Rasputin [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION " THE HOLY DEVIL " is the title of a scurrilous pamphlet against Rasputin, written by his opponent, the monk-priest lUodor; accusations in it have contributed to the creation of the false picture in which Rasputin appears as a cunning charlatan, and even as the man mainly responsible for the ruin of the old Russia. This picture, distorted with the hatred of an unsuccessful enemy, has hitherto served as a model for all portraits of Rasputin ; the confusion created by the Revolution meant that an impartial correction was impossible for, in the making of revolutionary catchwords, truth was of no account whatever ; efficacy in political warfare was all that mattered. From this point of view, it would scarcely have been possible to have found a portrait better fitted to reveal the utter abomination of the old régime. For revolutionary Russia, in its attack on a system that undoubtedly had had its day, the distortion of persons and situations was, if not justifiable, at least excusable. But even without that motive, the bourgeoisie, ever avid for scandal, seized on the strange figure of Rasputin, adding the finishing touches to a black and white portrait of the conventional " devil in human shape ". Immediately after the collapse of the Tsarist régime it became necessary to supply the masses as quickly as possible with blood-curdling stories about the Imperial Court, and this figure of Rasputin was offered to the public as the one authentic portrait. No critical investigation was made ; and the unimaginativeness of sensation-mongers created this convenient picture, since almost unchallenged. Indeed, in order to give a semblance of historical truth to this false picture, an equally ill-founded life of Rasputin was concocted. With wonderful academic pedantry a collection of false facts and dates, wrong names of persons and places, was put together with an exactness that is hardly ever found in biographies founded on fact. Freiherr von Taube alone, in his excellent book, refused to accept unquestioningly the reports about Rasputin ; he subjected them to critical exami- 9