The rule of Tsarist Russia was deeply colored by the Middle Ages, much like how monarchs such as Richard the Lionheart were regarded as among England's greatest kings.
Whether a Tsar was deemed wise or not depended not on whether he could govern the country well, nor on whether he possessed noble character, but entirely on whether he could lead the nation to victory in war.
As for how many died or were wounded, how great a price was paid, whether it was a pyrrhic victory, and how much the people sacrificed for it, those things could only be buried in the river of time.
Ivan the Terrible was a notorious tyrant. He massacred Novgorod's civilians, killed powerful nobles who opposed him, and even murdered his own son. Yet because he conquered vast territories, even such a tyrant was still regarded as a wise and mighty Tsar.
Thus, when news that the Russian Army on the Polish front had been surrounded reached headquarters in Mogilev, Tsar Nicholas II recognized the danger. To stabilize the situation, he had personally assumed the role of supreme commander, and he immediately responded.
On one hand, he mobilized the Northwestern and Southwestern Front Armies in an attempt to rescue the Eastern Front Army, namely the Central Front Army, which had been encircled in the Polish region by a "pincer offensive" from Prussia and the German states. On the other, he began issuing orders throughout the country to tighten press control, raise the alert level, guard against all acts of rebellion, and nip any possible uprising in the bud.
But how could that possibly work?
It was not merely common civilians who had lost faith in the Tsar. Among the feudal nobles and major factory owners alike, ideas of deposing Nicholas II and establishing a new