_The enormous labor of holding the
elections for the local institution has taken time_. At present,
in view of the date of establishment of the local institutions, on
the basis decreed by the government--direct, general, equal, and
secret suffrage--the Provisional Government has decided:
To set aside as the day for the elections to the Constituent
Assembly the 25th of November, of the year 1917, and as the date
for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly the 12th of
December, of the year 1917.
Notwithstanding this clear and honorable record, we find Trotzky, at a
Conference of Northern Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, on
October 25th, when he well knew that arrangements for holding the
Constituent Assembly elections were in full swing, charging that Kerensky
was engaged in preventing the convocation of the Constituent Assembly! He
demanded at that time that all power should be taken from the Provisional
Government and transferred to the Soviets. These, he said, would convoke
the Assembly on the date that had been assigned, December 12th.
The Bolshevik _coup d'etat_ took place, as already noted, less than three
weeks before the date set for the elections, for which every preparation
had been made by the government and the local authorities.
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