RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1917, Page 6

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

RASPUTIN'S LEGACY. WAS HE GERMANY'S TOOL? "■ 'London, March 19. The British public's nerves are decidedly in good fettle nowadays. It might be an exaggeration to say that they have taken the epoch-making events of tho ps(sf> week Without "the lift of kn eyelid," but it can truly .be said that the sensational developments in Russia, the political crisis in France, and the heartening news from the western front have been received with absolute calmness. There were few outward and visible signs of the infinite satisfaction with which the public received the news of the fall of Bagdad; there were absolutely no outward indications of perturbation over tlu> portentous news from! Russia, in spite nf the fact that the general public had vrvv little preparation for the great 11; ' ival in the Czar's dominions. Our P informs us that the

developments ivc" "not unexpected," but so far as a revolution such as has taken place is concerned, no real hint was ever given in our news received from Russia-prior to the statement made bv Mr. Bonar Law in the House of Commons, indicating that tho old order had actually "gone under." Swiftly following that announcement we had assurances in almost every paper in the land that so far from being a menace to the Allies' <j,use, the revohitibn meant that Russia &ad thrown off the paralysing shackles of pro-German influence in high places, and would henceforth be free to exercise to the full her offensive powers in the war; in short, we were told that the dramatic events in Czardoni bodei . evil for the Central Power 3 alone; for the Entente the revolution simply meant a Russia raised, ao to speak, to the i zehith of power as a future factor in the war.

Most men have heßitated to accept the notion that the revolution could he cprried through without widespread internal strife, which would produce evil effects—for a time at any r,ite —on the fighting fronts. It seemed incredible that princes and peasants, Coßsacks and moujika all over, the Czar's immense dominions should all be of one mind and quite content to accept the new Government forthwith. Such, however, seems to have been the case, for apart from the killing of a few hated officials no bloodshed has been reported from the provinces, and only isolated instances of attempts on the part of "old order" Governors to resist the establishment of th? new regime have been reported. In Petrograd itself there is now apparently perfect calm, and it is stated that all told the casualties caused\by the revolution will not exceed one thousand killed and wounded. Most of these, it is said, were the result of the initial collision between the soldiers and the police! So fur as the British residents in the capital are concerned, it appears that only one casualty occurred. A man named Kay got up On the roof of the factory in which he was employed as overseer to watch the fiehting near by. He slipped, and, falling on the pavement helow, was killed, THE TRAIL OF RASPUTIN. The fact that the Russian nobility appears to have given whole-hearted support\ to the revolution is possibly the most wonderful tiling connected with it. According to the stories told in the. French and British Press till? .prime cause of the disaffection of the nobility was the dominance of pro-German influence in Court circles. Their disgust with this state of affairs came to a head when the Czarina fell under the influence of the rascally Gregory Griahka alias 'Rasputin," who, it is alleged, was nothing more nor less than a tool of Germany. Whether Rasputin had any dealings with Berlin or not it is quite certain that he was a particuarlv vile creature, who exercised a most baneful influence upon the Empress, and through her upon the Emperor, and upon affairs ol State. How any woman, let alone a tenderly nurtured and highly educated woman like the Czarina could have: stooped to any kind of intercourse, with such a creature is beyond comprehension, except on the presumption that she was diseased in mind. *

Kasputin was a moujik from the province of Tobolsk, an ignorant, idle, drunken and dirty moujik at that, according to those who knew him m Ms early manhood. Then lie drifted away from his native place, and presently blossomed forth as one of those, "holy men" of which Russia, like India, is full. -ESfissia's complement includes more than a fair proportion of arrant rascals who wander up and down the land on pilgrimages to holy places, collecting,, money for non-existent charities; a lazy, sensual life of secret indulgence in the most appalling vices, veiled by some striking outward acts of asceticism, such as going barefooted in snow and frost, or carrying several hundredweight of masßive fetters about) their persons, and the like.

Russia is likewise full of mysterious "religous" sects founded hv "holy men," some of whom smack strongly, of ambitious rascaldom, while others are organisations in thinly disguised sexuality. Into one of these Rasputin seems to have drifted, and later ho turned up in liis own village with a wife years older than himself, sundry female' "disciples," and sufficient money to Build quite a big house for himself. POWER OVER WOMEN.

