Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXII. Evil omens in Petrograd
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
i9i6] EMPRESS, STURMER AND RASPUTIN 419
people. At the same time the Ministers who had
acquired the greatest popularity disappeared one by
one—all those who were known to be animated by the
desire to work in with national representation and who
were sincerely and whole-heartedly devoted to the
common cause of the Entente. M. Klaritonoff,
Controller of the Empire; M. KrivocheTn, Minister for
Agriculture and a continuator of the wise agrarian
policy of Stolypin1; Count Ignatieff, the congenial
Minister for Education; finally General Polivanoff,
whose admirable work for the reconstitution of the
armed forces of Russia in the very midst of the war was
to bear such splendid fruit during the summer of 1916—
were all dismissed one after the other. All these changes
were explained by the influence—increasing day by day
—of the Empress Alexandra who leant on Sturmer and
his acolytes, whilst the infamous Rasputin and the
Vyruboff served as speaking-tubes through which the
most harmful and most suspicious characters obtained
a hearing and ruled the poor hysterical woman. The
disreputable reactionaries, the worst schemers, were
soon brought into prominence and began to find their
way into the Tsarskoe Palace. Amongst all sensible
people of Russian society there was soon a general
outcry. What was Russia being led into? Where
would the scandal stop ? And what was the Emperor
about in all this ?
Alas! it was becoming clear to every one that the
unfortunate Nicolas II. was abandoning his real power
more and more into the hands of his wife. In October,
1915, he had assumed the supreme command of his
armies by dismissing the Grand-Duke Nicolas, who was
appointed Viceroy of the Caucasus. This was done at a
time when our armies were in a most difficult and
dangerous position, the Germans having just advanced
as far as Courland, White-Russia and Volhynia. To
1 This consisted in decreasing gradually on one side the Idti/midia,
and in increasing by all the means possible that class of peasants who
were proprietors on their own account and not as members of the mir.
2 e
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
