Grigory Rasputin, the 'Mad Monk' who was hard to kill

Born in a small village in Siberia in 1869, he first came to the attention of the Russian aristocracy in 1903 when he arrived in the imperial capital St. Petersburg and set himself up as a holy man who claimed to be blessed with supernatural healing powers.

When the Tsarina, Alexandra, became desperate to find a cure for her haemophiliac son Alexei she turned to Rasputin.

In the years that followed, the heavily bearded monk won her confidence and that of her husband Tsar Nicholas II.

His alleged success at easing Alexei's suffering led the royal couple to give him an official position at court and he became an influential adviser.

Though he professed to be deeply religious, he was famously promiscuous and a big drinker.

Married with three children and the father of an illegitimate child, he is reported to have slept with many Russian aristocrats in return for securing them access or favours from the royal couple.

Often accused of being part of a sect, he appears to have believed that salvation could only be achieved by at first sinning and then asking God's forgiveness which is how he justified his debauched behaviour.

He encouraged others to follow his example. His increasingly powerful influence at court won him powerful enemies and a group of conspirators decided to kill him on 16 December 1916. The group of nobles, which included Prince Felix Yusupov, lured him to a palace in St. Petersburg where they plied him with cyanide-laced cakes and red wine. Some of the details of his murder are disputed but it is claimed that for some reason the poison had no effect on Rasputin.

The conspirators therefore opted to shoot him, pumping four bullets into him. But that too was apparently not enough to finish him off so they reportedly clubbed him into submission, wrapped him in a carpet, and tossed him into the icy waters of the River Neva.

It was later claimed that he managed to break free of his bonds inside the rolled up carpet but was not strong enough to fend off death by drowning.

There are credible reports that British secret agents may have had a hand in his murder as London was alarmed by his apparent insistence that Russia should withdraw its troops from the First World War.

In a ghoulish and tasteless twist, a museum in St. Petersburg has displayed what it claims to be Rasputin's severed penis in a glass jar. Experts doubt it is the real thing however.

The "mad monk" was 47 when he finally breathed his last.