Rasputin - Please assist for US High School History Project

Once again I am coming to the source on behalf of one of my daughters! Younger daughter has been assigned a "World War I - Teach a Topic" and her topic is "Rasputin."

Below are the highlights of her instructions:

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Your presentation to the class must be 2-3 minutes long No less than two minutes a no more than three minutes. Your presentation should explain the importance of the topic to world history. remember to answer the "W" questions: Who was involved in the topic? When did the topic take pace? Where did the topic take place? What are some important details that describe the topic? Why is the topic important? How did the topic impact world history?

Do not read directly from an online source or from the textbook, you will receive a zero.

You must have some type of visual ad t assist in your presentation.

You must hand in one multiple choice question related to your topic for the purpose of assessing our classmates' learning. Preferably the question of how the topic impacted world history.

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So my history experts, please assist us with your knowledge on Rasputin!! As always, we would love to get your prospective.

Hi rockzmom, long time no see! :)

So, as usual, there's a nice wikipedia article Grigori Rasputin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, but in a nutshell, he was a controversial figure who was close to the Russian Royal family and was generally despised by the public. That caused enormous emotional tension between the public and the Russian Royalty. The tension ultimately played in favour of the fall of the Russian monarchy and the establishment of the Republic in March 1917.

Rasputin was a visionary, healer, and tsar's advisor with a modicum of paranormal abilities. He made a lot of predictions, including the fall of the monarchy after his death, some of which actually come true.

You can read a succinct account of his life and activity in a classical Collin Willson’s book “The Occult. A history” .The PDF of this book in English, borrowed from a Russian site, can be found here DepositFiles. ( Your daughter might want to read part 2, chapter 8 )
To make her story fun, she can also add some of the predictions that are not necessarily true, but often ascribed to Rasputin, like American landing on the Moon. He was a peasant and his idiolect is not an epitome of diplomacy, sorry.))

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Однако есть и такое свидетельство (речь идет о ноябре 1913 г.): "Учитель смотрел на Луну. Сказал: "Чудно, вроде люди глупые, а вишь – захотели и сделали". Я спросила его: "Кто, Григорий?". А он сказал, что американцы гулять по Луне будут, срамной флаг свой оставят и улетят. А я спросила: "Да как же так? Там нет воздуха". "А они в ящиках, и петушатся, что нас обскакали. Нас-то! Но ты не боись – их ранее туда подпустимся и первыми будем. Юрка будет". А я спросила: "Где? На Луне? И что за Юрка? Не князь ли Изотцев Юрий Петрович?" А он вдруг рассердился: "Дура родовая! Не на Луне, курица, а в небе! И не князь этот твой". А после мы долго молились вместе Господу". Напомним, что А.Вырубова умерла в 1964 г., когда американская программа освоения Луны "Аполлон" даже еще не начиналась.

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Предсказания Григория

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Originally Posted by Crocodile

Hi rockzmom, long time no see!

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Yes, it as been a while! It is good to "see" you and diogen are still here and quick to help out as always.

Diogen, I got the book for my daughter, thank you.

It is a sad commentary to note that when I mentioned Rasputin to older daughter first thing she said was "Anastasia!"

In the Dark of the Night - Anastasia 1080p - YouTube

Ah, that's not that bad really, it could have been way worse Boney M - Rasputin - YouTube :D

Or Even Worse!
http://lurkmo.re/%D0%A0%D0%B0%D1%81%...82%D0%B8%D0%BD

Гулять - так гулять!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2z0nrsQ8o

Dr.BaldHead! I can just see her using that video as her visual aid!!!

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Originally Posted by Crocodile

Ah, that's not that bad really, it could have been way worse Boney M - Rasputin - YouTube :D

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How does this have 32,868,767 views???

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Однако есть и такое свидетельство (речь идет о ноябре 1913 г.): "Учитель смотрел на Луну.

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As a help for rockzmom and her daughter, here's my translation of this story:

[One could argue that Anna Vyrubova only invented Rasputin's "prophecy" about WWII after the war had already happened.]

However, there's also this testimony (the context refers to November 1913):

"The Teacher [Rasputin] was looking at the Moon. He said: "It's strange -- people are stupid, you know, but when they want something, they shall do it."

I asked him: "Who, Grigorii?"

And he said that the Americans would walk on the Moon, leave their disgraceful flag, and fly away. And I asked: "How is that? There's no air there."

He said, "They'll be in crates, and people here will be outraged that they surpassed us. US! But don't you fear -- we'll get there before them, and we'll be the first. It'll be Yuri."

And I asked: "First where? On the Moon? And which Yuri? You don't mean Duke Yuri Petrovich Izottsev?"
And he suddenly got angry: "You must've been born stupid! Not on the Moon, you silly hen, but first in the heavens! And not that duke of yours."

And after that we spent a long time praying to the Lord together."

Let's recall that Anna Vyrubova died in 1964, when the American "Apollo" program to be first on the Moon had not yet begun. [sic]

P.S. Strictly speaking, the "Apollo" program had been conceived on paper as early as 1960, and huge amounts of money and manpower began flowing into the project not long after Kennedy's public announcement in May 1961. So it's possible that Vyrubova made this claim after she'd heard that the US government was heavily committed to the Moon mission. However, it's also true that she died even before the Americans had manage to orbit the Moon (Apollo 8, in 1968), let alone actually landed and walked on the lunar surface.

