Originally a Siberian peasant, he came to exert great influence over Tsar Nicholas II and his family during World War I by claiming miraculous powers to heal the heir to the throne, who suffered from haemophilia. His appropriation of ecclesiastical, political, and military powers, with the support of the Empress Alexandra during Nicholas’s absence, combined with a reputation for debauchery, steadily discredited the imperial family and was one of the main causes of the Russian Revolution. Rasputin was eventually assassinated by a group loyal to the tsar.