Titans of History

Introduced to the royal family in 1905, Rasputin eased the suffering of Tsarevich Alexei—the heir to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia who had been diagnosed with a hereditary bleeding disease, hemophilia. He swiftly became the confidant and personal adviser of Tsarina Alexandra (a German by birth), and when, in September 1915, Tsar Nicholas made himself commander-in-chief of the Russian armies following the outbreak of the First World War—spending much of his time at the front—fears grew that Rasputin was effectively running the country. Alexandra heeded Rasputin’s advice in sacking several ministers and appointing new ones—but ultimately authority lay with her and the tsar, who ratified all decisions and, indeed, had rebuffed Rasputin’s advice to stay out of the war.

Nicholas and Alexandra were actually inept, cruel, rigid and obtuse reactionaries. Nicholas, in a speech made in 1895, had deplored the “senseless dreams” of those seeking democracy, and had helped fund the murderous anti-Semitic Black Hundreds movement after crushing the 1905 Revolution. The country’s problems, then, were firmly down to the incompetence of the tsar and tsarina, but Rasputin provided a scapegoat.

Rasputin’s close relationship with the tsarina provoked rumors of sexual deviance at the Russian court led by the Mad Monk, and before long his position had become a national scandal. He came to symbolize the perceived corruption of the tsar’s rule—with stories widespread about Alexandra’s supposed lesbianism and Nicholas’ impotence. Finally, in December 1916, a high-level plot involving senior politicians, noblemen and members of the imperial family—desperate to safeguard the regime—succeeded in eliminating the cleric. Rasputin was poisoned, shot (twice), beaten and eventually dumped into the River Neva, where he finally drowned. His astonishing resistance to poison and bullets suggested to some the mysterious potency of his powers.

GANDHI

1869–1948

I know of no other man in our time, or indeed in recent history, who so convincingly demonstrated the power of the spirit over things material.

Sir Stafford Cripps, British Labour politician, speech at

the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference,

London (October 1, 1948)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the father of the Indian Nation, whose use of peaceful protest to achieve political independence has served as an inspiration for generations of political leaders seeking an end to oppression. The embodiment of man’s capacity for true humanity, Gandhi came to be known by the name of Mahatma, meaning Great Soul.

Gandhi never had a clearly defined role in Indian politics. But Indian independence was as much his achievement as it was of the politicians in the Indian National Congress. Gandhi’s leadership forged a national identity among the Indian people. The tools of his protests—boycotts and noncooperation—could be taken up by all. From spinning and weaving one’s own cloth in preference to buying British textiles, to 250-mile (400-km) mass marches protesting against monopolies, Gandhi’s methods of political involvement transcended the boundaries of age, gender, caste and religion.

No longer was political activism confined to the literate elite. Inspired by this small, frail figure dressed in homespun cloth, millions participated in the peaceful protests which reached their zenith in the Quit India campaign of 1942. As the British authorities arrested hundreds of thousands of protesters, it became apparent that their rule was increasingly untenable. Some contemporaries criticized Gandhi’s methods of protest as “passive”—incapable of achieving anything of real import. The achievement of Indian independence in 1947, and the triumph of countless civil rights movements since, proved them wrong.