During early Mardi Gras celebrations hundreds of years ago, masks were a way for their wearers to escape class constraints and social demands. Mask wearers could mingle with people of all different classes and could be whomever they desired, at least for a few days.
Rasputin (song) - Composition.  1 Rasputin references the hope held by Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna that Grigori Rasputin would heal her hemophiliac son, Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. It also claims that Rasputin was Alexandra's paramour: Ra Ra Rasputin: lover of the Russian queen â there was a cat that really was gone.
The accepted version of Rasputin's death states that he was poisoned, then shot, and finally drowned in the River Nevka by five disaffected aristocrats, led by Prince Felix Yusupov. The conspirators were said to be concerned about Rasputin's influence on Tsar Nicholas II, and his wife Tsarina Alexandra. Over the years historians have questioned Yusupov's version of events but failed to come up with credible alternative theories.