P.P.S. Grammar question: Why are the verbs perfective past in вишь – захотели и сделали? I assume that a future action is actually intended here, as in Поехали! ("Let's go!"). Or is there some different rule at work?

Another question: What's the best translation of петушиться?

My FIRST guess was that it must have something to do with prison homosexuality! ;-)

But that obviously makes no sense in this context, so my second guess was "to strut proudly like a rooster" (referring to the boastful Americans). However, after Googling, I think that maybe "to have a hissy-fit" might be the intended meaning here (referring to Soviets who felt bad about losing the Moon race).

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

How does this have 32,868,767 views???

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Because it totally kicks ass?

I mean, it's hard to top a lyric like "Russia's greatest love machine."

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Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Another question: What's the best translation of петушиться?

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I think you got it right, it means "behave like a rooster". Obviously, the usage could be stretched that way or another depending on the context. In my day-to-day vocabulary that word is used in a sense of acting in a proactively aggresive manner; more specifically, being disproportionally aggresive so that nobody will even remotely contemplate to mess around with them. Could it be applied in the exact same sense to the situation? Maybe, if you stretch the context by insisting that the entire space program for both superpowers was primarily concerned with the development of the reliable delivery method of the WMD into each other territory dwarfing the scientific purposes. So, each advancement in space meant potentially more military power, or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

My FIRST guess was that it must have something to do with prison homosexuality! ;-)

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It's been said the accidential usage of that word in prison would most likely mean some grave consequences to the speaker. :)

Петушки распетушились,
Но подраться не решились.
Если очень петушиться,
Можно перышек лишиться.
Если перышек лишиться,
Нечем будет петушиться.

(В. Д. Берестов, 1966)

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P.P.S. Grammar question: Why are the verbs perfective past in вишь – захотели и сделали? I assume that a future action is actually intended here, as in Поехали! ("Let's go!"). Or is there some different rule at work?

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Rasputin saw the future at the moment with the same certitude as if it were the completed fact of the past. He just soared in his visions to the realms that are above and beyond time and space. ))

Her project is due on Thursday and we discussed it last night. I will go over with her the translation Throbert has kindly provided.

She is going to take the approach that most likely many f not all of her classmates do know of him from the Disney Movie and how history and Disney have blown out of proportion or exaggerated the truth about him. Like the moon landing and other items. This way she feels it will not be so boring and her classmates will pay more attention to the presentation.

I will circle back and let you know her grade.

Thanks again for the assistance.

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Originally Posted by Crocodile

I think you got it right, it means "behave like a rooster". Obviously, the usage could be stretched that way or another depending on the context. In my day-to-day vocabulary that word is used in a sense of acting in a proactively aggresive manner; more specifically, being disproportionally aggressive so that nobody will even remotely contemplate to mess around with them.

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Okay, so it's maybe a bit stronger than "to act cocky" in English, though the metaphor is the same.

P.S. I would also suggest "to pound/thump one's chest" (i.e., in the manner of a male gorilla) as a colloquial-sounding equivalent:

Американцы петушатся, что нас обскакали = "The Americans are pounding / thumping their chests over the fact that they'd leapt ahead of us."

However, don't confuse "thump one's chest" (expressing manliness, pride, arrogance) with "beat one's breast" (expressing guilt and humility, as when Catholics say "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa")

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

Her project is due on Thursday and we discussed it last night. I will go over with her the translation Throbert has kindly provided.

She is going to take the approach that most likely many f not all of her classmates do know of him from the Disney Movie and how history and Disney have blown out of proportion or exaggerated the truth about him. Like the moon landing and other items. This way she feels it will not be so boring and her classmates will pay more attention to the presentation.

I will circle back and let you know her grade.

Thanks again for the assistance.

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It’s okay to present jokes and anecdotes, however, if her topic is indeed closely connected with the WWI events, as you mentioned in the first post, your daughter should first say at list a few words about Rasputin’s attitude toward the war to prevent any "off-topic accusations”, IMHO.

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Rasputin spoke out against Russia going to war with Germany. He begged the Tsar to do everything in his power to avoid war.[107] From the hospital Rasputin sent quite a few telegrams to the court expressing his fears on the future of the country. "If Russia goes to war, it will be the end of the monarchy, of the Romanovs and of Russian institutions."

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Grigori Rasputin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your daughter could also add that, although Rasputin consciously did all his best for the benefit of the tsar’s family, his poor drinking habits and serial binges undermined the reputation of the Royal family, and the military spirit of the army lowered as a result; and these were the grinds to the mill of Lenin and his revolutionary cohorts.

Then, she could move on to Throbert’s translation of the “supernatural staff”, if she still had enough time left at her disposal.

PS. In case the public opinion is strongly biased against Rasputin and the teacher shares it, I suggest not fighting with windmills and deliver what is expected, otherwise grade A is very questionable.))

No matter how kind Rasputin was, he unwillingly became the living symbol of the destruction of Russian Empire's political system. The emperor granted with an absolute power over the country listened to no one but his wife and a mad monk rumoured to be a warlock and subsequently lost his war, his country, his family and his life. No wonder people had thoughts about some kind of curse.

Yet another "opinion" :)
English: Nostalgia Chick - Anastasia - YouTube
Russian: Nostalgia Chick - 03 - Anastasia [rus] - YouTube