officer had asserted had been correct. Madame Vyrubova had at the
Empress's orders followed the General and arranged his death. Therefore
His Majesty could do nothing else than allow the officer to divorce his
wife, who, truth to tell, was the catspaw of the poisoner Rasputin, who
held her in his grip.
These widespread ramifications of the mock-monk's influence and his
power created by the judicious expenditure of German palm-oil are
utterly astounding. The more deeply one delves into this voluminous
_dossier_, the more amazing does it become, until the enemy's wicked
attempts to undermine Russia, our ally, almost stagger belief.
When Rasputin at last returned to Petrograd, in response to the orders
of the handsome Anna, he was handed a secret communication from Germany.
This confidential despatch, as it lies here before me, speaks for
itself. It is in a German letter-cipher, different from all the others,
and for a considerable time it defied all efforts, to decipher it. At
last it was accomplished by the Russian Secret Police, and it certainly
reveals a most dastardly series of amazingly cunning plots. Here it is:
"Memorandum 26874.327.
"`Number 70' is sending to you Sister Molfetta, of the Italian Red
Cross, whose number is 168. She will leave Berlin on the 3rd prox, and
travel by way of Gothenburg. Please inform P. (Protopopoff) and
request him to give her his protection and prepare her dear passport.
She will stay at the house of B. (Bukoff, a furrier in the Vereiskaya,
who was a German agent and assistant to Rasputin); you will call upon
her there.
"The object of her mission is to cultivate friendly relations with the
barrister Alexander Kerensky, who, though at present obscure, will, it
is here believed, shortly make his influence felt very strongly against
us. The woman 168 has orders to compromise him, and afterwards create a
public scandal in order to discredit him in the eyes of the public.
"Further, we seriously view the strength of Kerensky and the influence
he may exert in the prosecution of the war, therefore we leave it to
your personal discretion whether or not he should be removed. Number
168 possesses the means, and will act upon your orders.
"_Secret Instructions_.--You are to inform His Majesty in confidence
that M.I. Tereshchenko (now Minister for Foreign Affairs) is dangerous,
and should be arrested. If his house in Kiev is searched, compromising
papers which have been placed there by S. (a German agent named
Schumacher) will be discovered. Tereshchenko is threatening to expose
your friend S. (Sturmer, Prime Minister), and should it once be
suppressed by imprisonment.
"The letter herewith enclosed please give into the hands of Her Majesty
the Empress in secret. Also inform her that the wishes she has
expressed in her last letter to His Majesty shall be carried out.
"You are to inform S. and P. (Sturmer and Protopopoff) that the
shortage of food in Russia is, owing to Birileff's indecisive policy,
not sufficiently marked. He must be dismissed upon grounds of
incompetence, and they must appoint a new Food Controller who will,
connive, by holding up supplies, to create a famine. An epidemic, if
spread in Moscow, Kazan, Kharkow, Odessa, and other cities at the same
time as the famine, would greatly contribute towards Germany's success.
The matter has already been discussed, and an outbreak of cholera
suggested. You should consider the suggestion at your end, and if you
decide upon it, the necessary steps can easily be taken, though we
consider nothing should be done in Petrograd, because of yourselves and
the Imperial family.
"The bearer of this will remain in Petrograd four days, and then bring
back any news you can send regarding the future situation. Matters are
now becoming desperate with us. Hindenburg has decided that at all
hazards we must withdraw troops from your frontier, and send them to the
west. We rely upon you and your friends to create a famine, for which
you will receive increased gratuities, as in the case of the retreat
from Warsaw."
Thus will it be seen that the "holy" blackguard, the right-hand and
adviser of the Emperor Nicholas, was posing as the saviour of the great
Russian Empire, whom Great Britain was supplying with munitions of war,
and while he was everywhere declaring that Brusiloff's strategy would
wreck the German offensive, yet at the same time he was plotting famine
and pestilence in the very heart of the Empire!
None knew this secret--except the German-born Tsaritza. From her,
Rasputin held back nothing. In secret he showed her all the despatches
he received from the Koniggratzer-strasse. His influence upon Her
Majesty at this stage is made vividly apparent by significant remarks
which he made to Sturmer on the night after his return to Petrograd, and
the delivery into his hands of that cipher despatch from Berlin as
revealed above.
