The resignation of the most influential bourgeois group of the first
Coalition Government coincided quite accidentally with an armed uprising
which the extremists, the Bolsheviki, had been planning for several weeks.
For the extremists were again putting forward their demand, this time
supported by armed force, that all the "capitalist" ministers resign, and
that all authority pass into the hands of the Councils. But the Councils
refused to take over authority, the constructive majority replying that
they would not accept the responsibility. In their judgment only a
government representing all the vital forces of the country, that is a
coalition government, could succeed. The moderate socialists prevailed
in the Councils, and a second coalition was formed, this time under the
presidency of a socialist, Kerensky. Some weeks elapsed before the new
government was finally organized. The non-socialist groups were willing to
enter a coalition government led by a socialist, but only on a definite
program, which would exclude all fundamental legislation. Objection was
raised also to certain individual socialists, whose record in the first
coalition government made one doubt their willingness to adhere honestly
to any coalition program. This objection was withdrawn later; but the
non-socialists gave only their second-best men as members of the new
government.
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