Minister Sturmer and two "sister-disciples," young married women whose
names were Baroness Gliuski and Madame Pantuhine, well-known in
Petrograd society for their loose living, and who were helping the
plotters and receiving large sums from German sources for their
assistance. The "Father" had only an hour before returned from
Tsarskoe-Selo, where he had knelt at the bedside of the poor little
Tsarevitch and then performed a pretended miracle. The truth was that
Madame Vyrubova had administered to the boy in secret several doses of
that secret drug with which the mock-monk had provided her. In
consequence, he had become ill and his Imperial mother had once again
called Rasputin to "heal" him. This the fellow did, for Madame Vyrubova
withheld the dose, and within four hours of Rasputin placing his dirty
hands upon the poor boy's brow and uttering those cabalistic nine words
of jargon from one of the blasphemous prayers which the scoundrel had
written for use by the "sister-disciples," the heir had recovered. And
in that way, with his degenerate confederate, the rascal worked his
"miracles."
The four were seated around the monk's dining-table, smoking and
drinking, the two women ever and anon devotedly kissing the "saint's"
dirty hands, when his body-servant entered with a note for his master.
As Rasputin read it his face fell.
"Danger!" he gasped.
"What is it?" inquired the bearded Prime Minister eagerly, putting down
his glass of champagne untouched.
"Letchitzki! He is arrested!"
"Letchitzki!" echoed Boris Sturmer, who was in uniform, as he had been
to a diplomatic function at the United States Embassy that night. "This
is indeed serious for us! Why is he arrested? Who has dared to do
that?"
"Goutchkoff, Minister of Munitions, has ordered his arrest for
embezzlement--ninety thousand roubles!"
"Curse Goutchkoff!" cried Sturmer, starting up. "In that case, our
friend Protopopoff, as Minister of the Interior, is powerless to act in
his interest!"
"Is it really very serious?" asked the fair-haired young Baroness, who
was at that moment holding the "saint's" hand.
"Serious!" cried the uncouth Siberian peasant, who had so completely
hypnotised both the women. "Very. If his trial took place he would
certainly expose us! We cannot afford that. He has sent me this secret
message placing the onus of his release upon me, and I must secure it at
once. He has documents, letters I have written him. If they were
found, then the whole affair must become public property!"
"That must not be!" declared Sturmer. "At any moment Miliukoff, or that
young lawyer Kerensky, may get to know."
"Kerensky was again arrested yesterday at my orders for his speech in
the Duma," said Rasputin. "I agree. The prosecution of Letchitzki must
not proceed. It is far too dangerous."
"Is there anything I can do?" asked the pretty Baroness, one of the most
unscrupulous women in Russia.
"Yes," replied the monk. "You know the Minister Goutchkoff. Go to him
early to-morrow morning, and appeal on Letchitzki's behalf. Take with
you ninety thousand roubles which I will give you as soon as the banks
open. Pretend to the Minister that he is your lover, that he has
embezzled the money to pay for presents to yourself--then hand over the
sum missing."
"Excellent idea!" declared Sturmer. "You are always ingenious when
cornered, Gregory!"
"By that we shall clear the way for further action. We must both see
the Empress at once. It is not yet too late," Rasputin added, and the
merry quartette at once broke up, the "sister-disciples" to their own
homes, and the monk to drive to the Palace.
Both conspirators, so well-known, passed the sentries unchallenged, and
traversing the long corridors to the private apartments, went by the
gigantic Cossack on duty at the end, and through the big swing-doors to
the luxurious wing of the great Palace.
It was already long past midnight, and the only person they could find
was the Tsar's eldest daughter, the Grand Duchess Olga, who had with the
eldest of her sisters entered Rasputin's "sisterhood" a year before.
Every one, including the servants, had retired. The Princess, who was
reading an English novel in her own little sitting-room, appeared
surprised to see the "Holy Father" at that hour, but took from him an
urgent message to the Empress.
Ten minutes later the Tsaritza, in a dainty lace boudoir-cap and rich
silk kimono, entered the room where the pair of scoundrels awaited her.
When alone, Rasputin revealed the fact of Letchitzki's arrest, adding:
"Thou canst realise the great danger to us all. If that man is brought
before the Court believing that we have not endeavoured to save him, he
will, no doubt, reveal and produce certain letters I have sent to him.
Our plans will then become public, and Russia will rise and crush us!
