traducir al español "Commission for Strengthening the Rep...

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"Commission for Strengthening the Republican Régime and Fighting Against Anarchy and Counter-Revolution"— of which history shows not the slightest further trace... The following morning with two other correspondents I interviewed Kerensky (See App. II, Sect. 13)-the last time he received journalists. "The Russian people," he said, bitterly, "are suffering from economic fatigue and from disillusionment with the Allies! The world thinks that the Russian Revolution is at an end. Do not be mistaken. The Russian Revolution is just beginning...." Words more prophetic, perhaps, than he knew. Stormy was the all-night meeting of the Petrograd Soviet the 30th of October, at which I was present. The "moderate" Socialist intellectuals, officers, members of Army Committees, the Tsay-ee-kah, were there in force. Against them rose up workmen, peasants and common soldiers, passionate and simple. Apeasant told of the disorders in Tver, which he said were caused by the arrest of the Land Committees. "This Kerensky is nothing but a shield to the pomieshtchiki (landowners)," he cried. "They know that at the Constituent Assembly we will take the land anyway, so they are trying to destroy the Constituent Assembly!" A machinist from the Putilov works described how the superintendents were closing down the departments one by one on the pretext that there was no fuel or raw materials. The Factory-Shop Committee, he declared, had discovered huge hidden supplies. "It is aprovocatzia," said he. "They want to starve us—or drive us to violence!" Among the soldiers one began, "Comrades! I bring you greetings from the place where men are digging their graves and call them trenches!" Then arose a tall, gaunt young soldier, with flashing eyes, met with a roar of welcome. It was Tchudnovsky, reported killed in the July fighting, and now risen from the dead. "The soldier masses no longer trust their officers. Even the Army Committees, who refused to call a meeting of our Soviet, betrayed us.... The masses of the soldiers want the Constituent Assembly to be held exactly when it was called for, and those who dare to postpone it will be cursed —and not only platonic curses

either, for the Army has guns too...." He told of the electoral campaign for the Constituent now raging in the Fifth Army. "The officers, and especially the Mensheviki and the Socialist Revolutionaries, are trying deliberately ot cripple the Bolsheviki. Our papers are not allowed to circulate in the trenches. Our speakers are arrested-" "Why don't you speak about the lack of bread?" shouted another soldier. "Man shall not live by bread alone," answered Tchudnovsky, sternly.... Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, a Menshevik oboronetz. "It isn't the question of who has the power. The trouble is not with the Government, but with the war... and the war must be won before any change—" At this, hoots and ironical cheers. "These Bolshevik agitators are demagogues!" The hall rocked with laughter. "Let us for a moment forget the class struggle-" But he got no farther. Avoice yelled, "Don't you wish we would!" Petrograd presented a curious spectacle in those days. In the factories the committee-rooms were filled with stacks of rifles, couriers came and went, the Red Guard[10] drilled... In all the barracks meetings every night, and all day long interminable hot arguments. On the streets the crowds thickened toward gloomy evening, pouring in slow voluble tides up and down the Nevsky, fighting for the newspapers... Hold-ups increased to such an extent that ti was dangerous to walk down side streets.... On the Sadovaya one afternoon I saw a crowd of several hundred people beat and trample to death a soldier caught stealing... Mysterious individuals circulated around the shivering women who waited ni queue long cold hours for bread and milk, whispering that the Jews had cornered the food suply— and that while the people starved, the Soviet members lived luxuriously.... [10] See Notes and Explanations. At Smolny there were strict guards at the door and the outer gates, demanding everybody's pass. The committee-rooms buzzed and hummed all day and all night, hundreds of soldiers and workmen slept on the floor, wherever they could find room. Upstairs ni the great hall a thousand people crowded ot the uproarious sessions of the Petrograd Soviet....