Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/33

 night the Council of Empire sent a telegram to the Czar, pleading for "the immediate convocation of the legislative bodies, the retirement of the present staff of the Council of Ministers, and the entrusting to a person deserving of the national confidence, to present to you. Sire, for confirmation, the list of a new cabinet capable of managing the country in complete accord with the representatives of the people. Every hour is precious. Further delay and hesitation threaten incalculable misfortunes." Among the signatures was that of A. F. Guchkov, a few days later to become Minister of War in the cabinet of the "revolutionary" Provisional Government.

The counter-revolutionary character of the "Duma Committee" was evident not only in its parleys with the Czar, but in the additional fact that the first act of its head, Rodzianko, was an order to disarm the masses. The Committee still hoped, even after its defiance of the Czar, to prevent the monarchy from being annihilated, and it sent Guchkov and others to the front to acquaint the Czar with the situation and again plead with him.

But the masses refused to limit the Revolution. A Council of Workers and Soldiers was organized in Petrograd, which in a proclamation on March 14 said: "All together, with united forces, we shall fight for the complete removal of the old government and the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, chosen on the basis of universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage."

This accelerated and decided the course of events. On March 15 the Czar was arrested, and abdicated, naming Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as regent. The Duma Committee appointed the cabinet of a provisional government, with Prince Lvov as Premier, Milyukov Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guchkov Minister of War and Marine, and Kerensky Minister of Justice. On March 16 the Provisional Government issued the following declaration: