We should also bear in mind that it is perfectly possible to read a book without agreeing with its contents. ...
So it is possible that Ella sent Alexandra the Nilus book on the basis of, 'You'd better read this, but it will shock you.'
I agree that this is a possibility. However, I'm not sure that this was the case.
I’ve seen references to Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Nilus’ book in several sources, a.o.
Warrant for Genocide by Norman Cohn [edition published by Serif, London, 2005; first published in 1967]. Trying to trace the origins of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', Cohn quoted from a sworn 1927 affidavit by Filip Petrovich Stepanov, formerly procurator of the ecclesiastical synod of Moscow, court chamberlain and privy councilor, who claimed that he and Arkady Ippolitovich Kelepovsky anonymously printed the Protocols in Russia around 1897; Kelepovsky was said to be head of the household of Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Elisabeth at the time [Cohn, pp. 108-109]. It seems not unlikely that Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Elisabeth knew about this anonymous publication and were familiar with the contents of the Protocols well before their publication in
Znamya [‘Banner’] in the Autumn of 1903 and well before their inclusion in Nilus'
The Great in the Small.
Cohn also wrote that the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Elisabeth turned to Pyotr Ivanovich Rachkovsky, head of the Russian secret service in Paris, for help to get Mr. Philippe removed [Cohn , p. 92].
One plot involving Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Nilus that Cohn discusses is based on an account by Alexandre du Chayla, who knew Sergei Nilus in 1909. According to that account, an earlier book by Nilus that was basically the first edition of
The Great in the Small had “received favourable reviews in some religious and conservative newspapers in 1900 and so came to the attention of Grand Duchess Elisabeth”. According to du Chaya, Grand Duchess Elisabeth “regarded Nilus as a genuine mystic and unshakable orthodox” and set out to replace Archpriest Yanishev, whom she blamed for the state of affairs with regard to Mr. Philippe, by bringing Nilus to Tsarksoe Selo to have him trained and ordained priest, to have him married off to Yelena Alexandrovna Ozerova, one of the Empress’ ladies-in-waiting, and then to impose Nilus on the Tsar and Empress as their new confessor. [Cohn , p. 93] It sounds like a rather time-consuming and roundabout way to get someone sacked, and it didn't work, but apparently there are documents that prove that Yelena Alexandrovna Ozerova used her position as a lady-in-waiting to secure publication of the third edition of her then fiancé's book
The Great in the Small under the imprint of the Red Cross organization, whose President happened to be the Dowager Empress, and she did marry Nilus in 1906 [Cohn, pp. 94-95].
I must say that I cannot properly verify what Cohn wrote; more detailed footnotes on the above points would have been most welcome.
However,
if there is truth in the above, Nilus and his spirituality and thinking seem to have been in GD Elisabeth’s good books.
