Page:John Reed - Ten Days that Shook the World - 1919, Boni and Liveright.djvu/179

Rh Here was real revolutionary talk… A deputy from the Russian Army in Persia declared he was instructed to demand all power to the Soviets… A Ukrainean officer, speaking in his native tongue: “There is no nationalism in this crisis… Da zdravstvuyet the proletarian dictatorship of all lands!” Such a deluge of high and hot thoughts that surely Russia would never again be dumb!

Kameniev remarked that the anti-Bolshevik forces were trying to stir up disorders everywhere, and read an appeal of the Congress to all the Soviets of Russia:

At two o’clock the Land Decree was put to vote, with only one against and the peasant delegates wild with joy… So plunged the Bolsheviki ahead, irresistible, over-riding hesitation and opposition—the only people in Russia who had a definite programme of action while the others talked for eight long months.

Now arose a soldier, gaunt, ragged and eloquent, to protest against the clause of the nakaz tending to deprive military deserters from a share in village land allotments. Bawled at and hissed at first, his simple, moving speech finally