- [birds singing] - [footsteps on gravel] Your visits are causing quite a stir.
Mm.
But I don’t care.
I need you here.
Unless you have other responsibilities? My family in Siberia.
I’ll make sure they’re looked after.
You are the only one that can protect Alexei.
Nothing else matters.
[crows cawing] [Dr de Orellana] The Romanovs don’t understand what is truly happening outside the palace walls, just how much anti-imperial sentiment is brewing out there.
[shouting] [gunfire] [screams] After Bloody Sunday, and the disastrous war with Japan, Russia is in open revolt.
[Montefiore] Nicholas shows himself to be bloody and absolutely merciless in suppressing the revolution, and something like 15,000 people are killed Fire! [gun shots] [Montefiore]with Nicholas encouraging every piece of cruelty.
[Dr de Orellana] There are parts of the country that the army has to literally reconquer by force of arms [shouting] killing thousands and thousands of innocent civilians.
[screaming] And Nicholas believes that Jews are one of the biggest problems in Russia, and that most Russian problems, including economic inflation and other challenges, are caused by Jewish conspiracies.
[Montefiore] Anti-semitism had been a growing fetish in the Romanov family during the nineteenth century, and Nicky embraced it totally.
But this brought him into conflict with his prime minister, Peter Stolypin, who was a great hope of the dynasty.
You can’t resign.
You ordered me to take this job, sir, you cannot order me to stay.
[quiet footsteps] What would it take to persuade you? Respect.
You ignored my plea to stop the violence in the streets.
And now I learn you are funding violent pogroms against the Jews.
I am doing what needs to be done.
They are being murdered in their hundreds.
[Nicolas] They are terrorists, they throw bombs.
Maybe if I was forced to live like them, I would throw bombs too.
Soldiers are mutinying in Krondstadt.
Workers are striking again in St.
Petersburg.
The peasants are in open revolt.
And this will happen again and again, we deal with the cause.
Which is? Russia needs to change.
It has changed.
I gave them the Duma! What more can I do? Reform.
Give the people what they want.
Food to eat, land to grow crops on education.
Father Grigori says the people will follow their Tsar forever.
You trust him? [Nicolas] He’s a peasant.
He understands them.
Sir, the people are changing.
If we do not change too, they will rise up again.
[Montefiore] Stolypin could be the man to save the Romanov dynasty.
He certainly had the talents to do so.
He had a vision of creating a strong monarchy based on a popular foundation.
But Nicholas and Stolypin agree that they must suppress the revolution ruthlessly, and that made his job as reformer-in-chief an extremely dangerous one.
We are making real progress in purging this terror.
They even have a nickname for the hangman’s noose "Stolypin’s Necktie".
Now, we must win the people back.
Fight just as hard for reform, for our children, for the next generation My daughter, Natalya.
I’m coming, I’m coming now.
The next generation are depending on us to fix - [man] Go, go.
- this blood-stained country.
[Stolypin] We cannot let - [man's voice] Ha! - [men yelling] [shouting] [bomb explodes] [Dr Antonova] The entire façade of Stolypin's dacha falls in this huge explosion and dozens of guests are killed.
Stolypin's own daughter is terribly injured.
The crackdown that follows is incredibly brutal.
[Stolypin] We must fight this anarchy, and create a great Russia! Reunited, reformed, and reborn! [roar of applause] So, for those who think they can paralyze this government, I have two words for you - [shouting] Not afraid! - [roar of applause] [Dr Antonova] Stolypin understands the problems and the scale of the problems facing Russia.
He has ideas for how to solve them.
But doesn't have Nicholas’ full backing, partly because Nicholas is listening to Rasputin in the background.
[Stolypin sighs] [groans faintly] [door rattles] What the [screaming] How dare how dare you? How dare you? How dare you? Who sent you? [chuckles] Who sent you here? [whispering] The Czar.
[Stolypin] No! You stay the hell away from my daughter.
Stay away.
Stolypin is horrified by the rise of Rasputin.
He realizes that Rasputin is developing some rather serious influence throughout the court and actual political power through his influence on the royal family.
I don’t understand.
Why risk a scandal in the royal household? Do some digging, will you? Quietly.
Find out what Rasputin wants.
[Dr Alexandrova] The fight between Stolypin and Rasputin is a battle for Nicholas’ soul.
And it’s also a battle for influence over his decision-making.
Remember, that at this point, the Czarevich’s disease is still secret.
Grigori, for centuries, the church has been there for the Romanov family.
So, that when the Czar finds comfort in someone new, we need to be sure that we’re all on the same page.
I'll listen to their prayers.
That’s all.
Bullshit! You will listen to me.
Or I will send you back to the nothing you came from.
Then we’ll see who the Czar truly relies on.
And I will tell you now, it’s not some filthy starets.
[Rasputin] Hm! Are you sure about that? Over the next five years, Rasputin establishes himself as a bit of a guru in Saint Petersburg’s high society, he’s a kind of priest, counselor, confidant.
[Dr Alexandrova] Most of his followers were women and they were absolutely captivated by his very straightforward personality, his hypnotic powers, his ability to understand them, to listen to them, to caress them.
[Rasputin inhales and exhales mysteriously] All the while, Empress Alexandra is becoming ever more dependent on him and particularly, on his care of their young son.
[pen scratches on paper] Words fail me, Father.
When I think of all you have done, the joy you bring to our family, I cannot begin to thank you.
Words are what I need most, Father.
Your words, of reason and calm.
And I need to hear them every single day.
[Rasputin laughs quietly] What a beautiful morning! Ah? [laughs] And what stunning, stunning ladies! Does your husband know you’re here, Mrs.
Semenov? Countess.
Mrs.
Kuznetsov is most excited about your proposal.
She’ll be along shortly.
Hello.
So, first in the queue.
[lady sighs] Rasputin’s sexual appetite is legendary.
He becomes this, kind of a leader of a sex cult, almost, in Petersburg during that time.
It started with headaches, er I just feel so tense all the time.
My doctor says it’s common hysteria.
[sighs] Well, there's nothing common about it.
But also nothing I can’t heal.
Please.
Then let God in.
Let him purge your soul.
Cleanse you.
[sighs] Use temptation.
Let his heat warm your bones and charge your blood.
[lady gasps] Hold yourself.
Feel God.
[lady gasps] And let his love enter you.
[lady groans] Push inside you.
[gasps] Fill you.
[lady gasps] Let the spirit move through you.
[lady gasping] [sighing in pleasure] [sighing in pleasure] I love you.
[lady sighs] You love God.
[sighing] Am I shameful? [Rasputin] No.
God never degrades.
He only purifies.
[Rasputin] God has moved in you.
[lady sighs] And he moves in me too.
I can feel him, can you feel him? [lady sighing] [sniffs] [groans in pleasure] [Dr Alexandrova] Once he moves through the society ladies in Petersburg, Rasputin is an extremely dangerous person for the prestige of the Romanov House.