vil of
all the actors in the Russian drama was dead, but the system which made
him what he was lived. Rasputin dead exercised upon the diseased mind of
the Czarina--and, through her, upon the Czar--even a greater influence than
when he was alive. Nicholas II was as powerless to resist the insane
Czarina's influence as he had proved himself to be when he banished the
Grand-Duke Nicholas for pointing out that the Czarina was the tool of evil
and crafty intriguers. Heedless of the warning implied in the murder of
Rasputin, and of the ever-growing opposition to the government and the
throne, the Czar inaugurated, or permitted to be inaugurated, new measures
of reaction and repression.

Trepov was driven from the Premiership and replaced by Prince Golitizin, a
bureaucrat of small brain and less conscience. The best Minister of
Education Russia had ever had, Ignatyev, was replaced by one of the
blackest of all reactionaries. The Czar celebrated the New-Year by issuing
an edict retiring the progressive members of the Imperial Council, who had
supported the Duma, and appointing in their stead the most reactionary men
he could find in the Empire. At the head of the Council as president he
placed the notorious Jew-hating Stcheglovitov. As always, hatred of the Jew
sprang from fear of progress.

As one reads the history of January, 1917, in Russia, as it was reported in
the press day by day, and the numerous accounts of competent and
trustworthy observers, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that
Protopopov deliberately sought to precipitate a revolution. Mad as this
hypothesis seems to be, it is nevertheless the only one which affords a
rational explanation of the policy of the government. No sooner was
Golitizin made Premier than it was announced that the opening of the Duma
would be postponed till the end of January, in order that the Cabinet
might be reorganized. Later it was announced that the Duma opening would be
again postponed--this time till the end of February. In the reorganization
of the Cabinet, Shuvaviev, the War Minister, who had loyally co-operated
with the zemstvos and had supported the Duma in November, was dismissed.
Pokrovsky, the Foreign Minister, who had announced to the Duma in December
the rejection of the German peace offer, was reported to be "sick" and
given "leave of absence." Other changes were made in the Cabinet, in every
case to the advantage of the reactionaries. It was practically impossible