In the face of mounting criticism of the bungled war effort, Tsar Nicholas II rejected the overtures of the Progressive Bloc and instead assumed personal control of the military. The poster below shows the tsar as a heroic Christian knight, leading his army to battlefield victory. Linking the tsar so closely with the Russian cause proved to be a dangerous strategy, as the hapless leader became ever more closely associated with military defeat and ineptitude.
Source:
Color lithograph. Reproduction No. LC-USZC4-5031, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g05031.
