But in this exhibition of Socialism on Paper-more likely designed
for the stupefaction of our descendants-there appears neither the
desire nor the capacity to solve the immediate problems of the day!
Meanwhile the _Vikzhel's_ Conference to Form a New Government
continued to meet night and day. Both sides had already agreed in
principle to the basis of the Government; the composition of the
People's Council was being discussed; the Cabinet was tentatively
chosen, with Tchernov as Premier; the Bolsheviki were admitted in a
large minority, but Lenin and Trotzky were barred. The Central
Committees of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties, the
Executive Committee of the Peasant's Soviets, resolved that,
although unalterably opposed to the "criminal politics" of the
Bolsheviki, they would, "in order to halt the fratricidal
bloodshed," not oppose their entrance into the People's Council.
The flight of Kerensky, however, and the astounding success of the
Soviets everywhere, altered the situation. On the 16th, in a meeting
of the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ the Left Socialist Revolutionaries insisted
that the Bolsheviki should form a coalition Government with the
other Socialist parties; otherwise they would withdraw from the
Military Revolutionary Committee and the _Tsay-ee-kah._ Malkin said,
"The news from Moscow, where our comrades are dying on both sides of
the barricades, determines us to bring up once more the question of
organisation of power, and it is not only our right to do so, but
our duty.
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