<b>Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin </b>(1869 &ndash; 1916) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of <b>Nicholas II</b>, the last emperor of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late Imperial Russia.<br /><br /><b>Princess Catherine Radziwill</b>&nbsp; (30 March 1858 &ndash; 12 May 1941) was a Polish-Russian aristocrat. Born in Russia into the Polish-Lithuanian House of Rzewuski, her maternal family was the Russian Dashkov-Vorontsov family. In 1873 she married the Polish-Lithuanian Prince Wilhelm Radziwill.<br />She was a prominent figure at the Imperial courts in Germany and Russia, but became involved in a series of scandals. She combined her love for the luxury of the courts, social life, gossip and intrigue with her literary talent and she wrote two dozen books on European royalty and the Russian court, including <b>Behind the Veil at the Russian Court</b> (1914) and her autobiography <b>It Really Happened</b> (1932).