political truce which had existed since the beginning of the war between the Czar and the democratic or reformist parties in the Duma. Early in September the leaders of these parties pooled their forces to create the so-called Progressive Bloc — the strongest coherent group in the Duma — on the basis of a common program calling for some mildly liberal reforms and for an intensified war effort. From the constitutional viewpoint there was nothing revolutionary in the program but it asked the Czar to appoint a new council of ministers in which the country could have confidence. If Nicholas had
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