the continuation of the Russian offensive, now caused the greatest
consternation in Berlin, where it was believed that Rasputin was
neglecting the work for which he was being paid so heavily.
A message was conveyed to him through Swedish sources telling him of the
Kaiser's extreme displeasure at the failure of the plans, and reminding
him of His Majesty's words when he had had secret audience and accepted
the Imperial proposals to become chief agent of Germany in Russia.
Certain further instructions were also given as matters of extreme
urgency. The Russian progress had aroused the most serious fears in
Berlin.
Meanwhile the monk's ambition knew no bounds. With marvellous cunning
he was busy blackmailing a number of unfortunate society women who,
having entered his cult, had afterwards abandoned it, and while being
the practical ruler of Russia, because of the Tsaritza's devotion to
him, yet he was daily plotting with his pro-German friends for the
nation's downfall.
At each of the reunions of his sister-disciples he would strut about and
play the part of "saint." On each occasion he would declare: "If you
repulse me, God will abandon you! I am the chosen of God--sent to
deliver Holy Russia!"
To those who were sceptical he would speak more plainly and
convincingly, saying "If you do not obey me, then I will see that you
are punished by my friends." So by this means he surrounded himself by
an increasing number of hysterical women whose wealth he exploited, and
from whom he took bribes to procure high places, distinctions and
decorations for their husbands and brothers or their lovers.
Indeed, before him the highest officials in the Empire bowed, crossed
themselves, and kissed his hand--not because he was a priest--but
because they constantly feared lest they should incur his displeasure,
well knowing that if they did, they would at once be superseded.
At Peterhof, or at Tsarskoe-Selo, the actions of the bearded blackguard
were believed to be inspired by Providence. This dissolute Siberian
fakir, the Madame Vyrubova, and her Imperial mistress, the Tsaritza,
formed a trinity which ruled the Empire at war; and thousands of brave
Russian soldiers died in consequence.
The pro-German propaganda, fostered in secret by the dissolute three,
was permeating every department of the State, and was even being spread
among the armies at the front. At each success of the Russians the
Empress would grow irritable and despondent, while the slightest success
of the enemy caused her to be wildly jubilant. One day, at one of the
seances of the higher circle of Sister-Disciples held at Tsarskoe-Selo,
news was conveyed to Her Majesty that the Germans were retreating and
that their fortified base at Vladimir Volgnsk, near Lutsk, had been
captured. Thereupon the Empress cried in great distress:
"Why is this allowed! Why is this advance against the Germans not
stopped? Russia will never crush Germany. She shall not do so! Holy
Father! pray for our dear Germany!"
"O Sister! In thy heart harbour neither fear nor distrust, for indeed
God hath revealed unto me that there will be a separate peace and the
ultimate triumph of the German arms," replied the mock-saint, assuming
his most pious attitude, with his hands crossed upon the Russian blouse
of rich dark blue silk deeply embroidered with gold, which it was his
habit to wear at the seances at Court. "While on my pilgrimage last
week with Father Macaire, in the Monastery of Verkhotursky, I had a
vision."
"A vision!" echoed the Empress, while her daughter Olga and a dozen
ladies of the Court sat agape and eager. "Holy Father, tell us of what
has been revealed," urged Her Majesty.
"I saw hosts of men entering a great city as conquerors--hordes from the
west bringing to us all the benefits and a higher civilisation. I saw
His Majesty the German Emperor advance and grasp the hand of thy
Imperial husband the Tsar, and kiss him fraternally upon both cheeks.
And over all was set the halo of God's glory, and Russia rejoiced that
she had cast off the yoke of her Allies."
"God be thanked!" gasped the Empress hysterically. "Then we need no
longer fear. Truly Heaven is good to send thee to us, dear Father!" she
added, taking his rough hand, with its bulgy knuckles and unclean nails,
and kissing it fervently, while all her Court echoed the words so
constantly used at the gatherings of the cult: "Holy Father! God be
thanked that we are thy chosen sisters."
On the following day, however, Rasputin having returned to his house in
Petrograd, a secret meeting was held at the house of a man named
Roukhloff, situate in the Vereiskaya. The meeting was convened by
certain of the monk's enemies in order to expose him as an impostor and
a charlatan. It must be remembered that none dreamed that the scoundrel
was the direct secret agent of the Kaiser himself, or that Sturmer and
Protopopoff were anything else than fine sterling Russian patriots. All
three were urging every one to "get on with the war."
