[50] The circumstances of Rasputin’s death are to be found in the newspapers of the time. I will briefly recapitulate them here. His death was the result of a plot in which some of the participants were the Grand-Duke Dimitri Pavlovitch, first cousin of the Czar, Prince Yussoupoff, whose wife was the niece of Nicholas II., M. Purichkevitch, a monarchist deputy in the Duma, and Dr. Lazarevsky, who accompanied him. The Grand-Duke wished to show by his presence that it was not a case of an act of rebellion against the Czar, but merely the execution of a miscreant whom the nation had judged and found guilty of abusing the confidence of his sovereign. Rasputin was killed on the night of December 30th. Prince Yussoupoff had gone to fetch him in his car very late in the evening, and brought him to his house. They first tried to poison him, but as the poison was slow in taking effect, Prince Yussoupoff and the deputy killed him with revolvers. His corpse was thrown into the Neva and was picked up two days later. [51] I am referring, of course, to the articulate portion of the nation. The untutored masses cared nothing about him, and among those who knew of his existence a large number were favourable to him. Many considered his death an act of vengeance on the part of the courtiers who were jealous of their privileges. “The first time that one of ourselves gets to the Czar, he is killed by the courtiers,” they said. To the _moujik_ the great criminals were those who came between the sovereign and his people, and prevented him from extending his favours to them. There was a popular saying that “the Czar gives, but his servants withhold,” in which the peasant expressed his faith in the goodness of his Czar and his hatred of those around him. [52] Ludendorff, _My War Memories_, vol. ii. (Hutchinson and Co., London). What Ludendorff did not mention, and for good reason, was the untiring efforts Germany had made to produce this revolution which had broken out so unexpectedly. [53] Is not this idea illustrated in the popular saying which betrays the simple faith of the Russian peasant and his feeling of impotence: “God is a very long way up; the Czar a very long way off.” [54] Ludendorff exaggerates the _rôle_ of the Entente in the Russian Revolution when he writes: “In March, 1917, a Revolution, the work of the Entente, overthrew the Czar.” The movement was supported by the Allies, but it was not their work. Ludendorff shows well enough what were its immediate results for Germany. “The Revolution meant a fatal loss of military power to Russia, weakened the Entente and gave us considerable relief in our heavy task. The General Staff could at once effect important economies of troops and ammunition, and could also exchange divisions on a much greater scale.” And further on: “In April and May, 1917, it was the Russian Revolution which saved us in spite of our victory on the Aisne and in Champagne.” (Ludendorff, _My War Memories_, vol. ii.).