during the World War I and in face of increasing protests throughout the Empire. The idea that Rasputin was a German spy, essentially a charge of treason, has remained a topic of debate today [12]. In all, this would have been the capstone to destroying Rasputin's credibility in the public's eye.

The rumors of his disloyalty were so widespread and successful, that the British military began to believe in them. Spartacus Educational cites a number of British sources to collaborate this "Michael Smith, the author of Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (2010), has argued that MI6 officers based in Russia, were involved in developing a plot to assassinate Rasputin. Giles Milton, argues in Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot (2013), that the original idea came from Samuel Hoare, the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service in Petrograd. Hoare believed that Rasputin was sabotaging the Russian war effort and if he was murdered 'the country would be freed from the sinister influence that was striking down its natural leaders and endangering the success of its armies in the field.' Richard Cullen, the author of Rasputin: The Role of Britain's Secret Service in his Torture and Murder (2010), claims that agents Oswald Rayner, John Scale and Stephen Alley were involved in the plot" [11].

In the end, the rumors of Rasputin's treasonous disloyalty and negative influence on the policies of the royal family cost him his life. Rasputin was assassinated in Yusupov Palace on the Moika River, in St Petersburg on December 30, 1916 [13]. Sources who participated in the assassination, chief among them Prince Felix Yusupov - the man who supposedly pulled the trigger to kill Rasputin - tend to indicate that though Rasputin was famously poisoned, then shot, then tossed into a hole in the ice of the Neva River [14]. Others indicate that he was tortured and questioned to the point that they "squeezed his testicles flat". Either way, Rasputin's death was guaranteed by the successful character assassination against him.

Tsarina Catherine the Great. Attacks against Catherine the Great were common during and after her reign. Many of these attacks suggest that the Empress was oversexed and engaged in atypical behaviors that contrasted greatly to the conservative morals of Orthodox Russia. Undoubtedly, Catherine assisted in creating these rumors through her rather licentious behavior with a wide number of escorts throughout her 34-year reign.

Catherine, a lesser German princess, was brought to Russia to marry and become the consort of Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, later Peter III [16]. Catherine faced attacks that she was foreign. Wisely, Catherine was able to fight back these rumors by fluently learning Russian and converting to the Orthodox faith from Lutheranism a rumor began that their only son, Paul I, was in fact the offspring of an illicit affair that the Empress had engaged in with Sergei Saltykov. This rumor was fanned by Catherine herself whose memoirs leave the reader with the impression that she thought that Saltykov may have been the boy's father [17]. Some argue that she spread this rumor more as a means of spiting her son and husband, who she clearly did not like, rather than as a true question as to who her son's father was [18]. Things were not helped by the fact that her husband also doubted the legitimacy of their children. It is now commonly believed that Catherine, during her marriage, engaged in at least three extramarital affairs, [19] and kept several lovers after her husband's murder [20]. Where the stories of Catherine's sexual appetite turn from rumors of self-abandonment to lust, to those of character assassination, is when her behavior was characterized as non-heterosexual.

Following her death in 1796, rumors began that she died while trying to copulate with a stallion. Such an incredible sexual aberration falls well outside of the norms of sexual behavior and, depending on the intent of the source of the rumor, could likely be an attempt at character assassination. Though it is not precisely clear the source of the rumor, it is reported that French Republicans, displeased with her support for the monarchy during the Revolution, began the rumor as a means to discredit her. Others have argued that Poles, upset by her annexation of large sections of their country, spread the rumors following her death [21].

As Psychology Today writes "the horse myth probably emerged from the French upper class as a way to mar her legend." The author quotes Michael Farquhar as having said "She was a woman in power with a promiscuous sex life... Her contemporaries were never comfortable with that." Psychology continues with the analysis that "The salaciousness of a rumor often helps it survive. People repeat shocking stories if only to see whether they can be confirmed and the very act of repetition adds credibility to the story. Since bestiality has remained socially unacceptable, the myth about the ruler and her horse never lost its power to outrage. Many rumors survive on shock value combined with a nugget of truth" [22].

The article aptly notes that rumors combined with an element of truth can be very effective. Given Catherine's self-created notoriety as a voracious lover of men during her lifetime, it was easier for her opponents, the French Republicans, or the Polish, to paint her as having died a death less than becoming of a monarch - soiling her reputation as a monarch worthy of the honorific title "the Great". If the rumor really did originate with her foreign opponents, then it would certainly be a case of attempted assassination of her character, and an excellent example of how when relations deteriorate between countries, a sleazy rumor can make incredible inroads and forever defame the leader.

An attack that Catherine suffered, but to a lesser extent, was due to her "foreignness" as she was born in Germany [23, p. 74-76].

