Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores._
RASPUTIN AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
[Illustration:
_Photo by Paul Thompson_
GREGORY RASPUTIN
“The Black Monk of Russia”]
RASPUTIN
AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
BY
PRINCESS CATHERINE RADZIWILL
(COUNT PAUL VASSILI)
AUTHOR OF
“BEHIND THE VEIL AT THE RUSSIAN COURT,”
“GERMANY UNDER THREE EMPERORS,”
ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
MCMXVIII
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY PUBLIC LEDGER COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1918,
BY JOHN LANE COMPANY
Press of
J. J. Little & Ives Company
New York, U. S. A.
TO
MONSIEUR JEAN FINOT
_Editor of the “Revue”_
_My dear Mr. Finot:_--
_Allow me to offer you this little book, which may remind you of the
many conversations we have had together, and of the many letters which
we have exchanged. In doing so, I am fulfilling one of the pleasantest
of duties and trying to express to you all the gratitude which I feel
towards you. Without your kind help, and without your advice, I would
never have had the courage to take a pen in my hand, and all the small
success I may have had in my literary career is entirely due to you,
and to the constant encouragement which you have always given to me,
and which I shall never forget, just as I shall always remember that it
was in the “Revue” that the first article I ever published appeared.
Permit me to-day to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and believe
me to be,_
_Always yours most affectionately,
Catherine Radziwill
(Catherine Kolb-Danvin)_
PUBLISHERS FOREWORD
When the book called “Behind the Veil at the Russian Court” was
published the Romanoff’s were reigning and, considering the fact
that she was living in Russia at the time, the author of it, had her
identity become known, would have risked being subjected to grave
annoyances, and even being sent to that distant Siberia where Nicholas
II is at present exiled. It was therefore deemed advisable to produce
that work as a posthumous one, and “Count Paul Vassili” was represented
as having died before the publication of “his” Memoirs. This however
was not the case, because on the contrary “he” went on collecting
information as to all that was taking place at the Russian Court as
well as in the whole of Russia, and, consigning this information to
a diary, “he” went on writing. If one remembers, “Count Vassili”
distinctly foresaw and prophesied in “his” book most of the things that
have occurred since it was published. This fact will perhaps give added
interest to the present account of the Russian Revolution which now
sees the light of day for the first time. Though devoid of everything
sensational or scandalous it will prove interesting to those who have
cared for the other books of “Count Vassili,” for it contains nothing
but the truth, and has been compiled chiefly out of the narrations
of the principal personages connected in some way or other with the
Russian Revolution. The facts concerning Rasputin, and the details of
this man’s extraordinary career, are, we believe, given out now for the
first time to the American public, which, up to the present moment,
has been fed on more or less untrue and improbable stories or, rather,
“fairy tales,” in regard to this famous adventurer. The truth is far
simpler, but far more human, though humanity does not shine in the best
colours in its description.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PART I.--RASPUTIN 13
PART II.--THE GREAT REVOLUTION 191
PART III.--THE RIDDLE OF THE FUTURE 301
ILLUSTRATIONS
Gregory Rasputin--“The Black Monk of Russia” _Frontispiece_
PAGE
The Ex-Czar and His Family 34
Rasputin and His “Court” 74
Rasputin 94
The First Bolsheviki Cabinet 200
The Bolsheviki Headquarters in Petrograd 220
The Bolsheviki General Staff 230
Soldier and Sailor Citizens’ Duma 240
Foreign Minister Leon Trotzky 250
Meeting Addressed by Nikolai Lenine 260
Alexander Kerensky 276
Revolutionary Crowd in Petrograd 280
Bolsheviki Sailors Buried at Moscow 290
Kerensky Inspiring Troops To Support Revolutionary Government 304
Peace Document of Delegates at Brest-Litovsk Conference
310
The House at Brest-Litovsk Where Peace Negotiations Between the
Russian Bolsheviki and the Austrian-Germans Were Conducted 318
PART I
RASPUTIN
INTRODUCTION
This exposé, based on facts which have come to my knowledge, though
probably far from being complete, aims at depicting the recent state
of things in Russia, and thus to explain how the great changes which
have taken place in my country have been rendered possible. A lot of
exaggerated tales have been put into circulation concerning the Empress
Alexandra, the part she has played in the perturbations that have
shaken Russia from one end to another and the extraordinary influence
which, thanks to her and to her efforts in his behalf, the sinister
personage called Rasputin came to acquire over public affairs in the
vast empire reigned over by Nicholas II. for twenty-two years. A good
many of these tales repose on nothing but imagination, but nevertheless
it is unfortunately too true that it is to the conduct of the Empress,
and to the part she attempted to play in the politics of the world,
that the Romanoffs owe the loss of their throne.
