Rasputin The Rascal Monk Part 9

"General Korniloff may be removed by the accidental explosion of a hand-grenade, in the same manner in which General Zhukovsky was removed in March last at Pultusk. This service could be entrusted to the soldier Paul Krizhitsky, of the 17th Grenadiers of Moscow, who is a despatch-rider and constantly at the General Headquarters. He should examine the bomb--a pine-apple one, in preference, and release the pin by accident. For this service you can pay in secret up to eighteen thousand roubles.

"Further, it is urgent that you should induce the Emperor at once to order the release of the men Polenov and Levitsky, and the woman Erich, who were arrested in the Hotel Brosi at Vitebsk. Their papers, if found, must be restored to them. The doc.u.ments are probably stored in the strong rooms of either the Ootchotny Bank, in the Hevsky, or at Lampe's. So get hold of them, as they contain facts incriminating S.

(Sturmer) and V (Madame Vyrubova). It is of most urgent importance that the prosecution in question be dismissed, and further, that those who instigated it should be degraded in pursuance of our policy. For this service you will be granted a generous extra payment. S.--70." The signature, scribbled in blue ink upon these remarkable instructions, is that of the notorious Herr Steinhauer, the Kaiser's chief spy and controller of the whole secret ramifications of Imperial Germany throughout the civilised world. I venture to publish it in these pages in order to show the devilish cunning of Germany, and their frantic efforts, by any underground and dastardly means, to stem the tide of war which threatened to overwhelm them.

In consequence of these instructions Rasputin immediately set to work to execute the wicked command of His Imperial Master in Berlin.

On the day following that secret message being delivered into his hands by a woman dressed as a peasant, as, descending from his carriage, he entered a house in the Nevski, he walked into the Emperor's private study and, placing his hand across his breast in that mock-pious att.i.tude he so often a.s.sumed, he said:

"Friend! Thou hast always been held by thy people to be a just and honest ruler; but in Vitebsk those who act in thy Imperial name are acting illegally and persecuting two poor men and a woman with motives of revenge. G.o.d has placed His holy protecting hand upon our dear Russia, and has given victory unto our gallant Brusiloff. But if injustice be done in thy Imperial name then the Divine Providence will most a.s.suredly withdraw protection from us."

"What is this, Holy Father?" asked the Emperor in great surprise.

"At Vitebsk two men, Polenov and Levitsky, together with a woman called Erich, three patriotic Russians who have, been engaged in Red Cross work--have, because of the ill-will of the Governor Wauthier, been apprehended, and false charges inst.i.tuted against them."

"Of what nature?"

"Of communicating with the enemy--a vague charge which to-day may be made against even the most patriotic," replied the monk, the "Holy Father" of the Empress, standing in that same att.i.tude he had at first a.s.sumed. "From the Holy Father of the monastery at Vitebsk I have received a confidential, and urgent report that the Governor Wauthier, an ill-living official, has inst.i.tuted these false charges in order to conceal his own disgraceful misdeeds, which the woman Erich has threatened to expose."

Then, after a pause, the dissolute monk and secret agent of the German Emperor said in that insolent, familiar manner he a.s.sumed when addressing the Tsar:

"Friend! This Governor, against whom the Holy Father at Vitebsk sends me secret information, should be dismissed and disgraced, and thy three innocent subjects released. If thou wilt permit injustice in thy Empire, then the success of thy arms cannot be maintained."

"Holy Father," said the weak impotent monarch, "the Governor shall be dismissed. Pa.s.s me over a telegraph-form."

And Rasputin took from the writing-table one of the forms upon which the Tsar wrote his autocratic orders, and actually at the monk's dictation His Majesty wrote an order for this release of the prisoners and the dismissal of the innocent, patriotic Governor, against whom the lying agent of the Kaiser had, according to his instructions from Berlin, laid a charge!

Truly the great patriotic Russian Empire had already fallen beneath the "Mailed Fist," even though thousands of her sons were daily sacrificing their lives to secure her freedom.

On the day following, Petkoff; who had already opened his separatist propaganda among the Ukrainian prisoners, in favour of Germany, arrived hot-foot in Petrograd, and spent some hours with Rasputin at his house, where the Prime Minister Sturmer and His Excellency Protopopoff were also closeted. The secret meeting was held at three o'clock and lasted until eight, when one of the Imperial carriages came from the Winter Palace, as it did daily, to convey the "Holy Father" there.

The Emperor had left again for the front three hours before, but the Empress remained. The dirty monk at once sought her, explaining that Germany had reached the last limits of her power upon the eastern front, and urgently needed a slackening of the Russian offensive.

"It is truly G.o.d's will that our friends the Germans shall not be crushed!" declared the cunning blackguard. "Are we not told that if we are smitten by an enemy upon one cheek we should turn the other? I declare to thee that if we press our enemies further, then the wrath of G.o.d will a.s.suredly fall upon thy house--and upon thy son the Tsarevitch," he said in his low base voice, crossing himself piously the while.

Indeed, that night, so deeply did the charlatan impress the poor Empress that she sat trembling at the fate which must be Russia's should Brusiloff's victory be maintained.

Incredible as it may seem, the Kaiser now held Russia in the hollow of his hand. No despatch from Petrograd to the Allies; no order for material; no communication of whatever sort, Imperial, diplomatic or private, but copies were at once transmitted to the Wilhelmstra.s.se, where the negotiations were known as soon as they were in Downing Street--and sometimes sooner!

Within a fortnight of Rasputin's grim prophecy of Russia's downfall if she further defied the Imperial power of Germany, the cunning plot to infect General Brusiloff with teta.n.u.s was attempted by the soldier Koltchak, while in a train conveying him from Borisoff to Petrograd, on a flying visit to consult with the Minister of War. Happily the plot failed, but the coffee in which the deadly culture had been placed was, alas! unfortunately drunk by a certain Major Dobrovolski, who died mysteriously and in great agony four days later; the General, of course, being entirely ignorant of Berlin's vile plot against him.

An attempt was also made upon General Korniloff at Chernitsa ten days later. A soldier who had no business near, handled a hand-grenade carelessly, just as the General happened to be riding by. The bomb exploded, killing the General's horse on the spot, but he himself escaped with a deep cut over the left eye. Everybody, of course, believed it to be a pure accident, therefore the affair was never reported.

These two attempts upon the lives of Russia's military leaders, the doc.u.mentary evidence of which exists, were only the forerunners of several others even more ingenious and more desperate, as I shall later on disclose in these pages.

The failure of the attempts to a.s.sa.s.sinate Brusiloff and Korniloff, and 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, G.o.d will abandon you! I am the chosen of G.o.d--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 G.o.d hath revealed unto me that there will be a separate peace and the ultimate triumph of the German arms," replied the mock-saint, a.s.suming his most pious att.i.tude, 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 G.o.d's glory, and Russia rejoiced that she had cast off the yoke of her Allies."

"G.o.d 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! G.o.d 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 G.o.d. I will return to my monastery at Pokrovsky, and pray for their salvation.

a.s.suredly G.o.d 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 cla.s.ses, 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 G.o.d," 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 a.s.sist 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 sanct.i.ty which Rasputin had a.s.sumed 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 const.i.tution 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 G.o.d will now a.s.suredly 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."