THE MONK RASPUTIN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2821, 12 July 1916, Page 8

THE MONK RASPUTIN

•REPORTED MURDER. OF NOTORIOUS RUSSIAN CHARLATAN.

A message from Copenhagen to the ■ 'Exchange 'i'olegraph. Company says that ' the Bucltarest correspondent of the "Berliner Tageblatt" learns that the 1 wellknown Russian priest, Rasputin, has been , murdered in Petrograd. Grigori Rasputin has so many times been reported dead or assassinated that a - doubt is permissible even with regard to this latest indirect Teport; The very fact, however, of. the frequency of these Tumours shows that Rasputin is, or was, no common'man. Yet he is only an : illiterate or almost illiterate priest, with no particular qualities, either mental or ' moral, and with a' very scandalous past, ; which, gave him the popular name of Rasputin—which means "dissolute"—in : the place of his real name, "Nagikh." The secret of his notoriety, has-lain in ; the enormous influence which he. had cx- ' "ercised for a number of years in the ' highest circles of the Russian bureaucracy and aristocracy—an influence that . was not only personal and private, but also publio and political. Many a Minister secured his appointment or. lost it through the good or ill favour of liasputin, and neither the voice of the Duma, ' nor of the Press was ever strong enough to put. an end to his power. His protec- ' tors • were numerous and high-placed, ' " : a.nd the devotion which he inspired in his -admirers by his sham i>iety and holiness "knew no bounds. Superstition on the one hand, and a sort of personal magnetism, on the other—such were the main factors which contributed to his success.