View source for Grigori Rasputin

==Early life==
[[File:Village of Pokrovskoe on the Tura River.jpg|thumb|Pokrovskoye in 1912]]
[[File:Raspoutine et ses enfants.jpg|thumb|Rasputin with his children]]
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born a [[peasant]] in the small village of [[Pokrovskoye, Tyumen Oblast|Pokrovskoye]], along the [[Tura River]] in the [[Tobolsk Governorate]] (now [[Tyumen Oblast]]) in the [[Russian Empire]].{{sfn|Wilson|1964|pp=23–26}} According to official records, he was born on {{OldStyleDate|21 January|1869|9 January}} and [[infant baptism|christened]] the following day.{{sfn|Fuhrmann|2012|p=7}} He was named for [[St. Gregory of Nyssa]], whose feast was celebrated on 10 January.{{sfn|Smith|2016|p=14}}

There are few records of Rasputin's parents. His father, Yefim (1842–1916),{{sfn|Smith|2016|p=14}} was a peasant farmer and church elder who had been born in Pokrovskoye and married Rasputin's mother, Anna Parshukova (c. 1840 – 1906), in 1863. Yefim also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between [[Tobolsk]] and [[Tyumen]].{{sfn|Fuhrmann|2012|p=6}}{{sfn|Smith|2016|p=14}} The couple had seven other children, all of whom died in infancy and early childhood; there may have been a ninth child, Feodosiya. According to historian Joseph T. Fuhrmann, Rasputin was certainly close to Feodosiya and was [[godparent|godfather]] to her children, but "the records that have survived do not permit us to say more than that".{{sfn|Fuhrmann|2012|p=6}}

According to historian [[Douglas Smith (writer)|Douglas Smith]], Rasputin's youth and early adulthood are "a black hole about which we know almost nothing", though the lack of reliable sources and information did not stop others from fabricating stories about Rasputin's parents and his youth after his rise to prominence.{{sfn|Smith|2016|pp=14–15}} Historians agree, however, that like most [[Siberia]]n peasants, including his mother and father, Rasputin was not formally educated and remained illiterate well into his early adulthood.{{sfn|Smith|2016|p=14}}{{sfn|Fuhrmann|2012|p=9}} Local archival records suggest that he had a somewhat unruly youth—possibly involving drinking, small thefts and disrespect for local authorities—but contain no evidence of his being charged with [[horse theft|stealing horses]], [[blasphemy]] or bearing false witness, all major crimes later imputed to him as a young man.{{sfn|Smith|2016|pp=16–17}}

In 1886, Rasputin traveled to [[Abalak, Tyumen Oblast|Abalak]], some 250&nbsp;km east-northeast of Tyumen and 2,800&nbsp;km east of [[Moscow]], where he met a peasant girl named Praskovya Dubrovina. After a courtship of several months, they married in February 1887. Praskovya remained in Pokrovskoye throughout Rasputin's later travels and rise to prominence, and remained devoted to him until his death. The couple had seven children, though only three survived to adulthood: Dmitry (b. 1895), [[Maria Rasputin|Maria]] (b. 1898), and Varvara (b. 1900).{{sfn|Smith|2016|pp=17–18}}