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The Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 563 The repressive policy of this despotic government became worse as time went on. In 1902 an unpopular minister of the interior had -been assassinated, and the Tsar had appointed a still more unpopular man in his place, namely Plehve, who was notorious for his success in hunting down those who criticized the government. 1022. Massacres of the Jews. Plehve connived at the persecution of those among the Tsar's subjects who ventured to disagree with the doctrines of the Russian official Church, to which every Russian was supposed to belong. The Jews suffered especially. There were massacres at Kishineff and elsewhere in 1903 which horrified the Western world and drove hundreds of thousands of Jews to foreign lands, espe- cially to the United States. NICHOLAS II There is good reason to believe that Plehve actually arranged and directed these massacres. 1023. The Constitutional Liberal Groups. Plehve was mis- taken, however, in his belief that all the trouble came from a handful of fanatics. Among those who detested the cruel and corrupt government were the professional men, the university professors, the enlightened merchants and manufacturers, and the public-spirited portion of the nobility. These, although they were not organized into a party, came to be known as the Constitutional Democrats. They hoped for a parliament elected by the people, which would improve the lot of the peasants and the workingmen. They also urged freedom of speech and of the press, the right to hold public meetings for the discussion of questions, and the abolition of the secret police and of religious persecution.