The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

Much to the Czar’s discomfort — not to mention that of the General Staff — Rasputin frequently insisted on being told in advance the exact date on which an offensive was scheduled to be launched. The usual pretext was that he needed the information to pray for victory. Sometimes, however, his curiosity was inspired by more worldly considerations, as illustrates the following excerpt from the testimony of one of his high-level henchmen — A. N, Hvostov, a former Minister of the Interior — before the provisional government’s investigating committee: “Rasputin went to Tsarskoe Selo and Rubinstein [a shady banker who was also suspected of being a German spy] asked him to find out if an offensive was going to take place; he explained to his friends that he needed to know because he was thinking of buying some forest lands in the province of Minsk [at the time occupied by the Germans] and if we are going to launch an offensive in that area their value would go up, so it would be a good investment I learned that Rasputin discharged his mission, and on his return he related what he had said at Tsarskoe Selo.” Rasputin was always handsomely rewarded for the information or other services that he supplied to his profiteering friends, some of whom were almost certainly German agents.