The Petrograd Soviet was not silent. It demanded the immediate transfer
of all power into the hands of the Soviets in the capitals and in the
provinces, the immediate transfer of the land to the peasants, the
workingmen's control of production, and immediate opening of peace
negotiations. So long as we remained an opposition party, the
motto--all power to the Soviets--was a propaganda motto. But as soon
as we found ourselves in the majority in all the principal Soviets, this
motto imposed upon us the duty of a direct and immediate fight for
power.
In the country villages, the situation had grown entangled and
complicated in the extreme. The Revolution had promised land to the
peasant, but at the same time, the leading parties demanded that the
peasant should not touch this land until the Constituent Assembly should
meet. At first the peasants waited patiently, but when they began to
lose patience, the coalition ministry showered repressive measures upon
them. Meanwhile the Constituent Assembly was receding to ever remoter
distances. The bourgeoisie insisted upon calling the Constituent
Assembly after the conclusion of peace. The peasant masses were growing
more and more impatient. What we had foretold at the very beginning of
the Revolution, was being realized: the peasants were seizing the land
of their own accord. Repressive measures grew, arrests of revolutionary
land committees began. In certain uyezds (districts) Kerensky
introduced martial law. A line of delegates, who came on foot, flowed
from the villages to the Petrograd Soviet. They complained that they had
been arrested when they attempted to carry out the Petrograd Soviet's
programme and to transfer the estate holder's land into the hands of the
peasant committees. The peasants demanded protection of us. We replied
that we should be in a position to protect them only if the power were
in our hands. From this, however, it followed that the Soviets must
seize the power if they did not wish to become mere debating societies.
"It is senseless to fight for the power of the Soviets six or eight
weeks before the Constituent Assembly," our neighbors on the Right told
us. We, however, were in no degree infected with this fetish worship of
the Constituent Assembly. In the first place, there were no guarantees
that it really would be called. The breaking up of the army, mass
desertions, disorganization of the supplies department, agrarian
revolution--all this created an environment which was unfavorable to the
elections for the Constituent Assembly. The surrender of Petrograd to
the Germans, furthermore, threatened to remove altogether the question
of elections from the order of the day. And, besides, even if it were
called according to the old registration lists under the leadership of
the old parties, the Constituent Assembly would be but a cover and a
sanction for the coalition power. Without the bourgeoisie neither the S.
R.'s nor the Mensheviks were in a position to assume power. Only the
revolutionary class was destined to break the vicious circle wherein the
Revolution was revolving and going to pieces. The power had to be
snatched from the hands of the elements which were directly or
indirectly serving the bourgeoisie and making use of the state apparatus
as a tool of obstruction against the revolutionary demands of the
people.
All power to the Soviets! demanded our party. Translated into party
language, this had meant, in the preceding period, the power of the S.
R.'s and Mensheviks, as opposed to a coalition with the liberal
bourgeoisie. Now, in October 1917, the same motto meant handing over all
power to the revolutionary proletariat, at the head of which, at this
period, stood the Bolshevik party. It was a question of the dictatorship
of the working class, which was leading, or, more correctly, was capable
of leading the many millions of the poorest peasantry. This was the
historical significance of the October uprising.
Everything led the party to this path. Since the first days of the
Revolution, we had been preaching the necessity and inevitability of the
power passing to the Soviets. After a great internal struggle, the
majority of the Soviets made this demand their own, having accepted our
point of view. We were preparing the Second All-Russian Congress of
Soviets at which we: expected our party's complete victory. Under Dan's
leadership (the cautious Cheidze had departed for the Caucasus), the
Central Executive Committee attempted to block in every way the calling
of the Congress of the Soviets. After great exertions, supported by the
Soviet fraction of the Democratic Assembly, we finally secured the
setting of the date of the Congress for October 25th. This date was
destined to become the greatest day in the history of Russia. As a
preliminary, we called in Petrograd a Congress of Soviets of the
Northern regions, including the Baltic fleet and Moscow. At this
Congress, we had a solid majority, and obtained a certain support on the
right in the persons of the left S. R. faction, besides laying important
organizational premises for the October uprising.