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was revolutionary. e march i lf was ille i but the authoriti made no attempt to stop it Nicholas w not at the Winter P ace, but at T k lo, his country re dence. He had no id of the ma itude of the demonst tion and h id alm t no attention to it When the marchers converged on the Winter Palace, the tr ps fired into the killing many, cluding women and children When Nicholas found out what had ha ned, he met with a dele tion of marche but ve them only plati­ tud t up a commi ion to investi te the event, but it accomplished nothin Nicholas' ap ent indifference to the welfare of the worke led to strikes and further revolutionary violence, including the ination of Nichol ' uncl
Finally on to r , 1 5 Nicholas i ued the Octo r M o, which provid for the estab s ent of a le slative y, the Dum which would have wer to make law not merely recommend them The m erate li rals were ti ie but the radic s were not nin insti ted a flare-up in M ow which left a thou nd dead But the ma rity of the people were willing to accept Nicholas' will in this matter. The Duma was re rded as a step in the ri t direction, thou the First Fundament w of Ru ia was maintained: o the Em ror of the Ru ias lon the Supreme aut ratic wer ..." Nicho s ap inted a new prime mini ter, Stolyp , who put forth an excellent land reform program, creating a cl of farme known the kulak who r eived land purch d from the incom tent and unpr uctive farmer Stolypin w working hard for the g of Ru ia, but his reforms ne time and ac He received neither. During 1 and 1 there were nearly 4, terrorist murde Then in 1911, Stolypin him lf was inated by a ialist revolutionary.
A ut this time ap ar one of the st ngest characte in history: Rasputin R putin claimed to a monk, but his religion consisted of the lief that anything he wanted he should have. He w tall and heavy, had a bushy ard and piercing eyes, and rarely w hed But he had a domi­ nating r n ity, and Alexandra e convinced that he had en nt to her and Nicholas by G is lief came firmly entrenched after the Spala incident
The royal family was vacationing in Spala when Alexis ll and brui him lf. He gan to suffer vere inte al hemorrhagin and the pre ure from the bl inside his hip ket cau d him un arable pain. exandra nur d him day and night, coming gray with fatigue and an­ guish. The tors tried everything they could think of but nothing worked Finally Alexandra telegraphed Rasputin. He nt a ret tele-