...
All these "Governments" and "movements" had two characteristics in
common; they were controlled by the propertied classes, and they
feared and detested Bolshevism....
Steadily, amid the chaos of shocking change, the Council of People's
Commissars hammered at the scaffolding of the Socialist order.
Decree on Social Insurance, on Workers' Control, Regulations for
Volost Land Committees, Abolition of Ranks and Titles, Abolition of
Courts and the Creation of People's Tribunals.... (See App. XI, Sect.
3)
Army after army, fleet after fleet, sent deputations, "joyfully to
greet the new Government of the People."
In front of Smolny, one day, I saw a ragged regiment just come from
the trenches. The soldiers were drawn up before the great gates,
thin and grey-faced, looking up at the building as if God were in
it. Some pointed out the Imperial eagles over the door, laughing....
Red Guards came to mount guard. All the soldiers turned to look,
curiously, as if they had heard of them but never seen them. They
laughed good-naturedly and pressed out of line to slap the Red
Guards on the back, with half-joking, half-admiring remarks....
The Provisional Government was no more. On November 15th, in all the
churches of the capital, the priests stopped praying for it. But as
Lenin himself told the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ that was "only the beginning
of the conquest of power.
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