as much more important and desirable than
military prestige or extension of territory.

During the first part of the Turkish campaign of 1877-78, when the
Russian armies were repulsed in Bulgaria and Asia Minor, the hostility
to autocracy was very strong, and the famous acquittal of Vera
Zasulitch, who had attempted to assassinate General Trepof, caused
widespread satisfaction among people who were not themselves
revolutionaries and who did not approve of such violent methods of
political struggle. Towards the end of the war, when the tide of fortune
had turned both in Europe and in Asia, and the Russian army was encamped
under the walls of Constantinople, within sight of St. Sophia, the
Chauvinist feelings gained the upper hand, and they were greatly
intensified by the Congress of Berlin, which deprived Russia of some
fruits of her victories.

This change in public feeling and the horror excited by the
assassination of Alexander II. prepared the way for Alexander III.'s
reign (1881-94), which was a period of political stagnation. He was a
man of strong character, and a vigorous ruler who believed in Autocracy
as he did in the dogmas of his Church; and very soon after his accession
he gave it clearly to be understood that he would permit no limitations
of the Autocratic Power. The men with Liberal aspirations knew that
nothing would make him change his mind on that subject, and that any
Liberal demonstrations would merely confirm him in his reactionary
tendencies. They accordingly remained quiet and prudently waited for
better times.

The better times were supposed to have come when Nicholas II. ascended
the throne in November, 1894, because it was generally assumed that
the young Tsar, who was known to be humane and well-intentioned, would
inaugurate a more liberal policy. Before he had been three months on the
throne he summarily destroyed these illusions. On 17th (29th) January,
1895, when receiving deputies from the Noblesse, the Zemstvo, and the
municipalities, who had come to St. Petersburg to congratulate him on
his marriage, he declared his confidence in the sincerity of the loyal
feelings which the delegates expressed; and then, to the astonishment of
all present, he added: "It is known to me that recently, in some Zemstvo
assemblies, were heard the voices of people who had let themselves be
carried away by absurd dreams of the Zemstvo representatives taking
part in the affairs of internal administration; le