icholas - Poland was the one European country in his Empire. If he lost Poland, he would lose his foothold in Europe and Russia would easily be classified as simply an Asiatic empire. At first, Nicholas' attempts to squelch the rebellion were disastrous-- his general was not effective at all in battle strategy and many of his men were being killed by cholera. In fact, his brother Konstantin was killed by the same disease. Finally, after switching generals, Nicholas was able to regain Poland. However, his Polish policies made him unpopular with France and England. Public opinion was decidedly on the side of the Polish insurgents.
             Furthermore, Russia experienced a cholera epidemic in 1830-1, a potential cause for disorder. Nicholas retreated to his summer residence in Peterhof to avoid the plague. The populace was left in the care of an inefficient administration and started to grow restless. Rumors started going around that there was no real cholera problem, but rather people had been hired to go around poisoning food and drink. Mobs were formed and on July 3, there was serious rioting in the capi
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