ded. On opening it they noted that Nicholas, with his own hand,
wrote down the names of those revolutionists who, in 1905-06, were
executed, the kind of execution, and other such details. [FN:
This story was told to the writer by a member of the committee.] That
interested him, but matters of state he left to his time servers, to
his hysterical wife, yes, to Grigory Rasputin, a dirty, ignorant, and
licentious peasant, until the country blushed with shame and it became a
saying, "Now we have Grigory I [Rasputin] as tsar."

The present war was declared by the Tsar but the people approved it
because they hoped that the defeat of Germany would mean the defeat of
the German reactionary influence in Russia, especially about the court,
and a closer union with democratic England and France. I was present at
the capital at the time that the war broke out and heard the cheers when
the Emperor made the declaration. It seemed as if Nicholas by coming out
against Germany had redeemed himself in the eyes of his people who were
willing to wipe out the past, and give him another chance. During the
first months of the war he was as popular as during the first weeks of
his reign. It was not like the Japanese war when the soldiers refused
service; in this German war, the men called to colors went without a
murmur, they hoped that something good would come out of it. Offers of
help from individuals as well as commercial and civic bodies poured in
on the Government. The ministers said that everything was ready, that in
a few months the Russians would be in Berlin. At first, all went
well, but soon news came of the catastrophe in eastern Prussia, of
the traitorous acts of the Minister of War, of the campaign in the
Carpathians where the Russians were slaughtered like sheep because they
had no guns, no ammunition, and no supplies. Again the poor people were
betrayed and a cry of horror and vengeance went up as on January 9,
1905, Bloody Sunday. The Tsar would probably have been overthrown there
and then had it not been for the war and the hatred of Germany. The
liberals and patriots of all kinds thought that all was not yet lost
and they went to work with a will, giving themselves, their money, their
strength, and their lives, but they soon became convinced that it was
all in vain so long as Rasputin, the Empress, and their clique ran the
government.

[FN: Several months before the revolution the following
confidential conversation