Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-16
RASPUTIN
Devil or Saint?
BY THE PRINCESS RADZIWILL
Copyright 1917 Public ser Company Rights


the two great features of the human
character in general and/o fthe Russian
character in neutrality-suspicious. and
Influence of the senses. 1t Is not so
surprising it might seem at first
sight that he contrived to ascend to a
position which no one who knew him at
first ever supposed he would or could
attain.
At the same time l must, in giving a
brief sketch of the career of this ex-
traordinary Individual, protest against
the many calumnies which have asso-
ciated him with names which 1 will not
mention here out of respect and feelings
Of patriotism. 1t is sufficiently pain
full to have to say so. but German
calumny, which spares no one, has
used it's poisoned arrows also where
Rasputin came to be discussed. 1t has
tried to travesty maternal love and
anxiety into something quite different,
and II has attempted to sully what it
could not touch. There have been
many sad episodes in this whole story
of Rasputin. but some of the people
who have been mentioned in connection
with them were completely innocent of
the things for which they have been re-
preached. Finally, the Indignation
which these vile and unfounded accu-
sations reused in the hearts of the
TRUE friends and servants of the people
led to the drama which removed for
ever from the surface of Russian so
ciety the sectarian who unfortunately
had contrived to glide into it's midst.
RAsPUTrN A MASTER
OF CORRUPTION.
The one extraordinary thing ABOUT
Rasputin is that he was not murdered
sooner. He was so entirely despised
and so universally detested all over
Russia that il was really a miracle that
he could remain alive so long a time
after 1t had been found impossible to
remove him from the scene of the world
by other than violent means. 1t was
recognized fact that he had had a hand
in all kind of dirty money matters and
that no business of q financial character
connected with military expenditure
could be brought to close without his
being mixed in IT. About this, however,
1 shall speak later on in trying to ex-
plain how the Rasputin legend spread
and how IL was exploited by all kind
of individuals of a shady character.
who used his name for purposes OF
their own. The scandal connected with
the shameless manner in which he be-
came associated with innumerable
transactions more or less disreputable
was so enormous that unfortunately 1t
extended to people and to names that
should never have been mentioned to-
gether with him.
It must never be forgotten, and l can
not repeat this sufficiently. that Ras-
putin was a common peasant OF the
worst class of the Russian mougiks,
devoid Of every kind of education, with
out any manners and in his outward
appearance more disgusting than any
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explain the influence which he I'M
doubtedly contrived to acquire upon
some persons belonging to the highest
social circles If one did not take into
account this mysticism and supersti-
, ton which lie at the bottom Of the
Slav nature and the tendency which the
Russian character has to accept as
manifestation of the power of the di-
vinity all things that touch upon the
marvellous or the unexplainable. Ras-
putin in a certain sense appeared on the
scene of Russian social life at the very
moment when his teachings could be-
come acceptable, at the time when Rus
sian society had been shaken to its
deepest depths by the revolution which
had followed upon the Japanese wara nd
when It was looking everywhere for
safe harbor in which to find refuge.
At the beginning IF his career and
when ne was introduced into the most
select circles of the Russian capital
thanks to the caprices and the fancies
of two or three fanatic orthodox ladies'
who had imagined that they had FOUND
in him a second Savonarola and that
his sermons and teachings could pro-
woke a renewal of religious fervor, peo-
pie laughed at him and at his feminine
disciples, and made all kinds OF jokes
good and bad. about him and them. But
this sort of thing did not last a long
time and Rasputin, who, though ueFola
of every kind of culture, had GOOD
deal of the cunning. which is one of the
distinctive features of the Russian
peasant, was the first to guess all the
possibilities which this sudden en-
gouement' of influential people for ms
person opened out before him and TO
what use II could be put for both his
ambition and his inordinate love of