Rasputin's Shadow

Author's Note

There is so much research material on Rasputin out there, it was hard to know when to stop. Even better, a lot of it is firsthand. A huge trove of letters and diaries of many of the key players still exist. Most striking are those of the tsar and the tsarina: their letters and telegrams to each other, and their diaries, all of which have been carefully preserved, give us a clear and incredibly detailed insider’s look at their lives and their dealings with Rasputin. All the main players testified to the Extraordinary Commission in 1917, a few months after Rasputin’s death and after the tsar’s abdication. The monk Iliodor wrote a book about him from the comfort of his new home in America. Even his murderers published their memoirs long after fleeing Russia, although their versions of the events surrounding that infamous night have glaring, self-serving inconsistencies. Rasputin himself wrote-or, more likely, dictated, to Olga Lokhtina-several works, most notably “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer,” which was published after his death. All of which allowed me a phenomenally intimate look at what happened in those final turbulent years of the Romanov dynasty.

Remarkably, every event described in this book’s historical chapters actually happened-with one caveat: Misha and his discovery are, of course, my invention. Rasputin really did everything described in this book, and as far as I know, he achieved it without a shadow like Misha helping him out. Which is astounding. He did keep the tsarevich alive long enough for the young boy to face an executioner’s bullet three weeks short of his fourteenth birthday. He bedded countless aristocratic women, culled from the highest rungs of St. Petersburg society. His influence over the tsar in affairs of government was mind-boggling and contributed in no small amount to the fall of the monarchy and the onset of the revolution.

How did he do it? There’s little doubt that he was a remarkably brazen and cunning man who exploited the gullibility and superstition of those around him. In that respect, the tsarina was his prime dupe. Throw in a touch of hypnosis (which has been medically demonstrated to reduce the amount of clotting factor needed by hemophiliacs to stop bleeding) and a young heir to the throne who hovered close to death for most of his short life, and Rasputin’s bewildering rise to power is easier to understand.

As for entrainment, the scientific basis for Leo’s machine exists. Entrainment is real. The grid box and the zombie room are real, as is the huge grinder at Lefortovo Prison. The Yale scientist and his remote-controlled bull are real. In the spring of 2012, the Russian Defense Minister publicly announced that mind-bending “psychotronic” weapons that can turn people into zombies have been given the go-ahead by President Putin. The potential to induce and control different emotional states has been achieved by implanting electrodes into the brains of animals and, it is rumored, of humans too. What hasn’t been achieved-yet-is doing it wirelessly.

I wouldn’t want to bet against it becoming a reality in the not-too-distant future…

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are two very different sides to writing these books: one is uncompromisingly solitary, while the other is social and collaborative. I enjoy both-locking myself away with my characters and getting lost in their worlds; and bouncing ideas and plot threads off friends and colleagues along the way. Both sides feed each other, and I’m lucky to have a great bunch of people around me for the latter.

For this book, I’d particularly like to thank Jessica Horvath, Jemima Forrester, and Jon Wood for their inspired editorial guidance. I’d also like to thank my friends and agents old and new, Eugenie Furniss, Jay Mandel, Michael Carlisle, and Richard Pine.