In 1916, on this day the heads of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Prince Yusupov, Vladimir Purishkevich, Captain Suhotine and Stanislaus de Lazovert were placed on spikes outside the Yusopov's Moika Palace where the five nobleman had sought to "end the career of the blackest devil in Russian history", Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.

Cursed MuzhikIt was not the first time that an attempt had been made on the master's life. Because On June 29, 1914, Rasputin was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva, a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor. Iliodor, who once was a friend of Rasputin but had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!". After intensive surgery, however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body".

"I have killed the antichrist!"On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa (pictured) had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich, lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace. The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men.

Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and strangled him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and after binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of the his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, to wreck his bloody vengeance on the conspirators.

Rasputin would finally meet his nemesis in the form of the Graf Von Dracula, the vampire who dominated the Imperial German Court in a similar manner, as described by the historian Kim Newman in "Anno Dracula".