The Minister of Evil

The Minister of Evil, by William
Le Queux

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Title: The Minister of Evil The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of
Russia
Author: William Le Queux
Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22720]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MINISTER OF EVIL ***

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The Minister of Evil
The Secret History of RASPUTIN'S Betrayal of Russia

William Le Queux
Cassell and Company, Ltd London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
First Published August 1918. Reprinted September 1918.
Copyright, 1917, by William Le Queux, in the United States of
America.

TO THE READER
AFTER the issue to the public of the curious chronicle of "Rasputin the
Rascal Monk," based upon official documents, and its translation into a
number of languages, I received from the same sources in Russia a
bulky manuscript upon very thin paper which contained certain
confessions, revelations, and allegations made by its writer, Féodor
Rajevski, who acted as the mock-saint's secretary and body-servant,
and who, in consequence, was for some years in a position to know the
most inner secrets of Rasputin's dealings with those scoundrelly men
and women who betrayed Holy Russia into the hands of the Hun.
This manuscript, to-day before me as I write, is mostly in Italian, for
Rajevski, the son of a Polish violinist, lived many years of his youth in
Bologna, Florence, and old-world Siena, hence, in writing his memoirs,
he used the language most familiar to him, and one perhaps more
readily translated by anyone living outside Russia.
In certain passages I have been compelled to disguise names of those
who, first becoming tools of the mock-saint, yet afterwards discovering
him to be a charlatan, arose in their patriotism and--like Rajevski who
here confesses--watched patiently, and as Revolutionists became
instrumental in the amazing charlatan's downfall and his ignominious
death.
These startling revelations of the secretary to the head of the "dark
forces" in Russia, as they were known in the Duma, are certainly most
amazing and unusually startling, forming as they do a disgraceful secret

page of history that will prove of outstanding interest to those who
come after us.
I confess that when first I read through the bald statements of fact,
which I have here endeavoured to place in readable form for British
readers, I became absorbed--therefore I venture to believe that they will
be just as interesting to others who read them.
WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
DEVONSHIRE CLUB, LONDON, January, 1918.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. RASPUTIN MEETS THE EMPRESS 1 2. RASPUTIN ENTERS
TSARSKOE-SELO 19 3. THE POTSDAM PLOT DEVELOPS 36 4.
THE MURDER OF STOLYPIN 53 5. THE POWER BEHIND THE
THRONE 68 6. RASPUTIN IN BERLIN 85 7. SCANDAL AND
BLACKMAIL 100 8. RASPUTIN THE ACTUAL TSAR 116 9. THE
TRAGEDY OF MADAME SVETCHINE 132 10. TRAITOROUS
WORK 148 11. POISON PLOTS THAT FAILED 163 12. RASPUTIN
AND THE KAISER 180 13. THE "PERFUME OF DEATH" 197 14.
MILIUKOFF'S EXPOSURE 214 15. THE TRAITORS DENOUNCED
229
CHAPTER I
RASPUTIN MEETS THE EMPRESS
THE Spanish author Yriarte wrote those very true words:
"Y ahora digo yo; llene un volumen De disparates un Autor famoso, Y
si no alabaren, que me emplumen."
For those who do not read Spanish I would translate the passage as:

"Now I say to you; let an author of renown fill a book with twaddle,
and if it is not praised by the critics, you may tar and feather me."
I am not an author of renown. Indeed, I make no pretence of the
delicacies of literary style, or the turning of fine phrases of elegant
diplomacy. My object is merely to record in these pages the truth
regarding the crumbling of Russia, and the downfall of our Imperial
Throne.
Anyone who cares to search the voluminous records in the Bureau of
Police in the long Bibikovsky Boulevard, in Kiev, will find my dossier
neatly filed and tabulated, as are those of most Russians. You will find
that I, Féodor, son of Féodor Rajevski, musician temporarily abroad,
and his wife Varvara, was born in the Via Galliera, at Bologna, in Italy,
on July 8, 1880, and on March 3, 1897, entered the University in the
Vladimirskaya. I venture to think that the police have but little
inscribed to my detriment save perhaps a few students' pranks in the
Kreshtchatik, and the record of that memorable night when we daubed
with blue