Rasputin the Rascal Monk Disclosing the Secret Scandal of the Betrayal of Russia by the mock-monk Grichka and the consequent ruin of the Romanoffs. With official documents revealed and recorded for the first time.. By William Le Queux Published by Hurst & Blackett, Limited, Paternoster House, London EC. Rasputin the Rascal Monk, by William Le Queux. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ RASPUTIN THE RASCAL MONK, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX. PREFACE. WHY THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN. In the following pages I have attempted to take the reader behind the veil of the Imperial Russian Court, and to disclose certain facts which, in this twentieth century, may appear almost incredible. As one who knows Russia, who has traversed the Empire from Virballen to the Pacific coast, and who has met personally both the ex-Emperor and his consort, as well as many of the persons herein mentioned, I confess that I myself have often been astounded when examining the mass of documents which this dirty Siberian peasant--the convicted horse-stealer who rose to be the secret adviser of Nicholas II--had happily secreted in the safe in his cellar in the Gorokhovaya, in Petrograd, so that the real truth of his traitorous dealings with the Kaiser might be chronicled in history. I had hoped to be able to reproduce many of the cipher telegrams and letters in facsimile, but the present shortage of paper has precluded this, and it could only be done if this book were issued in expensive form. To me, it seems best that the British public should have access to it in a cheap and popular form, and hence I have abandoned the idea of facsimiles. I here publish the story of the mock-monk's amazing career as a further contribution to the literature upon Germany's spy system and propaganda so cleverly established as an insidious adjunct to her military attack upon the civilisation of our times. The conversations herein recorded have been disclosed by patriotic Russians, the truth has been winnowed out of masses of mere hearsay, and the cipher telegrams and letters I have copied from the de-coded originals placed at my disposal by certain Russians, Allies of ours, who desire, for the present, to remain anonymous. William Le Queux. Devonshire Club, London, S.W. November, 1917. CHAPTER ONE. THE CULT OF THE "SISTER-DISCIPLES." The war has revealed many strange personalities in Europe, but surely none so sinister or so remarkable as that of the mock-monk Gregory Novikh--the middle-aged, uncleanly charlatan, now happily dead, whom Russia knew as Rasputin.