"The officers, and especially the Mensheviki and the
Socialist Revolutionaries, are trying deliberately to cripple the
Bolsheviki. Our papers are not allowed to circulate in the trenches.
Our speakers are arrested-"
"Why don't you speak about the lack of bread?" shouted another
soldier.
"Man shall not live by bread alone," answered Tchudnovsky, sternly....
Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, a
Menshevik _oboronetz._ "It isn't the question of who has the power.
The trouble is not with the Government, but with the war.... and the
war must be won before any change-" At this, hoots and ironical
cheers. "These Bolshevik agitators are demagogues!" The hall rocked
with laughter. "Let us for a moment forget the class struggle-" But
he got no farther. A voice yelled, "Don't you wish we would!"
Petrograd presented a curious spectacle in those days. In the
factories the committe-rooms were filled with stacks of rifles,
couriers came and went, the Red Guard [*] drilled.... In all the
[* See Notes and Explanations]
barracks meetings every night, and all day long interminable hot
arguments. On the streets the crowds thickened toward gloomy
evening, pouring in slow voluble tides up and down the Nevsky,
fighting for the newspapers.... Hold-ups increased to such an extent
that it was dangerous to walk down side streets.... On the Sadovaya
one afternoon I saw a crowd of several hundred people beat and
trample to death a soldier caught stealing.
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