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Could Rasputin Have Prevented the First World War?

Uploaded by GirlsRule101 on Aug 27, 2004

Grigory Rasputin was spending the summer of 1914 in Siberia with his wife and children when on the afternoon of June 29 [1] he was stabbed in the abdomen by a former prostitute named Khioniya Kozmishna Guseva. “I’ve killed the Antichrist!” she screamed as she was mobbed by angry villagers. Rasputin staggered back into his house clutching his entrails in his hand. He was critically ill for ten days but a skilled doctor and his own enormous physical strength finally pulled him through. One cynic remarked on his survival that, “the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body.” [2]

One day earlier and thousands of miles away the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated in Sarajevo. As the events of the next month drifted towards war Tsar Nicholas maintained an almost casual indifference to the gathering threat. After all, “the German emperor had frequently assured him of his sincere desire to safeguard the peace of Europe.” Rasputin was recovering in his bed in Siberia and fully alert to the danger, one of the few people who accurately foresaw the coming disaster. He sent a letter to Nicholas coached in his mystical, prophetic style, “A terrible storm menaces Russia … Woe, disaster, suffering without end … Do not let fools triumph. Do not let them do this thing.” Nicholas did not respond and continued with his summer activities.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28 and began the bombardment of Belgrade the next day. Nicholas signed the orders for partial mobilization along the Austro-Hungarian frontier on July 29 and general mobilization on July 30 with great reluctance at the urging of foreign minister Sazonov. “Think of the responsibility you advise me to take,” he declaimed, “It would mean sending hundreds of thousands of Russians to their deaths.” Also on July 30, Austria-Hungary declared general mobilization. Germany delivered an ultimatum to Russia, demanding a halt to her mobilization, on July 31 and then declared war on its expiration. When Empress Alexandra learned the news she fled to her bedroom weeping, “War! And I knew nothing of it! This is the end of everything!”

These are the events that actually occurred. But let us suppose that Rasputin had not been gravely wounded in the attack. He would surely have returned to St. Petersburg as the war crisis grew and used his considerable influence to try to avert it. The...

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Uploaded by:   GirlsRule101

Date:   08/27/2004

Category:   History

Length:   5 pages (1,104 words)

Views:   8155

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