s food whenever
Rasputin was away from the court for more than a few days. The poor
little prince, of course, was made sick; whereupon, the Empress would
hurriedly send for Rasputin, upon whose arrival the Czarevitch
"miraculously" got well. In this manner this low-born fakir obtained
such a hold over the Czar and Czarina that he was able to appoint
governors of states, put bishops out of their places, and even change
prime ministers. There is no doubt that the Germans bribed him to use
his influence in their behalf. It is a sad illustration of the
ignorance of the Russian people as a whole, that such a man could have
gotten so great a power on such flimsy pretenses.

The real salvation of the Russians came through the Zemptsvos. These
were little assemblies, one in each county in Russia, elected by the
people to decide all local matters, like the building of roads,
helping feed the poor, etc. They had been started by Czar Alexander
II, in 1862. Although the court was rotten with graft and plotting,
the Zemptsvos remained true to the people. They finally all united in
a big confederation, and when the world war broke out, this body,
really the only patriotic part of the Russian government, kept the
grand dukes and the pro-Germans from betraying the nation into the
hands of the enemy.

It was a strange situation. The Russian people through the
representatives that they elected to these little county assemblies
were patriotically carrying out the war, while the grand dukes and the
court nobles, who had gotten Russia into this trouble, were, for the
most part, hampering the soldiers, either through grafting off the
supplies and speculating in food, or traitorously plotting to betray
their country to the Germans. With plenty of food in Russia, with
millions of bushels of grain stored away by men who were holding it in
order to get still higher prices, there was not enough for the people
of Petrograd to eat.

As you were told in a previous chapter, the German, Sturmer, was made
prime minister, probably with the approval of the monk, Rasputin.
Roumania, depending on promises of Russian help, was crushed between
the armies of the Germans on the one side and the Turks and Bulgars on
the other, while trainload after trainload of the guns and munitions
which would have enabled her armies to stand firm was sidetracked and
delayed on Russian railroads. "Your Majesty, we are betrayed," said
the French general who had been sent b