THE RUSSIAN SECRET J POLICE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2503, 17 May 1909, Page 2

THE RUSSIAN SECRET J POLICE.

AZEFF AND HIS METHODS.

AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN

LONDON, February 5. Scarcely anything in -the romantic literature suggested by the Russian revolutionary movement is stranger than, some of tho stories which are being told of the exploits of Eugene Azoff, the remarkable Jew who long filed the double role of organiser for the Terrorists and agent of the secret police at a salary of £4-000 a year;'a promoter of assassinations on the one hand, a hunter of assassins on tho other. “The Borgias,” says one of the Terrorist leaders at Geneva, “were almost ange's when compared with Azeff. He has massaerod at least 1500 of us, and sent three times that number to living deaths in Siberia.”

Something more than caution and clever calculation were necessary to him throughout his career. Cool daring was one of his most striking characteristics. Danger, according to Dr Dillon/ seems to have had an irresistible fascination for his distempered mind, treason for his abnormal soul. He took a perverse delight iu living in constant danger of being stabbed by the revolutionists or hanged by the police. . Yet he appeared always calm and self-possessed, was attired in the height of fashion, sought distraction in the gay places of northern Palmyra. From 1902 he resided on tho banks of tho Neva, but occasionally paid -a short visit to Paris, where his family lived. Like his friend, Gershooni, who was the ablest revolutionist Russia lias ever produced, Azeff, gave all who came in contact with him a high opinion of his energy, will and resourcefulness. He was never_ taken aback, never hesitated, never flinched. Gershooni and he founded the “Fighting League” of the revolutionary society? and ho created many branches and other associations of a similar character in Russia and abroad. Ho was the moving spirit in the historic mutinies of Sveaborg, Cronstadt and Moscow, and lie was an indefatigable police agent in St. Petersburg, Paris and Moscow whenever there were conspirators to arrest.

The secret police attached great value to Azeff’s services, but they deny that they employ such men when, in addition to supplying information of Terrorist operations, they take a hand themselves in crime. “We cannot frustrate dastardly plots,” an official of tho police department explains, “unless wo contrive to obtain timely information about them. This involves the employment of individuals who ore members of the circles where these plots are fabricated, and this necessity we consider an unavoidable evil. But connivance at crime we vigorously eliminate from our systeni in theory and practice. A reason of State cannot justify lawlessness; therefore if any agent perpetrates crime he will he dealt with as a criminal.” Yet Azeff is credited with having planned tho murders, of M. de Plohve and the Grand Duke Sergius, and his connection with both these crimes cannot have been unknown to the police. The general assumption at St. _ Petersburg is that they paid him mainly, if not exclusively, to give information of plots aimed at the life of the Czar,. and were indifferent to what he did or instigated in other directions. It seems elea r that even after he entered the service of the police he remained to a large extent genuinely in sympathy with the /revolutionary movement. According to a report -published in Paris, Azeff proposed to the Terrorist organisation that an attempt should be made to assassinate the Czar by dropping explosives from an aeroplane. He is said to have collected money ostensibly for the purpose of conducting experiments of this kind. Presumably the money went into his own pockets. He is known to have handled the funds of the revolutionaries in the French capital in a very free fashion. For some years before liis disappearance he created a good deal of suspicion among his dupes by the extravagance of his habits. It is believed at St. Petersburg that M. Lopuhkin will be exonerated from the charge of high treason which has been brought against him.