Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/34

 The Provisional Government, however, did not consider that the monarchy had been abolished. In a speech in Catherine Hall of the Duma, Milyukov had expressed the intentions of the new government:

"The old despot, who brought Russia to te edge of disaster, will voluntarily abdicate or be deposed. The government will pass to a regent, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, and the heir Alexis the Czarevitch. (Yells—'But that is the old dynasty!') Yes, gentlemen, that is the old dynasty, which perhaps you do not like and which perhaps I dislike myself. We propose a parliamentary constitutional monarchy."

But the Revolution had spread throughout Russia, and in the army; it was deemed prudent to wait upon events for a restoration of the monarchy. Grand Duke Michael declined to accept the regency, urged "all citizens to submit to the Provisional Government," and said he might accept the throne if offered by the Constituent Assembly.

Not only was the Provisional Government ideologically and politically inclined to the restoration of monarchy, it was part and parcel of all the imperialistic causes and purposes involved in the war previously organized and directed by Czarism. The urge for peace had animated the masses. But If Milyukov declared on behalf of himself and his colleagues in the new government: "We assume control of the government in order to bring victory to the Russian arms." On March 17, Foreign Minister Milyukov, in a note to the representatives of Russia abroad, said: "In the domain of foreign policy the cabinet, in which I am charged with the portfolio of the ministry of foreign affairs, will remain mindful of the international agreements entered into by the fallen regime and will honor Russia's word. … The government of which I am a part will devote all its energy to preparation of victory." In a proclamation issued Mach 19, the Provisional Government emphasized the attitude of Milyukov: "The government will do its utmost to provide the army with everything to bring the war to a victorious conclusion. The government will faithfully observe all alliances uniting us to the oilier powers and all agreements made in the past." The determination of the Provisional Government to adhere to the rapacious foreign policy of Czarism was emphasized again and again. It conceived the overthrow of Czarism as being simply a means of more efficiently carrying out the policy of Czarism. The imperialistic bourgeoisie was in power and its predatory character was immediately manifest.

The issue of war and peace split the Revolution, and acted as an accelerator of the struggle of class against class. Class relations and class policy became the determining factors in the course of events. The circumstance that the Revolution occured in the midst of a general imperialistic war, in which world power was at stake, made it impossible for the bourgeoisie to compromise or conceal its class interests: the imperialistic war had to be continued. But the masses wanted peace, and it was through the issue of peace, which could not be avoided or compromised, that class antagonisms developed immediately and acutely, and aroused anew the revolutionary consciousness and action of the masses. In the normal times of peace, it would have been much more difficult to drive on the bourgeoisie to the fatal conclusion of its class policy, much more difficult to deliver the masses from the deceptions and ideology of the bourgeoisie. The issue of peace assisted mightly in accomplishing the work of clarification, events proving to the masses that peace itself was a class issue: the proletariat and the impover-