ago changed into a tragic retreat. The bourgeois press madly libelled
the army. Whereas, on the eve of the advance, the ruling parties told us
that we were an insignificant gang and that the army had never heard of
us and would not have anything to do with us, now, when the gamble of
the drive had ended so disastrously, these same persons and parties laid
the whole blame for its failure on our shoulders. The prisons were
crowded with revolutionary workers and soldiers. All the old legal
bloodhounds of Czarism were employed in investigating the July 3-5
affair. Under these circumstances, the Social-Revolutionsts and the
Alensheviki went so far as to demand that Lenin, Zinoviev and others of
their group should surrender themselves to the "Courts of Justice."



THE EVENTS FOLLOWING THE JULY DAYS

The infringements of liberty in the working-men's quarters lasted but a
little while and were followed by accessions of revolutionary spirit,
not only among the proletariat, but also in the Petrograd garrison. The
coalitionists were losing all influence. The wave of Bolshevism began to
spread from the urban centers to every part of the country and, despite
all obstacles, penetrated into the army ranks. The new coalition
government, with Kerensky at its head, had already openly embarked upon
a policy of repression. The ministry had restored the death penalty in
the army. Our papers were suppressed and our agitators were arrested;
but this only increased our influence. In spite of all the obstacles
involved in the new elections for the Petrograd Soviet, the distribution
of power in it had become so changed that on certain important questions
we already commanded a majority vote. The same was the case in the
Moscow Soviet.