ineffective and a laughing stock. But that was not enough, his pride was
hurt and he wanted to be revenged, and the number of people arrested,
imprisoned, exiled, and executed for political crimes was greater than
before.

It has been said that Nicholas was not cruel and the blame for the bloody
deeds in his reign was laid to his ministers. Indeed, there is something in
his face that is kindly and makes a very good first impression. But those
who knew him better had learned to distrust that smile. When the Emperor
was most gracious to one of his ministers it was a sign that his
resignation would be called for the next day. In this respect Nicholas
II was like Alexander I. The following story tells something of the real
character of the man who had the lives of millions of people at his mercy.
The committee appointed by the Duma to take charge of the papers of the
Tsar found that many important documents of state, such as reports from the
commanders-in-chief, ministers, and others, he had never read, and some he
had not even looked at. They did, however, come across a notebook which had
been carefully kept and guarded. On opening it they noted that Nicholas,
with his own hand, wrote down the names of those revolutionists who, in
1905-06, were executed, the kind of execution, and other such details.
[Footnote: This story was told to the writer by a member of the committee.]
That interested him, but matters of state he left to his time servers,
to his hysterical wife, yes, to Grigory Rasputin, a dirty, ignorant, and
licentious peasant, until the country blushed with shame and it became a
saying, "Now we have Grigory I [Rasputin] as tsar."

The present war was declared by the Tsar but the people approved it because
they hoped that the defeat of Germany would mean the defeat of the German
reactionary influence in Russia, especially about the court, and a closer
union with democratic England and France. I was present at the capital at