They attacked the headquarters of the
hated Secret Service and made a vast, significantly symbolical bonfire of
its archives.
Once more Rodzianko appealed to the Czar. It is no reflection upon
Rodzianko's honesty, or upon his loyalty to the people, to say that he was
appalled by the development of the struggle. He sympathized with the people
in their demand for political democracy and would wage war to the end upon
Czarism, but he feared the effect of the Revolution upon the army and the
Allied cause. Moreover, he was a landowner, and he feared Socialism. In
1906 he had joined forces with the government when the Socialists led the
masses--and now the Socialist leaders were again at the head of the masses.
Perhaps the result would have been otherwise if the Duma had followed up
its repudiation of the government by openly and unreservedly placing itself
at the head of the uprising. In any other country than Russia that would
have been done, in all probability, but the Russian bourgeoisie was weak.
This was due, like so much else in Russia, to the backwardness of the
industrial system. There was not a strong middle class and, therefore, the
bourgeoisie left the fighting to the working class.
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