of affairs into their own hands, then the bureaucrats and clerks flew
into a passion and absolutely refused to support the new government in
any way. More and more extensive became this sabotage, which was
organized mostly by Social-Revolutionists and Mensheviki, and which was
supported by funds furnished by the banks and the Allied Embassies.



KERENSKY'S ADVANCE ON PETROGRAD

The stronger the Soviet government became in Petrograd, the more the
bourgeois groups placed their hopes on military aid from without. The
Petrograd Telegraph Agency, the railroad telegraph, and the
radio-telegraph station of Tsarskoye-Selo brought from every side news
of huge forces marching on Petrograd with the object of crushing the
rebels there and establishing order. Kerensky was making flying trips to
the front, and the bourgeois papers reported that he was leading
innumerable forces against the Bolsheviki. We found ourselves cut off
from the rest of the country, as the telegraphers refused to serve us.
But the soldiers, who arrived by tens and hundreds on commissions from
their respective regiments, invariably said to us: "Have no fears of the
front; it is entirely on your side. You need but give the word, and we
will send to your aid--even this very day--a division or a corps." It
was the same in the army as everywhere else; the masses were for us, and
the upper classes against us. In the hands of the latter was the
military-technical machinery. Various parts of the vast army proved to
be isolated one from another. We were isolated from both the army and
the people. Nevertheless, the news of the Soviet government at Petrograd
and its decrees spread throughout the country and roused the local
Soviets to rebel against the old government.