173, n.1.The reactionary law of June 12, 1890 (see later, p.

358 et seq.) puts in place of the executives formerly elected by the people the "Zemstvo chiefs," officials appointed from among the landed proprietors.] [Footnote 3: Durnovo became Minister of the Interior in 1889, after the demise of Tolstoi; Plehve was assistant-minister.] The press was either tamed or used as a tool of the governmental policies.

The most widely read press organs of the capital, with the exception of the moderately liberal _Novosti_ ("The News") which managed to survive the shipwreck of the liberal press, became either openly or secretly the official mouthpieces of the Government.

The venal _Novoye Vremya,_ which the Russian satirist Shchedrin had branded as "the sewer," embarked, towards the end of the eighties, on the noble enterprise of hunting down the Jews with a zeal which was clear evidence of a higher demand for Judaeophobia in the official world.

There was no accusation, however hideous, which Suvorin's paper, steered simultaneously by the Holy Synod and by the Police Department, failed to hurl in the face of the Jews.