Alexandra Feodorovna has been the evil genius of the dynasty whose head
she married. Without her it is probable that most of the disasters that
have overtaken the Russian armies would not have happened, and it is
certain that the crown which had been worn by Peter the Great and by
Catherine II. would not have been disgraced. She was totally unfit for
the position to which chance had raised her, and she never was able
to understand the character or the needs of the people over which she
ruled.
Monstrously selfish, she never looked beyond matters purely personal
to her or to her son, whom she idolized in an absurd manner. She,
who had been reared in principles of true liberalism, who had had
in her grandmother, the late Queen Victoria, a perfect example of a
constitutional sovereign, became from the very first day of her arrival
in Russia the enemy of every progress, of every attempt to civilise
the nation which owned her for its Empress. She gave her confidence
to the most ferocious reactionaries the country possessed. She tried,
and in a certain degree succeeded, in inspiring in her husband the
disdain of his people and the determination to uphold an autocratic
system of government that ought to have been overturned and replaced by
an enlightened one. Haughty by nature and by temperament, she had an
unlimited confidence in her own abilities, and especially after she had
become the mother of the son she had longed for during so many years,
she came to believe that everything she wished or wanted to do had to
be done and that her subjects were but her slaves. She had a strong
will and much imperiousness in her character, and understood admirably
the weak points in her husband, who became but a puppet in her hands.
* * * * *
She herself was but a plaything in the game of a few unscrupulous
adventurers who used her for the furtherance of their own ambitious,
money-grubbing schemes, and who, but for the unexpected events that
led to the overthrow of the house of Romanoff, would in time have
betrayed Russia into sullying her fair fame as well as her reputation
in history.
* * * * *
Rasputin, about whom so much has been said, was but an incident in
the course of a whole series of facts, all of them more or less
disgraceful, and none of which had a single extenuating circumstance to
put forward as an excuse for their perpetration.
* * * * *
He himself was far from being the remarkable individual he has been
represented by some people, and had he been left alone it is likely
that even if one had heard about him it would not have been for any
length of time.
* * * * *
Those who hated him did so chiefly because they had not been able to
obtain from him what they had wanted, and they applied themselves to
paint him as much more dangerous than he really was. They did not know
that he was but the mouthpiece of other people far cleverer and far
more unscrupulous even than himself, who hid themselves behind him
and who moved him as they would have done pawns in a game of chess
according to their personal aims and wants. These people it was who
nearly brought Russia to the verge of absolute ruin, and they would
never have been able to rise to the power which they wielded had not
the Empress lent herself to their schemes. Her absolute belief in the
merits of the wandering preacher, thanks to his undoubted magnetic
influence, contrived to get hold of her mind and to persuade her that
so long as he was at her side nothing evil could befall her or her
family.
It is not generally known outside of Russia that Alexandra Feodorovna
despised her husband, and that she made no secret of the fact. She
considered him as a weak individual, unable to give himself an account
of what was going on around him, who had to be guided and never left to
himself. Her flatterers, of whom she had many at a time, had persuaded
her that she possessed all the genius and most of the qualities of
Catherine II., and that she ought to follow the example of the latter
by rallying around her a sufficient number of friends to effect a
palace revolution which would transform her into the reigning sovereign
of that Russia which she did not know and whose character she was
unable to understand. Love for Nicholas II. she had never had, nor
esteem for him, and from the very first moment of her marriage she had
affected to treat him as a negligible quantity. But influence over him
she had taken good care to acquire. She had jealously kept away from
him all the people from whom he could have heard the truth or who could
have signalled to him the dangers which his dynasty was running by the
furtherance of a policy which had become loathsome to the country and
on account of which the war with Germany had taken such an unexpected
and dangerous course.
The Empress, like all stupid people, and her stupidity has not been
denied, even by her best friends, believed that one could rule a nation
by terror. She, therefore, always interposed herself whenever Nicholas
II. was induced to adopt a more liberal system of government and urged
him to subdue by force aspirations it would have been far better for
him to have encouraged. She had listened to all the representatives of
that detestable old bureaucratic system which gave to the police the
sole right to dispose of people’s lives and which relied on Siberia and
the knout to keep in order an aggrieved country eager to be admitted to
the circle of civilised European nations.
