e. the Soviets.
The Bolsheviki responded by summoning the All-Russian Soviets to
meet at Petrograd on November 2, and take over the Government of
Russia. At the same time they withdrew from the Council of the
Russian Republic, stating that they would not participate in a
"Government of Treason to the People." (See App. II, Sect. 4)
The withdrawal of the Bolsheviki, however, did not bring
tranquillity to the ill-fated Council. The propertied classes, now
in a position of power, became arrogant. The Cadets declared that
the Government had no legal right to declare Russia a republic. They
demanded stern measures in the Army and Navy to destroy the
Soldiers' and Sailors' Committees, and denounced the Soviets. On the
other side of the chamber the Mensheviki Internationalists and the
Left Socialist Revolutionaries advocated immediate peace, land to
the peasants, and workers' control of industry-practically the
Bolshevik programme.
I heard Martov's speech in answer to the Cadets. Stooped over the
desk of the tribune like the mortally sick man he was, and speaking
in a voice so hoarse it could hardly be heard, he shook his finger
toward the right benches:
"You call us defeatists; but the real defeatists are those who wait
for a more propitious moment to conclude peace, insist upon
postponing peace until later, until nothing is left of the Russian
army, until Russia becomes the subject of bargaining between the
different imperialist groups.
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