NEW LIGHT ON TSAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18020, 20 February 1922, Page 7

NEW LIGHT ON TSAR.

FATALISTIC RESIGNATION. READY TO DIE FOR RUSSIA, AM BASSADOR'S IMPRESSIONS

In a recent issue of the Revue des Deux Mondea, M, Paleologue, who wad French Ambassador at Petrogra*! on the eve of ■ war and during it, resumes his intimate account of the part winch the. Tsar and .I he Tsarina played in the conflict. As a study on the human side of Russia in docomposition and uf her Sovereigns there is nothing to compare with it. j What stands out from his disclosures !and from the entries m his journal is the unwavering steadfastness of Nicholas 11. to the Allied cause. " Amid the faithless, faithful only he," from the hr-' hours to the last of these tragic year-. Immediately ' after the outbreak of wa, M. Paleologue was summoned tu the j Cabinet ol the Tsar, who said to him. I "A s for me, I shall fight tu the lust. To , win victory I shall sicrifiVo my last shilling and my last man. So lung as ther e is an enemy on French or Russian territory I will not sign peace." "The Tsar's chararler," said M. Sazanoff, the Russian Foreign Munstei. to M. Paleologue "is essentially one of mystical resignation." And lie told th-s strange story which he had from his brother-in-law, M. Stolypin, murde.ed in 1911 by the Terrorists . "One day in '1909 Stolvpin proposed to the Tsar an ■ important internal measure. He made a sceptical gesture mid said sadly: I succeed in nothing I undertake. 1 have no chance. And human wi 1 is so power less!' Courageous and resolute by nature, Stolypin protested with energy." Then I the Tsar said to him ; 'Do you know on I what Saint's Day 1 was born?' 'Pardon ! me, sir, I don't remember.' ' The 'patriarch Job's day.' 'Thank God! Your Majesty's reign will end gloriously/ 'No. . believe me, Stolypin. J hav o something I more than a presentiment—l have an | inward conviction that 1 am destined for j terrible trials and that I shall not receive :my reward here on earth. How often | have I not applied to rmself the wordt, jof Job: For the thing which 1 greatly I feared comes always on me, and all the I evils I am afraid o*f descend on me.' " j Fatalist throughout, he moved steadily j to tho issue when he foresaw, with that I " passive and resigned quietism" which J the author finds to b'.» the dominant •characteristic of Russia After the crop! I disasters of 1915 he took himself the | command, and this was the reason for his action which Mme. YyroubofT, the Em t press's intimate friend, gave M. Palo iologue: "He feels that in such grave | circumstances it is his duty as Tsar to face. all the responsibilities of the war and put I himself at the head of his troops. Before | reaching this conviction he had deeply I reflected and prayed earnestly. He said fo ns the other day, after hearing Mass. 'Perhaps Russia needs an expiatory vu tim to save her. I will he that victim. Let God's will be done!' " Hatred of the Kaiser. For William 11. he expressed lndignani scorn. "He is never sincere for a. moment. Ke has ended by entangling himself with his lies and acts of perfidy." This antipathy the Tsarina shared: "In recent years she entertained a personal dislike for William II.," writes M. Paleolopue, " and upon him she laid the re sponsibility for 'this abominable war which makes the heart uf Christ bleed every day.' When she learnt of the burning of Louvain she cried, T blush to have ever been German.' " Many German attempts to induce the Tsar and Tsarina to make peace we noted In December, 1914, at another moment oi disaster for Russia, William ll.'s Cham berlain, Eulenburg, sent to the Tsar's Chamberlain, Count Fredericks, whom he well knew, a letter telling him that " our duty to God, our Sovereigns, and our countries obliges us to do all that is in our power to bring about a rapproche ment between our two Emperors, which will enable their Governments to find the basis of an honourable peaco. If wo can' restore their former friendship we shall see the end of this hideous war." ' On the margin of this letter the Tsar wrote:—" That friendship is dead; Jet no one ever mention it to me again. A ' little later an effort was made by the Germans to appeal to tho Tsar through the Tsarina. A Russian lady of great. family was invited to Darmstadt to see the Tsarina's brother, the Grand Duke of Hesse, and was given two letters, one to the Tsarina and one to the Tsar. That to the Tsarina said ;—"I know you have become entirely Russian, but I cannot believe that Germany is absolutely effaced from your German heart," That to the Tsar was accompanied by a note accusing England of treachery "to him. This was the Tsar's reception of them as told by Sazonoff:— " Taking the two letters he flung them contemptuously upon his writing table. Then, in a stern voice, he said, ' Show me the note!' At each phrase of it he burst out into angry exclamations-. 'To mako. 'such proposals to me, is it not shameful ? Thin whole document is a tissue of lies. England is preparing to betray Russia indeed What absurdity >' " The bearer of the letters was instantly ordered into a convent an the punishment, for her intrigue. Beginning of Revolt. Yet beneath the surface the Ambassador noted that .Russian resolution was being undermined. A Moscow friend told him in Juno, 1915: "The days of Tsarism are counted. It is lost, irreparably lost. The I revolution is inevitable. The'middle-class will give the signal for it, imagining that they are going to save Russia. From a j middle-class revolution we shall pass at I once to a workers' revolution. Then a i ghastly anarchy will begin, an intermin--1 able anarchy, ten years of it!" j Of the Tsarina and the Grand Duchess ; Elizabeth, her sister, he paints interesting : pictures: "The Tsarina loves Russia with a fervent love. By a strange phenomenon! or mental contagion she has assimilated by degrees the oldest and most peculiar characteristics of the Russian soul—its obscurity, its emotion, its vagueness, which find their final expression in religious mysticism. The docility with which she has submitted to the ascendancy of Rasputin is most significant, and takes us back to the days of Ivan the Terrible." ! Her'sister Elizabeth and the Dowager Empress warned her and the Tsar of the'r immense danger and of the infamy of Ras Putin. Of tho Dowager Empress M. Paleo logue was told: "She has not shown any ' want of courage or decision. She is too frank and impetuous. Sho is carried away when she tries to advise her son. and some times savs quite the opposite of what she intended'; she offends and humihaten hint. Then he stands on his right* and remind* ; his mother that he is Emperor. ' Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Of the Grand Duche* K.lKlbeth lie S av S ' "Widow of the Orand Duke Ser--1 cius. she is * strange bring, and her whole fit,, is full of enigmas, tall, thin, with bright eves open and yet searching in their look, with delicate features and a charm in her bearing and her ge-tures, there was a mvslery in her married life. Sergius was the most suspicious and inquisitorial of husbands, and never allowed his wife to remain alone with any man. He kept an eye on her correspondence and reading, and criticised her mercilessly in a rough and stinging tore, even gome: so far as to address insulting remarks to her in public. One day. alter a violent outburst of the' Grand Duke, old Prince 8., who was present at the scene, gpoKO a word of compassion for the young wife. She answered with candour and surprise, ' I have nothing to complain of. What ever may be said. 1 am happy, for I am ereatlv loved.' " She too incurred disgrace by her devoted entreaties to her .aster to abandon Rasputin.