At present they do not suspect thee of any pro-German leanings. Thou
art the great and patriotic Tsaritza. But if this prosecution proceeds,
then assuredly will the truth become known!"
"But, Holy Father, what can I do?" asked the weak hysterical woman,
alarmed and distracted.
"Thou must telegraph at once to thy husband to order the prosecution to
be dropped," said the crafty scoundrel, standing in that erect attitude
he was so fond of assuming, with one hand upon his breast and the other
behind his back.
"I will do all that you wish," was her eager response, and she sat down
at once to write the message to the Tsar who, on that night, was with
his gallant soldiers at the front.
"Paul Letchitzki, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions, has been
arrested for embezzlement of public funds," she wrote. "It is highly
necessary, for our peace, that the prosecution shall be instantly
stopped. Every moment's delay means danger. I will explain when you
return. Telegraph your order for his immediate release and the end of
all proceedings against him. I await your acknowledgment.--Alec."
Then, having read the telegram, of which both men approved, she gave
Rasputin her golden bangle from her wrist. From it was suspended the
tiny master-key of the escritoire in her boudoir.
"Will you, my Holy Father, fetch me my private cipher-book?" she asked
the mock-monk, at the same time bending and kissing his hand.
The fellow knew where the little book was kept in such privacy, and in a
few moments he had brought it. Then Sturmer at once sat down and put
the message into cipher, afterwards taking it himself to the clerk in
the telegraph room on the other side of the Palace, for transmission to
the Emperor.
At ten o'clock next morning a reply in code was handed to the Empress.
When, with the aid of her little book, she de-coded it, she read:
"I cannot understand how the prosecution of a thief of whose name I am
ignorant can affect us adversely. I have, however, at your desire
ordered his release and the suppression of all proceedings.--Nikki."
To this, the Tsaritza, after she had sent a copy of the reassuring
despatch to Rasputin, replied:
"I thank you for your kind generosity. How noble of you! Accused was
an innocent victim of his enemies, and our action shows that you are
open and just. Our Father and myself anxiously await your return.--
Alec." The moment Rasputin received the message from the hands of the
trusted Cossack, Ivan Khanoff, the personal guardian of the young
Tsarevitch, whom the Empress trusted with all her private
correspondence, he telegraphed to Boris Sturmer at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, telling him of the order of the Tsar.
And both laughed triumphantly at each other over the telephone. Yet
both certainly had had a very narrow escape of exposure, and for the
first time the Tsaritza saw the handwriting on the wall.
CHAPTER FIVE.
RASPUTIN'S SECRET ORDERS FROM BERLIN.
Some pages of Rasputin's _dossier_ concern his intimate friendship with
the Imperial family, and more especially with the Tsar's daughters, whom
the Empress herself had placed beneath his "tuition" and influence.
It seems that the monk Helidor--who because of his patriotism fell out
of favour when Rasputin commenced to perform his conjuring tricks, which
the Imperial Court believed to be miracles--still retained his
friendship with the Grand Duchess Olga, and the governess of the
Imperial children, the honest and straightforward Madame Tutcheva.
To Helidor--who afterwards revealed all he knew to the Revolutionary
Party--the young Grand Duchess confessed her love for a certain very
handsome officer, Nicholas Loutkievitch, of the Imperial Guard. She saw
him often in the vicinity of the Palace, and also when she went to
church, and he used to smile at her.
"Holy Father," she said one clay to Helidor, "what can I do? I love
him. But alas! love is forbidden to me--for I am an Imperial princess.
It is my torment."
Helidor had tried to console her by saying that she was young, and that
she would love many times before she found the man who was to be her
husband. It was surely not strange that the handsome young Grand
Duchess should be attracted by a handsome man, for after all, even
Imperial princesses are human.
Helidor, who belonged to the Pravoslavny Church, under Bishop Teofan,
saw Rasputin a few days later and incidentally mentioned the youthful
infatuation of the young Princess.
"Oh! I have already cured all that!" said the scoundrel with a laugh.
"Her infatuation has been dispelled. I have cast the devil out of her."
Then Rasputin boastingly disclosed to Helidor certain things which left
no doubt in the latter's mind as to the true state of affairs existing
at Tsarskoe-Selo, or the truth of what Madame Tutcheff had alleged.
Indeed, among the filed pages of the _dossier_ which deal with this
particular incident, is a letter which I venture here to reproduce.
