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Originally published in 1923 - translated from the French by F. A. Holt, O.B.E.
Main Menu - Table of Contents
Volume 1:
I. JULY 20-23, 1914 | II. JULY 24-AUGUST 2, 1914 | III.AUGUST 3-17, 1914 | IV. AUGUST 18-SEPTEMBER 11, 1914 | V. SEPTEMBER 12-OCTOBER 28, 1914 | VI. OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 30, 1914 | VII. DECEMBER 1-31, 1914 | VIII. JANUARY 1-FEBRUARY 13, 1915 | IX. FEBRUARY 14-MARCH 31, 1915 | X. APRIL 1-JUNE 2, 1915
Volume 2:
I. JUNE 3-AUGUST 24, 1915 | II. AUGUST 25-SEPTEMBER 20, 1915 | III.SEPTEMBER 21-NOVEMBER 8, 1915 | IV. NOVEMBER 9-DECEMBER 31, 1915 | V. JANUARY 1-26, 1916 | VI. JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 24, 1916 | VII. FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 22, 1916 | VIII. MARCH 23-MAY 3, 1916 | IX. MAY 4-JUNE 15, 1916 | X. JUNE 16-JULY 18, 1916 | XI. JULY 19-AUGUST 18, 1916
Volume 3
I. AUGUST 19-SEPTEMBER 18, 1916 | II. SEPTEMBER 19-OCTOBER 25, 1916 | III. OCTOBER 27-NOVEMBER 22, 1916 | IV. NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 24, 1916 | V. DECEMBER 25, 1916-JANUARY 8, 1917 | VI. JANUARY 9-28, 1917 | VII. JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 21, 1917 | VIII. FEBRUARY 22-MARCH 11, 1917 | IX. MARCH 12-22, 1917 | X. MARCH 23-APRIL 6, 1917 | XI. APRIL 7-21, 1917 | XII. APRIL 22-MAY 6, 1917 | XIII. MAY 7-17, 1917
Volume I
CHAPTER V
SEPTEMBER 12--OCTOBER 28, 1914
Rasputin's return to Petrograd. - Conversation
with Count Witte: his pessimism. - " This stupid adventure
must be liquidated as soon as possible." - At St. Alexander
Nevsky Monastery; Russian piety. A performance at the Marie Theatre:
Life for the Tsar. - General Sukhomlinov, the War Minister. - The
Russian offensive against Germany. - Rasputin reappears; his
past; his influence at court. - Turkey closes the Straits. -
The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. - Moscow, the Sacred
City: "God's Kingdom on Russian Soil." - The assassination
of the Grand Duke Sergius in 1905; Tanganka prison; the Grand
Duchess's visit to the assassin; the execution in Schlusselburg
prison; her farewell to the world; the Convent of Martha and
Mary. - The general offensive of the Russian armies. - The Polish
question and dreams of Constantinople. - The death of King Charles
I of Rumania. - The anarchist Lenin. - The Holy Synod and the
Marseillaise. - Patriotism of the students. - Successes
of the Russian armies in Poland and Galicia.
Saturday, September 12, 1914.
The Marne victory is hailed as a deliverance in all Russian
social circles. Congratulations are pouring in to the Embassy.
But the recent disaster at Soldau and disquieting rumours in the
last two days as to the course of the great battle in progress
in the cast of East Prussia are casting a general gloom over men's
minds and rendering them almost indifferent to the brilliant successes
in Galicia. And even if the public pays a generous tribute to
the heroism of the French army and General Joffre's skill in manoeuvre,
it does not fail to add that if it were not for the terrible hecatomb
of Soldau the Germans would now be in Paris.
Rasputin has recovered from his wound and has returned to Petrograd.
It has been easy for him to prove that his recovery is striking
proof of divine protection.
When he speaks of the war it is only in veiled, ambiguous,
and apocalyptic terms, and the conclusion is drawn that. he does
not approve of it and anticipates great misfortunes.
Someone else has just come back to Petrograd on whose return
I have equally little cause to congratulate myself, as he has
done nothing but give vent to lugubrious prophecies since his
arrival - I mean Count Witte, who was at Biarritz when war broke
out. He called on me the day before yesterday.
My personal acquaintance with him is confined to a single meeting
in Paris in the autumn of 1905. He was' returning from America
after signing the Peace of Portsmouth and he spoke very bitterly
of France, which he accused of giving insufficient support to
her ally, Russia, against Japan. At the time I was much struck
by his acute mind, broad views, and the somewhat contemptuous
authority of his language and his whole personality.
Let me give a few biographical details. Sergius Yulievitch
Witte was born on June 29, 1849, in the Caucasus, where his father
was rector of the university department. His mother, a Fadeïev,
belonged to an old Russian family. He took the mathematics course
at Odessa University, but lack of means soon compelled him to
break off his studies. He then obtained a post in the South Western
railways. He was still only a stationmaster at Popielna, a little
hamlet near Kiev, when Vishnegradsky, the President of the Company,
"discovered him" and promoted him at one step to the
post of manager.
In 1889, Vishnegradsky was made Finance Minister and
he immediately sent for Witte to come to St. Petersburg and made
him his right-hand man. Their close co-operation promptly raised
Russian credit to a level it had never reached before. In 1892,
however, Vishnegradsky had to retire, worn out by work. Witte
succeeded him. His strength of character, experience, and talents
soon secured him an outstanding place among the political leaders
of the Empire. He became President of the Committee of Ministers
at the end of 1903, but he did not succeed in foiling the
insane combination of intrigue and speculation which led to the
outbreak of the Manchurian war on February 8 following.
After the disasters of Mukden and Tsushima it was universally
recognized that he alone was of a stature to conduct the peace
negotiations. On September 5, 1905, he had the melancholy honour
of signing the Treaty of Portsmouth.
As a reward for his services Nicholas II gave him the title
of count, but at the bottom of his heart he hated this proud and
ironical nature and cold, penetrating and acid intellect, in contact
with which he always felt himself gauche and disarmed.
Revolutionary troubles rapidly grew worse, however, and the
dynasty was threatened.
Hitherto Witte had always been a sincere advocate of autocracy.
In his view the western states had no particular reason to boast
of their constitutional dogmas and Tsarism, though part of its
machinery could perhaps do with renovation, was perfectly adapted
to the instincts, manners, and powers of the Russian people. But
faced with this urgent peril he did not hesitate. On October 30,
after interminable discussions with the terrified Tsar, he induced
him to sign the famous Manifesto which seemed destined
to be Russia's Magna Charta and, conceding the principle
of various fundamental liberties, summoned an imperial Duma for
an early date. A week later he was appointed President of the
Council of Ministers.
During the following months the situation did anything but
improve. Emboldened by their first success the parties of the
Left put forward new claims. The arrogance and audacity of the
revolutionaries greatly increased. Simultaneously a violent reaction,
the handiwork of the "Black Bands," mobilized the rural
masses in the cause of orthodox absolutism. Massacres of liberals,
intelligentsia and Jews occurred in every part of the Empire.
Witte soon realized that he could never come to terms either with
the Duma - because it was pursuing a programme of sedition - or
with the Conservatives, because they would never forgive him for
the manifesto of October 30. Preferring to keep himself for the
future he offered his resignation to the Tsar who was only too
glad to see him go. But before surrendering his portfolio he gave
himself the pleasure of a last success in the service of which
he is a past master - finance. On April 16, 1906, he negotiated
in Paris a loan of two thousand million francs on terms very favourable
to the Russian treasury. On May 5, Nicholas II finally accepted
his resignation and appointed as his successor Ivan Loguinovitch
Goremykin, the present President of. the Council.
He arrived here from Biarritz a week ago and, as I have said,
called on me the day before yesterday. As an excuse for his visit
he reminded me of our meeting in Paris in the autumn of 1905,
and at once, without any preliminaries, opened a discussion, head
erect, eyes fixed on me, and his speech firm, precise, and slow:
"This war's madness," he said. "It has been
forced on the Tsar's prudence by stupid and short-sighted politicians.
It can only have disastrous results for Russia. France and England
alone can hope to derive any benefit from victory... . and,
anyhow, a victory for us seems to me highly questionable."
"Of course the benefits to be derived from this war - as
from any other war - depend upon victory. But I presume that if
we are victorious Russia will get her share, and a large share,
of the advantages and rewards... . After all, forgive me for
reminding you that if the world is now on fire it is in a cause
which interested Russia first and foremost, a cause which is eminently
the Slav cause and did not affect either France or England."
"No doubt you're referring to our prestige in the Balkans,
our pious duty to protect our blood brothers, our historic and
sacred mission in the East? Why, that's a romantic, old-fashioned
chimæra. No one here, no thinking man at least, now cares
a fig for these turbulent and vain Balkan folk who have nothing
Slav about them and are only Turks christened by the wrong name.
We ought to have let the Serbs suffer the chastisement they deserved.
What did they care about their Slav brotherhood when their
King Milan made Serbia an Austrian fief? So much for the origin
of this war! Now let's talk about the profits and rewards it will
bring us. What can we hope to get? An increase of territory. Great
Heavens! Isn't His Majesty's empire big enough already? Haven't
we in Siberia, Turkistan, the Caucasus, Russia itself, enormous
areas which have not yet been opened up? ... Then what are the
conquests they dangle before our eyes
East Prussia? Hasn't the Emperor too many Germans among his
subjects already? Galicia? It's full of Jews! Besides, the moment
we annex Austria and Prussia's Polish territories we shall lose
the whole of Russian Poland. Don't you make any mistake: when
Poland has recovered her territorial integrity she won't be content
with the autonomy she's been so stupidly promised. She'll claim
- and get - her absolute independence. What else have we to hope
for? Constantinople, the Cross on Santa Sophia, the Bosphorus,
the Dardanelles? It's too mad a notion to be worth a moment's
consideration! And even if we assume a complete victory for our
coalition - the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs reduced to begging
for peace and submitting to our terms - it means not only the
end of German domination but the proclamation of republics throughout
Central Europe. That means the simultaneous end of Tsarism! I
prefer to remain silent as to what we may expect on the hypothesis
of our defeat."
"What practical conclusion do you come to?"
"My practical conclusion is that we must liquidate this
stupid adventure as soon as possible."
"You'll appreciate that I can't follow you in your criticisms
of your Government for its support of Serbia. But you argue as
if it was responsible for the war. It was not your Government
which wanted the war, nor indeed the French or British Governments.
I can guarantee that the three governments did all that was honourably
possible to save peace. In any case our business at the moment
is not to ascertain whether the war could or could not have been
avoided, but to win the victory. Why, the conclusions to which
you yourself come on the assumption of our defeat are so terrifying
that you daren't mention them! As for 'promptly liquidating
this stupid adventure,' it's an idea which astonishes me in
a statesman of your intelligence. Can't you see that the gigantic
struggle in which we are involved is a duel to the death, and
that a compromise peace would mean the triumph of Germany?"
Looking incredulous, he replied:
"So we've got to go on fighting!"
"Yes, until victory."
He half shrugged his shoulders. Then after a moment's hesitation
he resumed:
"I'm afraid you credit certain idle rumours and believe
me inspired by ill-feeling towards France; that's how, you account
for everything you don't like in what I have said."
"If I had credited you with ill-feeling towards France,
particularly at the present moment, I shouldn't have received
you, Monsieur le Comte; at any rate I should have broken off our
conversation long ago. All I know is that you are hostile to the
policy of the Triple Entente."
"Yes, but I've always been an advocate of the French alliance."
"On condition that it was completed by an alliance with
Germany."
"I admit it."
"What about Alsace-Lorraine? How would you deal with that
in your combination?"
"The difficulty did not seem to me insurmountable. In
any case I should never have sacrificed the French alliance to
the German alliance. I have given convincing proof of that."
"Are you referring to what happened at Bjorkö between
the Emperor Nicholas and the Emperor William in July, 1905?"
"Yes; but it's a subject on which I'm bound to silence.
... Do you mind my asking what you know about it?"
