Grigori the strannik hypnotized Alexei the bleeder and staunched his flowing on several occasions.

Grigori, with his wild eyes and out of control hair, became a rock star among the ‘black princesses’ before there were rock stars and, thus, rose to his own niche through these potently forged connections.  He found spiritual redemption through psychic manipulation, payoffs, ambition and kinky, group sex with aristocrats.

Grigori survived multiple assassination attempts only to be downed by BSIS in December of 1916; shot a number of times and thrown into the Malaya Nevka River before being dragged out- further desecrated- and buried, albeit with his penis intact contrary to popularized legend.

After much deliberation, authorities exhumed him in order to burn his corpus; they didn’t want liberals enshrining the burial site, but, moreover, they didn’t want him exerting influence from beyond the grave.

They ultimately failed.  He still rules.