The first seriously critical reconstruction of what happened in the last tsar's court and how it serendipitously came to involve a wandering, amateur monk. Originally a bulging, six-hundred page volume under the title "The Political Influence of Rasputin," this work was only seen by scholars digging through university archives. Literary qualities in its narrative approach led Kilcoyne to abridge, edit, and retitle the material for a broader publication, but a series of setbacks and lack of time delayed this indefinitely. The type-written drafts were kept in a briefcase, half-forgotten in storage until conversations led to its surfacing. The contents of this volume are a blend of these two remaining drafts, complete with full annotations and appendices.