Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/315

 All through these days of storm and upheaval, in which the forces of a new revolution were accumulating strength, the Provisional Government was shifting toward the Right, and the more it drifted in that direction the greater became its isolation and its impotence. No action was taken on the pressing problems of the Revolution, on peace, on land, on reconstruction m general. The thunderbolt of complete chaos was about to shatter Russia. The government was a government of words, its policy the empty eloquence of Kerensky. The more the Government wavered, the firmer became the revolutionary policy of the Soviets. The fictitious "unity of the parties" was rent asunder; compromise snapt under the impact of antagonisms that could no longer brook compromise. Two movements were converging upon the Provisional Government, bent upon its destruction: the movement from the Left, the Soviets, and the movent from the Right, the imperialistic bourgeoisie. Kerensky, helpless, dazed, sickly, and a weakling, scolded alternately the Right and the Left, unaware that the issue was now definitely joined, that the basis of his dictatorship was destroyed; and Kerensky, moreover, scolded the Allies for their unsympathetic attitude towards Russia's inability to fight. The climax of these events had come when the Bolsheviki bolted the Preliminary Parliament, and determined to convene an All-Russian Congress of Soviets to act independently and decisively upon the vital problems of the Revolution.

These two simple decisions were epochal. It was clear that they meant the overthrow of the Provisional Government, and it was so interpreted by all. As the Bolsheviki bolted the Preliminary Parliament, curses and imploring cries soared in a chorus throughout the hall. The decision to convene an All-Russian Congress struck consternation among the moderates. The Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets refused to call a new Congress, compelling the Petrograd Soviet to take the initiative,—and this was a symbol of the waning power of the moderates and the calm, stern confidence of the revolutionary masses. This was in the middle of October, and as the Bolsheviki prepared for the Congress, the reactionary forces of the imperialistic bourgeoisie openly prepared a coup against the Soviets and the Provisional Government. But the chief campaign was against the convocation of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets: this was the decisive event. The Executive Committee declared against it, and sent instructions to the local Soviets not to participate; while its organ, the Isvestya, directed an energetic campaign against the Congress. All the forces