prerogatives of autocracy.
The head of this party was the procurator-general of the Holy Synod,
Constantine Petrovich Pobyedonostzev, a former professor at
the University of Moscow, who had been Alexander III.'s tutor in the
political sciences when the latter was crown prince. As the
exponent of an ecclesiastical police state, Pobyedonostzev contended
that enlightenment and political freedom were harmful to Russia,
that the people must be held in a state of patriarchal submission to
the authority of the Church and of the temporal powers, and that the
Greek-Orthodox masses must be shielded against the influence of
alien religions and races, which should accordingly occupy in the
Russian monarchy a position subordinate to that of the dominant
nation. The ideas of this fanatic reactionary, who was dubbed "The
Grand Inquisitor" and whose name was popularly changed into
_Byedonostzev_ [1] carried the day at the Gatchina conferences. The
deliberations culminated in the decision to refrain from making any
concessions to the revolutionary element by granting reforms, however
however modest in character, and to maintain at all cost the regime of a
police state as a counterbalance to the idea of a legal state
prevalent in the "rotten West."

[Footnote 1: _Byedonostzev_ means in Russian "Misfortune-bearer," a play
on the name _Pobyedonostzev_ which signifies "Victory-bearer."]

Accordingly, the imperial manifesto [1] promulgated on April 29, 1881,
proclaimed to the people that "the Voice of God hath commanded us to
take up vigorously the reins of government, inspiring us with the belief
in the strength and truth of autocratic power, which we are called upon
to establish and safeguard." The manifesto "calls upon all faithful
subjects to eradicate the hideous sedition and to establish faith and
morality." The methods whereby faith and morality were to be established
were soon made known, in the "Police Constitution" which was bestowed
upon Russia in August, 1881, under the name of "The Statute concerning
Enforced Public Safety."

[Footnote 1: A manifesto is a pronouncement issued by the Tzar on solemn
occasions, such as accession to the throne, events in the imperial
family, declaration of war, conclusion of peace, etc., accompanied, as a
rule, by acts of grace, such as conferring privileges, granting pardons,
and so on. Compare also above, p. 115.]

This statute confers upon the Russian satraps of the capitals (St.
Petersburg