..."
Old Nicholas Tchaikovsky, representing the Populist Socialists,
spoke against giving the land to the peasants, and took the side of
the Cadets: "We must have immediately strong discipline in the
army.... Since the beginning of the war I have not ceased to insist
that it is a crime to undertake social and economic reforms in
war-time. We are committing that crime, and yet I am not the enemy
of these reforms, because I am a Socialist."
Cries from the Left, "We don't believe you!" Mighty applause from
the Right....
Adzhemov, for the Cadets, declared that there was no necessity to
tell the army what it was fighting for, since every soldier ought to
realise that the first task was to drive the enemy from Russian
territory.
Kerensky himself came twice, to plead passionately for national
unity, once bursting into tears at the end. The assembly heard him
coldly, interrupting with ironical remarks.
Smolny Institute, headquarters of the _Tsay-ee-kah_ and of the
Petrograd Soviet, lay miles out on the edge of the city, beside the
wide Neva. I went there on a street-car, moving snail-like with a
groaning noise through the cobbled, muddy streets, and jammed with
people. At the end of the line rose the graceful smoke-blue cupolas
of Smolny Convent outlined in dull gold, beautiful; and beside it
the great barracks like fa?ade of Smolny Institute, two hundred
yards long and three lofty stories high, the Imperial arms carved
hugely in stone still insolent over the entrance.
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