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threw it into a hole in the ice.On the way down the y struck either the bridge abutment or the ice, breaking its head o n They drove away.
Rasputin had en i ned, enough to kill four men; shot, two fatal wounds; aten and thrown against a bridge.But it was still alive under the water, where it should have frozen to death alm t immediately in the ice choked Neva River on the last day of the year.But the y breathe for there was water in its lung it move for the ro s binding its hands were partially untied
How at last did it die? No one know Perhaps an angel from Heaven finally intervened to conquer the devil which was apparently ing the y.The next day, the y was recovered, entirely encased in ice, its lungs full of water, its right hand free of the ro and reaching out
But the devil didn't really need the y anymore.Its work had en done.The royal family's prestige had en ruined; there was a wer vac uum in Imperial Ru ia And waiting in the win to fill the vacuum were Nikolai Lenin and the Communist Party.
1917
At the ginning of 1917 the tr ps in the trenches on the western front could see so little pur se in their war that a pular ng, sung to the tune of "Auld ng Syne," was "We're here cau we're here cause we're here ..." veral million men lived like moles along a 35 mile line. The ground had en devastated by the constant fighting and the heavy rains that a wounded man could literally drown in the mud fore could re ued In Ru ia, the death(s) of Rasputin had not lved any thing.On March 8 bread riots broke out in St Petersburg as starving ple tried to get f Instead of suppre ing the riots, the ldiers ined them.Nicholas had surrendered his authority to Alexandra and Rasputin; now he could not regain it He signed the d ument of a ication, and Alexander Kerensky, a leader in the Duma, formed a government The st thing Kerensky could have done for Ru ia was to get out of the war, but the Allies pre ured him to stay in, and the slaughter of Ru ian l diers continued Many of the ldiers could take no more, and from March-August 1917, ven million men deserted the army.
Charles of Austria continued his efforts to make ace, embarking on a dangerous diplomatic venture.Charles' wife Zita came from the ur n-Parma family of Italy.Meeting cretly with two of her brothers, Six tus and vier, Charles gave them the ion of carrying nal me ges to Paris, offering to make conce ions of Austrian territory if ace
