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i9n] MURDER OF M. STOLYPIN 31
As I had expected, Prince Boris was received with
the utmost friendliness; in consequence of his air of
extreme youth—he was small and puny, with a childish
face—he was treated as a boy and allowed to share
without any formality in the intimate family life of the
Emperor. The greatest care was taken of him, and
he associated quite informally with the two youngest
daughters of the Emperor, the Grand-Duchesses Maria
and Anastasie; the former was then only about fourteen
years of age.
The Crown-Prince’s visit to Kieff coincided
unfortunately with the assassination of the Minister-President of
Russia, Stolypin. The Prince was an eye-witness of
the foul deed, which occurred in the entr’acte of a gala
performance, and one feels sure that this sad and
horrible sight must have thoroughly spoilt the good
impressions which he would otherwise have brought
back from his visit.
I was deeply depressed by Stolypin’s death. It
proved that the Russian Revolution was far from being
over. Under cover of an apparent calm, the lava of
passion and violence was smouldering, ready to upset a
state of order which was really only due to the power
of the police and the force of habit.
I had known Stolypin as a youth in his parents’
house in Moscow. At that time I was very intimate
with his eldest brother Michael, since killed in a duel.
"Petia" Stolypin, as he was then called, was about
fifteen years old, and was noted for his good behaviour,
love of study, and deep feeling of honour, which
moreover was a distinguishing characteristic of the whole
Stolypin family. Such he remained through all the
vicissitudes of life and up to his death. I saw him
again, after the lapse of long years, at the Winter
Palace in St. Petersburg ; he was living there with his
family in 1908, in consequence of the criminal attempt
made on his life in the summer of 1906, in which some
of his children were injured. The President of the
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