were addressed by speakers of our party, by delegates arriving for the
Soviet Congress, by representatives from the front, by left S.R.'s and
by Anarchists. Public buildings were flooded by waves of working-men,
soldiers and sailors. There had not been many gatherings like that even
in the time of the Revolution. Up rose a considerable mass of the petty
townfolk, less frightened than aroused by the shouts, warnings and
baiting of the bourgeois press. Waves of people by tens of thousands
dashed against the People's House building, rolled through the
corridors, filled the halls. On the iron columns huge garlands of human
heads, feet and hands were hanging like bunches of grapes. The air was
surcharged with the electric tension that heralds the most critical
moments of revolution. "Down with Kerensky's government! Down with the
war! All power to the Soviets!" Not one from the ranks of the previous
Soviet parties ventured to appear before those colossal throngs with a
word of reply. The Petrograd Soviet held undivided sway. In reality the
campaign had already been won. It only remained to deal the last
military blow to this spectral authority.

The most cautious in our midst were reporting that there still remained
units that were not with us: the cossacks, the cavalry regiment, the
Semyonofski regiment, the cyclists. Commissioners and agitators were
assigned to these units. Their reports sounded perfectly satisfactory:
the red-hot atmosphere was infecting one and all, and the most
conservative elements of the army were losing the strength to withstand
the general tendency of the Petrograd garrison. In the Semyonofski
regiment, which was considered the bulwark of Kerensky's government, I
was present at a meeting which took place in the open air. The most
prominent speakers of the right wing addressed it. They clung to the
conservative guard regiments as to the last support of the coalition
power. Nothing would avail. By an overwhelming majority of votes, the