WARNING TO TSAR

Evening Star, Issue 19062, 3 October 1925, Page 18

WARNING TO TSAR

TIBETAN MYSTIC'S HINTS How a Tibetan herb doctor and mystic, who had reached the age of 100 when the Bolshevist storm broke over Russia, tried to infuse firmness into the vacillating spirit of Tsar Nicholas 11. is revealed in a book containing documents from the archives of Dr Badmieff, which reached Loudon recently. Favorite of three Tsars, the wizened little man, whose life dream was of Russia ns ruler of the East, dared to hint to his Royal master of the intrigue and disloyalty that surrounded him, and of the inevitable revolution whose shadow was on the horizon even before the war. Lancelot Lawton writes on the subject in tho ‘Daily Chronicle ’ as follows ; , Near tho throne of the Tsar was an odd band of mystics and eccen xv.s: Rasputin. Rliador (the monk), barefooted pilgrims of both sexes, and idiots, witty and wise, who did and said daring things. To this queer company must be added Dr Badmieff, who was perhaps the most gifted and striking of them all. Dr Badmieff was a Tifiotan, whose childhood had been spent on tho wild steppes of Eastern Siberia, whore his father was a cattle rancher. Wben the revolution came he must have been well over 100 years of a"e. In appearance he was a small, shrivelled old man. His face was yellow and wrinkled, and his eyes were tiny and black —conspicuously black, HERB DOCTOR BY PROFESSION. It has been said that Dr Badmieff resembled a carved Buddha out of an antiquarian shop, and the comparison would havo been a perfectly true one had it not been for his long, snowwhite beard. By profession he was a herb doctor, who specialised in mysterious Tibetan drugs, the presenpitions of which are handed down from the ancients. At one time he was a neighbor of mine, and had a herb garden and homo for his patients on a beautiful pine-covered hill known as “Hill of Worship,” situated just outside St. Petersburg, on the railway to Finland. Among his patients wore many famous men—Ministers of State, generals, and high officials. Often his treatment was very robust. In addition to prescribing curious brown powders, always carefully wrapped up_ in greasepaper, be would, literally insist that the sick should get up from their beds and walk; and sometimes he would pommel them until they were black and blue all over. In the collection of letters bclore me is one which he wrote to the Tsar, sending him some_ medicines to ho brewed —“brewed” is the word which ho uses—for the ailing Tsarevitch. . ~ “ In these medicines there are no poisons. You can prove this by drinking throe cups one after another yourself,” he writes. What a commentary on tho uncertainty of life at the Russian Court I A GREAT SCHEME. But the profession of herb doctor was only a means to an end. The old Tibetan was a great schemer, political as well as financial. He was an educated man, and a graduate of i otrograd University. He knew the East as no other man in Russia kneri it. Three Tsars—Alexander H., Alexander HI., and Nicholas ll.—bestowed favors upon him. Alexander HI. was his godfather, and Nicholas H. gave Mm the rank of civil general. Witte said of him that he was “ a typical Asiatic, and acknowledged his genius while deploring his trickiness. . The documents now published for the first time reveal Dr Badmieff as the secret counsellor of the Throne and the inspirer of much of Russia s policy. It was he who originated Russia s great adventures in the East. Throughout his life he was dominated bv one great icier,—tlia-t tli© wbol© of Chinn. Mongolia, and Tibet were destined to come under the dominion of the Tsars. And he succeeded in convincing both Alexander 111. and II- j. to a large extent, the sober-minded Witte also, and there was something in the idea. “CONQUEST OF THE EAST.” At one time Dr Badmieff secured from the State substantial funds which enabled binx to establish in tbe huldon region behind Lake Baikal an enterprise, nominally for cattle-raising, but the true purpose of which was to organise a conquest of the East. There he gathered his caravans of camels, and sent emissaries and bands nt Buryats and Mongols, carrying arms far and wide, oven to Lliassa itself. Not less interesting is the story now unfolded of tho doctor’s influence behind the scones in making and unmaking statesmen, politicians, and generaTs His crowning triumph came when Protopopoff, who had been his patient, was nominated as Minister of the Interior. , , The doctor’s letters were masternieces of Ovietrfcnl subtlety, for he was a keen student of human frailties. One moment ho flattered the_ Tsar and Tsarina: they were pure, sincere, noble. And the next he played on their nerves, hinting mysteriously or danr and terrifying events. He was good at creating a sinister atmosphere. And always his letters were scattered with allusions to God and the Orthodox Faith, and had a strong flavor of mysticism. WARNINGS TO THE TSAR. In studying these letters with other documents found in the Tibetan doctor’s archives, one is struck with the frequency of the warnings which worn given to the Tsar of impending revolution and calamity. Always the source of these warnings was the queer group of holy men, prophets, and eccentrics, who had direct access to tho Throne. One member of the group, a hare-footed peasant, who played the role of wiseidiot, was deaf and dumb, but by making use of mumbled Bounds, no managed to convey his thoughts' to tho Imperial Family. . One day the peasant wrote the Jsar a letter in homely terms, addressing him as “Dear Little Father,” and signing himself familiarly as “Yours, Mitya, the short for “ Dimitri,” to which be added “ the pure suppliant or God. The letter affirmed in all seriousness that the Mother of God arrived nt the TJsfrensky Cathedral (Kiev) in 1604 to watch over Russia, and was still there. This was ns a preliminary to tho point that holiness of the Orthodox Faith was the basis of the autocTlio writer proceeded to tell the Tsar of grave irregularities in the monasteries, and solemnly warned him that those who kept him in ignorance to preserve his peace of mind were destroying the foundations of ms power, that they were sweeping the country to revolution, and that soon the throne would shake and the Emperor receive a shock. This letter was written in 1912, five years before the revolution. “TSAR OF THE EARTH.” The Tibetan doctor, too, 'wrote several warningletters to the Emperor and Empress, His language, as became an Oriental, was more roundabout, more formal, and flowery than that of Mitya, the dumb “fool.” He alluded to the Tsar as tbe Tsar of the Earth anointed by the Tsar of Heaven, and spoke of him frequently as “ The Holy of Holies.” . , m , The doctor brought to the _ Tsar’s notice tho scandalous rumors circulating about the Court, but each sentence was tactfully prefixed with the words “They say.” The masses, he added, were taking joy in all the scandalous gossip. And then follows a shrewd comparison between the public interest in Court scandal and the behaviour of tho Roman mob demanding bread and amusement at the time of the falL

After a long preamble bo finally reached the point. “Your. Majesty knows well,” be wrote boldly, ,f that around the Throne and in the Court of the Grand Dukes there are masses of atheists and disreputable characters,’ * (In 1912 the little Tibetan warned Rodzianko. the President of the Duma, of the evil nature of Rasputin.) “You, your Majesty, see all this perfectly well, but it is reported to you through rose-colorod spectacles.” BOLSHEVIST PROCLAMATION. Thereupon the writer proceeded to give information of all that was happening in the country, and warned the Emperor that the apostles of Western atheism were plotting to overthrow him. At the same time he enclosed for tho Tsar’s perusal _ a Bolshevist revolutionary proclamation. Among other things, tho doctor put this subtle sentence into his, letter;— “ The real Monarchists say that the Tsar is sacrificing us, together with our heads, while the Left rejoices that the Tsar’s regime is weakening.” And .again: “Everyone says there is no power left in the State. . . . All these things can, of course, be only false rumors, but you must pay serious attention to them.” Thus, in the careful, roundabout language of the East, the Tibetan centenarian dared to tell the truth to tho Tsar and to urge firmness upon him.