Another example from Catherine's life of a "cheap shot" type of character attack [24], also regarding how she supposedly "really" died, is less dramatic, but also embarrassing to her memory. Though historians state that Catherine the Great died from a stroke [25] at the age of 67, after collapsing in her bedroom, [26, p. 325] myths began to arise that she died whilst sitting on the commode in her bedroom chamber. This rumors likely origin is in the interpretation of her servant, Zakar Zotov's, account of having discovered her in the "closet", which some have interpreted as being a euphemism for the "water closet", or "toilet" [27]. To imagine that "the Great" leader of the Russian Empire died from a stroke while "straining on the toilet" [21], is a good deal less glorious than death on the battlefield.

The great Russian poet, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, wrote that, "Наказ писала, флоты жгла, / И умерла, садять на судно". Literally translated as "The order was written, the fleet was torched / and she died whilst sitting on the ship." Colloquially, the word "судно" also means "bedpan", rendering the translation that "she died while on the toilet" [28, p. 499]. Given Pushkin's tremendous global popularity, this only further perpetuated the cheap shot which had started years before.

The actual cheap shots against her continues with the rumor that not only had she died while on the toilet, but that she had broken the commode with her great weight and the shattered porcelain had cut her to death [29]. The story that Catherine was so obese that she broke the commode was repeated by her contemporary enemies who were quick to diminish her historical memory as best as they could [30].

It seems most probable, that all of Catherine's death rumors were either cheap shots, or simply rumors, in terms of the death on the toilet, the story of death by horse was almost certainly an attempted character assassination. The truth is, as the History Channel write, that "Though her enemies would have hoped for a scandalous end, the simple truth is that Catherine suffered a stroke and died quietly in her bed the following day" [16].

Contrasts between the character attacks: The Tsar and the Monk. In summary, there are many similarities between the attacks against Tsarina Catherine the Great and Grigorii Rasputin. Many of these attacks followed along the traditional lines of character attacks: sex and foreignness. There are also some major differences: The attacks against Rasputin lead to him being mortally assassinated and being remembered as "the mad monk;" Catherine, on the other hand, lived into old age and now is known as Catherine "the Great." So what is the difference between the two attacks? Why does one effectively lead to someone's reputation being destroyed, while another does not?

Let's start with the allegations of a sexual nature. The attacks against Rasputin included all types of heterosexual behavior: From sleeping with his followers, to bedding the Tsarina. Why does this have a particularly clear shock value? As Rasputin was supposed to be an Orthodox man of God, he should have been living a life of moderation, purity and devotion. If he was engaging in licentious behavior and sleeping with scores of women - or promising them a neo-religious experience by doing so - it is in contradiction with what people would expect from the monk. Moreover, importantly, it invalidates his role as a religious leader - how can he possibly be giving sound moral advice to the royals if he is a depraved pervert?

Continuing in that vein, if we accept that he is a man of sewer depravity, is it such a large leap to believe that he is also defiling the Tsarina and giving her poor, misinformed advice that hurts the war effort of Russia? If someone has already accepted that he is a man without morals, it is not a huge leap to then believe that he is moreover also a traitor - if he betrays his vows, why not betray his country? The road to a successful character attack, as earlier mentioned, is that it has seeds of truth that are first accepted, then built upon in order to destroy the target of the attack. political rasputin empress

The attacks against the Tsarina are also shocking - especially in regards to the horse. But what is the purpose of this? What is the worst that can come of an attack against the Tsarina? The reality is that little can come of it. The attacks can support Republicans attacks against the monarchy as being out of touch with common people and being a dubious institution. It would also help all of her internal enemies to see her name made "Mud." Especially given that the attacks against her tended to appear after her death, it seems most probable that they wished to tarnish her memory.

That being said, the difference between the sexual scandals of the two was the intended outcome and the realistic outcome. The intended income in both was to tarnish them: But for Rasputin, a monk, this would defame him to the point of no longer being able to serve as a monk. For the Tsarina it would have simply been embarrassing. Likewise, the actual outcome was similar: The Queen was perhaps gossiped about, but she was able to continue with her work. In the case of Rasputin, it created a stir in the royal palace and it caused his employers to worry about his misbehavior.

In terms of foreignness, it is also a classic means to attack: Where do the loyalties lie, to one country or the other? For the Tsarina, this took the level of gossip and nonseriousness. The Russian empire expanded and increased during her rule. The German born Queen was able to lead the country to new heights - whereas the government which was advised by Rasputin suffered greatly and eventually, disgracefully, quit the War under the Bolshevik leadership which had swept the Tsar from power.

The outcome in terms of attacks of foreignness between the two was also far different: The foreignness of the Tsarina may have been funny, in terms of her linguistic abilities or her personality, but she remained the queen who was actively expanding Russia. Cheap shots at her did not succeed. Mocking was the worst she faced because she was "not really Russian." On the other hand, attacks against Rasputin were so successful that the Russian elites decided he needed to be murdered. True to this, the attack against his character was wholly successful and was a character assassination - which led to his eventual bodily assassination.

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