This lasted a whole
night; some were wounded, some killed_. The municipal judges were
arrested. Soon after a Manifesto solemnly announced to the
population that the "enemies of the people," the
"counter-revolutionaries," were overthrown; that the power of
Saratov was going to pass into the hands of the Soviet
(Bolshevist) of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates.
As soon as the overthrow of the existing authorities was effected and the
Bolsheviki, through their Red Guards and other means, were in a position to
exert their authority, they resorted to every method of oppression and
repression known to the old autocratic regime. They suppressed the papers
of the Socialist parties and groups opposed to them, and in some instances
confiscated the plants, turned out the editors, and used the papers
themselves. In one of his "Letters to the Comrades," published in the
_Rabochiy Put_, a few days before the insurrection, Lenine had confessed
that Kerensky had maintained freedom of the press and of assemblage. The
passage is worth quoting, not only for the information it contains
concerning the Kerensky regime, but also because it affords a standard by
which to judge the Bolsheviki.
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