imax, on the 14th of April a school-teacher named Solovief fired a
pistol at the czar. Not satisfied with assassination, the terrorists
resorted to incendiarism at Moscow, Nishni Novgorod, and other cities,
and there were riots at Rostof. In April, 1878, the government
proclaimed martial law, and the most renowned generals, Melikof,
Gourko, Todleben, and others were appointed governors with unlimited
authority. At St. Petersburg the _dvorniks_ or house janitors were
directed to spy upon the residents and to report their movements to
the secret police. Executions, imprisonment, and exile multiplied
until it seemed as if the government wished to terrify the terrorists.

Still the situation went from bad to worse. On December 1, 1879, as
the imperial train was entering Moscow, it was wrecked by a mine.
Alexander escaped because he had traveled in an earlier section. Three
days later the "Executive Committee" issued a proclamation excusing
the attempt and announcing that the czar had been condemned to death.
On February 17, 1880, an explosion of dynamite in the guard room of
the Winter Palace, just beneath the imperial dining-room, killed and
maimed a large number of soldiers, but the imperial family escaped by
a hair's breadth, as the czar had not entered the room. On the 24th of
the same month Louis Melikof was placed in charge of the city of St.
Petersburg, and eight days later there was an attempt upon his life.
There was a panic in the capital, when a nihilist proclamation (p. 238)
announced that these attempts would cease, provided the czar would
renounce his autocracy and "leave the task of establishing social
reforms to an assembly representing the entire Russian people."

Whatever may have been his motive, Melikof urged the czar to try what
conciliation would effect. Upon his advice, a large number of exiles
in Siberia were pardoned, and persons imprisoned for political
offenses were released. About 2,000 students expelled from the
universities were readmitted, and in several cases the death sentence
pronounced against nihilists was commuted. Only two men out of the
sixteen convicted of the attempt to blow up the Winter Palace, were
executed. The effect of this new policy was so satisfactory, that on
the 18th of August, 1880, the czar revoked the ukase of February 24,
and Melikof was appointed as Minister of the Interior. He advised the
czar to grant a constitution, and in February 1881, placed before
Alexande