Grigory R. (Григорий Р. in Russian, sometimes marketed in the United States as Rasputin) is a Russian television eight-episode historical drama short series focusing on Grigory Rasputin, created by Ilya Tilkin and Eduard Volodarsky, directed by Andrei Malyukov.
After the 1917 February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government established a state commission to investigate the circumstances of Grigory Rasputin's death aiming at the vilification of his political activities, way of life and public presentation of his influence on the imperial family and its entourage, as that of an evil criminal.
At the center of the plot is (fictional) detective Heinrich Switten, to whom Chairman Kerensky asks to collect every possible information about the life of the starets, or "spiritual holy man", from his youth in the village of Pokrovskoye, through his rise to fame and power -excessive, in the eyes of many courtiers- by means of his natural gift in faith healing and foretelling, until that December 1916 night, in which Rasputin was assassinated.
Director Andrei Malyukov began to work on the film, after having secured Vladimir Mashkov as a protagonist.
[5] Vladimir Mashkov grew his hair for shooting, but his beard is artificial, made with special technology.