Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/181

Rh was increasingly frequent; courts martial were established in various districts; the entire population of the towns was subjected to supervision, concierges being made tools of the police; the governors were given extraordinary powers, and at length special governors-general were appointed with dictatorial authority. On November 2, 1879, the tsar issued an appeal to all classes to co-operate in the struggle against the terrorists, but in vain. With the appointment of Loris-Melikov as minister for home affairs (1880) there ensued a mitigation of the anti-revolutionary repressive measures, the Nicolaitan third section being abolished, the censorship rendered less severe, and so on. In addition Loris-Melikov designed the introduction of positive reforms in favour of the peasantry, and hoped to reform the administration, but it was too late.

On March 9, 1881, in a ukase to the minister for home affairs, the tsar approved what was known as the constitution of Count Loris-Melikov. The promulgation was postponed until the twelfth. When tidings of a new conspiracy reached him he ordered that on the following day (March 13th), the ukase should be published in the official gazette. On the 13th the "tsar liberator" was blown up by the bomb thrown by the peasant's son Rysakov at the very time when Loris-Melikov's proposal was handed in to the state printing office.

It is beyond dispute that Loris-Melikov had no idea of granting a constitution. His "dictatorship of the heart" amounted merely to the legal regulation of repressive measures, with an attempt to strengthen absolutism by reforming and cleansing the bureaucracy. "Preparatory committees" were to investigate the respective departments of the administration, and to draft proposals which would be submitted to a "general committee." Various members of the preparatory committee would be nominated by the tsar to the general committee, which would contain also delegates from the zemstvos and the larger towns (St. Petersburg and Moscow were to have two members each), and a few persons nominated from the administrative districts where there were no zemstvos. The general committee was to sit for no more than a specified period, and was to have deliberative powers only. After being passed by the general committee, the proposals were finally to be submitted to the council of state.