... Alexander Palace. Understandably when dealing with such highly sensitive issues, many differing opinions exist as to Rasputin's influence have on Tsar Nicholas, Alexandra and the Romanov Empire itself. To a large extent these hinge on whether the preoccupation with Rasputin's personal characteristics and apparent influence over the Tsarina in particular, has led to an overestimation of his influence on the operation of policy and power within Imperial Russia. Was Rasputin's influence over the Russian royal family and thus Russian politics merely symptomatic of much deeper problems within a system that seemed increasingly unable to comprehend or manage wider social, economic and political trends within Russian society? Was Rasputin's influence merely a convenient way to attack the Tsar for his failure to address wider political concerns? And, ultimately, was Rasputin's violent death at the hands of members of the Russian aristocracy an indication of the how out of touch the Russian ...

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