Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/212

 and all the different views of the Socialist proletariat. Tscheidze presided. Kerensky and Tseretelli were beside him. Before us in the first row was the General Staff of the Léninists, the small group of Trotsky's friends, the Extreme Left of the Revolution.

Never had the political situation been more strained. The very day before, the insurrection of the Extremists had seemed inevitable, and it was expected every day, though it did not take place for some weeks, and in this silent, gloomy assembly, as divided against itself as the Commune or the Convention in their worst days, one might well ask if there could be one thought in common.

That question was answered in a striking way when President Tscheidze addressed to us these simple words: "Tell our Belgian comrades that the cause of Belgium is as dear to us as the cause of the Russian Revolution." From every bench applause broke forth, and for one moment at least there was complete unity.

The partisans of Lénin and those of Kerensky, all Revolutionary Russia, greeted Socialist Belgium!