Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/18

 lifebelts round their bodies, smoking innumerable cigarettes, and discussing peace and war, Lénin and Kerensky.

The friends that we found among them introduced us to two soldiers who were coming from the Champagne front, sent as delegates by their fellow-soldiers to the Soviet at Petrograd.

One of them was a Socialist, secretary to a Trade Union in pre-war days; the other, a book-keeper of peasant origin, had revolutionary tendencies, without being attached to any particular party.

They told us of their different experiences.

When the news of the Russian Revolution reached the western front, many soldiers in the Russian brigades mutinied and tried to assault their officers, but our two delegates interposed and succeeded in directing the movement on the right lines. Four delegates per company were elected, and together they chose a deputation to wait upon the Military Authorities. When the members of this deputation presented themselves at General Headquarters, they were threatened with arrest. "You would