RASPUTIN'S MURDER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 16

RASPUTIN'S MURDER

ATTEMPT TO SAVE RUSSIA.

Although ,so mucji. has been written about th o murder' of Rasputin, " The Evil Genius of Russia,", Prince YussuponV who organised ,the assassination; and took the first step in its execution, has hitherto kept silent on the subject. But -following revelations recently made by, Purishkevitch, an ex-member of tile Duma, who played a leading part in the murder of the monk/1 Prince Y.ussupoff has decided to explain the jjiotives which urged him and his friends to such a drastic action. Iri a letter to the " Matin," Prince Yussupaff declares that the assassination of Rasputin was dictated purely by motives' of highest patriotism, and if .the accounts of the murder already made public dwell on its more , terrible and revolting aspects, it may be pointed out that the monk's assassins were so convinced of the: necessity for getting rid of him in their country's interest that they would have been } ready to commit even more terrible deeds in "pursuit of their object. Their effort was apparently wasted. Prince Yussupoff says that the patriotic feeling, at.tho.time of the murder f/as so strong that if those about the Tsar and jn 'command of the military and civil power had seized their opportunity Russia .would liave escaped the fate which has, since overtaken her. In justification of the deed, Prince Yussupoff declares, that the extermination of such a monster as Rasputin, " who united in himself all the-forces of evil,, and led to its doom one of the greatest countries in the world,- with its Emperor and his dynasty," cannot b e classified as an ordinary murder. "A creature such as Rasputin could not bo considered as a human being." The assassins were- animated by only one desire, that of saying the Tsar and his country, und they felt* that, however 'terrible 1/ie steps they might have to take, the end justified the means. Prince Yuesupoff concludes by referring, to those persons who during Kasputin s life were fully aware of tho honor of the- Equation, but who since bis death seem, to have forgotten everything except the criminal fide of it " ' We opened a way by which J-eepons-like people could have saved ]££«..• Why did they not profit by it? It must bo admitted in justice that tho responsibility. \yhich falls upon these people is not less than our own. One can commit a crime in not killing. We who had wished to save our country are witnesses now of its rum.. Fate was stronger than our patnohc fervour, and events have swept away all that on which xye based our hope and faith." .