GRISHKA RASPUTIN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 956, 5 March 1917, Page 6

GRISHKA RASPUTIN.

A "DARK FORCE." SANCTIMONIOUS ADVENTURER. The mysterious end of the famous Bussian religious adventurer, Basputin, removes from Bussian life a figure whose importance is measured not so much by the magnitude of his own personality as by the conditions of society which enabled him to flourish, Grishka Basputin, the "Starets." stands for those "dark forces" of Bussian public life of which we, have heard so much lately, in the Duma debates, in various Bussian public speeches, and other reports from Bussia, writes Zinovy N. Preev, in the "Observer." It is not edifying to contemplate

this figure of a religious charlatan, who had risen to an unprecedented position in certain higher circles of Petrograd society. To begin with, his very name would be an insurmountable barrier for any man with similar ambitions in any other country. He started life with a contemptuous abbreviation of his full Christian name (Gregory) and a surname which is a derivation of the adjective "rasputny," meaning "loose living." This is not surprising, considering his parentage. His father was a good-for-nothing scamp of a peasant, without any regular occupation, and with dark antecedents. As is common in Siberia, where there are so many men "without a name," i.e., with a past over which they prefer {o throw a veil, his father docs not seem to have had a regular surname. So he was nicknamed "Basputin," in keeping with his reputation. His worthy son gave early in life every promise to live up to the name he inherited from his father. At least twice he was accused of theft, and was'once even flogged. He took to a form of tramping which is rather popular in Bussia with peasants of a religious or. pseudo-religious turn of mind, and became a wanuering collector of funds for a church. Before that he spent some time at a Siberian monastery as a "poslushilik," or a probationer, but he never became a full-fledged monk. Taken Up by Society.

It is enough in Bussia to don a black cassock, let one's hair grow long, and rattle a collecting box to enlist the practical sympathy, if only to the extent of a penny, of simpleminded Russian peasant, who, moreover, does not ask for any written authority or for the last balancesheet of the fund. It is not, therefore, surprising that Grishka's tour proved a great success, so that he was soon abje to buy a fine house in the to#n of Perm, and enter local society. By this time he was a pros-perous-looking, smooth-talking man. He was taken up by two leaders of local society, a bishop and a countess, who first raised him to the dignity of a "Starets," although he was under 40 at the time. A "Starets" (literally, an old man) is, so to speak, an unofficial lay saint, endowed to an abnormal degree with human understanding, piety, and the power of psychic healing. The story goes (which the writer has no means of verifying) that some time after the assassination of her husband, a prominent official, a pious Bussian Grand Duchess granted an interview to Rasputin, and was so much edified by his conversation that she introduced him to the best society of Petrograd and Moscow. Henceforth, we see him not only as a professional saint, but also as a maker and breaker of Cabinet Ministers, Governors-General, bishops, and other high officers of State and Church. With the absence of representative Government in Russia, most appointments are r \de in aristocratic political anu religious

salons. Extreme conservatism and religion (of a certain narrow fanatical brand) frequently go together in Russia, and the salons adorned by Rasputin numbered among their habitues some of the most influential people in Russia. It is to, these influential and irresponsible coteries that Russian p- 'lie opinion traces such ' incompreuensibl:" changes "n the Russian Government as the recent resignation of M. Sazonoff, the able Minister of Foreign Affairs, trusted by the Russian nation and the Allies alike, and the appointment to the Premiership of M. Sturmer w now resigned, who, if not a pro-Ger-man, was, to say the least, a very half-hearted supporter of the anjiGerman cause.

For several years Grishka Rasputin had reigned supreme in society and high political circles (of course, only of a certain political shade), exalted by few, hated by raan>, but an enigma to most. Ugly rumours circulated throughout Russia of his amorous successes with certain "ladies of quality," and of his evil work in the councils of State. Whether he was a mystic or a charlatan, or a mixture of both elements, a mixture well known to neiiro-pathologists, it is certain that his death removes from Russian life a most sinister and dangerous figure, an implacable enemy of all that is best in Russian political, religious, and social life, and as such his disappearance will be welcomed by all decent Russians,