Without her and without her absurd fears, it is likely that the first
Duma would not have been dissolved. Without her entreaties, it is
probable that the troops composing the garrison at St. Petersburg
would not have been commanded to fire at the peaceful population of
the capital on that January day when, headed by the priest Gapone, it
had repaired to the Winter Palace to lay its wrongs before the Czar,
whom it still worshipped at that time. She was at the bottom of every
tyrannical action which took place during the reign of Nicholas II. And
lately she was the moving spirit in the campaign, engineered by the
friends of Rasputin, to conclude a separate peace with Germany.
In the long intrigue which came to an end by the publication of the
Manifesto of Pskov, Rasputin undoubtedly played a considerable part,
but all unconsciously. Those who used him, together with his influence,
were very careful not to initiate him into their different schemes.
But they paid him, they fed him, they gave him champagne to drink and
pretty women to make love to in order to induce him to represent them
to the Empress as being the only men capable of saving Russia, about
which she did not care, and her crown, to which she was so attached.
With Rasputin she never discussed politics, nor did the Emperor. But
with his friends she talked over every political subject of importance
to the welfare of the nation, and being convinced that they were the
men best capable of upholding her interests, she forced them upon her
husband and compelled him to follow the advice which they gave. She
could not bear contradiction, and she loved flattery. She was convinced
that no one was more clever than herself, and she wished to impose her
views everywhere and upon every occasion.
Few sovereigns have been hated as she has been. In every class of
society her name was mentioned with execration, and following the
introduction of Rasputin into her household this aversion which she
inspired grew to a phenomenal extent. She was openly accused of
degrading the position which she held and the crown which she wore. In
every town and village of the empire her conduct came to be discussed
and her person to be cursed. She was held responsible for all the
mistakes that were made, for all the blunders which were committed, for
all the omissions which had been deplored. And when the plot against
Rasputin came to be engineered it was as much directed against the
person of Alexandra Feodorovna as against that of her favourite, and it
was she whom the people aimed to strike through him.
Had she shown some common sense after the murder of a man whom she well
knew was considered the most dangerous enemy of the Romanoff dynasty
things might have taken a different course. Though every one was agreed
as to the necessity of a change in the system of government of Russia,
though a revolution was considered inevitable, yet no one wished it
to happen at the moment when it did, and all political parties were
agreed as to the necessity of postponing it until after the war. But
the exasperation of the Empress against those who had removed her
favourite led her to trust even more in those whom he had introduced
and recommended to her attention. She threw herself with a renewed
vigour into their schemes, urging her husband to dishonour himself,
together with his signature, by turning traitor to his allies and to
his promises. She wanted him to conclude a peace with Germany that
would have allowed her a free hand in her desires to punish all the
people who had conspired against her and against the man upon whom she
had looked as a saviour and a saint. Once this fact was recognised the
revolution became inevitable. It is to the credit of Russia that it
took place with the dignity that has marked its development and success.
This, in broad lines, is the summary of the causes that have brought
about the fall of the Romanoff dynasty, and they must never be lost
sight of when one is trying to describe it. It is, however, far too
early to judge the Russian revolution in its effects because, for
one thing, it is far from being at an end, and may yet take quite an
unexpected turn. For another, the events connected with it are still
too fresh to be considered from an objective point of view. I have,
therefore, refrained from expressing an opinion in this narrative. My
aim has been to present to my readers a description of the personality
of Rasputin, together with the part, such as I know it, that he has
played in the development of Russian history during the last five years
or so, and afterward to describe the course of the revolution and the
reasons that have led to its explosion in such an unexpected manner.
CHAPTER I
We live in strange times, when strange things happen which at first
sight seem unintelligible and the reason for which we fail to grasp.
Even in Russia, where Rasputin had become the most talked-of person
in the whole empire, few people fully realised what he was and what
had been the part which he had played in Russia’s modern history. Yet
during the last ten years his name had become a familiar one in the
palaces of the great nobles whose names were written down in the Golden
Book of the aristocracy of the country, as well as in the huts of the
poorest peasants in the land. At a time when incredulity was attacking
the heart and the intelligence of the Russian nation the appearance of
this vagrant preacher and adept of one of the most persecuted sects
in the empire was almost as great an event as was that of Cagliostro
during the years which preceded the fall of the old French monarchy.
There was, however, a great difference between the two personages.
