But the masses were not satisfied with that. The
Constituent Assembly was all well and good; but there were certain
definite things for which the Russian Revolution had been made, and
for which the revolutionary martyrs rotted in their stark Brotherhood
Grave on Mars Field, that must be achieved Constituent Assembly or no
Constituent Assembly: Peace, Land, and Workers' Control of Industry.
The Constituent Assembly had been postponed and postponed-would
probably be postponed again, until the people were calm
enough-perhaps to modify their demands! At any rate, here were eight
months of the Revolution gone, and little enough to show for it....
Meanwhile the soldiers began to solve the peace question by simply
deserting, the peasants burned manor-houses and took over the great
estates, the workers sabotaged and struck.... Of course, as was
natural, the manufacturers, land-owners and army officers exerted all
their influence against any democratic compromise....
The policy of the Provisional Government alternated between
ineffective reforms and stern repressive measures. An edict from the
Socialist Minister of Labour ordered all the Workers' Committees
henceforth to meet only after working hours. Among the troops at the
front, "agitators" of opposition political parties were arrested,
radical newspapers closed down, and capital punishment applied-to
revolutionary propagandists.
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