This was his program and it deeply disappointed the
people. On the top of this came the tragedy at Moscow on the day of his
coronation when hundreds of people lost their lives in the attempt to
obtain a loving cup which was promised them in commemoration of the
event. Then followed the wholesale killing of the factory hands at
Iaroslav, of the peasants in Kharkov, the miners on the Lena, and other
such massacres and pogroms. Nicholas himself withdrew to his palaces and
left the affairs of state in the hands of the court clique which dragged
Russia into the Japanese war and brought on the revolution of 1905.
Before it was over the Emperor promised a constitution but as soon as
the disturbance was quelled he went back on his word.

It was known that he was weak and he now proved that he was also a liar.
He dismissed one Duma after another, he created an upper house to act as
a brake, he juggled with the electoral laws so that whereas according to
the law of December 24, 1905 the working classes and the peasants were
entitled to 68 per cent of the Duma's representation, by the law of June
14, 1907 they were allowed only 36 per cent, Poland's delegation was cut
down from 37 to 12 per cent, Caucasus' from 29 to 9, Siberia's from 21
to 14, and Central Asia's from 23 to 1. In fact he did everything to
make the Duma ineffective and a laughing stock. But that was not enough,
his pride was hurt and he wanted to be revenged, and the number of
people arrested, imprisoned, exiled, and executed for political crimes
was greater than before.

It has been said that Nicholas was not cruel and the blame for the
bloody deeds in his reign was laid to his ministers. Indeed, there
is something in his face that is kindly and makes a very good first
impression. But those who knew him better had learned to distrust that
smile. When the Emperor was most gracious to one of his ministers it was
a sign that his resignation would be called for the next day. In this
respect Nicholas II was like Alexander I. The following story tells
something of the real character of the man who had the lives of millions
of people at his mercy. The committee appointed by the Duma to take
charge of the papers of the Tsar found that many important documents
of state, such as reports from the commanders-in-chief, ministers, and
others, he had never read, and some he had not even looked at. They
did, however, come across a notebook which had been carefully kept and
guar