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39°
39° A VISIT TO PETROGRAD [chap. xxi.
functionaries of the Zemstvo tainted with liberalism :
doctors, schoolmasters, directors of co-operative
societies, etc. To the intense astonishment of every one,
Sturmer not only kept all these " reds" in their places,
but he also made himself the advocate of his
colleagues in Petrograd, cajoled them, and after two
years of administration, during which everything went
smoothly, he was made a Provincial Governor. The
Liberal party in Tver almost gave him an ovation at his
departure. It is true that a few years later, this same
Sturmer, again sent on a special mission to Tver by an
ultra-Conservative Home Secretary, behaved like a
proconsul there, denounced his former friends of the " Left,"
caused some to be deported, and broke all the others.
But to excuse him one ought to mention that his mission
was of short duration and that when it was over he was
to have a post at the Home Office as a reward. To sum
up, I had a poor opinion of the character of this shady
individual; but I thought him clever and intelligent and
I hoped that, as he might find himself faced by an almost
impossible situation, he would, by some clever stroke,
be able to change the dangerous course adopted or
submitted to in high places, thereby restoring a little
popularity to the person of the Emperor.
M}’ conjectures appeared to be coming true on the
spot. His Majesty arrived from General Headquarters
and during a very brief sta}’ at Tsarskoe, to every one’s
intense astonishment, he announced his visit to the
Duma and went to it the same day. It was a most
dramatic stroke : the first time that national
representation was holding a sitting at the Taurida Palace, the
Tsar deigned to attend. He had, it is true, opened the
session of the first Duma in person—the revolutionary
Duma of 1906; when receiving the members of this
Duma at a memorable ceremony in the Winter Palace,
His Majesty had made them a speech in which he alluded
to the representatives of the nation as "the best men of
Russia," 1 but this did not prevent him sending them all
1 Lootchi^ Rousskie Ludi,’’
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