THE RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 31

THE RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE.

Russia's spy organisation in foreign countries, concerning which so many romances have been written, is divided into two sections. One section is devoted to international questions and to foreign affairs, while the other and far more important is entrusted with the surveillance of the Czar's own subjects abroad. The agents belonging to the former of these two departments are frequently well known, and in some cases make no secret of their relations to the Imperial Chancellerie at St. Petersburg. Among the best known of these is undoubtedly Madame de Nevikoff, a lady who was clever enough to ingratiate herself to such an extent with several of the leading statesmen and principal newspaper editors in London that the whole course of Great Britain's policy abroad was affected thereby at certain critical moments.

For many years Madame Blavatsky, the high priestess of theosophy, acted as secret agent of the Russian Government in India, and under the guise of esoteric Buddhism carried on an extensive Rassian propaganda among the native rajahs and feudatory princes. Who at Paris does not know the ngreeable and plausible marquis — who, since the departure of Princess Lise Troubetskoi, has been the "correspondent" in the French metropolis of the Imperial Chancellerie? Married to a charming woman, whose first husband held high rank in the Russian civil service, he occupies a most delightful house in one of the streets leading off the Champs Elysees. His establishment is rich and luxurious, notwithstanding the fact that neither he nor his wife have any private fortune of their own, and his salons are thronged with French functionaries of every rank and importance. Few are aware of his origin or to what nationality he in reality belongs. That is a secret which he has successfully concealed hitherto from the vulgar public under the disguise of an Italian title purchased- some years ago at Rome. It is asserted that his reports are admirable narratives of the passing events of Europe, with mature and profound calculations upon their bearings on one another.

The section of the Imperial Chancellerie charged with the surveillance of the Czar's subjects abroad is a much vaster organisation, and conducted on far more secret lines.

In order to realise its extent it is sufficient to point out that in the year 1884 no fewer than 890,318 Russians crossed the western frontier of the empire for the purpose of paying a more or less prolonged visit to foreign countries. In the following year the numbers had increased to 920,563.

Now, it is no exaggeration to assert that every one of these travellers was subject to almost the same amount of surveillance abroad as at home, that every movement was noted, every remark reported. It may be taken for granted that at least half of the 900,000 and odd Russians who crossed the frontier were engaged in watching and spying the doings of the other half. Every true and faithful subject of the Czar is bound to report to the Imperial Chancellerie anything that may seem to be amiss in the conduct or conversation of his fellowtravellers or companions, no matter how trivial it may be, very much the same as is the case in communities of Jesuit novitiates. One result of all this is that it is very unusual to hear a Russian of social or official standing talk badly about his countrymen.