Grigori Rasputin gained immense political power in the Russian Empire by convincing Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra that his mystical prayers could cure their son's hemophilia.

A closer look

Grigori Rasputin gained immense political power in the Russian Empire by convincing Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra that his mystical prayers could cure their son's hemophilia. Medical historians now suspect that Rasputin's primary miracle was simply telling the doctors to stop giving the boy aspirin, a new wonder drug that happens to be a blood thinner and was actively making the bleeding worse. The mad monk effectively became the most powerful mystic in Russian history just by utilizing basic common sense while surrounded by incompetent physicians. Naturally, the aristocracy rewarded his medical pragmatism by poisoning, shooting, and drowning him, proving that being the only sensible guy in a room of royals is a lethal career choice