THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 120, 21 May 1917, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

RASPUTIN'S LEGACY. WAS HE GERMANY'S TOOLJ CFrom Our Special Correspondent.} LONDON. March 10. The British public's nerves are decidedly in good fettle nowadays. It might be an exaggeration to say that they have taken the epoch-making events of the past week without "the lift of an eyelid," but it can truly be said that the sensational developments in Russia, the political crisis in France, and the heartening news from the Western front have •been received with absolute calmness. There were few outward and visible signs of the infinite satisfaction with which the public received the news of the fall of Bagdad; there were absolutely no outward indications of perturbation over the portentous news from Russia, in spite of the fact that the general public had very little preparation for the great upheaval in the Czar's dominions. Our Press informs us that the developments were "not unexpected," but so far as a revolution such as has taken place is concerned no real hint was ever given in our news received from Russia prior to the statement made by Mr. Bonar Law in the House of Commons indicating that the old order had actually "gone under." Swiftly following that announcement we had assurances in almost every paper in the land that so far from being a menace to the Allies' cause the revolution meant that Russia had thrown off the paralysing shackles of pro-Herman influence in high places, and would henceforth be free •to exercise to the full her offensive powers in the war: in short, we were told that the dramatic events in Czardom boded evil for the Central Powers alone; for the Entente the revolution simply meant a Russia raised, so to speak, to the nth power as a future factor in the war.

Most people here hesitated to accept the notion that the revolution could be carried through without widespread internal strife, which would produce evil effects —for a time, at any rate —on the fighting fronts. It seemed incredible that princes and peasants, Cossacks and moujiks all over the Czar's immense dominions should all be of one mind, and quite content to accept the new Government forthwith. Such, however, seems to have been the case, for apart from the killing of a few hated officials no bloodshed has been reported from the provinces, and only isolated instances of attempts on the part of "old order"' governors to resist the establishment of the new regime have been reported. In Petrograd itself there is now apparently perfect calm, and it is stated that all told the casualties caused by the revolution will not exceed one thousand killed and wounded. Most of these, it is said, were the result of the initial collision between the soldiers and the police. So far as the British residents in the capital are concerned, it appears that only one casualty occurred. A man named Kay got upon the roof of the factory in which he was employed as overseer to watch the fighting nearby. He slipped, and falling on to the pavement below was killed.

THE TRIAL OF RASPUTIN". The fact that the Russian nobility appear to have given whole-hearted support to the" revolution is possibly the most wonderful thing connected with it. According to the stories told in the French and British Press, the prime cause of the disaffection of the nobility was the | dominance of pro-German influence in Court circles. Their disgust with this state of affairs came to a head when the Czarina fell under the influence of the rascally Gregory Greslika, alieas "Rasputin," who, it is alleged, was nothing more or less than a tool of Germany. Whether Rasputin had any dealings with Berlin or not, it is quite certain that he was a particularly vile creature, who exercised a most baneful influence upon tho Empress, and through her upon the Emperor, and upon affairs of State. How any woman, let alone a tenderly nurtured and highly educated lady like the Czarina, could have stooped to any kind of intercourse with such a creature is beyond comprehension, except on the | presumption that she was diseased in mind.

Rasputin was a moujik from the pro-1 vinee of Toholsk, an ignorant, idle, drunken, and dirty moujik at that, according to those who knew him in his early manhood. Then he drifted away from his native place, and presently iblossotued forth as one of those "holymen" of which Russia, like India, is full. | Russia's complement includes more than i a fair proportion of arrant rascals, who wander up and downthe land on pilgrimI ages to holy places, collecting money for ! non-existent charities—a lazy, sensual, I life of secret self-indulgence in the most appalling vices, veiled by some striking j outward acts of asceticism, such as going barefooted in snow and frost, or carrying several hundredweight of massive I fetters about their persons, and the like.

Russia is likewise full of mysterious "religious" sects founded by "holy men," some of m-hom smack strongly of ambitious rascaldom, while others are organisations in thinly disguised sexuality. Into | one of these Rasputin seems to havo drifted, and later he turned up in his own village with a wife years older than j himself, sundry female "disciples," and sufficient money to build a big house for I himself. I

POWER OVER WOMEN. Rasputin ran his new house as both home and temple, and made the most of I his uncanny powers over women in a (manner that need not be specified. 'Fathers and brothers beat him severely lon many occasions, but Rasputin's repuj tation as a "saint" grew and spread far beyond the little Siberian village, and soon the wives and daughters of the 'great began to seek Gregory Greshka out. By this time, however, matters in his own village had reached a pitch at which Rasputin thought it wise to 6eek fresh fields and pastures new. From this point a correspondent of the "Post," who has lived in Russia, may tell the tale. He sav6: —