Rasputin, with all his mujik's shrewdness, preserved many letters
written to him by women of all grades, hoping that when cast out of the
Imperial circle he could use them for purposes of blackmail. Here is
one of them:
"Palace of Peterhof.
"March 23rd, 1916.
"Holy Father,--Dear true friend, we are all desolate without you. When
are you returning from Pokrovsky? You promised to be here on the third,
yet we have had no word from you. Dear true friend and father, how is
Matroysha (Rasputin's peasant wife)--and the children? Give my love to
them. Tatiana and I are sending them some things by the courier to-day.
Each time we go to Anna's (Madame Vyrubova) all is but blank despair.
We miss our sweet and helpful reunions, and long always for your return.
You, my holy Father, are my inestimable friend. I no longer think of
Nicholas, but of you alone, and of our holy religion. My mother is
desolate without you. Pray for me. I kiss your dear hands. Your
loving daughter, Olga."
I copy this from the great mass of papers before me--the documentary
evidence of the tragic story of the downfall of the great Imperial House
of Romanoff--in order that the reader may be able to form some slight
idea of the marvellous, almost incredible grip which Germany had upon
the Tsar's family, his household and his nation through the medium of
the verminous peasant who had declared himself a Heaven-sent apostle of
God.
The moral atmosphere of the Court was shocking. Rasputin, chief agent
of the Kaiser, was posing, just as the Kaiser himself posed, as a
God-fearing, prayerful man sent by Divine-right as a deliverer. The
monk's mission was, however, to deliver Russia into the hands of
Germany.
The next pages of the _dossier_ contain advice notes of German funds
paid to the "saint" through the most unsuspicious channels.
As instance of these I copy the following dates and extracts, the actual
letters of advice themselves being of a pretended business character and
of no importance:
April 6th.--Payment to His Excellency Boris Sturmer by Jules Wick,
Morskaya 57, advocate, sum due from the estates of the late Baroness
Nikeleuko, of Doubno.--78,600 roubles.
April 18th.--Payment made to Gregory Rasputin by Nicholas Pokotilo.
Address Select Hotel, Ligovskaya 44, Petrograd, representatives of
Messrs. Solovoioff, of Odessa.--62,460 roubles.
June 1st.--Payment to His Excellency D.A. Protopopoff made for rent of
lands at Vyazma, by Alexander Koltchak, agent of the estate of Prince
Tchekmareff, less 15 per cent, commission to Messrs. Montero and
Company, of Kieff;--21,229 roubles.
June 3rd.--Payment to Vera Zoueff, dancer at Luna Park, by G. Merteus,
Nevsky 81, Petrograd.--13,000 roubles. (The woman who passed as a
Russian was one, Bertha Riehl, a German dancer, and a secret agent of
Berlin.)
June 17th.--Payment to Sophie Tatistcheff (who had married Baron
Roukhloff, one of the Tsar's secretaries who had control of his
Majesty's private correspondence), by Safonov's Bank, in settlement of
an insurance claim for property destroyed by fire at Poltava.
I have copied these in their order of sequence, but the items number
over one hundred, and reveal payments of huge sums of German secret
service money to Rasputin and his friends, thus forming a most
illuminating disclosure as to the manner in which Russia was rapidly
being undermined.
With such dark forces at work in the very heart of the Empire, it is
indeed marvellous that General Brusiloff could have effected his
superhuman offensive between Pripet and the Roumanian frontier. He
started with his four armies early in June, 1916, and by the middle of
August had captured 7,757 officers, 350,845 men and 405 guns. Berlin
became seriously alarmed at such a situation. All Rasputin's plotting
with Sturmer, Count Fredericks, Protopopoff, Countess Ignatieff, Madame
Vyrubova, and a dozen other less prominent but equally importunate
officials, together with all the steady stream of German marks flowing
into Petrograd could not stem the Russian tide on the German and
Austrian front's. The Russian "steam-roller" seemed really progressing.
The Kaiser grew seriously alarmed. At the instigation of Count von
Wedel, his right-hand in espionage and unscrupulous propaganda, a secret
message was sent to Rasputin--a message which he preserved among his
other papers. It runs as follows, and is in the German cipher of the
Koniggratzer-strasse of which the mock-monk kept a de-cipher in his
interesting safe. Hence it has been available:
"F.G. 2,734--22.
"Memorandum from `Number 70,' August 29th, 1916.
