the Menshevik Skobeloff to Paris to influence the allied imperialists.
But no sane man attached any importance to this scheme. Korniloff gave
up Riga to the Germans in order to terrorize public opinion, and having
brought about this condition, to establish the discipline of the knout
in the army. Danger threatened Petrograd. And the bourgeois elements
greeted this peril with unconcealed malicious joy. The former President
of the Duma, Rodzyanko, openly said again and again that the surrender
of debauched Petrograd to the Germans would not be a great misfortune.
For illustration he cited Riga, where the Deputy Soviets had been done
away with after the coming of the Germans, and firm order, together with
the old police system, had been established.

Would the Baltic fleet be lost? But the fleet had been debauched by the
Revolutionary propaganda; ergo the loss was not so great. The cynicism
of a garrulous nobleman expressed the hidden thoughts of the greater
part of the bourgeoisie, that to surrender Petrograd to the Germans did
not mean to lose it. Under the peace treaty it would be restored, but
restored ravaged by German militarism. By that time the revolution would
be decapitated, and it would be easier to manage. Kerensky's government
did not think of seriously defending the capital. On the contrary,
public opinion was being prepared for its possible surrender. Public
institutions were being removed from Petrograd to Moscow and other
cities.

In this setting, the Soldiers' section of the Petrograd Soviet had its
meeting. Feeling was tense and turbulent, Was the Government incapable
of defending Petrograd? If so, let it make peace. And if incapable of
making peace, let it clear out. The frame of mind of the Soldiers'
section found expression in this resolution. This was already the
heat-lightning of the October Revolution.