"My dear Excellency!" he said, tossing off a glass of vodka and eating
some caviare at the great carved sideboard in his own room before
sitting down to dinner, "you have been speaking of the Tsar and the
Tsaritza. To the Tsar I am Christ, the saviour of Russia and the world!
Their Majesties salute me; they bow to me and they kiss my hand. What
higher sphere can I achieve? The Imperial children prostrate before me;
they kiss my hands. Ah! my dear Excellency, I could disclose to you
things which--well, which I could not relate without blushing!"
It was at this period, when a friend of the "holy" peasant,
Striaptcheff, a fellow-thief of Pokrovsky and a man convicted of
burglary, pressed his attentions upon the "Holy Father" and demanded an
appointment. Incredible as it may appear, yet the criminal in question
was six days later appointed as a bishop of the Russian Church, with the
usual fat emoluments, and he could scarcely read or write. Truly Holy
Russia was progressing beneath the Rasputin _regime_. She had a burglar
as bishop.
Meanwhile, the monk proceeded at once to carry out his secret orders
from Berlin.
We know that the camarilla held council a week later, and that Sturmer,
Protopopoff, Striaptcheff--who had now become inseparable from
Rasputin--as well as Manuiloff, an ex-journalist who conducted the
secret police under Sturmer, were present at the monk's house. At the
meeting the false Red Cross sister from Berlin was also present.
It was agreed that it would be best to remove Kerensky, who, though a
headlong enthusiast, would be a very difficult man for a woman to
compromise. It was known that he possessed secret sources of knowledge
regarding the intention of the camarilla to betray Russia into Germany's
hands, therefore the woman Molfetta was given orders to carry out her
plot, to secure his assassination at the hands of a renegade Jew of
Warsaw named Levinski, who was ready to commit any crime if paid for it.
The attempt was made three weeks later. While Kerensky, who lived to
become afterwards Prime Minister of the new Government, was turning the
corner by the Alexandra Hospital to cross the Fontanka to the Sadovaya,
late one night, on his way home to the Offitzerskaya, he was shot at
three times by the fellow Levinski. Each shot happily went wide, and as
a result Alexander Kerensky still lives to pilot Russia to her freedom.
The manner in which the traitorous camarilla brought about a famine in
the capital, and in certain districts in the Empire, until the people of
Petrograd paraded the city crying "Give us bread, or end the war!" is
well known to all. But how they attempted to carry out the dastardly
orders of Berlin to create an epidemic of cholera at the same time, I
will reveal with quotations from official documents in the next chapter.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE PLOT TO SPREAD EPIDEMICS IN RUSSIA.
In my work of unmasking Rasputin I find that constant secret
communications were at that time passing between the "holy" scoundrel
and his infamous paymasters in the Koniggratzer-strasse, while messages
were continually being exchanged in strictest confidence between the
Kaiser and the German-born Tsaritza, who lived beneath the thraldom of
this common horse-stealer.
Berlin, with all its devilish inventions for unfair warfare prohibited
by the Hague Convention, had not overlooked the fact that owing to the
primitive sanitation of Russia, epidemics had very often been widespread
and most difficult to stamp out; therefore the suggestion to
artificially produce outbreaks of bubonic plague and Asiatic cholera in
the heart of the Empire had been suggested to that traitor, the Prime
Minister Boris Sturmer, and his fellow-conspirators of the "camarilla,"
of whom the Siberian charlatan known as "Holy Father" was the head.
While the Imperial Court bowed its knees to the erotic rascal, yet
strangely enough the people doubted him, and in secret jeered at him.
The satanic suggestion from Berlin, however, appealed to the camarilla
of pro-German plotters.
The Russian army was gallantly holding out, even though many traitors
held highest commands. The Germans had reached the height of their
offensive power on that front, and a separate peace with Russia was in
Berlin admitted to be, highly necessary, if the ultimate success of
their arms was to be achieved. Therefore, if a devastating epidemic
broke out, then Sturmer would have excuse to go to the Tsar and strongly
urge the necessity for peace as the only salvation of the Empire.
Hence the necessary steps were at once taken by the conspirators who
were in the habit of meeting almost daily in the Gorokhovaya. Proof of
what was on foot is disclosed by the following secret despatch from
Berlin, which is included in Rasputin's private papers, which so
fortunately fell into the hands of the patriotic party of Russia. I
here reproduce it:
"Memorandum 26932.366.
