Grigori Rasputin grew up in the small village of Pokrovskoye and led the unremarkable life of a Siberian peasant. Local records show that he was occasionally charged with minor offenses, such as excessive drinking and petty theft. As a peasant he received no formal education and was illiterate until early adulthood. At age 19, he married a local girl named Praskovya Dubrovina, and the couple had three children.
In 1897, Rasputin traveled to the St. Nicholas Monastery in Verkhoturye. Whatever prompted this spiritual pilgrimage is unclear — from avoiding legal punishment to experiencing a divine vision — but he returned a changed man. He spent the following years as a strannik, or pilgrim, wandering the country to visit various holy sites.
Rasputin soon made a name for himself wandering as far as Greece. During his travels, he developed unorthodox practices and amassed followers, mostly women. Despite his unkempt appearance, Rasputin was a charismatic man. As Simon Sebag Montefiore notes in his book The Romanovs, Rasputin was "utterly self-possessed" and his charm "rough and simple." Eventually, he caught the attention of senior members of the imperial Romanov family.

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