Rasputin ran ihis new house as both home and temple, and made tho most of hi? uncanny powers over women in a manner that need not be specified. Fathers and brothers beat him severely on many occasions, bu't Rasputin's reputation as a "Saint" grew and spread far beyond the little Siberian village, and soon the wives and daughters of the great began to seek Gregory Grislika out>. By this time, however, matters in liis own village had reached a pitch at which Rasputin thought it wise to seek fresh fields and pastures new. From this point a correspondent of the Post, who has lived long in Russia may tell the tale. Ho says:— "He removed his court to Tjurncn, some sixty miles away, and practised liis religious exercises, and taught that there was in him a portion of the Divine, with whom all that would 'be saved must be one in the flesh and in the spirit. Such methods of corruption are common enough in Russia; it was not in kind, but in degree that Rasputin's practice of them was so astonishing. Most of the "holy" rascak had to content tltonulyu % Umited.gaftwl

devotees, carefully prepared' and nursed into debauchery, and only very occasionally past hundred years have any succeened in getting a following among the better, class women, and only once before, perhaps, in the ranks of Court Bociety people. But Rasputin suffered few rebuffs in any class. It happened to Inm only once or twieetto be knocked down, or otherwise manhandled, by an j indignant husband or brother in* the drawing-room of tho titled great, who jieceivcd him and ignored his abominable freedoms in speech and actions with I their womankind even in public. The J "lure was invited in dine with the —possessors of historic,, titled and ■ i places in the world—who watchon hinij eat with the fingers of both hands, like a primeval beast. Those fingers were often licked clean by hysterical devotees sitting beside him, guests of great historic houses and themselves of high rank or title, to whom the animal would hold out his hands with a curt command like that of an ancient Roman to his lowest slaves.

• "This part of the man's story sounds incredible, but it is true. Thefe wert: even genuinely honest women who feared-., the creature, and in that fear suppressed a natural curiosity. They resolutely avoided all chances of meeting the man, who was making and unmaking Ministers of State and high dignitaries of the Pravoslavny Church; making and marring the fortunes of hun dreds directly, and of millions indirectly. Ab for men, his followers were of two classes. They were those who either gladly mortified the flesh in his 'religious' exercises or they belonged to the large class of place-hunters and favorseekers. ; , HIS HYPNOTIC EYE'S. "The fascination of the man lay altogether in his eyes. Otherwise he looked simply a comman moujik, with no beauty to distinguish him; a sturdy rogue, overgrown with a forest of dirty, unkempt hair, dirty in person and disgusting in habits. His language oscillated between the stock-in-trade odds and ends of Scripture and mystic writ and the foulest vocabulary of Russian, which of all white men's tongues is tho most powerful in the expression of love and affection, and abominable abuse. But the eyes of this satyr were remarkable

—cold-steely grey, with that very rare power of expanding and contracting the pupils at will, regardless of the amount of light present. He possessed without doubt the very strong natural hypnotic powers which seem always to go with that peculiarly. It was this that in the first place differentiated Rasputin from the hundreds of other 'holy' rascals of erotic type known to history and in daily life in that unfathomable land of Russia" . MANIPULATED FROM BERLIN 1 . J It was this beast in human shape who became such a power in Russia that he was feared ( by princes and peasants, and who acquired such an influence with the Empress that he was eventually given rooms in the Palace at Tsarkoe Selo, and his personal safety given into the charge of the special corps known as the Palace Police, who are responsible for tho safety of the Czar and his family

To the Empress, Rasputin was a saint, a divine agent, a miraculous guide. JJo stories about him were ever listened to. Hence that influence which made and unmade Ministers of State and dispensed patronage to thousands, from the highest to quite little people. Rasputin was unsparing of his enemies. Kokovtsov, Premier Minister <}f Russia, once succeeded in getting him banished from Court; lie returned, and Kokovtsov was dismissed with remarkable suddenness.

Tho appointment of M. Sturmer to the Premiership was 'believed to be due to Rasputin's influence, and according to tho Post's correspondent, from this appointment dates the belief that. Rasputin was manipulated from and in the interest of Berlin. "But," he adds, "like other lioly' rascals in Russia, he took from all and sundry, and for every kind of service. Getting military appointments and exemptions from war service #vae a fruitful course of income to Rasr putin. Frequently he would play the kindly benefactor, doing deeds of charity by assisting poor supplicants, and dipping heavily only into the pockets of the rich. In fact, there was neither limit nor bottom to the wickednes which he contrived to execute in every walk of life. Every man in Russia would gladly have seen Rasputin butchered any time these five years past, and many would have done this deed with their own hands if they could have come at him. In the end, lie was assassinated by men of such rank as had not for over a hundred years in Russia taken an active part in sucli bloody deeds. Not since llie murder of the Emperor Paul hay* persons in their rank who assassinated Rasputin thus imbrued their hands in blood."