"`Number 70' has placed your communication and suggestions before a high
quarter, and they are all approved. He is sending you, by way of Malmo,
Karl Johnke, whose number is 229, a bacteriologist of the Frankfort
Institute, who will arrive in Petrograd on the 18th, and seek you. By
the same ship will arrive, consigned to our friends the firm of
Yakowleff and Company, wholesale fruiterers, of the Nikolskaya, in
Moscow, one hundred and twenty-six barrels of Canadian apples, with
ninety cases of Canary bananas. These will be distributed in the
ordinary course of trade to Kazan, Kharkow, Odessa, and other centres.
See that P. (Protopopoff) grants easy facilities for rapid transport to
the consignees in Moscow, as they are perishable.
"`Number 229' has full instructions to deal with Ivan Yakowleff, who is
our `fixed post' in Moscow, and who is receiving his instructions in
secret by the messenger who brings you this. The fruit must not be
handled or eaten, as it has been treated and is highly dangerous.
"Cholera should occur within three weeks of the arrival of the fruit.
We rely upon P. taking steps to facilitate its rapid delivery. Some of
it should be presented to charitable institutes for distribution among
the poor.
"Inform A. (Anna Vyrubova) that Korniloff (General Korniloff, whom all
know to be one of the most successful of Russian generals) suspects her
concerning the Zarudni affair and has at his house some correspondence
which is incriminating. It is in a cupboard in his bedroom and should
be secured at once. (G. Zarudni was active in political law cases
before the Revolution, and has since been appointed Minister of Justice
in the Kerensky Cabinet.) Zarudni is working against both S. (Sturmer)
and yourself. If an accident happened to him it would render the
atmosphere more clear. The same applies to his friend N.V. Nekrasov,
who is on the Duma Budget Committee and on the Railway Committee. Both
may upset our plans.
"Against General Ostrogradski, Inspector-General of Cavalry, a charge of
treason should be made. The bearer brings documents in order to arouse
suspicion that he has sold military secrets to Austria. These can be
produced at his trial. His continued activity against us, and his
hatred of yourself are both dangerous.
"`Number 229' will make personal reports to you concerning the
negotiations with Roumania and also regarding the efforts we are making
to prevent war material from England reaching Russia.
"`Number 70' notes with gratification that the explosion at the
nitro-glycerine works at Viborg has been effected, and that the factory
was totally destroyed and most of the workmen killed. Please pay E.
(an analytical chemist named Paul Eck, who was a friend of Rasputin's)
the sum promised.
"It would be best if their Majesties removed to Tsarskoe-Selo. Anna
Vyrubova should cultivate Boris Savenkov, Commissioner to the Seventh
Army. (This suggestion shows the remarkable foresight of Berlin, for
to-day Boris Savenkov is acting Minister of War.) You yourself should
lose no time in becoming acquainted with Countess Vera Kokoskin, who
lives at Potemkinskaya, 29. She is eager to meet you. Admit her as a
disciple, for being an attractive and ambitious woman, she has
considerable knowledge of what is in progress in certain quarters in the
Duma. Being in want of money, and being blackmailed by a penniless
lover named Sievers, she would probably be ready to become our friend.
`Number 70' therefore throws out this suggestion, yet at the same time
impresses upon you and your friends the necessity of the creation of the
epidemic and the bringing in of Roumania on the side of the Allies."
Those final words of that cipher despatch disclose a cunning that was
indeed unequalled. I know full well that readers may be inclined to
pause and to doubt that such dastardly methods could actually be pursued
against civilisation. To such I can only point out that boxes of the
same microbes were found in the German Legation in Bucharest, and were
officially reported by the United States Legation in that city.
The fierce German octopus--so carefully fostered and so well prepared--
had alas! stretched its thousand searching tentacles upon the patriotic
Russian people who were ruled by their weak and careless Emperor, while
the pro-German Empress listened to every rumour, and in her heart hoped
for a separate peace with Germany as the only salvation of her land.
