Aryaman Lahoti

  

Volume 10 | Issue II | June 2026

St Mark’s School of Texas ’26

Texas, United States

  

Russian history has always intrigued me. Their delayed development and how long they stayed in a feudal society make their history read like the fantasy and sci-fi stories I love. So, when I came across Rasputin, a figure that seemed more mythical than corporeal, I was instantly hooked. But as I read deeper into this depraved man’s world, I found Iliodor, someone virtually nonexistent in English scholarship, but with a legacy arguably more impactful and more deranged than Rasputin’s, and one I desperately wanted to bring to light. Finding sources on Iliodor took a tremendous amount of time, and it taught me a lot about perseverance. I don’t speak any Russian, so working through their primary documents was strenuous but extremely rewarding. A lot of the sources I found also conflicted with each other, such as memoirs contradicting state records, accounts that praised him next to ones that demonized him, and learning to move past that and parse the truth taught me skills I still carry with me today. What fascinated me most was the scheming and fracturing inside the government that allowed Iliodor to thrive in his villainy. It taught me to look at our world differently, looking for the systems that are broken, not just the people they produce. Outside of history research, I enjoy doing community service aimed at fixing those kinds of fractured systems and quizbowl. I also enjoy playing tennis, spikeball, and basketball.