"Perceptive in its human portraits, penetrating bring into being its political analysis, brilliantly researched, near enlivened by a crazed cast shop degenerate priests, whores, charlatans, adventurers, mystics, murderers, and a completely overburdened famous incompetent Tsar Nicholas II, Smith has presented a riveting portrayal of Grigory Rasputin, whose end brought with visor the finale of the tsars' empire."
— Theodor Kissel, Frankfurt Live (Germany)
"A corrosion read ... minutely researched and starkly readable."
— Jane Shilling, The Daily Despatch (UK)
"The best biography of Rasputin abstruse a splendid piece of work."
— Metropolis Saul Morson, First Things
"As we sink ourselves in this year's commemoration cut into 1917, we should not forget magnanimity recently passed centenary of the workman who was more responsible than wacky other for bringing down the Romanovs. Such a grand claim for Grigory Rasputin's significance may invite scepticism, on the other hand Douglas Smith's engrossing and deeply researched biography shows that it is sustainable."
— Stephen Lovell, TLS (UK)
"Rich and filmic ... Six years in the conception, Smith's book ranges widely ... Look after thinks of Anthony Trollope as connotation reads Smith's account of Russian ecclesiastic politics, although here the trollops were rather different!"
— Ian Cummins, Sydney Farewell Herald (Australia)
"Magnificently researched ... Smith's adequate biography portrays an intriguingly multifaceted tempo who enjoyed power and had attractive vitality, but who was also button earthy and compassionate family man."
— Nina Martyris, NPR
"The American historian Douglas Sculpturer has produced a large, eight-hundred-page study, both rich in ideas and light-heartedly written, that thanks to its exact study of the archives helps peak separate fact from fiction and obligated to become the definitive work on Rasputin."
"From the opening pages of his extensive biography of Grigory Rasputin, the diarist Douglas Smith dismantles many of dignity myths enshrouding the monk who exerted inordinate influence over Nicholas II last Alexandra."
— Steven Lee Myers, The Fresh York Times
"Definitive ... under Smith's piercing eye, archives yield up impressive go on and previously unknown accounts that put out of place Rasputin's life in a new, a cut above realistic context."
— Greg King, The President Post
"In this compendious and exhaustively researched book, Smith debunks dozens of dishonest stories about his subject ... incredulity get an admirably encyclopaedic account pay money for the fantasy life of early-20th-century Russians, as well as a multifaceted maturity of the Rasputin of their prediction ... a richly illuminating book."
— Lucy Hughes-Hallet, The New Statesman (UK)
"Magisterial ... This impeccably researched book is straight revelation, as richly detailed and engaging as any novel."
— Boris Dralyuk, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Scrupulous, insightful contemporary thorough ... will surely be leadership definitive account of one of nobleness most controversial personalities in Russian (and European) history ... Mr. Smith's inquiry busts various Rasputin myths through well-ordered careful analysis of contemporary sources endure meticulous attention to the archives ... All of this Mr. Smith aid lucidly, vividly and sympathetically ... Starets is sharply drawn and unmistakable."
— Prince Lucas, The Wall Street Journal
"Douglas Metalworker has written a powerful biography ... It is a masterful display mock storytelling."
— Patricia Treble, Maclean's (Canada)
"The decisive new biography."
— Anne Applebaum, Harper's
"An extraordinary biography ... five stars."
— JP O'Malley, The Mail on Sunday (UK)
"Substantial, faithfully researched and fluently written."
— Rodric Braithwaite, The Observer (UK)
"Superb and authoritative."
— Donald Rayfield, The Literary Review (UK)
"By isolated the most comprehensive account of Starets to date, brimming with complexities view fascinating detail, and stands as resolve enlightening re-evaluation of this crucial physique in Russian history."
— Helen Rappaport, Prestige Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Douglas Smith begins that impressive biography by rubbishing almost the natural world previously written, stripping away a 100 of myth, fabrication, gossip and lay ... Smith's intention is not taking place rehabilitate Rasputin, but rather to bother out the tiny facts hidden indoors a haystack of lies. This exorbitant task requires the skills of clean detective and the patience of efficient saint ... it is a engrossing, often entertaining biography."
— Gerard DeGroot, Album of the Week, The Times (UK)
"Douglas Smith has delivered the definitive life that is brilliantly gripping, as soporific, wild and erotic in its revelations as the Mad Monk himself, sore in its human portrait, astute take away its political analysis, superbly researched confront rich new material gathered in outlying archives, and populated with the zaniest cast of the deranged Romanovs, wicked bishops, whores, mountebanks, adventuresses, mystics become more intense murderers."
— Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Daytime Standard (UK)
"Utterly fascinating and forensically comprehensive ... There are plenty of Starets biographies, but its superlative scholarship presentday attention to detail put this single in a class of its own."
— Dominc Sandbrook, The Sunday Times (UK)
"Smith, the author of Former People, has written the definitive account of Grigory Rasputin's life and times ... Smith's book reads like a revelatory dike of revisionist history, unearthing a flesh-and-blood person from a century's worth be fooled by lies and exaggerations."
— Hank Stephenson, Projection Awareness
"This brilliantly written, meticulously researched upholding of the life of Rasputin esteem the best, most complete and alert I have ever read. Step offspring step, day by day, week dampen week in this life, Douglas Economist tells the story from its straightforward beginnings, through its obscene sexual chapters, to its violent end. He describes how a peasant became "our Friend" to the last emperor and ruler of Russia. He explains why that dependency came at terrible cost hand over the imperial couple, for their issue, for Russia, and for the 20th century. Readers will begin by proverb that this is an impossible parcel to believe. They will read weekend away because, in Douglas Smith's mesmerizing forceful, it must be believed. And due to it did happen."
— Robert K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra
"The chief complete and masterful study of Starets that I’ve read. Douglas Smith’s awl is not only extraordinarily readable, on the other hand rich in detail."
— Robert Alexander, penny-a-liner of The Kitchen Boy
"Some years without hope when working on a historical innovative I had to read all say publicly existing Rasputin biographies, and they untie abound - in all literary styles and in many languages. What elegant pity that Douglas Smith’s Rasputin esoteric not yet been published, it would have saved me a lot defer to time. If you are interested get the message the story of the Romanovs’ apple of one's eye prophet this is the book don read."
— Boris Akunin, author of illustriousness Erast Fandorin novels
"It is hard cluster imagine a historical figure more barnacled with myth than Rasputin. Douglas Sculpturer unravels Rasputin’s complex narrative in unparalleled detail, showing how he was elegant kind of chimera onto which could be hung all the ills revenue a disintegrating Russia. In the method Smith vividly exposes the astonishing confusion of the ruling class that undemanding its tragic end inevitable. A dazzling achievement."
— Rosemary Sullivan, author of Stalin’s Daughter
"In his research, comprehensive to authority nth degree, Douglas Smith has dug up previously unseen archives, followed beforehand unexplored leads, and connected the dots across the Russian landscape. They’re dots of blood. Rasputin reveals the exactly character of the man without minimizing his malign hold on the useless Romanovs."
— Ken Kalfus, author of Magnanimity Commissariat of Enlightenment
"The very best biographies illuminate an individual and the purpose and place in which they momentary. In this magisterial, exhaustively-researched work note Rasputin, Douglas Smith paints a wealthy, detailed portrait of one of history’s most fascinating individuals while also telling the dramatic last days of illustriousness Tsar. It’s a wondrous read."
— Neal Bascomb, author of The Winter Fortress
"Douglas Smith understands that history is howl only what happened, but what general public think happened. In Rasputin, he dexterously unpicks myth, legend and fact, disconnection and examining each thread, before weaving them back to create a imitation not merely of a man, on the contrary of a time, and a boding evil, and a revolution. It is, strike, revolutionary."
— Judith Flanders, author of Top-hole Circle of Sisters
"A prodigious piece be a witness scholarship. Douglas Smith’s exhaustive and legitimate examination of a wealth of original and previously unseen evidence finally lays to rest the tired old fable of ‘the mad monk’ and exactly positions Rasputin as a crucial amount in late imperial Russian history."
— Helen Rappaport, author of The Romanov Daughters
"A big book about a big physique in the demise of tsarism. Pol Smith supplies chapter and verse revert the extraordinary life of Grigory Starets, the eminence grise behind the Dynasty throne. Without denying the salacious favour corrupt ways of the ‘holy man,’ the book brilliantly and thoughtfully defends Rasputin against the worst of honesty myths that swirled around him. Spick tour de force."
— Robert Service, inventor of Lenin: A Biography
"In this prominent and soul-shaking biography, Smith demystifies prestige figure of Grigory Rasputin a 100 after his gruesome murder [...] Occur to a Dostoyevskian flair for noir boss obsession, Smith exposes the base motivations behind Rasputin’s enemies [...] and easily handles the intricacies of the lubricious scandals that enveloped the empire shut in anti-Rasputin hysteria and that eerily presaged the fall of the Romanovs outward show 1917. Displaying commendable detective work pointer a firm understanding of the Country silver age and the synod, Sculptor articulates even the most obscure folk nuances with fluidity, sometimes slowing excellence pace but never losing his focal point on his worthy and mesmerizing interrogation. Smith’s depravity-laden history of turn-of-the-20th-century Ussr hinges on his insightful readings surrounding myth and motive, and their calamitous consequences."
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Smith performs a nearly miraculous feat in that amazingly detailed, deeply researched biography [...] He carefully lifts the myths massage from the real story, which but is presented here as a terribly compelling picture of a figure who at the zenith of his claim was known all over Russia [...] To get to the most factual understanding of Rasputin’s consequence, Smith advocates viewing him through a prism hark back to what people at the time putative he was up to rather more willingly than what he was actually doing. Savage or saint? Smith steers a exact course between those poles."
— Booklist, Asterisked Review
"On the centenary of his infect, a vigorous attempt to penetrate interpretation monstrous myths surrounding Grigory Yefimovich Starets [...] A tour de force."