Truly the Romanoffs have proved themselves a weak-kneed and
irresponsible dynasty. Alexander, however, was never weak. In the
long-ago days when I had audience with his late Majesty one morning in
his small reception-room in the Winter Palace, he wore a rough drab
shooting suit; bluff and full-bearded as any of his ministers, he talked
to me fully of his regret that the Nihilists should be ever plotting to
kill him, and assured me of his own personal efforts to free his people
from a corrupt Church and an iron bureaucracy.
"Please tell your British people that as Tsar I am doing the utmost in
my power to improve and civilise my dear Russian people, to whom I am
devoted, and to whom I will if necessary give my life."
Those words of the father of the Tsar Nicholas will be found reproduced
in the columns of _The Times_ after my joining as "Russian
Correspondent."
But let us examine the result of the secret order to Rasputin from
Berlin which I have reproduced above.
In the first place I find among the papers, a letter dated from the
Potemkinskaya, 29, as follows:
"Holy Father,--I thank you for your introduction yesterday to Her
Majesty the Empress, and to the Grand Duchess Olga. Truly we are all
your kindred spirits and disciples, who know at last the joys and
pleasures of the life which Almighty God has given unto us. Anna was
most charming, and I saw His Majesty as arranged. At your suggestion I
mentioned the Gospodin Sievers, and the Emperor has promised to appoint
him Vice-Governor of Omsk. All thanks to you, dear Holy Father. I
shall be at our reunion at your house to-morrow, and my daughter Nada,
who is in search of the Truth, will accompany me. Till then, I kiss
your dear hand.--Vera Kokoskin."
This letter speaks for itself. Another document is a letter to Rasputin
dated from the Hotel Metropole, Moscow, and is in plain language as
follows:
"The consignment of fruit from your generous donors has duly reached the
Maison Yakowleff and is being distributed in various charitable quarters
and is much appreciated in these days when prices are so high. Some of
it has been sent to the director of the Borgoroditsky Convent at Kazan,
and also some to the Society of St George at Kiev. Please inform and
thank the donors.--Karl Johnke."
Eagerly the camarilla awaited the result of their dastardly handiwork.
The allotted three weeks passed, but no epidemic was reported.
Evidently the monk wrote to the German bacteriologist, who was posing as
a Dane, for the latter wrote from the Hotel Continental at Kiev:
"The fruit, owing to delays in transit, was not in a condition for human
consumption. This is extremely regrettable after all the trouble of our
kind donors."
Therefore, while certain isolated cases of cholera were reported from
several cities--as the sanitary records prove--Russia had had indeed a
providential escape from a terrible epidemic, the infected fruit being
distributed over a wide area by charitable organisations quite
unsuspicious of its source.
Failure to produce the desired result induced Rasputin and his
paymasters in Berlin to adopt yet another method of forcing Russia into
a separate peace.
Brusiloff had recommenced his gallant offensive, and the situation was
being viewed with increased apprehension by the German General Staff.
Roumania was still undecided whether or not to throw in her cause with
that of the Allies. The great plot to destroy Roumania is again
revealed by documentary evidence contained among Rasputin's papers, and
also in the despatches received in Bucharest--where, of course, the
clever intrigue was never suspected.
A message in cipher received by Rasputin, on August 8th, the day of
General Letchitzki's great triumph, reveals a truly Machiavellian plan.
It reads thus:
"Memorandum 27546.112.
"Matters in the Dobroudja are approaching a serious crisis. Urge S.
(Boris Sturmer, the Prime Minister) to suggest at once to the Emperor,
while at the same time you make a similar suggestion to Her Majesty,
that Roumania must be forced to take up arms against us. She must not
be allowed to remain neutral any longer. S. must send a despatch to
Bucharest so worded that it is our ultimatum. If she does not join the
Allies immediately she must fight against Russia."
Accordingly, three days later, after the Holy Father and his unholy
fellow-conspirator had had audiences at Tsarskoe-Selo, Sturmer sent an
urgent despatch to the Roumanian Government demanding that it should
join the Allies, without further delay. At Bucharest no plot was
suspected, and indeed on the face of things, it seemed no unusual
request. Even people in Great Britain were daily asking each other
"When will Roumania come in it?"
The reason she had not joined was because she was not yet prepared.
Germany knew that and with Rasputin's aid had laid a plot to invade her.
She was, while still unready, forced into the war by Sturmer. Nineteen
days after the despatch of that cipher message from Berlin she formally
declared hostilities against Austria-Hungary.
