ASSASSINATED MONK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 141, 16 June 1928, Page 9

ASSASSINATED MONK.

Rasputin's Daughter Claims Damages. | ALLiitiED Ift U RDERERS SUED. (Australian Press Assn. —United Service.) PARIS, June 15. Madame Doris Solovieff, a daughter of the late notorious Russian monk Rasputin, who exercised an evil influence in Court circles in St. Petersburg before and during the war, is, with the ad\ice of her counsel, M. Maurice Garcon, a noted barrister, claiming in the Civil Courts £200,000 damages against Prince Felix Yussupoff and the (Jrand Duke Vladimir Pavlovicli. for the assassination of her father in 1916. Madame Solovieff contends that the responsibility of Prince Yussupoff and Grand Duke Pavlovicli is proved by Prince Yussopoff's recent book, in which he describes how Russia was rid of Rasputin. She is bringing her suit in France because the parties are resident there.

Gregory Efimovitch Rasputin, Russian monk and Court favourite, was born ia 1871 in the village of Pokrovskoe, Siberia. He was the son ot a poor peasant, whose disorderly behaviour resulted in his being given the name of Rasputin, meaning "debauchee."' He married in 1895 a well-to-do girl, and they had two daughters and a son. In 1904 Rasputin began to teach religion, and obtained a reputation as a holy man. In 1907 he was presented at Court, and produced a great impression on the Czar and Czarina, and he eventually gained a dominating position at Court, especially in the last two yeara of the Czar's reign. On December 15, 1916, Rasputin was invited by the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavolieh, Prince Yussupoff, and M. Purichkevich to a supper at tha Prince's palace. There he was shot dead after an attempt to poison him had failed. His body was thrown under the ice of a canal.