"Our information about the incident is very imperfect,
and in the interests of the alliance itself we have not tried
to clear up the semi-confidences my predecessor, Monsieur Bompard,
received from you. If I had to sum up the various pieces of information
I should say that at the Bjorkö meeting the Emperor William
proposed to the Tsar an agreement incompatible with the French
alliance and that, owing to your personal intervention, the scheme
came to nothing."
"That's quite accurate."
"Forgive me for asking you a question in return. Did the
agreement proposed by the Emperor William bind France to make
common cause with Germany in future?"
"I'm sworn to secrecy on this matter... . All I can
tell you is that the Emperor William has never forgiven me for
having brought his scheme to nought. And yet they accuse me of
being a Germanophile! As a matter of fact, the Emperor Nicholas
hates me far more, not only because I frustrated the German intrigue,
but - and this is my worst offence - because shortly afterwards
I submitted for his signature the famous manifesto of October
30, 1905, which gave legislative power to the Duma. Since then
the Emperor has regarded me as his enemy and goes about telling
his intimates that I dream of succeeding him as President of the
Russian Republic. How absurd! What a pity! From the Emperor's
feelings towards me you can imagine what the Empress thinks! But
enough of all these trifles! I'm afraid I've kept you too long,
Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, and perhaps forced my effusions
upon you. Only please remember that in one important affair I
proved myself a true friend to France."
"I shall never forget it, and I'm grateful for your confidences."
He rose from his chair and, straightening himself awkwardly
after the manner of tall men, he took his leave in the most friendly
terms.
When he had gone I went for a walk on the Islands. As I strolled
in the solitary avenue which is my favourite haunt, I turned this
long conversation over in my mind. I could still see the tall
figure of the old statesman - an enigmatic, unnerving individual,
a great intellect, despotic, disdainful, conscious of his powers,
a prey to ambition, jealousy, and pride. I feel that if the war
goes badly for us his strength of character will bring him to
the front again. But I also think how evil an influence the spread
of his ideas on the war may have in a country in which public
opinion is so emotional and unstable, and how dangerous it is
to tell a Russian that "this stupid adventure must be liquidated
as soon as possible."(1)
Sunday, September 13, 1914.
In France the Germans are still retreating, abandoning prisoners,
wounded and unwounded, guns and transport. The left wing of the
French army has crossed the Aisne., the centre is making progress
between the Argonne and the Meuse; the right wing is forcing the
enemy back in the direction of Metz.
In the east of East Prussia General Rennenkampf's army looks
as if it ought to escape the catastrophe with which it was threatened;
it has practically succeeded in forcing a passage through the
Masurian Lakes and is falling back on Kovno and Grodno.
In Galicia the Russians have crossed the lower San and in the
Bukovina they have occupied Czernowitz.
To-day is the birthday of Saint Alexander Nevsky, the Tsar
of Novgorod, who defeated the Swedes and the Teutonic Knights
on the banks of the Neva in 1241. On the spot where the national
hero won his victory Peter the Great built a monastery as vast
and sumptuous as the famous Lauras at Kiev and Serghievo.
Girt with walls and moats like a monastic citadel the Laura
of Petrograd comprises a cathedral, eleven churches, numerous
chapels, the Metropolitan's residence, the monks' cells, a seminary,
an ecclesiastical academy and three cemeteries. I often take my
walk there to enjoy the charm of peace and silence it gives, the
atmosphere of religious resignation and sweet humanity it breathes.
To-day a huge crowd filled the courts and sanctuaries. In the
Cathedral of the Trinity - one great cloud of incense - the pious
were swarming round the shrine of Saint Alexander. The throng
was quite as great in the Church of the Annunciation, round the
bronze slab on which this modest and eloquent epitaph may be read:
Here lies Suvorov. Women were in a large majority.
They were praying for their husbands, brothers, and sons fighting
away at the front. Several groups of peasants, men and women,
made a touching picture with their grave and wrapt gaze. I was
particularly struck by one moujik, an old man with snow-white
hair and beard, swarthy complexion, broad and deeply wrinkled
forehead, melancholy, luminous and distant eyes - the typical
patriarch. Standing before an ikon of Saint Alexander he was turning
his cap in his bony fingers, nor did he stop for a moment except
to cross himself fervently while bowing low. He muttered an interminable
prayer, a prayer very different no doubt from those which are
being offered up at the present time in the churches of France;
for the way of prayer varies with different races. When a Russian
soul beseeches God's help what it expects is not so much the strength
to will and act as the strength to suffer and endure. This old
man's face and pose were so expressive that he seemed to me to
personify the patriotism of the Russian peasant.
In the evening I went to the Marie Theatre for a performance
of Glinka's Life for the Tsar. The Director of the imperial
theatres had invited my English and Japanese colleagues, the Belgian
and Serbian Ministers and myself to be present this evening as
a demonstration in honour of the Allies had been prepared. Before
the curtain rose the orchestra played the Russian national anthem,
the Boje Tsaria Kranie, which Prince Lvov composed about
1825, a hymn with a broad sweep which produces a noble, religious
effect. How many times had I heard it before? But I had never
realized so forcibly how foreign the melody of the national anthem
is to Russian music and how German it is - in the direct tradition
of Bach and Händel. But that did not prevent the public from
listening to it in a patriotic silence which ended in an outburst
of prolonged cheering. Next came the Marseillaise, received
with transports of delight. Then Rule Britannia which was
likewise hailed with loud cheers. Buchanan was in the box next
to mine and I asked him why the orchestra played Rule Britannia
and not God Save the King. He replied that as
the latter was the same as the Prussian national anthem the authorities
feared a mistake which would have shocked the public. Next came
the Japanese national anthem, suitably greeted. I calculated that
it was only nine years since Mukden and Tsushima! At the opening
notes of the Brabançonne a storm of grateful and
admiring cheers burst. Everyone seemed to be saying: "Where
should we be now if Belgium had not resisted?" The ovation
to the Serbian national anthem was more restrained, in fact very
restrained. Many people seemed to be reflecting: "If it had
not been for the Serbs we should still be at peace!"
Then we had to sit through the Life for the Tsar, a stale
and frigid work with its too official loyalty and its too old-fashioned
Italianism. The public enjoyed it all the same for Glinka's drama
touches the very fibres of the Russian conscience.
Monday, September 14, 1914.
In France the Germans are slowly retiring northwards. They
seem to have prepared strong positions on the Aisne. If they manage
to hold us up in these lines the victory of the Marne will not
have been as decisive as we could have hoped. It is only by the
results of the pursuit that the importance of a victory can be
measured.
Anyhow I was not surprised by a telegram I receive this morning
in which Delcassé instructs me to impress on the Russian
Government that it is essential for the Russian armies to press
home their direct offensive against Germany. The fact is that
Bordeaux is afraid that our Allies may have had their heads turned
by their relatively easy successes in Galicia and may neglect
the German front in order to concentrate on forcing their way
to Vienna.
This very morning I went to the War Office and told General
Sukhomlinov of the French Government's concern. He replied:
"But our direct offensive against Germany began on August
16 and we're continuing it vigorously and on the largest possible
scale! You know as much as I do about our operations in East Prussia.
What more can we do, I ask you?"
"How soon will the Niemen and Narev armies be able to
resume their advance? "
"Oh, not for a long time yet! They've suffered too heavily.
I'm afraid they may even have to retreat a little further yet
... but I don't mind telling you - in strict secrecy - that
the Grand Duke Nicholas is contemplating and preparing an operation
on a wide front in the direction of Posen and Breslau."
"Excellent!"
"I mustn't hide from you that it will take a long time
to organize this operation. We can't take any more risks. Don't
forget, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, that we've already sacrificed
110,000 men at Soldau to help the French army!"
"We should have made the same sacrifice to help the Russian
army... . But without diminishing the practical importance and
moral effect of the service you then rendered us forgive me for
remarking that it was not our fault if General Artamanov retreated
20 versts on the left wing without notifying his Army Commander!"
We returned to the matter which was the reason for my visit.
I reiterated my desire to obtain an assurance that the Russian
armies would not allow themselves to be deflected towards Vienna
and neglect their principal objective - the German objective:
"I am not forgetting," I said, " that the final
decision as regards operations is the province of the generalissimo,
but I know also that the Grand Duke Nicholas always attaches great
importance to your views and suggestions. So I'm relying on you
to back up my request to the Grand Duke."
He fixed his eyes on me, eyes that were sharp and cunning under
their heavy lids:
"But we can't stop our advance in Galicia where we are
gaining brilliant successes every day! Remember that since the
campaign started the Austrians have already lost 200,000 men killed
or wounded, in addition to 60,000 prisoners and 600 guns!"
"Your Excellency too must remember that the Germans are
only 70 kilometres from Paris! What would you say if they were
70 versts from Petrograd, half-way between Luga and Gatchina?
... Besides, I'm not asking you to suspend your operations in
Galicia but merely not to get too involved there and forget that
our main object the destruction of the German armies."
A smile, a hypocritically pleasant smile, spread over his face:
"We're both absolutely agreed on that! Monsieur
l'Ambassadeur, I'm quite sure we shall always understand
one another."
"So I can rely on you to telegraph to the Grand Duke Nicholas?"
"I'll do more than that. I'll send him one of my officers
this very evening."
Before withdrawing I asked the Minister about the result of
the recent fighting in East Prussia. He replied that it had been
extremely severe at Tilsit, Gumbinnen and Lyck, but that the Russian
army had succeeded in making its way out of the Mazurian Lakes
region and at the moment was falling back on Kovno.
"So all East Prussia has been lost?
"Yes."
"What are your losses?
"I don't exactly know."
"A hundred thousand men?"
"Perhaps."
Tuesday, September 15, 1914.
As I distrust General Sukhomlinov and all the doubtful intrigues
in which he is an agent I again took up the question of the direct
offensive against Germany with Sazonov this morning and asked
him to put our representations before the Emperor on my behalf.
"For greater accuracy," he said, " draft the
answer yourself that you want His Majesty to give."
I then drafted the following: "As soon as the Austro-Hungarian
armies in Galicia have been put out of action the direct offensive
of the Russian armies against Germany will be pressed with the
greatest energy."
"That's all right," Sazonov said. "I'll write
to His Majesty at once."
At eleven this evening the Tsar had me informed that he accepted
my draft and had wired accordingly to the Grand Duke Nicholas.
Wednesday, September 16, 1914.
The Battle of the Marne is being continued on the Aisne - with
the difference that the Germans have dug themselves in on strong
defensive positions, so that the struggle is assuming the character
of siege warfare.
The Russians are on the heels of the Austrians between Sandomir
and Jaroslav.
Since mobilization the Government has prohibited the sale of
spirits, vodka, in the whole territory of the Empire. This
great reform was introduced by the rescript of February 13, 1914,
and the whole credit for it is the Emperor's. It is being carried
out so methodically and strictly as to leave one astonished at
the Russian bureaucracy. The effects of the reform are seen in
a decrease in crimes of violence and an appreciable increase in
the output of labour.
Thursday, September 17, 1914.
The Grand Duke Nicholas has just issued a proclamation to the
nations of Austria-Hungary, inviting them to throw off the Hapsburg
yoke and realize their national aspirations at last.
Simultaneously Sazonov is pressing the Rumanian Government
to occupy Transylvania and join in the occupation of the Bukovina
by the Russian troops.
Saturday, September 19, 1914.
The bombardment of Rheims and destruction of the cathedral
are affecting Petrograd very deeply. No event of the war has made
such a striking impression on the Russian imagination - an imagination
excessively emotional, hungering after melodrama, indifferent
and all but blind to reality except when it appears in the form
of picturesque and theatrical happenings, or moving and dramatic
scenes.
Sunday, September 20, 1914.
The Emperor is on a tour of inspection to the army fronts.
As a rule the meetings of the Empress and Rasputin take place
in Madame Vyrubova's little house on the Sredniaya. But yesterday
the staretz was received at the palace itself and his visit
lasted nearly two hours.
Tuesday, September 22, 1914.
