was replaced by the decrepit and absent-minded Goremykin, and Bark as Minister of Finance. "Seventy-five years of age, a conservative, and a life-long bureaucrat, he was, in his own words, ‘pulled like a winter coat out of mothballs,’ to lead the government ... The hostility expressed toward him by members of both the State Duma and the Council of Ministers greatly impaired the effectiveness of his government. When Nicholas II decided to take direct command of the army, Goremykin and Alexander Krivoshein begged the Tsar not to lead the army and leave the capital. All the ministers realized that the change would put the Empress and Rasputin in charge and threatened to resign. Goremykin urged the Council to endorse the decision. When they refused, Goremykin told the Tsar that he was not fitted and asked to be replaced with "a man of more modern views". He held a hostile attitude towards the Imperial Duma and the Progressive Bloc. In January 1916 Rasputin was opposed to the plan to send the old Goremykin away, and he told the old Goremykin it was not right not to convene the Duma as all were trying to cooperate; one must show them a little confidence. His wish for retirement was granted at the beginning of February 1916, when he was replaced by Boris Stürmer. Stürmer was not opposed to the convening of the Duma, as Goremykin had been, and he would launch a more liberal and conciliatory politic. After the February Revolution in 1917, he was arrested and interrogated before the "Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Illegal Acts by Ministers and Other Responsible Persons of the Czarist Regime". In May Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his dacha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a robbery raid, together with his wife, his daughter, and father-in-law. Legacy Goremykin's conservatism and inability to function in a semi-parliamentary system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia. Goremykin was despised by parliamentarians and revolutionaries and personally desired only to retire, and the ineffectiveness of his last government contributed to the instability and ultimate downfall of the Romanov dynasty. Quotations "The Emperor can't see that the candles have already been lit around my coffin and that the only thing required to complete the ceremony is myself."