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Before discussing the origin of the false myths, let me give here excerpts from the Wikipedia's article about Rasputin:

<<Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin; baptized on 22 January [O. S. 10 January] 1869 – murdered on 30 December [O. S. 17 December] 1916 [1]) was a Russian peasant, mystic and private adviser to the Romanovs, who became an influential figure in the later years of tsar Nicholas. This was especially the case after August 1915[2] when the Emperor left Petrograd for Stavka at the front, leaving his wife Alexandra Feodorovna to act in his place. Some people—then and now—believe that Rasputin's personal influence over the Tsarina became so great that it was he who ordered the destinies of Imperial Russia, while she compelled her weak husband to fulfill them. [3]

Rasputin was neither a monk nor a saint; he never belonged to any order or religious sect. [4] He was considered a strannik ("pilgrim"), wandering from cloister to cloister. He was obsessed by religion[5] and impressed many people with his knowledge and ability to explain the Bible in an uncomplicated way. [6][7][8][9] It was widely believed that Rasputin had a gift for curing bodily ailments.

Rasputin was regarded as a starets ("elder") by his followers, who also believed him to be a psychic and faith healer. [11] His critics referred to him by the same term in an ironic fashion. He never considered himself to be a starets. [12] Rasputin spoke an almost incomprehensible Siberian dialect[13] and never preached or spoke in public. [14] The Tsarina saw Rasputin as a "Man of God" and clairvoyant,[13] but his enemies saw him as a debauched religious charlatan and a lecher. Brian Moynahan describes him as "a complex figure, intelligent, ambitious, idle, generous to a fault, spiritual, and – utterly– amoral. "[15] He was an unusual mix, a muzhik, prophet and at the end of his life a party-goer. [16]

Rasputin began as a symptom of the royal family's isolation from the public; he ended by deepening that isolation to an unbridgeable chasm. [17] While his influence and role may have been exaggerated, historians agree that his presence played a significant part in the increasing unpopularity of the Tsar and his wife immediately prior to the February Revolution of 1917. [18] The conspirators, who did not accept a peasant being so close to the Imperial couple, had hoped that Rasputin's removal would cause the Tsarina to retreat from political activities. They also believed that Rasputin was an agent of Germany, but he was more of a pacifist, opposed to all wars. [19]