THE REAL RUSSIA.

Evening Star, Issue 16853, 1 October 1918, Page 6

THE REAL RUSSIA.

WHERE "BOLSHEVISM" IS RAMPANT AND WHERE THE HORRORS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION HAVE BEEN OUTDONE. A MOST PATHETIC STORY OF • INTRIGUE AND WORSE. [By Canon Nevox.] PAET I. ' Russia's Agony' is written by Mr It. Wilton, ' Tho Timea's' correspondent at Petrograd, who has lived in Russia for the last 50 years and seen all that has occurred up to 1918. He divides his book into five parts, tho conclusion dealing with the New Russia and what that New Russia means. In his introductory chapter Mr Wilton says: We cannot understand the causes of the Russian revolution unless we gain a clear insight into the essence of autocracy, its grandeur as well as its weakness. Why has Russian history during the past century been marked and marred by spasmodic attempts to enlarge tho social framework, followed by periods, more or less prolonged, of obscure, apparently senseless and hopeless reaction? The explanation must be sought in the traditional significance of the autocracy. Under its shadow the nation had waxed in numbers, Russia had become a great empire wielding enormous power. The Russia of the autocracy would naturally cease to be the same Russia without the autocracy. Without interference in the affairs of other States the autocracy might have ■enjoyed years of calm, unruffled existence. But the deadliest foe was Western Progress. Its worst feature, Industrialism, with its appendant problem of capital and labor, could not be excluded entirely. Developing, it profoundly modified the rural, semi-patriarchal life of flic nation. Its other aspects—education, with its inevitable influx of European thought, and last, but most fatal of all, the advent of representative government —came hammering at the door of autocracy, to the accompaniment of military disasters in far-off Manchuria and, later, in tho blood-stained fields of Poland. As Russia waxed great in area and complexity the autocrats' authority could, not be exercised by one man; it had to be delegated to innumerable agents. Nicholas I. once said: " Russia is ruled not by me bat by my 40,000 clerks." In other words, Russia was governed by irresponsible officials, the Bureaucracy, tho same condition that Britain was falling into before tho war. Naturally, the Bureaucracy was committed to the support of the Autocracy; so it dreaded freedom of speech, of the Press, education, and even the colonisation of Siberia. When Russian trade and industry began to develop bv leaps and bounds a new terror was added—the industrial classes. Besides this, the nobles were divided, only those who were bureaucrats had nny power; and the great middle class did nqt exist—there was a class called the intelligentsia, of peasants and poor Jews, and it was from these that the revolutionary leaders came. The opening scenes of the revolution as detailed by Mr Wilton remind one very much of the stupid old regime of the French Revolution days. First of all, everything is done by dull reactionaries to kill all the enthusiasm roused by tho war. Goremykin did much to quench the Russian spirit. Mr Wilton says: . A progressive bloc of constitutional parties in the two Houses outlined a programme, of indispensable reforms. Had they been adopted, we should not have had a revolution m Russia. (Page 26.) Thfin came iSturmer, who was a traitor; and. then, fn placate the Allies, Trapoff, who acted like Louis XVI., and continually did. tho wrong thing. He prorogued

the Duma. Immediately the workpeople in Petrograd went out on strike; a reserve regiment, ordered to quell the strikers, fraternised with them; and Cossacks refused to nttack infantry. Then the guards came, and some mntineers vrere executed, others airested, and thousands of strikers were sent to the trenches. This should have warned the Government; but they heeded not. The last Prime Minister (Prince Golitzint remained "a. pitiful figurehead of incapacity till tho revolution swept him away." The Russian is ever a god-seeker, as Mr Wilton remarks. This desire to seo a holy man brought people together from all over the country. Mr Wilton rays: Thcso ghostly comforters generally selected their abode under the protection of some monastery. They signalised themselves bv their blnmele.ssness and otherwise. We shall see how this characteristic of "Russian life was to affect the whole course, of politics and to produce mifi of the contributory causes of tho revolution. Rasputin's real name was Gregory Pinnykh (of tho drunkards). His inveterate addiction to drink must have been inherited, becSuse familv names adopted amon? the peasants in recent times were derived from patronymics or nicknames. Tho name Rasputin, which he BssuTned, meant "the vicious one," His record in his native village fully justified appellations. A drunken and abnormally perverted and lazy peasant, he was able to impose upon susceptible people by a brutal personality. The lure of oornltism .appealed also to ih? Tsar, and tho Empress encouraged him in thcso inclinations. The circumstances under which tho Tsarovrfcch was born appear to have left an indelible impression on her. Mr Wilton tells us that Alexis (the Tsarevitch) suffered from a bodily ailment known as 'hcemopbilia, a condition which might cause danger from a ruptured vein or mere nose bleeding. Rasputin's fame as a " staoretz," who by occnlt powers could save her boy, appealed to the Empress. Because Rasputin was able, by simple and wellknown exercise of animal magnetism, to stop nose-bleeding, which, the. physicians could not arrest, the Empress was persuaded of his occult powers. Rasputin becamo the privileged libertine of the Court. As the years went by ho becamo more impudent, more interfering, and moTe dangerous.

