The event that lead to Rasputin’s demise and aided in the separation between Anastasia and her grandmother is very important to the story. Even though it is a very brief scene and hardly discussed. In a matter of thirty seconds, the evil Rasputin violently attempts to murder the eight year old duchess and manages to drown and lose his powers through the magic reliquary. Here is what built up to that moment:
After declaring execution on the entire Romanov family, ensuring no one can rule in the future, Rasputin is watching the troops and other angry civilians storming the Catherine palace. He watches with pleasure as all the children are executed alongside the other royal family members. His loyal sidekick, Bartok, notices the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas sneaking off with her grandmother the empress Marie . He calls out to Rasputin : “Master, she’s getting away!” He informs him of them running out of the servants quarters and headed for the bridge that covers the pond behind the castle gardens.
Rasputin thinks to himself how easy it shall be to end the girl himself, either using the reliquary or crushing her throat with his own two hands. The snow is falling hard and the wind is blowing into his face heavy making it increasingly difficult to see in the dark of the night. The castle behind them engulfed in flames as he hears them...
”Grandmama..” whimpers the girl. He looks over the side of the bridge and sees them hastily trying to cross the frozen water underneath, trying to also remain hidden.
“Keep up with me, darling” the empress assures her as they run along through the deep snow with caution. How foolish of them to think this route would be safe .
Rasputin snickers as he takes a giant leap off the bridge.
As he lands harshly on the thin ground he lets out an animalistic yell and becomes enthralled with the urge to kill her with his bare hand, throwing his reliquary aside without care. Anastasia screams as the man lands ontop of slightly grabbing her by the legs and ripping her away from the safety of her grandmothers hand. They fumble face down in the snow for a moment while Anastasia struggles to flip around to face her attacker as he manages to latch a set of bony fingers around her right ankle.
“Oh, no...Rasputin!” The empress screeches, almost as if it’s a cry for help from anyone who maybe within earshot, making her granddaughter feel more terrified. He viciously grabs on with his left hand, securing a tight grip along her foot which is inside a thin pink slipper drenched from being dragged in the snow and ice. The empress hurries to pull her away by the arms before the man grimaces in pleasure and begins tugging at the girl, thrashing her about by her leg on the thin icy pond.
“Let me go please!” Anastasia begs as his crushing grip becomes painful around her ankle. Her free leg helplessly flailing about, kicking snow and intertwining with his long black beard.
He laughs at her “You’ll never escape me, child!” Picking up one hand and bringing it higher up on her dragging her close and causing the first slight crack in the ice. “NEVER!!!”
Before this violent tug of war came to a tragic end, the ice surrounding Rasputin shattered completely, sending half of body straight into the freezing waters. Instantly he felt the pain of icy needles filling up his robe and getting heavier by the second. He tries keeping his right hand wrapped around the girls ankle whilst reaching for the reliquary but it’s of no use. He then begins to pull Anastasia down the hole with him but she kicks and twists her foot around in his wet hand.
He starts thrashing in the water and she screams as she feels the heel of her slipper splash. “LET ME GO!” she ordered one last time. She loosens his grip and feels his long nails nearly peel the slipper right off of her icy soaked foot. He swings at her feet one more time before the empress snatches her away from the hole in the ice.
Rasputin desperately claws at the ice, digging trying to find purchase. He screams for his sidekick ; “Bartok!” As the remainder of his body plunged into the water. He is up to his neck by the time the bat swoops over to him, landing near the reliquary which is of no use now.
Anastasia escapes from his deadly wrath this time , as they run towards the train station to safety the empress looks back to make sure the evil man has drown in a watery grave. All she sees remaining of him is a hand desperately reaching above the current before slowly disappearing..