espected.
"Change nothing in my father's orders;" he said to Melikof; "they are
his last will and testament." He issued two proclamations; in the
first he announced that he would strengthen the bond with Poland and
Finland, and thus gained the support of the Slavophils; and in the
second, he reminded the peasants of the freedom given to them by (p. 242)
his father, and ordered them to swear allegiance to himself and his
heir. Six men and a woman implicated in the murder of the late czar
were arrested, tried, condemned to death, and, with the exception of
the woman, they were executed on April 15. The czar appointed his
former tutor as Procurator of the Holy Synod. Pobiedonostzeff
persuaded his pupil that this was not the time to make concessions. On
the 11th of May, 1881, Alexander issued a proclamation in which he
declared his intention to maintain the absolute power. Melikof
resigned as Minister of the Interior and was replaced by Ignatieff,
the former Russian Minister at Constantinople.

Shortly after his succession to the throne, Alexander made a journey
to Moscow, and was everywhere received with unmistakable tokens of
loyalty and affection. This confirmed his opinion that the great bulk
of the population was satisfied with the form of government, and
strengthened his determination to defend it.

In 1881, an anti-semitic movement was felt in Germany; that is, an
outburst of hatred for the Jews broke out, which spread to Russia. It
is not generally known that of all the Jews in the world, four fifths
live in Russia in the southwest, in an area of 356,681 square miles.
This is sometimes mentioned as the Jewish territory. Few of these
people engage in agriculture; they are sometimes mechanics, but more
often peddlers, storekeepers, bankers and moneylenders. The principal
objection to them was that they succeed where others fail. In May,
1881, there were anti-Jewish riots at Kief and other places.
Pobiedonostzeff's motto was, "One Russia, One Religion, One Czar;" (p. 243)
prompted by him, Alexander did not take any energetic measures to
suppress the disorder, for he, too, disliked to see in Russia a people
differing in religion, language, and outward appearance. Ignatieff
began a system of persecution by removing the Jews who had profited by
the late czar's permission to settle anywhere, and when the act which
recalled the Middle Ages was hotly condemned by the foreign press,
even the Slavophils said that Ignatieff