The fourth volume is devoted to the middle and end of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. Step by step, Nicholas Pavlovich abandons the reform projects bequeathed to him by Alexander I for the transition from absolutism to constitutional representative government. Despite the paperwork of numerous secret committees, serfdom was neither abolished nor even significantly curtailed. Grammar and university education becomes the prerogative of the upper classes, and even for them, it is severely restricted by increasingly strict censorship and the cessation of international cultural contacts. The bureaucracy, deprived of public oversight, is mired in corruption and unable to steer Russia along the path of rapid economic development and industrial revolution, which the Nicholas Empire is completely unable to keep up with. But the Tsar, remaining confident in the military might of "his country," embarks on new foreign policy adventures, generously spending the blood of Russian soldiers and the public's money on them. This long reign ends with the unnecessary Crimean War and a shameful defeat in it.