The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-10
Strange Episodes
in Her Life And
Especially Ras-
putin S Influence
+ Attributed to
Mental Disorder

her p0reOnalfty. bne Cofno 70 90 hoN
responsible by the superstitious Rus
SLAMS mystically for every nationsS
misfortune and politically for evsry
oppression. BY 1914 they were ready
to attribute to her every disaster 81
the war.
The. traitors and intriguers wha
manipulated this wretched woman
made the most Of their opportunities
They had tostered and they maIntained
the outrageous military unpreperedr
ness and the all consuming bureau
cratic graft which by disarming thn
Russian forces prepared their de-
feat. They got rid Of Russias one
FIRST rate commander, the Grand Duke
Nicholas Nicholaievitch, persuadin1
the Czarina that he designed to seiH]
the throne and disinherit her son.
That was at about the stage when
Kitchener was to have appeared In
Russia In the end they made the
Premiership impossible for the able
Trepoff and saw to Il that his place
was given 70 O fool
Death Of Rasputfn HeactsA
Rasputin had been killed ii,rs
ural enough expression OF the honest
rage of the victims Of his ascendency,
! effected tho reverse OF an improve
ment In the situation. The CsarinA
was not restored by It She was noS
even warned by II. She wor~
shipped at Rasputin's grave. defled h..
siayere. did everything in her powess
e. avenSe him. She relied entirei!
upon her Germanized counsellora
and the Gar Gas Princess Cantacu-
sene has chronicled) doddersd ana
dreamed as Commander in Chief. ana
revolution came.
| During tho Cadet Government. tho
ex-Czar and his CaTnily were imprls.
oned at Tsarskop Selo, one of their
country seats. and were. though se-
curely guarded. hpmane,y treated,
Alexandra remained obdurate, arro-
CANT. implacable. until as events
moved 1t began to dawn upon her that
the one mercy likely TO be left to her
was the very life of her son and his
presence at her side. Then, from al
accounts, she began to be both intelli-
gent and reasonable.
Her recovery was too late; tho
Cadets fell, Kerensky sue e-led them,
and realizing what a empest was
threatened In the storm Snioh he was
riding he caused the former imperial
family to I've removed for their own
protection to Siberia They were
taken to dreary Toboisk, $50 miles
from the Ekaterinbu.E railway. with
suite of fifty persons. in August.
1917. 1t was now the Gar who was
IN Siberia and tho former exiles who
were far away, with God as high rs
ever.
The Tobolsk IMPRISONMENT was
rigorous but not malicious. Nicholas
dreamed and gardened The daughters.
young girls between the middle teen .
and the early twenties. had some littla
personal liberty. But the Bolshevilti
were afraid of a rescue. and as tina
year went round and affairs went
adversely to them tho Bolsheviki wera
showing their ,wolfish teeth II was
the turning OF the CIscho- Slovak exo-
dus into fight strung across tha
continent and in the west near ToJolslS
which certified the Reds 20 the poin {
OF murder.
The Romanof1s were first reinovo /
to Ekaterinburg and jailed there lllio
felons in medieval times. The death
Of Nicholas seen" 10 have been first,
with some little interval before tliA
others; he was simply hailed on and
tied to a post and shot.
Then for weeks the mother and her
five children and two OF her waitln a
women were kept locked in one small
room and slowly starved, according to
tho latest reliable information. receiv-
ing an insufficient dole Of food every
other day Their keepers we're men
; with whom the average American ycgg
would not lower himself to associate,
Tho prisoners had no privacy at any
hour; whatever else they had and suf-
fered heaven knows. The story Is that
the former Czarina bore herself well
to tho end
Because OF symbolism Russia had
suffered through her and 1t was g. y
symbol that she suffered There Is
PROBABLY no central figure in all the
spectacular tragedies OF history wha
was more completely, from cradle 10
grave, the constant and helpless VIC
tim Of circumstances over which she
. had not the least control She did
what she should not have done s0e
: left undono what she should have
: done, but tnpt and there was no hesl'h
Il in her.