Council was a strictly revolutionary, and a very democratic body, composed
of directly elected delegates from the factories and garrison regiments of
Petrograd. It immediately became the organizing center for what came to be
called the "revolutionary democracy," as opposed to the "bourgeoisie."

The Executive Committee of the Duma consulted with the Council of Workmen's
and Soldiers' Deputies on the composition of the proposed Provisional
Government, and on the political program to be announced. For as we saw,
it was the first thought of these leaders to secure unity of action.
They recognized that the Council did in fact represent "revolutionary
democracy," at least of Petrograd. As the workmen and soldiers of Petrograd
were completely out of hand, armed and fighting on the streets, arresting
officers, ministers and police, and showing a tendency to start general and
anarchic pillaging, the Duma leaders saw a restraining authority in the
Council of these same workmen and soldiers. They therefore either did not
wish, or did not dare, to object at the time to the famous order No. 1 to
the garrison of Petrograd, issued by the Council, and not by the Executive
Committee of the Duma. Many have claimed that this particular order, which
was extended to the front, was responsible for the later demoralization of
the whole Russian army. Others, the leaders of revolutionary democracy,
have insisted that this order prevented the immediate and complete collapse
of the whole army.

In preparing the slate for the new government, the Executive Committee of
the Duma selected one of the presiding officers of the Council, Kerensky.
When Miliukov, the Duma leader, announced the composition of the new
provisional government to the crowd, composed largely of workmen and
soldiers gathered in the main corridors of the Duma, he emphasized the
cooperation between Duma and Council, the consent of Kerensky to enter
the government, and also the fact that most of the members of the new