One was a courtier and a refined man of the world, while the other
was only an uncouth peasant, with a crude cunning which made him
discover soon in what direction his bread could be buttered and what
advantages he might reap out of the extraordinary positions to which
events, together with the ambitions of a few, had carried him. He was
a perfect impersonation of the kind of individual known in the annals
of Russian history as “Wremienschtchik,” literally “the Man of the
Day,” an appellation which since the times of Peter the Great had clung
to all the different favourites of Russian sovereigns. There was one
difference, however, and this a most essential one. He had never been
the favourite of the present Czar, who perhaps did not feel as sorry as
might have been expected by his sudden disappearance from the scene of
the world.
I shall say a thing which perhaps will surprise my readers. Personally,
Rasputin was never the omnipotent man he was believed to be, and
more than once most of the things which were attributed to him were
not at all his own work. But he liked the public to think that he
had a finger in every pie that was being baked. And he contrived to
imbue Russian society at large with such a profound conviction that
he could do absolutely everything he chose in regard to the placing
or displacing of people in high places, obtaining money grants and
government contracts for his various “protégés,” that very often the
persons upon whom certain things depended hastened to grant them to
those who asked in the name of Rasputin, out of sheer fright of finding
this terrible being in their way. They feared to refuse compliance with
any request preferred to them either by himself or by one who could
recommend himself on the strength of his good offices on their behalf.
But Rasputin was the tool of a man far more clever than himself, Count
Witte. It was partly due to the latter’s influence and directions that
he tried to mix himself up in affairs of state and to give advice to
people whom he thought to be in need of it. He was an illiterate brute,
but he had all the instincts of a domineering mind which circumstances
and the station of life in which he had been born had prevented
from developing. He had also something else--an undoubted magnetic
force, which allowed him to add auto-suggestion to all his words and
which made even unbelieving people succumb sometimes to the hypnotic
practices which he most undoubtedly exercised to a considerable extent
during the last years of his adventurous existence.
Amidst the discontent which, it would be idle to deny, had existed
in the Russian empire during the period which immediately preceded
the great war the personality of Rasputin had played a great part
in giving to certain people the opportunity to exploit his almost
constant presence at the side of the sovereign as a means to foment
public opinion against the Emperor and to throw discredit upon him by
representing him as being entirely under the influence of the cunning
peasant who, by a strange freak of destiny, had suddenly become far
more powerful than the strongest ministers themselves. The press
belonging to the opposition parties had got into the habit of attacking
him and calling his attendance on the imperial court an open scandal,
which ought in the interest of the dynasty to be put an end to by every
means available.
In the Duma his name had been mentioned more than once, and always
with contempt. Every kind of reproach had been hurled at him, and
others had not been spared. He had become at last a fantastic kind
of creature, more exploited than exploiting, more destroyable than
destructive, one whose real “rôle” will never be known to its full
extent, who might in other countries than Russia and at another time
have become the founder of some religious order or secret association.
His actions when examined in detail do not differ very much from those
of the fanatics which in Paris under the reign of Louis XV. were called
the “Convulsionnaires,” and who gave way to all kind of excesses
under the pretext that these were acceptable to God by reason of the
personality of the people who inspired them. In civilised, intelligent,
well-educated Europe such an apparition would have been impossible,
but in Russia, that land of mysteries and of deep faiths, where there
still exist religious sects given to all kinds of excesses and to
attacks of pious madness (for it can hardly be called by any other
name), he acquired within a relatively short time the affections of a
whole lot of people. They were inclined to see in him a prophet whose
prayers were capable of winning for them the Divine Paradise for which
their hungry souls were longing. There was nothing at all phenomenal
about it. It was even in a certain sense quite a natural manifestation
of this large Russian nature, which is capable of so many good or
bad excesses and which has deeply incrusted at the bottom of its
heart a tendency to seek the supernatural in default of the religious
convictions which, thanks to circumstances, it has come to lose.
The American public is perhaps not generally aware of the character of
certain religious sects in Russia, which is considered to be a country
of orthodoxy, with the Czar at its head, and where people think there
is no room left for any other religion than the official one to develop
itself. In reality, things are very different, and to this day, outside
of the recognised nonconformists, who have their own bishops and
priests, and whose faith is recognised and acknowledged by the State,
there are any number of sects, each more superstitious and each more
powerful than the other in regard to the influence which they exercise
over their adherents. These, though not numerous by any means, yet are
actuated by such fanaticism that they are apt at certain moments to
become subjects of considerable embarrassment to the authorities. Some
are inspired by the conviction that the only means to escape from the
clutches of the devil consists in suicide or in the murder of other
people.
