Grand Forks herald., 1916-12-30

New York, Dec. 30.-Sergius Mich
allow Trufanoff, better known as
"Illiodor. the Mad Monk of Russia"
who up to the beginning Of the war
was chaplain of the imperial court
in Petrograd, and an intimate of
Gregory Rasputin. the Siberian peas
ant priest and court confessor, made
his first public statement last night.
He said that Rasputin was now the
strongest separate peace" advocate
in Russia and that in his efforts to
take Russia away from the allies he
had the support of the czarina and
other powerful influences in Petro-
grad. Furthermore Illiodor said that
there was not reason to doubt that
German money had something to do
with the change of front on the part
of Rasputin. In Illiodor's opinion
Rasputin stands a good chance to win
In the fight for supremacy between
the pro:German and allege adherents,
which he says Is now being fought
out in the Russian capital.
The mad monk" is pleasant fac
ed Russian of middle size. laughing
most of the time. He met newspaper
in Carnegie Hall. With him were
group of Russians, among them Count
Leo Tolstoy, son OF the Russian novel
list and philosopher; Ivan Okuntsoff,
editor of the Russkoye SlOvo, and Ivan
Narodyn, who interpreted Illiodor's
statement. Count Tolstoy said he was
present only as an observer" but
when asked if what Illiodor said was
true he replied that sin the main
part" it was.
First Of all, gentlemen" he said,
perhaps l may recall the fact that
when people want to kill dog and
IN do n
the report that the dog is mad. Well,
in Russia they wanted to kill me or
do away with me in some other fash
ion, and so they told the people was
mad-crazy perhaps is a better word.
So they called me 'Illiodor, the crazy
monk
This is my first public talk. al
though I have been in America since
the 18th OF last June. / am Cossack
| Of the Don. and a graduate of the
Petrograd Theological academy of the
class Of 1905. For seven years I was
court chaplain to the imperial family
of Russia, and as such was for con-
siderable period the confessor OF both
the czar and the czarina.
"The czar first became attached to
me because | was against the revolu-
tionists and the Jews-against the
latter, however. for religious and not
lOT pOllIlCdl reasons. "nen l. nrSL
came to the czar he instructed me to
despise the Nihilists and the Jews. 1t
was then that first met Rasputin. the
! ignorant Siberian peasant. the man
who wields more influence than any
other man in all Russia.
Before the war-that is, in the few
years that preceded 1.-THE imperial
family looked upon and revered Ras-
putin as prophet. Today they look
upon him as a sort of god For severay
years Rasputin and 1 were friends.
Then I began to find out things and
I came to know Rasputin as he really
Is. a man of no character and an i'm
postor
''Then came my fight against him
which ended in my defeat and to
save myself I managed to escape into
Norway. For nearly year remain
ed in Christiania, and it was while l
was In that city that / was called upon
by the Russian Generals Petroff and
Checherigan. They came to me as
messengers from the czarina and Of
fered me 100000 rubles ($50,OO0) If
I would go back into Finland with
them and turn over my manuscripts
dealing with Russian court life and