The Last Tsar - Chapter Thirteen Rasputin, Empress and People

Chapter Thirteen
Rasputin, Empress and People

Rasputin' eyes were his most remarkable feature. Friends and enemies alike described their strange power. His hands were grimy, his nails black, his long, unkempt hair and beard, he never washed, he always carried with him a goat's smell. In spite of being a filthy man he was welcomed to the Palace and to the drawing rooms of many aristocrats of St. Petersburg. Why?

Paleologue, the French ambassador, wrote in his book - 'Rasputin's gaze was at once piercing and caressing, naive and cunning, far-off and intent.'

Gilliard recalled one afternoon, he went to an ante-room to collect his cloak and, as he was going out, he met Rasputin there for the first and last time, who was changing too. During his short stay there he had an impression that he was in the presence of an evil being

Muriel Buchanan, the daughter of the British ambassador, had the same strange feeling when she saw Rasputin driving along the Nevsky Prospekt.

Anybody daring speaking against Rasputin faced either dismissal from their position or was sent abroad or somewhere in exile. Grand Duke Nicholas Michailovitch was banished from St. Petersburg when he wrote a letter to the Tsar denouncing Rasputin's interference with the affairs of State. Bishop Theophan and monk Illioder were banished as they exposed Rasputin to the Tsar and the people. Prime Minister Kokovstove was dismissed in January 1914, because he ousted Rasputin from the capital. Peter Stolypin was about to lose his job when he started an investigation into the affairs of Rasputin. When Duma (Parliament) criticised Rasputin violently for interfering with the affairs of State, such as appointing and dismissing ministers, the Tsar ordered for its dissolution. Newspapers were banned, as it was publishing Rasputin's scandalous behaviour.

After the dismissal of Kokovstove, old Goremykin was appointed prime minister, as he was not opposed to Rasputin. After Goremykin, Boris Sturmer was appointed prime minister, because he was approved by Rasputin. During the great war and the winter of 1916-17, the most critical time in the history of Russia, monomaniac Alexander Protopopov was appointed Interior Minister, as he was the close friend of Rasputin.

The fatal influence of that man was the principal cause of the death of those (Tsar, Tsarina and children) who sought their salvation in him. The Empress supported Rasputin so strongly that it became difficult for people to dissociate her from him. If she hated everybody for Rasputin, everybody was ready to hate her.