However honest and
sincere the Bolsheviki themselves might be in their belief that there would
be such assurance, there could in fact be none, for the logic of life is
stronger than any human will.
As was inevitable, the Bolsheviki soon found themselves in the position of
suppressing Soviets which they could not control as freely and in the same
manner as they had suppressed the Constituent Assembly. When, for example,
the soldiers of the Preobrajenski Regiment--the very men who helped the
Bolsheviki into power--became dissatisfied and organized, publishing their
own organ, _The Soldier's Cloak_, the paper was confiscated and the
organization suppressed.[38] The forcible suppression of Soviets was
common. The Central Executive Committee of the National Soviet of Peasants'
Delegates, together with the old Central Executive Committee of the Soviets
of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates (who had never acknowledged the
October elections), convoked an extraordinary assembly of Soviets on
January 8th, the same date as that on which the Bolshevik Congress of
Soviets was convoked. Circumstances compelled the opening to be deferred
until two days later, the 10th. This conference, called the Third
All-Russian Congress of Peasants' Soviets, was suppressed by force, many of
the 359 delegates and all the members of the Executive Committee being
arrested.
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