Kerensky did not arrive at Pskov. Revolutionary soldiers had cut the
railway line, to prevent troops being sent against the capital. On
the night of November 8th he arrived by automobile at Luga, where he
was well received by the Death Battalions stationed there.
Next day he took train for the South-West Front, and visited the Army
Committee at headquarters. The Fifth Army, however, was wild with
enthusiasm over the news of the Bolshevik success, and the Army
Committee was unable to promise Kerensky any support.
From there he went to the _Stavka,_ at Moghilev, where he ordered ten
regiments from different parts of the Front to move against
Petrograd. The soldiers almost unanimously refused; and those
regiments which did start halted on the way. About five thousand
Cossacks finally followed him….
3.
LOOTING OF THE WINTER PALACE
I do not mean to maintain that there was no looting, in the Winter
Palace. Both after and _before_ the Winter Palace fell, there was
considerable pilfering. The statement of the Socialist Revolutionary
paper _Narod,_ and of members of the City Duma, to the effect that
precious objects to the value of 500,000,000 rubles had been stolen,
was, however, a gross exaggeration.
The most important art treasures of the Palace—paintings, statues,
tapestries, rare porcelains and armorie,—had been transferred to
Moscow during the month of September; and they were still in good
order in the basement of the Imperial Palace there ten days after the
capture of the Kremlin by Bolshevik troops.
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