olding meetings. Next the headquarters of all these organizations
were placed in charge of the police. And then came the removal from
the Cabinet of Sazonov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the one man
in whose loyalty to Russia the people had confidence. Sazonov had
always been a keen admirer of the British and the French, and was in
close touch with the embassies of these countries in Petrograd. To the
Russians he had seemed at least some sort of a guarantee against being
surprised with a sudden separate peace. Nor can there be any doubt
that he was a serious obstacle in the way of the dark forces in their
efforts to bring about their object. Sazonov's removal acquired still
deeper significance when it was announced that Sturmer himself would
take charge of foreign affairs, business of which he had absolutely no
experience.

Of a deep significance, though this was not obvious at the time, was
the appointment of Alexander D. Protopopoff as Minister of the
Interior. This was the man who was finally to kick aside the last
wedge shoring up the tottering walls of the Russian autocracy.

Protopopoff, who had for the first time entered politics in 1908,
being a cloth manufacturer of Simbirsk, was in that year elected a
deputy to the Duma by the moderate Octobrists, a conservative body
which usually sided with the Government. But when the Octobrists
joined the Progressive Bloc against the Government, Protopopoff had
shown himself quite radical and supported it. Quite unexpectedly, by
the resignation of a vice president of the Duma, he rose to prominence
by being elected to the vacant office. In the summer of 1916 he was
one of a delegation which visited England, France, and Italy. On his
return to Russia, through Stockholm, he there met and held a
conversation with a German agent, but at the time, though the matter
was taken up by the Duma for investigation, he managed to exonerate
himself. But, as became known, the incident caused him to attract the
attention of Rasputin, and he and the court favorite came together and
to an understanding. The result was his appointment to the cabinet.

At first it was hoped that Protopopoff would prove the sign of
surrender of the autocracy; that a liberal element was to be
introduced into the administration through him. But the new minister
showed himself in close harmony with Sturmer, and presently this last
hope was destroyed.

With Protopopoff a new idea was introduced into the Gov