This morning I was called on by a Frenchman, Robert Gauthiot,
professor at the École des Hautes-Études in
Paris. He has come straight from Pamir where he was engaged on
an ethnological and linguistic expedition.
In the second week of August he was in the neighbourhood of
Chorog, a valley 4,000 metres high on the slopes of the Hindu
Kush. He had proceeded a twelve-days' march beyond the last Russian
post guarding the frontier of Ferghana, the ancient Sogdiana.
On August 16 a native who had gone to get him supplies from this
post told him that Germany had declared war on Russia and France.
He started back immediately and has reached Petrograd in one stage,
via Marghelan, Samarkand, Tiflis, and Moscow.
I told him the extraordinary series of events which has marked
the last two months. He told me how very impatient he was to get
back to France and rejoin his territorial regiment. Then we explored
the future. We calculated what a colossal effort will be required
of us to destroy the power of Germany, and so on. I am particularly
interested in his views because he has paid frequent and long
visits to Germany. Among the most noteworthy of his remarks was
this:
"I have spent a good deal of time among the German Socialists;
I know their doctrines well and their habit of mind even better.
You may be quite certain, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, that
they will do all they can to help in the war and fight as hard
as the most inveterate junker. Why, I'm a Socialist myself; I'm
actually anti-militarist. But you can see it doesn't prevent me
from going to defend my country."
I congratulated him on his eagerness to perform his military
duty and have asked him to lunch with me to-morrow.
When he had gone I reflected that I had had before me eloquent
proof of the patriotism with which the French intellectuals are
inspired, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary.
Here is one of them who hears of the war when he is in the
depths of the Pamir, 4,000 metres up, on the "Roof of the
World." He is alone, left to his own resources, away from
the contagious fever of the sublime national impulse which is
sweeping over France. Yet he does not hesitate a moment. All his
socialist and pacifist theories, the interest of his scientific
expedition and his own personal interests vanish before the vision
of "La Patrie" in danger. He rushes to the rescue.(2)
Count Kokovtsov, ex-President of the Council, whose clear-eyed
patriotism and high intelligence I so much admire, has been to
see me at the Embassy.(3) He has just returned
from an estate of his near Novgorod.
"You know," he said, "that temperamentally I'm
not prone to optimism, but all the same I think the war is going
well for us. As a matter of fact, I never thought our war with
Germany could have any other beginning. We've suffered some reverses,
but our armies are intact, and our moral is excellent.
In a few months from now we shall be strong enough to crush our
terrible opponent."
Then he talked about the terms of peace we shall have to impose
on Germany, and expressed himself with a violence which astonished
me in a man who usually weighs his words so carefully:
"When the hour of peace strikes we must be ruthless .
. . ruthless! Public opinion will drive us to ruthlessness,
anyhow. You've no idea how furious the moujiks are with
Germany."
"That's really most interesting! You noticed it yourself?
"
"Only the day before yesterday... . I was leaving that
morning and taking a walk in my grounds. I saw a very old peasant
who lost his only son a long time ago and has his two grandsons
in the army. On his own initiative and without my asking him he
told me how much he feared that the war would not be fought out
to the bitter end, the hateful German brood destroyed and the
evil weed of the Niemetz(4) rooted out
of the soil of Russia. I congratulated him on his patriotism in
accepting the risks to which the two grandsons, his sole means
of support, were exposed. He replied: 'Look, barin. If
we're unlucky enough not to destroy the Niemetz, they'll
come here; they'll reign over the whole of Russia and then
they'll harness you and me - yes, you as well - to their ploughs!
... 'That's what our peasants are thinking."
"Their reasoning is very sound, at any rate in a symbolical
sense."
Thursday, September 24, 1914.
I have had a talk with the Minister for Agriculture, Krivoshein,
whose personal authority, lucid intellect and political talents
seem to have won him a high degree of confidence and favour with
Nicholas II.
Yesterday he had a long conference with the Emperor whom he
found in excellent spirits. During the conversation His Majesty
casually remarked:
"I shall fight this war to the bitter end. To wear down
Germany I shall exhaust all my resources; I'll retreat to the
Volga if necessary."
The Tsar also said: "In starting this war the Emperor
William has dealt a terrible blow to the monarchical principle."
Saturday, September 26, 1914.
In accordance with the promise I received from the Emperor
on September 15, the Russian army is about to resume the offensive
in the direction of Berlin, via Breslau. All the preparations
are complete and a cavalry corps, consisting of 120 squadrons,
has already been sent forward with infantry support.
On this subject General de Laguiche writes to me as follows
from Baranovici:
I have received a formal promise that they will not allow
themselves to be deflected towards Vienna. I can assure you that
there is no dissentient voice on this subject, not one which.
asks anything but an advance on Berlin. The Austrian is. not
the enemy now; we are attacking Germany with our whole soul in
our task and a burning desire to close with her at the first
possible moment. I am touched to see how anxious the military
leaders are about French intentions and aspirations. Everything
is being done with a single eye to coming up to the expectations
of our Ally. This has struck me very forcibly.
Sunday, September 27, 1914.
1 have lunched at Tsarskoe Selo with Countess B - -
whose sister is very friendly with Rasputin. I asked her about
the staretz.
"Has he seen much of the Emperor and Empress since his
return?"
"Not much. I've an idea that their Majesties are keeping
him away to a certain extent at the moment. For example, yesterday
he was at my sister's house, quite near here. He telephoned, in
our presence, to the palace to ask Madame Vyrubova if he could
see the Empress in the evening. She replied he had better wait
a few days. He seemed very annoyed at this answer, and left us
at once, without even saying good-bye! ... In other days he
wouldn't even have asked if he could go to the palace; he'd have
gone straight there."
"How can you account for this sudden decline in his fortunes?"
"Simply by the fact that the Empress has been torn from
her old fits of melancholia. From morning to night she's busy
with her hospitals, sewing committees and hospital train. She
has never looked so well."
"Is it true that Rasputin has told the Emperor that this
war will be disastrous to Russia and must be stopped at once?"
"I doubt it... . Last June, just before Khinia Gusseva's
attempt on his life, Rasputin was frequently telling the Emperor
to beware of France and make friends with Germany; of course,
he was only repeating the words old Prince Mestchersky had had
such difficulty in teaching him. But since his return from Pokrovskoïe
he has been talking in a very different strain. Only the day before
yesterday he said to me: 'I'm very pleased this war has come:
it has delivered us from two great evils, drink and German friendship.
Woe to the Tsar if he stops the conflict before Germany has been
crushed!' "
"Good! Bat does he talk in the same way to the sovereigns?
Only a fortnight ago I had a very different report about what
he was saying."
"He may have said something different. Rasputin is not
a politician with a system or programme from which he draws his
inspiration in all circumstances. He's a moujik, illiterate,
impulsive, visionary, capricious and a bundle of contradictions.
But as he's very cunning and feels that his position at the palace
is shaken I should be surprised if he spoke openly against the
war."
"Are you under his spell?"
"I? Not in the least! Physically I find him disgusting;
he has dirty hands, black nails and an unkempt beard. Horrors!
I'll admit he amuses me all the same. He has extraordinary verve
and imagination. At times he is actually eloquent. He has
a gift for metaphor and a deep sense of mystery."
"Is he really so eloquent?"
"Yes. I assure you that some days he has a very original
and arresting way of speaking. He is familiar, mocking, violent,
merry, ridiculous and poetical by turns. And with all this not
a trace of pose! On the contrary, the most unexampled effrontery
and the most staggering cynicism."
"You describe him to the life."
"Tell me, honestly, wouldn't you like to know him?
"No, indeed! He's too compromising. But please keep me
au fait with all he is saying and doing, as I'm uneasy
about him."
Monday, September 28, 1914.
I, told Sazonov what Countess B - - told me yesterday about
Rasputin.
He went purple in the face at once.
"For Heaven's sake don't mention that man's name to me!
I loathe him... . He's not merely an adventurer and a charlatan:
he's the incarnation of the Devil himself; he's Antichrist!"
So many legends have already gathered round the staretz
that it seems to me useful to give some authentic facts.
Grigory Rasputin was born in 1871 at Pokrovskoïe,
a wretched hamlet on the borders of Western Siberia, between Tiumen
and Tobolsk. His father was a simple moujik, a drunken,
thieving horse-dealer. His name was Eflin Novy. The surname of
Rasputin, which young Grigory soon received from his comrades,
is eloquent of this period of his life and prophetic of the future;
it is a term of peasant slang, derived from the word rasputnik
which means "debauchee," "rake," "woman-chaser."
Grigory was often thrashed by enraged fathers, and even publicly
whipped by order of the ispravnik, but one day he found
his "road to Damascus." The exhortations of a priest
whom he was driving to Verkhoturie monastery suddenly awakened
his mystic instincts. But his robust temperament, strong passions
and unbridled imagination immediately drove him into the licentious
sect known as the Khlisty, or "Flagellants."
Among the innumerable sects which are more or less detached
from the established Church and reveal so strangely the lack of
moral discipline among the Russian people, their hunger for mystery
and their taste for the indefinite, the extreme and the absolute,
the Khlisty are distinguished by the gross excesses and
sensuality which mark their practices. They inhabit principally
the regions of Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratov, Ufa, Orenburg, and Tobolsk;
their number is put at about 120,000. The most lofty spirituality
seems to inspire their doctrine as they aim at nothing less than
communicating direct with God, steeping themselves in the Word,
and incarnating Christ. But to attain this celestial communion
they resort to all the indulgences of the flesh. The faithful,
men and women, assemble at night, sometimes in an isba, sometimes
in a forest clearing. There, calling upon God, singing hymns and
yelling chants, they dance in a ring, faster and faster. Soon
they are overcome with giddiness and fall down in ecstasy or convulsions.
The leader of the dance whips those whose energies flag. Then,
filled and intoxicated with the "divine influx," the
couples close like brute beasts. The service ends with monstrous
scenes of sensuality, lust and incest.
Rasputin's richly-endowed temperament marked him out as ripe
for the "divine influx." His exploits in the nocturnal
radéniés soon won him popularity. His gifts
for mysticism developed simultaneously. Travelling through the
villages he delivered evangelical addresses and told parables.
Gradually he ventured into prophecy, exorcism and incantations.
He even boasted of having performed miracles. For a hundred versts
around Tobolsk no one doubted that he was a holy man. Yet even
in this period he had some tiresome brushes with justice over
too glaring peccadilloes. He would have come out of them rather
badly if the ecclesiastical authorities had not already taken
him under their wing.
In 1904 his reputation for piety and the odour of his virtues
reached Petersburg. The famous visionary Father John of Kronstadt,
who had consoled and sanctified the dying moments of Alexander
III, desired to know the young Siberian prophet. He received him
at the Monastery of Saint Alexander Nevsky and congratulated himself
on observing, from signs unmistakable, that he was marked out
by God. After this appearance in the capital Rasputin returned
to Pokrovskoïe, but from that day the horizon of his life
was extended. He entered into relations with a whole gang of more
or less illuminist, charlatan and dissolute priests, hundreds
of whom may be met with among the dregs of the Russian clergy.
It was then that he took as his acolyte a vulgar, blustering,
erotic and "miracle-working" monk, worshipped by the
mob, but a fierce enemy of liberals and Jews. He was Father Heliodorus
who was later to raise the standard of revolt in his monastery
at Tsarytsin and keep the Holy Synod in check by the violence
of his reactionary fanaticism. Before long Grigory was not satisfied
with the company of moujiks and priests. He was seen gravely
walking with archpriests and abbots, bishops and archimandrites
who all agreed with John of Kronstadt in seeing in him "a
spark of God." Yet he had to withstand the continuous assaults
of the Devil, and often enough he yielded. At Tsarytsin he deflowered
a nun whom he had undertaken to exorcise. At Kazan he was drunk
one fine June evening and came out of a drinking den driving before
him a naked prostitute whom he thrashed with his belt - a proceeding
which caused a great scandal in the town. At Tobolsk he seduced
Madame L - -, the wife of an engineer and a woman of a great
piety and he drove her to such a pitch that she went everywhere
proclaiming her passion and glorying in her shame. It was she
who initiated him into the refined joys of society women.
