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 178 Tereshchenko was taking-, but their protests were ineffective. They felt quite clearly that the issue was being befogged. They saw that the Government was beginning to put more weight on the strengthening of the army than on the other equally important component part of their policy.

The Government was evidently beginning to put another interpretation on the "strengthening of the army." The conception of the democracy was that the army must be ready for an offensive in case Germany should reject the revised peace platform of the Allies. The offensive was to be the "last argument." But the Government was drifting to the idea of an immediate offensive before the war-aims of the Allies had been cleared up. The democracy was conscious of the danger, for the army would interpret such an offensive as an imperialist and capitalist war, and the struggle for peace would be endangered by Russia's military collapse: such a course was bound to lead to disaster. But this time the democracy could not assert itself. The internal situation was becoming more and more complicated, and absorbing all attention. The Right was raising its head and counter-revolution was being openly prepared. A very serious process was developing in the ranks of the democracy itself. In the factories and in the garrison the watchword "All power to the Soviets" began to assume the character of an opposition not only to the bourgeoisie but to the more moderate elements of the Soviet itself.

The bourgeois classes began to scream, "Anarchy!" In the economic sense the situation was indeed very dangerous. Russia was balancing on the edge. Industry was hopelessly dislocated through lack of fuel and transport difficulties. Many factories closed down; lock-outs were made under the pretext of the excessive demands of the workers; the railways and trams were giving out, and even the water supply was getting scarce through lack of fuel. But to these realities a variety of fantastic fictions and exaggerations were added. Every little