Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/36

 Councils of Soldiers' Delegates were organized in the army at the front. In the early days of the Revolution, news of events in Petrograd was scarce, but the soldiers were prepared for revolt, and, scattered and without contact with each other, Soviets of Soldiers were organized. The officers acted against these organizations, but the soldiers persisted, and recalcitrant officers were often expelled. The army Soviets were not simply propaganda groups: they often assumed the functions of commissariat and of education, and often military functions when deserted and betrayed by the officers. The basis of the army Soviets were local committees in each company, regiment, division, corps, culminating in the general Soviet of Soldiers' Delegates. These Soviets issued literature, held meetings, published newspapers, and became the means of revolutionary expression for the soldiers.

Each of the Soviets of a particular character elected delegates to an Executive Committee; and each of the Soviets, of workers, of soldiers, and of peasants, elected delegates to a Congress of All-Russian Soviets, which in turn elected a Central Executive Committee sitting permanantly in Petrograd. The first All-Russian Soviet Congress was held in Petrograd in June, and it was decided to convene the Congress every three months. The Soviets comprised the actual mass of the people, the only organized expression of the Revolution, and it alone possessed a real power. It was fully admitted after the organization of the Provisional Government that it had no power except in "appeals to patriotism," and it tried to obscure all issues by appeals to the patriotic emotions of the people—"The Country is in danger!" The Councils constituted the real power; and yet they yielded all power to the Provisional Government of the imperialistic bourgeoisie.

The Soviet constituted itself as the active representative of the revolutionary masses. But it consisted, as yet, of the old revolutionary opposition, of the moderates whose "legal" propaganda had made it possible for them to acquire publicity and general reputations: the Council did not represent the new revolutionary activity and requirements. The Council dared not assume power, it dared not act aggressively. As early as the end of March a split is apparent between the Council and the revolutionary masses; the split widens under pressure of events, and upon arrival of revolutionists from Siberia and from, foreign countries. Upon his arrival in Petrograd, early in April, Lenin becomes the storm-centre of the revolutionary opposition equally to the moderates in the Council and to the Provisional Government.

The Provisional Government's policy of an aggressive war and an imperialistic peace aroused the anger, the impatience and the action of the masses. A strike movement of protest against the Milyukov policy is developing, and on April 9 Premier Lvov declares, in answer to the general discussion of war aims: "Free Russia does not aim at the domination of other nations, or at occupying by force foreign territories, but to establish a durable peace based on the rights of nations to decide their own destiny." The moderates in the Council used this declaration to urge support of the war and of the Provisional Government. On the same day, Cheidse, President of the Soviet Executive Committee, proclaims: "Russia's national watchword must be unity—front and rear." But on April 10, Minister of Foreign Affairs Milyukov, in an interview, expresses himself in favor of the Russian annexation of Constantinople. On April 12, a preliminary Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution, 325 to 55, declaring it would be a good thing should the