observed the revolutionary tide flooding every portion of the country,
among the working class, in the villages, in the army; and they
considered it imperative to adopt without any delay the most extreme
measures to curb the masses. After reaching an understanding with the
property-owning bourgeoisie--who saw in him their hero--Korniloff took
it upon himself to accomplish this hazardous task. Kerensky, Savinkoff,
Filonenko and other Socialist-Revolutionists of the government or
semi-government class participated in this conspiracy, but each and
every one of them at a certain stage of the altering circumstances
betrayed Korniloff, for they knew that in the case of his defeat, they
would turn out to have been on the wrong side of the fence. We lived
through the events connected with Korniloff, while we were in jail, and
followed them in the newspapers; the unhindered delivery of newspapers
was the only important respect in which the jails of Kerensky differed
from those of the old regime. The Cossack General's adventure
miscarried; six months of revolution had created in the consciousness of
the masses and in their organization a sufficient resistance against an
open counter-revolutionary attack. The conciliable Soviet parties were
terribly frightened at the prospect of the possible results of the
Korniloff conspiracy, which threatened to sweep away, not only the
Maximalists, but also the whole revolution, together with its governing
parties. The Social-Revolutionists and the Minimalists proceeded to
legalize the Maximalists--this, to be sure, only retrospectively and
only half-way, inasmuch as they scented possible dangers in the future.
The very same Kronstadt sailors--whom they had dubbed burglars and
counter-revolutionists in the days following the July uprising--were
summoned during the Korniloff danger to Petrograd for the defence of the
revolution. They came without a murmur, without a word of reproach,
without recalling the past, and occupied the most responsible posts.