From October to Brest-Litovsk | Page 7

the events taking
place at the front might bring extreme chaos into the revolutionary
ranks, and desperation to the hearts of the people. The attitude of our
party toward the movement of July 3rd-5th was quite well defined. On
the one hand, there was the danger that Petrograd might break away
from the more backward parts of the country; while on the other, there
was the feeling that only the active and energetic intervention of
Petrograd could save the day. The party agitators who worked among
the people were working in harmony with the masses, conducting an
uncompromising campaign.
There was still some hope that the demonstration of the revolutionary
masses in the streets might destroy the blind doctrinairism of the
coalitionists and make them understand that they could retain their
power only by breaking openly with the bourgeoisie. Despite all that
had recently been said and written in the bourgeois press, our party had
no intention whatever of seizing power by means of an armed revolt. In
point of fact, the revolutionary demonstration started spontaneously,
and was guided by us only in a political way.
The Central Executive Committee was holding its session in the
Taurida Palace, when turbulent crowds of armed soldiers and workmen
surrounded it from all sides. Among them was, of course, an
insignificant number of anarchistic elements, which were ready to use
their arms against the Soviet center. There were also some "pogrom"
elements, black-hundred elements, and obviously mercenary elements,
seeking to utilize the occasion for instigating pogroms and chaos. From

among the sundry elements came the demands for the arrest of
Chernoff and Tseretelli, for the dispersal of the Executive Committee,
etc. An attempt was even made to arrest Chernoff. Subsequently, at
Kresty, I identified one of the sailors who had participated in this
attempt; he was a criminal, imprisoned at Kresty for robbery. But the
bourgeois and the coalitionist press represented this movement as a
pogromist, counter-revolutionary affair, and, at the same time, as a
Bolshevist crusade, the immediate object of which was to seize the
reins of Government by the use of armed force against the Central
Executive Committee.
The movement of July 3rd-5th had already disclosed with perfect
clearness that a complete impotence reigned within the ruling Soviet
parties at Petrograd. The garrison was far from being all on our side.
There were still some wavering, undecided, passive elements. But if we
should ignore the junkers, there were no regiments at all which were
ready to fight us in the defense of the Government or the leading Soviet
parties. It was necessary to summon troops from the front. The entire
strategy of Tseretelli, Chernoff, and others on the 3rd of July resolved
itself into this: to gain time in order to give Kerensky an opportunity to
bring up his "loyal" regiments. One deputation after another entered the
hall of the Taurida Palace, which was surrounded by armed crowds,
and demanded a complete separation from the bourgeoisie, positive
social reforms, and the opening of peace negotiations.
We, the Bolsheviki, met every new company of disgruntled troops
gathered in the yards and streets, with speeches, in which we called
upon them to be calm and assured them that, in view of the present
temper of the people, the coalitionists could not succeed in forming a
new coalition. Especially pronounced was the temper of the Kronstadt
sailors, whom we had to restrain from transcending the limits of a
peaceful demonstration. The fourth demonstration, which was already
controlled by our party, assumed a still more serious character. The
Soviet leaders were quite at sea; their speeches assumed an evasive
character; the answers given by Cheidze to the deputies were without
any political content. It was clear that the official leaders were marking
time.
On the night of the 4th the "loyal" regiments began to arrive. During
the session of the Executive Committee the Taurida Palace resounded

to the strains of the Marseillaise. The expression on the faces of the
leaders suddenly changed. They displayed a look of confidence which
had been entirely wanting of late. It was produced by the entry into the
Taurida Palace of the Volynsk regiment, the same one, which, a few
months later, was to lead the vanguard of the October revolution, under
our banners. From this moment, everything changed. There was no
longer any need to handle the delegates of the Petrograd workmen and
soldiers with kid gloves. Speeches were made from the floor of the
Executive Committee, which referred to an armed insurrection that had
been "suppressed" on that very day by loyal revolutionary forces. The
Bolsheviki were declared to be a counter-revolutionary party.
The fear experienced by the liberal bourgeoisie during the two days of
armed demonstration betrayed itself in a hatred that was crystallized
not only in the columns