By such exploits, which accumulated as time went on, his reputation
for holiness increased from day to day. People knelt in the streets
as he passed; they kissed his hands, touched the hem of his robe,
called out "Our Christ, our Saviour, pray for us, poor sinners!
God will hear thee... ." He would reply: " In the
name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I bless you, little brothers.
Trust and obey. Christ will soon return. Be patient , remembering
his death! Mortify your flesh for love of Him!"
In 1905 the Archimandrite Theophanes, Rector of the Theological
College at Petersburg, a prelate of the greatest piety and the
Empress's confessor, was unhappily inspired to summon Rasputin
to see for himself the marvellous effects of grace upon this simple
soul which the powers of evil tormented so pitilessly. Touched
by his frank fervour he took him under his wing and introduced
him into his own particular circle, a very considerable circle.
At its head was a very influential group - the Grand Duke Nicholas
Nicolaievitch, then Commander of the Imperial Guard and now Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian armies, his brother the Grand Duke Peter, their
wives, the Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Militza, daughters of
the King of Montenegro. Grigory had only to make his appearance
to amaze and fascinate this idle and credulous company, given
to the most absurd practices of spiritualism, occultism, and necromancy.
In all the "mystic" coteries there was quite a scramble
for the Siberian prophet, the Bojy tchelloviek, the "
Man of God."
The Montenegrin Grand Duchesses distinguished themselves by
their excessive devotion to him. As early as 1900 they had brought
the magician, Philip of Lyons, to the Russian Court. It was they
who presented Rasputin to the Tsar and Tsaritsa in the summer
of 1907.
Yet when on the point of granting him an audience the sovereigns
had one last hesitation. They took counsel of the Archimandrite
Theophanes who fully reassured them "Grigory Efimovitch,"
he said, "is a peasant, a man of the people. Your Majesties
will do well to hear him, for it is the voice of the Russian soil
which speaks through him... . I know all the charges against
him... I know his sins which are numberless and most of them
heinous. But there dwells in him so deep a passion of repentance
and so implicit a trust in divine pity that I would all but guarantee
his eternal salvation. Every time he repents he is as pure as
the child washed in the waters of baptism. Manifestly God has
called him to be one of His chosen."
From the moment of his entrance into the palace Rasputin obtained
an extraordinary ascendancy over the Tsar and Tsaritsa. He wheedled
them, dazzled them, dominated them. It was almost like sorcery.
Not that he flattered them. Quite the contrary. From the first
day his manner towards them was rough and he treated them with
a bold and disingenuous familiarity in which the two sovereigns,
nauseated with adulation and sycophancy, thought they recognized
"the voice of the Russian soil." He soon became the
friend of Madame Vyrubova, the Empress's inseparable companion,
and by her was initiated into all the secrets of the imperial
couple and the Empire. All the intriguers at court, all the place-hunters
and aspirants for titles and livings naturally tried to enlist
his support. His humble residence on the Kirotchnaïa, and
later the Anglisky Prospekt, was besieged day and night by applicants,
generals and officials, bishops and archimandrites, Councillors
of the Empire and Senators, aides-de-camp and chamberlains, maids
of honour and society women. There was an unending procession
of them. When he was not with the sovereigns or the Montenegrin
Grand Duchesses he was usually to be found at the house of old
Countess Ignatiev, whose salon on the French Quay comprised the
official champions of autocracy and theocracy. The highest dignitaries
of the Church liked to congregate about her. Promotions in the
ecclesiastical hierarchy, nominations to the Holy Synod, the gravest
questions of dogma, discipline and Church liturgy were discussed
before her. Her moral authority, which was universally recognized,
was a valuable help to Rasputin.
Sometimes she had celestial visions. One evening, during a
spiritualistic séance, Saint Seraphin of Sarov, who was
canonized in 1903, had appeared to her with a flaming halo round
his head. He had declared: "A great prophet is among you.
It is his mission to reveal the will of Providence to the Tsar
and to lead him into glorious paths." She had realized at
once that he was referring to Rasputin. The Emperor was immensely
impressed with this oracle for, as supreme guardian of the Church,
he had taken a decisive part in the canonization of the blessed
Seraphin and had a very special reverence for him.
Among Rasputin's patrons in his early days was another curious
individual, the therapeutist Badmaiev. He is a trans-Baikal Siberian,
a Buriat Mongol. Although he has not a single university degree
he carries on the profession of medicine, not clandestinely but
openly, in the public eye. It is a very curious sort of medicine,
a kind of alchemy with a flavour of sorcery. When he first knew
Rasputin, in 1906, a very unfortunate thing had just happened
to him, a tribulation such as occasionally overtakes even the
most honest of men. Towards the close of the Japanese War a highly-placed
client of his had marked his gratitude by sending him on a political
mission to the hereditary chiefs of Chinese Mongolia. He was commissioned
to distribute two hundred thousand roubles among them to secure
their support. When he came back from Urga he had presented a
report enumerating the brilliant results of his journey, and on
the strength of this document had been appropriately congratulated.
But a little later it had been discovered that he had kept the
two hundred thousand roubles for himself. The incident was beginning
to have a somewhat ugly look when the intervention of the highly-placed
client had settled everything. The therapeutist had then returned
to his cabalistic operations with an easy mind. Never before had
the sick and ailing flocked in such numbers to his consulting-room
on the Liteïny, for it was rumoured that he had brought back
from Mongolia all sorts of medicinal herbs and magic remedies,
obtained with immense difficulty from Thibetan sorcerers. Secure
in his ignorance and illuminism Badmaiev does not hesitate to
treat the most difficult and obscure cases in the whole realm
of medicine. Yet he has a preference for nervous diseases, mental
affections and the baffling disorders of feminine physiology.
He has established a secret pharmacopoeia. Under grotesque names,
and in equally grotesque forms, he himself prepares the medicaments
he orders. Thus he carries on a dangerous trade. in narcotics,
stupefactives, anæsthetics, emmenagogues, aphrodisiacs.
He christens them with names such as Elixir du Thibet, Poudre
de Nirvritti, Fleurs d'asokas, Baume de Nyen-Tchen, Essence de
lotus noir, and so on. And all he does is to get the substances
for his drugs from a chemist who is in league with him. On several
occasions the Emperor and Empress have called him in to the Tsarevitch
when ordinary doctors seemed powerless to stop the child's hæmorrhage.
It was thus that he met Rasputin. Their respective charlatanisms
at once recognized each other and coalesced.
But ultimately the sane elements in the capital were roused
at all the scandals which gathered round the name of the staretz
of Pokrovskoïe. At long last his perpetual presence in
the imperial palace, the part he had admittedly played in certain
arbitrary or unfortunate actions on the part of the supreme authority,
the insolent licence of his talk and the cynical effrontery of
his morals roused a storm of indignation in all quarters. In spite
of the strict censorship the press denounced the ignominy of the
Siberian "magician," of course being careful not to
refer to their Majesties. But the public read between the lines.
The "Man of God" felt that it would be advisable to
disappear for a time. In March, 1911, he took the pilgrim's staff
and departed for Jerusalem. This unexpected decision filled his
devotees with grief and admiration. None but a sainted soul could
give such a reply to the calumnies of the wicked! Then he spent
the summer at Tsarytsin with his excellent friend and colleague,
the monk Heliodorus.
The Empress, however, kept in constant touch with him by letter
and telephone. In the autumn she told him she could endure his
absence no longer. Besides, since the staretz had been
allowed to go the Tsarevitch's attacks of hæemorrhage had
become more frequent. Suppose the child died! ... The mother
had not a single day's peace; she was a prey to an unending series
of nervous crises, muscular spasms and fainting fits. The Tsar
loves his wife and is absolutely devoted to his son, and he had
a most trying time.
At the beginning of November Rasputin returned to Petersburg.
The insanities and orgies immediately began again, but already
certain dissensions began to be observable among his disciples:
some thought him compromising and unduly licentious; others were
concerned at his growing influence on Church and State affairs.
As it happened the ecclesiastical world was still quivering with
indignation over a shameful appointment forced on the weak-willed
Emperor; Grigory had obtained the bishopric of Tobolsk for one
of the friends of his youth, an illiterate, obscene and debauched
peasant, Father Varnava. About the same time it was learned that
the Procurator of the Holy Synod had received orders to ordain
Rasputin a priest. This time there was an explosion.
On December 29, Monsignor Hermogenes, Bishop of Saratov, the
monk Heliodorus and certain priests had an altercation with the
staretz. They abused and buffeted him, shouting out: "Accursed!".
"Sacrilegious priest!" ... "Fornicator!"
... "Filthy beast!"... "Devil's viper!"
... Taken aback at first and crouching against the wall Grigory
tried to reply with a volley of counter-abuse. Then Monsignor
Hermogenes, who is a giant, struck him hard on the head several
times with his pectoral cross and cried out: "Down on your
knees, you wretch! On your knees to the sacred ikons! Ask God's
pardon for all your filthy knaveries! Swear that you'll never
pollute the palace of our beloved Tsar with your dirty presence
again!" Rasputin, quivering with fear and bleeding at the
nose, beat his breast, stammered out prayers and swore never to
appear in the Emperor's presence again. He left the room under
a fresh shower of curses and abuse.
The moment he was out of this trap he went straight to Tsarskoe Selo.
He had not long to wait for the joys of revenge. A few days later,
on the express orders of the Procurator, the Holy Synod deprived
Monsignor Hermogenes of his see and exiled him to the monastery
of Khirovitsy in Lithuania. The monk Heliodorus was arrested by
gendarmes and shut up in the penitentiary monastery of Floristchevo,
near Vladimir.
At first the police were powerless to prevent this scandal
from leaking out. Speaking in the Duma, the leader of the Octobrist
Party, Gutchkov, attacked Rasputin's relations with the Court
in veiled terms. In Moscow, the religious and moral metropolis
of the Empire, the best and most respected interpreters of orthodox
Slavism, Count Cheremetiev, Samarin, Novosilov, Drujinin, and
Vasnetsov, protested publicly against the servility of the Holy
Synod. They even demanded the convocation of a national ecclesiastical
council to reform the Church. The Archimandrite Theophanes himself
raised a dignified voice against Grigory. His eyes had at length
been opened to the true character of "the Man of God,"
and he could not forgive himself for having introduced him to
the Court. Although he was the Empress's confessor, by an immediate
decree of the Holy Synod he was sent to Taurida.
The President of the Council at this time was Kokovtsov, who
was also in charge of the Ministry of Finance. A upright, honest,
and courageous character he did what was possible to enlighten
his master as to the unworthiness of the staretz.. On March
1, 1912, he begged the Emperor to let him send Grigory back to
his home: "This man has obtained Your Majesty's confidence
by false pretences. He is a charlatan and libertine of the worst
description. Public opinion is roused against him. The papers
... " The Emperor interrupted his minister with a scornful
smile: You mean to say you take notice of what the papers say
?" " Yes, sire, when they attack my sovereign and the
prestige of the dynasty. At the present time it is the most loyal
papers which are most severe in their criticism." The Emperor,
irritated, interrupted him again: "These criticisms are ridiculous.
I hardly know Rasputin." Kokovtsov hesitated to continue,
but proceeded: "Sire, in the name of the dynasty, of your
heir, I beg you to let me take the steps necessary to secure the
return of Rasputin to his village and prevent him from coming
back again." In cold tones the Emperor replied: "I shall
tell him myself to go and never return." "May I conclude
that this is Your Majesty's decision?" "Yes, it is my
decision." Then, with a glance at the clock, which showed
the time as half-past twelve, the Emperor held out his hand to
Kokovtsov: "Good-bye, Vladimir Nicolaievitch, I need not
detain you any more."
At four o'clock the same day Rasputin rang up Senator D - ,
a close friend of Kokovtsov. and said to him in a contemptuous
tone: "Your friend, the President, tried to frighten Papka
this morning. He said all sorts of nasty things about me;
but he had no luck at all. Papka and Mamka still
love me. You can ring up Vladimir Nicolaievitch and tell him so
from me."
