the Second Congress of Soviets must set Kerensky's government aside and
become the true master of the Russian land. As a matter of fact the
uprising was already on. It was developing quite openly before the eyes
of the whole country.

During October the question of the uprising played an important role in
our party's inner life. Lenin, who was in hiding in Finland, insisted,
in numerous letters, upon more resolute tactics. The lower strata were
in ferment, and dissatisfaction was accumulating because the Bolshevik
party, which had proved to be in the majority in the Petrograd Soviet,
was drawing no practical conclusions from its own mottos. On October
10th a conspiratory meeting of the Central Committee of our party took
place, with Lenin present. The question of the uprising was on the order
of the day. By a majority of all against two votes it was decided that
the only means of saving the Revolution and the country from final
dissolution lay in armed insurrection which must transfer power into the
hands of the Soviets.



THE DEMOCRATIC SOVIET AND "PRE-PARLIAMENT"

The Democratic Soviet which had detached itself from the Democratic
Conference had absorbed all the helplessness of the latter. The old
Soviet parties, the Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviks, had
created an artificial majority in it for themselves, only the more
strikingly to reveal their political prostration. Behind the Soviet
curtains, Tseretelli was carrying on involved parleys with Kerensky and
the representatives of the "professional elements" as they began to say
in the Soviet,--in order to avoid the "insulting" term bourgeoisie.