The victory in Petrograd was complete. The power went over entirely to
the Military Revolutionary Committee. We issued our first decree,
abolishing the death penalty and ordering reelections in the army
committees, etc. But here we discovered that we were cut off from the
provinces. The higher authorities of the railroads, post office and
telegraph were against us. The army committees, the municipalities, the
zemstvos continued to bombard the Smolny with threatening telegrams in
which they declared outright war upon us and promised to sweep the
insurgents out within a short time. Our telegrams, decrees and
explanations did not reach the provinces, for the Petrograd Telegraph
Agency refused to serve us. In this atmosphere, created by the isolation
of the capital from the rest of the country, alarming and monstrous
rumors easily sprang up and gained popularity.
When finally convinced that the Soviet had really taken over the powers
of the government, that the old government was arrested, that the
streets of Petrograd were dominated by armed workers, the bourgeois
press, as well as the press which was for effecting a compromise,
started a campaign of incomparable madness indeed; there was not a lie
or libel which was not mobilized against the Military Revolutionary
Committee, its leaders or its commissaries.
On the 26th there was a session of the Petrograd Soviet, which was
attended by delegates from the All-Russian Council, members of the
Garrison Conference, and numerous members of various parties. Here, for
the first time in nearly six months, spoke Lenin and Zinoviev, who were
given a stormy ovation. The jubilation over the recent victory was
marred somewhat by apprehensions as to how the country would take to the
new revolt and as to the Soviets' ability to retain control.
In the evening an executive session of the Council of Soviets was held.
Lenin introduced two decrees: on peace and on the land question. After
brief discussion, both decrees were adopted unanimously. It was at this
session, too, that a new central authority was created, to be known as
the Council of People's Commissaries.
The Central Committee of our party tried to win the approval of the Left
S. R.'s, who were invited to participate in establishing the Soviet
government. They hesitated, on the ground that, in their view, this
government should bear a coalition character within the Soviet parties.
But the Mensheviki and the Right S. R.'s broke entirely with the Council
of Soviets, deeming a coalition with anti-Soviet parties necessary.
There was nothing left for us to do but to let the party of Left S. R.'s
persuade their neighbors to the right to return to the revolutionary
camp; and while they were engaged in this hopeless task, we thought it
our duty to take the responsibility for the government entirely upon our
party. The list of Peoples' Commissaries was composed exclusively of
Bolsheviki.
There was undoubtedly some political danger in such a course. The change
proved too precipitate. (One need but remember that the leaders of this
party were only yesterday still under indictment under Statute Law No.
108--that is, accused of high treason). But there was no other
alternative. The other Soviet groups hesitated and evaded the issue,
preferring to adopt a waiting policy. Finally we became convinced that
only our party could set up a revolutionary government.