A ROYAL HERMIT

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 12

A ROYAL HERMIT

SECLUSION OP THE CZAR

OF RUSSIA

NICHOLAS 11. OCT OFF FROM HIS

PEOPLE.

(FROM A COBBBSFONDEJTr.)

ST. PETERSBURG, April 27

Nicholas H. is having a now wall built to the north of Peterhof Park, where he dwells every summer, and ho will shortly have the high gates of Tsarskoe Selo made still higher. These are signs and symbols of his latest 'hermit-like existence. At tho new palace at Livadia, whence he recently returned!, were other hermit innovations, such as sound-proof doors 'in the west wing where he works, and for this h« brought all the way from France the architect, Robert Chaodet. These operations mean that Nicholas 11. is withdrawing more than ever from human Bfe, and realising tho nickname given him by bis subjects after the massacre of January, 1905 —"Schimnik Nikolai," the hermit Nicholas. For three years Nicholas ventured only twice out of "his palace-.cell, and then to St. Petersburg. Later he made some centenary journeys, showing himself to few, and fugitive tours through Italy aud Germany.* This qualified return to the world got a bad check by the assassination in 1911 of Stolypin. Since then Nicholas has been, more a hermit than ever. When the Romanoff tercentenary was celebrated last year only a few thousand frightened subjecte saw their autocrat's frightened face over the beads of menacing soldiers. Now even the motor-car tours around the palace havo been curtailed; and Tsarskoe Selo becomes more and more a monastery of gloomy people -who aro allowed small communicafcin with the outside world and who keep their mouths discreetly shut.

Russians are reminded of Nicholas's hermit-liko existence by the change in the command of the palace. LieutGeneral Diedulin, Palace Commandant since 1906, who was once prefect of St. Petersbure, and before that was commandant of the Gendarmerie, died last Christmas. Diedulin succeeded Trepoff. He playod no role in politics but he did more-—he finally turned Nicholas into a hermit. He mad 9 the monastic life bearable.* Most of Nicholas's courtiers aro severe, timorous, and etiquette-ridden old men who could no more joke than fiy. Life was dull. When Diedulin came this ehaugod. The very human Diedulin told .stories, organised games and theatrical, and made dnll Nicholas happy. Tbere was so much le~s temptation to go out nto the big world When Diedulin died, people said "the Czar's merry jailer is gone; now the monastery will open up." This has no: happened. The monastery is more monastic than ever.

Nicholas 11-'s new palace comma.tdant. nurse, and tyrant, is MajorGeneral Voyeikoff. Nobody knowj much about "General Voyeikoff except that ho is a good-looking sportsman and

a very idle soldier. Ho is s©aW* law of Baron Friodenchs. -i of tho Court, and used to command 4 J the Ismailoff regiment.* Three months-1 ago, when the boy scouts or "Potie--?' shniki" wero disbanded becauso th* # political police fearod they might torn ''< revolutionaries, Nicholas ordered Vov.7, oikoff to organiso the national sports / h > a reactiowni OV t, TJl £ G^ure a was to bo asked "- to help. Voyeikoff did this verr WeJi ' | being a sportsman, not a bureaucrat' "' then ho was called to the nalaen ♦« : succeed: Diedulin. His first STU, > /to deal a blow at the monastery m£ -I°-. °- Nichols ii. peared daily m Ins motor-car on TsarIhe •pkhrana" invented the usual revolutionary peril; and Nicholas iw tared to his cell. "^

Diplomats,

high officials, and th«

chiefs of the army regard tho Imperial seclusion as a scandal. Angriest oTTI aro the diplomats. Sometfthem havo been m St. Petersburg a whole JecSte and during that decade there hS been only two court entertainment The levees, drawmg-rooms, and court balls have entirely ceased. St. PetersS«£F'fi, nC ? ,f l,r °P G ' s liveliest oifcv, m now the dv lest. Big nobles without official positions have taken to living m Moscow as tho livelier town. Tha is reflected in the reports tfj£ pK bmldmg department which show th? since 1905 tVere have been so™ tW as many largo villas and good-class apartment houses put up in Moscow as n at. Petersburg. Hieh politics am seriously affected! uX AityJt* h » P"* 1 ** 08 *" 8 tho foreign diplomats had opportunities of talking to the Ozar every week; and B«----marck, when Ambassador at St Petersburg, carried on his roost important negotiations with Alexander 11. direct. Such a thing is no longer possible. b

Ministers also have cause of complaint. Twice during the present reijm their opportunity of talking oolitics with the autocrat have been curtailed. Up to 1905 every Minister had one weekly audience, when tho Czar was at St Petersburg or at either of his sab- ' urban palaces; ho was further summoned for special audiences two or thrco times a month, and he had tho right, when affairs wero pressing, to demand special audiences. After 1905 the weekly visit was all that was left. During tho last year the woekly visit* have been cut short. On the days appointed for audiences the Osar's aide-de-camp telephones to the Minister's quarters asking if thero is anything pressing, as if not, tho audience may be delayed or a memorandum may bo submitted, on tho margin of which tho Gear will write his views. All this is the result of Nicholas's now chronic dislike of seemg v tbo human face. When th© Minister, of Education, M. Casso, went to Tsarskoe Selo immediately after the restaurant scandal in which , he was publioly beaten .by two young men, he was not received. Casso thought this was a hint to resign; in reality it meant that Nicholas was in one of his anti-human moods. Even the Premier, M. KokovtsefL was sometimes turned away. When Wittd was Premier he had audioncos three times a week, and Stolypin had two weekly audiences. Now the head of the Government contents himself with one weekly audience, and with occasional telephone messages communicated by irresponsible underlings. '""'"'," ;.■' " ■■'- '■■

I Nicholas 11. has not oven a 'secretary. His writing and telephoning ia handled either by Prince Orloff, chief of his Military Field Cabinet, by Voyeikoff, or by palace underlings who are " called in when work is heavy: This baa bad results. The officers and courtiers aro incompetent in matters of politics; they are without information;, and hardly one of them knows how to handle a report or a xeferenco-book. Relations between the Czar and, tho State departments are confused. On ' important matters ministers find decisions unexpectedly made/against their projects, and discover that the Czar himself is not clear as to-who is responsible. When the Duma'syodka bill came up last month in the Council of the Empire,, Premier KokoVtseff got orders from . Tsarskoe Selo in the morning at ton o'clock, and while ho was in tho middle of his speech he was handed a telephone memorandum countermanding these orders in the name of tho Czar.

St. Petersburg's ruling circles are all the more 'displeased because Nicholas, as they know, makes an exception for. favoured individuals. He detests seeing new faces, but he is accessible to tbo palace crowd; and be receives a certain class of intruders from outside. These are religious fanatics, mystics, and selfstyled prophets. Numerous disillusions with the late Father John of Kronstadt, Phillippe, Father Vostorgoff, Hiodor, Rasputin, and other men who proved to be fools or swindlers, have not cured him. St. Petersburg talks of now holy men who havo the entree at Tsarskoe Selo. The.latest is Vasaili Gristchenko, formerly a gardener at the Grand Duke ' Constantino's Strelna VShi. Gristchenko lately turned holy man; and " had an audience with the Cfear on tho day on which the Minister Casso waa turned away. Most of the current stories about Grischenko are inventions; but there is no doubt that half the time which Nicholas 11. spares from ambassadors, ministers, and generals is spent in talking to relijrious humbugs, and l talking politics wffch courtiera who are unqualified.