SAINT OR SINNER.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1926, Page 4

SAINT OR SINNER.

GREGORY RASPUTIN. WRECKER OF A THRONE. Rasputin, a saint anti martyr! I lie presentation of that sinister person in a halo is one that prompts derisive laughter. I seem to have read somewhere recently that it was not from mercenary motives that .Judas Isea riot detrayed his .Master, and centuries ago, probably, someone discovered that the devil was not so black as he was painted, hut an attempt to canonise Rasputin within a decade ot his death leaves one gasping. Yet. here it is, in a volume by Gerard Shelley, entitled "Tlie Green Steppes." with the sub-title. ‘‘Adventures Amongst Russians." (Taimisg personal acquaintance with Rasputin, the author asserts that Rasputin’s one aim was to rescue Russia from the welter of moral evil into which the bankrupt, intelligentsia and the corrupt bureaucracy bad led her. <>iie cannot resist a smile upon reading that "Ins creed was the old one of self-discipline, ascetic self-denial, and Ihe wholesotneness of personal virtue," and the further statement that Rasputin’s "efforts on behalf of Christian morality and asceticism, the inner discipline and the moral strength which results from restraint and sell-control, stank in the nostrils of the ilelmuehed intelligentsia. whose slogan was. T’.veryth i ii*s is permitted.’ a slogan culled from Nietzsche." To attempt to lay the blame for the downfall of Russia upon any one section ot modern sjeiety. such as the intelligentsia is futile. The roots o! the trouble lay in the distant past. Competent authorities. however, are unanimous in asserting that the association ot Rasputin with the Imperial Court was directly responsible for the downfall of the monarchy. THE CASK FOR RASPUTIN. Eel’ore bringing forward evidence in support of this statement we will see what .Mr Shelley has to say tor Ids hero. At his first meeting he was not particularly attracted to him. He had the peasant atmosphere externally.

“which is quite pleasant and interesting in its proper place, hut seemed at first rather revelling in Hie vicinity ot royalty." Gregory, it appears was a rugged fellow, huge and'horselike. and il gave no satisfaction to one’s nesilietic sense to look at him with his oily, long hair and lilack heard, coarse, bulging Epstein lips, and horny hands. ■'But his rugged ness had a peculiar charm, an appeal, not to one’s refuting sense (if lienuty hut to the more primitive, grosser sense ol loreetillness. Being a friend of inane of his friends and admirers. Mr Shelley owned it to them not to give too easy credence to the villainous stories which reached his ears. As a religious supporter of autocracy Riiputin was hated by the Westernising intelligentsia, as a peasant lie-was loated hv the arrogant nobles, and “ as the advocate of asceticism and the discipline of the body he was abhorred by both." Rasputin. Motijik though lie was. had sounding of the penetrating vision of an Old Testament prophet. He had the same keen sense of the connection between the moral health and the social life ol the nation, and crowning virtue. Rasputin was a saint “in so far as he, a poor man. stood alone in Russia in not accepting bribes." This picture of a grossly maligned Gregory hears little resemblance to the composite portrait of the same gentleman drawn, by those who had a clearer perception of his personality and of his nefarious influence. The destroyer of the Russian throne was a native ot a Siberian village, the son of an iinedii. eated moujik. His conduct as a young mail earned him the nickname Rasputin (the rake). In early life the mysticism latent, in his character was awakened liv the exhortations of a priest, with whom lie was thrown info rontaet. A certain journey from one village to another was in later life ni:nnared by Rasputin to that journey during which Saul and Tarsus saw the light. IF' was deeply moved, and vowed a new life. Wandering from village to village, he lived on alms, preached, and effected cures hv his iiim'iict ic I ouch . ||" l.'arm-d to read and write, and picked up a 'mattering of theology, lie gradually acquired the repiital ion of a holy man and was credited with gifts of healing and of propbei y. It i- recorded ihai be c\rerienrJd many backsliding.*, and the.; during most of the time he lived a double life: IK founded a religious sect, but its services, belli at night, savoured rather of the Bncet'analia of ancient Ron' - rather than the riles ot a Christian circle. He behaved ab-iin. Inably to women, but Ids victims pat no with every kind of ill-t real men I cntlic-i- thill! lonve him.