On May 6 following all the ministers were present, in full
uniform, in the imperial palace to con congratulate the Empress
whose birthday it was. When Alexandra Feodorovna passed Kokovtsov
she turned her back on him.
A few days before this ceremony the staretz had left
for Tobolsk. He did not go because he was told to, but of his
own free will, to see how things were getting on in his little
place at Pokrovskoïe. As he bade farewell to the sovereigns
he had uttered this formidable prophecy with a fierce scowl: "I
know that the wicked are watching. me. Don't listen to them. If
you abandon me you will lose your son and your crown within six
months." The Empress had exclaimed: "How could you think
of our abandoning you! Are you not our only protector, our best
friend?" Then she had knelt down and asked his blessing.
In October the imperial family stayed for a time at Spala in
Poland, where the Tsar often went to enjoy the hunting in the
wonderful forest of Krolova.
One day the young Tsarevitch was coming back from a sail on
the lake and miscalculating his jump on to the landing stage caught
his hip against the deck. At first the contusion seemed superficial
and harmless. But a fortnight later, on October 16, a swelling
appeared in the groin; the thigh began to inflame, and then his
temperature suddenly rose. Doctors Feodorov, Derevenko, and Rauchfuss
were hastily summoned and diagnosed a sanguinous tumour which
was becoming septic. An operation was necessary, but the hæmophylic
tendency of the child made any incision out of the question.(5) Yet his temperature rose every hour: on October
21 it reached 39'8. The parents never left the sick boy's bedroom
as the doctors did not conceal their extreme anxiety. In Spala
Church the priests prayed day and night in relays. By order of
the Emperor a solemn service was simultaneously held in Moscow
before the miraculous ikon of the Iverskaia Virgin. And from morning
to night the people of Saint Petersburg, thronged Our Lady of
Kazan.
On the morning of the 22nd the Empress came down for the first
time to the drawing-room where she was met by Colonel Narishkin,
aide-de-camp on duty, Princes Elizabeth Obolensky, her lady-in-waiting,
Sazonov, who had come to make his report to the Emperor, and Count
Ladislas Wielopolsky, Director of the imperial hunting establishments
in Poland. Alexandra Feodorovna was pale and emaciated, but she
wore a smile. To the anxious questions which were put to her she
replied in a calm voice: "The doctors notice no improvement
yet, but I am not a bit anxious myself now. During the night I
have received a telegram from Father Grigory and it has reassured
me completely." When she was pressed for details she simply
read out this wire: "God has see your tears and heard your
prayers. Grieve no more Your son will live."
On the next day, the 23rd, the invalid's temperature fell to
38'9. Two days later the tumour in the groin began to dry. The
Tsarevitch was saved.
During the year 1913 several persons made further attempts
to open the eyes of the Tsar and Tsaritsa to the behaviour and
moral degeneracy of the staretz.
The first was the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna and she
was followed by the Empress's sister, the pure and noble Grand
Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, And how many more! But to all these
warnings and pleadings the sovereigns returned the same imperturbable
reply: "These are all calumnies. The saints are always exposed
to calumny."
In the religious jargon with which Rasputin habitually clothes
his erotic fancy, one idea is perpetually recurring: "It
is by repentance alone that we can win our salvation. We must
therefore sin in order to have an opportunity for repentance.
So when God places temptation in our way it is our duty to yield,
so that we may secure the necessary condition precedent to a salutary
penitence. Besides, was not the first word of life and truth which
Christ uttered to mankind 'Repent'? But how can we repent if we
have not sinned?"
His homely sermons abound with ingenious disquisitions on the
pardoning power of tears and the redemptive virtue of contrition.
One of his favourite arguments, an argument which has the greatest
effect on his feminine clientele, is the following: "It is
not a horror of sin which usually prevents us from yielding to
temptation, for if sin was really a horror to us we should not
be tempted to commit it. Does a man ever want to eat anything
he thoroughly dislikes? No, what really stops us and frightens
us is the hurt to our pride which repentance involves. Absolute
contrition implies absolute humility. No one likes humbling himself,
even before God. That is the whole secret of our resistance to
temptation. But the Sovereign Judge is not deceived, not for a
moment! And when we are in the valley of Jehoshaphat he will know
how to remind us of all the chances of salvation he has offered
us which we have rejected... ."
These sophisms were employed by a Phrygian sect even as early
as the second century of our era. The heretic Montanus calmly
put the same proposition to his fair Laodicean friends and secured
the same practical results as Rasputin.
If the activities of the staretz were confined to the
spheres of lust and mysticism, so far as I am concerned he would
remain nothing but a more or less curious psychological - or physiological - study.
But by the force of circumstances this ignorant peasant become
a political 'instrument. Around him has gathered a regular clientèle
of influential people who have linked their fortunes with his.
Of these the most eminent is the Minister of justice, Stcheglovitov,
who is also leader of the Extreme Right in the Council of the
Empire. He is a man of intellect, fluent and acid of speech, and
he brings a good deal of calculation and elasticity to the realization
of his designs. But he is only a recent acquisition to Rasputinism.
Almost as important is the Minister of the Interior, Nicholas
Maklakov, whose amiable docility is highly agreeable to the sovereigns.
Then comes the Procurator of the Holy Synod, Sabler, a contemptible
and servile character; through him the staretz as it were
controls the whole episcopate and all the high ecclesiastical
offices. Next in order I should place the First Procurator of
the Senate, Dobrovolsky, then Sturmer, Member of the Council of
the Empire, then the Governor of the imperial palaces, General
Voyeikov who is a son-in-law of the Minister of the Court. At
the end I should place Bieletzky, Director of the Police Bureau,
a very bold and cunning individual. It is easy to imagine the
enormous powers represented by a coalition of such influences
in an autocratic and centralized state like Russia.
To counterbalance the evil influence of this cabal I can find
only one man in the personal entourage of the sovereigns - Prince
Vladimir Orlov, son of the former ambassador in Paris and Director
of His Majesty's Military Chancellery. A man of upright judgment,
proud and wholeheartedly devoted to the Emperor, he has always
denounced Rasputin and never ceased to fight against him - a fact
which has naturally involved the enmity of the Empress and Madame
Vyrubova.
Wednesday, September 30, 1914.
In the Galician Carpathians the Austro-Hungarians are putting
up a fierce defence of the Uszok Pass which leads into Transylvania.
In the east of East Prussia the Germans are making great efforts
to cross the Niemen between Kovno and Grodno, at the very points
which the Grand Army crossed on June 25, 1812.
Thursday, October 1, 1914.
The Turkish Government has closed the Straits on the pretext
of the presence of an Anglo-French squadron off the entrance to
the Dardanelles. This action does incalculable harm to Russia,
which is left without maritime communications except by Vladivostok
and Archangel. Now it must be remembered that Vladivostok is 10,500
kilometres from Petrograd and that the port of Archangel may be
closed by ice at any time now until the end of May.
The closing of the Straits is all the more serious because
for some time I have been receiving reports from Moscow, Kiev
and Kharkov that the old Byzantine dream is reviving. "This
war will have no meaning for us unless it brings us Constantinople
and the Straits. Tsarigrad must be ours, and ours alone. Our historic
mission and our holy duty is to set the cross of Pravoslavie,
the cross of the Orthodox Faith, on the dome of Saint Sophia
once more. Russia would not be the chosen nation if at long last
she did not avenge the age-old wrongs of Christianity." That
is what is being said and spread in political, religious, and
university circles and even more in the obscure depths of the
Russian conscience.
Friday, October 2, 1914.
The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of the Empress
and widow of the Grand Duke Sergius, is a strange creature whose
whole life is a series of enigmas.
Born at Darmstadt on November 1, 1864, she was a flower of
exquisite loveliness when at the age of twenty she married the
fourth son of the Emperor Alexander II.
I remember dining with her in Paris a few years later, somewhere
about 1891. I can still see her - tall and slender, with limpid,
frank and penetrating eyes, sweet, soft lips, delicate features
and a straight, aristocratic nose. All her lines were pure and
graceful and there was a delightful rhythm about her movements
and gestures. Her conversation revealed a charming woman's mind
unaffected, contemplative and gentle.
Since that time a good deal of mystery had gathered round her.
Certain details of her married life remained inexplicable.
Physically Sergius Alexandrovich was very tall. He had a good
figure but a disagreeable face, distinguished by greyish-white
eyebrows and a hard look. Morally he was quarrelsome and despotic
by nature, and both his intellect and education were poor. On
the other hand his artistic perceptions were very well developed.
He was a very different man from his brothers, Vladimir, Alexis
and Paul. He lived to himself, preferred solitude and had a reputation
for oddity.
After his marriage he was even less understood. He certainly
showed himself the most suspicious and inquisitorial of husbands.
He would not allow his wife to remain alone with anyone or to
go out by herself. He spied on her correspondence and her books,
even forbidding her to read Anna Karanina for fear of its
arousing unhealthy curiosity or too violent emotions. He was always
finding fault with her in harsh and cutting terms. Even in public
he sometimes spoke rudely to her. A calm and docile nature she
merely bowed under the lash of his bitter tongue. Alexander III,
the kind and considerate giant. was sorry for her and showed his
affection, but observing that he was arousing his brother's jealousy
he had to give it up before long.
One day after a violent outburst on the part of the Grand Duke
old Prince B - -, who had witnessed the scene, offered the young
woman his sympathy! She seemed surprised and answered in a frank
tone: "I'm not to be pitied... People may say what they
like, but I'm happy because I'm very dearly loved."
He certainly did love her - but in his own way, a way that
was æsthetic and irritable, wayward and ambiguous, covetous
and incomplete.
In 1891 the Grand Duke Sergius was appointed Governor-General
of Moscow.
It was the period when the famous Procurator of the Holy Synod,
Constantine Pobiedonostsev, the "Russian Torquemada,"
enjoyed unbounded influence over Alexander III and was trying
to restore the doctrines of theocratic absolutism and bring Russia
back into the traditions of Byzantine Muscovy.
The Grand Duchess Elizabeth had been baptized in the Lutheran
Confession. The new Governor-General could not, however, decently
appear in the Kremlin with a heretical wife and so he ordered
her to abjure Protestantism and accept the national faith. It
is said that she had already been inclined that way for some considerable
time. Whatever the reason she adopted the creed of the Russian
Church with her whole soul.
No conversion was ever more sincere, thorough and complete.
Hitherto the cold, dry observances of Lutheranism had been but
poor sustenance to the imaginative faculties of the young woman:
the experience of marriage had not been any better. All her instinct
for dreams and emotion, fervour and tenderness suddenly found
its outlet in the mysterious rites and pomp and pageantry of orthodoxy.
Her piety soared to amazing levels. She knew heights and depths
whose existence she had never even suspected.
In the glory of his position as Governor-General, which equalled
that of a viceroy, Sergius Alexandrovich soon blossomed out as
a protagonist of the reactionary crusade which was the sum total
of the domestic policy of the "Most Pious Tsar" Alexander
III. One of his first acts was the expulsion en masse of
the Jews who had gradually made their way into Moscow. They were
roughly driven back into their ghettoes in the western provinces.
Then he issued a whole series of vexatious edicts imposing all
sorts of restrictions on the professors and students of the University.
Finally he adopted a haughty attitude towards the bourgeois
just to remind them that their liberalism, mild though it
was, was not to his taste. As always happens in such cases, the
officers and officials around him were only too glad to improve
on his dictatorial ways. The general hatred he thus aroused filled
him with pride.
In May, 1896, the coronation of Nicholas II marked a glorious
date in the history of orthodox autocracy. The ideal of the Muscovite
Tsars - the intimate association of Church and State - was seen
to be the leitmotiv of the new reign. Only the catastrophe
in Khodinsky meadows, where two thousand moujiks perished through
the carelessness of the police, cast a sinister, though passing,
shadow over the brilliant gaiety of the Holy City.
