Under the enlightened _régime_ of Alexander II., it seemed for a while as though the Third Section had lost much of its authority. But the first attempt upon the Czar's life in 1866 at Kara Kossoff restored it to full activity, and one of the most prominent men in the empire, Schouvaloff, was placed at its head, thus restoring it to its ancient prestige, for the chief of the Third Section had invariably been a person of great consequence, as indeed the important functions he exercised demanded. But the revival of the Third Section was not justified by any subsequent success; in the years immediately following it proved itself singularly inefficient, unable either to prevent or to put down the outrages committed in broad day. It showed itself useless at St. Petersburg, at Kieff, at Odessa, at Karkoff, in all the great cities; it neither was able to defend itself against the conspiracies, nor could it detect or capture the conspirators. The first acts of the new revolution had been directed against the Third Section, and these attacks preceded those upon the Czar and his throne. The two last chiefs, General Mezentzoff and General Drenteln, fell victims to the Nihilists. The first was stabbed by some unknown person in the streets of St. Petersburg, the second was fired at in broad daylight by a young man on horseback, who was not arrested for a number of years. These attempts are to be placed to the credit of Nihilism, for they practically ended the Third Section. Nominally this redoubtable office was abolished, but that did not mean that the arbitrary surveillance of the police was ended. Alexander II. hoped, perhaps, that he was wiping out a symbol of despotism, but he retained the substance while discarding the shadow. The change meant no more than the fusion of his private palace police with the ordinary public police. There was no longer a head of the Third Section, but there was a Minister of the Interior; it was the consolidation and concentration of power in one hand, and there it has remained.