For instance, the Baby Killers, or Dietooubitsy, as they are called,
think it a duty to send to Heaven the souls of new-born infants, which
they destroy as soon as they see the light of day, thinking thus to
render themselves agreeable to the Almighty by snatching children away
from the power of the evil one. Another sect, which goes by the name
of Stranglers, fully believes that the doors of Heaven are only opened
before those who have died a violent death, and whenever a relative
or friend is dangerously ill they proceed to smother him under the
weight of many pillows so as to hasten the end. The Philipovtsy preach
salvation through suicide, and the voluntary death of several people in
common is considered by them as a most meritorious action. Sometimes
whole villages decide to unite themselves in one immense holocaust and
barricade themselves in a house, which is afterward set on fire.
An incident that occurred during the reign of Alexander II. is
remembered to this day in Russia. A peasant called Khodkine persuaded
twenty people to retire together with him into a grotto hidden in the
vast forests of the government of Perm, where he compelled them to die
of hunger. Two women having contrived to escape, the fanatics, fearing
that they might be denounced, killed themselves with the first weapons
which fell under their hand. It was their terror that they might find
themselves compelled to renounce their sinister design, and thus fall
again into the clutches of that Satan for fear of whom they had made
up their minds to encounter an awful death. Even as late as the end of
the last century such acts of fanaticism could be met with here and
there in the east and centre of Russia. In 1883, under the reign of the
father of the last Czar, a peasant in the government of Riazan, called
Joukoff, burnt himself to death by setting fire to his clothes, which
he had previously soaked in paraffin, and expired under the most awful
torments, singing hymns of praise to the Lord.
Among all these heresies there are two which have attracted more
than the others the attention of the authorities, thanks to their
secret rites and to their immoral tendencies. They are the Skoptsy,
or Voluntary Eunuchs, about which it is useless to say anything here,
and the Khlysty, or Flagellants, which to this day has a considerable
number of adepts and to which Rasputin undoubtedly belonged, to which,
in fact, he openly owed allegiance. This sect, which calls itself “Men
of God,” has the strangest rites which human imagination can invent.
According to its precepts, a human creature should try to raise its
soul toward the Divinity with the help of sexual excesses of all kinds.
During their assemblies they indulge in a kind of waltz around and
around the room, which reminds one of nothing so much as the rounds of
the Dancing Dervishes in the East. They dance and dance until their
strength fails them, when they drop to the floor in a kind of trance or
ecstasy, during which, being hardly accountable for their actions, they
imagine that they see Christ and the Virgin Mary among them. They then
threw themselves into the embrace of the supposed divinities.
As a rule the general public knows very little concerning these sects,
but I shall quote here a passage out of a book on Russia by Sir Donald
Mackenzie Wallace, which is considered to this day as a standard work
in regard to its subject. “Among the ‘Khlysty,’” he writes, “there
are men and women who take upon themselves the calling of teachers
and prophets, and in this character they lead a strict, ascetic
life, refrain from the most ordinary and innocent pleasures, exhaust
themselves by long fasting and wild ecstatic religious exercises and
abhor marriage. Under the excitement caused by their supposed holiness
and inspiration, they call themselves not only teachers and prophets,
but also Saviours, Redeemers, Christs, Mothers of God. Generally
speaking, they call themselves simply gods and pray to each other as
to real gods and living Christs and Madonnas. When several of these
teachers come together at a meeting they dispute with each other in a
vain, boasting way as to which of them possesses most grace and power.
In this rivalry they sometimes give each other lusty blows on the ear,
and he who bears the blows the most patiently, turning the other cheek
to the smiter, acquires the reputation of having the most holiness.
“Another sect belonging to the same category and which indeed
claims close kindred with it is the Jumpers, among whom the
erotic element is disagreeably prominent. Here is a description
of their religious meetings, which are held during summer in a
forest and during winter in some outhouse or barn. After due
preparation prayers are read by the chief teacher, dressed in
a white robe and standing in the midst of the congregation.
At first he reads in an ordinary tone of voice and then
passes gradually into a merry chant. When he remarks that the
chanting has sufficiently acted on the hearers he begins to
jump. The hearers, singing likewise, follow his example. Their
ever-increasing excitement finds expression in the highest
possible jumps. This they continue as long as they can--men
and women alike yelling like enraged savages. When all are
thoroughly exhausted the leader declares that he hears the
angels singing, and then begins a scene which cannot be here
described.”
