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 aside. It is a well-known fact that in those first days it was the soldiers who acted, not the officers.

The officers did not believe in the Revolution; they waited for events to develop.

The October Revolution was met by them in a more hostile spirit. To this day many hold the narrow minded view that the October Revolution was the work of one particular Party, that it was a so called „coup de main“ or sudden usurpation of power. It was not. The October Revolution grew out of the February Revolution; just as lightening is inevitably followed by thunder (only that the thunder is usually heard somewhat later), just so the October Revolution was bound to come after the February Revolution. The latter knocked down the crown, took the first step, did the preliminary rough work. The October Revolution raised the question, to whom should the land belong, to the gentry or the peasants; and who should own the factories and mills. The October Revolution said: We are not satisfied with having removed one Tsar; we do not wish to enthrone 130.000 little Tsar-landlords in the place of the big one; we want to be rid of them too.

In 1905 the officer class, almost to a man, was hostile to any kind of revolution; In February 1917 a considerable portion of it sided with the political revolution, the