About Rasputin

"Rasputin" is a song by Germany-based pop and Euro disco group Boney M. It was released on 28 August 1978 as the second single from their third studio album Nightflight to Venus (1978). Written by the group's creator Frank Farian, along with George Reyam and Fred Jay, it is a song about Grigori Rasputin, a friend and advisor of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family during the early 20th century. The song describes Rasputin as a playboy, mystical healer, and political manipulator.

The core of the song tells of Rasputin's rise to prominence in the court of Nicholas II, referencing the hope held by Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna that Grigori Rasputin would heal her hemophiliac son, Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, and as such his appointment as Alexei's personal healer. Rasputin gained tremendous influence from this position, particularly with Alexandra. This is also retold in the song: "For the queen he was no wheeler dealer". It also claims that Rasputin was Alexandra's paramour: "Ra Ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen, there was a cat that really was gone". This was a widespread rumour in Rasputin's time, with which his political enemies intended to discredit him. It stemmed from Rasputin's closeness to the Tsarina. "Rasputin" starts to retell contemporary accounts of his powerful personality: "He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow...""He could preach the bible like a preacher, full of ecstasy and fire..." The song depicts Rasputin as being extremely popular with the Russian elite, something that is historically supported: "to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear". The song also depicts Rasputin as being sexually promiscuous, another contemporary rumour: "..But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze." "..though she'd heard the things he'd done...""Russia's greatest love machine". The song claims that Rasputin's political power overshadowed that of the Tsar himself in "all affairs of state", which was one of the main arguments of his contemporary rivals. The bridge of the song states that when his purported sexual escapades and political acts became intolerable, "men of higher standing" plotted his downfall, although "the ladies begged" them not to. Although the song states "he was a brute", it claims that the ladies "just fell into his arms."