"
The expression "so long as," emphasized in the translation of the
resolution, has been one of the most far-reaching of the formulae produced
by the revolution. Around this phrase has centered the struggle of these
last months. The extremists decided from the very start that the condition
had not been fulfilled. The more moderate socialists took an attitude of
constant watchfulness, and latent distrust.
"Revolutionary Democracy" could not be organized in a week or a month, so
for the first period it was represented by the revolutionary democracy
of Petrograd, through the Petrograd Council of Workmen's and Soldiers'
Deputies, supplemented by delegates from similar councils of other cities,
and by representatives from the army at the front. It was more difficult to
organize the peasants scattered through the country, and not concentrated
in barracks or factories. The workmen and soldiers of Petrograd therefore
assumed to represent all revolutionary democracy, and they had the physical
force behind them. They were there on the spot, at the administrative and
political center inherited from the old regime, ready to act without delay
when they decided that the Provisional Government should no longer be
supported. And the workmen and soldiers of Petrograd were being won over
gradually to the extremists, the Bolsheviki.
As the Provisional Government was aiming first of all to preserve social
peace, adopting a policy of conciliation, it did not oppose the supervision
exercised by the Council.
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