Two years later the monument of the "Martyr Tsar,"
Alexander II, was unveiled in the Kremlin in front of the Cathedral
of the Archangel. During the ceremonies on this occasion the Procurator
of the Holy Synod, Constantine Pobiedonostsev, received the highest
honour the Empire could give, the Order of Saint Andrew, founded
in 1698 by Peter the Great. The "orthodox and most Christian"
army was associated in the festivities by a magnificent review.
In 1900 Nicholas II took it upon himself to revive an ancient
custom of his ancestors which had fallen into desuetude for more
than fifty years; he came to perform his pascal duties in Moscow,
to confirm once more, as he put it, the religious and national
sentiments which joined the hearts of the sovereign and his people.
Nothing was left undone to make these solemnities as impressive
as possible. Throughout Holy Week services and processions succeeded
one another with unprecedented pomp both in the Kremlin and the
principal sanctuaries of the city. Before leaving Moscow the Emperor
addressed the following rescript to the Grand Duke Sergius:
Your Imperial Highness,
By the grace of God I have realized my great desire, and the
desire of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, to be with our children
and spend the days of Holy Week, receive Holy Communion and stay
in Moscow for the most solemn of all ceremonies among the greatest
of our national sanctuaries under the protecting shadow of our
age-old Kremlin.
Here, where lie the mortal remains of the saints beloved of
the Lord, among the tombs of the sovereigns who brought Russia
unity and organization, the very cradle of autocracy fervent
prayers have been offered up to the King of Kings, and a sweet
joy has possessed Our soul as it has filled those of the faithful
children of Our dear Church who have thronged the temples.
May God hear those prayers! May He strengthen the believers,
succour those whose faith is shaken, bring back those who have
strayed from the true path and bless the Empire of Russia which
rests firmly on the unshakable foundation of orthodoxy, the holy
guardian of the eternal Verities, love and peace.
Associating myself with the prayers of my people I draw fresh
strength to serve Russia for her good and her glory, and I rejoice
to be able at this moment to convey to Your Imperial Highness - and
through you to the City of Moscow, Moscow so dear to my heart - the
sentiments by which I am inspired.
Christ is risen
(Signed) Nicholas.
Moscow, April 9, 1900.
Thus from time to time some great religious, political, or
military ceremony draws the eyes of the Russian people and the
Slav world to the sacred mount on which the Kremlin stands.
In this active and brilliant life Elizabeth Feodorovna played
her part. She made a graceful hostess at the magnificent receptions
in the Alexander and Illinskoie palaces. She threw herself enthusiastically
into much religious, charitable, educational and artistic work.
The picturesque setting and moral atmosphere of Moscow had a profound
effect on her æsthetic sensibilities. She had once been
told that the mission assigned by Providence to the Tsars was
to realize the Kingdom of God on the soil of Russia. The thought
that she was helping, however modestly, in such a task fired her
imagination.
Satisfied with the part assigned to her, a miracle of purity
and charm, reserve and guilelessness, with her graceful lines
and exquisite toilettes she exhaled a perfume of idealism, mystery
and voluptuous charm which made her all that life could wish .
...
Yet the ultra-reactionary policy, of which the Grand Duke Sergius
boasted of being one of the principal authors, aroused a spirit
of opposition in intellectual circles and the working masses throughout
Russia which became more violent every day. A group of fearless
anarchists, Guerchouny, Bourtzev, Savinkov and Azev, founded a
"Fighting Organization," the exploits of which were
soon to equal the Nihilist feats of 1877-1881. Plots and assassinations
followed one another at short intervals with alarming regularity.
A Minister of Education, two Ministers for the Interior, Commissioners
of Police, provincial governors and magistrates were struck down
one after the other. Towards the end of 1904 the situation, particularly
in Moscow, suddenly became much worse owing to the disasters in
the Far East.
The Grand Duke Sergius immediately took the most radical measures.
With his fierce scowl and cruel sneer he let everyone know that
he would not show the slightest mercy.
On February 17, 1905, as he was driving across the Kremlin
and about to reach the Senate Square at three o'clock in the afternoon,
the terrorist Kalaiev threw a bomb at him. It caught him on the
breast and blew him to pieces.
At that moment the Grand Duchess Elizabeth was in the Kremlin
where she was organizing a Red Cross sewing guild for the armies
in Manchuria. When she heard the dreadful sound of the explosion
she ran out, just as she was, without a hat. She was seen to throw
herself on the corpse of her husband whose head and arms, torn
from the body, lay among the debris of the carriage. Then she
returned to the grand-ducal palace and passed the whole of her
time in prayer.
She remained in prayer continuously for the five days preceding
the funeral. This long communion with the Deity inspired her to
a curious step. On the night before the obsequies she sent for
the Prefect of Police and ordered him to take her at once to Tanganka
prison where Kalaiev was waiting his summons to appear before
a court martial.
When she was shown into the assassin's cell she asked him:
"Why did you kill my husband? Why have you burdened your
conscience with such a horrible crime?" The prisoner had
at first received her with a look of angry suspicion, but he observed
that she spoke in gentle tones to him and said "my husband,"
and not "the Grand Duke." "I killed Sergius Alexandrovich,"
he replied, "because he made himself the instrument of tyranny
and the exploitation of the working class. I have done justice
in the name of the socialist and revolutionary people."
"You are wrong. My husband loved the people and thought
of nothing but their welfare. So there is no excuse for your crime.
Close your ears to your pride and repent. If you tread the path
of re repentance I will plead with the Emperor to give you your
life. and I will pray to. God to forgive you as I have already
forgiven you myself."
Touched and amazed at this language, he was yet brave enough
to reply: "No, I'm not sorry. I must die for my cause. I
shall die."
"Then, as you have deprived me of any means of saving
your life and will certainly soon appear before God, at any rate
let me do what I can to save your soul. Here's the Gospel; promise
me to read it carefully until the hour of your death."
He shook his head. Then he replied: "I'll read the Gospel
if you, in turn, will promise me to read this story of my life
which I've just finished writing. It will help you to understand
why I killed Sergius Alexandrovich."
"No., I won't read your diary. All I can do is to go on
praying for you." She went out, leaving the Gospel on the
table.
In spite of her rebuff she wrote to the Emperor to ask for
a pardon for the assassin, but meanwhile the public had heard
of her visit to Tanganka prison. The most extraordinary and romantic
versions got abroad, but they all agreed that Kalaiev had agreed
to plead for a pardon.
A few days later she received from the prisoner a letter which
ran more or less like this: You have taken advantage
of my position. I did not say I was sorry, because I am not. If
I agreed to hear what you had to say it was only because I regarded
you as the unfortunate widow of a man whom I had executed. I was
sorry for your grief, nothing more. The account you have given
of our interview is an insult to me. I don't want the mercy you
have asked for me... .
The trial proceeded. The preliminary enquiries were very prolonged
owing to a useless search for accomplices, the chief of which
was Boris Savinkov. On April 4 Kalaiev was condemned to death.
The next day the Minister of Justice, Sergius Manushkin, was
making his report to the Emperor and asked him if he intended
to commute Kalaiev's sentence in view of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's
plea. Nicholas II remained silent, and then casually remarked:
"Is there anything else you want to talk about, Sergius Serguievitch?"
And he dismissed him. But the Tsar immediately sent for Kovalensky,
the Director of the Police Department, and gave him secret orders.
Kalaiev was then transferred to the Fortress of Schlusselburg,
the famous State prison. At eleven o'clock in the evening of May
23 the Attorney-General's deputy, Feodorov, entered the cell of
the condemned man, whom he had known when they were students together,
and said to him: "I am authorized to tell you that if you
will ask for pardon His Majesty the Emperor will deign to grant
it you." Kalaiev replied, calmly and firmly: "No; I
wish to die for my cause." Feodorov persisted to the best
of his ability in noble and humane terms. Kalaiev broke down but
was not to be moved. He concluded with the remark: "As you're
so good to me, let me write to my mother." "Certainly,
you may write to her, and I'll see she gets your letter at once."
When the prisoner had finished his letter Feodorov made a last
despairing effort to make him change his mind. Summoning up all
his courage, but losing none of his unruffled calm, Kalaiev declared
solemnly: "I want to die, I must die. My death will be even
more useful to my cause than the death of the Grand Duke Sergius."
The deputy realized that he would never succeed in overcoming
such heroic resolution. He left the cell and went to the Governor
of the fortress to order the execution.
The scaffold had already been erected in the courtyard of the
prison. The executioner, a convict in a red cap, was waiting on
the steps. He was a parricide named Philippiev and had been borrowed
from the penal settlement at Orel on account of his herculean
strength and professional skill.
The Governor's residence was at the far end of the court. It
wore a festive look that evening. Merry shouts and loud laughter
were heard every moment. When Feodorov entered he found a lively
company, the principal officials of the fortress and all the officers
stationed at Schlusselburg, who were frolicking and feasting.
By way of whiling away the time preceding the execution they were
swilling champagne and toasting Baron von Medem, Deputy Chief
of Staff to the Imperial Corps of Gendarmes, who had been sent
by the Minister of the Interior to be present for the condemned
man's last moments.
Now Kalaiev was extremely anxious to see his counsel, whose
presence at the execution was legally permissible. This gentleman,
Jdanov, had come to Schlusselburg specially the previous evening
and had asked several times to be taken to his client. But he
was known as an advanced socialist; the imperial police feared
that Kalaiev would give him some last message for the revolutionary
party, so in spite of the express provisions of the law Jdanov
was refused admittance to the fortress.
When Feodorov left the cell he was succeeded by a priest. The
prisoner received him kindly but declined all religious assistance:
"I have settled accounts with life," he said; "I
need neither your prayers nor your sacraments... . All the same
I am a Christian and I believe in the Holy Spirit. I feel it still
within me and I am sure it will not abandon me. That's enough
for me." As the priest persisted kindly in his desire to
fulfil his mission Kalaiev continued: "It's very good of
you to pity me. Let me embrace you!" They fell into each
other's arms.
At two o'clock in the morning the prisoner was taken from his
cell, his hands were bound and he was led into the courtyard of
the fortress. He ascended the scaffold with a firm step. Not a
shade of emotion passed over his face as he listened while the
verdict was read out to him, an interminable proceeding. When
the clerk of the court had finished Kalaiev said, in a very simple
tone: "I'm glad I've kept my composure to the end."
Then two gaolers dressed him in a long white shroud which covered
his head, and the executioner called out: " Get on the stool!
" Kalaiev demurred: "How can I get on the stool? You've
covered my head. I can't see a thing." Phillipiev took him
in his strong arms, lifted him on to the stool and quickly fastened
a rope round his neck. Then he swiftly knocked away the support.
But the rope was too long; Kalaiev's feet still touched the floor.
The victim gave a terrible start. Cries of horror rose from the
spectators assembled round the scaffold. The executioner had to
shorten the rope and begin all over again.
After this sinister tragedy Elizabeth Feodorovna considered
that she had finished with the world. Henceforward she devoted
herself exclusively to the consolations of religion. She spent
all her time in works of asceticism, piety, penitence and charity.
On April 15, 1910, she realized an ambition she had had in
mind for a considerable period. She established a religious community
for women and had herself appointed pointed abbess. Taking the
name of " Martha and Mary," the convent was established
in Moscow in a part of the city on the right bank. The nuns devoted
themselves particularly to the succour of the sick and poor. But
at the moment when she was thus saying farewell to the world Elizabeth
Feodorovna made a last concession to feminine taste: she had the
dress of her order designed by a Moscow artist, the painter Nesterov.
The costume comprises a long robe of fine, pearl-grey baize, a
cambric whimple drawn close round the face and neck and a long
white woollen veil which falls over the breast in broad folds.
The general effect is simple, austere and attractive.
There is a lack of warmth in the relations between the Grand
Duchess Elizabeth and the Empress Alexandra. The original cause,
or at any rate the principal reason, for their estrangement is
Rasputin. In Elizabeth Feodorovna's eyes Grigory is nothing but
a lascivious and sacrilegious impostor, an emissary of Satan.
