... The Left benches were one roaring
tumult all through....
On its part the Government could not ignore the significance of the
success of the Bolshevik propaganda. On the 29th joint commission of
the Government and the Council of the Republic hastily drew up two
laws, one for giving the land temporarily to the peasants, and the
other for pushing an energetic foreign policy of peace. The next day
Kerensky suspended capital punishment in the army. That same
afternoon was opened with great ceremony the first session of the
new "Commission for Strengthening the Republican R?gime and Fighting
Against Anarchy and Counter-Revolution"-of which history shows not
the slightest further trace.... The following morning with two other
correspondents I interviewed Kerensky (See App. II, Sect. 13)-the
last time he received journalists.
"The Russian people," he said, bitterly, "are suffering from
economic fatigue-and from disillusionment with the Allies! The world
thinks that the Russian Revolution is at an end. Do not be mistaken.
The Russian Revolution is just beginning...." Words more prophetic,
perhaps, than he knew.
Stormy was the all-night meeting of the Petrograd Soviet the 30th of
October, at which I was present. The "moderate" Socialist
intellectuals, officers, members of Army Committees, the
_Tsay-ee-kah,_ were there in force. Against them rose up workmen,
peasants and common soldiers, passionate and simple.
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