"You have said more than once that you would carry on the war to a successful finish. Do you believe that with the conditions as they exist at present in the rear this can be done? Are you acquainted with the internal situation, not only in the interior of the Empire but also on the outskirts (Siberia, Turkestan, Caucasus)? Are you told all the truth or is some of it concealed from you? Where is the root of the evil? Allow me to tell you briefly the essentials of the case. "So long as your method of selecting ministers was known to a limited circle only affairs went on somehow, but from the moment your system became generally known it is stupid to govern Russia in that way. Repeatedly you have told me that you could trust no one, that you were being deceived. If that is true then the same influences are at work on your wife, dearly beloved by you, who is led astray by [--]. [FN: the evil circle that surrounds her. You trust Alexandra Fedorovna--that is easy to understand. But that which comes out of her mouth is the result of clever fabrication and not the truth. If you are not strong enough to remove these influences from her, at least put yourself on guard against this steady and systematic interference of those who act through your beloved. If your persuasion is ineffective, and I am certain that you have more than once fought against this influence, try some other means so as to end with this system once for all. Your first impulses and decisions are always unusually true and to the point, but as soon as another influence comes in you begin to hesitate and end up by doing something different from what you originally decided. If you should succeed in removing this continuous invasion of the dark forces there would take place at once the birth of a new Russia, and there would return to you the confidence of the greater number of your subjects. All other matters would soon settle themselves. You would find people who under different conditions would be willing to work under your personal leadership. At the proper time, and that is not far distant, you can of your own free will organize a ministry which should be responsible to you and to constitutional institutions. This can be done very simply, without any force from outside as was the case with the act of October 17, 1905. I hesitated a long time before venturing to tell you this truth, and I finally consented when your mother and sister urged me to do so. You are at the beginning of a new era of disturbances, I will go farther, at the beginning of a new era of attempts at assassination. Believe me that in trying to loosen you from the chains that bind you I do it from no motives of personal interest and of this you and Her Majesty are convinced, but