A few saw him as a healer. Many thought him to be dangerous. Almost all agreed he had terrible manners and foul odor. He ate with his hands and had flecks of food in his beard, making Russian aristocrats cringe.
For Grigori Rasputin, rumors made up most of his reputation. As the spiritual advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, Rasputin had close access to the royal family. Because of this, many members of the aristocracy blamed Rasputin for the tsar’s decaying power.
