"Comrades! I have been away. I participated in the Conference of the
Twelfth Army on the question of calling a Congress of all the
Peasant delegates of the armies of the Western Front, and I know
very little about the insurrection which occurred here--"
Zinoviev rose in his seat, and shouted, "Yes, you were away-for a
few minutes!" Fearful tumult. Cries, "Down with the Bolsheviki!"
Tchernov continued. "The accusation that I helped lead an army on
Petrograd has no foundation, and is entirely false. Where does such
an accusation come from? Show me the source!"
Zinoviev: "_Izviestia_ and _Dielo Naroda_-your own paper -that's
where it comes from!"
Tchernov's wide face, with the small eyes, waving hair and greyish
beard, became red with wrath, but he controlled himself and went on.
"I repeat, I know practically nothing about what has happened here,
and I did not lead any army except this army, (he pointed to the
peasant delegates), which I am largely responsible for bringing
here!" Laughter, and shouts of "Bravo!"
"Upon my return I visited Smolny. No such accusation was made
against me there.... After a brief conversation I left-and that's all!
Let any one present make such an accusation!"
An uproar followed, in which the Bolsheviki and some of the Left
Socialist Revolutionaries were on their feet all at once, shaking
their fists and yelling, and the rest of the assembly tried to yell
them down.
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