I have quoted this passage in full because it may give to the reader
who is not versed in the details of Russian existence and Russian
psychology the key to the circumstances that helped Rasputin to absorb
for such a considerable number of years the attention of the public in
Russia, and which, in fact, made him possible as a great ruling, though
not governing, force in the country. In some ways he had appealed
to the two great features of the human character in general and of
the Russian character in particular--mysticism and influence of the
senses. It is not so surprising as it might seem at first sight that he
contrived to ascend to a position which no one who knew him at first
ever supposed he would or could attain.
At the same time I must, in giving a brief sketch of the career of
this extraordinary individual, protest against the many calumnies
which have associated him with names which I will not mention here out
of respect and feelings of patriotism. It is sufficiently painful to
have to say so, but German calumny, which spares no one, has used its
poisoned arrows also where Rasputin came to be discussed. It has tried
to travesty maternal love and anxiety into something quite different,
and it has attempted to sully what it could not touch. There have been
many sad episodes in this whole story of Rasputin, but some of the
people who have been mentioned in connection with them were completely
innocent of the things for which they have been reproached. Finally,
the indignation which these vile and unfounded accusations roused in
the hearts of the true friends and servants of the people led to the
drama which removed forever from the surface of Russian society the
sectarian who unfortunately had contrived to glide into its midst.
The one extraordinary thing about Rasputin is that he was not murdered
sooner. He was so entirely despised and so universally detested all
over Russia that it was really a miracle that he could remain alive so
long a time after it had been found impossible to remove him from the
scene of the world by other than violent means. It was a recognised
fact that he had had a hand in all kinds of dirty money matters and
that no business of a financial character connected with military
expenditure could be brought to a close without his being mixed in
it. About this, however, I shall speak later on in trying to explain
how the Rasputin legend spread and how it was exploited by all kinds
of individuals of a shady character, who used his name for purposes
of their own. The scandal connected with the shameless manner in
which he became associated with innumerable transactions more or less
disreputable was so enormous that unfortunately it extended to people
and to names that should never have been mentioned together with him.
* * * * *
It must never be forgotten, and I cannot repeat this sufficiently,
that Rasputin was a common peasant of the worst class of the Russian
moujiks, devoid of every kind of education, without any manners and in
his outward appearance more disgusting than anything else. It would be
impossible to explain the influence which he undoubtedly contrived to
acquire upon some persons belonging to the highest social circles if
one did not take into account this mysticism and superstition which lie
at the bottom of the Slav nature and the tendency which the Russian
character has to accept as a manifestation of the power of the divinity
all things that touch upon the marvellous or the unexplainable.
Rasputin in a certain sense appeared on the scene of Russian social
life at the very moment when his teachings could become acceptable, at
the time when Russian society had been shaken to its deepest depths by
the revolution which had followed upon the Japanese war and when it was
looking everywhere for a safe harbour in which to find a refuge.
* * * * *
At the beginning of his career and when he was introduced into the most
select circles of the Russian capital, thanks to the caprices and the
fancies of two or three fanatic orthodox ladies who had imagined that
they had found in him a second Savonarola and that his sermons and
teachings could provoke a renewal of religious fervour, people laughed
at him and at his feminine disciples, and made all kinds of jokes, good
and bad, about him and them. But this kind of thing did not last long
and Rasputin, who, though utterly devoid of culture, had a good deal
of the cunning which is one of the distinctive features of the Russian
peasant, was the first to guess all the possibilities which this sudden
“engouement” of influential people for his person opened out before
him and to what use it could be put for his ambition as well as his
inordinate love of money. He began by exacting a considerable salary
for all the prayers which he was supposed to say at the request of his
worshippers, and of all the ladies, fair or unfair, who had canonised
him in their enthusiasm for all the wonderful things which he was
continually telling them. He was eloquent in a way and at the beginning
of his extraordinary thaumaturgic existence had not yet adopted the
attitude which he was to assume later on--of an idol, whom every one
had to adore.
