In the meantime troubles of a serious nature beset Nicholas on every hand. In 1830 the Asiatic cholera invaded the country, reaching Moscow with dire results. Worse than all was the trouble in Poland. The spirit of revolution, which was ripe all over Europe, could not but make itself felt in the country whose history from the earliest times had been one of political turmoil. The growth of secret societies, which had their nest in Paris, undermined every other government on the continent, and were specially flourishing in Poland and Russia, where a sort of underground revolution was prepared and smoldered, only waiting for a convenient opportunity to break out. The Poles had several grievances against Constantine, the Tsar's brother, as well as the Emperor himself. They clamored for the restoration of their old constitution; the army desired to take part in the war against Turkey, and the Poles wished to have the Lithuanian provinces restored to their kingdom.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
