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Updated: May 19, 2025
With due ceremony, after the banker had removed his light overcoat, I conducted him into the monk's presence. As Ganskau bowed towards the mysterious influence behind the Imperial Throne, I saw the quick, inquisitive hawk's glance which Rasputin gave him. Then I turned and, closing the door, left the pair together, and returned to where the prince was waiting.
After the banker had left, Rasputin, full of satisfaction as he held the draft for the amount in his dirty paw, dictated to me another letter addressed to the Minister of the Interior, which read: "His Majesty the Emperor, having full knowledge of the charge of murder made against Nicholas Ganskau of Tver, orders that the inquiries concerning the case be abandoned and that the person suspected be not further molested."
One day, as I sat alone at lunch with Rasputin, the prince called, and sitting down at the table unceremoniously declared: "I have done a very good stroke of business this morning, my dear Gregory. You have probably heard of Ganskau of Tver." "The great banker, eh?" "The same. He is one of the wealthiest men in Russia.
When Malinovsky returned to where I was sitting, he told me that the reply of the Chief of Police of Tver was to the effect that there was no doubt that Ganskau was guilty of a very brutal murder, committed in most mysterious circumstances.
A few weeks after this incident there occurred the Ganskau affair, which was a most disgraceful transaction, and which was very carefully hushed up. Though there were many rumours in Petrograd concerning it, I am able to place the whole of the astounding facts on record here for the first time.
This suggestion Ganskau at once welcomed, thanking the prince for his kindly intervention. Then the latter made a remark which in itself showed how expert a blackmailer he was. "You see, as the girl Elise was a French subject, if the French police ever get hold of the truth it would go very badly with you," he declared. The banker's face went pale as death. "I never thought of that!" he gasped.
By the prince's manner I knew that he felt confident of making big profits. The great Ganskau, the Rothschild of Russia, desired Gregory's aid, and Gregory would assist him at a price. While we were talking Madame Vyrubova rang on the telephone to inquire if Rasputin had left for Tsarskoe-Selo. I replied in the negative, whereupon she said: "Tell him not to come to-night.
Back in Petrograd he begged of Rasputin to receive him, and the monk, after two refusals on the plea that he was too busy, at last consented ungraciously. The result of that interview was that Nicholas Ganskau disgorged a further hundred thousand roubles for the bribing of an enemy who did not exist!
Then I sat down, and at the "holy man's" dictation wrote to the Minister of the Interior as follows: "There is a charge of murder against Nicholas Ganskau, banker, of Tver. I wish to see all documents concerning the crime. Orders must be given not to arrest the assassin for one month, and that due notice be given me before any action is taken." To this the monk scrawled his illiterate signature.
At each station the sight of a grey uniform caused him to hold his breath. Thus to work upon his nerves was part of the prince's game, for he well knew that the more terrified Ganskau became, the greater amount of money he would be prepared to pay.
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