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Show G' REGORY RASPUTIN, who wears garb of peasant, peas-ant, but is powerful in Russia. " ' ' ' f 1 w if sv $ if -.Vfcv m-.V-mh, : .... V- -1 V ' t d w ' i ' ! it v - ' t i W ' ' ty " 1 ft . - U it " 1 - I I ' - w ' 5 I f f y i r yv 1 UNEDUCATED RUSSIAN 13 VERYJNFLUEHriAL Mystic Gregory Rasputin Exercises Great Power ; Among. Officials. BERLJN, Dec. 2. A neutral Journalist who lived in Petrograd many years and left the Russian capital a few weeks ago says in the Berliner Tageblatt: Much has been written about the. connection of the famous Russian mystic, Gregory Rasputin, with the war, but many of the atorles published pub-lished are false. Rasputin, who is 45 years of age, unquestionably possesses pos-sesses great power, although he is a man without education and still weaxB the garb of a peasant, but It is not true that he dominates the czar. The secret of his strange power lies In the fact that the men and women at the court worship and fear him. This mystic was discovered and brought to Petrograd seven years ago by the Grand Duchess Milltza, a daughter of King Nicholas of Montenegro. Monte-negro. Within a short time he dominated domi-nated certain circles of the imperial court, and he made his position secure se-cure by declaring that evil would befall be-fall the czare witch If he should be sent away. He claimed to possess supernatural powers and the superstitious supersti-tious court circles looked upon him in awe when General Dediouline, the commander of the palace guard and his most outspoken enemy, died suddenly. sud-denly. Shortly afterward his overbearing behavior prompted the czar to remove him from court, but by a strange coincidence co-incidence the heir to the throne became be-came 111, as he had prophesied, and he. was quickly recalled. Since that time his power over the court and the government gov-ernment had been almost unlimited. When the war bgoke out the mystlo opposed It violently, but with all his influence he was powerless against the party of the grand dukes. Despite De-spite his temporary defeat, he did not give up his fight. Ho was Instrumental Instru-mental in the removal of the Grand . Duke Nicholas, the uncle of the czar and leader of tho war party, from the command of the army, but a year ago he suddenly turned and became an advocate of the total destruction of Germany. . Several years ago Rasputin formed a close friendship with Prince An-dronnlkofT, An-dronnlkofT, an adventurer, who gained great influence over him. At the request re-quest of the prince the mystic brought about the appointment of former Minister Min-ister of the Interior Chwostoff. Tho latter, while in of lice, tried to free himself from the control of Rasputin, but did not succeed and was removed from his post after he had entered Into a conspiracy to murder his former for-mer protector. With Chwostlff bis friend, Andron-nikoff. Andron-nikoff. disappeared from the political stage and M. Manutloff, a contributing editor of the Novo Vremya and former for-mer chief of the Russian secret police in Paris, became the chum of Rasputin. Ras-putin. With the aid of the powerful metropolitan police of Petrograd, Rasputin and Manuiloff brought about the fall of former Premier Goremy-kin Goremy-kin and the appointment of the present pres-ent prime minister, Stuermer. Rccentlv Manulloff. who has become very wealthy, was arrested on many graft charges, and he now is awaiting trial. The arrest is generally interpreted inter-preted as an effort of Stuermer to free himself from the domination of Rasputin, but tt is feared that he will havo the same fate as Chwostoff. Rasputin ts today more powerful than ever before and must be considered to have been the real head of the Russian government since he made his peace with the grand dukes and the war party. |