[i]

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

[ii]

First Published August 1918.
Reprinted September 1918.

※ Copyright, 1917, by William Le Queux, in the United States of America.

[iii]

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 bulkymanuscript upon very thin paper which contained certainconfessions, revelations, and allegations made by itswriter, Féodor Rajevski, who acted as the mock-saint'ssecretary and body-servant, and who, in consequence, wasfor some years in a position to know the most innersecrets of Rasputin's dealings with those scoundrelly menand women who betrayed Holy Russia into the hands ofthe Hun.

This manuscript, to-day before me as I write, is mostlyin Italian, for Rajevski, the son of a Polish violinist, livedmany years of his youth in Bologna, Florence, and old-worldSiena, hence, in writing his memoirs, he used thelanguage most familiar to him, and one perhaps morereadily translated by anyone living outside Russia.

In certain passages I have been compelled todisguise names of those who, first becoming tools ofthe mock-saint, yet afterwards discovering him to be acharlatan, arose in their patriotism and—like Rajevskiwho here confesses—watched patiently, and as Revolutionistsbecame instrumental in the amazing charlatan'sdownfall and his ignominious death.

These startling revelations of the secretary to thehead of the "dark forces" in Russia, as they were known[iv]in the Duma, are certainly most amazing and unusuallystartling, forming as they do a disgraceful secret pageof history that will prove of outstanding interest to thosewho come after us.

I confess that when first I read through the bald statementsof fact, which I have here endeavoured to place inreadable form for British readers, I became absorbed—thereforeI venture to believe that they will be just asinteresting to others who read them.

William le Queux.    

    Devonshire Club, London,
        January, 1918.

[v]

CONTENTS