Page:Albert Rhys Williams - Through the Russian Revolution (1921).djvu/61

Rh heroic struggle! But out of it will come a free life for free men in a great free land. Am I not right ?"

"Right you are, Trotzky," yells the crowd.

Trotzky moves away.

"But you haven't told us anything," they cry. "What are you going to do about the Cabinet?" They may be a mob, with an appetite for flattery, but they are not so unthinking as to be pacified by phrases, even from Trotzky.

"I am too hoarse to talk more," he pleads. "Riazanov will tell you."

"No, you tell us!" Trotzky again mounts the cab.

"Only the All-Russian Congress can assume full power of government. The Labor Section has agreed to call this congress. The Military Section will without doubt follow. In two weeks the delegates can be here."

"Two weeks!" they cry in astonishment. "Two weeks is too long. We want it now!"

But Trotzky prevails. The sailors acquiesce, cheering the Soviets and the coming Revolution. They move peacefully away, convinced that the Second All-Russian Congress will be called.

This is precisely what the leaders in the Soviet Executive Committee do not want. They are dead set against the Soviet becoming the government. They have many reasons to give. But the real reason is fear