...
Then up leaped Volodarsky, shouting harshly that the _Tsay-ee-kah,_
on the eve of the Congress, had no right to assume the functions of
the Congress. The _Tsay-ee-kah_ was practically dead, he said, and
the resolution was simply a trick to bolster up its waning power....
"As for us, Bolsheviki, we will not vote on this resolution!"
Whereupon all the Bolsheviki left the hall and the resolution was
passed....
Toward four in the morning I met Zorin in the outer hall, a rifle
slung from his shoulder.
"We're moving!" (See App. III, Sect. 7) said he, calmly but with
satisfaction. "We pinched the Assistant Minister of Justice and the
Minister of Religions. They're down cellar now. One regiment is on
the march to capture the Telephone Exchange, another the Telegraph
Agency, another the State Bank. The Red Guard is out...."
On the steps of Smolny, in the chill dark, we first saw the Red
Guard-a huddled group of boys in workmen's clothes, carrying guns
with bayonets, talking nervously together.
Far over the still roofs westward came the sound of scattered rifle
fire, where the _yunkers_ were trying to open the bridges over the
Neva, to prevent the factory workers and soldiers of the Viborg
quarter from joining the Soviet forces in the centre of the city; and
the Cronstadt sailors were closing them again....
Behind us great Smolny, bright with lights, hummed like a gigantic
hive.
Pages:
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133