Proletarian exclusiveness came later, but on March 13th the appeal of the
Council was "to the entire population."
March 14th saw the arrest of many of the leading reactionaries, including
Protopopov and the traitor Sukhomlinov, and an approach to order. All that
day the representatives of the Duma and the representatives of the Council
of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, as it was now called, embryo of the
first Soviet government, tried to reach an agreement concerning the future
organization of Russia. The representatives of the Duma were pitifully
lacking in comprehension of the situation. They wanted the Czar deposed,
but the monarchy itself retained, subject to constitutional limitations
analogous to those obtaining in England. They wanted the Romanov dynasty
retained, their choice being the Czar's brother, Grand-Duke Michael. The
representatives of the Soviet, on the other hand, would not tolerate the
suggestion that the monarchy be continued. Standing, as yet, only for
political democracy, they insisted that the monarchy must be abolished and
that the new government be republican in form. The statesmanship and
political skill of these representatives of the workers were immeasurably
superior to those possessed by the bourgeois representatives of the Duma.
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