And with this in mind it induces one to wonder whether a similar farce
is not to-day being played in certain political circles in other
countries of the Allies!
Rasputin had many friends, but he had also made many bitter enemies. As
an outcome of that secret meeting, the man Roukhloff, son of a
functionary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defied the authorities
and publicly denounced the "Saint" as "a dangerous erotic humbug." The
effect was electrical. The Emperor, with the Empress, Count Fredericks,
and Madame Vyrubova, was in the Imperial train, travelling to the
Crimea. The moment of that hostile attack was well-chosen, and for a
time the "Saint's" position was a precarious one. But as soon as it
became known in Petrograd that he had been denounced, his house was
crowded by his faithful sister-disciples, who would have no word said
against him.
He at once announced his intention to return to Siberia, and addressing
them with his usual mock piety, said:
"The people of Petrograd have cast out the man sent to them by God. I
will return to my monastery at Pokrovsky, and pray for their salvation.
Assuredly God will punish the disbelievers. You, my sisters, keep faith
in your belief. If I never return--then pray for me."
An hour afterwards the impostor left for the Nicolas Station,
accompanied by a crowd of women-believers of all classes, but instead of
travelling to Siberia he changed his route at Moscow and hurried in the
track of their Majesties. Meanwhile, the ill-living Archbishop Teofan,
who had declared that he "heard in the Holy Father Rasputin the voice of
God," and that to hound him from Petrograd meant the incurring of the
Divine displeasure and the downfall of the Empire, and Bishop Hermogene,
another of the monk's creations who had also belauded him, now both saw
an opportunity of denouncing the monk's duplicity and malpractices, and
thereby securing the favour of the people for themselves.
This they did, and in consequence a great sensation was caused in
society, both in Petrograd and in Moscow. In the Duma, Rasputin was
openly denounced by M. Goutchkoff, a man of large experience and who
had worked in the Manchuria campaign and done much to assist the Grand
Duke Nicholas and General Alexeieff in the munition crisis of 1915. He
was Director of the Committee of War Industries, and had, introduced
into this committee some highly capable Labour delegates, who were now
no longer blinded by the halo of sanctity which Rasputin had assumed for
himself.
Thus a storm suddenly burst over the head of the holy rascal who had
practised his abominations under his pseudo-religious cloak, and who was
at the same time secretly plotting for the triumph of Germany.
But so cleverly did he juggle with the future of the Russian Empire that
he went post-haste across Europe, down to Yalta in the Crimea, and on
arrival drove through the pine woods to the Imperial Palace. He arrived
there at six o'clock in the morning, after a long and fatiguing journey.
But such was his iron nerve and strong constitution that he was as
fresh as when he bade farewell to his clinging devotees in Petrograd who
had so fervently kissed his dirty hands.
He had the audacity to go straight to the Tsar's dressing-room, and
there met His Majesty as he was coming from his bath. Naturally
Nicholas II was surprised, and on inquiring the reason of his unexpected
visit, the "Saint" exclaimed:
"They have driven me, the man of the Lord, from Petrograd! I go back to
Siberia to dwell there in peace. But God will now assuredly weak
vengeance upon Russia, and all that she holds most dear--as well as upon
thy son and heir."
"But, Holy Father!" gasped the Emperor, "what has happened? Tell me."
As the Tsar sat in his red bath-wrap, the unwashed "Saint" made
explanation that both the Church and the Duma had declared him to be an
impostor, adding:
"I will not trouble myself over those who defame me. They are as dust.
God has sent me to Russia, and the Russians have despised me."
"But who are your enemies?" asked His Majesty anxiously.
That was the question which Rasputin intended that the Emperor should
ask. At once he explained that the Archbishop Teofan and Bishop
Hermogene had both turned against him, and in consequence the Tsar
called his servant to bring him a telegraph-form at once.
"Whither shall I send those persons?" asked His Majesty.
"Nowhere. Let them work their evil will against thy Empire. God will
himself punish them!" replied the fakir and ex-thief who had
self-assumed the title of "Father."
"I shall leave to-night for Siberia, and shall not return."
"No. Forgive them, Holy Father," urged the Emperor apprehensively.
"For my sake and for Russia's sake forgive them. I will send Teofan,
your false friend, to the Taurida, and Hermogene shall retire to the
monastery of Tobolsk. Helidor, too, is no friend of yours. He shall be
sent to prison."
"Thy will shall be done regarding the two first, but spare Helidor. He
may yet be useful unto thee," was the crafty mujik's reply.
"Is there any other enemy who should be removed?" inquired the Emperor.
"Tell me, Holy Father--and I will deal with him if you will still remain
with us. If you leave, poor little Alexis will die."
The mock-saint, sprawling his legs in the Emperor's dressing-room,
reflected for a few moments. He knew that by his own hand Russia was
ruled.
"Yes," he said presently. "God has told me to forgive my enemies. I
will do so if thou wilt assist me. Too little consideration is given to
our friends."
"All consideration shall be given them. To whom do you refer?"
The monk drew from beneath his, long black habit a scrap of paper
already prepared, and consulting, it, said:
"I wrote down here yesterday certain appointments which should be given
to those who support thee, against thy enemies." It was a list of
favours which the rascal had promised to women for their male
acquaintances, and from each he would receive a generous _douceur_,
according to the means of the person indicated.
"You will note Ivan Scheveleff, of the Imperial chancellerie. He has
served thee well for the past five years, and should have the title of
Excellency, and consequent promotion," said the religious rascal.
"Again, there is Sergius Timacheff, of the Imperial printing works, who
should be appointed a privy councillor; and Madame Grigoiovitch, who is
in the Peter-and-Paul prison, should be released and amends made to her
for the false charge upon which she was convicted at the instance of
Michael Alexandrovitch."
"I will telegraph orders in each case," was the Emperor's reply, as he
lit a cigarette prior to his valet entering.
"And the salary of the Minister Protopopoff is far too little. It
should be increased by at least one-half. He is thy most devout and
devoted friend and servant of Russia."
"That shall be done," was the monarch's weak reply. Little did His
Majesty dream that Protopopoff was one of Russians traitors.
"Brusiloff should be watched, as there is evidence of treachery against
him. Before the war he was friendly with a man named von Weber, an
agent of Germany. Nekrasov, Minister of Communications, is also a
traitor, and should be dismissed," said the monk, thus denouncing two of
Russia's strongest and most patriotic fighters, who were perfectly
innocent.
"It shall be done," replied the Emperor quietly. "Father, I am glad you
have, told me." Indeed, owing, to the false statements of pro-German
police officials, General Brusiloff was within an ace of arrest a week
later. The Minister Nekrasov, however, received his dismissal,
Protopopoff being one of his enemies, and in that manner was the monk
playing Germany's game.
Thus the evil power of this arch-scoundrel was paramount. By his
influence men were made and broken daily. Indeed, to-day dozens of men
who because of their suspicion of the saint's "divinity," incurred the
blasphemer's displeasure are, languishing in gaol in various remote
parts of the Empire, while German agents occupied some of the "highest
offices in Russia," while the head of the Church of holy Russia had been
appointed by the unwashed blackguard himself.
As proof of this interview at Livadia, the _dossier_ of Gregory
Rasputin, the Siberian Cagliostro, which is before me, contains the
following letter:
"Rizhsky Prospect, 37.
"My dear Father,--I have heard that you have left upon a pilgrimage to
your own monastery in Siberia. May God be with you, and bless you.
To-day my title of Excellency is officially announced. My bankers have
passed to yours the sum of 30,000 roubles. There will be a further sum
of 10,000 roubles passed if you will kindly send me, under cover, those
two letters of the Countess Birileff. I await your reply.--Ivan
Scheveleff."
Rasputin's mania for filing his correspondence is the basis of our true
knowledge of his astounding career and activity, for the next folio in
the _dossier_ is a copy of a blackmailing letter he wrote a few weeks
after his visit to the Crimea, to the man Sergius Timacheff. It reads
as follows:
"Friend,--It is now many days since His Majesty appointed you Privy
Councillor of the Empire, but I have received no word from you or from
your bank as we arranged. If I receive nothing by next Thursday, the
facts concerning your son's implication in the Platanoff affair (the
blowing up of a Russian battleship in the Baltic by German agents) will
be passed on to the Admiralty. If double the sum we arranged passes to
my bank before the date I have named, I shall remain silent. If not, I
shall take immediate action.--G."
The "holy" blackmailer was becoming more and more unscrupulous. Behind
him he had the Emperor and Empress, soothed to sleep by his marvellous
cunning and his mock miracles. Incredible as it seems, he was able to
evade all the many pitfalls set for him by his enemies, because he swept
them all from his path by Imperial orders and stood forth alone as the
"Holy Father," sent by Providence to create a new and prosperous Russia.
He had no fear of death. He wore a shirt of mail, and the Palace
police, the same ever-alert surveillance as that placed upon the person
of the Tsar himself, kept a watchful eye upon him, though through
Protopopoff they had orders to relinquish their watchfulness at any
moment the "Saint" deemed it necessary.
He frequently deemed it necessary if he held his conferences with
Sturmer, Protopopoff, Anna Vyrubova, and the small camarilla of persons
who were being so richly rewarded by mysterious incomes from estates
they did not possess--or, plainly speaking, by money from Berlin.
Rasputin saw that in order to keep faith with his "sister-disciples" in
Petrograd, it was necessary for him to journey again to his Siberian
village. He therefore declared to the Emperor that he had much business
there, and promised that he would return to Peterhof as soon as the
Imperial family arrived there.
When the Tsar of all the Russias had bent and kissed the monk's filthy
hands, and promised that his orders should be despatched at once by
telegram to Petrograd, the monk sought the Empress, told her what had
occurred, explaining how his enemies had denounced "the man sent by
God." The Tsaritza sat appalled. Could the Russian people have
denounced her "Holy Father"? To her it seemed impossible. She bent
before the rascal and wept bitterly.
"Oh, Sister!" he said in his deep voice, "I will retire to Pokrovsky
until these enemies of Russia have been discomfited and defeated. Then,
verily, I will return to stand beside thee and fight as thy friend, as
God has commanded me."
Then he took his leave and travelled to the so-called "monastery" he had
established in his far-off Siberian village--the big house in which a
dozen of his female devotees were so eagerly awaiting him.
CHAPTER SIX.
RASPUTIN'S SECRET INSTRUCTIONS FROM BERLIN.
Now that Rasputin's amazing career is being here investigated, chapter
by chapter, the facts disclosed seem almost incredible, but, of course,
such a situation could only have occurred in a country where nearly
ninety per cent, of the priest-ridden inhabitants are unable to read or
write, and which is in most things a full century behind the times.
Surely in no other country in all the world to-day could an illiterate,
verminous mujik, who had actually been convicted and punished for the
crimes of horse-stealing, falsely obtaining money, and assaulting two
young girls, be accepted as a Divine healer, a "holy" man, and the
saviour of Russia. Here was a man whose whole life had been one of
scandalous ill-living, a low drunken libertine of the very worst and
most offensive class, actually ruling the Empire as secret agent, of the
Kaiser!
By the clever ruse of establishing his cult of "sister-disciples" he had
so secured the ears of the weak-kneed Emperor and his consort, that
whatever views he declared to them they at once became law. So
amazingly cunning was he that he realised that the only way in which to
retain the hold he had established at Court was now and then to absent
himself from it, first making certain "prophecies," the fulfilment of
which could be effected by his secret friends.
As often as he uttered a prophecy and left Petrograd upon one of his
erotic adventures--to found provincial circles of the cult of
Believers--so surely would that prophecy come true. He foretold the
downfall of one official, the death of another upon a certain date, a
further relapse of the Tsarevitch, and so on, until their Majesties held
him in awe as heaven-inspired. In the high Court circle of which he was
the centre, this "Holy Father" could do no wrong, while his most
disgraceful exploits, scandals unprintable, were merely regarded as
mundane pleasures allowable to him as a "saint."
