On the 17th of July, at the
very time when the separatist movement in the Ukraine, the resignation of
the Constitutional Democrats from the government, and the revolt and
treachery among the troops had produced a grave crisis, seizing the
opportunity afforded by the general chaos, the Bolsheviki attempted to
realize their aim of establishing what they called a "dictatorship of the
proletariat," but which was in reality the dictatorship of a small part of
the proletariat. There was no pretense that they represented a majority of
the proletariat, even. It was a desperate effort to impose the dictatorship
of a small minority of the proletariat upon the whole nation. For two days
the revolt lasted, more than five hundred men, women, and children being
killed in the streets of Petrograd.
On the 20th Prince Lvov resigned as Premier. In the mean time the
Bolshevist uprising had been put down by Cossack troops and the leaders
were in hiding. Kerensky stepped into Lvov's position as Premier and
continued to address himself to the task of bringing order out of the
chaos. There could not have been any selfish ambition in this; no
place-hunter would have attempted to bear the heavy burden Kerensky then
assumed, especially with his knowledge of the seriousness of the situation.
Pages:
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297