Here there was doubt and depression. The counter-revolution was
being put down. The Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary
party had voted lack of confidence in its officers; the left wing
was in control; Avksentiev had resigned. signed. A courier reported
that the Committee of Welcome sent to meet Kerensky at the railway
station had been arrested. In the streets could be heard the dull
rumble of distant cannonading, south and southwest. Still Kerensky
did not come...
Only three newspapers were out-_Pravda, Dielo Naroda_ and _Novaya
Zhizn._ All of them devoted much space to the new "coalition"
Government. The Socialist Revolutionary paper demanded a Cabinet
without either Cadets or Bolsheviki. Gorky was hopeful; Smolny had
made concessions. A purely Socialist Government was taking shape-all
elements except the bourgeoisie. As for _Pravda,_ it sneered:
We ridicule these coalitions with political parties whose most
prominent members are petty journalists of doubtful reputation; our
"coalition" is that of the proletariat and the revolutionary Army
with the poor peasants...
On the walls a vainglorious announcement of the _Vikzhel,_
threatening to strike if both sides did not compromise:
The conquerors of these riots, the saviours of the wreck of our
country, these will be neither the Bolsheviki, nor the Committee for
Salvation, nor the troops of Kerensky-but we, the Union of
Railwaymen.
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