No reign since the days of the Caesars was more fraught by disgraceful
scandals than those last days of the _regime_ of the ill-fated
Romanoffs. The Roman empresses were never traitors as the Tsaritza most
certainly was. Can any one have sympathy with the once-Imperial,
afterwards exiled to Siberia--that same zone of that illimitable tundra
to which the Tsar of all the Russias had exiled so many of his innocent
and patriotic subjects, men and women who fought for Russia's right to
live, to expand, and to prosper? Let us remember that in Siberia to-day
lie the bones of a hundred thousand Russian patriots, persecuted under
the evil _regimes_ of Alexander and of Nicholas. In the days of the
ex-Tsar's father I went to Siberia, and I visited the convict prisons
there. I saw convicts in the mines chained to wheelbarrows by forged
fetters, and I saw those poor tortured wretches who worked in the
dreaded quicksilver mines of Nertchinsk, their teeth falling out and
their scalps bare. Of what I myself witnessed, I years ago placed on
record in black and white. Those reports of mine will be found in the
public libraries of Great Britain. But to-day they do not concern the
reader of this book only inasmuch as they furnish proofs, with others,
of the oppressive hand of the Romanoffs upon the devoted and
long-suffering people of Holy Russia--"Holy"--save the mark! The erotic
rascal Rasputin was in himself a striking example of the men who control
the Paroslavny Church.
This mock-pious blackguard, to whose artful cunning and clever cupidity
has been due the death of hundreds of thousands of brave Russians of all
classes in the field, held the fortunes of the great Empire within the
hollow of his dirty paw.
The contents of the big _dossier_ of his private papers disclose this
satanic scoundrel's double-dealing, and the true terms in which he stood
with the Wilhelmstrasse.
To me, as I study the documents, it is astounding how accurately the
Germans had gauged who were their actual friends in Russia and who were
their enemies. Surely their sources of information were more astounding
and more complete than even the great Stiebur, the King of Spydom, had
ever imagined.
It sterns that while Rasputin was living a dissolute life at the
"monastery" he had established in his far-off native village of
Pokrovsky, he received many telegrams from Tsarskoe-Selo, both from the
Emperor and Empress, urging him to forgive his traducers and to return.
To none of these he responded. One day, however, he received a
telegraphic message which came over the wires as a Government one,
marked "On His Imperial Majesty's Service," from Madame Vyrubova. Its
copy is here before me, and reads:
"Return at once to Petrograd. A dear friend from afar, awaits you.
It is most urgent that you should come back at once. There is much to
be done.--Anna."
Such an urgent summons showed him that his presence was required. He
knew too well that the "dear friend" was a German agent sent in secret
to see him.
Therefore he bade farewell to his dozen "sister-disciples," the head of
whom was the opulent "Sister Vera," sister of the dissolute Bishop
Teofan whom Rasputin himself had created. Teofan was a fellow-criminal
of his who had been imprisoned for horse-stealing in Tobolsk, and now he
wore richly embroidered ecclesiastical robes and bent the knee before
the altar daily.
In consequence of this message from his friend Anna, Rasputin hastened
back to Petrograd.
Now Madame Vyrubova was Rasputin's tool throughout. Hers had been a
strange history. Her past had been shrouded in mystery, yet I here
disclose it for the first time. As Mademoiselle Taneieff, daughter of
the director of the private chancellerie of the Tsar, she became five
years before one of the maids-of-honour of the Empress. A pretty,
high-spirited girl, she at first amused and afterwards attracted the
neurotic spouse of the stolid, weak-minded Autocrat. In due course she
married a rather obscure but good-looking naval officer named Vyrubova--
a lieutenant on board the cruiser _Kazan_. The husband, after a year at
sea, learned certain scandals, and therefore he went one night boldly to
the Emperor--who happened to be at Peterhof--and asked that he might
divorce his wife.
His Majesty was both surprised and angry. He made inquiry, and
discovered a very curious state of affairs--a scandal that had been
hushed up and is now revealed by the new light shining upon Russian
Court life and the internal scandals of the Empire.
Briefly put. His Majesty found that his wife the Empress had fallen in
love with a certain General O--. The dark-haired Madam Vyrubova had
acted as go-between for the couple--a fact which her husband knew, and
threatened to expose as a vulgar scandal if the Emperor did not allow
his divorce! It seemed that General O--had rather slighted the Empress,
and had taken up with a certain Princess B--, who had been on the stage,
and who was declared to be one of the prettiest women in all Russia.
The General had followed the beautiful princess to Cairo. A week later
at Assouan, in Upper Egypt, he had been seized by a mysterious illness
and died. The explanation given to the Emperor by the husband Vyrubova
was that the General had fallen a victim to the jealousy of his wife the
Empress.