THE FUNCTION OF THE SOVIETS IS ENDED
On September 28th, 1917, _Izviestia,_ organ of the _Tsay-ee-kah,_
published an article which said, speaking of the last Provisional
Ministry:
“At last a truly democratic government, born of the will of all
classes of the Russian people, the first rough form of the future
liberal parliamentary r?gime, has been formed. Ahead of us is the
Constituent Assembly, which will solve all questions of fundamental
law, and whose composition will be essentially democratic. The
function of the Soviets is at an end, and the time is approaching
when they must retire, with the rest of the revolutionary machinery,
from the stage of a free and victorious people, whose weapons shall
hereafter be the peaceful ones of political action.”
The leading article of _Izviestia_ for October 23d was called, “The
Crisis in the Soviet Organisations.” It began by saying that
travellers reported a lessening activity of local Soviets everywhere.
“This is natural,” said the writer. “For the people are becoming
interested in the more permanent legislative organs—the Municipal
Dumas and the Zemstvs….
“In the important centres of Petrograd and Moscow, where the Soviets
were best organised, they did not take in all the democratic
elements…. The majority of the intellectuals did not participate, and
many workers also; some of the workers because they were politically
backward, others because the centre of gravity for them was in their
Unns….
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