The two sisters have often had disputes about him which have several
times led to an open quarrel. They never mention him now. Another
reason for the coolness between them is their rivalry in piety
and good works. Each of them claims superiority in knowledge of
theology, observance of scriptural injunctions, meditations on
the eternal life and adoration of the crucifix. The result is
that the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's appearances at Tsarskoe Selo
are rare and short.(6)
What is the origin of this extraordinary domination of the
mystic sensibilities in the case of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth
and her sister, the Empress Alexandra? It seems to me it is a
legacy from their mother, Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria,
who was married in 1862 to the hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt
and died in 1878 at the age of thirty-five.
Brought up in the strictest tenets of Anglicanism Princess
Alice, shortly after her marriage, conceived a strange passion - a
passion wholly ethical and intellectual - for the great rationalist
theologian of Tübingen, David Strauss, the celebrated author
of the Life of Jesus, who died four years before herself.
Under the manners of the Swabian philistine and unfrocked minister
David Strauss concealed the soul of a romantic. In the early days
of his fame he had felt the temptation of love: the bulwark of
his books was not enough to save him from the spell of the "eternal
feminine." A young girl, a stranger (who was dazzled by his
growing fame) offered herself to him, as Bettina von Arnim offered
herself to Goethe.. He had respected this naive flower, but in
breathing its fragrance he had tasted mortal poison. When he recovered
his self-possession he was able to compare himself to "the
fakirs of India who boast of gaining a superhuman glory by heroic
mortifications while the jealous gods send them female visions
to seduce them from their faith." A few years later another
witch once more deranged his studious life. This time it was not
a fair and frank German lily but a perverse creature, Agnes Schebest,
an opera singer of great gifts and amazingly beautiful. He loved
her passionately, so much so that unable to do without her, and
fearing to lose her, he married her. Of course she lost no time
in betraying him with a fervour of sensuality and a callous audacity
which seemed to heighten her beauty. At first he refused to open
his eyes. "The world," he wrote, "calls me credulous.
Perhaps I am only a slave." Ultimately he was forced to admit
he had been deceived. After a terrible scene he turned away the
sinner. Then he went back to his work. But after the frenzy of
passion he found the interpretation of Holy Writ somewhat insipid.
He could not remain in one place for an inward unrest made him
change his residence time and again. He carried his sorrows from
Ludwigsburg to Stuttgart, from Heidelberg to Cologne, from Weimar
to Munich, from Heilbronn to Darmstadt. The. historic evolution
of doctrine gave him pleasure no longer; even Hegelian dreams
revolted him. In this general bankruptcy his character became
daily more soured, his irony more acid, his dialectics more destructive.
Weary of a life from which he had nothing to expect he longed
for dissolution.
It was then that he first knew Princess Alice. He at once obtained
a great influence over her. But the romance of their minds and
hearts was still wrapped in a deep mystery, though it is impossible
to doubt that he shook her faith to the depths and that she passed
through a terrible crisis.
Thus it may be that her daughters have inherited from her their
tendency towards religious exaltation. Perhaps, too, they betray
the influence of an atavism far more ancient. Have I not found
the names of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Mary Stuart among
their female ancestry?
Saturday, October 3, 1914.
The Grand Duke Nicholas is making preparations for a general
offensive in Poland and Galicia. The operations will develop in
the region of Warsaw and extend to the San and the Carpathians.
If they succeed the Russian army will immediately make a bee-line
for Cracow and Breslau.
Monday, October 5, 1914.
At the moment the Emperor is making a round of the battle fronts
to encourage his troops and receive their salute: Ave, Cæsar,
morituri te salutant!
According to General Bielaiev, Chief of Staff of the Army,
the Grand Duke Nicholas means to carry through the next offensive
with the greatest possible vigour and intensity "in the hope
of deciding the war with one great blow."
Thursday, October 8, 1914.
The Russian offensive is general all along the line There is
violent fighting from the confluence of the Bzura, which joins
the Vistula 60 kilometres above Warsaw, to the source of the San,
i.e., the western chain of the Carpathians. The front of attack
thus measures more than four hundred kilometres.
The transport movements which have preceded this vast operation
have been carried out with the most perfect skill and organization.
Simultaneously the Russian troops have gained a brilliant success
between Augustov and Suvalki on the frontier of East Prussia.
Sunday, October 11, 1914.
Count Joseph Potocki, who arrived yesterday from his Antoniny
property in Volhynia, has been to lunch at the Embassy.
He has confided to me the disappointment of his Polish compatriots.
"The manifesto of August 16 filled us with a great hope.
We thought that Poland was to be reborn.
. . When the manifesto was issued I had it read out in church
by the priest. We all dissolved in tears; I wept like a child.
But we are already feeling that the Russians are trying to get
out of their promises. They are giving us to understand - and
later on it will be their excuse - that the manifesto was signed
by the Grand Duke Nicholas and not by the Emperor; that it is
an impulse of the military authorities, not an act of the supreme
power. They will resort to other subterfuges no doubt. And in
any case these magnificent promises are conditional on the conquest
of Prussian Poland! Do you really think the Russian army will
ever enter Posen? Here we are seventy-two days after mobilization
and it has only reached the Vistula! Anyhow, the Russians can't
hold their own with the Germans. I simply daren't tell you all
I think, all I anticipate... . No! No! The day of Poland's resurrection
is a long way off yet!"
I did my best to revive his faith:
"The promise to restore Poland has been sworn in the face
of Europe. I can assure you that it is the Emperor's personal
intention... . No doubt the reactionaries are secretly working
to secure that the manifesto of August 16 shall remain a dead
letter; I often hear of their intrigues. But their calculations
are much too obvious. In opposing the restoration of Poland they
are merely trying to pave the way for a reconciliation between
Russia and Germany. Thus the whole policy of the alliance is involved,
and on that point the Emperor will never give way. The Allies
will see to that, if necessary... . As to your military anticipations,
forgive me if I regard them as an impression, not an opinion.
This war will be very long and very stern, but our victory is
not in doubt so long as we display tenacity and loyalty."
He shrugged his shoulders sceptically and then talked about
the evil situation in which most Polish families find themselves
at the present moment.
"To begin with," he said, "most of the fighting
is on Polish ground. It is our towns, fields and estates which
are being ravaged, burnt and looted by both sides! But
that isn't all. Owing to the partition of Poland this war is having
the most dreadful effects. Look at my family! I'm a Russian subject;
my brother's an Austrian subject. One of my brothers-in-law is
a German subject, another a Russian; all my cousins and nephews
are similarly distributed by the necessities of inheritance among
the three countries. Though all of the same race, we are condemned
to civil war!"
At the Marie Theatre this evening we had Tchaikovsky's ballet,
the Lac des Cygnes, a picturesque and poetical work of
high symphonic qualities. The theatre was filled with a brilliant
audience as on a subscription night in the days before the war.
Is the inference that Russian society is indifferent to the
war? No, indeed! On the battlefields the Russian officers show
a wonderful spirit of dash and heroism. In the front line dressing-stations
the finest of society ladies are rivalling each other in courage,
endurance and devotion. In every quarter public generosity is
at work on an unparalleled scale. Gifts are flowing in from every
side, particularly anonymous gifts which are almost always the
largest. In every part of the Empire relief work for the wounded,
sick, necessitous and refugees is going on under most ingenious
forms. Taking the Russian people as a whole, their social and
patriotic solidarity is all that could be desired. There is no
ground, whatever for charging them with not taking seriously the
terrible trial in which the future of the nation is at stake.
But it would be vain to ask them to go without their theatres,
music and ballets. One might as well ask the Spanish to give up
their bull fights. Nor are the observations to which I have been
inspired to-day by contemplation of the brilliant audience at
the Marie Theatre confined to the upper and propertied classes,
for the cheaper seats were crammed to the roof. The numberless
theatres of Petrograd are full every night, and it is the same
in Moscow, Kiev, Kazan, Kkarkov, Odessa, Tiflis, &c.
In one of the intervals I called on Teliakovsky, the Director
of the Imperial Theatres; I found him with General M - - and
two officers who have just come from the front. Of course we talked
about the great battle which is developing west of the Vistula,
the opening moves of which have been terribly sanguinary.
"In short," said Teliakovsky, "we're letting
thousands and thousands of men be massacred for the sake of restoring
Poland! I hope to goodness we shan't persevere in this mad course!"
General M- broke in:
"But we've made a promise, a solemn promise! It's an obligation
of honour to restore Poland!"
"That's all right!" replied Teliakovsky; "let's
take Posen - if we can. But we should go on and take everywhere
else that really wants us; let's have Armenia and Constantinople!"
As I went back to my box I passed Potocki, looking as gloomy
as ever:
"Oh Ambassador!" he sighed. "I've been thinking
over what you said this morning. I'm sorry to say you haven't
convinced me at all!"
Monday, October 12, 1914.
The King of Rumania, Charles I, died yesterday in his seventy-sixth
year.
A submissive vassal of the German powers he was always an admirer,
I might almost say under the spell, of their military, political
and moral superiority, and never harboured the slightest doubt
about their victory in the immediate future. As long as he was
alive we had no chance whatever of rallying Rumania to our cause.
The new king, Ferdinand I, will have an open mind and his hands
free. Besides, his wife, Queen Marie, is the granddaughter of
Queen Victoria through her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, who
succeeded the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893. Her mother
is the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of the Tsar Alexander II,
and her sister is the Grand Duchess Victoria, wife of the Grand
Duke Cyril Vladimorovitch. She thus has family ties, ties which
are very close and affectionate, with the English and Russian
courts.
Tuesday, October 13, 1914.
Warsaw is in danger from a violent counter-attack by the Germans
north of the Pilica. The Russian resistance is magnificent.
Wednesday, October 14, 1914.
A Jew from Odessa, employed to buy corn by a large exporting
house, came to see me this morning on a business matter.
Struck by his intelligence and sagacity I questioned him about
the state of public feeling among the lower classes, especially
the moujiks. I could not have found a better authority
on this subject as his work obliges him to travel continuously
in every part of the Empire and brings him into daily contact
with the million. This is more or less what he says: "The
patriotic impulse has not died down among the masses. On the contrary,
hatred of Germany seems even more marked than in the first days
of the war. Everyone is determined to carry the struggle through
to victory. No one doubts that victory: ... In Moscow, I however,
there is some uneasiness owing to the rumours coming from Petrograd.
The Empress and those about her are suspected of carrying on a
secret correspondence with Germany; this suspicion extends to
the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, the Empress's sister, abbess of the
Convent of Martha and Mary in Moscow, who spends her life in good
works. The Emperor's weakness with the Empress, Vyrubova and Rasputin
comes in for severe criticism. On the other hand, the popularity
of the Grand Duke Nicholas increases every day... . People are
beginning to talk a good deal about Constantinople, particularly
in the southern provinces... ."
Thursday, October 15, 1914.
The German thrust at Warsaw has been stayed. The Russians are
extending their offensive, but the operations are greatly hampered
by the state of the roads which have been turned into quagmires
by the autumn rains: in places the mud is more than a metre deep.
In 1807, in the same region and at the same time of the year,
Napoleon had to admit the impossibility of manoeuvring troops
on such a spongy soil.
The remarks made to me by the Jewish broker from Odessa yesterday
have been confirmed somewhat curiously this morning. A French
manufacturer, Goujon, who has been established in Moscow for forty
years, came to see me this morning, and said:
"Several of my Russian friends, commercial and industrial
leaders, have asked me on their behalf to put a question to you
which will no doubt appear somewhat strange. Is it true that the
court clique have succeeded in shaking the Emperor's determination
to continue the war until Germany is completely defeated? My friends
are extremely anxious. They say they are quite positive about
it, so much so that they've come to Petrograd with me this morning
and intend to ask an audience of the Emperor. But before doing
so they want to consult you, and will be extremely grateful if
you'll receive them."