"It is deemed of extreme urgency that the offensive of the Pripet should
at once cease; and be turned into a victory for the Central Powers as
promised us in your despatch of July 1st. You are not keeping faith
with us! What is wrong? S. (Sturmer, the Prime Minister) is inciting
the Russians to victory in his speeches.
"His triumphant telegrams to Asquith must cease. They only serve to
encourage the Allies. This advance must not continue. Further, the
munition factories at Vologda and Bologoye have not yet been destroyed
as we ordered. We know that K. (a clock-maker named Kartzoff who blew
up the explosive works at Viborg in which 400 lives were lost), who did
such good work in that direction, is arrested and shot, together with
the woman R. (Mdlle. Raevesky, whose father was in the Ministry of the
Interior under Protopopoff). We note that you gave information to the
police concerning both persons, because they became lovers and were
likely to open their mouths and thus become dangerous to us.
"_Secret Instructions_:--That to Nicholas Meder be entrusted the task of
destroying the Vologda and Bologoye works, and that Madame Fleischer,
who lives in Volkovo, be appointed as his assistant--each to receive six
thousand roubles for their services.
"As your efforts to prevent the offensive in the Pripet region have
failed up to the present, it is ordered that General Brusiloff be
removed by the means already employed in other enemy countries. Send a
trustworthy messenger to Doctor Klouieff, living in the Vozkresenskaya,
in Kazan, to ask for `a tube.' He will know. The contents of the tube
introduced into any drink will produce tetanus--with a rapid end.
Klouieff is German, and may be entirely trusted. Brusiloff has a
body-servant named Ivan, Sawvitch who is a friend of Boris Koltchak, a
soldier in the 117th Infantry Regiment of Muisk. Koltchak, who has been
in our service for five years, is to be ordered and facilities rendered
him to visit his friend Sawvitch at General Headquarters, and to
introduce the contents of the tube into Brusiloff's food or drink. For
this service you are ordered to pay in secret twenty-five thousand
roubles upon its completion. The man Sawvitch is in love with the
sister of Koltchak, a fact which will ease certain difficulties. Be
careful, however, of Marya Ustryaloff, who is jealous of the woman in
question.
"General Korniloff may be removed by the accidental explosion of a
hand-grenade, in the same manner in which General Zhukovsky was removed
in March last at Pultusk. This service could be entrusted to the
soldier Paul Krizhitsky, of the 17th Grenadiers of Moscow, who is a
despatch-rider and constantly at the General Headquarters. He should
examine the bomb--a pine-apple one, in preference, and release the pin
by accident. For this service you can pay in secret up to eighteen
thousand roubles.
"Further, it is urgent that you should induce the Emperor at once to
order the release of the men Polenov and Levitsky, and the woman Erich,
who were arrested in the Hotel Brosi at Vitebsk. Their papers, if
found, must be restored to them. The documents are probably stored in
the strong rooms of either the Ootchotny Bank, in the Hevsky, or at
Lampe's. So get hold of them, as they contain facts incriminating S.
(Sturmer) and V (Madame Vyrubova). It is of most urgent importance that
the prosecution in question be dismissed, and further, that those who
instigated it should be degraded in pursuance of our policy. For this
service you will be granted a generous extra payment. S.--70." The
signature, scribbled in blue ink upon these remarkable instructions, is
that of the notorious Herr Steinhauer, the Kaiser's chief spy and
controller of the whole secret ramifications of Imperial Germany
throughout the civilised world. I venture to publish it in these pages
in order to show the devilish cunning of Germany, and their frantic
efforts, by any underground and dastardly means, to stem the tide of war
which threatened to overwhelm them.
In consequence of these instructions Rasputin immediately set to work to
execute the wicked command of His Imperial Master in Berlin.
On the day following that secret message being delivered into his hands
by a woman dressed as a peasant, as, descending from his carriage, he
entered a house in the Nevski, he walked into the Emperor's private
study and, placing his hand across his breast in that mock-pious
attitude he so often assumed, he said:
"Friend! Thou hast always been held by thy people to be a just and
honest ruler; but in Vitebsk those who act in thy Imperial name are
acting illegally and persecuting two poor men and a woman with motives
of revenge. God has placed His holy protecting hand upon our dear
Russia, and has given victory unto our gallant Brusiloff. But if
injustice be done in thy Imperial name then the Divine Providence will
most assuredly withdraw protection from us."
