Alone
of the intellectuals Lenin and Trotzky stood for insurrection. Even urrection. Even | |
the military men opposed it. A vote was taken. Insurrection was
defeated!
Then arose a rough workman, his face convulsed with rage. "I speak
for the Petrograd proletariat," he said, harshly. "We are in favour
of insurrection. Have it your own way, but I tell you now that if
you allow the Soviets to be destroyed, _we're through with you!"_
Some soldiers joined him.... And after that they voted
again-insurrection won....
However, the right wing of the Bolsheviki, led by Riazanov, Kameniev
and Zinoviev, continued to campaign against an armed rising. On the
morning of October 31st appeared in _Rabotchi Put_ the first
instalment of Lenin's "Letter to the Comrades," (See App. II, Sect.
11) one of the most audacious pieces of political propaganda the
world has ever seen. In it Lenin seriously presented the arguments
in favour of insurrection, taking as text the objections of Kameniev
and Riazonov.
"Either we must abandon our slogan, 'All Power to the Soviets,' " he
wrote, "or else we must make an insurrection. There is no middle
course...."
That same afternoon Paul Miliukov, leader of the Cadets, made a
brilliant, bitter speech (See App. II, Sect. 12) in the Council of
the Republic, branding the Skobeliev _nakaz_ as pro-German,
declaring that the "revolutionary democracy" was destroying Russia,
sneering at Terestchenko, and openly declaring that he preferred
German diplomacy to Russian.
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