THE IDES OF APRIL — BONUS EPISODE
The Knife That Wouldn’t Stay Put: Rasputin, Provenance,
and the Seduction of Artifacts
What happens after an assassination?
Sometimes the story doesn’t end with the body—it migrates into objects.
In this bonus episode of The Ides of April, we examine the strange afterlife of a knife long
rumored to have killed Grigori Rasputin—a weapon with questionable provenance, a lucrative
auction history, and a surprising cameo in one of the most famous nonfiction books of the late
20th century.
This is a story not about what can be proven—but about what people want to believe.
🗡 IN THIS EPISODE
Cold Open — Objects That Want History
Some artifacts carry history. Others acquire it. We begin with the unsettling question of how
objects tied to violence become more powerful than the violence itself.
Chapter One — Did a Knife Even Kill Rasputin?
We return to the historical record: gunshots, blunt force trauma, drowning—and the notable
absence of reliable forensic evidence that a knife played a decisive role at all. Why blades appear
in later retellings, and what that says about how assassination stories evolve.
Chapter Two — Provenance by Repetition
How a weapon with no firm documentation becomes the knife through repetition, auction
language, and carefully hedged claims. A look at how phrases like “attributed to” and
“traditionally believed” manufacture legitimacy without proof.
Chapter Three — Savannah, Storytelling, and Midnight in the Garden of Good
and EvilThe Rasputin knife enters American pop culture through Savannah, Georgia, and the world of
curated eccentricity captured by John Berendt. Why the knife fits perfectly into a city—and a
book—where objects operate as social currency rather than evidence.
Chapter Four — Auctions, Aftermarkets, and the Price of Belief
What auction houses actually sell when they sell history. Why price can substitute for proof, how
ownership becomes evidence, and why assassination artifacts gain value even as certainty
evaporates.
Chapter Five — Why We Keep the Knife
A deeper look at why audiences crave singular objects: knives, bullets, relics. How they simplify
chaos, localize guilt, and allow us to believe violence can be contained—when history suggests
otherwise.
❄ CLOSING THOUGHT
Artifacts don’t prove history.
They negotiate with it.
The knife attributed to Rasputin’s death survives not because it’s verifiable—but because it’s
useful. It gives shape to uncertainty. It flatters belief. It offers closure history never promised.
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