Prime minister
On 8 November Boris Stürmer (pro-peace) was dismissed as prime minister/minister of foreign affairs, to the rejoicing of the Duma.
On 9 November Empress Alexandra proposed to appoint Ivan Shcheglovitov to Foreign Affairs, but he seemed to be unacceptable. On 10 November 1916 the bellicose Trepov was appointed new prime minister, promising to promote a parliamentary system, but keeping his position of transport minister. Trepov's declaration contained promises to urgently reform the municipal government, to enter the rural municipality district council and to remove national and religious restrictions to education. Because of the shortage in food in the big cities Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky, the minister of agriculture had to give up his post; he was succeeded by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Rittikh. On 17 November Nikolai Pokrovsky was appointed to the ministry of foreign affairs. According to Orlando Figes it was the Russian liberals final opportunity to 'make their peace' with the government.
Trepov was a new, 'modern day Stolypin', and was determined to win over the more moderate Duma politicians by making concessions; Pavel Milyukov and Alexander Guchkov were ready to accept his gesture (and possibly a position in his cabinet), but the more radical and socialist Duma members remained determined to bring down the government.
Trepov was supposed to achieve the resignation of four of the most unpopular ministers. On 16 November Trepov informed Alexander Protopopov that he wished him to give up his position in the Ministry of the Interior and take over that of Trade and Industry, but Protopopov refused. Trepov had made the dismissal of Protopopov an indispensable condition of his accepting the presidency of the council, Protopopov being a 'protege of Rasputin'. and supposedly having mental problems. On 19 November Trepov declared full transfer of the food issue at the request of the Duma to the ministry of agriculture.
On 27 November both Protopopov and Alexandra travelled to Stavka. Trepov threatened to resign on the next day. On 29 November/12 December the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, in a speech in the Reichstag, offered to open negotiations with the Entente in a neutral country. On 2 December, on his appearance in the Imperial Duma, Trepov revealed France and Britain promised Russia Constantinople and the Bosporus, but was loudly hissed at by the Socialists. The deputies shouted "down with the Ministers! Down with Protopopov!". Pokrovsky said that Russia would never sign a peace treaty with the Central Powers, which caused a storm of applause. On 7 December the cabinet demanded that Protopopov should go to the emperor and resign, but at the request of the Tsar, his wife, Anna Vyrubova and Rasputin combined the pro-peace Protopopov stayed in his job.
