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CHAPTER VII
rasputin
I arrived in St. Petersburg at the end of March, after an
absence of a year. I recollect as if it were yesterday,
the first impression of a political nature that I received :
the very morning of my arrival, on looking over the
Novoye Vremja, I noticed a short article in which the
speech made the evening before by M. Goutchkoff at
the Duma was quoted.
This speech was a brief but vehement diatribe against
certain sinister influences which were dominating the
Court and beginning to interfere in Government affairs.
I at once realised that this was aimed at the famous
Gregory Rasputin. But as up till then I had only heard
the strange influence of this individual at Tsarskoe-Selo
spoken of as a mystico-hysterical whim of the Empress
Alexandra’s, and as, on the other hand, the Emperor
was not in any case very devoted to Goutchkoff, I
disapproved of this new philippic, which would cause
further estrangement between His Majesty and the
former President of the Duma: whereas I considered
that it would be advantageous to the affairs of the
country if the Emperor were occasionally to confer
with this influential and very well-informed member of
our Parliament, who with ardent patriotism and
recognised authority presided over the Commission of National
Defence. In short, I inwardly accused Goutchkoff of a
want of tact.
I was thinking all this over when I went to luncheon
with a near relation of mine. This relation was also
related to Goutchkoff and did not like him much, and in
our intimate conversations often alluded to him as an
ambitious man who had become embittered and restless.
67 F
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