evolts, acts of terrorism, and agrarian crimes.

2. Freedom of speech, of the press, of associations and labor
organizations, and the freedom to strike; with an extension of these
liberties to officials and troops, in so far as military and technical
conditions permit.

3. The abolition of social, religious, and racial restrictions and
privileges.

4. Immediate preparation for the summoning of a Constituent Assembly,
which, with universal suffrage as a basis, shall establish the
governmental regime and the constitution of the country.

5. The substitution for the police of a national militia, with elective
heads and subject to the self-governing bodies.

6. Communal elections to be carried out on the basis of universal
suffrage.

7. The troops that have taken part in the revolutionary movement shall
not be disarmed, but they are not to leave Petrograd.

8. While strict military discipline must be maintained on active
service, all restrictions upon soldiers in the enjoyment of social
rights granted to other citizens are to be abolished.

Meantime the Emperor, "the Little Father," at first thoroughly
incredulous of the gravity of the situation, had at last become alarmed.
He appointed General Ivanov Commander-in-Chief of the army, and ordered
him to proceed to Petrograd at the head of a division of loyal troops.
General Ivanov set out, but his train was held up at Tsarkoe Selo, and
he returned to Pskov. The Czar himself then started for the city, but
he, too, was held up at the little station of Bologoi, where workmen had
pulled up the track, and he returned to Pskov.

He sent for Ruzsky and declared that he was ready to yield to the Duma
and grant a responsible ministry. Ruzsky advised him to get in touch
with Rodzianko, and as a result of a telephone communication with
Rodzianko and with several of his trusted generals, it became clear that
there was no other course than abdication. Guchkov and Shulgin,
messengers from the Duma, arrived on the evening of March 15th, and
found the Emperor alone, except for his aide-de-camp, Count Fredericks.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"You must abdicate," Guchkov told him, "in favor of your son, with the
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as Regent."

The Emperor sat for a long time silent. "I cannot be separated from my
boy," he said. "I will hand the throne to my brother." Taking a sheet of
paper he wrote as follows:

By the Grace of God, We, Nicholas I