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From October to Brest-Litovsk by Leon Davidovich Trotzky
page 72 of 112 (64%)
determination or enthusiasm, the Cossacks did advance. Individual
detachments approached Gatchina and Krasnoye-Selo, engaged the scanty
forces of the local garrisons, and sometimes disarmed them. About the
numerical strength of Kerensky's forces we at first had no idea
whatever. Some said that General Krassnov headed ten thousand men;
others affirmed that he had no more than a thousand; while the
unfriendly newspapers and circulars announced, in letters an inch big,
that two corps were lined up beyond Tsarskoye-Selo.

There was a general want of confidence in the Petrograd garrison. No
sooner had it won a bloodless victory, than it was called upon to march
out against an enemy of unknown numbers and engage in battles of
uncertain outcome. In the Garrison Conference, the discussion centered
about the necessity of sending out more and more agitators and of
issuing appeals to the Cossacks; for to the soldiers it seemed
impossible that the Cossacks would refuse to rise to the point of view
which the Petrograd garrison was defending in its struggle.
Nevertheless, advanced groups of Cossacks approached quite close to
Petrograd, and we anticipated that the principal battle would take place
in the streets of the city.

The greatest resolution was shown by the Red Guards. They demanded arms,
ammunition, and leadership. But everything in the military machine was
disorganized and out of gear, owing partly to disuse and partly to evil
intent. The officers had resigned. Many had fled. The rifles were in one
place and the cartridges in another. Matters were still worse with
artillery. The cannons, gun carriages and the military stores were all
in different places; and all these had to be groped for in the dark. The
various regiments did not have at their disposal either sappers' tools
or field telephones. The Revolutionary General Staff, which tried to
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