ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1916 the Tsar appointed M. Protopopoff Acting Minister of the Interior. Gregory and several others of his advisers directly or indirectly encouraged the Tsar's attitude towards the Duma, in order to serve their own ends, and at the time of Rasputin's murder the struggle between the monarch and the Duma had developed into an acute form. The author was present at the sitting of the Duma, in November 1916, when Trepoff read the Government Declaration. In the spring of 1916 Protopopoff visited London, in the capacity of President of the Duma Deputation. The great majority of the Duma consisted of the so-called "progressive block", a union of the different moderate parties, beginning from what in England would be regarded as the Conservative party and ending with the parties of moderate liberal views.
