Vasily Polenov in a November 1905 letter to his brother's wife on the belated reforms
"The present situation is grievous, chiefly by reason of the same unceasing lies and deceit from top to bottom. At the summit, the Petersburg court rabble consists of predators and idiots, and around it there is a gang of plunderers.
All the reforms that the government is now granting are forced, and, alas, very belated. All this ought to have been accomplished twenty-eight years ago. Had clever and honest men stood at the head of the state...".
Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov in a letter to his brother's wife, November 1905
