But we
must have a Government of the united democracy, or Russia is lost!
With such a Government there will be no need for civil war, and the
killing of brother by brother!"
This sounded reasonable-the great hall echoed to the crash of hands
and voices.
A soldier climbed up, his face white and strained, "Comrades!" he
cried, "I came from the Rumanian front, to urgently tell you all:
there must be peace! Peace at once! Whoever can give us peace,
whether it be the Bolsheviki or this new Government, we will follow.
Peace! We at the front cannot fight any longer. We cannot fight
either Germans or Russians-" With that he leaped down, and a sort of
confused agonised sound rose up from all that surging mass, which
burst into something like anger when the next speaker, a Menshevik
_oboronetz,_ tried to say that the war must go on until the Allies
were victorious.
"You talk like Kerensky!" shouted a rough voice.
A Duma delegate, pleading for neutrality. Him they listened to,
muttering uneasily, feeling him not one of them. Never have I seen
men trying so hard to understand, to decide. They never moved, stood
staring with a sort of terrible intentness at the speaker, their
brows wrinkled with the effort of thought, sweat standing out on
their foreheads; great giants of men with the innocent clear eyes of
children and the faces of epic warriors....
Now a Bolshevik was speaking, one of their own men, violently, full
of hate.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237