Page:The Red Dawn (George).pdf/21

Rh the power of the Soldiers and Workers be curbed, their councils divested of authority or entirely dispersed, and the Duma be given the unhindered opportunity to direct the physical engines of Governmental power. To these reactionists, the Bolsheviki, uncompromising and courageous, issued a challenge of mortal combat in a moment when every worker's heart beat fast for Freedom.

Workers and Soldiers, under Bolsheviki and Maximalists, exerted all energy on the extinction of the duma, firstly, and, after a short fight, getting the cabinet under their thumb, they succeeded in abolishing the Duma, by abolishing its members' salaries. The next step was the overthrowal of this Cabinet of Ministers—demanding the expulsion of this and that Minister, the Bolsheviki ultimately demanded the expulsion of every Bourgeois, refusing their support even to those Socialist compromisers who joined Kerensky's cabinet.

It was at this moment that the Bourgeois elements, under the leadership of General Korniloff, tried for their hastily planned and desperate "coup d'etat," Kerensky is accused of conspiracy in this attempt at military counter-revolution of the old style. Owing to the solidarity of the workers, chiefly the railway men who refused transportation to re-actionary forces, the scheme failed and the fate of the ministerial form of government was sealed. The Bolsheviki began now the preparation for lodgment of complete authority in the Soviet. Kerensky tried to placate, faining to yield himself fully to the demands of the Workers and Soldiers Council, rescinding his rule of death sentences in the armies, talking of the need for immediate peace, etc., but he could not parry the blow 'de grace.' The Bolsheviki-Maximalist force struck the fatal blow and started their planned revolt with the aid of the garrisons of