tually opposing each other, still dream of tfie Socialist paradise … only without the Lenins, the Trotskys, and the Cheka … the Russian intelligentsia are devouring the pages of the Apocalypse, looking there for the future destinies of Russia. It is an appalling symptom of impotence, utter weakness, and dangerous obsession.
This apocalyptic movement originated under the influence of Rasputin. Not that that mysterious adventurer had propagated it. On the contrary! Some eminent dignitaries of the Orthodox Church began to consider Rasputin as the Antichrist. When the first revolution broke out, and the intensified anti-dynastic and anti-social movement pointed to the catastrophe in Russia, the study of the "revelations of Saint John" turned almost into a mania, which later on became a vogue and a proof of "spiritual aristocracy." Four men were the leaders of the anti-State ideology: Prince John, the son of the Grand Duke Constantin; the Archbishop of Omsk, Sylvester; the Bishop of Novgorod, Yewdokim; and the Bishop of Tobolsk, Pimen.
Grand Duke John was a very interesting figure. A Christian mysticist, engrossed in the study of canonical books of the ancient eastern rite, a man with distinct tendencies towards asceticism, he was a severe critic of the depraved life at Tsarskoye Selo. He was a welcome and honoured guest among the circles cultivating Christian mysticism, and he was reverenced by