CALLED TO COURT. In his memoirs, the late Sir George Buchanan, our Ambassador at t' e Russian Court, states that Rasputin's reputation for holiness readied the capital. and lie was summoned thither in 1007). lie soon had a large circle id admirers, and in 1907. through the offices of the Montenegrin princesses, the wives of the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter, he was introduced to the Court. There Im was careful only to reveal the mystic side of his nature. By personal magnetism, or by some form of hypnotic suggestion, be did undoubtedly relieve the haemophilia from which the Tsarevieh bail long sul. I'ered. "Believing, as she did, that Rasputin, by his prayers, preserved her >on's life, tlvs Empress centred her hopes in him, and regarded him with a feeling akin to adoration.’’ says Sir George; hut it was always with indignation that, the Ambassador denied allegations imputing immorality to the unhappy Empress. She absolutely declined to credit the stories of Rasputin's debauched life. For her lie was always blameless—a god-fearing man, reviled and persecuted like the saints of old.

Ono result ut' tin.' revolution ol AI <i it-li, 1017. '.ins the suppression o! the Okhrana, the notorious secret police of the Empire, and that its documents ami secret reports became accessible to a most interested public. Amongst those shadowed by the ()k----hrnua was J{nsputin. and. omitting here the more glarin'; broaches of decorum described fheivin. a report concerning a visit lie paid to .Moscow shows that I lie trust of the Empress was rather misplaced. During the latter years of the Romanoff dynasty the atmosphere ol the Court, title largely to Rasputin's close connection with it. resembled that of certain mediaeval palaces. Whether the reports were true or not. it was a fact that Rasputin acquired a limitless power over the hysterical Empress, and. through her, over the weak Emperor. He used that power to pervert the policy of the Church and State. A notorious boom companion of Rasputin’s youth was given a Siberian bishopric, and the lofty office of Metropolitan of St. Petersburg was allotted to his nominee. He also secured the appointment of rogues and blockheads to high public offices. A TRAITOR. The outbreak of war in 1914 gave Rasputin opportunities for evil hitherto undreamt- of. Mr Shelley’s assertion that his ■•saint" and •‘martyr” never took bribes is discounted by Sir George Buchanan, who demonstrated that Rasputin was that- most heinous ol bribe takers, a traitor to his country. Sir George states that lie did not receive money direct from Germans. but that lie was largely financed by certain Jewish bankers, who. to all intents and purposes, were German agents. He repeated to his Jewish friends all that he heard at Court, and ' in that way valuable information reached the Germans. It was said that the dismissal of the Grand Duke Nicholas as Commander-in-Chief was due to Rasputin. The command was assumed by tlici Emperor, and as this entailed his presence at Grand Headquarters Rasputin had practically a clear field. Von Stunner, an amiable nonentity, of Austrian descent, was made President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), and Protopopnov, a weird person, who had a leaning towards the occult, was appointed Minister of tiie Interior. Through these men the Germans pulled strings to bringyabotit a separate peace with Russia, and Protopopov planned to promote public discontent with the v nr by creating an artificial food shortage in the capital, on top of an actual food stringecy. His scheming eventually

prompted the outbreak of food riots in March, 1017, but as they culminated in the overthrow of the Dynasty his plans certainly very much mis-carried. Rasputin did not live to witness the dreadful results of his play at high polities. Aristocrats and Monarchists saw in his association with the Court the degradation of the Emperor’s dignity, and they plotted his removal. The leading parts were played by Count Yusnpov-Sumarokov-Elston, a relative of the Emperor by marriage, and by M. Puriskevich. a member of the Duma, and a former leader of the Black Hundred, a reactionary organisation. who developed a fine patriotism during the war. By exterminating the evil genius of the ruling house these men hoped to purify the principles of autocracy itself, and save the old regime. They carried out their plans successfully towards tho close of 1910. Rasputin was assassinated, and his body was thrown into a hole made in the ice covering the N'eva. In common with dictators and charlatans generally Rasputin had it noised abroad in his lifetime that liis removal would entail tl.e disappearance «»t the >yn•,slv That, event quickly followed ns assassination. Imt it is left for credulous people like Mr Shelley to seo m it. tin- fulfilment of a prophecy, ruihei iban a natural sequence to the associations of the unhappy RomanolD „i,h a person of Rnspntndsjlmrneto'