" (Sharp, exultant
cheering.) "But the battle is only beginning. At Pulkovo heavy
fighting is going on. All available forces must be hurried there....
"From Moscow, bad news. The Kremlin is in the hands of the
_yunkers,_ and the workers have only a few arms. The result depends
upon Petrograd.
"At the front, the decrees on Peace and Land are provoking great
enthusiasm. Kerensky is flooding the trenches with tales of
Petrograd burning and bloody, of women and children massacred by the
Bolsheviki. But no one believes him....
"The cruisers _Oleg, Avrora_ and _Respublica_ are anchored in the
Neva, their guns trained on the approaches to the city...."
"Why aren't you out there with the Red Guards?" shouted a rough
voice.
"I'm going now!" answered Trotzky, and left the platform. His face a
little paler than usual, he passed down the side of the room, e room, | |
surrounded by eager friends, and hurried out to the waiting
automobile.
Kameniev now spoke, describing the proceedings of the reconciliation
conference. The armistice conditions proposed by the Mensheviki, he
said, had been contemptuously rejected. Even the branches of the
Railwaymen's Union had voted against such a proposition....
"Now that we've won the power and are sweeping all Russia," he
declared, "all they ask of us are three little things: 1. To
surrender the power.
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