I told Goujon all that I know about the intrigues in progress
in the Empress's entourage, intrigues which need very careful
watching. As to the Emperor's determination I told him of the
accumulation of evidence I am continually receiving:
"You can assure your friends from me that I have unlimited
confidence in the Emperor's word, his loyalty to the alliance
and his determination to carry the war through to final and complete
victory... . They will understand, of course, that I cannot
receive them; it would look as if I were coming between the Tsar
and his subjects. If you hear anything definite about the intrigues
at the palace don't neglect to let me know."
I have just told Sazonov of this conversation and he has entirely
approved what I said. He added:
"I'm very glad indeed about this; it's enabled you to
feel the pulse of Russia: you can see for yourself it beats strongly."
Monday, October 19, 1914.
At two o'clock this afternoon there was a memorial, service
for King Carol in the chapel of the Winter Palace.
While the interminable funeral service was in progress I had
a talk with the Procurator of the Holy Synod, Vladimir Sabler,
the successor and rival of the formidable Pobiedonostsev, fierce
guardian of orthodox traditions and, discipline; otherwise a nice,
kind man.
"Ambassador," he said, "why weren't you present
yesterday evening at the sacred concert got up by the clergy of
Petrograd in aid of the wounded? There was nothing but religious
music in the programme. We began with the Russian national anthem
and then - the Marseillaise! ... It's a fact,
the Marseillaise sung by Russian clergy! They put their
hearts into it, too! And I of all people, the Procurator of the
Holy Synod, actually encored the Marseillaise!
"You were absolutely right, Your Excellency! The Marseillaise
was in no way out of place in your sacred concert. At the
present moment it is an epitome of every Frenchman's national
faith."
Then he smilingly told me of the terrible scandal at court
and in Russian high society when the Tsar Alexander III allowed
the Marseillaise to be played in his presence in July,
1891, during the visit of the French fleet to Kronstadt.
Tuesday, October 20, 1914.
The Russian offensive is in full career on a front of 450 kilometres
from Vloslavsk to Jaroslav.
In the Constantinople quarter the sky is even darker the storm
is approaching. Sazonov tells me that the Grand Duke Nicholas
will not allow himself to be deflected from his plan by the threat
from Turkey; he will spare as little as possible for the defence
of the Caucasus and will keep all his troops for the principal
theatre of operations. It is in Berlin where all the accounts
will be taken. General de Laguiche writes to me in the same strain.
Wednesday, October 21, 1914.
West of the Vistula the Germans are retreating all along the
line.
A terrible battle is in progress in France and Belgium, in
the region of Arras and on the line of the Yser.
Thursday, October 22, 1914.
The victory of the Russian armies is becoming more pronounced
and extending
It is a case of now or never for Rumania to take the field
against Austria-Hungary, especially as she is no longer held back
by the objections of King Carol. But Bratiano, the President of
the Council who is now the sole master of Rumanian policy, is
showing himself increasingly undecided and timid.
Friday, October 23, 1914.
Up to the present the students of Russian universities have
been exempted from military service so that they can finish their
courses. A ukase has now been issued authorizing the Minister
for War to call them to the colours. The reason for this measure
is the enormous losses suffered by the Russian armies in Poland
and Galicia. After a six months' course in certain special schools
students possessing certain degrees will be granted commissions
as second-lieutenants.
This ukase has come in for severe criticism in conservative
circles. One of the leaders of the Right in the Council of the
Empire said to me:
"It's ridiculous! Our corps of officers is to be contaminated.
... All these students are nothing but revolutionary virus which
will infect the army... "
In the university towns such as Petrograd, Moscow, Kazan and
Kiev, the students have been organizing patriotic demonstrations.
The Moscow students have even thought the best way to prove their
nationalist fervour is to loot the shops of Germans.
Saturday, October 24, 1914.
Following up their campaign against everything German the Government
has decided that the Petrograder Zeitung, the influential
Petersburg Gazette, which has been published in German
since 1726, is to be suppressed on December 31 next. The German
party in Russia, the party of the "Baltic Barons" will
thus lose its official organ.
In many ways the animosity against the Germans, even Germans
who are Russian subjects throughout the Empire, recalls the nationalist
outburst of 1740 which put an end to the regime of the Birens,
Ostermanns, Munnichs, Lowenwoldes and all the other German favourites
of which Herzen wrote so picturesquely: "They wrangled over
Russia as if it were a jug of beer."
Sunday, October 25, 1914.
Sazonov has shown me a letter he has just received from a student
at Kazan. It runs as follows
"Your Excellency,
"I have not the honour of knowing you. I am about to join
the army. If this war is to bring us Constantinople I will die
twenty times, and gladly. But if we are not to have Constantinople
I shall die but once, with death in my heart! I beg Your Excellency
to reply with a simple yes' or 'no' on the enclosed postcard,
on which I have given my name and address."
Monday, October 26, 1914.
I have dined quite privately at Tsarskoe Selo with the
Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna.
The Grand Duchess is absolutely delighted at the great successes
the Russian army has just gained in Poland:
"I attach the greatest importance to these successes,"
she said. "We may legitimately call them a victory. In. the
first place the German army has lost its prestige in the eyes
of our men. They thought it invincible! In the second place it
has removed any possibility of a premature peace with Germany."
I made cautious enquiries about Rasputin. She replied:
"Alas! Some believe in him more than ever! He is more
than ever the "Man of God"! Some do not doubt that our
successes are due to his prayers! Some have even asked him more
than once to give his blessing to the plan, of campaign... .
What a pity!"
" Does he ever talk about peace? "
" I don't know, but I should be greatly surprised if he
had. He's too cunning not to feel that he would not be listened
to at a time like this."
Wednesday, October 28, 1914.
For the Jews of Poland and Lithuania the war is one of the
greatest disasters they have ever known. Hundreds of thousands
of them have had to leave their homes in Lodz, Kielce, Petrokov,
Ivangorod, Skiernewice, Suvalki, Grodno, Bielostock, etc. Almost
everywhere the prelude to their lamentable exodus has been the
looting of their shops, synagogues, and houses. Thousands of families
have taken refuge in Warsaw and Vilna; the majority are wandering
aimlessly like a flock of sheep. It's a miracle that there have
been no pogroms - organized massacres. But not a day passes in
the zone of the armies without a number of Jews being hanged on
a trumped-up charge of spying.
Incidentally, Sazonov and I have been talking of the Jewish
question and all the religious, political, social and economic
problems it raises. He informed me that the Government was considering
what modifications could be made in the far too arbitrary and
vexatious regulations to which the Russian Jews are subjected.
A new law is about to be issued in favour of the Jews of Galicia
who will become subjects of the Tsar. I have encouraged him to
be as tolerant and liberal as possible:
"I'm speaking to you as an ally. In the United States
there is a very large, influential and wealthy Jewish community
who are very indignant at your treatment of their co-religionists.
Germany is very skilfully exploiting this quarrel with you - which
means a quarrel with us. It 's matter of importance for us to
win the sympathy of Americans."
Chapter Footnotes
1. The documents published by the Bolsheviks
in September, 1917, have completely revealed what happened between
the two Emperors when they met on July 23, 1905, on board the
Hohenzollern in Bjorkö roads. It is now known that
the Emperor William suddenly proposed to the Tsar Nicholas a
treaty of alliance between Germany and Russia; this treaty, aimed
at England, stipulated for the subsequent adhesion of France.
The Russian Government undertook to do everything necessary to
obtain the signature of the French Government. Dazzled by the
Kaiser's eloquence, Nicholas II signed at once without even taking
time to consult his Foreign Minister, Count Lamsdorff, who had
remained behind at St. Petersburg. As Willam II insisted that
the document, drafted beforehand in Berlin, must be countersigned
(for that purpose he had brought with him a high diplomatic official,
Tchirsky, subsequently Secretary of State at the Foreign Office
and then Ambassador in Vienna), the Tsar called up his Naval
Minister, Admiral Birilev, one of his cronies who was on board,
covered the text of the treaty with his hand and ordered him
to sign his name at the bottom of the page. The Admiral, with
touching docility, did so at once.
When he got back to Tsarskoe Selo the Tsar Nicholas
told Count Lamsdorff the results of his fortunate negotiations.
Lamsdorff could hardly believe his eyes or ears. With all the
necessary tact he brought home to his august master what an appalling
mistake he had made. Just at this time Count Witte, who had just
signed the peace treaty with Japan at Portsmouth, arrived in
St. Petersburg. Although he had long advocated an alliance between
Russia, Germany, and France, he was too intelligent not to realize
that an affair begun in so idiotic a fashion could never lead
to anything. For that reason he supported Lamsdorff against the
Tsar. When the Russian Ambassador in Paris, Nelidov, was informed
of the proposal he too lost no time in replying that France would
never consent to join Germany against England. Nicholas II thus
found himself compelled to go back on his signature. He instructed
Count Osten-Sacken, his ambassador in Berlin, to inform the German
Chancellery that the Russian Government regarded the Treaty of
Bjorkö as inoperative in view of the fact that one of its
essential provisions, i.e., the adhesion of France, had become
impossible of realization. A personal letter from the Tsar to
the Kaiser confirmed this official communication. Seeing his
scheme vanish into thin air William, II was simply furious; he
tried to regain his hold over Nicholas II by arguments drawn
from the realms of mysticism: "We have joined our hands,"
he telegraphed on October 12, 1905. "We have signed before
God, who heard our oath. I am sure that the treaty can be carried
out perfectly well. If you want some modifications of detail,
make your own suggestions. But what has been signed is signed.
God is our witness!" The matter went no further.
It is difficult to judge the part played by Nicholas II in
this affair. In signing the Treaty of Bjorkö did he show
himself disloyal to France? No. The conclusion of the adventure
itself is enough to acquit him. But unquestionably in his ignorance
and blindness he went much too far.
2. Robert Gauthiot died of wounds in September,
1916. He was forty years of age. As a linguist he was in the
front rank. In him our knowledge of Indo-European languages has
lost the most brilliant heir of Burnouf and Darmesteter.
3. Vladimir Nicolaievitch-Kokovtsov was born
on April 19, 1853. After serving for several years in the Penitentiary
Department he turned to matters of finance and public accounts
and was therefore in 1890 appointed Under-Secretary of State
in the Accounts Department. He became Count Witte's assistant
and in February, 1904, was made Finance Minister. He laid down
this office in 1905, but was reappointed in May, 1906. Appointed
President of the Council of Ministers on September 24,, 1911,
he saw himself abruptly deprived of his high office on February
12, 1914, thanks to the agitation of Rasputin and his gang, whom
he had the courage to oppose. It was not without regret that
the Tsar dismissed this loyal servant whose ability, upright
character and disinterestedness he valued highly. He made Kokovtsov
a count as a reward for his services.
4. The Germans.
5. Hæmophilia is a congenital disease,
very uncommon and peculiar. It is supposed to be a sign of degeneracy.
The characteristic symptom is change in the blood which more
or less loses the power to congeal. The result is frequent hæmorrhage
which it is sometimes impossible to stop. The least trauma, such
as nose bleeding, a slight blow, a prick, or even a trifling
accident like a fit of coughing, or a false step is enough to
cause a great effusion of blood. In most cases the haemorrhage
is internal; it floods the tissue and invades the joints and
the intestines. The ordinary haemostatic treatments are powerless
to control it. Injections of physiological serums are sometimes
efficacious. Two-thirds of all haemophylic subjects die before
the age of eleven. Very few survive their twentieth year. From
the point view of heredity hæmophilia is very curious in
one way: the disposition is only transmitted to males and always
by mothers who are themselves exempt.
6. The Grand Duchess Elizabeth was arrested
by the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1918 and interned in the little
village of Alapayevsk, north of Ekaterinburg. In the night of
July 17, twenty-four hours after the massacre of the Tsar, the
Tsaritsa and their children, she was beaten to death with the
butt end of rifles and thrown into a mineshaft. Her remains were
recovered a few weeks later when Admiral Koltchak's army approached
the Urals. After many vicissitudes her coffin was brought to
Pekin: it is to be placed in the Russian Convent of "Saint
Mary Magdalene at the Judgment Seat" in Jerusalem.
