"
To the soldiers Kerensky brought this challenge: "You fired on the people
when the government demanded. But now, when it comes to obeying your own
revolutionary government, you can no longer endure further sacrifice! Does
this mean that free Russia is a nation of rebellious slaves?" He closed
with an eloquent peroration: "I came here because I believe in my right to
tell the truth as I understand it. People who even under the old regime
went about their work openly and without fear of death, those people, I
say, will not be terrorized. The fate of our country is in our hands and
the country is in great danger. We have sipped of the cup of liberty and we
are somewhat intoxicated; we are in need of the greatest possible sobriety
and discipline. We must go down in history meriting the epitaph on our
tombstones, 'They died, but they were never slaves.'"
From the Petrograd Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies came I.G.
Tseretelli, who had just returned from ten years' Siberian exile. A native
of Georgia, a prince, nearly half of his forty-two years had been spent
either in Socialist service or in exile brought about by such service. A
man of education, wise in leadership and a brilliant orator, his leadership
of the Socialist Group in the Second Duma had marked him as one of the
truly great men of Russia.
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