troops. Continuous telephone and motor car communication was established
with the neighboring cities and their garrisons. The Soviets of all the
communities near Petrograd were charged with the duty of vigilantly
preventing any counter-revolutionary troops, or, rather, troops misled
by the government, from entering the capital. The railroad officials of
lower rank and the workmen recognized our commissaries immediately.
Difficulties arose on the 24th at the telephone station. They stopped
connecting us. The cadets took possession of the station and under their
protection the telephone operators began to oppose the Soviet. This was
the first appearance of the future sabotage. The Military Revolutionary
Committee sent a detachment to the telephone station and placed two
small cannons there. In this way the seizing of all departments of the
government and instruments of administration was started. The sailors
and Red Guards occupied the telegraph station, the post office and other
institutions. Measures were taken to take possession of the state bank.
The center of the government, the Institute of Smolny, was turned into a
fortress. There were in the garret, as a heritage of the old Central
Executive Committee, a score of machine guns, but they were in poor
condition and had been entirely neglected by the caretakers. We ordered
an additional machine gun company to the Smolny Institute. Early in the
morning the sailors rolled the machine gun with a deafening rumble over
the cement floors of the long and half-dark corridors of the building.
Out of the doors the frightened faces of the few S. R.'s and Mensheviks
were looking and wondering.

The Soviet held daily meetings in the Smolny and so did the Garrison
Council.

On the third floor of the Smolny, in a small corner room, the Military
Revolutionary Committee was in continuous session. There was centered