government had worked in and through institutions, in which peasants and
workmen also had been represented.

Though the word "coalition" was not used during the first weeks of the
revolution, one had constantly in mind the idea of "bringing together all
the vital forces of the country." In this last expression I quote one of
the first and most emphasized slogans of the revolution. But the problem
proved most difficult, complicated by the fact that one had to solve at one
and the same time two most stupendous tasks. One had to consolidate the
conquests of the revolution, and also prosecute the war. The prosecution
of the war required the acceptance of a strong authority, vested in the
Provisional Government. But naturally the first aim of the revolution was
to extend its ideas to the rest of the country, for the actual overthrow of
the old order had been largely the work of Petrograd. The two tasks were
closely associated with one another, because one could not reorganize the
country for the war until the new ideas had taken root.

The first parliamentary leaders wished to use as the basis for carrying out
both tasks the old institutions, the municipal and provincial councils,
and the cooeperative societies, at the same time taking steps gradually
to democratize them. But the strictly revolutionary leaders wished to
democratize immediately, and put this forward as the first object to be
accomplished. So they demanded and promoted the organizing of revolutionary
democracy all over the country, through councils of workmen, soldiers, and
peasants, through army committees, land committees, professional unions,
and so forth. The champions of this immediate democratization policy were
almost exclusively members of the various socialist parties, some of
them representing the most extreme views. The majority of them were
not consciously striving to undermine the authority of the Provisional
Government. They recognized and in fact advocated the compromise