[Illustration:
_Photograph, International Film Service, Inc._
THE EX-CZAR AND HIS FAMILY]
* * * * *
He was preaching the necessity of repenting of one’s sins, making
due penance for them after a particular manner, which he described
as being the most agreeable to God, and praying constantly and with
unusual fervour for the salvation of orthodox Russia. He contrived
most cleverly to play upon the chord of patriotism which is always so
developed in Russians, and to speak to them of the welfare of their
beloved fatherland whenever he thought it advantageous to his personal
interests to do so. He succeeded in inspiring in his adepts a faith
in his own person and in his power to save their souls akin to that
which is to be met with in England and in America among the sect of
the Christian Scientists, and he very rapidly became a kind of Russian
Mrs. Eddy. A few hysterical ladies, who were addicted to neuralgia or
headaches, suddenly found themselves better after having conversed or
prayed with him, and they spread his fame outside the small circle
which had adopted him at the beginning of his career. One fine day a
personal friend of the reigning Empress, Madame Wyroubourg, introduced
him at Tsarskoie Selo, under the pretext of praying for the health
of the small heir to the Russian throne, who was occasioning some
anxiety to his parents. It was from that day that he became a personage.
* * * * *
His success at court was due to the superstitious dread with which
he contrived to inspire the Empress in regard to her son. She was
constantly trembling for him, and being very religiously inclined, with
strong leanings toward mysticism, she allowed herself to be persuaded
more by the people who surrounded her than by Rasputin himself. She
believed that the man of whose holiness she was absolutely persuaded,
could by his prayers alone obtain the protection of the Almighty for
her beloved child. An accidental occurrence contributed to strengthen
her in this conviction. There were persons who were of the opinion
that the presence of Rasputin at Tsarskoie Selo was not advantageous
for many reasons. Among them was Mr. Stolypine, then Minister of the
Interior, and he it was who made such strong representations that at
last Rasputin himself deemed it advisable to return to his native
village of Pokrovskoie, in Siberia. A few days after his departure the
little Grand Duke fell seriously ill and his mother became persuaded
that this was a punishment for her having allowed the vagrant preacher
to be sent away. Rasputin was recalled, and after this no one ever
spoke again of his being removed anywhere. From that time all kinds of
adventurers began to lay siege to him and to do their utmost to gain an
introduction.
Russia was still the land where a court favourite was all-powerful,
and Rasputin was held as such, especially by those who had some
personal interest in representing him as the successor to Menschikoff
under Peter the Great, Biren under the Empress Anne and Orloff under
Catherine II. He acquired a far greater influence outside Tsarskoie
Selo than he ever enjoyed in the imperial residence itself, and he
made the best of it, boasting of a position which in reality he did
not possess. The innumerable state functionaries, who in Russia
unfortunately always have the last word to say everywhere and in
everything and whose rapacity is proverbial, hastened to put themselves
at the service of Rasputin and to grant him everything which he asked,
in the hope that in return he would make himself useful to them.
A kind of bargaining established itself between people desirous of
making a career and Rasputin, eager to enrich himself no matter by what
means. He began by playing the intermediary in different financial
transactions for a substantial consideration, and at last he thought
himself entitled to give his attention to matters of state. This was
the saddest side of his remarkable career as a pseudo-Cagliostro. He
had a good deal of natural intelligence, and while being the first to
laugh at fair ladies who clustered around him, he understood at once
that he could make use of them. This he did not fail to do. He adopted
toward them the manners of a stern master, and treated them like his
humble slaves. At last he ended by leading the existence of a man of
pleasure, denying himself nothing, especially his fondness for liquor
of every kind. At that time there was no prohibition in Russia and,
like all Russian peasants, Rasputin was very fond of vodka, to which he
never missed adding a substantial quantity of champagne whenever he
found the opportunity.
I shall abstain from touching upon the delicate point of the orgies
to which it is related that Rasputin was in the habit of addicting
himself, the more so because I do not really believe these ever took
place in those higher circles of society where it was said they
regularly occurred. That strange things may have happened among the
common people, who in far greater numbers than it has ever been known,
used to attend the religious meetings which he held, I shall not deny.
It must always be remembered that Rasputin belonged to the religious
sect of the Khlysty, of whose assemblies we have read the description,
and it is quite likely, and even probable, that the assemblies of these
sectarians at which he presided were not different from the others to
which these heretics crowded. But I feel absolutely convinced that as
regards the relations of the adventurer with the numerous ladies of
society silly enough to believe in him and in his gifts of prophecy,
these consisted only of superstitious reverence on one side and
exploitation of human stupidity on the other.
I must once more insist on the point that the apparition of Rasputin
in Russian society had nothing wonderful about it, and that the only
strange thing is that such a fuss was made. Before his time people
belonging to the highest social circles had become afflicted with
religious manias of one kind or another out of that natural longing for
something to believe in and to worship which lies hidden at the bottom
of the character of every Russian who has the leisure, or the craving,
to examine seriously the difficult and complicated problems of a future
life and of the faith one ought to follow and to believe in.
