Maria Rasputin , circus animal trainer in United States Born 1898-03-27 in Russia dead 1977-09-27 in United States . Maria Rasputin (born Matryona Grigorievna Rasputina, Russian: Матрёна Григорьевна Распутина; 27 March 1898 – 27 September 1977) was the daughter of Grigori Rasputin and his wife Praskovya Fyodorovna Dubrovina. In 1929, she worked at Busch Circus, where she had to dance to "the tragedy of my father's life and death, and be brought face-to-face on the stage with actors who were impersonating him and his murderers. Every time I have to confront my father on the stage a pang of poignant memory shoots through my Heart, and I could break down and weep." In 1932, Rasputin, My Father was published. In January 1933, she performed in Cirque d'hiver with a pony act. In December 1934 Maria was in London. In 1935 she found work in the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, based in Peru, Indiana. The circus toured America and Maria acted one season as a lion tamer, with Maria billed as "the daughter of the famous mad monk whose feats in Russia astonished the world." She was mauled by a bear in May 1935 but stayed with the circus until it reached Miami, Florida, where she quit before it ceased operations. In 1938, her two daughters were denied entry to the US.[47] Maria was ordered to leave the country within 90 days, but then, in March 1940, she married Gregory Bernadsky, a childhood friend and former White Russian Army officer, in Miami.[48] In 1946, they divorced and she became a U.S. citizen. In 1947 the youngest of her daughters married in Paris to Gideon Walrave Boissevain (1897–1985), minister plenipotentiary in Greece, Chile, Israel, then Dutch ambassador to Cuba. During the last years of her life, she lived in Los Angeles, living on Social Security benefits. Her home was in Silver Lake, an area of Los Angeles with Russian émigrés. Maria is buried in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery.