" Deprived of arms, the opposition, which
still controlled the economic life of the country, settled down to
organise disorganisation, with all the Russian genius for
cooperative action-to obstruct, cripple and discredit the Soviets.
The strike of Government employees was well organised, financed by
the banks and commercial establishments. Every move of the
Bolsheviki to take over the Government apparatus was resisted.
Trotzky went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the functionaries
refused to recognise him, locked themselves in, and when the doors
were forced, resigned. He demanded the keys of the archives; only
when he brought workmen to force the locks were they given up. Then
it was discovered that Neratov, former assistant Foreign Minister,
had disappeared with the Secret Treaties....
Shliapnikov tried to take possession of the Ministry of Labour. It
was bitterly cold, and there was no one to light the fires. Of all
the hundreds of employees, not one would show him where the office
of the Minister was....
Alexandra Kollontai, appointed the 13th of November Commissar of
Public Welfare-the department of charities and public
institutions-was welcomed with a strike of all but forty of the
functionaries in the Ministry. Immediately the poor of the great
cities, the inmates of institutions, were plunged in miserable want:
delegations of starving cripples, of orphans with blue, pinched
faces, besieged the building.
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