It was difficult for them to shake off the
terror of the old police; all the time that they were talking against the
tsar they had a feeling that they were doing wrong, and that some one was
denouncing them. It was hard for them to believe that all that they saw and
heard during the day was real and that the old regime was powerless. Some
one would start a rumor that a monarchist general with an army was marching
on the city and that he would kill and burn. Early Friday evening, March
16, as I was walking down the street, soldiers ran by me shouting for every
one to get under cover for several hundred police from Tsarskoe Selo were
coming and that there would be street fighting. Frightened mothers grabbed
their little ones and hurried home, storekeepers closed the shops, porters
barricaded the gates, housewives extinguished the lights, and the streets
became as dark and as silent as a cemetery. This lasted for an hour or more
and then came more soldiers announcing that all was well, that the supposed
policemen were revolutionary soldiers who had come to take the oath of
allegiance.
The exultation reached its highest point when the first temporary
government, with Prince Lvov at the head, was announced. Every one was
pleased with the men selected, they were without doubt the ablest leaders
of the country, men who had always fought for the cause of liberty and for
the interests of the public.
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