e cities. The peasants were remarkably unreceptive to revolutionary agitators. They were blind to events outside of their own commune. More often than not, the agitators were run out of town by suspicious peasants. 3 By 1900, the remnants of the Narodonik philosophy had melted into the Social Republican party. 4 The ``Emancipation Manifesto'' had marked the beginning of the end for the nobility. Deprived of their serfs and unable to gain any power in the government, the Nobles were forced to sell off their land, little by little, to support their lifestyle. For a government supported by nothing more than the momentum of history and tradition, the decline of the nobility foreshadowed the destruction of the autocracy. At the turn of the century, the Czar had very little support outside his own bureaucracy. Young Nicholas II, heir to the throne in the late 1800's, inspired hope in those rallying for governmental reform. Zemstvos and volosts, local governments elected by nobles and peasants, hoped that Nicholas would at least allow these legislatures to have an advisory function for the Czar. 5 They were sadly disappointed once Nicholas II ascended the throne. Upon the death of Alexander III, the zemstvo of Tver petitioned Nicholas II to allow local representative bodies ``to express their opinion on questions of concern to them, in order that. . . the Russian people might reach the height of the throne. . .''. Nicholas replied, ``I am extremely astonished and displeased with this inappropriate d'emarcheellipses'' 6 To add injury to insult, more than 2000 people were trampled to death early one morning in a massive gathering of over 700,000 people for the coronation festivities. 7 Nicholas II did not let this tragedy interrupt his celebration, against the bitter opposition of other members of the royal family. 8 Despite the disappointment of the intellectuals and the bloody coronation, Nicholas II remained popular with the general population. A tight control of printed material and a diligent campaign to send revolutionaries into Siberian exile led most Socialist groups into decline. The Social Republicans, with a faith in the popular will of the people, were able to inspire nothing beyond the assassination of minor officials. This terrorism worked against their political goals, by giving the government reason to increase its crack down on the organization (it also inspired a once popular phrase among Russian chess-players for poor chess moves, ``polozhenie khuze gubernatorskoe'', which is literally, ``that position is worse than that of a governor). 9 What was to become the most successful Socialist party, the Social Democrats, arose out of an underground organization set up to distribute the Marxist newspaper, Iskra (``The Spark''). 10 Among its chief editors were Lenin and Plekhanov. The Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party officially began with a congress held in Brussels, in 1903. Dramatic differences of opinion as to how the party should operate soon arose, and a second congress was convened in London. Out of this, the party essentially split into Mensheviks (the minority) and Bolsheviks (``Majority Men''). 11 While the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks struggled to unite the Social Democrats, Nicholas II was busy insulting Japan, hoping to start a war. Nicholas allowed the advice of his more competent advisors to be drowned out by the flattery of his incompetent uncle, the Viceroy of the Far East and by vain imperial ambitions. 12 The cautious and competent Minister of the Interior, Wit

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2367
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)