POLICIES PROCLAIMED

The first important cause for dissension between the Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies and the Provisional Government occurred on April 7, 1917, when Professor Milukov, speaking as Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that the occupation of Constantinople and the Dardanelles was essential to the economic prosperity of Russia. Either he underestimated the strength of the Socialist elements, or he did not understand their point of view, for here he proclaimed a principle to which even the mildest Socialist would be opposed: the holding of territory occupied by people of one nationality by a nation whose people are of another nationality.

There was a rising storm of protest, in which even Kerensky joined against his associate in the ministry. The result was that the Provisional Government was compelled to issue the famous statement of its aims in the war, in which it renounced all indemnities and the desire to conquer any foreign territories, at the same time enunciating the rights of all small nationalities to decide their own separate destinies. President Wilson had expressed a very similar formula before the entrance of the United States into the war in the words "peace without victory." Unfortunately this general statement of Socialistic principle lacked the detail necessary to make it applicable to the war situation; nor have the radical forces ever been unanimous enough in their opinions since then to supply these details. There remained, and there still remains, the question as to whether liberating Alsace and Lorraine from the Germans would be the conquest of foreign territory, or whether reparation on the part of Germany for the damage done in Belgium would constitute an indemnity. Must the Armenians remain forever under Turkey, or must armed force be employed to take Armenia away from Turkey, that the Armenians might settle their own destiny? Either course might be interpreted as against or in accordance with the principle enunciated.

Nevertheless, this manifesto had a powerful influence in the Allied countries, and the justice of the principles in question have been, broadly speaking, generally recognized.

The Germans made the most of the proclamation and suggested a separate peace through countless agencies, in which Russia should not lose any territory inhabited by Russians and need not pay any indemnities. At this bait the Leninites and dupes of the numerous agitators in German pay, which undoubtedly began infesting Petrograd, bit readily. But here the Provisional Government responded by a clever stroke of diplomacy, and in this it had the support of the council; if the German and Austrian Socialists were really in sympathy with the Russian ideals of democracy and wished to make peace with them, let them then also overturn their autocracies. If they would do this, then they might expect peace with Russia and undoubtedly with the other Allies, for France, Great Britain, and the United States had each declared that it was fighting the Teutonic autocracies and not the people they ruled.

The German Socialist is entirely a different type from the Russian Socialist. He believes in iron discipline. He believes in strong centralization. The German autocracy in many of its features approaches something not far from the ideal of the German Socialist, especially in its care of the working classes through state insurance, workingmen's compensation legislation, and its many state and municipal enterprises. In this lies the strength of the German autocracy; with all its imperialistic features, it has cared for the welfare of the working classes.

The German Socialists did not respond to this appeal. And from that moment all danger of a separate peace between the Russian democracy and Germany was past, if danger it may be called. The real danger to the cause of the Allies and to Russia itself was the internal danger, the disorganization in army discipline which the radicalism of the revolution naturally spread among the soldiers, augmented, as it was, by every power and agency which the enemy could bring to bear.

In the second week of April, 1917, a convention or congress of the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council was held, all parts of Russia being represented. By a vote of 325 against 57 the continuance of the war was declared necessary. The council also issued various appeals to the soldiers, both in Petrograd and at the front, asking their support of the Provisional Government, which seemed at least to indicate that there were radical influences at work even too advanced for the council.

In Petrograd General Kornilov, the famous Cossack commander, who had once been a prisoner of the Austrians and had escaped, and who had personally placed the czarina under arrest, was placed in command of the Petrograd garrison. His task was especially difficult, as his men were in closer contact with the demoralizing influences of the radical debating clubs of the capital.

The Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council probably had no deliberate intention of undermining the military discipline necessary to maintain the efficiency of a body of troops, but it could not entirely give up its idea of "democratizing the army." The result of these efforts, as the members of the council themselves admitted, went far beyond anything they had intended. On the 1st of May a number of political demonstrations on the part of the soldiers took place in Petrograd. Socialistic in nature, some of them directed against policies of the Provisional Government. The council immediately disclaimed all responsibility for the demonstrations and appealed to the soldiers to remain in their barracks.

This disintegration in army organization nevertheless made continual progress during the early part of May, 1917, and was fast precipitating a crisis. The fact was that the Provisional Government, though nominally at the head of affairs, had no material power behind it. This power, the army, was organized in the council and was self-conscious. Naturally it could not resist the temptation of attempting to exercise its judgment, though it realized that it was not fitted to assume the entire responsibility of government. It felt, too, a right to assert itself because the Duma, on account of the restrictive election laws which had created it years before during the old rÉgime did not represent those classes to which the soldiers belonged.

The members of the Provisional Government did not deny the justice of this claim, and early in May, 1917, they suggested as a remedy that the cabinet be reorganized and the radical elements be given fuller representation. But here again the council was faced by the obstacle in the Socialist principle that Socialist organizations must never fuse with so-called capitalist organizations. The offer was refused.[Back to Contents]