Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/38

 shouting "Down with the Provisional Government!" The streets of Petrograd swanned with furious and indignant demonstrators, including whole regiments of soldiers. The resignation of Milyokoy was demanded and refused. One regiment appeared before the Marinsky palace to arrest the ministers of the Provisional Government and depose it by force. Minor counter-revolutionary demonstrations, crying "Down with Lenin," were submerged in the general revolutionary mass action. The demonstrations continued until May 5: and, the Council having by a majority of 30 voted its confidence in the Provisional Government, the masses vented their disapproval by hostile demonstrations against the Council. The Provisional Government was tottering; but the Council came to its support, and ordered all meetings and demonstrations prohibited for two days. At a meeting of the Council, Tseretelli declared: "The trouble is now over, and the Provisional Government will remain in power." The masses, abandoned by their own representatives, met for the moment a temporary defeat.

The Provisional Government was still in power, maintained in power by the moderates in the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Delegates; but there was, nevertheless, a profound change in the situation. The masses had been temporarily dispersed, but not appeased or suppressed. The position of the Provisional Government was insecure; the Soviet, not being responsible for the government could at any moment nullify the measures of the government. The Provisional Government, accordingly, invited the Executive Committee of the Soviets to participate in forming a coalition government, the invitation being extended through Kerensky. The Soviet at first refused, but the Provisional Government threatened to resign unless its o£Fer of coalition was accepted. Simultaneously General Kornilov resigned as Commander-in-Chief; this action was followed by other generals and by Minister of War Guchkov as a protest against the Soviets, and particularly against the army Soviets, and as a concerted conspiratory move to frighten Russia by disorganizing the army. These events threw the Executive Committee of the Soviets into a panic, and on May 18, with a vote of 41 to 19, it decided to accept the coalition thrust upon it by the imperialistic Provisional Government. This action was approved by the Petrograd Council, against the opposition of the Bolsheviki, who, through Trotzky, declared: "Division of power will not cease with the Socialists' entry into the ministry, a strong revolutionary power is necessary." Milyukov and other ministers resigned, and on May 19 a coalition ministry was formed; which included Kerensky as Minister of War and Marine, M. I. Skobeleff, vice-president of the Soviet Executive Committee, as Minister of Labor, Victor Chernov, Social-Revolutionist, as Minister of Agriculture, I. G. Tseretelli, Menshevik-Socialist, as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, and the "Populist-Socialist" Pyeshckonov as Minister of Food and Supplies. The annoucementannouncement [sic] of this coalition declared that it was based "on three cardinal points upon which the Government, the Executive Committee of the Duma, and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates have agreed," the "three cardinal points" being as follows:

"1.—The unity of the Allied fronts.

"2.—The fullest confidence of the revolutionary democracy in the reconstructed cabinet.

"3.— A plenitude of power for the Government."

In other words, the Soviets officially accepted the policy of the Provis-