Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/145

 Rh nothing could resist. It was in this atmosphere that the moderate elements began to co-operate with the revolutionary democracy.

The moderate elements of the Duma, which only yesterday were communicating with the Tsar, were so carried away by the greatness of the revolutionary impetus that at this moment they were quite transformed. They actually believed in the programme of the revolutionary democracy, and were ready to adopt it. Thus, when the Soviet laid their programme before the Duma Committee, it was unexpectedly accepted, with a single reservation of which we shall speak presently. The Soviet abstained from joining the Provisional Government for two reasons. One was their traditional principle, as Socialists, of taking no part in bourgeois Governments; the other was the fact that it appeared to them quite unnecessary. The Provisional Committee had accepted their programme; they considered it more profitable in the interests of the democracy to exert pressure from outside. Only Kerenski, who was Vice-President of the Soviet Executive, joined the Government on his own risk. He resigned his position in the Soviet, but the Soviet re-elected him and expressed their confidence in him. In the Provisional Government Kerenski alone represented the true democratic principle.

The one point in the Soviet's demands which was not accepted as part of the famous programme of the Provisional Government was point 3, which demanded "abstention from all activities prejudicial to the question of the form of the future Government." And that was at a time when the Tsar was still technically on the throne and the monarchy had not yet been definitely discarded. It is interesting to note that the greatest opposition to this point came from Miliukov and the Cadet Party. There was a great struggle, but the Soviet had so great a faith in the Republican ideals of the Russian people that they did not consider it worth while to break off on this point. They were so sure that the people would reject the monarchy, that