Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [35]
When did he cease to believe in the prophecy? And when did he understand that those last words had simply been added by the Department of Police for his benefit?
We do not know what Serafim of Sarov in truth prophesied for him—and we never will.
HIS FIRST WAR
His first war—the Russo-Japanese War—began in 1904. The Peacemaker’s son, who so hated war, found himself at war. Subsequently Witte recalled that Nicholas was pushed into seizing lands in Manchuria, having been assured that little Japan would not dare attack Russia.
Witte and his mother explained to him the risk involved. Nicholas agreed and instructed Witte to write a proposal for normalizing relations with Japan. The tsar left for Poland and his hunting lodge.
Witte wrote a memorandum that disappeared in the depths of the archives. The negotiations with Japan that his mother and Witte had fought for fell through.
Nicholas’s diary:
“26 January, 1904.… Went to the theater at 8—they were doing Rusalka. Very good. Returning home, received a telegram from Alexeyev with the news that that night Japanese torpedo boats had carried out an attack against the Tsesarevich, Pallada, etc., which were at anchor, and put holes in them. Is this undeclared war? Then may God help us!…
“27 January. This morning a telegram arrived about the bombardment of Port Arthur. Everywhere there are manifestations of a unanimous upsurge of spirit.”
Calm entries. He was assured that the Japanese did not know how to fight. His ministers argued over how many Japanese soldiers it took to equal one Russian soldier—two or one and a half.
Very soon, though, he was writing in his diary: “It is painful and hard.”
There followed unprecedented defeats for the Russian army and the destruction of the fleet.
CAMARILLA
So, Nicholas was pushed into seizing lands in Manchuria. But who stood behind this unattributed “push”?
When Minister of Interior Affairs Plehve (the Department of Police was part of his ministry) was killed by a bomb, in his archives were discovered copies of all the papers relating to the Far East. “To hold back revolution, we need a small, victorious war.” This, it turns out, was a statement Minister Plehve had made to one of his high officials on the eve of war.
“We need.” … But who were “we”?
In his Memoirs Witte recounted a curious episode: during his tenure as prime minister he struggled against Jewish pogroms. Naturally, he had to help the Department of Police, and he did. Witte was shocked to discover from a department official that while fighting against Jewish pogroms the Department of Police was simultaneously preparing proclamations inciting the population … to Jewish pogroms! These proclamations were sent secretly, in bundles, to the provinces. The terrible pogrom of Jews in Gomel had begun with these very proclamations. Forces existed whose actions even the prime minister was not given to control.
Here is an amazing story from Vera Leonidovna Yureneva:
“My friend at the time [her pronunciation of ‘friend’ was captivating, and she smiled at the ancient memory] … he was very close to Count Witte.… He tried to prove that many of the events that occurred during Nicholas’s reign were connected with the secret actions of the camarilla. This is a forgotten word now that Count Witte liked a lot.… a Spanish word referring to a group of influential court intriguers under the Spanish King Ferdinand. It became pejorative.… The camarilla in Russia involved distinguished but degenerate families.… They were afraid of losing their wealth and power and hated the new times—this incomprehensible capitalism. It was they who formed the inner circle, the court of Nicholas and Alexandra. My friend felt that in Russia, as in any country where age-old traditions of conservatism persist, a secret alliance had been formed a long time ago between the extreme