In 1903 he became the general-aide of the court of the tsar Nicholas II. In 1905 was promoted to a general of cavalry as well as the general-governor of Warsaw. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 he introduced a martial law (on 10 November) and gave orders that led to brutal dispersion of crowds protesting in several Polish cities, with many fatalities among the civilian demonstrators. For that, the Polish Socialist Party decided to assassinate him. On 18 August 1906 Organizacja Bojowa PPS tried to kill him with two bombs thrown at his carriage (by Wanda Krahelska), but he survived.