Kerensky agreed to let Kaledin alone, and then is reported
to have said, "In the eyes of the Soviet leaders I am a despot and a
tyrant.... As for the Provisional Government, not only does it not
depend upon the Soviets, but it considers it regrettable that they
exist at all."
At the same time another Cossack mission called upon the British
ambassador, treating with him boldly as representatives of "the free
Cossack people."
In the Don something very like a Cossack Republic had been
established. The Kuban declared itself an independent Cossack State.
The Soviets of Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg were dispersed by
armed Cossacks, and the headquarters of the Coal Miners' Union at
Kharkov raided. In all its manifestations the Cossack movement was
anti-Socialist and militaristic. Its leaders were nobles and great
land-owners, like Kaledin, Kornilov, Generals Dutov, Karaulov and
Bardizhe, and it was backed by the powerful merchants and bankers of
Moscow....
Old Russia was rapidly breaking up. In Ukraine, in Finland, Poland,
White Russia, the nationalist movements gathered strength and became
bolder. The local Governments, controlled by the propertied classes,
claimed autonomy, refusing to obey orders from Petrograd. At
Helsingfors the Finnish Senate declined to loan money to the
Provisional Government, declared Finland autonomous, and demanded
the withdrawal of Russian troops.
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