"What is this, Holy Father?" asked the Emperor in great surprise.
"At Vitebsk two men, Polenov and Levitsky, together with a woman called
Erich, three patriotic Russians who have, been engaged in Red Cross
work--have, because of the ill-will of the Governor Wauthier, been
apprehended, and false charges instituted against them."
"Of what nature?"
"Of communicating with the enemy--a vague charge which to-day may be
made against even the most patriotic," replied the monk, the "Holy
Father" of the Empress, standing in that same attitude he had at first
assumed. "From the Holy Father of the monastery at Vitebsk I have
received a confidential, and urgent report that the Governor Wauthier,
an ill-living official, has instituted these false charges in order to
conceal his own disgraceful misdeeds, which the woman Erich has
threatened to expose."
Then, after a pause, the dissolute monk and secret agent of the German
Emperor said in that insolent, familiar manner he assumed when
addressing the Tsar:
"Friend! This Governor, against whom the Holy Father at Vitebsk sends
me secret information, should be dismissed and disgraced, and thy three
innocent subjects released. If thou wilt permit injustice in thy
Empire, then the success of thy arms cannot be maintained."
"Holy Father," said the weak impotent monarch, "the Governor shall be
dismissed. Pass me over a telegraph-form."
And Rasputin took from the writing-table one of the forms upon which the
Tsar wrote his autocratic orders, and actually at the monk's dictation
His Majesty wrote an order for this release of the prisoners and the
dismissal of the innocent, patriotic Governor, against whom the lying
agent of the Kaiser had, according to his instructions from Berlin, laid
a charge!
Truly the great patriotic Russian Empire had already fallen beneath the
"Mailed Fist," even though thousands of her sons were daily sacrificing
their lives to secure her freedom.
On the day following, Petkoff; who had already opened his separatist
propaganda among the Ukrainian prisoners, in favour of Germany, arrived
hot-foot in Petrograd, and spent some hours with Rasputin at his house,
where the Prime Minister Sturmer and His Excellency Protopopoff were
also closeted. The secret meeting was held at three o'clock and lasted
until eight, when one of the Imperial carriages came from the Winter
Palace, as it did daily, to convey the "Holy Father" there.
The Emperor had left again for the front three hours before, but the
Empress remained. The dirty monk at once sought her, explaining that
Germany had reached the last limits of her power upon the eastern front,
and urgently needed a slackening of the Russian offensive.
"It is truly God's will that our friends the Germans shall not be
crushed!" declared the cunning blackguard. "Are we not told that if we
are smitten by an enemy upon one cheek we should turn the other? I
declare to thee that if we press our enemies further, then the wrath of
God will assuredly fall upon thy house--and upon thy son the
Tsarevitch," he said in his low base voice, crossing himself piously the
while.
Indeed, that night, so deeply did the charlatan impress the poor Empress
that she sat trembling at the fate which must be Russia's should
Brusiloff's victory be maintained.
Incredible as it may seem, the Kaiser now held Russia in the hollow of
his hand. No despatch from Petrograd to the Allies; no order for
material; no communication of whatever sort, Imperial, diplomatic or
private, but copies were at once transmitted to the Wilhelmstrasse,
where the negotiations were known as soon as they were in Downing
Street--and sometimes sooner!
Within a fortnight of Rasputin's grim prophecy of Russia's downfall if
she further defied the Imperial power of Germany, the cunning plot to
infect General Brusiloff with tetanus was attempted by the soldier
Koltchak, while in a train conveying him from Borisoff to Petrograd, on
a flying visit to consult with the Minister of War. Happily the plot
failed, but the coffee in which the deadly culture had been placed was,
alas! unfortunately drunk by a certain Major Dobrovolski, who died
mysteriously and in great agony four days later; the General, of course,
being entirely ignorant of Berlin's vile plot against him.
An attempt was also made upon General Korniloff at Chernitsa ten days
later. A soldier who had no business near, handled a hand-grenade
carelessly, just as the General happened to be riding by. The bomb
exploded, killing the General's horse on the spot, but he himself
escaped with a deep cut over the left eye. Everybody, of course,
believed it to be a pure accident, therefore the affair was never
reported.
These two attempts upon the lives of Russia's military leaders, the
documentary evidence of which exists, were only the forerunners of
several others even more ingenious and more desperate, as I shall later
on disclose in these pages.