detail, the Mikado's army of little men first secured control in Korea,
then the command of the sea. Then one army division crossed the Yalu
with three converging lines, moving toward Mukden, pressing a
retreating army before them. Then, still moving in the grooves of the
last war, there was a landing of troops at Pitsewo, threatening Dalny
and Port Arthur, the latter already isolated, with railroad and
telegraphic lines cut. Seeing the capture of Dalny was imminent,
without a pause the Russians mined the harbor, docks and defences which
had cost millions of dollars, and the city created by fiat was by fiat
doomed to destruction.

Behind this life and death struggle with a foreign foe, another
struggle nearer home was being profoundly affected by these unexpected
calamities. An unpopular war cannot afford to be an unsuccessful one.
This clash with Japan was distinctly the outcome of bureaucratic
ambitions and policy. It had not one single issue in which the people
who were fighting its battles and bearing its burdens were even
remotely interested. And then again--a despotism must not show signs
of weakness. Its power lies in the fiction of its invincibility.
Liberals and Progressives of all shades, wise and not wise, saw their
opportunity. Finns and Poles grew bolder. The air was thick with
threats and demands and rumors of revolt.

At this critical moment M. Von Plehve, the leader of the party of
reaction, the very incarnation of the spirit of old Russia, of
Pobiedonostseff and the Holy Synod, was in power.

In 1903 there had occurred a shocking massacre of Jews at Kishineff.
This culmination of a prolonged anti-Semitic agitation was quickly
followed by an imperial edict, promising, among other reforms,
religious liberty for all. With M. de Witte, the leader of the
progressive party, to administer this new policy, a better day seemed
to be dawning. But under the benumbing pressure of autocratic
influences, and with his characteristic infirmity of purpose, the Tsar
almost immediately removed M. de Witte, replacing him with M. Von
Plehve, in whose hands the reforming edict became practically
inoperative, and in fact all reforms impossible.

On June 15, 1904, General Bobrikov, the recently appointed Russian
Governor of Finland, was assassinated by the son of a Finnish Senator
within the walls of the Senate. Quickly following this, July 28th, M.
Von Plehve was killed on the streets of St. Petersburg by the