"He removed his court to Tjumen, some sixty miles away, and practised his religious exercises, and taught that there was in him a portion of the Divine, with whom all that would he saved must be one in the flesh and in the spirit. Such methods of corruption arc common enough in Russia; it was not in kind, but in degree, that Rasputin's practice of them was so astonishing. Most of these 'holy' rascals have to content themselves with a limited school of feminine devotees, carefully prepared and nursed into debauchery, Und only very occasionally, in the past hundred"years have any succeeded in getting a following among the better-class women, and only once before, perhaps, in the ranks of" Court j society people. But Rasputin suffered I : few rebuffs in any class. It happened to I him only once or twice to be knocked]

dawn, or otherwise man-handled, by ari indignant husband or brother in the drawing-rooms of the titled great, who received him and ignored his abominable freedoms in speech and actions with their womenkind even in public. The creature was invited to dine with the great—possessors of historic titled and high places in the world—who watched him cat witli the fingers of both hands like a primeval beast. These fingers were often licked clean by hysterical devotees sitting beside him, guests of great historic houses and themselves of high rank and title, to whom the animal would hold out hia hands with a curt command like that of an ancient Roman to his lowest slaves.

''This part of the man's story sounds incredible, but it is true. There were even genuinely honest women who feared the creature, and in that fear suppressed a natural curiosity. They resolutely avoided all chances of meeting the man, who was making and unmaking Ministers of State and high dignitaries of the Pravoslavny Church; making and marring the fortunes of hundreds directly, and of millions indirectly. As for men, his followers were of two classes. They were those who either gladly mortified the flesh in his 'religious' exercises, or they belonged to the large class of place-hunters and favour-seekers.

HIS HYPNOTIC EYES. 'The fascination of the man lay altogether in his eyes. Otherwise he looked simply a common mujik, with no beauty, to distinguish him; a sturdy rogue, overgrown with a forest of dirty, unkempt hair, dirty in person (dirt is holiness in some countries), and disgusting in -habits. His language oscillated between the stock-in-trade odds and ends of Scripture and mystic writ and the foulest vocabulary of Russian, which o£ all white men's tongues is the most powerful in the expression of love and affection and of abominable abuse. But the eyes of this satyr were remarkable cold-steely grey, with that very Tare power of expanding and contracting 1 the pupils at will regardless of the amount of light present. He possessed without doubt the very strong natural hypnotic powers which seem always to go with that 'peculiarity. It was this that in the first place differentiated Rasputin from the hundreds of other 'holy* rascals of erotic type known to history, and in daily life in that unfathomable land of Russia."

MAXIPULATED FROM BEELIX? 1 \

It was this beast in human shape who became such a power in Russia that he was feared by princes and peasants, and who acquired such an influence with the Empress thafc»:he was eventually given rooms in the Palace at Tsars-koe Selo, and his personal safety given into the charge of the special corps known as the Palace Police, who are responsible for the safety of the Czar and his family. To the Empress Rasputin was a. saint, a divine agent, a miraculous guide. No stories about him were ever listened to. Hence that influence which made and unmade Ministers of State and disj pensed patronage to thousands from the highest to quite little people. Rasputin was unsparing of his enemies. Kokovtsov. Premier Minister of Russia, once succeeded in getting hini banished from (the Court; he returned, and Kokovtsov was dismissed with remarkable eudden-

The appointment, of M. Stunner to tha Premiership was believed to ibe due to Rasputin's influence, and according to the "Post's" correspondent, from this appointment dates the belief that Rasputin was manipulated from arid in tho interests of Berlin. "But," 'he adds, "like other -'holy' rascals in Russia, ho took from all and sundry and for every kind of service. Getting military appointments and exemptions from war service was a fruitful source of income to Rasputin. Frequently he would play the kindly benefactor, doing deeds of charity by assisting poor supplicants, and dipping heavily only into trie pockets of the rich. In fact, there was neither limit nor' bottom to the wickedness which he contrived to execute in every walk of life. Every man in Russia would gladly have seen Rasputin butchered any time these five years past, | and many would have done this deed with their own hands, if they could have come at him. In the end he was assassinated by men of such rank as have not for over a hundred years' in Russia taken nn active part an such bloody deeds. Not since the murder of the Emperor Paul have persons of the rank who assassinated Rasputin thus imbrued hands in blood."