Hendelmann, for the right and centre Socialist
Revolutionaries, said that they refused to take part in the
presidium; the same from Kintchuk, for the Mensheviki; and from the
Mensheviki Internationalists, that until the verification of certain
circumstances, they too could not enter the presidium. Scattering
applause and hoots. One voice, "Renegades, you call yourselves
Socialists!" A representative of the Ukrainean delegates demanded,
and received, a place. Then the old _Tsay-ee-kah_ stepped down, and
in their places appeared Trotzky, Kameniev, Lunatcharsky, Madame
Kollentai, Nogin.... The hall rose, thundering. How far they had
soared, these Bolsheviki, from a despised and hunted sect less than
four months ago, to this supreme place, the helm of great Russia in
full tide of insurrection!
The order of the day, said Kameniev, was first, Organisation of
Power; second, War and Peace; and third, the Constituent Assembly.
Lozovsky, rising, announced that upon agreement of the bureau of all
factions, it was proposed to hear and discuss the report of the
Petrograd Soviet, then to give the floor to members of the
_Tsay-ee-kah_ and the different parties, and finally to pass to the
order of the day.
But suddenly a new sound made itself heard, deeper than the tumult
of the crowd, persistent, disquieting,-the dull shock of guns.
People looked anxiously toward the clouded windows, and a sort of
fever came over them.
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