In 1817 there was discovered in the very heart of St. Petersburg,
holding its meetings in an imperial residence (the Michael Palace), a
religious sect of most pronounced mystical tendencies, presided over
by a lady belonging to the best circles of the capital--the widow of a
colonel, Madame Tatarinoff. In her apartments used to gather officers,
State functionaries, women and girls of good family and excellent
education who, with slight variations, practised all the religious
rites of the Khlystys. One of the Ministers of Alexander I., Prince
Galitzyne, was suspected of having honoured these assemblies with his
presence. Thanks to a letter which accidentally fell into the hands
of the police, the Government became aware of what was going on, and
Madame Tatarinoff, this Russian Madame Guyon, expiated in exile in a
distant province of Siberia the ecstasies which she had practised and
which she had allowed others to practise under her roof. Some of her
disciples were prosecuted, but the greater number escaped scot free.
The authorities did not care to increase the scandal which this affair
had aroused in the capital.
Much later, in 1878, after the Russo-Turkish war, which, like the
Japanese affair, had been followed by a strong revolutionary movement
in the country that culminated in the assassination of the Czar,
Alexander II., another prophet, this time of foreign origin, appeared
on the social horizon of St. Petersburg society, where he made a
considerable number of converts. This was the famous Lord Radstock,
whose doctrines were taken up by a gentleman who up to that time
had been known as one of the gayest among the gay, a colonel in the
Guards--Mr. Basil Paschkoff. He was enormously rich, and put all his
vast fortune at the service of the religious craze which had seized
him. He used his best efforts to convert to the doctrine of salvation
through faith only not alone his friends and relatives, but also the
poorer classes of the population of the capital, devoting in particular
his attention to the cab drivers. All these people used to meet at
his house, where they mingled with persons of the highest rank and
standing, such as Count Korff, and a former Minister, Count Alexis
Bobrinsky. Later on the whole Tchertkoff family, to which belonged
the famous friend of Count Leo Tolstoy, associated itself with them,
and, indeed, displayed the greatest fanaticism in regard to its
participation in the doctrines of the new sect.
The Paschkovites, as they came to be called, had nothing at all in
common with the Khlystys. Their morals were absolutely unimpeachable,
and what they preached was simply the necessity to conform one’s morals
were absolutely unimpeachable, and what they explained and commented
upon, each person according to his own light. They were Protestants in
a certain sense, inasmuch as their views were distinctly Protestant
ones. But they had much more in common with the nonconformists than
the real followers of Luther or of Calvin. They were a kind of refined
Salvation Army, if this expression can be forgiven me; though they
never acquired the importance, nor did the good which the latter has
done, perhaps because they could never make any practical application
of the principles and of the ideas which animated them. But at one time
the Paschkovist craze was just as strong as the Rasputin one became
later on, and Lord Radstock and Mr. Paschkoff were considered just as
much prophets among their own particular circle as was Rasputin among
the fanatical ladies who had taken him up.
These crises of religious mania are regular occurrences in Russian
higher social circles when unusually grave circumstances arrive to
shake their equanimity. Seen from this particular point of view,
the apparition of Rasputin and the importance which his personality
acquired in the life of the Russian upper classes present nothing very
wonderful. Before him other so-called prophets had kept the attention
of the public riveted upon their doings and their actions.
What distinguished his short passage was the fact that it was made
the occasion by the natural enemies of the empire, consisting of the
discontented at home, and of the Germans outside the frontier, to
discredit the dynasty as well as those whose life was spent in its
immediate vicinity and to present this figure of the vagrant half-monk
and half-layman, who preached a new relation to those foolish enough to
listen to him, as being one of almost gigantic importance, who could at
his will and fancy direct the course of public affairs and lead them
wherever he wanted.
My object in this study will be to show Rasputin for what he really
was, and in retracing the different vicissitudes of his strange career,
not to give way to the many exaggerations, which, in familiarising
people abroad with his person and with his name, have made out of him
something quite wonderful, and almost equal in power with the Czar
himself. It is time to do away with such legends and to bring Rasputin
back to his proper level--a very able and cunning, half-cultured
peasant, who owed his successes only to the fanaticism of the few, and
to the interest which many had in dissimulating themselves behind him,
in order to bring their personal wishes to a successful end. It is not
Rasputin who performed most of the actions put to his credit. It was
those who influenced him, who pushed him forward and who, thanks to
him, became both rich and powerful. He has disappeared. I wish we could
be as sure that they have disappeared along with him.