It being pretty well established that Razputin was the direct cause--in the Empress’s hands--of the Revolution and the downfall of Russia, I would ask what the Ludendorffs and their Russian dupes have to say in justification of the argument that it was the Entente that brought about the Revolution. Razputin’s relationship to the defeatists was so clear to everybody in Russia that people--Russians as well as Allies--fell naturally into the mistake of supposing that the Empress must be pro-German, since she supported Razputin. Who magnified Razputin before the war? The _Cologne Gazette_. Who was his arch-apologist? The pro-German Witte. The Germans had almost as much to do with the Razputin scandal as they had to do with Lenin and the exploits of his hundred Jews.[5] The murder of Razputin evoked the greatest outburst of popular rejoicing that any act had ever produced. “_Ubili!_” (they have killed) was the universal greeting. People did not stop to ask who had been killed. They knew. The whole nation had desired his death, and one wonders that he so long survived. But his murder was, none the less, a mistake, since he was merely an ignorant tool, and the circumstances of his end--the lawless joy that it evoked--only helped the revolutionaries. Thenceforth, the Empress’s name was in the gutter, and there was only one hope of salvation for the Tsar--to dissociate himself from his wife. To do that--to put her away into a monastery as Tsar Peter Alexeievich would have done--was quite beyond the capacity of a gentle soul like Nicholas Alexandrovich.... It had been suggested before the Revolution that she should go alone to England “on a visit.” This argued complete ignorance of the inner life of the Sovereigns. The Razputin scandal had arisen because Alexandra morbidly imagined that the destinies of Russia depended upon their joint faith and prayers--hers and the “saint’s.” Also she was convinced that without her constant presence and support Nicholas would be lost. Sooner would she have died than go away, particularly after the death of her “saint.” There had been plots to kill Alexandra and even the Tsar. It is curious, indeed, that her life should have been spared. One must bear in mind the probability of German “protection.” It is evident that Alexandra’s death would have put an end to the Razputin scandal and therefore been unprofitable for Germany. As for Nicholas, the people were on his side to the last--till the Revolution extinguished in men’s minds the last vestige of all that was seemly.