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People's Commissar DYBENKO.
The Committee for Salvation, the Duma, the Central Committee of the
Socialist Revolutionary party-proudly claiming Kerensky as a
member-all passionately protested that he could only be held
responsible to the Constituent Assembly.
On the evening of November 16th I watched two thousand Red Guards
swing down the Zagorodny Prospekt behind a military band playing the
_Marseillaise_-and how appropriate it sounded-with blood-red flags
over the dark ranks of workmen, to welcome home again their brothers
who had defended "Red Petrograd." In the bitter dusk they tramped,
men and women, their tall bayonets swaying; through streets faintly
lighted and slippery with mud, between silent crowds of bourgeois,
contemptuous but fearful....
All were against them-business men, speculators, investors,
land-owners, army officers, politicians, teachers, students,
professional men, shop-keepers, clerks, agents. The other Socialist
parties hated the Bolsheviki with an implacable hatred. On the side
of the Soviets were the rank and file of the workers, the sailors,
all the undemoralised soldiers, the landless peasants, and a few-a
very few-intellectuals....
From the farthest corners of great Russia, whereupon desperate
street-fighting burst like a wave, news of Kerensky's defeat came
echoing back the immense roar of proletarian victory. Kazan, Saratov,
Novgorod, Vinnitza-where the streets had run with blood; Moscow,
where the Bolsheviki had turned their artillery against the last
strong-hold of the bourgeoisie-the Kremlin.
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