Berlin was delighted, and the sinister "dark force" of Russia rubbed his
dirty hands with delight. The plot he saw must succeed. Truly it was a
vile and devilish one, which not even the shrewdest diplomat suspected,
namely, to deliver Roumania and her resources of grain and oil to the
enemy. As an outcome of the conspiracy the Russo-Roumanian army, owing
to treachery in the latter, at once retreated under pressure from
Mackensen's forces, and very quickly, almost before the Allies were
aware of it, Roumania and the Constanza railway were in the enemy's
hands. Disaster, engineered by the camarilla, followed disaster after
that "Now or never" ultimatum of Sturmer's. The promises made to the
brave Roumanians were broken one after the other. Why? Because with
Rasputin, Protopopoff and certain Generals suborned by the mock-monk,
the Prime Minister's intention was to use the great retreat and the
rapid absorption of Roumania as a means to force the Tsar and his Empire
into a separate peace.
Indeed, Rasputin--in attendance daily at Tsarskoe-Selo--by declaring to
the Empress and his sister-disciples at Court that he had been accorded
a vision of the Tsar and Kaiser fraternising, and interpreting this as a
divine direction that peace should at once be made with Germany, had
very nearly induced His Majesty to sign a declaration of peace, when one
man in the Empire discovered the dastardly manoeuvre, the Deputy
Gospodin Miliukoff, whose actions I will describe in a further chapter.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
THE MOCK-MONK UNMASKED.
Documentary evidence contained in the papers which the monk so carefully
preserved shows conclusively that he paid a secret visit to Berlin in
the first week of October, 1916. While the brave Russian army were
fighting valiantly, ever and anon being betrayed by their leaders,
treachery of the worst and vilest sort was afoot in the highest
quarters.
That German potentate, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who occupied an
important position in the entourage of the Tsar, was acting as
counsellor to the Tsaritza, and at the same time, aided actively by the
woman Vyrubova, was working to delude the Emperor and defeat his gallant
armies. At Russian Field Headquarters the Tsar was cheered everywhere,
and his officers were enthusiastic. It was known that the German
offensive had spent itself, and it was believed by those who were being
bamboozled that, when all was ready, Russia would press on to her
well-deserved victory.
But the day of Russia's great offensive never arrived. Great Britain
and France were supplying her with guns and munitions conveyed up to
Alexandrovsk with much difficulty, and the Allies were daily hoping that
the "Russian steam-roller" would once again start upon its westward
course. London, Paris and Rome were in ignorance of the amazing plot of
the pro-German traitors.
Meanwhile the mock-monk, in the garb of a Dutch pastor, had arrived in
Berlin to make arrangements with the enemy for Russia's final conquest.
By the scoundrel's fatal weakness for preserving letters addressed to
him, in the hope that when he fell out of favour at Court he might use
them for blackmailing purposes--for after all this "holy" man had
started life as a common thief--we have again evidence of his treachery
in the following letter dated from Tsarskoe-Selo, October 18th, the day
following the Allied landing in Athens. Addressed to Rasputin, it is in
German, in the fine handwriting of the Tsaritza, and reads as follows:
"Holy Father,--At last we have welcome news of you! This morning your
messenger reached us bringing me a letter, and one for Anna. What you
tell us is indeed good news. We are glad that you have seen William
(the Emperor), and that he has been so gracious to you. Your news
regarding the forthcoming offensive against the British is most
encouraging. The British are Germany's real enemies. Tell His Majesty
that all goes well, and that Sturmer quite agrees that we must have a
separate peace and is taking every step towards that end.
"Nikki is still at the front encouraging the troops. How foolish, and
yet we have all to show a bold front. The news of the landing at Athens
has disconcerted us, though it has caused great joy in Petrograd.
Inquire if nothing can be done further in an attempt to spread disease
in the more populous regions. This would kill enthusiasm for the war
and force peace quickly.
"Dmitri (the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch, who was Rasputin's fiercest
enemy) has been sent by Nikki to Samara. It would be a relief to us all
if he never returned. He with Nicholas (the Grand Duke Nicholas
Michailovitch) are plotting to defeat us. But Germany shall win. It
shall be as you, my dear Father, saw in your vision.