Rasputin's penis
4289419
220851805
2008-06-21T22:40:17Z
Mgiganteus1
808022
/* 1900s */ fixed plural form
{{merge|Grigori Rasputin|Talk:Rasputin's penis#Merger proposal|date=March 2008}}
When '''[[Grigori Rasputin]]''' was murdered in 1916, some claim he was also [[castrated]].<ref name=anotheramerica>[http://www.anotheramerica.org/missing_parts_2.htm Another America article on Rasputin]</ref> Since then, a number of people boasting to be in possession of his severed penis and testicles have come forth, although none of them have been able to come up with conclusive evidence.<ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref>
== History of the alleged remains ==
==== 1900s ====
Conservatives feared Rasputin’s significant and increasing influence on the tsar’s [[wife]], and so, on December 29, 1916, he was [[murder|murdered]].<ref name=historychannel>[http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=220347 History Channel Encyclopedia entry for Rasputin]</ref> Some accounts say that his killers also [[castration|castrated]] him <ref name=anotheramerica>[http://www.anotheramerica.org/missing_parts_2.htm Another America article on Rasputin]</ref>, although the official [[autopsy]] report claimed that his [[genitalia]] were left intact.<ref name=alternatehistory>[http://phenomena.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Alternate+History&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=&obj_id=1561 Phenomena: Alternate History article: "Unravelling the truth about Rasputin"]</ref>
According to some, a [[maid]] discovered the severed organ at Rasputin’s murder site, keeping it until somehow being acquired in the 1920s by a group of female Russian [[expatriate]]s living in [[Paris]].<ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref> The women worshiped the organ as a fertility [[charm]], storing it inside a wooden [[casket]].<ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref> Upon learning of the women, Rasputin's daughter, Marie, demanded that the item be returned to her.<ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref> She maintained custody of the object until her death in 1977.<ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref>
A man named Michael Augustine purchased the penis, along with a number of Marie Rasputin's other personal items, at the Santa Cruz Flea Market following Marie Rasputin's [[death]]. Augustine consigned the artifact to [[Bonhams]] [[auction]] house, but officials quickly realized that the item was not a penis, and was in fact a [[sea cucumber]]. <ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref> It is unclear if the sea creature was the same item worshiped by the aforementioned Russian women in the 1920s. Augustine, not being a penis aficionado, accepted Bonham's Penis Expert's conclusion that it was a sea cucumber. Bonham's auctioned the manuscripts, letters, photographs and the strange looking 'penis cucumber' from Marie Rasputin's estate.
==== 2000s ====
In 2004, Igor Knyazkin, the chief of the prostate research center of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, announced that he was opening a Russian museum of [[erotica]] in [[St. Petersburg, Russia]]. Among the exhibits, Knyazkin claims, is the 30cm (11.8 inch) long "preserved penis" of Grigory Rasputin <ref name=mosnews>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070517032931/http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/04/28/rasputin.shtml MosNews.com article: "Russian Museum to Exhibit Rasputin’s Penis"]</ref>, along with several of Rasputin's letters. <ref name=museumofhoaxes>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1162/ Museum of Hoaxes article: "Rasputin's Penis: Hoax or not?"]</ref> He stated that he purchased the items from a French collector of antiquities and artifacts for €6,600 (US $8,000). Knyazkin had said that merely viewing the supposed penis will cure males of [[impotence|impotency]]. <ref name=iol>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=29&art_id=qw1087042684705A141&set_id= IOL.com article on Rasputin]</ref> It is not known if the genitalia is indeed that of Rasputin.
==References==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*[http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/rasputins_penis.html The history of Rasputin's "wandering" penis]
*[http://www.st-petersburg-life.com/st-petersburg/rasputins-penis Rasputin's Penis: A Cock and Bull Story by St. Petersburg Life]
[[Category:Museums in Russia]]
[[Category:Famous body parts]]
[[fr:Pénis de Raspoutine]]