Remonstrances readied the Emperor's ears, but Nicholas 11. treated all the=o attempts to oust the charlatan as an unwarrantable invasion of his domestic life. "Presumably," Mr Wilton says, "he had tried to remonstrate with his wife aboutthe man, and had encountered such opposition that he bad decided to tolerate Pasputin rather than further incense the Empress. To one old general who had ventured to bring np the sore question he eaid: ' I prefer five- Raspntins to one hysterical woman.' " Occasionally tho "staretz" went to vist his wife and children in Tobolsk. Ho had built a gorgeous house for them. There he flaunted himself in "silk shirt, velvet pantaloons, and patent .leather boots." On one ocasion the head of the Secret Police kicked Rasputin out of his office, when the impostor cams in unbidden to present some cool request. The officer was immediately deprived of his post. No Minister's career, no woman's honor, was safe from the erferprise of the "Holy Man." Mr Wilton asserts, too, that the' Grand Duke Nicholas, when be was in clu'ef command of the Russian armies, openly announced his intention of hanging Rasputin if ho ever got hold of him, and this threat was perhaps the main cause of the Grand Duke's transfer to the Oaucasus. The highest appointments were within Rasputin's gift. A _word from him to the Empress, and Ministers were dismissed or nominated, probably without the Emperor knowing whence the recommendation came. .Soon the scandal became known to the common people, and the autocracy became disci-edited. During a, cinema performaince the people had actually hissed when the Empress's picture appeared on the screen. "This was an almost incredible occurrence." Then came the Tsar's departure for the front, and the appointment of German agent* to the Government; Sfcuwnor and Protppopoff I ly&a jaster tad to be placed in a lunatic

asylum). Finally, the army "removed Rasputin, The Empress, maddened bf grief and anger, came from Tsarskoo dis guised as a sister of mercy, and, togetaet with Protopopoff, visited the mortuary, •where sho convinced herself that the " Saint" was really dead. One of the most extraordinary conversations related o* tho Empress, which I have t never seen in any book before, is told by Mr Wilton in the following words. 16 seems a wild sort of nightmare talk, but Mr Wilton says that it is not at all fanciful, but genuine, and supported by anim« peachable witnesses: It was at Biorke that five-year-old Alexis, skipping about the yacht, fell aiwJ bruised" himself. Chagin, the captain of the Standaxt, could never get over that affair. We know he wards shot, himself, and people talked so much disgusting nonsense about it, Alexis kept his hurt to himself. A tu-, mor formed in the groin and he given up far lost. Then Elizabeth had sent Griska from Moscow. He was staying in her monastery. The saint a.p* peared, and since then the boy had been saved, and she (Alexandra) had daily prayed for Griska. She had kept him with her as much ns she could. Every night when ho was not in the palace she asked for his blessing by telephone. H< could order her to sleep with a word in that dear, commanding voice of his, and then she was sure of getting some rest. He was fo intelligent, bo magnetic, so full of life. It was such a pity that he would not remain always in the palace. But then so many interests called to him. She could not expect to have him always by her side. And, oh, how much she had always dreaded those wander* inga of his! "Ho had so many enemies, dear, good soul. She could not trust the Russian detectives. So she had ordered two private detectives from London, and one of them was on guard always. And there was a village girl very devoted to tho saintly one who went everywhere with him, dressed as a Sister of Mercy. Yes, everywhere. On the fatal night Griska had promised to heed her warning and not to go out, for they knew that enemies were plotting to kill him. So the detectives and tno "sistor " were absent, and they—-the horriblo murderers—had lured him to his doom.

Is it surprising that, speaking soma months later before the first great Conjrrese of tho Church at Moscow, Prince Eugene Trubetskoi, an eminent Russian, should have declared that "in the latter years of Nicholas 11. Russia was like same dark, hellish kingdom " ? German influence had been all-powerful under the old regime, and exerted its fatal effect after thu war had begun. When the Russian people were in the throes of revolution tho arch-conspirator at Potsdam sent into their midst a diabolical firebrand, who under the flag of Bolshevism, carried ruin and desolation everywhere. Indeed, it would he scarcely saying too much to lay at his door the miserable death of th© lata Tsarina and her three innocent daughters. (To bo continued.)