CZAR AND MYSTERIOUS HERMIT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 733, 30 December 1914, Page 6

CZAR AND MYSTERIOUS HERMIT.

< ♦ Prince V. Bariatinsky in the "Forin nightly Review" discusses tho fa to o£ Alexander I. of Russia, and gives rea-< sons to show that tho Emperor died in 1864 in Siberia un3er tho name of thci hermit Fedor Koozmicli. Summing- up the reasons which led him to this decision, the Prince says: (1) Koozmicli undoubtedly was rt Well-bred and highly-educated man; he was aware—in detail—of all questions of State and of history, especially 4n connection with tho end of the eighteenth century and tho reign of Alex' ander I.; lie knew perfectly foreign languages; lie had served in tho army, or, at least, had worn a uniform; heknew all about the Court lifo and ceremonial and high-class lifo in St. Petersburg-. ' (2) He took the oath to remain silent on his antecedents and his real name; ho retired from the world in order to atone for a heavy sin that tortured him j all through his life; lie was very reiligious, not in tlio "clerical" but in tho "mystic" meaning l of the word. (S 1 ) Not one of tho testimonies of people wl'i:> knew him contradicted tho possibility of his being 1 Alexander I.; on the contrary, they all seem to support this point of view, and many of them oven consider it a fact. Tho exterior, the figuro, tho height, tho age. the deafness of one car, tho corns on tho knees (from praying on tho knees), tho habit of holding tho hands on the hips, tho habit of receiving visitors standing, and almost always the back to tho light—all thoso signs strongly indicate a striking resemblance of Koozmieh to tho Emperor. (4) Fedor Koozmicli was in correspondence with many pcoplo (wo do not know exactly with whom), and sometimes he used even a cypher for his correspondence ; theso people communicated to him all that happened in Russia, and, therefore, ho was always aware of all political and social questions of tho day. "\Ve know, for instance, for sure, that ho was in 'corrcsnondenre with General Count OsteiiSacken (the father of the late Ambassador of Russia in Berlin), and introduced through him a young Siberian girl, whom he protected, to tho Emperor Nicholas I. o;:tcn-Sacken preserved the hermit's letters in a separate parcel, and this parcel disappeared after the Count's death, just in tho same way as disappeared Ihe d.x'v.ments in connection witli the last years of Alexander's reign. "We have to confess that if tlio mystery of Alexander's death, was not verv well concealed- the mystery of tho hermit's life was. Nothing remains from Tvoexmich except tho house where hj" 1, and on the walls of which arc i : , r v—as a protest against tho nty.-^er'y— the portraits of Alexander and the hermit. (5) Four persons who saw Alexander recognised him as Ivoozmich —two soldiers, a lady (tho wife of an official)} and a retired servant. A, few lines more. Fedor Koozmich died on January 20th (February Ist) 18GJ, in a house built for him by a rich merchant (Uromoff) near Tomsk. When asked, before his death, to tell his real name, lie answered: "God knows my name," and pointing' out a little bag beside the bed, "There is my secret." In tho bag were found two documents, one containing several linos of religious character (quotations from psalms and prayers), the other quite incomprehenbilllt', sixteen words and a kind of key to a cypher, obviously the cypher he used for lii" secret correspondence, the whole dated March 26th, ■ 1537, the day of his arrival in Siberia. • This document has not been deciphered up lo the present. Such is tiie thrilling and tragic story of Emperor Alexander l I. and tho Siberian hermit. Fedor Koozmicli. The tombs of both are carefully preserved, and drew many visitors—l daresay even pilgrims but in which of them has found eternal peace tho victorious enemy of Napoleon . . . that is the question I